Semantic Web computing in industry

The Semantic Web has attracted significant attention during the last decade. On the one hand, many research groups have changed their focus towards Semantic Web research and research funding agencies particularly in Europe have explicitly mentioned Semantic Web in their calls for proposals. On the other hand, industry has also begun to watch developments with interest and a number of large companies have started to experiment with Semantic Web technologies to ascertain if these new technologies can be leveraged to add more value for their customers or internally within the company, while there are already several offers of vendors of Semantic Web solutions on the market. The essence of the Semantic Web is to structure Web-based information to make it more interoperable, machine-readable and thereafter to provide a means to relate various information concepts more easily and in a reusable way. The Semantic Web acts as an additional layer on the top of the Web, and is built around explicit representations of information concepts and their relationships such as ontologies and taxonomies. Furthermore, Semantic Web technologies are not only valuable on an open environment like the Web, but also in closed systems such as in industrial settings. Hence, these technologies can be efficiently deployed for domains including Web Services, Enterprise Application Integration, Knowledge Management and E-Commerce, fulfilling existing gaps in current applications. This paper focuses on this synthesis between Semantic Web technologies and systems problems within industrial applications. There will be a short review of Semantic Web standards, languages and technologies followed by a more detailed review of applications of Semantic Web computing in industry. The paper covers theoretical considerations as well as use cases and experience reports on the topic, and we also present some current challenges and opportunities in the domain.     

Using Scrum to guide the execution of software process improvement in small organizations

For software process improvement - SPI - there are few small organizations using models that guide the management and deployment of their improvement initiatives. This is largely because a lot of these models do not consider the special characteristics of small businesses, nor the appropriate strategies for deploying an SPI initiative in this type of organization. It should also be noted that the models which direct improvement implementation for small settings do not present an explicit process with which to organize and guide the internal work of the employees involved in the implementation of the improvement opportunities. In this paper we propose a lightweight process, which takes into account appropriate strategies for this type of organization. Our proposal, known as a “Lightweight process to incorporate improvements”, uses the philosophy of the Scrum agile method, aiming to give detailed guidelines for supporting the management and performance of the incorporation of improvement opportunities within processes and their putting into practice in small companies. We have applied the proposed process in two small companies by means of the case study research method, and from the initial results, we have observed that it is indeed suitable for small businesses.     

Automatic 3D model reconstruction of cutting tools from a single camera

Collision detection by machining simulation requires the 3D models of rotating cutters. However, the 3D models of a cutter and holder are not always available. In this paper, a new method is proposed to design an automatic vision-based 3D modeling system, which is able to quickly reconstruct the 3D model of a cutter and holder when they are installed onto the spindle. Only a single camera is mounted on the machine tool to capture the image of the rotating cutter and holder. By viewing the rotating cutter and holder as an object of surface of revolution, the contour of the imaged cutter and holder can be used to reconstruct the 3D model as a stack of circular cross-sections. Then the complete generating function of the cutter and holder can be recovered from the cross-sections. Finally, the 3D model of the cutter is built by rotating the generating function around the spindle axis. The effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed method are verified by experiments on-machine using 12 kinds of cutters and holders, which can satisfy the requirement of collision detection.     

Challenges in business systems integration

Four main frameworks for intercompany relationships (SCOR, CPFR, ISA95 and OAG) are discussed and compared. The link between the frameworks and different supply chain integration applications such as ERP, CRM and VMI are pictured. Finally the state-of-the-art, future state and challenges of the supply chain integration applications are discussed. It is concluded that the main challenge with respect to frameworks supporting business systems integration is to extend them with implementation functionality to better support business system application development. An example of this is customer requirement fulfillment processes such as product development and order fulfillment. Not only do they cross the borders of the company's departments (sales, logistics, purchasing, etc) but also various companies in the supply chain. In spite of this development, business integration across systems and borders are still not matured and to a large extend based on human interaction.     

A PDE method for patchwise approximation of large polygon meshes

Three-dimensional (3D) representations of complex geometric shapes, especially when they are reconstructed from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) data, often result in large polygon meshes which require substantial storage for their handling, and normally have only one fixed level of detail (LOD). This can often be an obstacle for efficient data exchange and interactive work with such objects. We propose to replace such large polygon meshes with a relatively small set of coefficients of the patchwise partial differential equation (PDE) function representation. With this model, the approximations of the original shapes can be rendered with any desired resolution at interactive rates. Our approach can directly work with any common 3D reconstruction pipeline, which we demonstrate by applying it to a large reconstructed medical data set with irregular geometry.     

基于高效信道化的侦察接收机设计与实现

为了解决电子侦察接收机中同时到达信号的接收问题,从传统的低通滤波器结构出发,给出了一种无盲区高效数字信道化接收模型。信道化之后进行瞬时幅度和相位差提取。通过系统仿真,验证了该信道化模型的正确性;通过搭建信道化接收机的硬件平台并对实际系统测试,验证了瞬时幅度及相位差测试的正确性。     

Polynomial based scheme (PBS) for establishing Authentic Associations in Wireless Mesh Networks

The varying degree of mobility of Mesh Clients has provided much more flexibility in Wireless Mesh Networks, and establishing an Authentic Association among entities is a non-trivial problem. In this paper, we introduce a Polynomial Based scheme which provides pair-wise connectivity, low communication, marginal storage overhead and high scalability while making on the fly Authentic Association feasible. The proposed scheme is also observed to be resilient against both traffic analysis and node capture attacks.     

Project preparedness and the emergence of implementation problems in ERP projects

The problems that organizations face in implementing an enterprise-wide ERP project are linked to their level of understanding of what is involved in such an endeavor and how it influences their initial preparations. We sought to demonstrate empirically the causal relationship between the organization's preparedness and the emergence of implementation problems. We examined four case studies to extract insight into the criticality of certain factors and the type of problems created when no moderating measures were taken by project managers. Consequently, we developed a predictor-outcome model mapping a lack of preparedness with implementation problems.     

地理信息系统在精导武器中的应用研究

首先简述了地理信息系统的概念、特征和组成,结合精确制导武器在信息化战争中的运用,分析了地理信息系统在精确制导武器的直接运用和间接影响,并对地理信息系统在精确制导武器上应用的前景进行了展望。