Learning processes in creative service teams : towards a dynamic systems theory

The fastest-growing segment of jobs in the creative sector are in those firms that provide creative services to other sectors (Hearn, Goldsmith, Bridgstock, Rodgers 2014, this volume; Cunningham 2014, this volume). There are also a large number of Creative Services (Architecture and Design, Advertising and Marketing, Software and Digital Content occupations) workers embedded in organizations in other industry sectors (Cunningham and Higgs 2009). Ben Goldsmith (2014, this volume) shows, for example, that the Financial Services sector is the largest employer of digital creative talent in Australia. But why should this be? We argue it is because ‘knowledge-based intangibles are increasingly the source of value creation and hence of sustainable competitive advantage (Mudambi 2008, 186). This value creation occurs primarily at the research and development (R and D) and the marketing ends of the supply chain. Both of these areas require strong creative capabilities in order to design for, and to persuade, consumers. It is no surprise that Jess Rodgers (2014, this volume), in a study of Australia’s Manufacturing sector, found designers and advertising and marketing occupations to be the most numerous creative occupations. Greg Hearn and Ruth Bridgstock (2013, forthcoming) suggest ‘the creative heart of the creative economy […] is the social and organisational routines that manage the generation of cultural novelty, both tacit and codified, internal and external, and [cultural novelty’s] combination with other knowledges […] produce and capture value’. 2 Moreover, the main “social and organisational routine” is usually a team (for example, Grabher 2002; 2004).

Secure stream cipher initialisation processes

Stream ciphers are symmetric key cryptosystems that are used commonly to provide confidentiality for a wide range of applications; such as mobile phone, pay TV and Internet data transmissions. This research examines the features and properties of the initialisation processes of existing stream ciphers to identify flaws and weaknesses, then presents recommendations to improve the security of future cipher designs. This research investigates well-known stream ciphers: A5/1, Sfinks and the Common Scrambling Algorithm Stream Cipher (CSA-SC). This research focused on the security of the initialisation process. The recommendations given are based on both the results in the literature and the work in this thesis.

Process mining for clinical processes: A comparative analysis of four Australian hospitals

Business process analysis and process mining, particularly within the health care domain, remain under-utilised. Applied research that employs such techniques to routinely collected, health care data enables stakeholders to empirically investigate care as it is delivered by different health providers. However, cross-organisational mining and the comparative analysis of processes present a set of unique challenges in terms of ensuring population and activity comparability, visualising the mined models and interpreting the results. Without addressing these issues, health providers will find it difficult to use process mining insights, and the potential benefits of evidence-based process improvement within health will remain unrealised. In this paper, we present a brief introduction on the nature of health care processes; a review of the process mining in health literature; and a case study conducted to explore and learn how health care data, and cross-organisational comparisons with process mining techniques may be approached. The case study applies process mining techniques to administrative and clinical data for patients who present with chest pain symptoms at one of four public hospitals in South Australia. We demonstrate an approach that provides detailed insights into clinical (quality of patient health) and fiscal (hospital budget) pressures in health care practice. We conclude by discussing the key lessons learned from our experience in conducting business process analysis and process mining based on the data from four different hospitals.

Electrochemical and photochemical routes to semiconducting transition metal-tetracyanoquinodimethane coordination polymers

TCNQ·− radical anions (TCNQ = 7,7,8,8,-tetracyanoquinodimethane) form a wide range of semiconducting coordination polymers when coordinated to transition metals. Some such as CuTCNQ and AgTCNQ exhibit molecular switching and memory storage properties; others have intriguing magnetic properties and for example may behave as molecular magnets at low temperature. In this review, the electro- and photo-chemical synthesis and characterization of this important class of material is reviewed. In particular, the electrochemistry and the redox properties of TCNQ derivatives of coordination polymers based on Cu, Ag, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Zn and Cd transition metals are surveyed, with an emphasis on the mechanistic aspects of their electrochemical formation via nucleation–growth processes. Given that TCNQ is an extremely good electron acceptor, readily forming TCNQ•− and TCNQ2-, electrochemical reduction of TCNQ in the presence of a transition metal ion provides an ideal method for synthesis of metal-TCNQ materials by electrocrystallization from organic solvents and ionic liquids or solid-solid transformation using TCNQ modified electrodes from aqueous media containing transition metal electrolytes. The significance of the reversible formal potential (E0f) in these studies is discussed. The coupling of electrocrystallisation on electrode surfaces and microscopic characterization of the electrodeposited materials reveals a wide range of morphologies and phases which strongly influence their properties and applications. Since TCNQ also can be photo-reduced in the presence of suitable electron donors, analogous photochemical approaches to the synthesis of TCNQ-transition metal derivatives are available. The advantages of electrochemical and photochemical methods of synthesis relative to chemical synthesis are outlined.

Self-organization processes in field-invasion team sports

In nature, the interactions between agents in a complex system (fish schools; colonies of ants) are governed by information that is locally created. Each agent self-organizes (adjusts) its behaviour, not through a central command centre, but based on variables that emerge from the interactions with other system agents in the neighbourhood. Self-organization has been proposed as a mechanism to explain the tendencies for individual performers to interact with each other in field-invasion sports teams, displaying functional co-adaptive behaviours, without the need for central control. The relevance of self-organization as a mechanism that explains pattern-forming dynamics within attacker-defender interactions in field-invasion sports has been sustained in the literature. Nonetheless, other levels of interpersonal coordination, such as intra-team interactions, still raise important questions, particularly with reference to the role of leadership or match strategies that have been prescribed in advance by a coach. The existence of key properties of complex systems, such as system degeneracy, nonlinearity or contextual dependency, suggests that self-organization is a functional mechanism to explain the emergence of interpersonal coordination tendencies within intra-team interactions. In this opinion article we propose how leadership may act as a key constraint on the emergent, self-organizational tendencies of performers in field-invasion sports.

Did you see that? Dissociating advanced visual information and ball flight constrains perception and action processes during one-handed catching

The integration of separate, yet complimentary, cortical pathways appears to play a role in visual perception and action when intercepting objects. The ventral system is responsible for object recognition and identification, while the dorsal system facilitates continuous regulation of action. This dual-system model implies that empirically manipulating different visual information sources during performance of an interceptive action might lead to the emergence of distinct gaze and movement pattern profiles. To test this idea, we recorded hand kinematics and eye movements of participants as they attempted to catch balls projected from a novel apparatus that synchronised or de-synchronised accompanying video images of a throwing action and ball trajectory. Results revealed that ball catching performance was less successful when patterns of hand movements and gaze behaviours were constrained by the absence of advanced perceptual information from the thrower's actions. Under these task constraints, participants began tracking the ball later, followed less of its trajectory, and adapted their actions by initiating movements later and moving the hand faster. There were no performance differences when the throwing action image and ball speed were synchronised or de-synchronised since hand movements were closely linked to information from ball trajectory. Results are interpreted relative to the two-visual system hypothesis, demonstrating that accurate interception requires integration of advanced visual information from kinematics of the throwing action and from ball flight trajectory.

Visualization of predictive distributions for discrete spatial-temporal log Cox processes approximated with MCMC

An important aspect of decision support systems involves applying sophisticated and flexible statistical models to real datasets and communicating these results to decision makers in interpretable ways. An important class of problem is the modelling of incidence such as fire, disease etc. Models of incidence known as point processes or Cox processes are particularly challenging as they are ‘doubly stochastic’ i.e. obtaining the probability mass function of incidents requires two integrals to be evaluated. Existing approaches to the problem either use simple models that obtain predictions using plug-in point estimates and do not distinguish between Cox processes and density estimation but do use sophisticated 3D visualization for interpretation. Alternatively other work employs sophisticated non-parametric Bayesian Cox process models, but do not use visualization to render interpretable complex spatial temporal forecasts. The contribution here is to fill this gap by inferring predictive distributions of Gaussian-log Cox processes and rendering them using state of the art 3D visualization techniques. This requires performing inference on an approximation of the model on a discretized grid of large scale and adapting an existing spatial-diurnal kernel to the log Gaussian Cox process context.

Using pulse transit delay in Z-scan to discriminate between excited-state absorption and other nonlinear processes in ZnO nanocones

We report a new approach that uses the single beam Z-scan technique, to discriminate between excited state absorption (ESA) and two and three photon nonlinear absorption. By measuring the apparent delay or advance of the pulse in reaching the detector, the nonlinear absorption can be unambiguously identified as either instantaneous or transient. The simple method does not require a large range of input fluences or sophisticated pulse-probe experimental apparatus. The technique is easily extended to any absorption process dependent on pulse width and to nonlinear refraction measurements. We demonstrate in particular, that the large nonlinear absorption in ZnO nanocones when exposed to nanosecond 532 nm pulses, is due mostly to ESA, not pure two-photon absorption.

The development of an effective and efficient dispute resolution processes for strata scheme disputes in peninsular Malaysia

Dispute resolution in strata schemes in Peninsular Malaysia should focus on more than just "settlement." The quality of the outcome, its sustainability and its relevance in supporting the basic principles of a good neighbourhood and self-governance in a strata scheme are also fundamental. Based on the comprehensive law movement, this thesis develops a theoretical framework for strata scheme disputes within the parameters of therapeutic jurisprudence, preventive law, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and problem-solving courts. The therapeutic orientation of this model offers approaches that promote positive communication between disputing parties, preserve neighbour relations and optimise people's psychological and emotional well-being.

Research participation by people with intellectual disability and mental health issues : an examination of the processes of consent

Balancing the demands of research and ethics is always challenging and even more so when recruiting vulnerable groups. Within the context of current legislation and international human rights declarations, it is strongly advocated that research can and must be undertaken with all recipients of health care services. Research in the field of intellectual disability presents particular challenges in regard to consenting processes. This paper is a critical reflection and analysis of the complex processes undertaken and events that occurred in gaining informed consent from people with intellectual disability to participate in a study exploring their experiences of being an inpatient in mental health hospitals within Aotearoa/New Zealand. A framework based on capacity, information and voluntariness is presented with excerpts from the field provided to explore consenting processes. The practical implications of the processes utilised are then discussed in order to stimulate debate regarding clearer and enhanced methods of gaining informed consent from people with intellectual disability.

Making YAWL and SmartPM interoperate : managing highly dynamic processes by exploiting automatic adaptation features

In the last years, the trade-o between exibility and sup- port has become a leading issue in work ow technology. In this paper we show how an imperative modeling approach used to de ne stable and well-understood processes can be complemented by a modeling ap- proach that enables automatic process adaptation and exploits planning techniques to deal with environmental changes and exceptions that may occur during process execution. To this end, we designed and imple- mented a Custom Service that allows the Yawl execution environment to delegate the execution of subprocesses and activities to the SmartPM execution environment, which is able to automatically adapt a process to deal with emerging changes and exceptions. We demonstrate the fea- sibility and validity of the approach by showing the design and execution of an emergency management process de ned for train derailments.

Hypergraph-based modeling of ad-hoc business processes

Process models are usually depicted as directed graphs, with nodes representing activities and directed edges control flow. While structured processes with pre-defined control flow have been studied in detail, flexible processes including ad-hoc activities need further investigation. This paper presents flexible process graph, a novel approach to model processes in the context of dynamic environment and adaptive process participants’ behavior. The approach allows defining execution constraints, which are more restrictive than traditional ad-hoc processes and less restrictive than traditional control flow, thereby balancing structured control flow with unstructured ad-hoc activities. Flexible process graph focuses on what can be done to perform a process. Process participants’ routing decisions are based on the current process state. As a formal grounding, the approach uses hypergraphs, where each edge can associate any number of nodes. Hypergraphs are used to define execution semantics of processes formally. We provide a process scenario to motivate and illustrate the approach.

The effect of electrode material on the electrochemical formation of porous copper surfaces using hydrogen bubble templating

The electrodeposition of copper onto copper, gold, palladium and glassy carbon (GC) electrodes via a hydrogen bubble templating method is reported. It is found that the composition of the underlying electrode material significantly influences the morphology of the copper electrodeposit. Highly ordered porous structures are achieved with Cu and Au electrodes, however on Pd this order is disrupted and a rough randomly oriented surface is formed whereas on GC a bubble templating effect is not observed. Chronopotentiograms recorded during the electrodeposition process allows bubble formation and detachment from the surface to be monitored where distinctly different potential versus time profiles are observed at the different electrodes. The porous Cu surfaces are characterised with scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and cyclic voltammetric measurements recorded under alkaline conditions. The latter demonstrates that there are active sites present on electrodeposited copper whose coverage and reactivity depend on the underlying electrode material. The most active Cu surface is achieved at a Pd substrate for both the hydrogen evolution reaction and the catalytic reduction of ferricyanide ions with thiosulphate ions. This demonstrates that the highly ordered porous structure on the micron scale which typifies the morphology that can be achieved with the hydrogen bubbling template method is not required in producing the most effective material.

Framework of a process laboratory for the operational control of service processes

Service processes such as financial advice, booking a business trip or conducting a consulting project have emerged as units of analysis of high interest for the business process and service management communities in practice and academia. While the transactional nature of production processes is relatively well understood and deployed, the less predictable and highly interactive nature of service processes still lacks in many areas appropriate methodological grounding. This paper proposes a framework of a process laboratory as a new IT artefact in order to facilitate the holistic analysis and simulation of such service processes. Using financial services as an example, it will be shown how such a process laboratory can be used to reduce the complexity of service process analysis and facilitate operational service process control.

Dimensions of business processes quality (QoBP)

Conceptual modeling is an important tool for understanding and revealing weaknesses of business processes. Yet, the current practice in reengineering projects often considers simply the as-is process model as a brain-storming tool. This approach heavily relies on the intuition of the participants and misses a clear description of the quality requirements. Against this background, we identify four generic quality categories of business process quality, and populate them with quality requirements from related research. We refer to the resulting framework as the Quality of Business Process (QoBP) framework. Furthermore, we present the findings from applying the QoBP framework in a case study with a major Australian bank, showing that it helps to systematically fill the white space between as-is and to-be process modeling.