Flexible coordination techniques for dynamic cloud service collaboration

The provision of individual, but also composed services is central in cloud service provisioning. We describe a framework for the coordination of cloud services, based on a tuple‐space architecture which uses an ontology to describe the services. Current techniques for service collaboration offer limited scope for flexibility. They are based on statically describing and compositing services. With the open nature of the web and cloud services, the need for a more flexible, dynamic approach to service coordination becomes evident. In order to support open communities of service providers, there should be the option for these providers to offer and withdraw their services to/from the community. For this to be realised, there needs to be a degree of self‐organisation. Our techniques for coordination and service matching aim to achieve this through matching goal‐oriented service requests with providers that advertise their offerings dynamically. Scalability of the solution is a particular concern that will be evaluated in detail

Математична мова в технічному університеті

Іn the article is analyzed philosophical and mathematical engineering aspect of intended use of mathematical language in higher technical education at the present stage of its development, based on the characteristics of the mathematical language in didactic space of technical university. Considered a problem of low skills in mathematical language of the students, and as a consequence – development of mathematical speech. Offered possible areas of improvement of mathematical language mastering by the students during professional training based on deepening application of functions of mathematical language (communication, idea forming, epistemological, integrating, nominative, information-preserving, culture bearing) in the educational process.У статті проаналізовано філософський та інженерний аспект призначення математичної мови у вищій технічній освіті на сучасному етапі її розвитку, спираючись на особливості математичної мови у дидактичному просторі технічного університету. Розглянуто проблему недостатнього рівня володіння студентами математичною мовою, і, як наслідок, - розвитку математичного мовлення. Запропоновано можливі напрями удосконалення засвоєння математичної мови студентами у ході професійної підготовки на підґрунті цілеспрямованого поглиблення застосування функцій математичної мови (комунікаційної, мислеутворювальної, гносеологічної, інтегруючої, номінативної, інформаційно-зберігаючої, культуроносної) у навчальному процесі

Математична мова в технічному університеті

Іn the article is analyzed philosophical and mathematical engineering aspect of intended use of mathematical language in higher technical education at the present stage of its development, based on the characteristics of the mathematical language in didactic space of technical university. Considered a problem of low skills in mathematical language of the students, and as a consequence – development of mathematical speech. Offered possible areas of improvement of mathematical language mastering by the students during professional training based on deepening application of functions of mathematical language (communication, idea forming, epistemological, integrating, nominative, information-preserving, culture bearing) in the educational process.У статті проаналізовано філософський та інженерний аспект призначення математичної мови у вищій технічній освіті на сучасному етапі її розвитку, спираючись на особливості математичної мови у дидактичному просторі технічного університету. Розглянуто проблему недостатнього рівня володіння студентами математичною мовою, і, як наслідок, - розвитку математичного мовлення. Запропоновано можливі напрями удосконалення засвоєння математичної мови студентами у ході професійної підготовки на підґрунті цілеспрямованого поглиблення застосування функцій математичної мови (комунікаційної, мислеутворювальної, гносеологічної, інтегруючої, номінативної, інформаційно-зберігаючої, культуроносної) у навчальному процесі

Software asset management processes and model

The industry must now focus on software assets in order to improve the management of purchased software and their associated licenses: over the years, organizations have indeed purchased a significant amount of commercial software and they now have to manage their related costs while ensuring that the license's terms and conditions are respected. Until now, the industry has been offering incomplete solutions to the management of software assets while using different approaches, terminologies and tools with varying functional scopes. The industry recognizes the need to improve Software Asset Management (SAM) but does not agree on the means to do so. This thesis proposes to start with a common industry SAM definition. To help organizations use the processes that constitute the SAM definition, a descriptive analysis of the processes, an assessment method and a graphical representation are provided to facilitate its use in the industry. Furthermore, to ensure the set of processes reflect the view and needs of the industry; the author actively participated in the writing of the ISO standard on SAM: the panel of experts contributing to ISO also provided a mean to validate several of the SAM topics discussed in this thesis. The research objectives are to: 1. Actively contribute to the development and to the content of the ISO international standard on SAM (ISO/IEC 19770-1). 2. Capture, idenfify and analyze elements that are relevant to SAM, including those that would not make it into the final version of the international standard. 3. Provide an analysis of the international SAM standard with respect to the 27 processes within ISO/IEC 19770-1. 4. Develop an exploratory assessment method to allow organizations to determine their gaps against ISO/IEC 19770-1. The approach selected was to align the research work of this thesis with the then new ISO working group created in 2002 to address issues related to the management of software assets and to contribute actively to the development of an international standard on SAM processes, that is: ISO/IEC 19770-1. The results of this thesis are: 1. A common set of processes to describe the scope and content of SAM. This allows the industry to have a common point of reference and vocabulary when referring to SAM. 2. Through a literature review covering both the industry and the research community it was possible to highlights the divergence of scope and terminology with software manufacturer and the lack of agreement of what is a SAM manager. This thesis addresses these issues by identifying the full set of SAM processes. 3. The thesis analyses the standard used as the basis of reference for the assessment, that is: the ISO/IEC 19770-1 standard on SAM. The description and analysis of this standard allows for a better understanding of the purpose of each process and the interactions across existing standards such as ISO/IEC 20000 on Service Management. 4. The thesis also proposes a method to assess and assign a maturity level to each of the processes of the ISO/IEC 19770-1 standard; the ISO/IEC 15504 standard is used to perform the assessment. 5. Organizations recognize that poor management of software assets puts the organization at risk. However, organizations did not have any common way of assessing these risks. With the use of the ISO/IEC 19770-1 standard and the assessment method, organization can now identify the maturity levels of control points and assess their impact on the organization

The Paradigms of Industry 4.0 and Circular Economy as Enabling Drivers for the Competitiveness of Businesses and Territories: The Case of an Italian Ceramic Tiles Manufacturing Company

Sustainable development and the circular economy are two important issues for the future and the competitiveness of businesses. The programs for the integration of sustainability into industrial activities include the reconfiguration of production processes with a view to reducing their impact on the natural system, the development of new eco-sustainable products and the redesign of the business model. This paradigm shift requires the participation and commitment of different stakeholder groups and industry can completely redesign supply chains, aiming at resource efficiency and circularity. Developments in key ICT technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), help this systemic transition. This paper explores the phases of the transition from a linear to a circular economy and proposes a procedure for introducing the principles of sustainability (environmental, economic and social) in a manufacturing environment, through the design of a new Circular Business Model (CBM). The new procedure has been tested and validated in an Italian company producing ceramic tiles, using the digitalization of the production processes of the Industry 4.0 environment, to implement the impact assessment tools (LCA\u2014Life Cycle Assessment, LCC\u2014Life Cycle Costing and S-LCA\u2014Social Life Cycle Assessment) and the business intelligence systems to provide appropriate sustainability performance indicators essential for the definition of the new CBM

SeaWiFS calibration and validation plan, volume 3

The Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) will be the first ocean-color satellite since the Nimbus-7 Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS), which ceased operation in 1986. Unlike the CZCS, which was designed as a proof-of-concept experiment, SeaWiFS will provide routine global coverage every 2 days and is designed to provide estimates of photosynthetic concentrations of sufficient accuracy for use in quantitative studies of the ocean's primary productivity and biogeochemistry. A review of the CZCS mission is included that describes that data set's limitations and provides justification for a comprehensive SeaWiFS calibration and validation program. To accomplish the SeaWiFS scientific objectives, the sensor's calibration must be constantly monitored, and robust atmospheric corrections and bio-optical algorithms must be developed. The plan incorporates a multi-faceted approach to sensor calibration using a combination of vicarious (based on in situ observations) and onboard calibration techniques. Because of budget constraints and the limited availability of ship resources, the development of the operational algorithms (atmospheric and bio-optical) will rely heavily on collaborations with the Earth Observing System (EOS), the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) oceans team, and projects sponsored by other agencies, e.g., the U.S. Navy and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Other elements of the plan include the routine quality control of input ancillary data (e.g., surface wind, surface pressure, ozone concentration, etc.) used in the processing and verification of the level-0 (raw) data to level-1 (calibrated radiances), level-2 (derived products), and level-3 (gridded and averaged derived data) products

A Benchmarking Study of Air Force Program Manager Competencies

Over the last decade, the Department of Defense (DOD) has redesigned its acquisition process and the allocation of funding which in turned has had a major effect on the Air Force Acquisition program management workforce. The current acquisition workforce continues to face serious shortages of highly skilled program managers resulting in programs and projects overrun, undermanaged, and unexplained increased cost. Highly skilled talent with the necessary technology competencies is in high demand. These skills are critical to the success of programs and mission accomplishments. The purpose of this benchmarking study is to determine if the Air Force are developing and equipping their Program Manager (PM) with right competencies to be successful in program management. This study will identify and determine the PM competencies of the Air Force, FAI FAC-P/PM certification program, and Boeing. It will examine and analyze the Air Force certification requirement to FAI and PM competences to FAI and Boeing to determine any gaps exists

Collaborative Ontology Engineering Methodologies for the Development of Decision Support Systems: Case Studies in the Healthcare Domain

New models and technological advances are driving the digital transformation of healthcare systems. Ontologies and Semantic Web have been recognized among the most valuable solutions to manage the massive, various, and complex healthcare data deriving from different sources, thus acting as backbones for ontology-based Decision Support Systems (DSSs). Several contributions in the literature propose Ontology engineering methodologies (OEMs) to assist the formalization and development of ontologies, by providing guidelines on tasks, activities, and stakeholders' participation. Nevertheless, existing OEMs differ widely according to their approach, and often lack of sufficient details to support ontology engineers. This paper performs a meta-review of the main criteria adopted for assessing OEMs, and major issues and shortcomings identified in existing methodologies. The key issues requiring specific attention (i.e., the delivery of a feasibility study, the introduction of project management processes, the support for reuse, and the involvement of stakeholders) are then explored into three use cases of semantic-based DSS in health-related fields. Results contribute to the literature on OEMs by providing insights on specific tools and approaches to be used when tackling these issues in the development of collaborative OEMs supporting DSS

A tool to assess the success of business intelligence implementation within Free State government departments : task technology fit perspective

Thesis (Masters in Information Technology) -- Central University of Technology, Free State, 2019This study employed an information systems (IS) framework development based on a case study. Data collected using a questionnaire was analysed using factor analysis technique to examine the effectiveness of the widely used Vulindela System (VS) – a business intelligence (BI) technology – in the public sector, with special focus on three service-delivery-oriented government departments, namely the Treasury, Health and CoGTA in the Free State Province, South Africa. Two principal component analysis (PCA) models were built to extract latent factors capturing the weakness and strength of the VS, with the first model assessing the internal consistency and adequacy of the survey questions to measure the VS as an observable construct, and the second model is estimated based on the 12-Task Technology Fit (TTF) evaluation theoretical framework proposed by Goodhue (1995). Firstly, the evidence from the survey reveals that sizeable number of main users (about 70%) of the VS perceived the system as a: user-friendly-web-based IT system, an easily accessible, problem-solving and flexible BI tool capable of executing analytical (financial) and decision-making related tasks, amongst others. The effectiveness of the System is, however, constrained by lack of technical-know-how among most users, for instance to extract and disseminate complex information produced by the system and limited technical support to resolve network issues. Secondly, the results of the PCA models confirm that the strength of VS as a decision-making BI tool can be ascribed to its ability to perform unstructured tasks, collate quality information, enhance total productivity, whereas the operational capacity and functionality of the system is hampered by the System’s inflexibility to be integrated with other IT systems, inability to facilitate new/non-routine/unstructured tasks. Finally, the results of the TTF-based PCA model show that the VS is mostly (in) directly influenced by its operational capacity and functionality features, and its shortcomings is attributable to the System’s incompatibility to meet user’s task profile and inflexibility to execute new task demanded. Based on these findings, the efficiency gain derived by the main users in the focal provincial departments is relatively low vis-à-vis the high cost of implementing the system. The functionality features of the existing VS technology need to be upgraded to allow, for instance, easy accessibility of reports/information with short turn-around time, performance of (un-)structured and non-routine tasks that meet the users’ task profiles. Despite significant inferences produced by the two-pronged quantitative analysis by making use of a small sample, however, the robustness of the inferred results and statistical power of the structural framework will significantly improve by using a larger sample size