An investigation into the use of B-Nodes and state models for computer network technology and education

This thesis consists of a series of internationally published, peer reviewed, conference research papers and one journal paper. The papers evaluate and further develop two modelling methods for use in Information Technology (IT) design and for the educational and training needs of students within the area of computer and network technology. The IT age requires technical talent to fill positions such as network managers, web administrators, e-commerce consultants and network security experts as IT is changing rapidly, and this is placing considerable demands on higher educational institutions, both within Australia and internationally, to respond to these changes

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

Management of Technological Innovation in Developing and Developed Countries

It is widely accepted that technology is one of the forces driving economic growth. Although more and more new technologies have emerged, various evidence shows that their performances were not as high as expected. In both academia and practice, there are still many questions about what technologies to adopt and how to manage these technologies. The 15 articles in this book aim to look into these questions. There are quite many features in this book. Firstly, the articles are from both developed countries and developing countries in Asia, Africa and South and Middle America. Secondly, the articles cover a wide range of industries including telecommunication, sanitation, healthcare, entertainment, education, manufacturing, and financial. Thirdly, the analytical approaches are multi-disciplinary, ranging from mathematical, economic, analytical, empirical and strategic. Finally, the articles study both public and private organizations, including the service industry, manufacturing industry, and governmental organizations. Given its wide coverage and multi-disciplines, the book may be useful for both academic research and practical management

Combining SOA and BPM Technologies for Cross-System Process Automation

This paper summarizes the results of an industry case study that introduced a cross-system business process automation solution based on a combination of SOA and BPM standard technologies (i.e., BPMN, BPEL, WSDL). Besides discussing major weaknesses of the existing, custom-built, solution and comparing them against experiences with the developed prototype, the paper presents a course of action for transforming the current solution into the proposed solution. This includes a general approach, consisting of four distinct steps, as well as specific action items that are to be performed for every step. The discussion also covers language and tool support and challenges arising from the transformation

Plant Biodiversity and Genetic Resources

The papers included in this Special Issue address a variety of important aspects of plant biodiversity and genetic resources, including definitions, descriptions, and illustrations of different components and their value for food and nutrition security, breeding, and environmental services. Furthermore, comprehensive information is provided regarding conservation approaches and techniques for plant genetic resources, policy aspects, and results of biological, genetic, morphological, economic, social, and breeding-related research activities. The complexity and vulnerability of (plant) biodiversity and its inherent genetic resources, as an integral part of the contextual ecosystem and the human web of life, are clearly demonstrated in this Special Issue, and for several encountered problems and constraints, possible approaches or solutions are presented to overcome these

Learning from co-housing initiatives:

Following the UN world summits on Climate Change (Paris 2015) and Habitat (Quito 2016), most European cities assume an active role to implement internationally agreed goals related to climate change, translated in the so-called New Urban Agenda. At the same time, the urban housing market is increasingly inaccessible for low- and middle-income households. To overcome problems such as failing housing supply and high energy-bills, groups of residents take initiatives to create and manage housing projects collectively; these initiatives are further indicated as ‘co-housing’. The aim of this study is to create deeper understanding of the current rise of co-housing in Europe, and what it could mean in urban policies addressing energy transition and climate change. There are two domains where co-housing can become an important asset for urban development: design and maintenance of (semi-)public space for climate change mitigation, and the transition to a circular metabolism in housing. Based on empirical data, this thesis concludes that co-housing projects present relevant models and approaches for reducing the energy consumption and for integrating renewable energies in the general housing stock. Engineers can learn from co-housing pioneers to advance the targets for energy-transition and further develop sustainable cities. The thesis contributes to the emerging body of knowledge with a new understanding of co-housing, analysing its ‘key-features’ with an interdisciplinary framework, in a European context. It adds a new perspective to existing co-housing research, which is dominated by social sciences, by drawing attention to the physical characteristics of co-housing, produced in architectural, planning and engineering processes (the technosphere). The choices made during design and building are not only shaped by the residents’ aims and perception of sustainability, but also influenced by technosphere-related institutions, such as the building-components industry, energy or waste networks and providers, and planning regulations. The professional partners for the projects, such as housing associations and engineers, are equally affected by the institutional context, but their position is different from that of residents. They may for example be more anchored in governmental or professional regulations. To structure this dynamic, the research distinguishes three interrelated aspects: ACTORS / involved in the (realisation of) projects: social practices of residents and their professional partners in co-creation. CONTEXT / the structural forces surrounding the projects, specifically the macroinstitutional regimes. This also includes culturally determined interpretations of sustainability, technology, participation, societal roles, sharing, and so on. TECHNOSPHERE / specifically building technology and utilities, focussing on energyrelated design and engineering of the co-housing projects. The thesis is primarily based on qualitative methods, as it found that reliable quantitative data are as yet unavailable. Looking for effective low-impact energysolution in co-housing, quantitative data remain however necessary and this thesis elaborates on pitfalls and possibilities for their accumulation. Empirical material from Dutch case-studies form the core of the research. Examples were also taken from countries where the re-emergence of co-housing is most visible and articulate: Belgium, France, Germany, the UK and Switzerland. Co-housing continues to develop and gain experiences with competences, such as communication skills and the ability to work cross-disciplinarily. The building industry and engineering professions increasingly call for such capabilities, but resident-led urban development have not yet entered the urbanism and engineering curricula. Therefore, opportunities should be provided for future professionals not only to acquire such capabilities but also to address fundamental questions related to residentinvolvement and democracy. This will enable future professionals to create a balance between ‘bottom-up’ articulated needs on the quality of living environments with large-scale investments in new urban energy, mobility and mutual care networks

Learning from co-housing initiatives — Between Passivhaus engineers and active inhabitants

Following the UN world summits on Climate Change (Paris 2015) and Habitat (Quito 2016), most European cities assume an active role to implement internationally agreed goals related to climate change, translated in the so-called New Urban Agenda. At the same time, the urban housing market is increasingly inaccessible for low- and middle-income households. To overcome problems such as failing housing supply and high energy-bills, groups of residents take initiatives to create and manage housing projects collectively; these initiatives are further indicated as ‘co-housing’.  The aim of this study is to create deeper understanding of the current rise of co-housing in Europe, and what it could mean in urban policies addressing energy transition and climate change. There are two domains where co-housing can become an important asset for urban development: design and maintenance of (semi-)public space for climate change mitigation, and the transition to a circular metabolism in housing. Based on empirical data, this thesis concludes that co-housing projects present relevant models and approaches for reducing the energy consumption and for integrating renewable energies in the general housing stock. Engineers can learn from co-housing pioneers to advance the targets for energy-transition and further develop sustainable cities. The thesis contributes to the emerging body of knowledge with a new understanding of co-housing, analysing its ‘key-features’ with an interdisciplinary framework, in a European context. It adds a new perspective to existing co-housing research, which is dominated by social sciences, by drawing attention to the physical characteristics of co-housing, produced in architectural, planning and engineering processes (the technosphere). The choices made during design and building are not only shaped by the residents’ aims and perception of sustainability, but also influenced by technosphere-related institutions, such as the building-components industry, energy or waste networks and providers, and planning regulations. The professional partners for the projects, such as housing associations and engineers, are equally affected by the institutional context, but their position is different from that of residents. They may for example be more anchored in governmental or professional regulations. To structure this dynamic, the research distinguishes three interrelated aspects: ACTORS / involved in the (realisation of) projects: social practices of residents and their professional partners in co-creation. CONTEXT / the structural forces surrounding the projects, specifically the macroinstitutional regimes. This also includes culturally determined interpretations of sustainability, technology, participation, societal roles, sharing, and so on. TECHNOSPHERE / specifically building technology and utilities, focussing on energyrelated design and engineering of the co-housing projects. The thesis is primarily based on qualitative methods, as it found that reliable quantitative data are as yet unavailable. Looking for effective low-impact energysolution in co-housing, quantitative data remain however necessary and this thesis elaborates on pitfalls and possibilities for their accumulation. Empirical material from Dutch case-studies form the core of the research. Examples were also taken from countries where the re-emergence of co-housing is most visible and articulate: Belgium, France, Germany, the UK and Switzerland. Co-housing continues to develop and gain experiences with competences, such as communication skills and the ability to work cross-disciplinarily. The building industry and engineering professions increasingly call for such capabilities, but resident-led urban development have not yet entered the urbanism and engineering curricula. Therefore, opportunities should be provided for future professionals not only to acquire such capabilities but also to address fundamental questions related to residentinvolvement and democracy. This will enable future professionals to create a balance between ‘bottom-up’ articulated needs on the quality of living environments with large-scale investments in new urban energy, mobility and mutual care networks

EG-ICE 2021 Workshop on Intelligent Computing in Engineering

The 28th EG-ICE International Workshop 2021 brings together international experts working at the interface between advanced computing and modern engineering challenges. Many engineering tasks require open-world resolutions to support multi-actor collaboration, coping with approximate models, providing effective engineer-computer interaction, search in multi-dimensional solution spaces, accommodating uncertainty, including specialist domain knowledge, performing sensor-data interpretation and dealing with incomplete knowledge. While results from computer science provide much initial support for resolution, adaptation is unavoidable and most importantly, feedback from addressing engineering challenges drives fundamental computer-science research. Competence and knowledge transfer goes both ways