Business process simulation: An alternative modelling technique for the information system development process

This paper discusses the idea that even though information systems development (ISD) approaches have long advocated the use of integrated organisational views, the modelling techniques used have not been adapted accordingly and remain focused on the automated information system (IS) solution. Existing research provides evidence that business process simulation (BPS) can be used at different points in the ISD process to provide better integrated organisational views that aid the design of appropriate IS solutions. Despite this fact, research in this area is not extensive; suggesting that the potential of using BPS for the ISD process is not yet well understood. The paper uses the findings from three different case studies to illustrate the ways BPS has been used at different points in the ISD process. It compares the results against IS modelling techniques, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages that BPS has over the latter. The research necessary to develop appropriate BPS tools and give guidance on their use in the ISD process is discussed

'To mean something to someone' : sport-for-development as a lever for social inclusion

Background Socially excluded groups are at higher risk of low well-being and poor health. The link between social exclusion and health inequities is complex, and not being involved in society makes it difficult to be reached by standard prevention programs. Sport-for-development (SFD) programs are low-threshold and may be promising settings for inclusive actions. We explore the underlying mechanisms through which SFD might have an impact on social inclusion and examine the necessary conditions that work as a catalyst for these underlying mechanisms. Methods A realist evaluation approach was adopted. A non-profit SFD organization in a middle-large city in Flanders, Belgium, formed the setting for a single case study. Document analysis, participatory observations, interviews, and a focus group, were sources for identifying necessary context elements and essential mechanisms through which SFD could promote its participants' health and wellbeing. Results Among the most efficient mechanisms triggered by the Foundation's activities are learning by fun, connecting with peers (of whom some serve as role model) and engaging as a volunteer with some responsibilities. Building trust in oneself and in others is a necessary process throughout all these mechanisms. Facilitating context factors include the activities' accessibility and unconditional approach (creating a sense of safety), the popularity of the first division football team the Foundation is associated with (leading to a sense of belonging), a steady network of social partners and a strongly positive relationship with the SFD coach(es). Conclusions Our findings demonstrate that a SFD setting may be a vehicle for engaging hard-to-reach population groups. It enhances socially vulnerable persons' sense of competence and connectedness, leading to opportunities to improve life and work skills transferrable outside SFD settings. Based on these findings, suggestions are provided that may enhance the field and help to develop feasible (policy-led) interventions designed to promote social inclusion

An experimental investigation into the role of simulation models in generating insights

It is often claimed that discrete-event simulation (DES) models are useful for generating insights. There is, however, almost no empirical evidence to support this claim. To address this issue we perform an experimental study which investigates the role of DES, specifically the simulation animation and statistical results, in generating insight (an ‘Aha!’ moment). Undergraduate students were placed in three separate groups and given a task to solve using a model with only animation, a model with only statistical results, or using no model at all. The task was based around the UK’s NHS111 telephone service for non-emergency health care. Performance was measured based on whether participants solved the task with insight, the time taken to achieve insight and the participants’ problem-solving patterns. The results show that there is some association between insight generation and the use of a simulation model, particularly the use of the statistical results generated from the model. While there is no evidence that insights were generated more frequently from statistical results than the use of animation, the participants using the statistical results generated insights more rapidly

A Review of Platforms for the Development of Agent Systems

Agent-based computing is an active field of research with the goal of building autonomous software of hardware entities. This task is often facilitated by the use of dedicated, specialized frameworks. For almost thirty years, many such agent platforms have been developed. Meanwhile, some of them have been abandoned, others continue their development and new platforms are released. This paper presents a up-to-date review of the existing agent platforms and also a historical perspective of this domain. It aims to serve as a reference point for people interested in developing agent systems. This work details the main characteristics of the included agent platforms, together with links to specific projects where they have been used. It distinguishes between the active platforms and those no longer under development or with unclear status. It also classifies the agent platforms as general purpose ones, free or commercial, and specialized ones, which can be used for particular types of applications.Comment: 40 pages, 2 figures, 9 tables, 83 reference

End of One Way

Describes the role of three South Minneapolis community-based organizations. Demonstrates how the organizations form partnerships and share leadership with their communities. Explores a set of themes derived from each example of community engagement

Component-Based Tools for Educational Simulations

e-Learning is an effective medium for delivering knowledge and skills. In spite of improvements in electronic delivery technologies, e-Learning is still a long way away from offering anything close to efficient and effective learning environments. To improve e-Learning experiences, much literature supports simulation based e-Learning. This thesis begins identifying various types of simulation models and their features that induce experiential learning. We focus on designing and constructing an easy-to-use Discrete Event Simulation (DES) tool for building engaging and informative interactive DES models that allow learners to control the models’ parameters and visualizations through runtime interactions. DES has long been used to support analysis and design of complex systems but its potential to enhance learning has not yet been fully utilized. We first present an application framework and its resulting classes for better structuring DES models. However, importing relevant classes, establishing relationships between their objects and representing lifecycles of various types of active objects in a language that does not support concurrency demand a significant cognitive workload. To improve this situation, we utilize two design patterns to ease model structuring and logic representation (both in time and space) through a drag and drop component approach. The patterns are the Delegation Event Model, used for linking between components and delegating tasks of executing and updating active objects’ lifecycles, and the MVC (Model-View-Controller) pattern, used for connecting the components to their graphical instrumentations and GUIs. Components implementing both design patterns support the process-oriented approach, can easily be tailored to store model states and visualizations, and can be extended to design higher level models through hierarchical simulation development. Evaluating this approach with both teachers and learners using ActionScript as an implementation language in the Flash environment shows that the resulting components not only help model designers with few programming skills to construct DES models, but they also allow learners to conduct various experiments through interactive GUIs and observe the impact of changes to model behaviour through a range of engaging visualizations. Such interactions can motivate learners and make their learning an enjoyable experience

Animation of BPMN business processes models

BPM in the business world is currently supported by tools that facilitate the design, implementation, execution, monitoring and optimization of business processes. These so called Business Process Management Suites usually have animation capabilities associated to process simulation. However, animation capabilities vary depending on the tool and the better these are, the higher is the animation preparation effort. This problem is more evident when generic simulation tools are compared with BPM specific ones, which use BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation) as the modeling notation and have more limited animation capabilities. This dissertation presents a proposal to endow the BPMN with animation capabilities which respects all the elements presentation rules established in the notation specification. This proposal was designed based upon the data collected through the application of the animation capabilities evaluation taxonomy also proposed here in this dissertation. A prototype was built on top of an open-source tool in order to implement our animation proposal and was used to animate the service request process model using real execution data from an IT Service management tool used at ISCTE-IUL.A gestão de processos de negócio no mundo empresarial é actualmente suportada por ferramentas computacionais, que facilitam o seu desenho, implementação, execução, monitorização e optimização. Essas ferramentas, vulgarmente designadas de Business Process Management Suites, possuem usualmente mecanismos de animação aliados à simulação de processos. Contudo, as capacidades de animação diferem consoante a ferramenta, sendo que quanto melhores são estas capacidades, maior é o tempo investido na preparação da animação. Este problema torna-se mais evidente quando são comparadas ferramentas de simulação mais genéricas com ferramentas dedicadas à gestão de processos de negócio, que usam BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation) como notação de modelação, em que as animações se tornam mais limitadas. Esta dissertação apresenta uma proposta de animação para a notação BPMN que respeita as regras de apresentação dos elementos da notação estabelecidas na especificação da mesma. Esta proposta foi desenhada com base nos resultados recolhidos através da aplicação de uma taxonomia também aqui proposta para a avaliação das capacidades de animação de ferramentas de simulação de processos de negócio, onde se reflecte o estado da arte no campo da animação de processos. A proposta de animação foi implementada num protótipo, que assenta sobre uma ferramenta open-source seleccionada a partir de requisitos definidos e apresentados na dissertação. Por fim, o protótipo foi usado para animar um modelo do processo de requisição de serviços usando, para isso, dados de execução reais recolhidos da ferramenta de gestão de serviços de TI utilizado no ISCTE-IUL

What Property Does

For centuries, scholars have wrestled with seemingly intractable problems about the nature of property. This Article offers a different approach. Instead of asking what property is, it asks what property does. And it argues that property protects people’s reliance on resources by moderating the pace of change. Modern scholarly accounts emphasize voluntary transactions as the source and purpose of reliance in property. Such “transactional reliance” implies strong, stable, and enduring rights. This Article argues that property law also reflects a very different source of reliance on resources, one that rises and falls simply with the passage of time. This new category of “evolutionary reliance” is at the heart of core property doctrines like adverse possession, waste, and the rule against perpetuities. Focusing on evolutionary reliance reveals a new vision of property, not as a bundle of sticks or a bare right to exclude, but instead as a nexus of competing and dynamic reliance interests that can change over time. This new vision has important conceptual and doctrinal consequences for common law doctrines and the Takings Clause, and it highlights the surprising dynamism and change in property

WHY WE SHOULD TALK? THE POTENTIALS OF COMMUNITY DIALOG IN GROUNDING AN INTEGRATED RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Rural development is a social process. It involves local community in all stages of development. Community dialog is a means for facilitating community involvement in determining a development direction, potential development plan and development sus-tainability in the future. Frequently, local community is considered as the development target. This position puts them just being development watchers, spectators, silent and passive recipients. Moreover, these silent roles make them remain unempowered since they do not know how to determine their future, how to take part in collective decision and feel being neglected. This study examines potentials of community involvement in dialog. A qualitative research paradigm is adopted. The data are collected byrecording, transcribing and analyzing community dialog at Klagen, Nganjuk, Jawa Timur.  The study finds that community dialog offers considerable potentials. The first potential of community dialog is generating local community commitment, awareness, sense of belongingness and supportive character to build their own homeland. These positive development psychological states,characters and ethos are soft human dimensions which can be critical drivers in rural development. The second is creation of local knowledge and scientific knowledge joint enabling innovation and collective learning process. This joint-knowledge allows the combination of local wisdom and scientific insight. The third is building shared or collective development vision and plan. This plan and vision allow the development prioritizing process and development of rural strength, potential competitive advantage and resource building. The fourth is expanding rural networking and exercising rural people capacity to build wider internal and external social relationship. 

The Socialization Of Terrorism In Canada

The academic and institutional battlefield is littered with the best intentions of those attempting to bring a universally recognized definition to the term ‘terrorism’.  The concept of ‘where you sit is where you stand’ certainly applies to such endeavors.  In addition to considering how best to integrate such fundamental questions as who, what, where, why and how in a definition of the term, attempts have been confounded and complicated by where definitional efforts have been centered within a particular community. Do you adopt a social science or quasi-scientific approach?  From a jurisprudence and law enforcement perspective? Terrorist financing? Intent and motivation? Psychological drivers and personal profiles of individual terrorists? Organizational structures?  Cultural and anthropological approaches? Rationality and mental health? Historical considerations? Critical study interpretations?  All this has made for terrorism being a contested concept over the decades. As observed by Schmid and Jongman, and as we shall explore, “The nature of terrorism is not inherent in the violent act itself. One and the same act can be terrorist or not, depending on the intention and circumstances.”  But how terrorism is defined by whatever community is not a trivial issue. Definitions carry political and policy consequences that govern the counterterrorism space and how threats and risks are articulated going forward.  How the threat environment endures is often just as much an outcome of how a state elects to respond to the threat, as it is the agenda of terrorist entities.  And terrorism charges cannot be prosecuted if there is not at least some notion of how motivations, intentions and acts are defined in statutes. Received: 01-05-2024 Revised: 01-14-202