Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

AN INVESTIGATION INTO CONTEXT-AWARE AUTOMATED SERVICE IN SMART HOME FACILITIES: SEARCH ENGINE AND MACHINE LEARNING WITH SMARTPHONE

Technological advances, in general, coupled with the widespread use of smartphones, create ever more opportunities for mobile applications. This thesis considers the use of such devices within embedded systems to provide automated services in smart home automation. The overall approach links together context-aware data from the physical environment, sensors and actuators for domestic appliances and statistics-based decision-making. A prototype system named ‘Wireless Sensor/Actuator Mobile Computing in the Smart Home’ (WiSAMCinSH) is developed, which in turns aims to provide services that can benefit clients who are currently dependent on others in their daily activities. This research highlights and covers the following concepts. Firstly, it addresses the need to improve the prototypical decision-making model by enabling it to take into account context-aware information as conditions under which particular action decisions are appropriate. Secondly, an essential aspect of context-aware performance architecture is that its features must be of high accuracy, explicitly readable and fast. Thirdly, it is necessary to determine which probability-based rules are most effective in generating the dynamic environment to control the home facilities. Finally, it is important to analyse and classify in depth the accuracy of context acquisition and the corresponding context control using cross-validation methods. A case study uses integrated mobile detection technology to improve the efficiency of mobile applications, taking into account the resource limitations forced on the use of mobile devices. It also utilises other embedded sensing technologies to predict expectations, thereby enabling automatic control of facilities in the home. The main approach is to combine search engines and machine learning to create a system architecture for a context-aware computing service. Among the major challenges are finding the best statistics-based rules for decision-making and overcoming the heterogeneous character of the many devices which are used together. The results achieved show very promising potential for the use of mobile applications within a context-aware computing service, albeit one which still presents problems to be resolved through future research

Knowledge and Management Models for Sustainable Growth

In the last years sustainability has become a topic of global concern and a key issue in the strategic agenda of both business organizations and public authorities and organisations. Significant changes in business landscape, the emergence of new technology, including social media, the pressure of new social concerns, have called into question established conceptualizations of competitiveness, wealth creation and growth. New and unaddressed set of issues regarding how private and public organisations manage and invest their resources to create sustainable value have brought to light. In particular the increasing focus on environmental and social themes has suggested new dimensions to be taken into account in the value creation dynamics, both at organisations and communities level. For companies the need of integrating corporate social and environmental responsibility issues into strategy and daily business operations, pose profound challenges, which, in turn, involve numerous processes and complex decisions influenced by many stakeholders. Facing these challenges calls for the creation, use and exploitation of new knowledge as well as the development of proper management models, approaches and tools aimed to contribute to the development and realization of environmentally and socially sustainable business strategies and practices

Improving transparency, consistency and efficiency of ecotoxicological teaching: development of an open online textbook Environmental Toxicology

Although several textbooks are available, teaching environmental toxicology in general seems to suffer from a lack of a well-elaborated, up-to-date and consistent textbook that covers all aspects of the field. As a consequence, every university is developing its own training materials in addition to a textbook, but only little of this material is available online. And if materials are online, they are not consistent, lack novelty or do not cover the entire field. A Dutch consortium therefore took the initiative to develop an open online textbook on Environmental Toxicology that should cover the field in its full width, including aspects of environmental chemistry, ecotoxicology, toxicology and risk assessment. The initiative is sponsored by the Netherlands Ministry of Education. The project aims at developing an online open access book on Environmental Toxicology that is useful for training at BSc, MSc and higher levels. The book will be designed in a modular way, each module having a clear training goal/attainment level and flagged with a number of keywords. The book will also contain tools for self-study and training, like exercises and questions. With the book, we aim at improving quality, continuity and transparency of the education in environmental toxicology. We also want to make sure that fundamental insights on fate and effects of chemicals gained in the past are combined with recent approaches of effect assessment and molecular analysis of mechanisms causing toxicity. To guarantee quality of the book and associated training materials, we aim at having 1-2 authors for each module and also 1-2 reviewers from outside the team of authors. In addition, an advisory board will be involved in supervising the project, as well as educational advisors, while the project team will serve as an editorial board. The project team, consisting of environmental toxicologists and chemists from six Dutch universities, does not possess all expertise to cover the width of the field. We therefore solicit contributions from as many colleagues as possible from within the SETAC community. With that, we hope we can produce a book that is written and supported by SETAC, that is covering the entire field, and is useful for training within e.g. the SETAC Europe Certified Risk Assessor (CRA) programme. The publication as an open online book will allow continuous updating of the book, providing a possible role of SETAC in sustaining the book