Business process model abstraction: a definition, catalog, and survey

The discipline of business process management aims at capturing, understanding, and improving work in organizations by using process models as central artifacts. Since business-oriented tasks require different information from such models to be highlighted, a range of abstraction techniques has been developed over the past years to manipulate overly detailed models. At this point, a clear understanding of what distinguishes these techniques and how they address real world use cases has not yet been established. In this paper we systematically develop, classify, and consolidate the use cases for business process model abstraction and present a case study to illustrate the value of this technique. The catalog of use cases that we present is based on a thorough evaluation of the state of the art, as well as on our cooperation with end users in the health insurance sector. It has been subsequently validated by experts from the consultancy and tool vendor domains. Based on our findings, we evaluate how the existing business process model abstraction approaches support the discovered use cases and reveal which areas are not adequately covered, as such providing an agenda for further research in this area.     

From fine-grained to abstract process models: A semantic approach

Organizations actively managing their business processes face a rapid growth of the number of process models that they maintain. Business process model abstraction has proven to be an effective means to generate readable, high-level views on business process models by showing coarse-grained activities and leaving out irrelevant details. In this way, abstraction facilitates a more efficient management of process models, as a single model can provide for many relevant views. Yet, it is an open question how to perform abstraction in the same skillful way as experienced modelers combine activities into more abstract tasks. This paper presents an approach that uses semantic information of a process model to decide on which activities belong together, which extends beyond existing approaches that merely exploit model structural characteristics. The contribution of this paper is twofold: we propose a novel activity aggregation method and suggest how to discover the activity aggregation habits of human modelers. In an experimental validation, we use an industrial process model repository to compare the developed activity aggregation method with actual modeling decisions, and observe a strong correlation between the two. The presented work is expected to contribute to the development of modeling support for the effective process model abstraction.     

Experience gained from making the incineration of solid domestic wastes a factory standard at thermal power stations in Russia

Using the results of activities on developing and adjusting the processes pertinent to thermal reprocessing of solid domestic wastes (SDWs), that were carried out by VTI specialists along with GUP Ekotekhprom specialists in 1999–2005, we selected operating conditions under which the power installations run in compliance with the requirements (adopted both in Russia and in the EU countries) imposed on the incineration of SDWs and purification of flue gases. It is indicated that ways are currently being considered of increasing the parameters of steam generated at SDW-fired power stations from the existing p = 1.2?1.4 MPa and t _sup = 300?320°C to p = 4.0 MPa and t _sup = 400°C to make the generation of electricity at them more efficient. Experience gained in this field by the boiler manufacturing plants in Russia is analyzed.     

Ceramic fibrous monolithic structures

High-strength ceramic fibers and composite structures that contain them are generally expensive. In a lower-cost approach for fabricating fibrous composites, reinforcing fiber-like cells that are distinct from a continuous matrix phase called the cell boundary can be formed in situ from powders. Structures can be constructed by assembly and consolidation of filaments that consist of the cell phase and its surrounding cell boundary.

Fabrication of ceramic fibrous monoliths (FMs) is reviewed and mechanical properties of the most widely studied FMs are discussed. Those based on Si₃N₄ cells within a BN cell boundary have achieved the best overall properties and uniformity of manufacture, but degrade severely at high temperatures in oxidizing environments. Those based on oxides are more stable, but are substantially weaker. Assessment of the future of FMs is offered, including cost reduction, fabrication practice, property improvement, and formation of complex structures.     

A Method of Determining the Axes of a Three-Component Magnetometer Sensor with Respect to the Axes of the Navigation System of a Ferromagnetic Mobile Object

A method of determining the orientation of the axes of a three-component magnetometer sensor with respect to the axes of the navigation system of a ferromagnetic mobile object is considered, which eliminates the effect of the magnetization of the object on the determination of the angular position of the axes of the sensor with respect to the axes of the navigation system.     

SIMS analysis of ultrathin implanted arsenic layers in silicon

A new regime of secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) is proposed, which allows a depth resolution of λ=1.4 nm to be achieved. The profiles of arsenic implanted into silicon, measured using this regime on a Cameca IMS-4f microprobe, were close to the true distributions. SIMS profiling of the samples of silicon implanted with 30-keV As⁺ ions to a total dose of (1.25–3.13)×10¹³ cm^?2 through a 20-nm-thick thermal oxide layer showed the presence of a sharp peak of arsenic accumulated at the oxide/silicon interface, which is explained by the diffusion of arsenic to this interface as a result of annealing.     

Microgravity investigations of instability and mixing flux in frontal displacement of fluids

The goal of the present study is to investigate analytically, numerically and experimentally the instability of the displacement of viscous fluid by a less viscous one in a two-dimensional channel, and to determine characteristic size of entrapment zones. Experiments on miscible displacement of fluids in Hele-Shaw cells were conducted under microgravity conditions. Extensive direct numerical simulations allowed to investigate the sensitivity of the displacement process to variation of values of the main governing parameters. Validation of the code was performed by comparing the results of model problems simulations with experiments and with the existing solutions published in literature. Taking into account non-linear effects in fluids displacement allowed to explain new experimental results on the pear-shape of fingers and periodical separation of their tip elements from the main body of displacing fluid. Those separated blobs of less viscous fluid move much faster than the mean flow of the displaced viscous fluid. The results of numerical simulations processed based on the dimensions analysis allow to introduce criteria characterizing the quality of displacement. The functional dependence of the dimensionless criteria on the values of governing parameters needs further investigations.     

Effect of Deviation from Coaxiality between the Directions of Magnetization and Mechanical Strain on the Results of Magnetic Testing of Elastic Strain in Steels

The magnetoelastic effect in steels that are in the states of coercive force and residual magnetization in the saturation hysteresis loop is studied. The regularities of changes in the residual magnetization and coercive force under uniaxial tensioning and compression of specimens of 30KhGSA steel magnetized along the direction of strain application are established. It is shown that a variation in the direction of magnetization and complication of the strain pattern result in considerable deviations in the character of changes in the magnetic forces determined by a ferroprobe-type coercive force meter for elastically strained plates from St3 and R6M5 steels and for an St3 beam.     

Application of magnetic and electromagnetic-acoustic methods for assessing plastic deformations under cyclic loading of annealed intermediate-carbon steel

The influence of cyclic loading of annealed steel 45 during low-cycle fatigue on changes in its magnetic characteristics, in particular, the coercive force and the residual magnetic induction, for the major and minor magnetic-hysteresis loops and on changes in the propagation velocity of a longitudinal acoustic wave is studied. The sensitivity of the considered physical characteristics to the value of plastic deformation stored under cyclic loading in the region of both large and small strains is determined. The residual mechanical properties displayed after cyclic loading are determined, and the steady-state correlations between the coercive force measured on minor hysteresis loops in weak fields (the Rayleigh region) and the remanent clongation are obtained. The possibility of monitoring the stored plastic deformation and assessing the residual life of a material during its cyclic loading from the values of its magnetic parameters is shown.