Incorporating technology in service-oriented i* business models: a case study

In recent years, considerable attention has been paid to enterprise information systems. This interest is motivated by the need for achieving better integration of new technologies (hardware and software) with the business processes of an organization. Business processes have become more and more dependent on technologies because technology has a direct impact on business processes, changing the way they are performed and thus also affecting the way analysts design the software system. However, at the present time, there are still some gaps between the definition of business processes and the technologies used in the organization. In practice, organizations have carried out their business processes using different technologies; however, it is sometimes not possible to determine how technologies are useful in achieving current business goals. This is because business models do not explicitly consider the technologies in the organizational requirements. The goal of this paper is to present a systematic process for integrating business processes and technologies at the conceptual level. To validate our approach, we present a case study that describes the processes of the inventory management department of a public research center.     

Theory blending: extended algorithmic aspects and examples

In Cognitive Science, conceptual blending has been proposed as an important cognitive mechanism that facilitates the creation of new concepts and ideas by constrained combination of available knowledge. It thereby provides a possible theoretical foundation for modeling high-level cognitive faculties such as the ability to understand, learn, and create new concepts and theories. Quite often the development of new mathematical theories and results is based on the combination of previously independent concepts, potentially even originating from distinct subareas of mathematics. Conceptual blending promises to offer a framework for modeling and re-creating this form of mathematical concept invention with computational means. This paper describes a logic-based framework which allows a formal treatment of theory blending (a subform of the general notion of conceptual blending with high relevance for applications in mathematics), discusses an interactive algorithm for blending within the framework, and provides several illustrating worked examples from mathematics.     

Skeleton computation of orthogonal polyhedra

Skeletons are powerful geometric abstractions that provide useful representations for a number of geometric operations. The straight skeleton has a lower combinatorial complexity compared with the medial axis. Moreover, while the medial axis of a polyhedron is composed of quadric surfaces the straight skeleton just consist of planar faces. Although there exist several methods to compute the straight skeleton of a polygon, the straight skeleton of polyhedra has been paid much less attention. We require to compute the skeleton of very large datasets storing orthogonal polyhedra. Furthermore, we need to treat geometric degeneracies that usually arise when dealing with orthogonal polyhedra. We present a new approach so as to robustly compute the straight skeleton of orthogonal polyhedra. We follow a geometric technique that works directly with the boundary of an orthogonal polyhedron. Our approach is output sensitive with respect to the number of vertices of the skeleton and solves geometric degeneracies. Unlike the existing straight skeleton algorithms that shrink the object boundary to obtain the skeleton, our algorithm relies on the plane sweep paradigm. The resulting skeleton is only composed of axis‐aligned and 45° rotated planar faces and edges.     

A model of cerebral cortex formation during fetal development using reaction-diffusion-convection equations with Turing space parameters

The cerebral cortex is a gray lamina formed by bodies of neurons covering the cerebral hemispheres, varying in thickness from 1.25 mm in the occipital lobe to 4 mm in the anterior lobe. The brain's surface is about 30 times greater that of the skull because of its many folds; such folds form the gyri, sulci and fissures and mark out areas having specific functions, divided into five lobes. Convolution formation may vary between individuals and is an important feature of brain formation; such patterns can be mathematically represented as Turing patterns. This article describes how a phenomenological model was developed by describing the formation pattern for the gyri occurring in the cerebral cortex by reaction diffusion equations with Turing space parameters. Numerical examples for simplified geometries of a brain were solved to study pattern formation. The finite element method was used for the numerical solution, in conjunction with the Newton–Raphson method. The numerical examples showed that the model can represent cerebral cortex fold formation and reproduce pathologies related to gyri formation, such as polymicrogyria and lissencephaly.     

Multi‐agent system for knowledge‐based event recognition and composition

This work presents a multi‐agent system for knowledge‐based high‐level event composition, which interprets activities, behaviour and situations semantically in a scenario with multi‐sensory monitoring. A perception agent (plurisensory agent and visual agent)‐based structure is presented. The agents process the sensor information and identify (agent decision system) significant changes in the monitored signals, which they send as simple events to the composition agent that searches for and identifies pre‐defined patterns as higher‐level semantic composed events. The structure has a methodology and a set of tools that facilitate its development and application to different fields without having to start from scratch. This creates an environment to develop knowledge‐based systems generally for event composition. The application task of our work is surveillance, and event composition/inference examples are shown which characterize an alarming situation in the scene and resolve identification and tracking problems of people in the scenario being monitored.     

IMPLEMENTING ENVIRONMENTAL FLOWS IN COMPLEX WATER RESOURCES SYSTEMS – CASE STUDY: THE DUERO RIVER BASIN,SPAIN

European river basin authorities are responsible for the implementation of the new river basin management plans in accordance with the European Water Framework Directive. This paper presents a new methodology framework and approach to define and evaluate environmental flow regimes in the realistic complexities that exist with multiple water resource needs at a basin scale. This approach links river basin simulation models and habitat time series analysis to generate ranges of environmental flows (e‐flows), which are evaluated by using habitat, hydropower production and reliability of water supply criteria to produce best possible alternatives. With the use of these tools, the effects of the proposed e‐flows have been assessed to help in the consultation process. The possible effects analysed are impacts on water supply reliability, hydropower production and aquatic habitat. After public agreements, a heuristic optimization process was applied to maximize e‐flows and habitat indicators, while maintaining a legal level of reliability for water resource demands. The final optimal e‐flows were considered for the river basin management plans of the Duero river basin. This paper demonstrates the importance of considering quantitative hydrologic and ecological aspects of e‐flows at the basin scale in addressing complex water resource systems. This approach merges standard methods such as physical habitat simulations and time series analyses for evaluating alternatives, with recent methods to simulate and optimize water management alternatives in river networks. It can be integrated with or used to complement other frameworks for e‐flow assessments such as the In‐stream Flow Incremental Methodology and Ecological Limits of Hydrologic Alteration. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Narrow-FSK optical packet labeling scheme for optical ethernet networks

In this work, an intensity modulation/frequency-shift keying (IM/FSK) orthogonal modulation scheme is achieved by direct modulation of a distributed feedback laser source using its adiabatic chirp characteristics. Optical frequencies for "1" and "0" bits are separated only 0.7 GHz, obtaining a narrow-FSK modulation and, accordingly, a low residual intensity modulation. Ethernet frames at 1.25 Gb/s (GbE) are transmitted with a label inserted using coded mark inversion codification at a 155-Mb/s rate. Error rates for the Ethernet payload and for the label have been measured for different payload extinction ratios, showing the viability of this scheme for distances up to 25 km.     

High extinction ratio and high-temperature 2.5-Gb/s floor-free 1.3-/spl mu/m transmission with a directly modulated quantum dot laser

For the first time with a directly modulated InAs-GaAs quantum-dot laser, high extinction ratio (up to 17 dB) and 25/spl deg/C-85/spl deg/C single-mode-fiber data floor-free transmissions are achieved at 2.5 Gb/s. Moreover, an interferometric technique showed a nearly constant Henry factor /spl sim/2 until a bias current six times the threshold current.     

Evolution of fretting fatigue damage and relaxation of residual stress in shot-peened Ti-6Al-4V

The evolution of fretting fatigue damage was investigated in shot-peened Ti-6Al-4V samples, by measuring the changes in the surface residual stress, using the X-ray diffraction technique. The surface residual stress was found to relax as the number of fretting fatigue cycles increased. The relaxation behavior of the residual stress with the increasing number of fretting fatigue cycles was observed to occur in three stages. In the first 20 pct of the fretting fatigue life, a drastic relaxation was observed. In the second part (between 20 and 70 pct), a gradually increasing behavior was observed. During the last 20 to 30 pct of the fretting fatigue life, a dramatic relaxation of the residual stress was found to occur. A complete relaxation of the residual stress occurred in the fracture region. A scanning electron microscope observation of the microstructure of the damaged region was used to examine the mechanisms leading to the relaxation of the residual stress. The development of delaminations at the early stages of the accumulation of the fretting fatigue damage was observed to be the main cause of the initial relaxation. The generation of microcracks from the voids left behind by the delaminations is responsible for the additional relaxation of the residual stress. The coalescence of the microcracks generated from different delaminated regions produced yet more relaxation of residual stress and, ultimately, the final fracture of the specimen.     

On solving large strain hyperelastic problems with the natural element method

In this paper, an extension of the natural element method (NEM) is presented to solve finite deformation problems. Since NEM is a meshless method, its implementation does not require an explicit connectivity definition. Consequently, it is quite adequate to simulate large strain problems with important mesh distortions, reducing the need for remeshing and projection of results (extremely important in three‐dimensional problems). NEM has important advantages over other meshless methods, such as the interpolant character of its shape functions and the ability of exactly reproducing essential boundary conditions along convex boundaries. The α‐NEM extension generalizes this behaviour to non‐convex boundaries. A total Lagrangian formulation has been employed to solve different problems with large strains, considering hyperelastic behaviour. Several examples are presented in two and three dimensions, comparing the results with the ones of the finite element method. NEM performs better showing its important capabilities in this kind of applications. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.