DuD Recht

DuD Recht

DuD Recht     

APROMORE: An advanced process model repository

Business process models are becoming available in large numbers due to their widespread use in many industrial applications such as enterprise and quality engineering projects. On the one hand, this raises a challenge as to their proper management: how can it be ensured that the proper process model is always available to the interested stakeholder? On the other hand, the richness of a large set of process models also offers opportunities, for example with respect to the re-use of existing model parts for new models. This paper describes the functionality and architecture of an advanced process model repository, named APROMORE. This tool brings together a rich set of features for the analysis, management and usage of large sets of process models, drawing from state-of-the art research in the field of process modeling. A prototype of the platform is presented in this paper, demonstrating its feasibility, as well as an outlook on the further development of APROMORE.     

Exploring cognitive style and task-specific preferences for process representations

Process models describe someone’s understanding of processes. Processes can be described using unstructured, semi-formal or diagrammatic representation forms. These representations are used in a variety of task settings, ranging from understanding processes to executing or improving processes, with the implicit assumption that the chosen representation form will be appropriate for all task settings. We explore the validity of this assumption by examining empirically the preference for different process representation forms depending on the task setting and cognitive style of the user. Based on data collected from 120 business school students, we show that preferences for process representation formats vary dependent on application purpose and cognitive styles of the participants. However, users consistently prefer diagrams over other representation formats. Our research informs a broader research agenda on task-specific applications of process modeling. We offer several recommendations for further research in this area.     

Artists portray human faces with the Fourier statistics of complex natural scenes

When artists portray human faces, they generally endow their portraits with properties that render the faces esthetically more pleasing. To obtain insight into the changes introduced by artists, we compared Fourier power spectra in photographs of faces and in portraits by artists. Our analysis was restricted to a large set of monochrome or lightly colored portraits from various Western cultures and revealed a paradoxical result. Although face photographs are not scale-invariant, artists draw human faces with statistical properties that deviate from the face photographs and approximate the scale-invariant, fractal-like properties of complex natural scenes. This result cannot be explained by systematic differences in the complexity of patterns surrounding the faces or by reproduction artifacts. In particular, a moderate change in gamma gradation has little influence on the results. Moreover, the scale-invariant rendering of faces in artists' portraits was found to be independent of cultural variables, such as century of origin or artistic techniques. We suggest that artists have implicit knowledge of image statistics and prefer natural scene statistics (or some other rules associated with them) in their creations. Fractal-like statistics have been demonstrated previously in other forms of visual art and may be a general attribute of esthetic visual stimuli.     

The confused world of sulfate attack on concrete

External sulfate attack is not completely understood. Part I identifies the issues involved, pointing out disagreements, and distinguishes between the mere occurrence of chemical reactions of sulfates with hydrated cement paste and the damage or deterioration of concrete; only the latter are taken to represent sulfate attack. Furthermore, sulfate attack is defined as deleterious action involving sulfate ions; if the reaction is physical, then, it is physical sulfate attack that takes place. The discussion of the two forms of sulfate attack leads to a recommendation for distinct nomenclature. Sulfate attack on concrete structures in service is not widespread, and the amount of laboratory-based research seems to be disproportionately large. The mechanisms of attack by different sulfates—sodium, calcium, and magnesium—are discussed, including the issue of topochemical and through-solution reactions. The specific aspects of the action of magnesium sulfate are discussed, and the differences between laboratory conditions and field exposure are pointed out.Part II discusses the progress of sulfate attack and its manifestations. This is followed by a discussion of making sulfate-resisting concrete. One of the measures is to use Type V cement, and this topic is extensively discussed. Likewise, the influence of w/c on sulfate resistance is considered. The two parameters are not independent of one another. Moreover, the cation in the sulfate salt has a strong bearing on the efficiency of the Type V cement. Recent interpretations of the Bureau of Reclamation tests, both long term and accelerated, are evaluated, and it appears that they need reworking.Part III reviews the standards and guides for the classification of the severity of exposure of structures to sulfates and points out the lack of calibration of the various classes of exposure. A particular problem is the classification of soils because much depends on the extraction ratio of sulfate in the soil: there is a need for a standardized approach. Taking soil samples is discussed, with particular reference to interpreting highly variable contents of sulfates. The consequences of disturbed drainage of the soil adjacent to foundations and of excessive irrigation, coupled with the use of fertilizer, are described. Whether concrete has undergone sulfate attack can be established by determining the change in the compressive strength since the time of placing the concrete. The rejection of this method and the reliance on determining the tensile strength of concrete because of “layered damage” are erroneous. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) should not be the primary, and certainly not the first, method of determining whether sulfate attack has occurred. Mathematical modeling will be of help in the future but, at present, cannot provide guidance on the sulfate resistance of concrete in structures.Part IV presents conclusions and an overview of the situation, with consideration of future improvements. Appendix A contains the classification of exposure to sulfate given by various codes and guides.     

Lossless asymmetric single instruction multiple data codec

This report introduces a new lossless asymmetric single instruction multiple data codec designed for extremely efficient decompression of large satellite images. A throughput in excess of 3GB/s allows decompression to proceed in parallel with asynchronous transfers from fast block devices such as disk arrays. This is made possible by a simple and fast single instruction multiple data entropy coder that removes leading null bits. Our main contribution is a new approach for vectorized prediction and encoding. Unlike previous approaches that treat the entropy coder as a black box, we account for its properties in the design of the predictor. The resulting compressed stream is 1.2 to 1.5 times as large as JPEG‐2000, but can be decompressed 100 times as quickly – even faster than copying uncompressed data in memory. Applications include streaming decompression for out of core visualization. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first entirely vectorized algorithm for lossless compression. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nodal DG-FEM solution of high-order Boussinesq-type equations

A discontinuous Galerkin finite-element method (DG-FEM) solution to a set of high-order Boussinesq-type equations for modelling highly nonlinear and dispersive water waves in one horizontal dimension is presented. The continuous equations are discretized using nodal polynomial basis functions of arbitrary order in space on each element of an unstructured computational domain. A fourth-order explicit Runge-Kutta scheme is used to advance the solution in time. Methods for introducing artificial damping to control mild nonlinear instabilities are also discussed. The accuracy and convergence of the model with both h (grid size) and p (order) refinement are confirmed for the linearized equations, and calculations are provided for two nonlinear test cases in one horizontal dimension: harmonic generation over a submerged bar, and reflection of a steep solitary wave from a vertical wall. Test cases for two horizontal dimensions will be considered in future work.