Visual support for work assignment in process-aware information systems : framework formalisation and implementation

Process-aware information systems, ranging from generic workflow systems to dedicated enterprise information systems, use work-lists to offer so-called work items to users. In real scenarios, users can be confronted with a very large number of work items that stem from multiple cases of different processes. In this jungle of work items, users may find it hard to choose the right item to work on next. The system cannot autonomously decide which is the right work item, since the decision is also dependent on conditions that are somehow outside the system. For instance, what is “best” for an organisation should be mediated with what is “best” for its employees. Current work-list handlers show work items as a simple sorted list and therefore do not provide much decision support for choosing the right work item. Since the work-list handler is the dominant interface between the system and its users, it is worthwhile to provide an intuitive graphical interface that uses contextual information about work items and users to provide suggestions about prioritisation of work items. This paper uses the so-called map metaphor to visualise work items and resources (e.g., users) in a sophisticated manner. Moreover, based on distance notions, the work-list handler can suggest the next work item by considering different perspectives. For example, urgent work items of a type that suits the user may be highlighted. The underlying map and distance notions may be of a geographical nature (e.g., a map of a city or office building), but may also be based on process designs, organisational structures, social networks, due dates, calendars, etc. The framework proposed in this paper is generic and can be applied to any process-aware information system. Moreover, in order to show its practical feasibility, the paper discusses a full-fledged implementation developed in the context of the open-source workflow environment YAWL, together with two real examples stemming from two very different scenarios. The results of an initial usability evaluation of the implementation are also presented, which provide a first indication of the validity of the approach.

Achieving quality improvement in the mask manufacturing industry by using Six Sigma technique

The Six Sigma technique is one of the quality management strategies and is utilised for improving the quality and productivity in the manufacturing process. It is inspired by the two major project methodologies of Deming’s "Plan – Do – Check – Act (PDCA)" Cycle which consists of DMAIC and DMADV. Those two methodologies are comprised of five phases. The DMAIC project methodology will be comprehensively used in this research. In brief, DMAIC is utilised for improving the existing manufacturing process and it involves the phases Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, and Control. Mask industry has become a significant industry in today’s society since the outbreak of some serious diseases such as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), bird flu, influenza, swine flu and hay fever. Protecting the respiratory system, then, has become the fundamental requirement for preventing respiratory deceases. Mask is the most appropriate and protective product inasmuch as it is effective in protecting the respiratory tract and resisting the virus infection through air. In order to satisfy various customers’ requirements, thousands of mask products are designed in the market. Moreover, masks are also widely used in industries including medical industries, semi-conductor industries, food industries, traditional manufacturing, and metal industries. Notwithstanding the quality of masks have become the prioritisations since they are used to prevent dangerous diseases and safeguard people, the quality improvement technique are of very high significance in mask industry. The purpose of this research project is firstly to investigate the current quality control practices in a mask industry, then, to explore the feasibility of using Six Sigma technique in that industry, and finally, to implement the Six Sigma technique in the case company to develop and evaluate the product quality process. This research mainly investigates the quality problems of musk industry and effectiveness of six sigma technique in musk industry with the United Excel Enterprise Corporation (UEE) Company as a case company. The DMAIC project methodology in the Six Sigma technique is adopted and developed in this research. This research makes significant contribution to knowledge. The main results contribute to the discovering the root causes of quality problems in a mask industry. Secondly, the company was able to increase not only acceptance rate but quality level by utilising the Six Sigma technique. Hence, utilising the Six Sigma technique could increase the production capacity of the company. Third, the Six Sigma technique is necessary to be extensively modified to improve the quality control in the mask industry. The impact of the Six Sigma technique on the overall performance in the business organisation should be further explored in future research.

Managing open incremental process innovation : absorptive capacity and distributed learning

In this conceptual article, we extend earlier work on Open Innovation and Absorptive Capacity. We suggest that the literature on Absorptive Capacity does not place sufficient emphasis on distributed knowledge and learning or on the application of innovative knowledge. To accomplish physical transformations, organisations need specific Innovative Capacities that extend beyond knowledge management. Accessive Capacity is the ability to collect, sort and analyse knowledge from both internal and external sources. Adaptive Capacity is needed to ensure that new pieces of equipment are suitable for the organisation's own purposes even though they may have been originally developed for other uses. Integrative Capacity makes it possible for a new or modified piece of equipment to be fitted into an existing production process with a minimum of inessential and expensive adjustment elsewhere in the process. These Innovative Capacities are controlled and coordinated by Innovative Management Capacity, a higher-order dynamic capability.

Entrepreneur optimism and the new venture creation process

By integrating two theoretical approaches to entrepreneurship research, the psychology of the entrepreneur and the entrepreneurship process, this paper proposes a new conceptual model examining entrepreneur behaviour and emotion across the new venture development process. Existing macro level research on the new venture creation process recognises the entrepreneur as a central agent in the process yet generally avoids, at each stage of the process, an examination of the micro level psychological experiences of the individual entrepreneur. Similarly, behavioural research examining entrepreneur individual differences has neglected to systematically explore the emotion and behaviour of the entrepreneur across the cycle of the new venture creation process. We propose a conceptual framework that integrates the exploitation phase of the new venture creation process with the psychological capital element of optimism and behaviour of the individual entrepreneur. Propositions for future research to facilitate deeper insight into the impact of entrepreneur behaviour and emotion on the new venture creation process and ultimately the success or failure of the new venture are offered.

Gold coating of silica and zinc oxide nanoparticles by the surface reduction of gold(I) chloride

The possibility of a surface inner sphere electron transfer mechanism leading to the coating of gold via the surface reduction of gold(I) chloride on metal and semi-metal oxide nanoparticles was investigated. Silica and zinc oxide nanoparticles are known to have very different surface chemistry, potentially leading to a new class of gold coated nanoparticles. Monodisperse silica nanoparticles were synthesised by the well known Stöber protocol in conjunction with sonication. The nanoparticle size was regulated solely by varying the amount of ammonia solution added. The presence of surface hydroxyl groups was investigated by liquid proton NMR. The resultant nanoparticle size was directly measured by the use of TEM. The synthesised silica nanoparticles were dispersed in acetonitrile (MeCN) and added to a bis acetonitrile gold(I) co-ordination complex [Au(MeCN)2]+ in MeCN. The silica hydroxyl groups were deprotonated in the presence of MeCN generating a formal negative charge on the siloxy groups. This allowed the [Au(MeCN)2]+ complex to undergo ligand exchange with the silica nanoparticles, which formed a surface co-ordination complex with reduction to gold(0), that proceeded by a surface inner sphere electron transfer mechanism. The residual [Au(MeCN)2]+ complex was allowed to react with water, disproportionating into gold(0) and gold(III) respectively, with gold(0) being added to the reduced gold already bound on the silica surface. The so-formed metallic gold seed surface was found to be suitable for the conventional reduction of gold(III) to gold(0) by ascorbic acid. This process generated a thin and uniform gold coating on the silica nanoparticles. This process was modified to include uniformly gold coated composite zinc oxide nanoparticles (Au@ZnO NPs) using surface co-ordination chemistry. AuCl dissolved in acetonitrile (MeCN) supplied chloride ions which were adsorbed onto ZnO NPs. The co-ordinated gold(I) was reduced on the ZnO surface to gold(0) by the inner sphere electron transfer mechanism. Addition of water disproportionated the remaining gold(I) to gold(0) and gold(III). Gold(0) bonded to gold(0) on the NP surface with gold(III) was reduced to gold(0) by ascorbic acid (ASC), which completed the gold coating process. This gold coating process of Au@ZnO NPs was modified to incorporate iodide instead of chloride. ZnO NPs were synthesised by the use of sodium oxide, zinc iodide and potassium iodide in refluxing basic ethanol with iodide controlling the presence of chemisorbed oxygen. These ZnO NPs were treated by the addition of gold(I) chloride dissolved in acetonitrile leaving chloride anions co-ordinated on the ZnO NP surface. This allowed acetonitrile ligands in the added [Au(MeCN)2]+ complex to surface exchange with adsorbed chloride from the dissolved AuCl on the ZnO NP surface. Gold(I) was then reduced by the surface inner sphere electron transfer mechanism. The presence of the reduced gold on the ZnO NPs allowed adsorption of iodide to generate a uniform deposition of gold onto the ZnO NP surface without the use of additional reducing agents or heat.

Fast fourier analysis of structural organization in decellularized cartilage-on-bone laminates

Denaturation of tissues can provide a unique biological environment for regenerative medicine application only if minimal disruption of their microarchitecture is achieved during the decellularization process. The goal is to keep the structural integrity of such a construct as functional as the tissues from which they were derived. In this work, cartilage-on-bone laminates were decellularized through enzymatic, non-ionic and ionic protocols. This work investigated the effects of decellularization process on the microarchitecture of cartiligous extracellular matrix; determining the extent of how each process deteriorated the structural organization of the network. High resolution microscopy was used to capture cross-sectional images of samples prior to and after treatment. The variation of the microarchitecture was then analysed using a well defined fast Fourier image processing algorithm. Statistical analysis of the results revealed how significant the alternations among aforementioned protocols were (p < 0.05). Ranking the treatments by their effectiveness in disrupting the ECM integrity, they were ordered as: Trypsin> SDS> Triton X-100.

Business Process Data Compliance

Most approaches to business process compliance are restricted to the analysis of the structure of processes. It has been argued that full regulatory compliance requires information on not only the structure of processes but also on what the tasks in a process do. To this end Governatori and Sadiq[2007] proposed to extend business processes with semantic annotations. We propose a methodology to automatically extract one kind of such annotations; in particular the annotations related to the data schema and templates linked to the various tasks in a business process.

Visible and near infrared spectroscopy of Hayabusa re-entry using semi-autonomous tracking

A ground-based tracking camera and co-aligned slit-less spectrograph were used to measure the spectral signature of visible radiation emitted from the Hayabusa capsule as it entered into the Earth's atmosphere in June 2010. Good quality spectra were obtained that showed the presence of radiation from the heat shield of the vehicle and the shock-heated air in front of the vehicle. An analysis of the black body nature of the radiation concluded that the peak average temperature of the surface was about (3100±100) K.

Aspect oriented business process modeling with precedence

Complexity is a major concern which is aimed to be overcome by people through modeling. One way of reducing complexity is separation of concerns, e.g. separation of business process from applications. One sort of concerns are cross-cutting concerns i.e. concerns which are scattered and tangled through one of several models. In business process management, examples of such concerns are security and privacy policies. To deal with these cross-cutting concerns, the aspect orientated approach was introduced in the software development area and recently also in the business process management area. The work presented in this paper elaborates on aspect oriented process modelling. It extends earlier work by defining a mechanism for capturing multiple concerns and specifying a precedence order according to which they should be handled in a process. A formal syntax of the notation is presented precisely capturing the extended concepts and mechanisms. Finally, the relevant of the approach is demonstrated through a case study.

An implicit RBF meshless method for a fractal mobile/immobile transport model

Fractional differential equation is used to describe a fractal model of mobile/immobile transport with a power law memory function. This equation is the limiting equation that governs continuous time random walks with heavy tailed random waiting times. In this paper, we firstly propose a finite difference method to discretize the time variable and obtain a semi-discrete scheme. Then we discuss its stability and convergence. Secondly we consider a meshless method based on radial basis functions (RBF) to discretize the space variable. By contrast to conventional FDM and FEM, the meshless method is demonstrated to have distinct advantages: calculations can be performed independent of a mesh, it is more accurate and it can be used to solve complex problems. Finally the convergence order is verified from a numerical example is presented to describe the fractal model of mobile/immobile transport process with different problem domains. The numerical results indicate that the present meshless approach is very effective for modeling and simulating of fractional differential equations, and it has good potential in development of a robust simulation tool for problems in engineering and science that are governed by various types of fractional differential equations.

Digital Storytelling within a Service-Learning Partnership: Technology as Product and Process for University Students and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse High School Youth

This chapter describes a university/high school partnership focused on digital storytelling. It also explains the multi-stage process used to establish this successful partnership and project. The authors discuss the central role that technology played in developing this university/high school partnership, a collaboration that extended the impact of a digital storytelling project to reach high school students, university students, educators, high school administrators, and the local community. Valuing a reflective process that can lead to the creation of a powerful final product, the authors describe the impact of digital storytelling on multiple stakeholders, including the 13 university students and 33 culturally and linguistically diverse high school youth who participated during the fall of 2009. In addition, the chapter includes reflections from university and high school student participants expressed during focus groups conducted throughout the project. While most participants had a positive experience with the project, complications with the technology component often caused frustrations and additional challenges. Goals for sharing this project are to critically evaluate digital storytelling, describe lessons learned, and recommend good practices for others working within a similar context or with parallel goals.

Prandtl number scaling of the unsteady natural convection boundary layer adjacent to a vertical flat plate for Pr > 1 subject to ramp surface heat flux

It is found in the literature that the existing scaling results for the boundary layer thickness, velocity and steady state time for the natural convection flow over an evenly heated plate provide a very poor prediction of the Prandtl number dependency of the flow. However, those scalings provide a good prediction of two other governing parameters’ dependency, the Rayleigh number and the aspect ratio. Therefore, an improved scaling analysis using a triple-layer integral approach and direct numerical simulations have been performed for the natural convection boundary layer along a semi-infinite flat plate with uniform surface heat flux. This heat flux is a ramp function of time, where the temperature gradient on the surface increases with time up to some specific time and then remains constant. The growth of the boundary layer strongly depends on the ramp time. If the ramp time is sufficiently long, the boundary layer reaches a quasi steady mode before the growth of the temperature gradient is completed. In this mode, the thermal boundary layer at first grows in thickness and then contracts with increasing time. However, if the ramp time is sufficiently short, the boundary layer develops differently, but after the wall temperature gradient growth is completed, the boundary layer develops as though the startup had been instantaneous.