Exploring the potential of accounting for embodied carbon emissions in building projects in Uganda

With the well-known impacts that the building sector has on the environment, accounting for embodied carbon (EC) emissions in building projects is emerging as an important consideration in project development approval processes. National and international initiatives on accounting for EC have been registered and in some countries, accounting for EC has been made mandatory. However, largely, the potential of accounting for EC is yet to be fully realised due to the prevailing limited integration of EC in building projects. In this paper, the potential of accounting for EC in the building sector in Uganda is explored using a two-stage approach. The first stage comprised of three steps: process discovery − to document prevailing practices; process modelling − to create an as-is system representing prevailing practices, and verification − using semi-structured interviews to ascertain whether the as-is system had been created correctly. The second stage comprised of two steps: analysis and process modelling. Analysis involved drawing evidence from the literature and the verified practices, in order to identify opportunities of introducing EC accounting. Through process modelling, a new (to-be) system incorporating EC was then created. Results from the verification step showed that the prevailing practices had been modelled correctly, further confirming the absence of EC accounting in the referenced context. Analyses revealed that incorporating EC accounting in building projects is plausible but should largely consider national circumstances, such as development approval processes. The overall findings shed more light on the increasingly appreciated phenomenon of accounting for EC in building projects. It is hoped that this work can remind, and at the same time, inform construction management practice and policy of the responsibilities the building sector has towards promoting sustainable construction

Integrating clean development mechanism into the development approval process of buildings: a case of urban housing in Uganda

Since climate change is no respecter of geographical boundaries, concerted mitigating actions such as clean development mechanism (CDM), are desirable. In CDM, developed countries can earn certified emission reduction credits from emission reduction projects undertaken in developing countries. Recent research suggests that, theoretically, CDM can be extended to the building sector. However, there is limited research on how CDM can be integrated in the development approval process (DAP) of buildings. This paper presents an investigation on how CDM could be integrated into the DAP of buildings in urban Uganda. A method of process modelling was used to describe the existing DAP, and also to design a new DAP. To demonstrate how CDM could be integrated into the new DAP, a typical dwelling unit was used. Two options for the dwelling were considered: a baseline (i.e. constructed using typical materials, plant, and workforce) and alternative (i.e. constructed using provisions to reduce carbon emissions). The difference in emissions in the two options constituted the basis for a CDM. Results suggested that the existing DAP does not consider carbon accounting and thus was not congruent with CDM modalities. A new DAP which is compatible with CDM was proposed. When the CDM concept was integrated into the new DAP, a bottom-up projection regarding construction of 28,000 houses annually within the capital city showed that reductions of over 200 ktCO2 could be achieved in a period of 10 years. These figures were comparable with prevailing CDM initiatives. The structure of a CDM programme aided by the new DAP was presented and discussed. This study shows that integrating CDM into the DAP of buildings in Uganda is possible if assessment of carbon emissions is incorporated in the existing DAP. The overall findings suggest that CDM could promote market-based mechanisms of enhancing sustainable construction in developing countries

Motor de inferência aplicado à deteção de incidentes de segurança no ciberespaço de uma organização

As capacidades tecnológicas evoluem exponencialmente todos os dias, assim como os ataques informáticos às organizações, é crucial melhorar as capacidades de monitorização, deteção e resposta a potenciais ameaças. Mecanismos tecnológicos de segurança por meio de automação de processos, Inteligência Artificial (AI) e Machine Learning (ML) são os que qualquer organização vai querer ter como arma e escudo para enfrentar os desafios emergentes no mundo da cibersegurança. Num Centro de Operações de Segurança (SOC), um analista precisa de monitorizar e investigar centenas de potenciais ameaças diariamente, a utilização de procedimentos automáticos para classificação de ameaças é imperativo para uma proficiência na resposta a esses incidentes de segurança de informação (ISIs). Para poder automatizar totalmente respostas a ISIs, um SOC precisa de ser capaz de classificar os indicadores de compromisso (IoCs) e percorrer uma árvore de decisão baseada nessas classificações, de forma automatizada. O objetivo é fornecer uma solução de classificação de IoCs que se possa adequar a uma organização e possa servir de decisão sobre avançar ou não com um fluxo automatizado. Assumindo que já existe um sistema de monitorização e gestão de eventos de segurança (SIEM), este motor de inferência, é capaz de automatizar a atribuição de um grau de ameaça a cada IoC, quantitativamente e qualitativamente. É uma solução que utiliza Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) e possibilita decisões automatizadas e personalizadas ao nível da ameaça para a organização, nomeadamente se uma contenção específica deve ou não ser executada com base nesse nível de ameaça identificada.Technological capabilities evolve exponentially every day, as well as cyberattacks at organizations, it is crucial to improve monitoring, detection and response capabilities to potential cyber threats. Thus, technological security mechanisms through automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), are what any organization will want as a weapon and shield to face, protect and react to the challenges in the cybersecurity world. Daily, in a Security Operations Center (SOC) an analyst needs to deal and investigate hundreds of potential threats. Using automatic procedures for threats identification and classification is imperative to improve performance on cyber threats containing, mitigating and responding to information security incidents (ISIs). To be able to fully automate the information incident responses, a SOC needs to be capable of classifying the Indicators of Compromise (IoCs) and automatically run through a Decision Tree based on such classification. The goal is to develop an inference engine that classifies the IoCs, centering on its characteristics. If there’s already a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), this inference engine is capable of automatically attributing a threat / risk score to each IoC, both quantitively and qualitatively, using Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) to allow for personalized automatic decisions according to the organization needs, namely if a specific containment should be executed or not

Capturing and modeling complex manufacturing systems: extending and embedding BPMN in DES

Business process models are developed for the purpose of understanding the system behaviour and identifying the possible areas for performance improvement. Among existing process modelling languages, Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) was selected to be assessed and extended, as it is the leading standard for business process modelling. The BPMN is currently gaining great attention in various business practices; it is an easy and flexible way to construct business process models, and thus it was hard to be overlooked by authors who are concerned with improving manufacturing processes. The introduction of BPMN to the manufacturing domain potentially allows all stakeholders to take advantage of the simplicity of this language in gaining full understandings for manufacturing processes through simple representations of the process models. Only limited work can be found addressing the use of BMPN in the modelling of manufacturing systems, and it is still not clear how powerful BPMN is in realizing performance improvements. This work proposes Manufacturing Process Model and Notation (MPMN) as an extension to BPMN; it offers a set of new and adapted notations that represent manufacturing processes. In order to add the ability to optimise or improve the system under study, MPMN is further extended and integrated with a full discrete-event simulation package to be able to easily build and simulate models of manufacturing systems. MPMN simulator is created to be a generic and reusable tool. It has a drag and drop library for non- simulation experts, to model and simulate MPMN models in the ExtendSim environment. This integration is considered a substitution to BPSim, the Business Process Simulation Standard that integrates BPMN and Simulation to model and execute business processes. The MPMN simulator combines both, models that are understood by all stakeholders and a simulation tool that is expressive enough to handle the varying levels of complexity in the manufacturing domain. This will strengthen the analysis and the evaluation of the current and future status of a system under study. The effectiveness of the developed system is demonstrated by application to two case studies covering different industry sectors

Contribution à la gestion de l'évolution des processus métiers

La gestion de l'évolution des processus métier exige une compréhension approfondie des cause des changements, de leurs niveaux d'application ainsi que de leurs impacts sur le reste du système. Dans cette thèse, nous proposons une approche de gestion et de contrôle de l'éolution des processus métier permettant d'analyser ces changements et de comprendre leurs impacts. Cela assistera les concepteurs et les chargés de l'évolution des processus métier à établir une évaluation a priori de l'impact pour réduire les risques et les coûts liés à ces changements et d'améliorer le service et la qualité des processus métier. Ce travail consiste à proposer un ensemble de contributions permettant une vérification de la cohérence et de la conformité des modèles de processus métier après chaque changement, mais aussi d'établir une éaluation a priori de l'impact structurel et qualificatif des modifications. Les différentes approches proposées sont en cours d'expérimentation et de validation à travers le développement d'une plate-forme basée sur l'environnement EclipseThe evolution management of the business processes requires an exhaustive understanding of the change. An evolution engineer needs to understand reasons of a change, its application levels, and subsequently its impact on the whole system. In this thesis, we propose an approach for an a priori change impact analysis, to better control the business process evolution. This may help the business experts and the process designers to evaluate change impact in order to reduce the associated risks and estimate the related costs. It may also help to improve the service and quality of the business processes. This work contributes an eventual improvement, in regard, to verify the coherence and the compliance of the business process models, after each change. It leads to evaluate an a priori change impact analysis in structural and qualitatie aspects. The multiple-perspectives of the proposed approach have been reviewed experimentally. The validation of the approach is evaluated by exteding the Eclipse Development Environment, with the help of a set of plug-ins, as a prototype plate-form.DUNKERQUE-SCD-Bib.electronique (591839901) / SudocSudocFranceF

Musterbasierte Kontrollflusssemantik für Geschäftsprozessmodellierungssprachen

Die Bedeutung einzelner Symbole ist bei Geschäftsprozessmodellierungssprachen häufig nicht eindeutig festgelegt, wodurch Missverständnisse zwischen Domänenexperten und Modellierern gefördert werden. In dieser Arbeit wird eine auf Kontrollflussmustern basierende Methode zur Beschreibung der Kontrollflusssemantik von graphischen Geschäftsprozessmodellierungssprachen vorgestellt. Darüber hinaus werden die effiziente Anwendbarkeit und grundsätzliche Nützlichkeit der Methode aufgezeigt