Mega-City-Regions: on Awareness and Value Chain Approach

Mega-City-Regions (MCR) as a new large-scale urban phenomenon have been gaining attention recently: In research, empirical studies address their functional consistency, and spatial planning policies underline the strategic role of MCRs for territorial competition of a country. But increasingly a tension between the functional logic of knowledge-intensive business activities and the territorial and normative approaches of public bodies begin to emerge. Typical conflicts of spatial development in MCRs occur for example when globally motivated investment decisions hit upon the local needs. This paper proposes an integrated view that can help to bridge the gap between the growing factual knowledge about MCRs and the still weak ability to use this knowledge for local and regional development and spatial planning purposes. The proposed integration draws on the one hand from the corporate-based value chain approach: The interaction of analysis of spatio-economic development, its adequate visualization and focussed communication towards stakeholders is apt to bring about the initiating momentum for beneficial spatial development. In the context of a diffuse perception of MCRs – whose mere size surpasses our common notions of space – analysis, visualization and communication as methodological components in the spatial planning process add value to sustainable spatial development. The process starts with creating awareness for the often invisible and complex functions, qualities and identities of the MCR spatial scale. New strategies of visualization and communication are needed to improve insight and motivation of the actors involved. On the other hand this value chain approach has to be adapted to the varying vertical levels of public bodies with their numerous policies. Thus, “multi-level-governance†is to be conceived as a concept to close the gap between the territorial and the functional logic of spatial development. The paper will study this dual approach with the case of the announced expansion of the international airport in Munich. This complex multi-level-governance process experiments with a consensus-oriented dialogue platform – the so called “neighbourhood conference†(NC) – bringing together actors with divers responsibilities and objectives. The NC sits at the interface of global and local objectives that are transformed on the spatial scale of the MCR of Munich. The paper concludes with recommendations for using the above described spatial value chain approach for more efficient multi-level-governance.

Fine Grid Asteroseismology Of G117-B15A And R548

We now have a good measurement of the cooling rate of G117-B15A. In the near future, we will have equally well determined cooling rates for other pulsating white dwarfs, including R548. The ability to measure their cooling rates offers us a unique way to study weakly interacting particles that would contribute to their cooling. Working toward that goal, we perform a careful asteroseismological analysis of G117-B15A and R548. We study them side by side because they have similar observed properties. We carry out a systematic, fine grid search for best-fit models to the observed period spectra of those stars. We freely vary four parameters: the effective temperature, the stellar mass, the helium layer mass, and the hydrogen layer mass. We identify and quantify a number of uncertainties associated with our models. Based on the results of that analysis and fits to the periods observed in R548 and G117-B15A, we clearly define the regions of the four-dimensional parameter space occupied by the best-fit models.NSF AST 05-07639Astronom

Personality traits and psychopathology over the course of six months of outpatient psychotherapy : a prospective observational study

There is a lack of prospective studies that test pre-specified hypotheses on the role of personality traits in outpatient psychotherapy. A total of 47 patients with a broad range of psychopathological syndromes were enrolled in a prospective 6-month observational study conducted in Zurich, Switzerland. We found evidence for remarkably high differential stability in all Big Five personality traits during the first 6 months of psychotherapy. Mean-level stability was very high in agreeableness and conscientiousness, while modest changes were observed in neuroticism, extraversion and openness. Baseline scores in neuroticism and conscientiousness at the beginning of therapy predicted modest change in self-reported severity of psychopathology over 6 months, but no effect was found in association with therapist-rated functional deficits. We conclude that personality trait levels may change slightly over the course of 6 months of psychotherapy and that both neuroticism and conscientiousness may have weak associations with the self-perceived improvement in psychopathology

BUSINESS PROCESS MODEL ANTI-PATTERNS: A BIBLIOGRAPHY AND TAXONOMY OF PUBLISHED WORK

Patterns have been proven to be useful for documenting reusable solutions to common problems. A recently published bibliography of business process model patterns shed light into the various types of patterns by providing a systematic categorization of these patterns. In this way, such classification improves the understanding of business process model patterns. Anti-patterns document a counterproductive solution to a commonly occurring problem. While a classification for the large body of literature on business process model patterns is available, a structured bibliography of anti-patterns is missing. Related work on anti-patterns discusses patterns for common modeling errors, problems in business process models as well as in the business processes. Modeling experts should be aware of all these types of anti-patterns. To fill this gap, this paper presents a bibliography of business process model anti-patterns and a taxonomy of anti-patterns that has been developed using an established approach for taxonomy development. Both are based on an literature review and are valuable for people during the design and analysis phases of business processes since knowledge about anti-patterns in business process models helps for increasing their quality. Our overview should also be useful for developers of modeling tools who wish to make the modeler aware of potential modeling problems

Quantum Control Machine: The Limits of Quantum Programs as Data

Quantum algorithms for factorization, search, and simulation obtain computational advantage by performing control flow such as branching and iteration based on the value of quantum data in superposition. Complicating realization of these algorithms is the fact that in predominant quantum machine models, all control flow as embodied by the program counter is classical, and cannot exist in superposition. In this work, we identify that an alternative model to enable a program counter in superposition faces an obstacle -- no such machine can correctly support control flow constructs with non-injective semantics, including the conventional conditional jump. In fact, prior attempts to support this instruction cause programs to inappropriately collapse the superposition of data, meaning that quantum advantage is lost. We present a quantum machine model that supports both quantum effects on data and data-dependent control flow, using variants of conditional jump with injective semantics. We identify the necessary condition for programs for such a machine to preserve superposition of data, and show that expressible programs coincide with the unitary quantum circuits.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure

Requirements Catalog for Business Process Modeling Recommender Systems

The manual construction of business process models is a time-consuming and error-prone task. To improve the quality of business process models, several modeling support techniques have been suggested spanning from strict auto-completion of a business process model with pre-defined model elements to suggesting closely matching recommendations. While recommendation systems are widely used and auto-completion functions are a standard feature of programming tools, such techniques have not been exploited for business process modeling although implementation strategies have already been suggested. Therefore, this paper collects requirements from different perspectives (literature and empirical studies) of how to effectively and efficiently assist process modelers in their modeling task. The condensation of requirements represents a comprehensive catalog, which constitutes a solid foundation to implement effective and efficient Process Modeling Recommender Systems (PMRSs). We expect that our contribution will fertilize the field of modeling support techniques to make them a common feature of BPM tools