Extending the Liaison Workflow Model and Engine to Support Different Signature Purposes

Currently, many software systems are developed in offices geographically distributed in different locations. Furthermore, it is also common for a software system development project to contract to different software houses. These contracted software development projects, very often, are further sub-contracted to some other software houses. These software development modes can be supported and managed by good distributed workflow systems. Signatures play an important role in these software development modes. Most workflow systems, at best, can only support digital signatures. Digital signatures with public key cryptosystem are limited to authentication, integrity, confidentiality and non-repudiation. The wide variety of signature purposes such as authorization or multiple signatures in group decision making are not supported explicitly by most workflow systems. We have studied different kinds of signature in software development and workflow systems. The paper discusses the problems and solutions of incorporating these signatures in a distributed workflow engine, in particular, the Liaison Workflow Engine, to support the contemporary modes of software developments.published_or_final_versio

Handling signature purposes in workflow systems

In paper-based workflow systems, signatures of individuals or groups of people have been used extensively for different purposes. Currently there are numerous studies on computerizing workflow systems. Also there are studies on implementing digital signatures in electronic media. But the diversified purposes of a signature in workflow makes a straightforward implementation of digital signature schemes inadequate. There are few studies on the implication of different signature purposes on electronic workflow systems. The purposes of signature are closely associated with the two modes of decision making, namely single and group. These two modes of decision making in turn lead to single and group signatures. This paper reports our comprehensive studies on signature purposes. These include the analysis of common signature purposes in workflow, classification of these purposes, classification of modes of decision making associated with these signature purposes, signing and validation requirements for handling these signature purposes, and finally an architecture to be incorporated in workflow engines for handling these signature purposes. In summary, this paper addresses a commonly neglected problem in information systems research: management control by signature in workflow.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

An episode of syncope attacks in adolescent schoolgirls: Investigations, intervention and outcome

An increasing number of students in a secondary convent girls school developed syncope attacks over a time course of about two months. Fourteen students who suffered from syncope and 12 other students from the same class with no symptoms were assessed by a team of psychologists and paediatricians with the aim of identifying the cause of the problem and to formulate possible remedial action. Psychological assessments included a mental state examination, developmental, personal and psychological history, state-trait anxiety, self-esteem, hypnotic suggestibility, and students' beliefs about the cause and nature of the syncope attacks. Physical investigations included physical examination, blood pressure and electrocardiogram. The results indicated that most participants and controls had no physical or psychological pathologies. The two groups were not different on the physical and psychological measures. Analyses of the interview data, however, indicated that all the syncope sufferers belonged to a cohesive and exclusive social network. Social psychological circumstances rather than individual psychopathology were noted to be primarily responsible for the spread and maintenance of the mass hysterical influence. Intervention consisted of health education, authoritative reassurance and back-up support. Follow-up assessment after three and 12 months indicated no further syncope episodes

Undetectable levels of serum FSH immunoactivity and bioactivity in girls with sexual precocity due to ovarian cysts

Clinical presentation and endocrine investigations in five girls with precocious sexual development due to ovarian cysts are presented. These girls had pubertal oestradiol and suppressed gonadotrophin responsiveness to LHRH stimulation. FSH bioactivity as measured by the rat aromatase assay was undetectable in basal and LHRH-stimulated serum samples but our results cannot exclude the possibility of the presence of a species-specific follicle stimulating factor in these patients. IM injection of depot medroxyprogesterone acetate controlled pubertal development in two children.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Defective B-cell and regulatory T-cell function in Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome

We report two Chinese boys with Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome presenting with gastro-intestinal bleeding, eczema and recurrent infection. They had thrombocytopenia and the mean platelet volume was small. Serum IgG and IgA were elevated and lymphocyte proliferation in response to phytohaemagglutinin, concanavalin A and pokeweed mitogen was defective. Despite documented herpes simplex virus type 1 and cytomegalovirus infection in one patient, he did not mount any humoral response. The generation of antibody-secreting cells in response to pokeweed mitogen was markedly defective in aplaque-forming cell assay. Both patients' regulatory T cell and B-cell functions were defective in this assay. The genetic defect in Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome therefore affects T-cells, B-cells and platelets.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Translation of the dizziness handicap inventory into Chinese, validation of it, and evaluation of the quality of life of patients with chronic dizziness

The aims of this study were 1) to translate the Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) into Chinese and to validate it and 2) to use the Chinese DHI and the Chinese (Hong Kong) Short Form-36 Health Survey (Chinese [HK] SF-36) to evaluate the quality of life (QoL) of patients with chronic dizziness. Seventy-one patients with 6 months of dizziness due to vestibular dysfunction were evaluated initially, 7 days later (n = 49), and after 7 months of medical treatment (n = 17). The Chinese DHI has been shown to retain good test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient range, 0.64 to 0.87) and internal consistency (Cronbach α coefficient > 0.7) as compared to the original DHI and has a moderate responsiveness (0.54). We find the Chinese DHI to be a valid tool for evaluation of QoL of Chinese patients with dizziness. Low mean scores on the Chinese DHI and Chinese (HK) SF-36 signify that chronic dizziness has a considerable impact on the QoL of these patients.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Content Engineering Agent: A TBL-Based E-Course Development Tool with TQM

With the advance in Internet technology, “e-learning” becomes an alternative means of learning and teaching, and is currently an active research topic in both IT and education professionals. However, to make “e-learning” an effective learning mode, besides technology, the issue of pedagogy and quality control are equally important. Most of the existing e-learning platforms and tools usually focus on the technology aspect without much investigation on the pedagogical issues and the quality control on the e-learning material. In fact, there is still a big gap between pedagogy and technology. The SPACE Online Universal Learning (SOUL) platform is designed to fill this gap and provide an effective e-Learning platform for e-course providers and students. In particular, the content engineering agent of the platform is designed for e-course development, which is based on the Task-Based Learning (TBL) curriculum development framework and is incorporated with the concept of Total Quality Management (TQM), a well-known technique in quality control. In this paper, we discuss the details of this content engineering agent and show how TBL and TQM are incorporated in the agent. As a remark, the content engineering agent has already been integrated in the SOUL platform, which is being used by more than 17,000 students and teachers. A preliminary evaluation on the usefulness of the Content Engineering agent has been performed and the result is positive