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.

A unified description language for human to automated services

Through the rise of cloud computing, on-demand applications, and business networks, services are increasingly being exposed and delivered on the Internet and through mobile communications. So far, services have mainly been described through technical interface descriptions. The description of business details, such as pricing, service-level, or licensing, has been neglected and is therefore hard to automatically process by service consumers. Also, third-party intermediaries, such as brokers, cloud providers, or channel partners, are interested in the business details in order to extend services and their delivery and, thus, further monetize services. In this paper, the constructivist design of the UnifiedServiceDescriptionLanguage (USDL), aimed at describing services across the human-to-automation continuum, is presented. The proposal of USDL follows well-defined requirements which are expressed against a common service discourse and synthesized from currently available servicedescription efforts. USDL's concepts and modules are evaluated for their support of the different requirements and use cases.

Mobile multimedia : user and technology perspectives

As multimedia-enabled mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets are becoming the day-to-day computing device of choice for users of all ages, everyone expects that all mobile multimedia applications and services should be as smooth and as high-quality as the desktop experience. The grand challenge in delivering multimedia to mobile devices using the Internet is to ensure the quality of experience that meets the users' expectations, within reasonable costs, while supporting heterogeneous platforms and wireless network conditions. This book aims to provide a holistic overview of the current and future technologies used for delivering high-quality mobile multimedia applications, while focusing on user experience as the key requirement. The book opens with a section dealing with the challenges in mobile video delivery as one of the most bandwidth-intensive media that requires smooth streaming and a user-centric strategy to ensure quality of experience. The second section addresses this challenge by introducing some important concepts for future mobile multimedia coding and the network technologies to deliver quality services. The last section combines the user and technology perspectives by demonstrating how user experience can be measured using case studies on urban community interfaces and Internet telephones.

Developing a simulator application to test the billing platform in telecom industry

Billing Mediation Platform (BMP) in telecommunication industry is used to process real-time streams of Call Detail Records (CDRs) which can be a massive number a day. The generated records by BMP can be deployed for billing purposes, fraud detection, spam filtering, traffic analysis, and churn forecast. Several of these applications are distinguished by real-time processing requiring low-latency analysis of CDRs. Testing of such a platform carries diverse aspects like stress testing of analytics for scalability and what-if scenarios which require generating of CDRs with realistic volumetric and appropriate properties. The approach of this project is to build user friendly and flexible application which assists the development department to test their billing solution occasionally. These generators projects have been around for a while the only difference are the potions they cover and the purpose they will be used for. This paper proposes to use a simulator application to test the BMPs with simulating CDRs. The Simulated CDRs are modifiable based on the user requirements and represent real world data.

Dynamic weaving of aspects for business process management systems

Reducing complexity in Information Systems is a main concern in both research and industry. One strategy for reducing complexity is separation of concerns. This strategy advocates separating various concerns, like security and privacy, from the main concern. It results in less complex, easily maintainable, and more reusable Information Systems. Separation of concerns is addressed through the Aspect Oriented paradigm. This paradigm has been well researched and implemented in programming, where languages such as AspectJ have been developed. However, the rsearch on aspect orientation for Business Process Management is still at its beginning. While some efforts have been made proposing Aspect Oriented Business Process Modelling, it has not yet been investigated how to enact such process models in a Workflow Management System. In this paper, we define a set of requirements that specifies the execution of aspect oriented business process models. We create a Coloured Petri Net specification for the semantics of so-called Aspect Service that fulfils these requirements. Such a service extends the capability of a Workflow Management System with support for execution of aspect oriented business process models. The design specification of the Aspect Service is also inspected through state space analysis.

Forward-secure hierarchical predicate encryption

Secrecy of decryption keys is an important pre-requisite for security of any encryption scheme and compromised private keys must be immediately replaced. \emph{Forward Security (FS)}, introduced to Public Key Encryption (PKE) by Canetti, Halevi, and Katz (Eurocrypt 2003), reduces damage from compromised keys by guaranteeing confidentiality of messages that were encrypted prior to the compromise event. The FS property was also shown to be achievable in (Hierarchical) Identity-Based Encryption (HIBE) by Yao, Fazio, Dodis, and Lysyanskaya (ACM CCS 2004). Yet, for emerging encryption techniques, offering flexible access control to encrypted data, by means of functional relationships between ciphertexts and decryption keys, FS protection was not known to exist.\smallskip In this paper we introduce FS to the powerful setting of \emph{Hierarchical Predicate Encryption (HPE)}, proposed by Okamoto and Takashima (Asiacrypt 2009). Anticipated applications of FS-HPE schemes can be found in searchable encryption and in fully private communication. Considering the dependencies amongst the concepts, our FS-HPE scheme implies forward-secure flavors of Predicate Encryption and (Hierarchical) Attribute-Based Encryption.\smallskip Our FS-HPE scheme guarantees forward security for plaintexts and for attributes that are hidden in HPE ciphertexts. It further allows delegation of decrypting abilities at any point in time, independent of FS time evolution. It realizes zero-inner-product predicates and is proven adaptively secure under standard assumptions. As the ``cross-product" approach taken in FS-HIBE is not directly applicable to the HPE setting, our construction resorts to techniques that are specific to existing HPE schemes and extends them with what can be seen as a reminiscent of binary tree encryption from FS-PKE.

AEHRC & QUT at TREC 2011 Medical Track : a concept-based information retrieval approach

The Australian e-Health Research Centre and Queensland University of Technology recently participated in the TREC 2011 Medical Records Track. This paper reports on our methods, results and experience using a concept-based information retrieval approach. Our concept-based approach is intended to overcome specific challenges we identify in searching medical records. Queries and documents are transformed from their term-based originals into medical concepts as de ned by the SNOMED-CT ontology. Results show our concept-based approach performed above the median in all three performance metrics: bref (+12%), R-prec (+18%) and Prec@10 (+6%).

Supply chain management systems benefits : the expectation-confirmation theory perspective

Organizations adopt a Supply Chain Management System (SCMS) expecting benefits to the organization and its functions. However, organizations are facing mounting challenges to realizing benefits through SCMS. Studies suggest a growing dissatisfaction among client organizations due to an increasing gap between expectations and realization of SCMS benefits. Further, reflecting the Enterprise System studies such as Seddon et al. (2010), SCMS benefits are also expected to flow to the organization throughout its lifecycle rather than being realized all at once. This research therefore proposes to derive a lifecycle-wide understanding of SCMS benefits and realization to derive a benefit expectation management framework to attain the full potential of an SCMS. The primary research question of this study is: How can client organizations better manage their benefit expectations of SCM systems? The specific research goals of the current study include: (1) to better understand the misalignment of received and expected benefits of SCM systems; (2) to identify the key factors influencing SCM system expectations and to develop a framework to manage SCMS benefits; (3) to explore how organizational satisfaction is influenced by the lack of SCMS benefit confirmation; and (4) to explore how to improve the realization of SCM system benefits. Expectation-Confirmation Theory (ECT) provides the theoretical underpinning for this study. ECT has been widely used in the consumer behavior literature to study customer satisfaction, post-purchase behavior and service marketing in general. Recently, ECT has been extended into Information Systems (IS) research focusing on individual user satisfaction and IS continuance. However, only a handful of studies have employed ECT to study organizational satisfaction on large-scale IS. The current study will enrich the research stream by extending ECT into organizational-level analysis and verifying the preliminary findings of relevant works by Staples et al. (2002), Nevo and Chan (2007) and Nevo and Wade (2007). Moreover, this study will go further trying to operationalize the constructs of ECT into the context of SCMS. The empirical findings of the study commence with a content analysis, through which 41 vendor reports and academic reports are analyzed yielding sixty expected benefits of SCMS. Then, the expected benefits are compared with the benefits realized at a case organization in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods industry sector that had implemented a SAP Supply Chain Management System seven years earlier. The study develops an SCMS Benefit Expectation Management (SCMS-BEM) Framework. The comparison of benefit expectations and confirmations highlights that, while certain benefits are realized earlier in the lifecycle, other benefits could take almost a decade to realize. Further analysis and discussion on how the developed SCMS-BEM Framework influences ECT when applied in SCMS was also conducted. It is recommended that when establishing their expectations of the SCMS, clients should remember that confirmation of these expectations will have a long lifecycle, as shown in the different time periods in the SCMS-BEM Framework. Moreover, the SCMS-BEM Framework will allow organizations to maintain high levels of satisfaction through careful mitigation and confirming expectations based on the lifecycle phase. In addition, the study reveals that different stakeholder groups have different expectations of the same SCMS. The perspective of multiple stakeholders has significant implications for the application of ECT in the SCMS context. When forming expectations of the SCMS, the collection of organizational benefits of SCMS should represent the perceptions of all stakeholder groups. The same mechanism should be employed in the measurements of received SCMS benefits. Moreover, for SCMS, there exists interdependence of the satisfaction among the various stakeholders. The satisfaction of decision-makers or the authorized staff is not only driven by their own expectation confirmation level, it is also influenced by the confirmation level of other stakeholders‘ expectations in the organization. Satisfaction from any one particular stakeholder group can not reflect the true satisfaction of the client organization. Furthermore, it is inferred from the SCMS-BEM Framework that organizations should place emphasis on the viewpoints of the operational and management staff when evaluating the benefits of SCMS in the short and middle term. At the same time, organizations should be placing more attention on the perspectives of strategic staff when evaluating the performance of the SCMS in the long term.

The future shape of digital cars

Background. Digital information is increasingly becoming available on all aspects of the urban landscape, anywhere and any time. Physical objects (c.f. the Internet of Things) and people (c.f. the Social Web) are increasingly infused with actuators, sensors and tagged with a wealth of digital information. Urban Informatics explores these emerging digital layers of the city. However, very little is known about the challenges and new opportunities that these developments may offer to road users. As we gradually spend more time using our mobile devices as well as our car, the tension between appeasing our craving for connectedness and road safety requirements grow farther apart. Objective. The aims of this paper are to identify (a) new opportunities that Urban Informatics research can offer to our future cars and (b) potential benefits to road safety. Methods. 14 Urban Informatics research experts were grouped into seven teams of two to participate in a guided ideation (idea creation) workshop in a driving simulator. They were immersed into different driving scenarios to brainstorm innovative Urban Informatics applications in different driving contexts. This qualitative study was then evaluated in the context of road safety. Outcomes. There is a lack of articulation between Urban Informatics and Road Safety research. Several Urban Informatics applications (e.g., to enhance social interaction between people in urban environments) may provide benefits, rather than threats, towards road safety, provided they are implemented ergonomically and safely. Conclusions. This research initiates a much-needed dialogue between Urban Informatics and Road Safety disciplines, in the context of Intelligent Transport Systems, before the fast approaching digital wave invades our cars. The dialogue will help to avoid driver distraction issues similar to mobile phones use in cars. As such, it provides valuable information for future regulators and policy makers in charge of shaping our future road transport landscape.

Neural network-based detection of virtual environment anomalies

The increasingly widespread use of large-scale 3D virtual environments has translated into an increasing effort required from designers, developers and testers. While considerable research has been conducted into assisting the design of virtual world content and mechanics, to date, only limited contributions have been made regarding the automatic testing of the underpinning graphics software and hardware. In the work presented in this paper, two novel neural network-based approaches are presented to predict the correct visualization of 3D content. Multilayer perceptrons and self-organizing maps are trained to learn the normal geometric and color appearance of objects from validated frames and then used to detect novel or anomalous renderings in new images. Our approach is general, for the appearance of the object is learned rather than explicitly represented. Experiments were conducted on a game engine to determine the applicability and effectiveness of our algorithms. The results show that the neural network technology can be effectively used to address the problem of automatic and reliable visual testing of 3D virtual environments.

Exploring information experiences through phenomenography

Phenomenography is a qualitative research approach that seeks to explore variation in how people experience various aspects of their world. Phenomenography has been used in numerous information research studies that have explored various phenomena of interest in the library and information sphere. This paper provides an overview of the phenomenographic method and discusses key assumptions that underlie this approach to research. Aspects including data collection, data analysis and the outcomes of phenomenographic research are also detailed. The paper concludes with an illustration of how phenomenography was used in research to investigate students’ experiences of web-based information searching. The results of this research demonstrate how phenomenography can reveal variation, making it possible to develop greater understanding of the phenomenon as it was experienced, and to draw upon these experiences to improve and enhance current practice.

On governing collaborative Information Technology (IT) : a relational perspective

Organizations today invest in collaborative IT to engage in collaborative alliances to sustain or improve their competitive positions. Effective use of this collaborative IT in an alliance requires a deeper understanding of their governance structures. This effort is to ensure the sustainability of these alliances. Through the relational view of the firm, we suggest relational lateral IT-steering committees, relational IT operational committees, and relational IT performance management systems as IT governance structures for collaborative alliances. We then incorporate these structures, develop a model for approaches to governing collaborative IT, and evaluate the effectiveness for such governance structures in the IT-dependent alliances. We suggest that IT governance efforts of an alliance should contribute to their collaborative rent. We also suggest that the collaborative rent of an alliance would relate to the business value of its alliance partners. Field survey data containing 192 responses indicates a positive influence of the suggested IT governance efforts of the alliance on the collaborative rent of the alliance. The results also suggest a positive impact of the collaborative rent of the alliance on the business value of the alliance partners.

Workflow resource pattern modelling and visualization

Workflow patterns have been recognized as the theoretical basis to modeling recurring problems in workflow systems. A form of workflow patterns, known as the resource patterns, characterise the behaviour of resources in workflow systems. Despite the fact that many resource patterns have been discovered, people still preclude them from many workflow system implementations. One of reasons could be obscurityin the behaviour of and interaction between resources and a workflow management system. Thus, we provide a modelling and visualization approach for the resource patterns, enabling a resource behaviour modeller to intuitively see the specific resource patterns involved in the lifecycle of a workitem. We believe this research can be extended to benefit not only workflow modelling, but also other applications, such as model validation, human resource behaviour modelling, and workflow model visualization.