Investigating business process elements: a journey from the field of Business Process Management to ontological analysis, and back

Business process modelling languages (BPMLs) typically enable the representation of business processes via the creation of process models, which are constructed using the elements and graphical symbols of the BPML itself. Despite the wide literature on business process modelling languages, on the comparison between graphical components of different languages, on the development and enrichment of new and existing notations, and the numerous definitions of what a business process is, the BPM community still lacks a robust (ontological) characterisation of the elements involved in business process models and, even more importantly, of the very notion of business process. While some efforts have been done towards this direction, the majority of works in this area focuses on the analysis of the behavioural (control flow) aspects of process models only, thus neglecting other central modelling elements, such as those denoting process participants (e.g., data objects, actors), relationships among activities, goals, values, and so on. The overall purpose of this PhD thesis is to provide a systematic study of the elements that constitute a business process, based on ontological analysis, and to apply these results back to the Business Process Management field. The major contributions that were achieved in pursuing our overall purpose are: (i) a first comprehensive and systematic investigation of what constitutes a business process meta-model in literature, and a definition of what we call a literature-based business process meta-model starting from the different business process meta-models proposed in the literature; (ii) the ontological analysis of four business process elements (event, participant, relationship among activities, and goal), which were identified as missing or problematic in the literature and in the literature-based meta-model; (iii) the revision of the literature-based business process meta-model that incorporates the analysis of the four investigated business process elements - event, participant, relationship among activities and goal; and (iv) the definition and evaluation of a notation that enriches the relationships between activities by including the notions of occurrence dependences and rationales

An Ontological Approach to Compliance Verification of the NIS 2 Directive

Cybersecurity, which notoriously concerns both human and technological aspects, is becoming more and more regulated by a number of textual documents spanning several pages, such as the European GDPR Regulation and the NIS Directive. This paper introduces an approach that leverages techniques of semantic representation and reasoning, hence an ontological approach, towards the compliance check with the security measures that textual documents prescribe. We choose the ontology instrument to achieve two fundamental objectives: domain modelling and resource interrogation. The formalisation of entities and relations from the directive, and the consequent improved structuring with respect to sheer prose is dramatically helpful for any organisation through the hard task of compliance verification. The semantic approach is demonstrated with two articles of the new European NIS 2 directive

Semantic-Based Collaborative Decisional System Integrating Fuzzy Reasoning in an IoT Context

Technologies such as IoT and Big data use advanced representation models and methods to lead to coherent systems and softwares. Nevertheless, there is a substantial lack of approaches able to support uncertain data and fuzzy environment to build a bridge between physical objects, semantic real-world view and the systemic view. In this work, we propose a semantic driven approach to support a decisional system based on semantic representation and an accurate fuzzy reasoning using the Choquet Integral method. The proposed generic architecture takes into consideration the formal representation of the real world, users’ needs and processes. Further, we focus on the relation between them and the dependence between different criteria. A detailed case study in the agriculture domain is also presented to showcase the interest of our proposal

Measuring Expert Performance at Manually Classifying Domain Entities under Upper Ontology Classes

Classifying entities in domain ontologies under upper ontology classes is a recommended task in ontology engineering to facilitate semantic interoperability and modelling consistency. Integrating upper ontologies this way is difficult and, despite emerging automated methods, remains a largely manual task. Little is known about how well experts perform at upper ontology integration. To develop methodological and tool support, we first need to understand how well experts do this task. We designed a study to measure the performance of human experts at manually classifying classes in a general knowledge domain ontology with entities in the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), an upper ontology used widely in the biomedical domain. We conclude that manually classifying domain entities under upper ontology classes is indeed very difficult to do correctly. Given the importance of the task and the high degree of inconsistent classifications we encountered, we further conclude that it is necessary to improve the methodological framework surrounding the manual integration of domain and upper ontologies

Ontologias em ciência da informação: um estudo bibliométrico no Brasil

O estudo de ontologias como ferramenta de organização do conhecimento vem despertando interesse da academia. Cada vez mais publicações sobre o tema vem sendo produzidas, especialmente no âmbito da web semântica. O presente trabalho busca compreender o contexto de produção científica sobre ontologias no Brasil, analisando artigos científicos indexados pela Brapci – Base de Dados em Ciência da Informação – Acervo de Publicações Brasileiras em Ciência da Informação, mantido pela Universidade Federal do Paraná. A análise foi realizada por meio de um estudo bibliométrico que determinou os autores de maior relevância para a temática no Brasil, as principais relações entre os autores e instituições, bem como a evolução da produção sobre ontologia nas últimas décadas. Os resultados apontam a necessidade da criação de vínculos entre os diversos polos de estudo sobre ontologias no Brasil, com a finalidade de ampliar o relacionamento dos autores e instituiçõesm bem como a troca de experiências e conhecimento. Ainda demonstram o aumento de artigos na temática desde 2001 em razão das relações entre ontologias, web semântica e ciência da informação, bem como do crescente interesse da tecnologia da informação. Por fim, é possível verificar, pelas palavras-chave dos artigos, a interdisciplinaridade e a influência da filosofia e tecnologia da informação nos trabalhos ontológicos na ciência da informação

Adaptable underwater networks: The relation between autonomy and communications

This paper discusses requirements for autonomy and communications in maritime environments through two use cases which are sourced from military scenarios: Mine Counter Measures (MCM) and Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW). To address these requirements, this work proposes a service-oriented architecture that breaks the typical boundaries between the autonomy and the communications stacks. An initial version of the architecture has been implemented and its deployment during a field trial done in January 2019 is reported. The paper discusses the achieved results in terms of system flexibility and ability to address the MCM and ASW requirements

ATOMISTIC SIMULATION AND FIRST PRINCIPLES CALCULATION OF INTERFACIAL ENERGETICS OF GALVANIZED ADVANCED HIGH STRENGTH STEELS

The 3rd generation (3G) advanced high strength steels (AHSSs) have drawn significant attention in recent years because applications of AHSSs will enable vehicle mass reduction with safety standards met, which can reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases of vehicles. However, the increased concentration of alloying elements that are contributors to the improved strength, i.e., Si, Mn, in AHSSs raises concerns of how galvanizing processes for these steels will be affected. Galvanizing is a cost-effective processing method widely used in industry to improve the corrosion resistance of steels. For the galvanizing processes of AHSSs, Si and Mn can be selectively oxidized during annealing and their oxides are difficult to be reduced. The oxides will affect the subsequent hot-dipping of the steel into liquid Zn bath to form a Zn coating. During hot-dipping, complex metallurgical reactions happen. As a result, a Zn coating consisting of inhibition layer, Fe-Zn intermetallics and Zn overlay forms. The oxides formed during annealing will influence the metallurgical reactions and may lead to galvanizing defects such as pinholes and bare spots. To investigate the interfacial structures between the steel substrate and the Zn overlay, extensive experimental studies have been conducted, by using post-mortem scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observation, along with other materials characterization technologies. However, the size of the interface zone is typically on the order of 100 nm, and complex interfacial reactions occur in a short time period (seconds). Thus, it is challenging to fully understand the physics of galvanizing solely by conducting experimental studies. In recent years, computational studies have been extensively used in material science and engineering. However, to handle the complex interfacial reactions involving multiple elements and phases, an interatomic potential with high fidelity is needed. Current research on galvanizing coating interface is restricted to calculations at the electronic scale. Mesoscale method such as phase field modeling was also restricted due to the lack of physical properties of surface and interfaces in galvanizing. In this work, based on the reported Fe-Mn-Si-C Modified Embedded Atom Method (MEAM) potential describing low alloy steels, we develop a seven-element second nearest neighbor (2NN) MEAM potential to describe multiple phases present at the interface between the steel substrate and the Zn overlay. The complex crystal structure and mechanical properties of the inhibition layer and the Fe-Zn intermetallics are well captured. The geometry of the oxide phases, MnO and alpha-quartz SiO2 can also be well described. A MATLAB toolkit is developed for potential development. This toolkit is used to reduce the property errors between MEAM prediction and the experimental values, like most potential development work does. Three criteria are proposed and used to avoid physically inadmissible solution space. Through potential development, it is found that satisfying proper criteria is more important than reducing property errors. After the MEAM potential is developed, surface and interface properties are investigated. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are conducted to calculate surface energy and interfacial energy between steel substrate, inhibition layer, Fe-Zn intermetallics and oxides. The calculation results show a negative interfacial energy between Fe substrate and the inhibition layer, a manifestation of the high affinity between Fe and Al. Negative interfacial energy is also found in Fe-FeZn intermetallics interface but its value is higher than that between Fe and the inhibition layer. Negative interfacial energy is found for Fe-SiO2, and positive interfacial energy for Fe-MnO, which may explain why SiO2 is detrimental to galvanizing coating process while MnO is less detrimental. Positive interfacial energy is found for Fe3Al8-oxides interface, but negative interfacial energy is found for interface between FeZn intermetallics and oxides, which seems to disagree with experimental results. Work of adhesion (WOA) is then calculated based on the obtained surface and interfacial energy to characterize the strength of the interface. The calculation results agree with the results obtained by other methods. Importantly, the results presented in this thesis provide a comprehensive database for the surface and interface properties of phases in galvanizing coating, which are not available now to the community

Foundational Ontologies meet Ontology Matching: A Survey

Ontology matching is a research area aimed at finding ways to make different ontologies interoperable. Solutions to the problem have been proposed from different disciplines, including databases, natural language processing, and machine learning. The role of foundational ontologies for ontology matching is an important one. It is multifaceted and with room for development. This paper presents an overview of the different tasks involved in ontology matching that consider foundational ontologies. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of existing proposals and highlight the challenges to be addressed in the future

Production of particulate brown carbon during atmospheric aging of residential wood-burning emissions

We investigate the optical properties of light-absorbing organic carbon (brown carbon) from domestic wood combustion as a function of simulated atmospheric aging. At shorter wavelengths (370–470&thinsp;nm), light absorption by brown carbon from primary organic aerosol (POA) and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formed during aging was around 10&thinsp;% and 20&thinsp;%, respectively, of the total aerosol absorption (brown carbon plus black carbon). The mass absorption cross section (MAC) determined for black carbon (BC, 13.7&thinsp;m2&thinsp;g−1 at 370&thinsp;nm, with geometric standard deviation GSD&thinsp;=1.1) was consistent with that recommended by Bond et al. (2006). The corresponding MAC of POA (5.5&thinsp;m2&thinsp;g−1; GSD&thinsp;=1.2) was higher than that of SOA (2.4&thinsp;m2&thinsp;g−1; GSD&thinsp;=1.3) at 370&thinsp;nm. However, SOA presents a substantial mass fraction, with a measured average SOA&thinsp;∕&thinsp;POA mass ratio after aging of ∼5 and therefore contributes significantly to the overall light absorption, highlighting the importance of wood-combustion SOA as a source of atmospheric brown carbon. The wavelength dependence of POA and SOA light absorption between 370 and 660&thinsp;nm is well described with absorption Ångström exponents of 4.6 and 5.6, respectively. UV-visible absorbance measurements of water and methanol-extracted OA were also performed, showing that the majority of the light-absorbing OA is water insoluble even after aging.</p

Framing and Context of the Report

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the leading international body for assessing the science related to climate change. It provides policymakers with regular assessments of the scientific basis of human-induced climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation. This IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate is the most comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the observed and projected changes to the ocean and cryosphere and their associated impacts and risks, with a focus on resilience, risk management response options, and adaptation measures, considering both their potential and limitations. It brings together knowledge on physical and biogeochemical changes, the interplay with ecosystem changes, and the implications for human communities. It serves policymakers, decision makers, stakeholders, and all interested parties with unbiased, up-to-date, policy-relevant information. Chapter 1: This special report assesses new knowledge since the IPCC 5th Assessment Report (AR5) and the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5ºC (SR15) on how the ocean and cryosphere have and are expected to change with ongoing global warming, the risks and opportunities these changes bring to ecosystems and people, and mitigation, adaptation and governance options for reducing future risks. Chapter 1 provides context on the importance of the ocean and cryosphere, and the framework for the assessments in subsequent chapters of the report. All people on Earth depend directly or indirectly on the ocean and cryosphere. The fundamental roles of the ocean and cryosphere in the Earth system include the uptake and redistribution of anthropogenic carbon dioxide and heat by the ocean, as well as their crucial involvement of in the hydrological cycle. The cryosphere also amplifies climate changes through snow, ice and permafrost feedbacks. Services provided to people by the ocean and/or cryosphere include food and freshwater, renewable energy, health and wellbeing, cultural values, trade and transport. {1.1, 1.2, 1.5} Sustainable development is at risk from emerging and intensifying ocean and cryosphere changes. Ocean and cryosphere changes interact with each of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Progress on climate action (SDG 13) would reduce risks to aspects of sustainable development that are fundamentally linked to the ocean and cryosphere and the services they provide (high confidence1 ). Progress on achieving the SDGs can contribute to reducing the exposure or vulnerabilities of people and communities to the risks of ocean and cryosphere change (medium confidence). {1.1} Communities living in close connection with polar, mountain, and coastal environments are particularly exposed to the current and future hazards of ocean and cryosphere change. Coasts are home to approximately 28% of the global population, including around 11% living on land less than 10 m above sea level. Almost 10% of the global population lives in the Arctic or high mountain regions. People in these regions face the greatest exposure to ocean and cryosphere change, and poor and marginalised people here are particularly vulnerable to climate-related hazards and risks (very high confidence). The adaptive capacity of people, communities and nations is shaped by social, political, cultural, economic, technological, institutional, geographical and demographic factors. {1.1, 1.5, 1.6, Cross-Chapter Box 2 in Chapter 1} Ocean and cryosphere changes are pervasive and observedfrom high mountains, to the polar regions, to coasts, and intothe deep ocean. AR5 assessed that the ocean is warming (0 to700 m: virtually certain2; 700 to 2,000 m: likely), sea level is rising(high confidence), and ocean acidity is increasing (high confidence).Most glaciers are shrinking (high confidence), the Greenland andAntarctic ice sheets are losing mass (high confidence), sea ice extent inthe Arctic is decreasing (very high confidence), Northern Hemispheresnow cover is decreasing (very high confidence), and permafrosttemperatures are increasing (high confidence). Improvementssince AR5 in observation systems, techniques, reconstructions andmodel developments, have advanced scientific characterisationand understanding of ocean and cryosphere change, including inpreviously identified areas of concern such as ice sheets and AtlanticMeridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). {1.1, 1.4, 1.8.1}Evidence and understanding of the human causes of climatewarming, and of associated ocean and cryosphere changes,has increased over the past 30 years of IPCC assessments (veryhigh confidence). Human activities are estimated to have causedapproximately 1.0ºC of global warming above pre-industrial levels(SR15). Areas of concern in earlier IPCC reports, such as the expectedacceleration of sea level rise, are now observed (high confidence).Evidence for expected slow-down of AMOC is emerging in sustainedobservations and from long-term palaeoclimate reconstructions(medium confidence), and may be related with anthropogenic forcingaccording to model simulations, although this remains to be properlyattributed. Significant sea level rise contributions from Antarctic icesheet mass loss (very high confidence), which earlier reports did notexpect to manifest this century, are already being observed. {1.1, 1.4}Ocean and cryosphere changes and risks by the end-of-century(2081?2100) will be larger under high greenhouse gas emissionscenarios, compared with low emission scenarios (very highconfidence). Projections and assessments of future climate, oceanand cryosphere changes in the Special Report on the Ocean andCryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC) are commonly basedon coordinated climate model experiments from the Coupled ModelIntercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) forced with RepresentativeConcentration Pathways (RCPs) of future radiative forcing. Currentemissions continue to grow at a rate consistent with a high emissionfuture without effective climate change mitigation policies (referredto as RCP8.5). The SROCC assessment contrasts this high greenhousegas emission future with a low greenhouse gas emission, highmitigation future (referred to as RCP2.6) that gives a two in threechance of limiting warming by the end of the century to less than 2oC above pre-industrial. {Cross-Chapter Box 1 in Chapter 1} Characteristics of ocean and cryosphere change include thresholds of abrupt change, long-term changes that cannot be avoided, and irreversibility (high confidence). Ocean warming, acidification and deoxygenation, ice sheet and glacier mass loss, and permafrost degradation are expected to be irreversible on time scales relevant to human societies and ecosystems. Long response times of decades to millennia mean that the ocean and cryosphere are committed to long-term change even after atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations and radiative forcing stabilise (high confidence). Ice-melt or the thawing of permafrost involve thresholds (state changes) that allow for abrupt, nonlinear responses to ongoing climate warming (high confidence). These characteristics of ocean and cryosphere change pose risks and challenges to adaptation. {1.1, Box 1.1, 1.3} Societies will be exposed, and challenged to adapt, to changes in the ocean and cryosphere even if current and future efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions keep global warming well below 2ºC (very high confidence). Ocean and cryosphere-related mitigation and adaptation measures include options that address the causes of climate change, support biological and ecological adaptation, or enhance societal adaptation. Most ocean-based local mitigation and adaptation measures have limited effectiveness to mitigate climate change and reduce its consequences at the global scale, but are useful to implement because they address local risks, often have co-benefits such as biodiversity conservation, and have few adverse side effects. Effective mitigation at a global scale will reduce the need and cost of adaptation, and reduce the risks of surpassing limits to adaptation. Ocean-based carbon dioxide removal at the global scale has potentially large negative ecosystem consequences. {1.6.1, 1.6.2, Cross-Chapter Box 2 in Chapter 1} The scale and cross-boundary dimensions of changes in the ocean and cryosphere challenge the ability of communities, cultures and nations to respond effectively within existing governance frameworks (high confidence). Profound economic and institutional transformations are needed if climate-resilient development is to be achieved (high confidence). Changes in the ocean and cryosphere, the ecosystem services that they provide, the drivers of those changes, and the risks to marine, coastal, polar and mountain ecosystems, occur on spatial and temporal scales that may not align within existing governance structures and practices (medium confidence). This report highlights the requirements for transformative governance, international and transboundary cooperation, and greater empowerment of local communities in the governance of the ocean, coasts, and cryosphere in a changing climate. {1.5, 1.7, Cross-Chapter Box 2 in Chapter 1, Cross-Chapter Box 3 in Chapter 1} Robust assessments of ocean and cryosphere change, and the development of context-specific governance and response options, depend on utilising and strengthening all available knowledge systems (high confidence). Scientific knowledge from observations, models and syntheses provides global to local scale understandings of climate change (very high confidence). Indigenous knowledge (IK) and local knowledge (LK) provide context-specific and socio-culturally relevant understandings for effective responses and policies (medium confidence). Education and climate literacy enable climate action and adaptation (high confidence). {1.8, Cross-Chapter Box 4 in Chapter 1} Long-term sustained observations and continued modelling are critical for detecting, understanding and predicting ocean and cryosphere change, providing the knowledge to inform risk assessments and adaptation planning (high confidence). Knowledge gaps exist in scientific knowledge for important regions, parameters and processes of ocean and cryosphere change, including for physically plausible, high impact changes like high end sea level rise scenarios that would be costly if realised without effective adaptation planning and even then may exceed limits to adaptation. Means such as expert judgement, scenario building, and invoking multiple lines of evidence enable comprehensive risk assessments even in cases of uncertain future ocean and cryosphere changes.Fil: Abram, Nerilie. Australian National University; AustraliaFil: Gattuso, Jean Pierre. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; FranciaFil: Prakash, Anjal. Teri School Of Advanced Studies; IndiaFil: Cheng, Lijing. Chinese Academy Of Science; ChinaFil: Chidichimo, María Paz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Ministerio de Defensa. Armada Argentina. Servicio de Hidrografía Naval. Departamento Oceanografía; ArgentinaFil: Crate, Susan. George Mason University; Estados UnidosFil: Enomoto, H.. National Polar Agency; JapónFil: Garschagen, M.. Technische Universitat München; AlemaniaFil: Gruber, N.. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich; SuizaFil: Harper, S.. University Of Alberta. Faculty Of Agricultural, Life And Environmental Sciences. Departament Of Agricultural, Food And Nutritional Science.; CanadáFil: Holland, Elisabeth. University Of South Pacific; FiyiFil: Kudela, Raphael Martin. University of California at San Diego. Scripps Institution of Oceanography; Estados UnidosFil: Rice, Jake. University of Toronto; CanadáFil: Steffen, Konrad. Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research; SuizaFil: Von Schuckmann, Karina. Mercator Ocean International; Franci