An operational approach to the design of workflow systems

We construct models as an aid to our thought process. A particular class of models, operational models, can be used for simulation and prototyping. The OPJ modeling language is suitable for building operational models of complex software systems.The notion of operational parameterized building block is the key point of the approach, which focuses on two major phases: domain modeling and system modeling. Domain modeling consists in providing the classes of the building blocks grouped into different schemata. System modeling consists in building an actual model using the building blocks taken from the above-mentioned schemata; such building blocks are connected to each other according to the rules expressed in the schemata and are given actual parameters.As an example, a workflow management system supporting business process managing travel authorizations is presented. The workflow system is modeled and then used to synthesize a distributed prototype.     

不确定模式匹配研究综述

模式匹配是数据集成、语义Web等研究领域的重要研究内容,需要依据一定的启发式信息发现模式元素之间的对应关系。鉴于启发式信息处理方法的不同,对模式匹配方法进行了分类,并从模式匹配结果集结方法的角度,介绍了综合模式匹配方法。不确定性是模式匹配过程固有的特性,介绍了建模模式匹配过程中不确定性的数据模型,在此基础上介绍了处理模式匹配过程中不确定性的模式匹配方法。最后对模式匹配研究进行了展望。     

The role of polymorphic reuse mechanisms in schema evolution in anobject-oriented database

A seamless approach to the incremental design and reuse of object oriented methods and query specifications is presented. We argue for avoiding or minimizing the effort required for manually reprogramming methods and queries due to schema modifications, and demonstrate how the role of polymorphic reuse mechanisms is exploited for enhancing the adaptiveness of database programs against schema evolution in an object oriented database. The salient features of our approach are the use of propagation patterns and a mechanism for propagation pattern refinement. Propagation patterns are employed as an interesting specification formalism for modeling operational requirements. They encourage the reuse of operational specifications against the structural modification of an object oriented schema. Propagation pattern refinement is suited for the specification of reusable operational modules. It promotes the reusability of propagation patterns toward the operational requirement changes. This approach has a formal basis and emphasizes structural derivation of specifications. The main innovations are in raising the level of abstraction for behavioral schema design, and for making possible the derivation of operational semantics from structural specifications. As a result, both the modularity and reusability of object oriented schemas are increased     

Towards a Formal Semantics for UML/MARTE State Machines Based on Hierarchical Timed Automata

UML is a widely-used,general purpose modeling language.But its lack of a rigorous semantics forbids the thorough analysis of designed solution,and thus precludes the discovery of significant problems at design time.To bridge the gap,the paper investigates the underlying semantics of UML state machine diagrams,along with the time-related modeling elements of MARTE,the profile for modeling and analysis of real-time embedded systems,and proposes a formal operational semantics based on extended hierarchical timed automata.The approach is exemplified on a simple example taken from the automotive domain.Verification is accomplished by translating designed models into the input language of the UPPAAL model checker.     

卫星系统作战效能评估辅助DSS研究

卫星系统作战效能评估是开发、使用和优化卫星系统的基础。从系统的角度探讨了卫星系统效能评估的方法论，建立并讨论了包括效能度量维、系统建模维和效能评估方法维的系统效能评估三维结构,在此基础上，提出了卫星系统作战效能评估辅助DSS的概念和结构，构建了卫星系统作战效能评估辅助DSS的模型体系，为科学、有效地进行卫星系统作战效能评估提出了新的途径，最后指出了深化效能评估的几个关键问题。     

From conceptual models to schemata: An object-process-based data warehouse construction method

Data warehouse modeling is a complex task, which involves knowledge of business processes of the domain of discourse, understanding the structural and behavioral system's conceptual model, and familiarity with data warehouse technologies. The suitability of current data warehouse modeling methods for large-scale systems is questionable, as they require multiple manual actions to discover measures and relevant dimensional entities and they tend to disregard the system's dynamic aspects. We present an Object-process-based Data Warehouse Construction (ODWC) method that overcomes these limitations of existing methods by utilizing the operational system conceptual model to construct a corresponding data warehouse schema. We specify the ODWC method, apply it on a case study, evaluate it, and compare it to existing methods.     

Dynamic Meta Modeling with time: Specifying the semantics of multimedia sequence diagrams

The Unified Modeling Langugage (UML) offers different diagram types to model the behavior of software systems. In some domains like embedded real-time systems or multimedia systems, it is necessary to include specifications of time in behavioral models since the correctness of these applications depends on the fulfillment of temporal requirements in addition to functional requirements. UML thus already incorporates language features to model time and temporal constraints. Such model elements must have an equivalent in the semantic domain.We have proposed Dynamic Meta Modeling (DMM), an approach based on graph transformation, as a means for specifying operational semantics of dynamic UML diagrams. In this article, we extend this approach to also account for time by extending the semantic domain to timed graph transformation. This enables us to define the operational semantics of UML diagrams with time specifications. As an example, we provide semantics for special sequence diagrams from the domain of multimedia application modeling.     

Model integration using SML

Structured modeling language (SML) is a modeling language for the structured modeling framework, which represents the semantics as well as mathematical structure of a model. This paper extends some structured modeling concepts and defines SML schema operations for formalizing model integration. Executing any of the operations could possibly disrupt the integrity of an SML model schema. Some major propositions and several examples in the paper settle practically many of the open questions for the operations studied. This research not only contributes an operational approach to perform model integration in SML, but also allows us to understand how different kinds of schema edits can disrupt the formal correctness of SML, and what can be done about it. It helps lay the foundation for the future development of an incremental static semantic analyzer and smart schema-directed editor.     

Structure and spatial consistency of network-based space layouts for building and product design

Network-based space layouts are schematic models of whole spaces, subspaces, and related physical elements. They address diverse space modeling needs in building and product design. A schema (data model) for network-based space layouts is defined that is influenced by existing space schemas. Layout elements and selected spatial relations form a geometric network. The network is embedded in 3-space and facilitates analysis with graph and network algorithms. Spatial constraints on layout elements and spatial relations extend the schema to support spatial consistency checking. Spatially consistent layouts are required for reliable network analysis and desirable for layout modification operations. An operation is introduced that evaluates spatial constraints to detect and semi- or fully-automatically resolve spatial inconsistencies in a layout. A layout modeling system prototype that includes proof-of-concept implementations of the layout schema extended by spatial constraints and the inconsistency resolution operation is described. Layouts of a floor of an office building and a rack server cabinet have been modeled with the system prototype.     

Model-driven multidimensional modeling of secure data warehouses

Data Warehouses (DW), Multidimensional (MD) databases, and On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) applications provide companies with many years of historical information for the decision-making process. Owing to the relevant information managed by these systems, they should provide strong security and confidentiality measures from the early stages of a DW project in the MD modeling and enforce them. In the last years, there have been some proposals to accomplish the MD modeling at the conceptual level. Nevertheless, none of them considers security measures as an important element in their models, and therefore, they do not allow us to specify confidentiality constraints to be enforced by the applications that will use these MD models. In this paper, we present an Access Control and Audit (ACA) model for the conceptual MD modeling. Then, we extend the Unified Modeling Language (UML) with this ACA model, representing the security information (gathered in the ACA model) in the conceptual MD modeling, thereby allowing us to obtain secure MD models. Moreover, we use the OSCL (Object Security Constraint Language) to specify our ACA model constraints, avoiding in this way an arbitrary use of them. Furthermore, we align our approach with the Model-Driven Architecture, the Model-Driven Security and the Model-Driven Data Warehouse, offering a proposal highly compatible with the more recent technologies.     

Dynamic Meta Modeling with Time: Specifying the Semantics of Multimedia Sequence Diagrams

UML offers different diagram types to model behavior and dynamics of software systems. In some domains like embedded real-time systems or multimedia systems, it is necessary to include specifications of time since the correctness of these applications depends on the fulfillment of temporal requirements in addition to functional requirements. UML thus already incorporates language features to model time and temporal constraints. Such model elements must have an equivalent in the semantic domain. We have proposed Dynamic Meta Modeling (DMM) as a means for the specification of the formal operational semantics of UML models by applying graph transformation to the meta modeling of dynamic behavior. Within this paper, we extend this approach to also account for time by building on timed graph transformations. We apply these concepts to the domain of multimedia application modeling in which we adopt UML sequence diagrams. The DMM rules with time then specify an interpreter that can be used to analyze or test a model of multimedia sequence diagrams.     

时态多维模型设计

传统的数据仓库基于维度时不变的观点,只考虑事实随时间的变化.实际上,数据仓库的多维模式是随时间缓慢变化的.数据仓库多维模式的变化会影响OLAP查询结果的正确性,有必要对多维模式的历史变化进行维护.在分析多维模型结构的基础上,对多维模式的元素进行时态扩展,给出了一种能解决复杂多维结构的时态多维模型的形式定义,并对时态模型更新操作的实现进行了分析,最后对时态模型各元素应满足的时间一致性约束进行了分析.     

Adding semantic modules to improve goal-oriented analysis of data warehouses using I-star

The success rate of data warehouse (DW) development is improved by performing a requirements elicitation stage in which the users’ needs are modeled. Currently, among the different proposals for modeling requirements, there is a special focus on goal-oriented models, and in particular on the i* framework. In order to adapt this framework for DW development, we previously developed a UML profile for DWs. However, as the general i* framework, the proposal lacks modularity. This has a specially negative impact for DW development, since DW requirement models tend to include a huge number of elements with crossed relationships between them. In turn, the readability of the models is decreased, harming their utility and increasing the error rate and development time. In this paper, we propose an extension of our i* profile for DWs considering the modularization of goals. We provide a set of guidelines in order to correctly apply our proposal. Furthermore, we have performed an experiment in order to assess the validity our proposal. The benefits of our proposal are an increase in the modularity and scalability of the models which, in turn, increases the error correction capability, and makes complex models easier to understand by DW developers and non expert users.     

An accurate worst case timing analysis for RISC processors

An accurate and safe estimation of a task's worst case execution time (WCET) is crucial for reasoning about the timing properties of real time systems. In RISC processors, the execution time of a program construct (e.g., a statement) is affected by various factors such as cache hits/misses and pipeline hazards, and these factors impose serious problems in analyzing the WCETs of tasks. To analyze the timing effects of RISC's pipelined execution and cache memory, we propose extensions to the original timing schema where the timing information associated with each program construct is a simple time bound. In our approach, associated with each program construct is worst case timing abstraction, (WCTA), which contains detailed timing information of every execution path that might be the worst case execution path of the program construct. This extension leads to a revised timing schema that is similar to the original timing schema except that concatenation and pruning operations on WCTAs are newly defined to replace the add and max operations on time bounds in the original timing schema. Our revised timing schema accurately accounts for the timing effects of pipelined execution and cache memory not only within but also across program constructs. The paper also reports on preliminary results of WCET analysis for a RISC processor. Our results show that tight WCET bounds (within a maximum of about 30% overestimation) can be obtained by using the revised timing schema approach     

The automatic creation of OLAP cube using an MDA approach

The Model‐Driven Architecture (MDA) is an approach that aligns modeling and automation for software development. By applying such an approach to data warehouse (DW) projects, we can minimize a great deal of time and cost. Furthermore, most of OnLine Analytical Processing (OLAP) platforms seem to be like black boxes that provide wizards only to business intelligence developers to create and manipulate OLAP objects without allowing their sustainability and migration from a platform to another. That is why many works in the literature have proposed using the MDA approach in DW projects. However, most of them have mainly focused on the generation of the DW relational model from the conceptual one, and they overlooked the OLAP model and the cube implementation. To deal with this problem, we propose in this paper an MDA solution to automate the process of getting OLAP cube and its implementation through a set of metamodels and automatic transformations among them. In fact, the proposal generates the OLAP and DW relational models (PSMs) from the conceptual one, using also a PDM model that describes the target business intelligence platform. After that, the source code to create the cube is got from both PSM models. For this aim, we define a set of transformation rules implemented using the Atlas transformation language. Finally, a case study will be provided to validate our approach.     

Schema Evolution in Data Warehouses

In this paper, we address the issues related to the evolution and maintenance of data warehousing systems, when underlying data sources change their schema capabilities. These changes can invalidate views at the data warehousing system. We present an approach for dynamically adapting views according to schema changes arising on source relations. This type of maintenance concerns both the schema and the data of the data warehouse. The main issue is to avoid the view recomputation from scratch especially when views are defined from multiple sources. The data of the data warehouse is used primarily in organizational decision-making and may be strategic. Therefore, the schema of the data warehouse can evolve for modeling new requirements resulting from analysis or data-mining processing. Our approach provides means to support schema evolution of the data warehouse independently of the data sources. Received 20 March 2000 / Revised 5 January 2001 / Accepted in revised form 20 April 2001     

Information schema constructs for defining warehouse databases of genotypes and phenotypes of system manifestation features

Our long-term objective is to develop a software toolbox for pre-embodiment design of complex and heterogeneous systems, such as cyber-physical systems. The novelty of this toolbox is that it uses system manifestation features (SMFs) for transdisciplinary modeling of these systems. The main challenges of implementation of the toolbox are functional design- and language-independent computational realization of the warehouses, and systematic development and management of the various evolving implements of SMFs (genotypes, phenotypes, and instances). Therefore, an information schema construct (ISC) based approach is proposed to create the schemata of the associated warehouse databases and the above-mentioned SMF implements. ISCs logically arrange the data contents of SMFs in a set of relational tables of varying semantics. In this article we present the ISCs necessary for creation of genotypes and phenotypes. They increase the efficiency of the database development process and make the data relationships transparent. Our follow-up research focuses on the elaboration of the SMF instances based system modeling methodology.     

Specifying redundancy tactics as crosscutting concerns using aspect-oriented modeling

Various redundancy tactics can be modeled at the design stage of safety-critical systems thereby providing a set of fault-tolerance guidelines for subsequent development activities. However, existing approaches usually interweave redundancy tactics into the functional models making them complex and cluttered; the maintenance of such models is time-consuming and error-prone. To address this problem, we provide a modeling approach to separate the redundancy tactics from the base functional models using aspect-oriented modeling. More specifically, the conceptual models of the redundancy tactics and their semantic constraints are first defined for deriving the relevant aspects. Subsequently, a UML profile is proposed to specify the tactic aspects followed by mapping these concepts to the corresponding concepts of aspect-oriented modeling based on pre-defined principles. In accordance with our proposed profile, reuse directives are applied to handle the overlap of structural features between redundancy tactics and other kinds of tactic. Based on our tactic aspects and their configured attributes, a weaving algorithm is proposed to associate the tactic aspects with the base functional models. The proposed approach is compared with a traditional tactic modeling approach using two safety-critical systems, revealing that: 1) our approach significantly reduces the number of extra model elements needed in the tactic design stage; 2) our approach can largely avoid the impact of changing of the base functional model as the model evolves.