Managing Consistency of Business Process Models across Abstraction Levels

Process models support the transition from business requirements to IT implementations. An organization that adopts process modeling often maintain several co-existing models of the same business process. These models target different abstraction levels and stakeholder perspectives. Maintaining consistency among these models has become a major challenge for such an organization. For instance, propagating changes requires identifying tacit correspondences among the models, which may be only in the memories of their original creators or may be lost entirely. Although different tools target specific needs of different roles, we lack appropriate support for checking whether related models maintained by different groups of specialists are still consistent after independent editing. As a result, typical consistency management tasks such as tracing, differencing, comparing, refactoring, merging, conformance checking, change notification, and versioning are frequently done manually, which is time-consuming and error-prone. This thesis presents the Shared Model, a framework designed to improve support for consistency management and impact analysis in process modeling. The framework is designed as a result of a comprehensive industrial study that elicited typical correspondence patterns between Business and IT process models and the meaning of consistency between them. The framework encompasses three major techniques and contributions: 1) matching heuristics to automatically discover complex correspondences patterns among the models, and to maintain traceability among model parts---elements and fragments; 2) a generator of edit operations to compute the difference between process models; 3) a process model synchronizer, capable of consistently propagating changes made to any model to its counterpart. We evaluated the Shared Model experimentally. The evaluation shows that the framework can consistently synchronize Business and IT views related by correspondence patterns, after non-simultaneous independent editing

Profile of vegetable consumers of Santo Antônio do Descoberto town, Goiás State, Brazil

A cidade de Santo Antônio do Descoberto está localizada a 46 km de Brasília e grande parte da sua população vive abaixo da linha de pobreza. Neste trabalho, o perfil e o padrão de consumo de hortaliças na cidade foi avaliado. Setenta e três consumidores freqüentadores do Mercado Municipal e 30 de uma região periférica (Bairro do Queiroz) foram entrevistados para a coleta de informações sobre hortaliças adquiridas no dia, número de indivíduos na família e renda familiar. No Mercado Municipal, 92% das famílias adquiriam hortaliças semanalmente e consumiam os produtos em no máximo três dias. Trinta e cinco por cento das famílias tinham renda que as situava baixo da linha de pobreza. Alface, tomate e batata eram os produtos mais comumente consumidos. Por outro lado, na região periférica, 86% das famílias entrevistadas estavam abaixo da linha de pobreza e apenas 44% delas adquiriam hortaliças semanalmente. Alface e cebola eram os produtos mais consumidos e nenhuma família comprava tomate, provavelmente devido ao preço elevado deste produto. O tipo e freqüência de hortaliças adquiridos são influenciados pela renda familiar, com as famílias mais pobres consumindo menos. ________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACTSanto Antônio do Descoberto is located 46 km away from Brasília and the great majority of its population lives under the poverty line. In this work, vegetable consumption and consumers profile of Santo Antônio do Descoberto town were evaluated. Seventy consumers in the Municipal Market and 30 in a peripheral region ('Bairro do Queiroz') were interviewed. Information about vegetables bought in that day, number of people in the family and family income were obtained. The results showed that 92% of the families interviewed at the Municipal Market bought vegetables weekly and consumed them in nearly three days; 35% of the families were under the poverty line. Lettuce, tomato and potato were the most consumed vegetables. On the other hand, in the peripheral region, only 44% of the families bought vegetables weekly; 86% of the families were under the poverty line. Lettuce and onion were the main vegetables consumed in the region. None of the families consumed tomato, probably due to its high cost. The type and frequency of vegetable consumption was influenced by the families' income, where poor families consumed less vegetables

The impact of media pressure on corporate sustainability in the cement industry : a portuguese case study

In this study we examine the sustainability reporting practices and sustainability strategies of a leading Portuguese cement company. The Portuguese cement industry had to deal since 1997 with scrutiny and pressure because of its involvement in co-incineration of hazardous industrial waste. Grounded on a lens of analysis combining legitimacy theory and media agenda-setting theory and based on a content analysis of sustainability reports and semi-structured interviews, we analyse the strategies used by the company to deal with said scrutiny and pressure and present its sustainability performance. Media pressure does seem to have impacted sustainability reporting and sustainability strategies as tools for the company to restore its legitimacy. Findings generally suggest that strategies of communication designed to legitimate the company actions were used. In particular, we suggest that the company managed its legitimacy by using simultaneously two sustainability reporting strategies: one of image enhancement and other of avoidance of threatening topics.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

On fermion masses and mixing in a model with A4A_4 symmetry

In a recently proposed multi-Higgs extension of the standard model in which discrete symmetries, $A_4$ and $Z_3$ are imposed we show that, after accommodating the fermion masses and the mixing matrices in the charged currents, the mixing matrices in the neutral currents induced by neutral scalars are numerically obtained. However, the flavor changing neutral currents are under control mainly by mixing and/or mass suppressions in the neutral scalar sector.Comment: Version accepted for publication in International Journal of Modern Physics A. In this version we added a discussion on the charged lepton and neutrino masses. The title has been changed. Other minor changes do not modify the conclusion

The impact of media pressure on corporate sustainability in the cement industry: a Portuguese case study

In this study we examine the sustainability reporting practices and sustainability strategies of a leading Portuguese cement company. The Portuguese cement industry had to deal since 1997 with scrutiny and pressure because of its involvement in co-incineration of hazardous industrial waste. Grounded on a lens of analysis combining legitimacy theory and media agenda-setting theory and based on a content analysis of sustainability reports and semi-structured interviews, we analyse the strategies used by the company to deal with said scrutiny and pressure and present its sustainability performance. Media pressure does seem to have impacted sustainability reporting and sustainability strategies as tools for the company to restore its legitimacy. Findings generally suggest that strategies of communication designed to legitimate the company actions were used. In particular, we suggest that the company managed its legitimacy by using simultaneously two sustainability reporting strategies: one of image enhancement and other of avoidance of threatening topics.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Paragenetic positioning of PGE in mafic and ultramafic rocks of Cabeço de Vide – Alter do Chão Igneous Complex

A expressão mineralógica de platinóides nas rochas máficas e ultramáficas de Cabeço de Vide (Complexo Ígneo de Alter do Chão), ocorre em dois episódios de deposição primária que se relacionam com os estádios de fraccionação dunítico a pós-dunítico (estibiopaladinite e froodite) e lherzolítico, equivalente ao início da fraccionação de sulfuretos (auricuprite e ouro). Os minerais tipomórficos subsequentes (sperrylite e arsenopaladinite) representam o reposicionamento epigenético associado à serpentinização.PGE mineralisation in mafic and ultramafic rocks of Cabeço de Vide (Alter do Chão Igneous Complex) results from two primary deposition events related to progressive fraccionation at dunitic to post-dunitic stage, represented by stibiopaladinite and froodite, and at lherzolitic stage, coupled by sulphide segregation, causing auricuprite and gold crystallization. Subsequent PGM (sperrylite and arsenopaladinite) must result from serpentinization repositioning

Long term cortical plasticity in visual retinotopic areas in humans with silent retinal ganglion cell loss

Visual cortical plasticity induced by overt retinal lesions (scotomas) has remained a controversial phenomenon. Here we studied cortical plasticity in a silent model of retinal ganglion cell loss, documented by in vivo optical biopsy using coherence tomography. The cortical impact of non-scotomatous subtle retinal ganglion cell functional and structural loss was investigated in carriers of the mitochondrial DNA 11778G > A mutation causing Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy. We used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure cortical thickness and fMRI to define retinotopic cortical visual areas V1, V2 and V3 in silent carriers and matched control groups. Repeated Measures analysis of variance revealed a surprising increase in cortical thickness in the younger carrier group (below 21 years of age). This effect dominated in extrastriate cortex, and notably V2. This form of structural plasticity suggests enhanced plastic developmental mechanisms in extrastriate retinotopic regions close to V1 and not receiving direct retinocortical input