Performance analysis of business process models with advanced constructs

The importance of actively managing and analysing business processes is acknowledged more than ever in organisations nowadays. Business processes form an essential part of an organisation and their application areas are manifold. Most organisations keep records of various activities that have been carried out for auditing purposes, but they are rarely used for analysis purposes. This paper describes the design and implementation of a process analysis tool that replays, analyses and visualises a variety of performance metrics using a process definition and its corresponding execution logs. The replayer uses a YAWL process model example to demonstrate its capacity to support advanced language constructs.

High performance additive manufactured scaffolds for bone tissue engineering application

This study demonstrates the feasibility of additive manufactured poly(3-caprolactone)/silanized tricalcium phosphate (PCL/TCP(Si)) scaffolds coated with carbonated hydroxyapatite (CHA)-gelatin composite for bone tissue engineering. In order to reinforce PCL/TCP scaffolds to match the mechanical properties of cancellous bone, TCP has been modified with 3-glycidoxypropyl trimethoxysilane (GPTMS) and incorporated into PCL to synthesize a PCL/TCP(Si) composite. The successful modification is confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. Additive manufactured PCL/TCP(Si) scaffolds have been fabricated using a screw extrusion system (SES). Compression testing demonstrates that both the compressive modulus and compressive yield strength of the developed PCL/TCP(Si) scaffolds fall within the lower ranges of mechanical properties for cancellous bone, with a compressive modulus and compressive yield strength of 6.0 times and 2.3 times of those of PCL/TCP scaffolds, respectively. To enhance the osteoconductive property of the developed PCL/TCP(Si) scaffolds, a CHA-gelatin composite has been coated onto the scaffolds via a biomimetic co-precipitation process, which is verified by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and XPS. Confocal laser microscopy and SEM images reveal a most uniform distribution of porcine bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) and cellsheet accumulation on the CHA-gelatin composite coated PCL/TCP(Si) scaffolds. The proliferation rate of BMSCs on the CHA-gelatin composite coated PCL/TCP(Si) scaffolds is 2.0 and 1.4 times higher compared to PCL/TCP(Si) and CHA coated PCL/TCP(Si) scaffolds, respectively, by day 10. Furthermore, the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and western blot analyses reveal that CHA-gelatin composite coated PCL/TCP(Si) scaffolds stimulate osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs the most compared to the other scaffolds. In vitro results of SEM, confocal microscopy and proliferation rate also show that there is no detrimental effect of GPTMS modification on biocompatibility of the scaffolds.

Quantifying variability within technique and performance in elite fast bowlers : is technical variability dysfunctional or functional?

In fast bowling, cricketers are expected to produce a range of delivery lines and lengths while maximising ball speed. From a coaching perspective, technique consistency has been typically associated with superior performance in these areas. However, although bowlers are required to bowl consistently, at the elite level they must also be able to vary line, length and speed to adapt to opposition batters’ strengths and weaknesses. The relationship between technique and performance variability (and consistency) has not been investigated in previous fast bowling research. Consequently, the aim of this study was to quantify both technique (bowling action and coordination) and performance variability in elite fast bowlers from Australian Junior and National Pace Squads. Technique variability was analysed to investigate whether it could be classified as functional or dysfunctional in relation to speed and accuracy.

Development sites in the empty city : from picture book to performance

Picturebooks invite performance every time they are read. What happens to them when they’re adapted for live performance? This ongoing practice led research project (2008-) regenerates and transforms picturebook The Empty City (Hachette/Livre 2007) by David Megarrity and Jonathon Oxlade into a live experience. In this rebuilding, interanimation of text and illustration on the picturebook page suddenly open up into a new and complex structure incorporating composition of music, animation, live action, projected image and performing objects. The presenter is the creator of both the source text and writer/composer of the adaptation, providing a unique vantage point that draws on sources from both within and without the creative process up to and including audience reception. From the foundations up, this paper’s focus is on deep, muddy sites of development in the adaptation process, unearthed treasures, and how perceptions of fear and safety push, sway and stress the building of a new performance work for children in content, form and process.

Maximising the manufacturer performance value through lean initiatives using cost based model

Numerous tools and techniques have been developed to eliminate or reduce waste and carry out lean concepts in the manufacturing environment. However, appropriate lean tools need to be selected and implemented in order to fulfil the manufacturer needs within their budgetary constraints. As a result, it is important to identify manufacturer needs and implement only those tools, which contribute maximum benefit to their needs. In this research a mathematical model is proposed for maximising the perceived value of manufacturer needs and developed a step-by-step methodology to select best performance metrics along with appropriate lean strategies within the budgetary constraints. With the help of a case study, the proposed model and method have been demonstrated.

The Scottish media and politics

This chapter will explore the performance of the Scottish media in post-devolution political life, before turning its attention to the specific coverage of the 2007 election.

Post-disaster housing reconstruction : challenges for effective community participation

The extant literature suggests that community participation is an important ingredient for the successful delivery of post-disaster housing reconstruction projects. Even though policy-makers, international funding bodies and non-governmental organisations broadly appreciate the value of community participation, post-disaster reconstruction practices systematically fail to follow, or align with, existing policy statements. Research into past experiences has led many authors to argue that post-disaster reconstruction is the least successful physically visible arena of international cooperation. Why is the principle of community participation not evident in the veracity of reconstructions already carried out on the ground? This paper discusses and develops the concepts of, and challenges to, community participation and the subsequent negative and positive effects on post-disaster reconstruction projects outcomes.

The coming of post-reflexive society : a critique of the political economy of digital capitalism

Language is a unique aspect of human communication because it can be used to discuss itself in its own terms. For this reason, human societies potentially have superior capacities of co-ordination, reflexive self-correction, and innovation than other animal, physical or cybernetic systems. However, this analysis also reveals that language is interconnected with the economically and technologically mediated social sphere and hence is vulnerable to abstraction, objectification, reification, and therefore ideology – all of which are antithetical to its reflexive function, whilst paradoxically being a fundamental part of it. In particular, in capitalism, language is increasingly commodified within the social domains created and affected by ubiquitous communication technologies. The advent of the so-called ‘knowledge economy’ implicates exchangeable forms of thought (language) as the fundamental commodities of this emerging system. The historical point at which a ‘knowledge economy’ emerges, then, is the critical point at which thought itself becomes a commodified ‘thing’, and language becomes its “objective” means of exchange. However, the processes by which such commodification and objectification occurs obscures the unique social relations within which these language commodities are produced. The latest economic phase of capitalism – the knowledge economy – and the obfuscating trajectory which accompanies it, we argue, is destroying the reflexive capacity of language particularly through the process of commodification. This can be seen in that the language practices that have emerged in conjunction with digital technologies are increasingly non-reflexive and therefore less capable of self-critical, conscious change.

The determinants of corporate sustainability performance

This paper investigates the factors that drive high levels of corporate sustainability performance (CSP), as proxied by membership of the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index. Using a stakeholder framework, we examine the incentives for US firms to invest in sustainability principles and develop a number of hypotheses that relate CSP to firm-specific characteristics. Our results indicate that leading CSP firms are significantly larger, have higher levels of growth and a higher return on equity than conventional firms. Contrary to our predictions, leading CSP firms do not have greater free cash flows or lower leverage than other firms.