On the degree of behavioral similarity between business process models

Quality aspects become increasingly important while business process modeling is used in a large-scale enterprise setting. In order to facilitate a storage without redundancy and an efficient retrieval of relevant process models in model databases it is required to develop a theoretical understanding of how a degree of behavioral similarity can be defined. In this paper we address this challenge in a novel way. We use causal footprints as an abstract representation of the behavior captured by a process model, since they allow us to compare models defined in both formal modeling languages like Petri nets and informal ones like EPCs. Based on the causal footprint derived from two models we calculate their similarity based on the established vector space model from information retrieval. We illustrate this concept with an example from the SAP Reference Model and present a prototypical implementation as a plug-in to the ProM framework

Business process compliance checking : current state and future challenges

Regulatory compliance sets new requirements for business process management (BPM). Companies seek to enhance their corporate governance processes and are required to put in place measures for ensuring compliance to regulations. In this sense, this position paper (i) reviews the current work in the context of BPM systems and (ii) suggests future directions to improve the current status. During the literature review, techniques are classified as supporting forward or backward compliance. The latter is a post-execution compliance (i.e. based on execution histories of systems) and the former takes place at design- or run-time. In a nutshell, this position paper claims that four main aspects need to be incorporated by current compliance checking techniques: (i) an integrated approach able to cover the full BPM life-cycle, (ii) the support for compliance checks beyond control-flow-related aspects, (iii) intuitive graphical notations for business analysts, and (iv) embedding semantic technologies during the definition, deployment and executions of compliance checks

He2+He^{2+} on He: State-selective, scattering-angle-dependent capture cross sections measured by cold target recoil ion momentum spectroscopy (COLTRIMS)

We present the first state-selective, scattering-angle-dependent cross sections for the reaction 0.25-1 MeV He2+ + He → He1+ + He1+. The experiment was performed, using a new generation of recoil ion momentum spectroscopy, which enabled us to determine the three momentum components and the charge state of the recoil ion simultaneously. An absolute momentum resolution of ±0.13 a.u. for the longitudinal and ±0.02 a.u. for the transverse momentum component has been achieved, which is equivalent to a resolution in projectile energy loss of ±5.6 eV and an uncertainty of the projectile scattering angle of better than ±1 μrad