R&D Management Practices and Innovation: Evidence from a Firm Survey

This Open Access book provides a detailed account of firms’ research and development (R&D) management practices, and whether and how R&D management practices are associated with the success and the nature (explorative or exploitive) of innovation, using a unique survey of firms in Japan. While there is wide agreement that innovation is a key determinant for growth of firms, there are few studies that systematically and quantitatively investigate what firms do in their R&D management to create innovation. Utilizing insights from theoretical and empirical studies on innovation, the authors focus on the following four aspects of R&D management: the organizational structure of R&D, staged project management for R&D projects, compensation and incentive schemes for R&D personnel, and a firm’s risk preferences and corporate culture. The authors examine whether and how R&D management practices are linked to the likelihood of firms’ success in making product innovations and the choice between explorative and exploitive innovation. The book furnishes vital information that can be used as a reference for future theoretical and empirical analyses of R&D management practices and innovation. This monograph is highly recommended to academics and practitioners who seek an in-depth and detailed analysis of R&D management. This is an open access book

R&D Management Practices and Innovation: Evidence from a Firm Survey

This Open Access book provides a detailed account of firms’ research and development (R&D) management practices, and whether and how R&D management practices are associated with the success and the nature (explorative or exploitive) of innovation, using a unique survey of firms in Japan. While there is wide agreement that innovation is a key determinant for growth of firms, there are few studies that systematically and quantitatively investigate what firms do in their R&D management to create innovation. Utilizing insights from theoretical and empirical studies on innovation, the authors focus on the following four aspects of R&D management: the organizational structure of R&D, staged project management for R&D projects, compensation and incentive schemes for R&D personnel, and a firm’s risk preferences and corporate culture. The authors examine whether and how R&D management practices are linked to the likelihood of firms’ success in making product innovations and the choice between explorative and exploitive innovation. The book furnishes vital information that can be used as a reference for future theoretical and empirical analyses of R&D management practices and innovation. This monograph is highly recommended to academics and practitioners who seek an in-depth and detailed analysis of R&D management. This is an open access book

The effect of staged projekt management on product innovation: Evidence from a firm survey

This study examines whether staged project management is beneficial or harmful for making product innovations. Using a unique firm survey for Japan, we find that firms that employed staged project management had a higher likelihood of introducing new products to the market. Additional estimations show that the positive effect of staged project management on product innovation is stronger when firms provided feedback at the interim stages. In contrast, whether and how firms set milestones was not associated with the likelihood of product innovation. The marginal effect of feedback was larger for new-to-market product innovation than for new-to-firm product innovation, and the feedback from non-R&D organizations within the firm in the initial stages was particularly beneficial for the introduction of new-to-market products. Our findings suggest that staged project management is beneficial for product innovation, but its effectiveness depends on how firms set milestones and feedback as well as the nature of innovation

Stress Analysis of Soil Beneath Wheel for Planetary Rover by Using Discrete Element Method

Modeling the interaction between rover's wheel and soft terrain is of great importance in predicting or evaluating wheel performance for lunar and planetary rovers. The current wheel-soil interaction models predict or evaluate wheel performance under certain conditions. However, most of them do not consider the soil flow and deformation, and thus, they cannot capture the physical phenomena of wheel-soil interaction. Developing a new model that includes such physical phenomena contributes to the improvement of prediction accuracy. To develop such a model, it is necessary to analyze soil flow and deformation beneath the wheel. This study analyzes the stress distributions in the soil and soil flow fields beneath the grouser wheel by performing experiments using the discrete element method (DEM) with the particle simulation tool "Sir partsival". In addition to the single wheel simulation, two simple test simulations - an angle of repose test and a shear test - are performed to confirm the soil flow fields and stress distributions in the soil. In the field of fluid dynamics, (shear) stress generally exists along high gradients of flow velocity. These two tests confirm if the soil stress shows the same trend. The wheel simulations are performed under several slip conditions to investigate their influences on soil flow characteristics. The shape of the soil flow region - the shape of the slip line - can be divided into two patterns depending on the slip conditions. The stress increases along the slip line in all simulations. The findings of this study contribute to understanding the relationship between soil velocity field and stress distribution in the soil

Soil Flow Analysis for Planetary Rovers Based on Particle Image Velocimetry and Discrete Element Method

Planetary rovers commonly have grouser wheels to improve locomotion performance on deformable terrains such as the surfaces of the Moon or Mars. The biggest difference between the wheel with grousers and without grousers is soil behavior underneath the wheel since the grousers shovel the sand. Hence, analyzing soil flow gives us beneficial information on wheel-soil interaction. The detailed investigation for micro-scale soil behavior and gravity effect, which are difficult to see in the laboratory test, contributes to further understanding of wheel-soil interaction mechanics. This paper presents a two-dimensional discrete element method (DEM) simulation to analyze soil flow beneath the grouser wheel. The soil flow in the simulation is validated by comparing it with that of the measurements, which is visualized by particle image velocimetry (PIV). The comparison results are discussed from four perspectives: 1) wheel slip ratio, 2) traces formed behind the wheel travels, 3) entrance and leaving angles of the grousers, 4) soil velocity field. The results indicate that DEM could describe the soil deformation. This work would contribute to further investigations of the state inside the soil by using developed DEM simulation

Structural Gray Matter Changes in the Hippocampus and the Primary Motor Cortex on An-Hour-to-One- Day Scale Can Predict Arm-Reaching Performance Improvement

Recent studies have revealed rapid (e.g., hours to days) training-induced cortical structural changes using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Currently, there is great interest in studying how such a rapid brain structural change affects behavioral improvement. Structural reorganization contributes to memory or enhanced information processing in the brain and may increase its capability of skill learning. If the gray matter (GM) is capable of such rapid structural reorganization upon training, the extent of volume increase may characterize the learning process. To shed light on this issue, we conducted a case series study of 5-day visuomotor learning using neuroanatomical imaging, and analyzed the effect of rapid brain structural change on motor performance improvement via regression analysis. Participants performed an upper-arm reaching task under left-right mirror-reversal for five consecutive days; T1-weighted MR imaging was performed before training, after the first and fifth days, and 1 week and 1 month after training. We detected increase in GM volume on the first day (i.e., a few hours after the first training session) in the primary motor cortex (M1), primary sensory cortex (S1), and in the hippocampal areas. Notably, regression analysis revealed that individual differences in such short-term increases were associated with the learning levels after 5 days of training. These results suggest that GM structural changes are not simply a footprint of previous motor learning but have some relationship with future motor learning. In conclusion, the present study provides new insight into the role of structural changes in causing functional changes during motor learning

Vedolizumab for pediatric IBD

Pediatric ulcerative colitis is likely to be more severe than adult ulcerative colitis. Failure to thrive should be considered during therapy. A 10-year-old boy was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis based on his clinical presentation and colonoscopy and biopsy results. The administration of 5-aminosalicylic acid and prednisolone resulted in remission ; however, the symptoms reappeared after the discontinuation of prednisolone. Then, infliximab was administered ; however, the patient was resistant to it and appeared to be dependent on prednisolone. Vedolizumab, a monoclonal antibody against α4β7 integrin, was administered, which resulted in rapid remission. A steady decrease in prednisolone followed, and remission was maintained even after prednisolone discontinuation. Vedolizumab may be effective in pediatric patients with moderate-to-severe refractory ulcerative colitis. Vedolizumab prevents lymphocytes from binding to MAdCAM-1, which is selectively expressed in the gastrointestinal submucosa, leading to the mitigation of the systemic side effects of immunosuppression, such as infections. In Japan, vedolizumab use is not yet approved for use in children, but its effectiveness and safety in children is expected to be investigated in the future

Blind suppression of nonstationary diffuse noise based on spatial covariance matrix decomposition

International audienceWe propose methods for blind suppression of nonstationary diffuse noise based on decomposition of the observed spatial covariance matrix into signal and noise parts. In modeling noise to regularize the ill-posed decomposition problem, we exploit spatial invariance (isotropy) instead of temporal invariance (stationarity). The isotropy assumption is that the spatial cross-spectrum of noise is dependent on the distance between microphones and independent of the direction between them. We propose methods for spatial covariance matrix decomposition based on least squares and maximum likelihood estimation. The methods are validated on real-world recordings