Integrated configuration of enterprise systems for interoperability : towards process model and business document specification alignment

Enterprise Systems (ES) can be understood as the de facto standard for holistic operational and managerial support within an organization. Most commonly ES are offered as commercial off-the-shelf packages, requiring customization in the user organization. This process is a complex and resource-intensive task, which often prevents small and midsize enterprises (SME) from undertaking configuration projects. Especially in the SME market independent software vendors provide pre-configured ES for a small customer base. The problem of ES configuration is shifted from the customer to the vendor, but remains critical. We argue that the yet unexplored link between process configuration and business document configuration must be closer examined as both types of configuration are closely tied to one another.

Nuclear instruments and methods in physics research section B : beam interactions with materials and atoms

The impact-induced deposition of Al13 clusters with icosahedral structure on Ni(0 0 1) surface was studied by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation using Finnis–Sinclair potentials. The incident kinetic energy (Ein) ranged from 0.01 to 30 eV per atom. The structural and dynamical properties of Al clusters on Ni surfaces were found to be strongly dependent on the impact energy. At much lower energy, the Al cluster deposited on the surface as a bulk molecule. However, the original icosahedral structure was transformed to the fcc-like one due to the interaction and the structure mismatch between the Al cluster and Ni surface. With increasing the impinging energy, the cluster was deformed severely when it contacted the substrate, and then broken up due to dense collision cascade. The cluster atoms spread on the surface at last. When the impact energy was higher than 11 eV, the defects, such as Al substitutions and Ni ejections, were observed. The simulation indicated that there exists an optimum energy range, which is suitable for Al epitaxial growth in layer by layer. In addition, at higher impinging energy, the atomic exchange between Al and Ni atoms will be favourable to surface alloying.

Pixel value to electron density conversion for a Megavoltage Cone Beam CT System

Introduction: The motivation for developing megavoltage (and kilovoltage) cone beam CT (MV CBCT) capabilities in the radiotherapy treatment room was primarily based on the need to improve patient set-up accuracy. There has recently been an interest in using the cone beam CT data for treatment planning. Accurate treatment planning, however, requires knowledge of the electron density of the tissues receiving radiation in order to calculate dose distributions. This is obtained from CT, utilising a conversion between CT number and electron density of various tissues. The use of MV CBCT has particular advantages compared to treatment planning with kilovoltage CT in the presence of high atomic number materials and requires the conversion of pixel values from the image sets to electron density. Therefore, a study was undertaken to characterise the pixel value to electron density relationship for the Siemens MV CBCT system, MVision, and determine the effect, if any, of differing the number of monitor units used for acquisition. If a significant difference with number of monitor units was seen then pixel value to ED conversions may be required for each of the clinical settings. The calibration of the MV CT images for electron density offers the possibility for a daily recalculation of the dose distribution and the introduction of new adaptive radiotherapy treatment strategies. Methods: A Gammex Electron Density CT Phantom was imaged with the MVCB CT system. The pixel value for each of the sixteen inserts, which ranged from 0.292 to 1.707 relative electron density to the background solid water, was determined by taking the mean value from within a region of interest centred on the insert, over 5 slices within the centre of the phantom. These results were averaged and plotted against the relative electron densities of each insert with a linear least squares fit was preformed. This procedure was performed for images acquired with 5, 8, 15 and 60 monitor units. Results: The linear relationship between MVCT pixel value and ED was demonstrated for all monitor unit settings and over a range of electron densities. The number of monitor units utilised was found to have no significant impact on this relationship. Discussion: It was found that the number of MU utilised does not significantly alter the pixel value obtained for different ED materials. However, to ensure the most accurate and reproducible MV to ED calibration, one MU setting should be chosen and used routinely. To ensure accuracy for the clinical situation this MU setting should correspond to that which is used clinically. If more than one MU setting is used clinically then an average of the CT values acquired with different numbers of MU could be utilized without loss in accuracy. Conclusions: No significant differences have been shown between the pixel value to ED conversion for the Siemens MV CT cone beam unit with change in monitor units. Thus as single conversion curve could be utilised for MV CT treatment planning. To fully utilise MV CT imaging for radiotherapy treatment planning further work will be undertaken to ensure all corrections have been made and dose calculations verified. These dose calculations may be either for treatment planning purposes or for reconstructing the delivered dose distribution from transit dosimetry measurements made using electronic portal imaging devices. This will potentially allow the cumulative dose distribution to be determined through the patient’s multi-fraction treatment and adaptive treatment strategies developed to optimize the tumour response.

Segmentation of cone-beam CT using a hidden Markov random field with informative priors

Purpose: Flat-detector, cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) has enormous potential to improve the accuracy of treatment delivery in image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT). To assist radiotherapists in interpreting these images, we use a Bayesian statistical model to label each voxel according to its tissue type. Methods: The rich sources of prior information in IGRT are incorporated into a hidden Markov random field (MRF) model of the 3D image lattice. Tissue densities in the reference CT scan are estimated using inverse regression and then rescaled to approximate the corresponding CBCT intensity values. The treatment planning contours are combined with published studies of physiological variability to produce a spatial prior distribution for changes in the size, shape and position of the tumour volume and organs at risk (OAR). The voxel labels are estimated using the iterated conditional modes (ICM) algorithm. Results: The accuracy of the method has been evaluated using 27 CBCT scans of an electron density phantom (CIRS, Inc. model 062). The mean voxel-wise misclassification rate was 6.2%, with Dice similarity coefficient of 0.73 for liver, muscle, breast and adipose tissue. Conclusions: By incorporating prior information, we are able to successfully segment CBCT images. This could be a viable approach for automated, online image analysis in radiotherapy.

Segmentation of cone-beam CT using a hidden Markov random field with informative priors

Cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) has enormous potential to improve the accuracy of treatment delivery in image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT). To assist radiotherapists in interpreting these images, we use a Bayesian statistical model to label each voxel according to its tissue type. The rich sources of prior information in IGRT are incorporated into a hidden Markov random field model of the 3D image lattice. Tissue densities in the reference CT scan are estimated using inverse regression and then rescaled to approximate the corresponding CBCT intensity values. The treatment planning contours are combined with published studies of physiological variability to produce a spatial prior distribution for changes in the size, shape and position of the tumour volume and organs at risk. The voxel labels are estimated using iterated conditional modes. The accuracy of the method has been evaluated using 27 CBCT scans of an electron density phantom. The mean voxel-wise misclassification rate was 6.2\%, with Dice similarity coefficient of 0.73 for liver, muscle, breast and adipose tissue. By incorporating prior information, we are able to successfully segment CBCT images. This could be a viable approach for automated, online image analysis in radiotherapy.

Auto-inhibition of hydrogen gas evolution on gold in aqueous acid solution

It was demonstrated recently that dramatic changes in the redox behaviour of gold/aqueous solution interfaces may be observed following either cathodic or thermal electrode pretreatment. Further work on the cathodic pretreatment of gold in acid solution revealed that as the activity of the gold surface was increased, its performance as a substrate for hydrogen gas evolution under constant potential conditions deteriorated. The change in activity of the gold atoms at the interface, which was attributed to a hydrogen embrittlement process (the occurrence of the latter was subsequently checked by surface microscopy), was confirmed, as in earlier work, by the appearance of a substantial anodic peak at ca. 0.5 V (RHE) in a post-activation positive sweep. Changes in the catalytic activity of a metal surface reflect the fact that the structure (or topography), thermodynamic activity and electronic properties of a surface are dependent not only on pretreatment but also, in the case of the hydrogen evolution reaction, vary with time during the course of reaction. As will be reported shortly, similar (and often more dramatic) time-dependent behaviour was observed for hydrogen gas evolution on other metal electrodes.

Nonrigid face alignment for unknown subject in video

Non-rigid face alignment is a very important task in a large range of applications but the existing tracking based non-rigid face alignment methods are either inaccurate or requiring person-specific model. This dissertation has developed simultaneous alignment algorithms that overcome these constraints and provide alignment with high accuracy, efficiency, robustness to varying image condition, and requirement of only generic model.

A critical analysis of business process management education and alignment with industry demand : an Australian perspective

Business Process Management (BPM) is accepted globally as an organizational approach to enhance productivity and drive cost efficiencies. Studies confirm a shortage of BPM skilled professionals with limited opportunities to develop the required BPM expertise. This study investigates this gap starting from a critical analysis of BPM courses offered by Australian universities and training institutions. These courses were analyzed and mapped against a leading BPM capability framework to determine how well current BPM education and training offerings in Australia address the core capabilities required by BPM professionals globally. To determine the BPM skill-sets sought by industry, online recruitment advertisements were collated, analyzed, and mapped against this BPM capability framework. The outcomes provide a detailed overview on the alignment of available BPM education/training and industry demand. These insights are useful for BPM professionals and their employers to build awareness of the BPM capabilities required for a BPM mature organization. Universities and other training institutions will benefit from these results by understanding where demand is, where the gaps are, and what other BPM education providers are supplying. This structured comparison method could continue to provide a common ground for future discussion across university-industry boundaries and continuous alignment of their respective practices.

Orchids, intersex and the auto/biographical project

Auto/biographical documentaries ask audiences to take a ‘leap of faith’, not being able to offer any real ‘proof’ of the people and events they claim to document, other than that of the film-maker’s saying this is what happened. With only memory and history seen through the distorting lens of time, ‘the authenticity of experience functions as a receding horizon of truth in which memory and testimony are articulated as modes of salvage’. Orchids: My Intersex Adventure follows a salvaging of the film-maker’s life events and experiences, being born with an intersex condition, and, via the filming and editing process, revolving around the core question: who am I? From this transformative creative documentary practice evolves a new way of embodying experience and ‘seeing’, playfully dubbed here as the ‘intersex gaze’.

(Im)moral bodies : intersex and auto/biographical documentary

In this paper I question the representation of and ethical responsibilities to young people with intersex (hermaphroditic) conditions in documentary film, and explore the creative practice challenges working with bodies with intersex, embedded in the production of a feature auto/biographical documentary entitled Orchids. Bodies with intersex conditions are often presented as abject, in need of ‘fixing’ during infancy and early childhood, undesirable, and incapable of desire. Seen through the lens of experience and memory, Orchids takes a personal coming-of-age narrative and reconfigures understandings of the (im)moral body in the light of its transformative potential. Just as practice research challenges the dominant hegemony of quantitative and qualitative research, my creative work positions itself as a nuanced performative piece, and through its distinctive distillation and celebration of a new form of discursive rupturing discovers the intersex voice.

Evaluation of MegaVoltage Cone Beam CT image quality with an unmodified Elekta Precise Linac and EPID : a feasibility study

In order to increase the accuracy of patient positioning for complex radiotherapy treatments various 3D imaging techniques have been developed. MegaVoltage Cone Beam CT (MVCBCT) can utilise existing hardware to implement a 3D imaging modality to aid patient positioning. MVCBCT has been investigated using an unmodified Elekta Precise linac and 15 iView amorphous silicon electronic portal imaging device (EPID). Two methods of delivery and acquisition have been investigated for imaging an anthropomorphic head phantom and quality assurance phantom. Phantom projections were successfully acquired and CT datasets reconstructed using both acquisition methods. Bone, tissue and air were 20 clearly resolvable in both phantoms even with low dose (22 MU) scans. The feasibility of MegaVoltage Cone beam CT was investigated using a standard linac, amorphous silicon EPID and a combination of a free open source reconstruction toolkit as well as custom in-house software written in Matlab. The resultant image quality has 25 been assessed and presented. Although bone, tissue and air were resolvable 2 in all scans, artifacts are present and scan doses are increased when compared with standard portal imaging. The feasibility of MVCBCT with unmodified Elekta Precise linac and EPID has been considered as well as the identification of possible areas for future development in artifact correction techniques to 30 further improve image quality.

Unsupervised temporal ensemble alignment for rapid annotation

This paper presents a novel framework for the unsupervised alignment of an ensemble of temporal sequences. This approach draws inspiration from the axiom that an ensemble of temporal signals stemming from the same source/class should have lower rank when "aligned" rather than "misaligned". Our approach shares similarities with recent state of the art methods for unsupervised images ensemble alignment (e.g. RASL) which breaks the problem into a set of image alignment problems (which have well known solutions i.e. the Lucas-Kanade algorithm). Similarly, we propose a strategy for decomposing the problem of temporal ensemble alignment into a similar set of independent sequence problems which we claim can be solved reliably through Dynamic Time Warping (DTW). We demonstrate the utility of our method using the Cohn-Kanade+ dataset, to align expression onset across multiple sequences, which allows us to automate the rapid discovery of event annotations.

Agility in consumer retail: sense-response alignment through the eyes of customers

In hyper competition, firms that are agile: sensing and responding better to customer requirements tend to be more successful and achieve supernormal profits. In spite of the widely accepted importance of customer agility, research is limited on this construct. The limited research also has predominantly focussed on the firm’s perspective of agility. However, we propose that the customers are better positioned to determine how well a firm is responding to their requirements (aka a firm’s customer agility). Taking the customers’ stand point, we address the issue of sense and respond alignment in two perspectives-matching and mediating. Based on data collected from customers in a field study, we tested hypothesis pertaining to the two methods of alignment using polynomial regression and response surface methodology. The results provide a good explanation for the role of both forms of alignment on customer satisfaction. Implication for research and practice are discussed.

Using narrow beam profiles to quantify focal spot size, for accurate Monte Carlo simulations of SRS/SRT systems

This study investigates the variation of photon field penumbra shape with initial electron beam diameter, for very narrow beams. A Varian Millenium MLC (Varian Medical Systems, Palo Alto, USA) and a Brainlab m3 microMLC (Brainlab AB. Feldkirchen, Germany) were used, with one Varian iX linear accelerator, to produce fields that were (nominally) 0.20 cm across. Dose profiles for these fields were measured using radiochromic film and compared with the results of simulations completed using BEAMnrc and DOSXYZnrc, where the initial electron beam was set to FWHM = 0.02, 0.10, 0.12, 0.15, 0.20 and 0.50 cm. Increasing the electron-beam FWHM produced increasing occlusion of the photon source by the closely spaced collimator leaves and resulted in blurring of the simulated profile widths from 0.26 to 0.64 cm, for the MLC, from 0.12 to 0.43 cm, for the microMLC. Comparison with measurement data suggested that the electron spot size in the clinical linear accelerator was between FWHM = 0.10 and 0.15 cm, encompassing the result of our previous output-factor based work, which identified a FWHM of 0.12. Investigation of narrow-beam penumbra variation has been found to be a useful procedure, with results varying noticeably with linear accelerator spot size and allowing FWHM estimates obtained using other methods to be verified.