An automated optimisation framework for the development of re-configurable business processes: a web services approach

The practice of optimising business processes has, until recently, been undertaken mainly as a manual task. This article provides insights into an automated business process optimisation framework by using web services for the development of re-configurable business processes. The research presented here extends the optimisation framework by introducing additional web services as a mechanism for facilitating process interactions, identifying enhancements to support business processes and undertaking three case studies to evaluate the proposed enhancements. The featured case studies demonstrate that an increase in the amount of available web services gives rise to improvements in the business processes generated. This research highlights an increase in the efficiency of the algorithm and the quality of the business process designs that result from the enhancements. Future research directions are proposed for the further improvement of the framework

Automated inspection using database technology within the aerospace industry

Many manufacturing processes have become fully automated resulting in high production volumes. However, this is not the case for inspection. Shortening the inspection times in manufacturing industry using the available information resources can result in the reduction of production lead-time and overall costs. Rapid advances in machine tool technology have resulted in fast processing computer numerical control (CNC) machines that are capable of manufacturing parts at high speeds, turning their manual inspection process into a bottleneck. However, most CNC machines record the operations that they perform as realization logs. This paper proposes an approach that utilizes these realization logs for automating the inspection process. The automation occurs with the implementation of a software tool that imports and compares the realization logs with the manufacturing instructions for a manufactured part. The output of the tool is an inspection report that lists all the identified skipped or mishandled operations for that part. The proposed inspection approach is compared with the manual practice within an aerospace manufacturer. The results demonstrate drastic reduction in production lead-time while producing accurate and reliable inspection reports in an automated manner

Multi-objective optimisation of web business processes

This paper proposes an approach for the optimisation of web business processes using multi-objective evolutionary computing. Business process optimisation is considered as the problem of constructing feasible business process designs with optimum attribute values such as duration and cost. This optimisation framework involves the application of a series of Evolutionary Multi-objective Optimisation Algorithms (EMOAs) in an attempt to generate a series of diverse optimised business process designs for given requirements. The optimisation framework is tested to validate the framework's capability in capturing, composing and optimising business process designs constituted of web services. The results from the web business process optimisation scenario, featured in this paper, demonstrate that the framework can identify business process designs with optimised attribute values

Digital Evidence and Cloud Forensics: Contemporary Legal Challenges and the Power of Disposal

Fighting crime in cyberspace requires law enforcement authorities to immerse in a digital ocean of vast amount of information and also to acquire and objectify the evidence of criminal activity. Handling digital evidence is a complex and multifaceted process as they can provide critical evidentiary information in an unquestionable and irrefutable way. When digital evidence resides in a cloud storage environment the criminal investigation is faced with unprecedented contemporary legal challenges. In this paper, the authors identify three main legal challenges that arise from the current cloud-based technological landscape, i.e., territoriality (the loss of location), possession (the cloud content ownership) and confiscation procedure (user authentication/data preservation issues). On the onset of the identified challenges, the existing American, European and International legal frameworks are thoroughly evaluated. Finally, the authors discuss and endorse the Power of Disposal, a newly formed legal notion and a multidisciplinary solution with a global effect as a result of collaboration between technical, organizational and legal perspectives as an effective first step to mitigate the identified legal challenges

An Elaborate Preprocessing Phase (p3) in Composition and Optimization of Business Process Models

Business process optimization (BPO) has become an increasingly attractive subject in the wider area of business process intelligence and is considered as the problem of composing feasible business process designs with optimal attribute values, such as execution time and cost. Despite the fact that many approaches have produced promising results regarding the enhancement of attribute performance, little has been done to reduce the computational complexity due to the size of the problem. The proposed approach introduces an elaborate preprocessing phase as a component to an established optimization framework (bpoF) that applies evolutionary multi-objective optimization algorithms (EMOAs) to generate a series of diverse optimized business process designs based on specific process requirements. The preprocessing phase follows a systematic rule-based algorithmic procedure for reducing the library size of candidate tasks. The experimental results on synthetic data demonstrate a considerable reduction of the library size and a positive influence on the performance of EMOAs, which is expressed with the generation of an increasing number of nondominated solutions. An important feature of the proposed phase is that the preprocessing effects are explicitly measured before the EMOAs application; thus, the effects on the library reduction size are directly correlated with the improved performance of the EMOAs in terms of average time of execution and nondominated solution generation. The work presented in this paper intends to pave the way for addressing the abiding optimization challenges related to the computational complexity of the search space of the optimization problem by working on the problem specification at an earlier stage

An automated optimisation framework for the development of re-configurable business processes: a web services approach

The practice of optimising business processes has, until recently, been undertaken mainly as a manual task. This paper provides insight s into a n automated business process optimisation framework by using web services for the development of re - configurable business processes. The research presented here extends the framework of Vergidis (2008) by introducing web services as a mechanism for facilitating business process interactions, identifying enhancements to support business processes and undertaking three case studies to evaluate the proposed enhancements. The featured case studies demonstrate that an increase in the amount of available web services gives rise to improvements in the business processes generated. This research highlights an increase in the efficiency of the algorithm and the quality of the business proc ess designs that result from the enhancements . Future research directio ns are proposed for the further improvement of the framewor

An automated optimisation framework for the development of re-configurable business processes: a web services approach

The practice of optimising business processes has, until recently, been undertaken mainly as a manual task. This paper provides insight s into a n automated business process optimisation framework by using web services for the development of re - configurable business processes. The research presented here extends the framework of Vergidis (2008) by introducing web services as a mechanism for facilitating business process interactions, identifying enhancements to support business processes and undertaking three case studies to evaluate the proposed enhancements. The featured case studies demonstrate that an increase in the amount of available web services gives rise to improvements in the business processes generated. This research highlights an increase in the efficiency of the algorithm and the quality of the business proc ess designs that result from the enhancements . Future research directio ns are proposed for the further improvement of the framewor

Fake News Incidents through the Lens of the DCAM Disinformation Blueprint

The emergence of the Internet and web technologies has magnified the occurrence of disinformation events and the dissemination of online fake news items. Fake news is a phenomenon where fake news stories are created and propagated online. Such events occur with ever increasing frequency, they reach a wide audience, and they can have serious real-life consequences. As a result, disinformation events are raising critical public interest concerns as in many cases online news stories of fake and disturbing events have been perceived as being truthful. However, even at a conceptual level, there is not a comprehensive approach to what constitutes fake news with regard to the further classification of individual occurrences and the detection/mitigation of actions. This work identifies the emergent properties and entities involved in fake news incidents and constructs a disinformation blueprint (DCAM-DB) based on cybercrime incident architecture. To construct the DCAM-DB in an articulate manner, the authors present an overview of the properties and entities involved in fake news and disinformation events based on the relevant literature and identify the most prevalent challenges. This work aspires to enable system implementations towards the detection, classification, assessment, and mitigation of disinformation events and to provide a foundation for further quantitative and longitudinal research on detection strategies