Planning and Scheduling of Business Processes in Run-Time: A Repair Planning Example

Over the last decade, the efficient and flexible management of business processes has become one of the most critical success aspects. Furthermore, there exists a growing interest in the application of Artificial Intelligence Planning and Scheduling techniques to automate the production and execution of models of organization. However, from our point of view, several connections between both disciplines remains to be exploited. The current work presents a proposal for modelling and enacting business processes that involve the selection and order of the activities to be executed (planning), besides the resource allocation (scheduling), considering the optimization of several functions and the reach of some objectives. The main novelty is that all decisions (even the activities selection) are taken in run-time considering the actual parameters of the execution, so the business process is managed in an efficient and flexible way. As an example, a complex and representative problem, the repair planning problem, is managed through the proposed approach.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN2009-13714Junta de Andalucía P08-TIC-0409

Calidad de vida y fragmentación socio-espacial en la provincia de Jujuy (República Argentina) en los inicios del siglo XXI

The Norte Grande Argentino is characterized by lower socioeconomic development compared to other regions of the country, a situation clearly identified with the implementation of various indicators. Within this territory, also can be distinguished disadvantaged areas than others in these respects. This is the case of the Province of Jujuy, that in 2001 had one of the highest percentages of houses with unmet basic needs with respect the rest of the country, the intensity of Household Material Deprivation Index denoted a similar behavior, while the Quality of Life Index positioned to this province as one of those with lower quality of life in the Argentine. Thus, it is a marginal space in the region where environmental characteristics, the historical process of occupation, the emergence of capitalism in the area and the modernization of production structures, has led to territorial processes that have positioned this territory on both sides of the dichotomy poverty -quality of life. Thus, this paper analyzes the main results of the socio-spatial fragmentation of the living conditions of the population of the province of Jujuy, registed in 2001.    El Norte Grande Argentino se caracteriza por un menor desarrollo económico y social con respecto a otras regiones del país, situación identificada claramente con la aplicación de diversos indicadores socioeconómicos. En el interior de este territorio, asimismo, se pueden distinguir áreas menos favorecidas que otras en estos aspectos; tal es el caso de la Provincia de Jujuy que, en el año 2001, presentaba uno de los porcentajes más elevados de hogares con Necesidades Básicas Insatisfechas con respecto al resto del país, la intensidad del Índice de Privación Material de los Hogares denotaba un comportamiento similar, mientras que el Índice de Calidad de Vida (ICV) posicionaba a esta provincia como una de aquellas con menor calidad de vida en Argentina. Así pues, se trata de un espacio marginal en la región, donde sus características ambientales, el proceso histórico de ocupación, la irrupción del capitalismo en el área y la modernización de las estructuras productivas, han conducido a procesos de territorialización que han posicionado a este territorio en ambos extremos de la dicotomía calidad de vida - pobreza. De este modo, este trabajo propone analizar los principales resultados del proceso de fragmentación socioespacial de las condiciones de vida de la población de la provincia de Jujuy registrados en el año 2001.  

A CSP model for simple non-reversible and parallel repair plans

Thiswork presents a constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) model for the planning and scheduling of disassembly and assembly tasks when repairing or substituting faulty parts. The problem involves not only the ordering of assembly and disassembly tasks, but also the selection of them from a set of alternatives. The goal of the plan is the minimization of the total repairing time, and the model considers, apart from the durations and resources used for the assembly and disassembly tasks, the necessary delays due to the change of configuration in the machines, and to the transportation of intermediate subassemblies between different machines. The problem considers that sub-assemblies that do not contain the faulty part are nor further disassembled, but allows non-reversible and parallel repair plans. The set of all feasible repair plans are represented by an extended And/Or graph. This extended representation embodies all of the constraints of the problem, such as temporal and resource constraints and those related to the selection of tasks for obtaining a correct plan.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia DIP2006-15476-C02-0

Supporting the Optimized Execution of Business Processes through Recommendations

In order to be able to flexibly adjust a company’s business processes (BPs) there is an increasing interest in flexible Process-Aware Information Systems (PAISs). This increasing flexibility, however, typically implies decreased user guidance by the PAIS and thus poses additional challenges to its users. This work proposes a recommendation system which assists users during process execution to optimize performance goals of the processes. The recommendation system is based on a constraint-based approach for planning and scheduling the BP activities and considers both the control-flow and the resource perspective.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN2009-1371

A Constraint-based Model for Multi-objective Repair Planning

This work presents a constraint based model for the planning and scheduling of disconnection and connection tasks when repairing faulty components in a system. Since multi-mode operations are considered, the problem involves the ordering and the selection of the tasks and modes from a set of alternatives, using the shared resources efficiently. Additionally, delays due to change of configurations and transportation are considered. The goal is the minimization of two objective functions: makespan and cost. The set of all feasible plans are represented by an extended And/Or graph, that embodies all of the constraints of the problem, allowing non reversible and parallel plans. A simple branch-and-bound algorithm has been used for testing the model with different combinations of the functions to minimize using the weighted-sum approach.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia DIP2006-15476-C02-0

Borg scale and intensity in running and specific tennis training

Se determinaron las diferencias en la intensidad y la valoración subjetiva de la fatiga en entrenamientos de carrera continua y específicos de tenis. Trece tenistas varones jóvenes tomaron parte en tres entrenamientos de resistencia de tipo continuo de 14 minutos de duración. Uno general consistente en carrera continua (CC), otro específico de peloteo cruzado (EP), y por último uno específico competitivo mediante puntos (EC). Fue registrada la frecuencia cardiaca; y se valoró, al finalizar las tres pruebas, el lactato y la percepción de la fatiga. Se registraron valores más altos de frecuencia cardiaca y lactato en los dos ejercicios específicos, siendo significativamente superiores en EC respecto a CC (Frecuencia cardiaca p>0.0054. Lactato p>0.0320). Sin embargo, en la Escala de Borg no hubo diferencias significativas. Este estudio sugiere, para este grupo, que los valores de la Escala de Borg en ejercicios específicos de tenis pueden infravalorar la intensidad en relación con los de carreraDifferences in intensity and subjective valuation of fatigue in continous running trainings and specific tennis exercises were determined. Thirteen young mal tennis players took part in three continuous type endurance training with 14 minutes length. A general one consisting of continuous running (CC) a specific one of a cross-knock up (EP) and finally a competitive specific one by points (EC). The heart rate was recorded and the lactate and perception of fatigue were evaluated at the end of the three tests. Higher heart rate and lactate values were recorded in the two specific exercises being significantly higher in EC regardin to CC (Heart rate p>0.0054. Lactate p>0.0320). However, there were no significant differences in the Borg Scale. This study suggest that the values of the Borg Scale in specific tennis exercises may undervalue the intensity in relation to the running value

Una propuesta de autorregulación para la enseñanza y el aprendizaje del cálculo diferencial

Ante las limitaciones de los métodos y procedimientos de la enseñanza tradicional, sustentados en la actividad del docente y la pasividad del alumno, han surgido en la última década, variadas respuestas que pretenden mejorar la práctica de la enseñanza y del aprendizaje, entre ellas, las computadoras y los tutores inteligentes. Según Rivera Porto, E. (1997), el diseño y modificación de módulos educativos computadorizados, debe ser parte de la formación de maestros y educadores, y una de sus actividades cotidianas. Desde el año 2001, trabajamos con los alumnos de primer año implementando guías de autorregulación en el aprendizaje del Cálculo Diferencial. En este trabajo, proponemos una metodología alternativa para el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje, mediante la complementación de dichas guías con una primera aproximación al empleo de un tutor inteligente, en la Facultad de Ciencias Económicas de la U.N.T

OptBPPlanner: Automatic Generation of Optimized Business Process Enactment Plans

Unlike imperative models, the specifi cation of business process (BP) properties in a declarative way allows the user to specify what has to be done instead of having to specify how it has to be done, thereby facilitating the human work involved, avoiding failures, and obtaining a better optimization. Frequently, there are several enactment plans related to a specifi c declarative model, each one presenting specifi c values for different objective functions, e.g., overall completion time. As a major contribution of this work, we propose a method for the automatic generation of optimized BP enactment plans from declarative specifi cations. The proposed method is based on a constraint-based approach for planning and scheduling the BP activities. These optimized plans can then be used for different purposes like simulation, time prediction, recommendations, and generation of optimized BP models. Moreover, a tool-supported method, called OptBPPlanner, has been implemented to demonstrate the feasibility of our approach. Furthermore, the proposed method is validated through a range of test models of varying complexity.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN2009-1371

Incorporating boundary conditions in a stochastic volatility model for the numerical approximation of bond prices

Producción CientíficaIn this paper, we consider a two-factor interest rate model with stochastic volatil-ity, and we assume that the instantaneous interest rate follows a jump-diffusionprocess. In this kind of problems, a two-dimensional partial integro-differentialequation is derived for the values of zero-coupon bonds. To apply standardnumerical methods to this equation, it is customary to consider a boundeddomain and incorporate suitable boundary conditions. However, for thesetwo-dimensional interest rate models, there are not well-known boundary con-ditions, in general. Here, in order to approximate bond prices, we propose newboundary conditions, which maintain the discount function property of thezero-coupon bond price. Then, we illustrate the numerical approximation ofthe corresponding boundary value problem by means of an alternative directionimplicit method, which has been already applied for pricing options. We testthese boundary conditions with several interest rate pricing models.MEC-FEDER Grant MTM2017-85476-C2-P, Junta de Castilla y León Regional Grants VA041P17 (with European FEDERFunds), VA138G18 y VA148G1