5,993 research outputs found

    Standardization Framework for Sustainability from Circular Economy 4.0

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    The circular economy (CE) is widely known as a way to implement and achieve sustainability, mainly due to its contribution towards the separation of biological and technical nutrients under cyclic industrial metabolism. The incorporation of the principles of the CE in the links of the value chain of the various sectors of the economy strives to ensure circularity, safety, and efficiency. The framework proposed is aligned with the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development regarding the orientation towards the mitigation and regeneration of the metabolic rift by considering a double perspective. Firstly, it strives to conceptualize the CE as a paradigm of sustainability. Its principles are established, and its techniques and tools are organized into two frameworks oriented towards causes (cradle to cradle) and effects (life cycle assessment), and these are structured under the three pillars of sustainability, for their projection within the proposed framework. Secondly, a framework is established to facilitate the implementation of the CE with the use of standards, which constitute the requirements, tools, and indicators to control each life cycle phase, and of key enabling technologies (KETs) that add circular value 4.0 to the socio-ecological transition

    Construals as a complement to intelligent tutoring systems in medical education

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    This is a preliminary version of a report prepared by Meurig and Will Beynon in conjunction with a poster paper "Mediating Intelligence through Observation, Dependency and Agency in Making Construals of Malaria" at the 11th International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS 2012) and a paper "Construals to Support Exploratory and Collaborative Learning in Medicine" at the associated workshop on Intelligent Support for Exploratory Environments (ISEE 2012). A final version of the report will be published at a later stage after feedback from presentations at these events has been taken into account, and the experimental versions of the JS-EDEN interpreter used in making construals have been developed to a more mature and stable form

    Project management Tools and Techniques (T&T) usage in building sector companies in Cartagena City, T.C.D..

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    This research work was based on an analysis of project management tools and techniques usage and its practical application in the construction sector. It is a fact that projects currently have a high failure rate which was corroborated in this research work through a diagnosis carried out in the city of Cartagena to 22 project managers of important construction companies that currently execute housing projects and therefore, it was determined that techniques and tools of worldwide recognition and suggested by the most relevant standards and methodology are not being used in construction projects. In this work the deficiencies and strengths of the companies were shown when applying the project management techniques and tools; a guide was prepared to use them through specific recommendations to the construction sector. © 2019 Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions. All rights reserved

    A Value-Driven Framework for Software Architecture

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    Software that is not aligned with the business values of the organization for which it was developed does not entirely fulfill its raison d’etre. Business values represent what is important in a company, or organization, and should influence the overall software system behavior, contributing to the overall success of the organization. However, approaches to derive a software architecture considering the business values exchanged between an organization and its market players are lacking. Our quest is to address this problem and investigate how to derive value-centered architectural models systematically. We used the Technology Research method to address this PhD research question. This methodological approach proposes three steps: problem analysis, innovation, and validation. The problem analysis was performed using systematic studies of the literature to obtain full coverage on the main themes of this work, particularly, business value modeling, software architecture methods, and software architecture derivation methods. Next, the innovation step was accomplished by creating a framework for the derivation of a software reference architecture model considering an organization’s business values. The resulting framework is composed of three core modules: Business Value Modeling, Agile Reference Architecture Modeling, and Goal-Driven SOA Architecture Modeling. While the Business value modeling module focuses on building a stakeholder-centric business specification, the Agile Reference Architecture Modeling and the Goal-Driven SOA Architecture Modeling modules concentrate on generating a software reference architecture aligned with the business value specification. Finally, the validation part of our framework is achieved through proof-of-concept prototypes for three new domain specific languages, case studies, and quasi-experiments, including a family of controlled experiments. The findings from our research show that the complexity and lack of rigor in the existing approaches to represent business values can be addressed by an early requirements specification method that represents the value exchanges of a business. Also, by using sophisticated model-driven engineering techniques (e.g., metamodels, model transformations, and model transformation languages), it was possible to obtain source generators to derive a software architecture model based on early requirements value models, while assuring traceability throughout the architectural derivation process. In conclusion, despite using sophisticated techniques, the derivation process of a software reference architecture is helped by simple to use methods supported by black box transformations and guidelines that facilitate the activities for the less experienced software architects. The experimental validation process used confirmed that our framework is feasible and perceived as easy to use and useful, also indicating that the participants of the experiments intend to use it in the future

    A new evaluation approach to City Logistics projects A business-oriented Agent-Based model

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    Supplying goods to urban areas is a fundamental economic process because the majority of the world population lives and buys goods in cities. Freight distribu-tion activities in urban areas account for roughly 40% of supply chain costs and 60% of supply chain CO2 emissions. Moreover, surging e-commerce trends shape the urban freight transportation arena, increasing its complexity and the pressure on private actors. Thus, urban freight transportation activities generate negative externalities, but are relevant to a great amount of enterprises that compose the economic and social fabric. In this context, City Logistics (CL) emerged as a comprehensive concept driv-ing solutions to reduce negative externalities while interfering as little as possible with private actors’ operations and profitability. CL scholars and practitioners are facing several issues arising from e-commerce and population growth. In particu-lar, logistics service providers are called to optimize their operations in order to increase the speed of delivery. At the same time however, CL is dealing with technological and systemic innovation that might enhance optimization capabili-ties and network usage. As a response to the changing environment and within the mandate of CL paradigm, local authorities and private actors have invested on a wide range of initiatives. The variety of approaches adopted and stakeholders involved, at multiple governmental levels, are responsible for a mixed landscape of CL experiences across different regional contexts. Furthermore, despite their relatively large dif-fusion, CL initiatives often fail in taking up after a first pilot implementation, unable to reach paying customers after public subsidies are removed. Therefore, un-derstanding the major business aspects that underline the reasons for adopting CL initiative by private stakeholders is key to a more long-term vision on CL implementation and assessment. Previous research has given little attention to understanding the commercial and business aspects of CL projects before actually designing and implementing them, even though CL scholars have ascertained that evaluation methodologies need to encompass all aspects relevant issues for CL schemes. Several methodol-ogies have been proposed since the inception of CL with the evaluation objective in mind. However, they fall short in different ways. For instance, qualitative methods adopt a short-term feasibility approach to CL evaluation, and the subjec-tive evaluation of quantitative outcomes may potentially influence the ranking between different alternatives. On the other hand, modelling techniques need high quality data to simulate traffic flows and consumers’ demand, but fail short to ad-dress other important decision-making factors related to the business model of stakeholders. Research opportunities therefore lie in mixing the advantages of quantitative and qualitative approaches to include stakeholders in quantitative ex-ante evaluation of CL projects. My thesis will try to answer to the following research questions. -Research question 1: What is the state-of-art of CL projects modelling and evaluation meth-ods/frameworks? -Research question 2: How can an integrated qualitative-quantitative framework for CL evaluation be conceived? -Research question 3: How can a new evaluation framework effectively integrate a business-oriented view of CL systems? The first objective of this thesis is to highlight advantages and disadvantages of assessment methodologies with respect to the integration of the business mo-tives of CL actors into non-project specific, a long-term view on CL project as-sessment. The second objective of this work is to define a theoretical framework for designing and assessing CL projects business models on a qualitative level. To this end, CL systems are here compared to business ecosystems, which are a network of interrelated business entities. In the framework, CL actors can play multi-ple roles, and their decisions are based on their objectives, information, and con-straints. The business model of a business entity within the system is the set of the roles it plays, the business and operative relationships formed with other business entities, and the monetary and intangible values exchanged through these relationships. New quantitative methods are needed for a more sound representation of the patterns emerging from the different behaviours of agents. Hence, the third objective is to build an agent-model proposal for modelling, simulating and ultimately evaluating CL projects business model. In agent-based modelling, each actor can be modelled as an agent possessing objectives and decision-making attributes. Agents act autonomously and their interactions are defined formally by means of ontologies and model narratives built as a representation of real-life system. Finally, an experiment design will be constructed to provide insights on an ex-isting case study related to the introduction of automated parcel locker station. Two CL ecosystem configurations are modelled together in order to simulate the decision to adopt a new logistics service by potential customers. Then, the effect of the decision regarding the allocation of marketing and R&D budget is also evaluated. From the simulation runs, it becomes clear that the outcome for each ecosystem configuration in terms of profits and customers is strongly influenced by the decisions taken within the other configuration. In summary, this thesis provides a first modelling and simulation tool for as-sessing the implications of business model decisions within specific CL business ecosystems. For instance, the strategic decision to adopt a service proposed by a CL company is associated with the evaluation of intangible benefits offered by such company. Moreover, the modelling tool highlights the links between such strategic decisions and the operative ones, such as vehicle routing or inventory policies. Therefore, it proves that qualitative approaches can be used to integrate all stakeholders, while quantitative modelling provide a simulation environment to test long-term effects of different scenarios. However, this study has some limita-tions. For instance, more strategic decisions should be included in the model to investigate endogeneity stemming from agents’ actions. Furthermore, the implica-tion on the business ecosystem of the value of information are not assessed. Finally, the scope of the computational experiment should be widened to include a per-formance evaluation phase, which would then lead to more decision-making by the agents. Further research is aimed at using the tools developed in the thesis to understand how to drive retailers to change their attitude towards CL by under-standing and designing value proposition that might appeal to them. Moreover, the implications of the entrance of new CL players one traditional ones’ business model need to be explored more deeply from the strategic perspective of power relations

    Auditing models of cloud computing service for public administrations

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    Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Information Systems and Technologies ManagementThe following dissertation discussion focuses on the Cloud Computing parading into Public Administrations, aiming to establish a process based on ISO/IEC standards to secure the interoperability of the clouds. However, global digitalization grows exponentially and seems to be constrained by legislative and lack of defined structure to achieve integrity between systems and processes to equate on the same level the communications between administrations. One of the main challenges that citizens and governments face, is the portability of sensitive information, by approaching them, both can save lots of bureaucracy and agile data management. In line manner, the economic impact and digital wealth of the citizens can largely improve by addressing a solid model reference model to exchange and send information. As such, the potential of a dynamic interaction between clouds is key for the technological future of the administrations and many institutions have already started to incentivize cloud computing to enable economic, social, and health services opportunities

    Knowledge discovery for moderating collaborative projects

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    In today's global market environment, enterprises are increasingly turning towards collaboration in projects to leverage their resources, skills and expertise, and simultaneously address the challenges posed in diverse and competitive markets. Moderators, which are knowledge based systems have successfully been used to support collaborative teams by raising awareness of problems or conflicts. However, the functioning of a moderator is limited to the knowledge it has about the team members. Knowledge acquisition, learning and updating of knowledge are the major challenges for a Moderator's implementation. To address these challenges a Knowledge discOvery And daTa minINg inteGrated (KOATING) framework is presented for Moderators to enable them to continuously learn from the operational databases of the company and semi-automatically update the corresponding expert module. The architecture for the Universal Knowledge Moderator (UKM) shows how the existing moderators can be extended to support global manufacturing. A method for designing and developing the knowledge acquisition module of the Moderator for manual and semi-automatic update of knowledge is documented using the Unified Modelling Language (UML). UML has been used to explore the static structure and dynamic behaviour, and describe the system analysis, system design and system development aspects of the proposed KOATING framework. The proof of design has been presented using a case study for a collaborative project in the form of construction project supply chain. It has been shown that Moderators can "learn" by extracting various kinds of knowledge from Post Project Reports (PPRs) using different types of text mining techniques. Furthermore, it also proposed that the knowledge discovery integrated moderators can be used to support and enhance collaboration by identifying appropriate business opportunities and identifying corresponding partners for creation of a virtual organization. A case study is presented in the context of a UK based SME. Finally, this thesis concludes by summarizing the thesis, outlining its novelties and contributions, and recommending future research
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