Prototyping in Business Model Innovation: Exploring the Role of Design Thinking in Business Model Development

This study proposes a theoretical framework for business model prototyping (BMP), one in which design thinking is applied as a means of facilitating business model innovation (BMI). The value of design-led approaches in the development/management of innovation have received increasing recognition in the past decade, as the concept of design thinking (e.g., Brown, 2008; Martin, 2009) has gained broader application and credibility. In parallel, the concept of BMI has been discussed increasingly in research on innovation, as business models have garnered enhanced acknowledgement as a fundamental aspect in innovation management (Schneider & Spieth, 2013). Although experimentation for BMI is argued to be of importance (e.g., Chesbrough, 2010), the ways in which design thinking might inform prototyping of BMI is less articulated. Thus, the research provides a framework for prototyping business models in the process of BMI, and a first theoretical foundation for the subject. The framework is developed by combination of insights from a thoroughgoing literature review with expert interviews, multiple institution-level case studies, and a series of validation interviews. The literature review articulates the concept of prototyping in BMI and covers three topics in-depth: innovation, business models and design thinking. Expert interviews capture the perceptions and orientations of practitioners, and case studies explore various contexts of business model development in social enterprise, university division, governmental organisation and private company. The validation interviews use feedback from industrial experts to aid and revise the framework and combining theoretical and practical perspectives. On the basis of integrated findings, the thesis contributes to knowledge in three ways. First, it aims to bridge design methodology research and innovation management 3 research by articulating prototyping in design with business model innovation. Second, it proposes a theoretical framework for business model prototyping that incorporates four dimensions — purpose, process, context and engagement. This framework provides a theoretical foundation for further research in the area. Third, the thesis reframes prototyping not as a method or a tool but as a methodology (i.e., a conceptual framework and mode of thinking) that supports the management of business model development and innovation

A Case Report of Carcinoma Originating from Aberrant Breast Tissue

A case of breast cancer originating from accessory breast gland tissue is to be presented. Treatment included the subcutaneous removal of the upper half of the mammary gland and the dissection of axillary lymphnodes. As the incidence of aberrant breast carcinoma is rare, a definite prognostic conclusion can not be made at this point. But follow up (5 years) in our case without recurrence will prove that it is enough when the masses were not palpable within the breast

Rethinking the prototyping process for applying design thinking to business model innovation

This research proposes a prototyping perspective in design for business model innovation to facilitate disruption. The value of design-led approach for managing innovation has been recognised under the concept of ‘design thinking’. In the research on innovation, the concept of business model innovation has been discussed as business models started to be acknowledged as a key aspect of managing innovation. Although experimentation for business model innovation is argued to be of importance, how to apply prototyping of design thinking to business model innovation has been limitedly theorised. This research is based on a literature review to articulate theoretically the concept of prototyping in business model innovation. Through the literature review, this research identifies four key dimensions of prototyping in business model innovation: purpose, process, context and engagement. This paper focuses on the Process dimension to interrogate the existing argument

Relation of Function of the Liver to Weight Gain and Fat Deposit in the Muscle of Fattened Steer

和牛の若令去勢肥育牛50頭のと殺時の血液を採取し,その赤血球数(RBC),白血球数(BC),ヘマトリット(Ht),硫安反応(ASR),を検査し,さらに血清中の全蛋白質(TP),総コレステロール(TCh),遊離コレステロール(FCh),エステル型コレステロール(ECh),アルブミン(Al),α-グロブリン(α-Gl),β-グロブリン(β-Gl),γ-グロブリン(γ-Gl),などの濃度の測定およびA/G比を求めた. 血清ASR値はTPおよびγ-Glと正相関,Al,A/G北および日令体重とは負の相関があった. また脂肪交雑とは負の相関の傾向がみられた. 増体および脂肪交雑の増進のためには強い肝機能の必要なことが実証された

Comprehensive Sequence Analysis of 24,783 Barley Full-Length cDNAs Derived from 12 Clone Libraries

Full-length cDNA (FLcDNA) libraries consisting of 172,000 clones were constructed from a two-row malting barley cultivar (Hordeum vulgare 'Haruna Nijo') under normal and stressed conditions. After sequencing the clones from both ends and clustering the sequences, a total of 24,783 complete sequences were produced. By removing duplicates between these and publicly available sequences, 22,651 representative sequences were obtained: 17,773 were novel barley FLcDNAs, and 1,699 were barley specific. Highly conserved genes were found in the barley FLcDNA sequences for 721 of 881 rice (Oryza sativa) trait genes with 50% or greater identity. These FLcDNA resources from our Haruna Nijo cDNA libraries and the full-length sequences of representative clones will improve our understanding of the biological functions of genes in barley, which is the cereal crop with the fourth highest production in the world, and will provide a powerful tool for annotating the barley genome sequences that will become available in the near future

TriAnnot: A Versatile and High Performance Pipeline for the Automated Annotation of Plant Genomes

In support of the international effort to obtain a reference sequence of the bread wheat genome and to provide plant communities dealing with large and complex genomes with a versatile, easy-to-use online automated tool for annotation, we have developed the TriAnnot pipeline. Its modular architecture allows for the annotation and masking of transposable elements, the structural, and functional annotation of protein-coding genes with an evidence-based quality indexing, and the identification of conserved non-coding sequences and molecular markers. The TriAnnot pipeline is parallelized on a 712 CPU computing cluster that can run a 1-Gb sequence annotation in less than 5 days. It is accessible through a web interface for small scale analyses or through a server for large scale annotations. The performance of TriAnnot was evaluated in terms of sensitivity, specificity, and general fitness using curated reference sequence sets from rice and wheat. In less than 8 h, TriAnnot was able to predict more than 83% of the 3,748 CDS from rice chromosome 1 with a fitness of 67.4%. On a set of 12 reference Mb-sized contigs from wheat chromosome 3B, TriAnnot predicted and annotated 93.3% of the genes among which 54% were perfectly identified in accordance with the reference annotation. It also allowed the curation of 12 genes based on new biological evidences, increasing the percentage of perfect gene prediction to 63%. TriAnnot systematically showed a higher fitness than other annotation pipelines that are not improved for wheat. As it is easily adaptable to the annotation of other plant genomes, TriAnnot should become a useful resource for the annotation of large and complex genomes in the future

Administration of Kampo medicine through a tube at an advanced critical care center

In emergency and critical care medical centers, tube administration is employed for patients who have difficulty swallowing oral drugs owing to decreased consciousness or mechanical ventilation. However, tube clogging due to drug injection is a concern. We compared the crushing method with the simple suspension method for the passage of amlodipine, an antihypertensive drug, in combination with rikkunshito, which has been used to treat upper gastrointestinal disorders such as functional dyspepsia and gastroesophageal reflux in emergency and critical care medical centers, to ascertain the effect of Kampo products on the passage of other drugs during tube administration. When the crushing method was employed, poorly water-soluble solid products were formed, while a uniformly dispersed suspension was obtained using the simple suspension method. In addition, the passage rate of amlodipine through the tube was 64% and 93% in the crushing and simple suspension methods, respectively, thereby indicating that the simple suspension method provided more favorable than the crushing method. The results of this study suggested that the passage rate of amlodipine for patients who received Kampo products concurrently was higher when the simple suspension method was used, and an appropriate drug amount might well be able to administered to patients using this method