Business process management with the user requirements notation

A number of recent initiatives in both academia and industry have sought to achieve improvements in e-businesses through the utilization of Business Process Management (BPM) methodologies and tools. However there are still some inadequacies that need to be addressed when it comes to achieving alignment between business goals and business processes. The User Requirements Notation (URN), recently standardized by ITU-T, has some unique features and capabilities beyond what is available in other notations that can help address alignment issues. In this paper, a URN-based framework and its supporting toolset are introduced which provide business process monitoring and performance management capabilities integrated across the BPM lifecycle. The framework extends the URN notation with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and other concepts to measure and align processes and goals. An example process for controlling access to a healthcare data warehouse is used to illustrate and evaluate the framework. Early results indicate the feasibility of the approach.     

A Review on the Role of miR-149-5p in the Carcinogenesis

miR-149 is an miRNA with essential roles in carcinogenesis. This miRNA is encoded by the MIR149 gene on 2q37.3. The miR-149 hairpin produces miR-149-5p and miR-149-3p, which are the “guide” and the sister “passenger” strands, respectively. Deep sequencing experiments have shown higher prevalence of miR-149-5p compared with miR-149-3p. Notably, both oncogenic and tumor suppressive roles have been reported for miR-149-5p. In this review, we summarize the impact of miR-149-5p in the tumorigenesis and elaborate mechanisms of its involvement in this process in a variety of neoplastic conditions based on three lines of evidence, i.e., in vitro, in vivo and clinical settings.     

Application of the Electrodiffusion Method to Measure Wall Shear Stress: Integrating Theory and Practice

The electrodiffusion method has been used in fluid dynamic research for the past 50 years. It allows the measurement of wall shear stress, a crucial parameter, e.g., for the cleaning of membrane modules used in water filtration. Various authors have published articles dealing with the theory behind this technique. But no paper collects all the knowledge assembled over five decades of application. Here, comprehensive summary of the theory of steady flow, unsteady flow, and transient voltage step experiments is given. Factors influencing the accuracy of the measurements are discussed. Furthermore, a new approach to calibrate the system from voltage step experiments is introduced, and practical issues related to its application in flow measurements are discussed for an exemplary signal response to a near‐wall flow.     

Negotiation strategies considering market, time and behavior functions for resource allocation in computational grid

Providing an efficient resource allocation mechanism is a challenge to computational grid due to large-scale resource sharing and the fact that Grid Resource Owners (GROs) and Grid Resource Consumers (GRCs) may have different goals, policies, and preferences. In a real world market, various economic models exist for setting the price of grid resources, based on supply-and-demand and their value to the consumers. In this paper, we discuss the use of multiagent-based negotiation model for interaction between GROs and GRCs. For realizing this approach, we designed the Market- and Behavior-driven Negotiation Agents (MBDNAs). Negotiation strategies that adopt MBDNAs take into account the following factors: Competition, Opportunity, Deadline and Negotiator’s Trading Partner’s Previous Concession Behavior. In our experiments, we compare MBDNAs with MDAs (Market-Driven Agent), NDF (Negotiation Decision Function) and Kasbah in terms of the following metrics: total tasks complementation and budget spent. The results show that by taking the proposed negotiation model into account, MBDNAs outperform MDAs, NDF and Kasbah.     

Janus particle amphiphilicity and capillary interactions at a fluid interface

Studying the behavior of anisotropic particles at fluid interfaces is a rapidly expanding field, as understanding how the introduced anisotropy affects the resulting properties is essential in the engineering of interfacial systems. Surface anisotropic particles, also known as Janus particles (JPs), offer new possibilities for novel applications due to their amphiphilicity and stronger binding to fluid interfaces compared to homogeneous particles. Introducing surface anisotropy creates complexity as the orientation of interfacially bound particles affects interparticle interactions, a contributing factor to the microstructure formation. In this work, we have investigated the microstructure of JP monolayers formed at the air–water interface using particles with different degrees of amphiphilicity and examined the response of the networks to applied compressions. Our findings demonstrate that JPs amphiphilicity is a crucial factor governing their orientation at the interface, which in turn dictates the complexity of the capillary interactions present and the mechanical properties of the ensuing networks.     

A facile and efficient method for preparation of chiral supported poly(styrene–divinylbenzene) copolymers

A new and efficient method for preparation of optically active poly(styrene–divinylbenzene) copolymers (PS-DVB) is presented here. This is carried out by Friedel–Crafts acylation reaction of chiral N-phthaloyl -leucine acid chloride with PS-DVB beads in the presence of aluminum chloride as Lewis acid catalyst and 1,2-dichloroethane as the solvent at ambient temperature. Reagents’ amounts and reaction conditions are mentioned and four samples with different amounts of functionality have been prepared. Final products were characterized by FT-IR and elemental analysis. The results obtained confirm that the above modification in preparation of chiral supported PS-DVB has been achieved well and in moderate yield.     

Corrosion behavior of porous magnesium coated by plasma electrolytic oxidation in simulated body fluid

Porous magnesium has a great potential to be used as degradable bone scaffolds. In this study, porous magnesium with 35% percolating porosity has been successfully fabricated through powder metallurgy route utilizing space holders. The intrinsic mechanical properties of the porous magnesium were measured by nanoindentation testing and analyzed with the Oliver–Pharr method. Afterward, a ceramic coating on the surface of the porous magnesium was performed by plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) treatment in a silicate‐based solution. The morphology and composition results of the PEO coatings indicated that it is possible to apply a homogenous and adhesive ceramic coating layer on all free surface of the porous magnesium through PEO method. The protective performance of the PEO coatings was evaluated using by potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy tests in simulated body fluid. The results revealed the PEO coating significantly improves biocorrosion resistance of the porous magnesium. Therefore, it can be used as an effective method to control the degradation rate of porous magnesium implants in the human body.     

Effect of storage options on price-based scheduling for a hybrid trigeneration system

Trigeneration is efficient to supply cooling, heat, and power demands. Also, hydro (pumped) storage with zero fuel costs can increase profit when price-based scheduling problem is solved. The goal of this study is to investigate the effects of electric boiler, hydro storage, and heat storage tank on price-based scheduling problem for hybrid trigeneration (trigeneration-conventional-gas boiler) system. A heuristic algorithm is applied to a power system where in validation case, total cost reduction of 0.63% to 0.91% is reached as compared with reported in literature. The results show that the utilization of electric boiler, hydro storage, and heat storage tank leads to profit improvement by 4.58%. Also, a critical sensitivity analysis is conducted and the results show the significant effects of several factors on scheduling results.