Modeling control objectives for business process compliance

Business process design is primarily driven by process improvement objectives. However, the role of control objectives stemming from regulations and standards is becoming increasingly important for businesses in light of recent events that led to some of the largest scandals in corporate history. As organizations strive to meet compliance agendas, there is an evident need to provide systematic approaches that assist in the understanding of the interplay between (often conflicting) business and control objectives during business process design. In this paper, our objective is twofold. We will firstly present a research agenda in the space of business process compliance, identifying major technical and organizational challenges. We then tackle a part of the overall problem space, which deals with the effective modeling of control objectives and subsequently their propagation onto business process models. Control objective modeling is proposed through a specialized modal logic based on normative systems theory, and the visualization of control objectives on business process models is achieved procedurally. The proposed approach is demonstrated in the context of a purchase-to-pay scenario.

Compliance aware business process design

Historically, business process design has been driven by business objectives, specifically process improvement. However this cannot come at the price of control objectives which stem from various legislative, standard and business partnership sources. Ensuring the compliance to regulations and industrial standards is an increasingly important issue in the design of business processes. In this paper, we advocate that control objectives should be addressed at an early stage, i.e., design time, so as to minimize the problems of runtime compliance checking and consequent violations and penalties. To this aim, we propose supporting mechanisms for business process designers. This paper specifically presents a support method which allows the process designer to quantitatively measure the compliance degree of a given process model against a set of control objectives. This will allow process designers to comparatively assess the compliance degree of their design as well as be better informed on the cost of non-compliance.

Short-term spatial diffusion in sigma o+ o- optical molasses

We have measured the spatial diffusion of atoms in a three-dimensional sigma(+)-sigma(-) optical molasses over twenty milliseconds timescale, starting from the initial interaction of the atoms with the molasses. We find that the diffusion constants agree well with a linear model for these short time scales and also compare favourably to other studies of diffusion made over longer time scales. These measurements enable us to quantify the detection method known as freezing molasses. We discuss this method, for detecting and measuring the momentum distribution of cold atoms, which relies on the slow diffusion of atoms in optical molasses to produce a freeze-frame of the spatial distribution of the atoms. This method enables a longer interrogation interval, providing a greatly increased signal-to-noise ratio. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.

Data partitioning for parallel spatial join processing

The cost of spatial join processing can be very high because of the large sizes of spatial objects and the computation-intensive spatial operations. While parallel processing seems a natural solution to this problem, it is not clear how spatial data can be partitioned for this purpose. Various spatial data partitioning methods are examined in this paper. A framework combining the data-partitioning techniques used by most parallel join algorithms in relational databases and the filter-and-refine strategy for spatial operation processing is proposed for parallel spatial join processing. Object duplication caused by multi-assignment in spatial data partitioning can result in extra CPU cost as well as extra communication cost. We find that the key to overcome this problem is to preserve spatial locality in task decomposition. We show in this paper that a near-optimal speedup can be achieved for parallel spatial join processing using our new algorithms.

The spatial and temporal distribution of koala faecal pellets

Faecal pellets were collected under trees used by free-ranging koalas in south-western, central and southeastern Queensland to determine the spatial and temporal distribution of pellets with respect to the activity of koalas. Deposition of faecal pellets by koalas was analysed according to the time of day at which the tree was occupied. For free-ranging koalas, 47% of daily faecal pellet output was recovered using a collection mat of 8 x 8 m placed under a day-roost tree. The best predictor of pellet production was the presence of a koala in a tree between 1800 hours and midnight. For other periods, there was no relationship between period of tree occupancy and faecal pellet recovery. There was a significant relationship between the average length of tree occupancy and the time of day that a koala entered a tree.

X-ray computed tomography to quantify tree rooting spatial distributions

Poor root development due to constraining soil conditions could be an important factor influencing health of urban trees. Therefore, there is a need for efficient techniques to analyze the spatial distribution of tree roots. An analytical procedure for describing tree rooting patterns from X-ray computed tomography (CT) data is described and illustrated. Large irregularly shaped specimens of undisturbed sandy soil were sampled from Various positions around the base of trees using field impregnation with epoxy resin, to stabilize the cohesionless soil. Cores approximately 200 mm in diameter by 500 mm in height were extracted from these specimens. These large core samples were scanned with a medical X-ray CT device, and contiguous images of soil slices (2 mm thick) were thus produced. X-ray CT images are regarded as regularly-spaced sections through the soil although they are not actual 2D sections but matrices of voxels similar to 0.5 mm x 0.5 mm x 2 mm. The images were used to generate the equivalent of horizontal root contact maps from which three-dimensional objects, assumed to be roots, were reconstructed. The resulting connected objects were used to derive indices of the spatial organization of roots, namely: root length distribution, root length density, root growth angle distribution, root spatial distribution, and branching intensity. The successive steps of the method, from sampling to generation of indices of tree root organization, are illustrated through a case study examining rooting patterns of valuable urban trees. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

A framework to monitor sustainability in the grains industry

Community awareness of the sustainable use of land, water and vegetation resources is increasing. The sustainable use of these resources is pivotal to sustainable farming systems. However, techniques for monitoring the sustainable management of these resources are poorly understood and untested. We propose a framework to benchmark and monitor resources in the grains industry. Eight steps are listed below to achieve these objectives: (i) define industry issues; (ii) identify the issues through growers, stakeholder and community consultation; (iii) identify indicators (measurable attributes, properties or characteristics) of sustainability through consultation with growers, stakeholders, experts and community members, relating to: crop productivity; resource maintenance/enhancement; biodiversity; economic viability; community viability; and institutional structure; (iv) develop and use selection criteria to select indicators that consider: responsiveness to change; ease of capture; community acceptance and involvement; interpretation; measurement error; stability, frequency and cost of measurement; spatial scale issues; and mapping capability in space and through time. The appropriateness of indicators can be evaluated using a decision making system such as a multiobjective decision support system (MO-DSS, a method to assist in decision making from multiple and conflicting objectives); (v) involve stakeholders and the community in the definition of goals and setting benchmarking and monitoring targets for sustainable farming; (vi) take preventive and corrective/remedial action; (vii) evaluate effectiveness of actions taken; and (viii) revise indicators as part of a continual improvement principle designed to achieve best management practice for sustainable farming systems. The major recommendations are to: (i) implement the framework for resources (land, water and vegetation, economic, community and institution) benchmarking and monitoring, and integrate this process with current activities so that awareness, implementation and evolution of sustainable resource management practices become normal practice in the grains industry; (ii) empower the grains industry to take the lead by using relevant sustainability indicators to benchmark and monitor resources; (iii) adopt a collaborative approach by involving various industry, community, catchment management and government agency groups to minimise implementation time. Monitoring programs such as Waterwatch, Soilcheck, Grasscheck and Topcrop should be utilised; (iv) encourage the adoption of a decision making system by growers and industry representatives as a participatory decision and evaluation process. Widespread use of sustainability indicators would assist in validating and refining these indicators and evaluating sustainable farming systems. The indicators could also assist in evaluating best management practices for the grains industry.

Differentiation of soil properties related to the spatial association of wheat roots and soil macropores

Under certain soil conditions, e.g. hardsetting clay B-horizons of South-Eastern Australia, wheat plants do not perform as well as would be expected given measurements of bulk soil attributes. In such soils, measurement indicates that a large proportion (80%) of roots are preferentially located in the soil within 1 mm of macropores. This paper addresses the question of whether there are biological and soil chemical effects concomitant with this observed spatial relationship. The properties of soil manually dissected from the 1-3 mm wide region surrounding macropores, the macropore sheath, were compared to those that are measured in a conventional manner on the bulk soil. Field specimens of two different soil materials were dissected to examine biological differentiation. To ascertain whether the macropore sheath soil differs from rhizosphere soil, wheat was grown in structured and repacked cores under laboratory conditions. The macropore sheath soil contained more microbial biomass per unit mass than both the bulk soil and the rhizosphere. The bacterial population in the macropore sheath was able to utilise a wider range of carbon substrates and to a greater extent than the bacterial population in the corresponding bulk soil. These differences between the macropore sheath and bulk soil were almost non-existent in the repacked cores. Evidence for larger numbers of propagules of the broad host range fungus Pythium in the macropore sheath soil were also obtained.

Determining forest structural attributes using an inverted geometric-optical model in mixed eucalypt forests, Southeast Queensland, Australia

The Montreal Process indicators are intended to provide a common framework for assessing and reviewing progress toward sustainable forest management. The potential of a combined geometrical-optical/spectral mixture analysis model was assessed for mapping the Montreal Process age class and successional age indicators at a regional scale using Landsat Thematic data. The project location is an area of eucalyptus forest in Emu Creek State Forest, Southeast Queensland, Australia. A quantitative model relating the spectral reflectance of a forest to the illumination geometry, slope, and aspect of the terrain surface and the size, shape, and density, and canopy size. Inversion of this model necessitated the use of spectral mixture analysis to recover subpixel information on the fractional extent of ground scene elements (such as sunlit canopy, shaded canopy, sunlit background, and shaded background). Results obtained fron a sensitivity analysis allowed improved allocation of resources to maximize the predictive accuracy of the model. It was found that modeled estimates of crown cover projection, canopy size, and tree densities had significant agreement with field and air photo-interpreted estimates. However, the accuracy of the successional stage classification was limited. The results obtained highlight the potential for future integration of high and moderate spatial resolution-imaging sensors for monitoring forest structure and condition. (C) Elsevier Science Inc., 2000.

Regional-scale investigation of the spatial distribution and origin of soluble salts in central north Queensland

A method for regional assessment of the distribution of saline outbreaks is demonstrated for a large area (68 000 km(2)) in north Queensland, Australia. Soil samples were used in conjunction with a digital elevation model and a map of potentially saline discharge zones to examine the landscape distribution of soluble salts in the region. The hypothesis of atmospheric accession of salt was tested for the topographically defined catchment regions feeding into each potentially saline discharge area. Most catchments showed a salt distribution consistent with this hypothesis, i.e. %TSS was large near the discharge areas and decreased rapidly with distance uphill from the discharge areas. In some catchments, however, local saline outbreaks were apparent at significant distances uphill from discharge areas. The possibility of geological sources of this salt was examined by comparing random point distributions with the location of saline points with distance downhill from geological units (excluding points near discharge zones). The distribution of some saline outbreaks was consistent with the occurrence of Cambro-Ordovician metasediments, Devonian limestone, Upper Devonian-Lower Carboniferous volcanics, and Triassic sediments. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.