Enhancing interoperability: ontology-mapping in an electronic institution

The automation of B2B processes requires a high level of interoperability between potentially disparate systems. We model such systems using software agents (representing enterprises), which interact using specific protocols. When considering open environments, interoperability problems are even more challenging. Addressing business automation as a task that intends to align businesses through a tight integration of processes may not be desirable, because business relationships may be temporary and dynamic. Furthermore, openness implies heterogeneity of technologies, processes, and even domain ontologies. After discussing these issues, this paper presents, in the context of an Electronic Institution, an ontology-mapping service that enables the automation of negotiation protocols when agents may use different ontologies to represent their domain knowledge. The ontology-mapping service employs two approaches used for lexical and semantic similarity, namely N-Grams and WordNet, and poses few requirements on the ontologies' representation format. Examples are provided that illustrate the integration of ontology-mapping with automated negotiation. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg

Declarative Event-Based Workflow as Distributed Dynamic Condition Response Graphs

We present Dynamic Condition Response Graphs (DCR Graphs) as a declarative, event-based process model inspired by the workflow language employed by our industrial partner and conservatively generalizing prime event structures. A dynamic condition response graph is a directed graph with nodes representing the events that can happen and arrows representing four relations between events: condition, response, include, and exclude. Distributed DCR Graphs is then obtained by assigning roles to events and principals. We give a graphical notation inspired by related work by van der Aalst et al. We exemplify the use of distributed DCR Graphs on a simple workflow taken from a field study at a Danish hospital, pointing out their flexibility compared to imperative workflow models. Finally we provide a mapping from DCR Graphs to Buchi-automata.Comment: In Proceedings PLACES 2010, arXiv:1110.385

Ultrasound assisted biobleaching of cotton

In this study, the effect of ultrasound on the activity of the glucose oxidase (GOx) enzyme for bleaching of the cotton fabrics was investigated. Hydrogen peroxide generation with the GOx enzyme from glucose was carried out under ultrasonic homogenizer (UH) and ultrasonic bath support. The aim of using ultrasonic support was to increase the yield of the enzyme reactions. The enzymatically generated hydrogen peroxide was used for bleaching of cotton fabrics. The bleaching process was performed at 90 degrees C and pH 11 (with NaOH) for 60 min, followed by rinsing at 70 and 50 degrees C then cold washing. The whiteness degrees of the cotton samples that were bleached by the generated peroxide were compared to the whiteness degrees of the conventionally bleached cotton fabrics. Sufficient whiteness degrees in cotton fabrics could be obtained by enzymatically generated hydrogen peroxide by UH support. The initial whiteness degree of the cotton fabric was 59.9 Stensby degrees; the whiteness was increased to 75.6 Stensby degrees by the GOx enzyme under UH support where the conventional bleaching process yielded a whiteness value of 76.7 Stensby degrees. For efficient cotton bleaching by the GOx enzyme, UH support contributed to the concentration of enzymatically generated hydrogen peroxide by the GOx enzyme. Bleaching of cotton by the GOx enzyme was approved as a more environmentally friendly process compared to the conventional bleaching method in respect of the results of chemical oxygen demand tests

Adult Onset Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis: Clinical Characteristics and Treatment Outcomes

Purpose: Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a rare disease that can affect all tissues and organs. Our study evaluated the clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes of adult-onset LCH patients in a tertiary center. Materials and Methods: Adult patients diagnosed with LCH were retrospectively evaluated. Their initial symptoms, stratification according to disease involvement, treatment details, treatment responses, and overall and progression-free survival (PFS) were analyzed. Results: Thirty-three patients were included. There were 21 single system LCH, 10 multisystem LCH, and 2 pulmonary LCH patients. Patients with single system unifocal involvement were successfully treated with local therapies such as surgery and radiotherapy. Most of the multisystem LCH patients and patients with single system multifocal involvement were treated with systemic chemotherapy. Cladribine was the first choice in 10 out of 11 patients who received chemotherapy. Among all patients, the overall response rate (ORR) was 97%. Among those who had cladribine in the first-line the ORR was 81%. All these patients achieved a complete remission and were alive at the last visit. The median follow-up was 38 (range, 2–183) months. The median PFS has not yet been reached. Ten-year PFS was 90.9%. Conclusion: Besides successful local treatments with surgery and radiotherapy, our study provides information for front-line cladribine treatment. © 2023, The Author(s)