What Automated Planning Can Do for Business Process Management

Business Process Management (BPM) is a central element of today organizations. Despite over the years its main focus has been the support of processes in highly controlled domains, nowadays many domains of interest to the BPM community are characterized by ever-changing requirements, unpredictable environments and increasing amounts of data that influence the execution of process instances. Under such dynamic conditions, BPM systems must increase their level of automation to provide the reactivity and flexibility necessary for process management. On the other hand, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) community has concentrated its efforts on investigating dynamic domains that involve active control of computational entities and physical devices (e.g., robots, software agents, etc.). In this context, Automated Planning, which is one of the oldest areas in AI, is conceived as a model-based approach to synthesize autonomous behaviours in automated way from a model. In this paper, we discuss how automated planning techniques can be leveraged to enable new levels of automation and support for business processing, and we show some concrete examples of their successful application to the different stages of the BPM life cycle

Effect of Supplementary Irrigation on Yield of Chickpea Genotypes in a Mediterranean Climate

Rosana G. Moreira, Editor-in-Chief; Texas A&M UniversityThis is a paper from International Commission of Agricultural Engineering (CIGR, Commission Internationale du Genie Rural) E-Journal Volume 8 (2006): Effect of Supplementary Irrigation on Yield of Chickpea Genotypes in a Mediterranean Climate. Manuscript LW 04 005. Vol. VIII. May, 2006

A genome walking strategy for the identification of eukaryotic nucleotide sequences adjacent to known regions

Determination of nucleotide sequences adjacent to a known region is a recurring need in many genome scale studies. Various methods have been developed based on PCR techniques in order to fulfill th..

Keterkaitan Antara Moral Knowing, Moral Feeling, Dan Moral Behavior Pada Empat Kompetensi Dasar Guru

Penelitian bertujuan untuk mengetahui tingkat pemahaman guru (moral knowing), keinginanguru (moral feeling) untuk melakukan, dan perilaku guru (moral behavior) pada kompetensi pedagogi,kepribadian, sosial, dan profesional dalam pendidikan karakter; serta keterkaitan antara moral knowing,moral feeling, dan moral behavior pada empat kompetensi dasar guru. Penelitian ini menggunakanpendekatan kuantitatif dan kualitatif. Instrumen penelitian yang digunakan adalah kuesioner, panduanobservasi, dan focus group discussion. Hasil data kuantitatif menunjukkan sekitar 66.67% guru beradapada taraf cukup memadai di keempat kompetensi dasar guru terkait komponen pembentukan karakter.Data kualitatif menunjukkan bahwa pada proses pendidikan karakter, kompetensi dasar guru tidakselalu berdasarkan ketiga komponen pembentukan karakter tersebut. Akibatnya, guru-guru menjadikurang tepat saat mengajarkan pendidikan karakter kepada peserta didi

Superspace calculation of the four-loop spectrum in N=6 supersymmetric Chern-Simons theories

Using N=2 superspace techniques we compute the four-loop spectrum of single trace operators in the SU(2) x SU(2) sector of ABJM and ABJ supersymmetric Chern-Simons theories. Our computation yields a four-loop contribution to the function h^2(\lambda) (and its ABJ generalization) in the magnon dispersion relation which has fixed maximum transcendentality and coincides with the findings in components given in the revised versions of arXiv:0908.2463 and arXiv:0912.3460. We also discuss possible scenarios for an all-loop function h^2(\lambda) that interpolates between weak and strong couplings.Comment: LaTeX, feynmp, 34 pages; v2: typos corrected, formulations improved, references adde

Large scale debris-flow hazard assessment: a geotechnical approach and GIS modelling

International audienceA deterministic distributed model has been developed for large-scale debris-flow hazard analysis in the basin of River Vezza (Tuscany Region ? Italy). This area (51.6 km 2 ) was affected by over 250 landslides. These were classified as debris/earth flow mainly involving the metamorphic geological formations outcropping in the area, triggered by the pluviometric event of 19 June 1996. In the last decades landslide hazard and risk analysis have been favoured by the development of GIS techniques permitting the generalisation, synthesis and modelling of stability conditions on a large scale investigation (>1:10 000). In this work, the main results derived by the application of a geotechnical model coupled with a hydrological model for the assessment of debris flows hazard analysis, are reported. This analysis has been developed starting by the following steps: landslide inventory map derived by aerial photo interpretation, direct field survey, generation of a database and digital maps, elaboration of a DTM and derived themes (i.e. slope angle map), definition of a superficial soil thickness map, geotechnical soil characterisation through implementation of a backanalysis on test slopes, laboratory test analysis, inference of the influence of precipitation, for distinct return times, on ponding time and pore pressure generation, implementation of a slope stability model (infinite slope model) and generalisation of the safety factor for estimated rainfall events with different return times. Such an approach has allowed the identification of potential source areas of debris flow triggering. This is used to detected precipitation events with estimated return time of 10, 50, 75 and 100 years. The model shows a dramatic decrease of safety conditions for the simulation when is related to a 75 years return time rainfall event. It corresponds to an estimated cumulated daily intensity of 280?330 mm. This value can be considered the hydrological triggering threshold for the whole Vezza basin

Crop rotation design in view of soilborne pathogen dynamics : a methodological approach illustrated with Sclerotium rolfsii and Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cepae

Key words: Sclerotium rolfsii, Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cepae, soilborne pathogens, crop rotation, population dynamic models, simulation. During the last decades, agriculture went through an intensification process associated with an increased use of fossil fuel energy, which despite temporarily increasing yields often resulted in decreased overall sustainability. Crop rotation is considered a cornerstone of sustainable farming systems. The design of crop rotations is a complex process where several objectives should be combined.Models can support the design of crop sequences and help to reveal synergies and trade-offs among objectives.Despite their importance, pathogen dynamics are rarely taken into account in cropping system models, not in the least because quantitative information from classical crop rotation experiments to calibrate and evaluate the models is resource demanding, and therefore scarce. The aim of this thesis was to develop a research approach where data (greenhouse pot experiments, microplot experiments, surveys on commercial farm fields) and model simulations were combined to identify crop sequences that minimize soilborne pathogen inoculum build up, and to subsequently include this information into models for designing sustainable crop rotations. The study was carried out based on two ecologically distinct and relevant pathogens in vegetable production systems: Sclerotium rolfsiiand Fusarium oxysporum f.sp.cepae(Foc). Two aspects of the dynamics of S. rolfsiisclerotia were studied: survival after soil incorporation of green manures, and population changes under three cropping sequences. In pot experiments, sclerotia survival in soil after incorporation of a winter green manure and its decomposition during summer was generally lower than after summer green manure incorporation and decomposition during winter. The incorporation of various legume crops (black beans, cowpea, hairy vetch and lupines) allowed multiplication of sclerotia while various grasses (sudangrass, foxtail millet, oats and wheat) as well as sunhemp resulted in a reduction of sclerotia in the soil. The build-up of sclerotia populations in the microplots was dependent on the crop sequence. Multiplication in sweet pepper was greater after black oat than after onion or fallow. The dynamics of Focwas studied at two different levels: multiplication in individual plants and population changes in different crop sequences.Foccolonized and multiplied in the root systems of 13 non-Allium plant species without inducing disease symptoms or growth retardation. These species thus constituted “reservoir-hosts” for Foc. The lowest Foclevels per g of dry weight of root were found in wheat, sunflower, cowpea and millet whereas the highest Foclevel was found in black bean.Fusariumpathogen dynamics was strongly affected by the cropping history in a particular field. Fusariumpopulations increased from transplant to harvest of onion when another onion crop had been planted in the same field during the previous winter, whereas Fusariumpopulations decreased when a winter green manure had been planted. Pathogen dynamics in crop sequences was simulated by concatenating two simple models, the first one describing the build-up of the pathogen within a crop, and the second one describing the dynamic of the pathogen during the intercrop period. The simulations described differences among crop sequences and alternating cycles of increasing and decreasing soil pathogen populations, as well as differences at equilibrium populations related to host frequency and cropping history. This thesis provides a methodological approach to the design of crop rotations and their effects on soil borne pathogen dynamics. The combination of data from controlled experiments, novel analytical tools (Bayesian analysis, modelling and simulation) and on-farm observations can lead to the identification of optimal crop rotations without extensive field experiments that require a lot of time, space and economic resources.</p

Structural signatures of ultrastability in a deposited glassformer

Glasses obtained from vapor deposition on a cold substrate have superior thermodynamic and kinetic stability with respect to ordinary glasses. Here we perform molecular dynamics simulations of vapor deposition of a model glass-former and investigate the origin of its high stability compared to that of ordinary glasses. We find that the vapor deposited glass is characterized by locally favoured structures (LFS) whose occurrence correlates with its stability, reaching a maximum at the optimal deposition temperature. The formation of LFS is enhanced near the free surface, hence supporting the idea that the stability of vapor deposited glasses is connected to the relaxation dynamics at the surface.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett. (https://journals.aps.org/prl/accepted/7a07bY5cL7816472348d41f9d096a93c4bb5f035b) Transfer of copyright provided to the American Physical Society (APS