Verifying for Compliance to Data Constraints in Collaborative Business Processes.

Production processes are nowadays fragmented across different companies and organized in global collaborative networks. This is the result of the first wave of globalization that, among the various factors, was enabled by the diffusion of Internet-based Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) at the beginning of the years 2000. The recent wave of new technologies possibly leading to the fourth industrial revolution – the so-called Industry 4.0 – is further multiplying opportunities. Accessing global customers opens great opportunities for organizations, including small and medium enterprises (SMEs), but it requires the ability to adapt to different requirements and conditions, volatile demand patterns and fast-changing technologies. Regardless of the industrial sector, the processes used in an organization must be compliant to rules, standards, laws and regulations. Non-compliance subjects enterprises to litigation and financial fines. Thus, compliance verification is a major concern, not only to keep pace with changing regulations but also to address the rising concerns of security, product and service quality and data privacy. The software, in particular process automation, used must be designed accordingly. In relation to process management, we propose a new way to pro-actively check the compliance of current running business processes using Descriptive Logic and Linear Temporal Logic to describe the constraints related to data. Related algorithms are presented to detect the potential violations

Elderly Care and Digital Services: Toward a Sustainable Sociotechnical Transition

The elderly care system’s sustainability is one of the largest societal challenges of our time. Digitalization and the implementation of technologies in elderly care are viewed as offering possible solutions to the social and economic challenges of sustainability. This study’s objective is to examine the development, implementation, and diffusion of technologies in elderly care from a sociotechnical perspective, leaning on the concepts of sociotechnical transitions. The focus mainly is on sustainable niche development, including interactions between niches and regimes in terms of sustainable sociotechnical transitions, how niches are developed in relation to sustainability, and in which conditions and circumstances promising niches can contribute to regime change in elderly care. Through a multiple-case study in different living environments of elderly residents in Finland, we identify factors that facilitate or hinder sustainable development and the implementation and diffusion of technologies in elderly care. The three case studies concern various types of development: introduction of tablet computers in senior housing, construction of a multisensory room in a care home, and the use of a care robot in care homes and in a rehabilitation hospital. Critical factors for sustainable niche development include involving users in the development processes, as well as simultaneous development of technologies and services. The multifaceted and effective use of technologies requires time and resources. Critical factors in niche-regime interaction are, for example, factors relating to attitudes, as well as technologies’ maturity. The need to consider a wider perspective, rather than a singular disruption, is key.Post-print / Final draf

Insight from an Italian Delphi Consensus on EVAR feasibility outside the instruction for use: the SAFE EVAR Study

BACKGROUND: The SAfety and FEasibility of standard EVAR outside the instruction for use (SAFE-EVAR) Study was designed to define the attitude of Italian vascular surgeons towards the use of standard endovascular repair (EVAR) for infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) outside the instruction for use (IFU) through a Delphi consensus endorsed by the Italian Society of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery (Societa Italiana di Chirurgia Vascolare ed Endovascolare - SICVE). METHODS: A questionnaire consisting of 26 statements was developed, validated by an 18 -member Advisory Board, and then sent to 600 Italian vascular surgeons. The Delphi process was structured in three subsequent rounds which took place between April and June 2023. In the first two rounds, respondents could indicate one of the following five degrees of agreement: 1) strongly agree; 2) partially agree; 3) neither agree nor disagree; 4) partially disagree; 5) strongly disagree; while in the third round only three different choices were proposed: 1) agree; 2) neither agree nor disagree; 3) disagree. We considered the consensus reached when >70% of respondents agreed on one of the options. After the conclusion of each round, a report describing the percentage distribution of the answers was sent to all the participants. RESULTS: Two -hundred -forty-four (40.6%) Italian Vascular Surgeons agreed to participate the first round of the Delphi Consensus; the second and the third rounds of the Delphi collected 230 responders (94.3% of the first -round responders). Four statements (15.4%) reached a consensus in the first rounds. Among the 22 remaining statements, one more consensus (3.8%) was achieved in the second round. Finally, seven more statements (26.9%) reached a consensus in the simplified last round. Globally, a consensus was reached for almost half of the proposed statements (46.1%). CONCLUSIONS: The relatively low consensus rate obtained in this Delphi seems to confirm the discrepancy between Guideline recommendations and daily clinical practice. The data collected could represent the source for a possible guidelines' revision and the proposal of specific Good Practice Points in all those aspects with only little evidence available

Business Process Compliance via Security Validation as a Service

Abstract—Modern enterprise systems are often processbased, i. e., they allow for the direct execution of business processes that are specified in a high-level language such as BPMN. In this paper, we present a service, called Security Validation as a Service (SVaaS) for validating the compliance of the business processes during design-time. Basically, while modeling a business process the business analyst specifies as well the security and compliance requirements the business process should comply to. By pressing a button, these requirements are validated and the results are presented in a graphical format to the business analysis. At the core of SVaaS lies a rigorous and industrially viable approach in which the security validation business logic is handled server-side (SVaaS Server) in the Cloud, while the clientside user interface that business analysts use is handled by a light-weight SVaaS Connector. As proof-of-concept we created a SVaaS prototype in which the SVaaS Server is deployed on the SAP NetWeaver Cloud and two SVaaS Connectors are built to enable two well-known BPMN tools, SAP NetWeaver BPM and Activiti, to consume SVaaS against industrial relevant business processes. Keywords-Validation, Security, Business Process Management I

Population biology of eyeflukes in fish from a large fluvial ecosystem: the importance of gulls and habitat characteristics

Spottail shiners (Notropis hudsonius) were monitored for eyeflukes monthly at four sites in the St. Lawrence River, Quebec, from spring through autumn in 1997 and 1998. In general, mean abundance of Diplostomum spp. in the lens of spottail shiners was highest at sites near large ring-billed gull (Larus delawarensis) colonies and was higher in 1998 than in 1997. Population studies demonstrated a major period of recruitment in the late summer – early autumn. Mean abundance increased between November and May, when sampling was logistically not possible, reflecting late-fall or early-spring recruitment. Golden shiners (Notemigonus crysoleucas) and small yellow perch (Perca flavescens) were monitored at a single site (Île aux Ours) in 1997 and 1998. Mean abundance of Diplostomum spp. in the lens of golden shiners at Île aux Ours was higher in 1998 than in 1997. Recruitment occurred in the early summer and between November and May, suggesting late-fall or early-spring transmission. Mean abundance decreased between August and October in both years. Yellow perch at Île aux Ours were infected with four different parasite species in their eyes. Mean abundance of Diplostomum spp. in the vitreous humour or retina increased during the summer and fall and then decreased between the fall and following spring. Diplostomum spp. in the lens increased in abundance in the early summer, and then decreased during the fall. Both Tylodelphys scheuringi and Neascus spp. in the vitreous humour were more abundant in 0+ than in 1+ perch. Mean abundance of T. scheuringi increased over the summer in 1997 and then dropped to zero in the same cohort over winter, suggesting that the parasite lives for only 1 year. Neascus spp. only were found in 1998. Distributional data, together with seasonal information, suggest that habitat characteristics contribute significantly to the abundance of Diplostomum spp. along the St. Lawrence River. Proximity to gull colonies enhances abundance, but higher rates of predation at wetland sites depress abundance and restrict the accumulation of parasites. </jats:p