1,558 research outputs found
Toxics Use Reduction: Pro and Con
With the Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Act as an example, important issues related to the goals and effectiveness of TUR are examined. The benefits as claimed by proponents are contrasted with shortcomings outlined by opponents in point-counterpoint style. Ultimately, the authors call for more balanced analysis
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Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns
This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.In modern organisations business process modelling has become fundamental due to the
increasing rate of organisational change. As a consequence, an organisation needs to
continuously redesign its business processes on a regular basis. One major problem
associated with the way business process modelling (BPM) is carried out today is the
lack of explicit and systematic reuse of previously developed models. Enabling the reuse of previously modelled behaviour can have a beneficial impact on the quality and
efficiency of the overall information systems development process and also improve the effectiveness of an organisationâs business processes. In related disciplines, like software engineering, patterns have emerged as a widely accepted architectural mechanism for reusing solutions. In business process modelling the use of patterns is quite limited apart from few sporadic attempts proposed by the literature. Thus, pattern-based BPM is not commonplace. Business process patterns should ideally be discovered from the empirical analysis of organisational processes. Empiricism is currently not the basis for the discovery of patterns for business process modelling and no systematic methodology for collecting and analysing process models of business organisations currently exists.
The purpose of the presented research project is to develop a methodological framework for achieving reuse in BPM via the discovery and adoption of patterns. The framework is called Semantic Discovery and Reuse of Business Process Patterns (SDR). SDR
provides a systematic method for identifying patterns among organisational data assets
representing business behaviour. The framework adopts ontologies (i.e., formalised
conceptual models of real-world domains) in order to facilitate such discovery. The
research has also produced an ontology of business processes that provides the
underlying semantic definitions of processes and their constituent parts. The use of
ontologies to model business processes represents a novel approach and combines
advances achieved by the Semantic Web and BPM communities. The methodological
framework also relates to a new line of research in BPM on declarative business
processes in which the models specify what should be done rather than how to
âprescriptivelyâ do it. The research follows a design science method for designing and
evaluating SDR. Evaluation is carried out using real world sources and reuse scenarios
taken from both the financial and educational domains
The Social Value of Zero Balancing
Does Zero Balancing have a social value? Does it in some way contribute to the betterment of society? Does it really have the capacity to make the world a better place? These are questions I started asking myself years ago when I was going through a period of soul searching - investigating my own feelings of powerlessness - feelings of not doing enough in the larger sphere of âmaking the world a better placeâ
Big data analytics correlation taxonomy
Big data analytics (BDA) is an increasingly popular research area for both organisations and academia due to its usefulness in facilitating human understanding and communication. In the literature, researchers have focused on classifying big data according to data type, data security or level of difficulty, and many research papers reveal that there is a lack of information on evidence of a real-world link of big data analytics methods and its associated techniques. Thus, many organisations are still struggling to realise the actual value of big data analytic methods and its associated techniques. Therefore, this paper gives a design research account for formulating and proposing a step ahead to understand the relation between the analytical methods and its associated techniques. Furthermore, this paper is an attempt to clarify this uncertainty and identify the difference between analytics methods and techniques by giving clear definitions for each method and its associated techniques to integrate them later in a new correlation taxonomy based on the research approaches. Thus, the primary outcome of this research is to achieve for the first time a correlation taxonomy combining analytic methods used for big data and its recommended techniques that are compatible for various sectors. This investigation was done through studying various descriptive articles of big data analytics methods and its associated techniques in different industries
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The Concentration-Response Relation Between PM and Daily Deaths.
Particulate air pollution at commonly occurring concentrations is associated with daily deaths. Recent attention has focused on the shape of the concentration-response curve, particularly at low doses. Several recent articles have reported that particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter m PM) was associated with daily deaths with no evidence of a threshold. These reports have used smoothing or spline methods in individual cities and pooled the results across multiple cities to obtain estimates that are more robust. To date, fine particulate matter (aerodynamic diameter m; PM), a component of PM, has not been examined in this regard. We examined this association in a hierarchical model in six U.S. cities. In the first stage, we fit log-linear models including smooth functions of PM in each city, controlling for season, weather, and day of the week. These smooth functions allowed for nonlinearities in the city-specific associations. We combined the estimated curves across cities using a hierarchical model that allows for heterogeneity. We found an essentially linear relationship down to 2 g/m. The same approach was applied to examine the concentration response to traffic particles, controlling for particles from other sources. Once again, the association showed no sign of a threshold. The magnitude of the association suggests that controlling fine particle pollution would result in thousands of fewer early deaths per year
A Bayesian localised conditional auto-regressive model for estimating the health effects of air pollution
Estimation of the long-term health effects of air pollution is a challenging task, especially when modeling spatial small-area disease incidence data in an ecological study design. The challenge comes from the unobserved underlying spatial autocorrelation structure in these data, which is accounted for using random effects modeled by a globally smooth conditional autoregressive model. These smooth random effects confound the effects of air pollution, which are also globally smooth. To avoid this collinearity a Bayesian localized conditional autoregressive model is developed for the random effects. This localized model is flexible spatially, in the sense that it is not only able to model areas of spatial smoothness, but also it is able to capture step changes in the random effects surface. This methodological development allows us to improve the estimation performance of the covariate effects, compared to using traditional conditional auto-regressive models. These results are established using a simulation study, and are then illustrated with our motivating study on air pollution and respiratory ill health in Greater Glasgow, Scotland in 2011. The model shows substantial health effects of particulate matter air pollution and nitrogen dioxide, whose effects have been consistently attenuated by the currently available globally smooth models
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The Princess Can't Hide It Come Inside the Princess Couldn't Balance Anymore Stained Sheets the Wedding and the Marriage
In this creative thesis, I have drawn upon personal and autobiographical experiences that have a universal aspect in their nature. The images I have created attempt to place these events into a humanistic context that is meaningful to many people. In order to do this, the collected information has been translated into a visual vocabulary and reassembled for presentation to a viewer. With reference to an interest in the many levels of interaction found in human society-- in its people, its events, and its relationships--my thesis is constructed on several levels. This is true in both a literal and a figurative sense. hope to entice a viewer into looking beyond the first plane encountered to discover hidden or veiled areas of the work. Beyond this, I have tried to inject an emotional level into my art work that may be perceived by some viewers.
The desire for a certain delicacy to surround the work also dictated my choice of other materials, such as fabric, lace, ribbon, and pearls, to place in combination with the paper. All of these objects have soft, feminine associations. To contrast with this fragile aspect of my work, I tried to add at least one disparate element into each piece. accomplished this in several of the sculptures by the addition of pointed, brass tips and wire to selected triangular forms, as in the work entitled, "Stained Sheets." My intention was to create a more aggressive or threatening area within the pieces. also sharpened the tips of many of the dowel rods serving as supports to the paper “slats” to produce an abrasive edge to an otherwise elegant figure. To accentuate those areas of danger, I stained the pointed tips red or black, or as in “The Wedding and the Marriage” I had the sharp end protruding from a ribbon bow . The written narrative on two of the sculptures was also meant , when read, to counterpose the pleasant nature of the “fronts” and add a sharp edge to the sculptures.
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