Parameterizable Views for Process Visualization

In large organizations different users or user groups usually have distinguished perspectives over business processes and related data. Personalized views on the managed processes are therefore needed. Existing BPM tools, however, do not provide adequate mechanisms for building and visualizing such views. Very often processes are displayed to users in the same way as drawn by the process designer. To tackle this inflexibility this paper presents an advanced approach for creating personalized process views based on well-defined, parameterizable view operations. Respective operations can be flexibly composed in order to reduce or aggregate process information in the desired way. Depending on the chosen parameterization of the applied view operations, in addition, different "quality levels" with more or less relaxed properties can be obtained for the resulting process views (e.g., regarding the correctness of the created process view scheme). This allows us to consider the specific needs of the different applications utilizing process views (e.g., process monitoring tools or process editors). Altogether, the realized view concept contributes to better deal with complex, long-running business processes with hundreds up to thousands of activities

Business Process Visualization - Use Cases, Challenges, Solutions

The proper visualization and monitoring of their (ongoing) business processes is crucial for any enterprise. Thus a broad spectrum of processes has to be visualized ranging from simple, short–running processes to complex long–running ones (consisting of up to hundreds of activities). In any case, users shall be able to quickly understand the logic behind a process and to get a quick overview of related tasks. One practical problem arises when different fragments of a business process are scattered over several systems where they are often modeled using different process meta models (e.g., High–Level Petri Nets). The challenge is to find an integrated and user–friendly visualization for these business processes. In this paper we discover use cases relevant in this context. Since existing graph layout approaches have focused on general graph drawing so far we further develop a specific approach for layouting business process graphs. The work presented in this paper is embedded within a larger project (Proviado) on the visualization of automotive processes

Self-Tracker:Praktiken der Selbstvermessung in digitalen Vernetzungskulturen

Apps und Fitness-Tracker haben die Anwendungskultur der Bio-Surveillance verändert. Ihre Feedbacktechnologien erleichtern nicht nur Praktiken der gesunden Lebensführung, sondern multiplizieren auch soziale Kontrolle. An der Schnittstelle von digitalen Mediensystemen und bioinformatischen Wissensmedien tragen sie im Trend der Selbstvermessung dazu bei, den Körper als Medienobjekt geregelter Gestaltung und numerischer Ausdrucksformen zu betrachten. Der Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit der Programmlogik dieses digitalen Fitness- und Gesundheitsmonitoring und untersucht ihren Stellenwert im Kontext von Praktiken der Selbstführung in prozessorientierten Aushandlungsprozessen.<br

Resting on weedy laurels : Lorine Niedecker's poetics of perseverance.

Lorine Niedecker began writing poems in the late 1920s from her home by the waters of Blackhawk Island, Wisconsin. This study examines her first associations with and empowerment through the Objectivists' new poetic methodologies of the early 1930s, and it critically examines, through a forty-year opus, her progressively more reflective work in tandem to her life-long effort of maintaining crucial ties with urban contemporaries, predominantly Louis Zukofsky. As a rural, female writer, on the edge of a disbanding group of disagreeable poets who were originally associated with the term, 'Objectivist,' which Zukofsky had coined for his 1931 issue of Poetry, Niedecker's work was often overlooked or pigeonholed as 'Regionalist,' despite the fact that her main supporters were from New York, Japan, and England. Niedecker's mostly small poems, with their 'deep trickle,' have undergone a resurgence of critical interest within the last decade or so, and this thesis bears witness, with prolonged critical analysis, to her life-span of lucent and rhythmic poems. They ebb and flow into and out of her daily life as a lowly paid copy-editor or hospital floor scrubber, and they emanate, with unparalleled wit and lyricism, through the sometimes dreadful, 'darkinfested' winter or amidst the ecstasies of spring by the marshes of Lake Koshkonong.--Abstract

An experimental comparison of nonswirling and swirling flow in a circular-to-rectangular transition duct

Circular-to-rectangular transition ducts are used as exhaust system components of aircraft with rectangular exhaust nozzles. Often, the incoming flow of these transition ducts includes a swirling velocity component remaining from the gas turbine engine. Previous transition duct studies have either not included inlet swirl or when inlet swirl was considered, only overall performance parameters were evaluated. Circular-to-rectangular transition duct flows with and without inlet swirl were explored in order to understand the effect of inlet swirl on the transition duct flow field and to provide detailed duct flow data for comparison with numerical code predictions. A method was devised to create a swirling, solid body rotational flow with minimal associated disturbances. Coefficients based on velocities and total and static pressures measured incross stream planes at four axial locations within the transition duct, along with surface static pressure measurements and surface oil film visualization, are presented for both nonswirling and swirling incoming flow. In both cases the inlet centerline Mach number was 0.35. The Reynolds number based on the inlet centerline velocity and duct inlet diameter was 1,547,000 for nonswirling and 1,366,000 for swirling flow. The maximum swirl angle was 15.6 deg. Two pair of counter-rotating side wall vortices appeared in the duct flow without inlet swirl. These vortices were absent in the swirling incoming flow cases

An experimental trace gas investigation of fluid transport and mixing in a circular-to-rectangular transition duct

An ethylene trace gas technique was used to map out fluid transport and mixing within a circular to rectangular transition duct. Ethylene gas was injected at several points in a cross stream plane upstream of the transition duct. Ethylene concentration contours were determined at several cross stream measurement planes spaced axially within the duct. The flow involved a uniform inlet flow at a Mach number level of 0.5. Statistical analyses were used to quantitatively interpret the trace gas results. Also, trace gas data were considered along with aerodynamic and surface flow visualization results to ascertain transition duct flow phenomena. Convection of wall boundary layer fluid by vortices produced regions of high total pressure loss in the duct. The physical extent of these high loss regions is governed by turbulent diffusion

Improvement of the Nutritive Value of High Tannin Sorghums for Broiler Chickens by High Moisture Storage (Reconstitution)

Grains from three high and one low tannin sorghum cultivars were treated as follows: 1) untreated, no water was added, the dry grain had an average moisture content of 8% and 2) the moisture content of the grain was raised by adding 25% (w/w) distilled water to the grain. The treated grain was then stored for 10 or 20 days with a 2% level of acetic-propionic acid mixture (60/40, v/v) added to deter fungal growth. This treated grain was used in diets during a 3-week feeding trial with broiler chickens. High moisture storage (reconstitution) of high tannin sorghums decreased their extractable tannin content. Chickens fed diets containing these treated sorghums had improved weight grains (23 to 83 g) and feed efficiencies compared to birds fed diets containing the untreated grain. Treatment of low tannin sorghum did not improve weight gains. Reconstitution of high but not low tannin sorghums improved protein digestibility (6 to 16%) and dietary metabolizable energy (.1 to .3 kcal/g) for broiler chickens. There was a highly significant cultivar effect on leg scores, but the correlation between dietary tannin content and leg scores was low (r = .10), suggesting that tannin content was not a major factor in leg abnormality incidences shown. The improvement in weight grains, feed efficiencies, and protein digestibilities at 10 and 20 days storage periods was not different (P greater than .05), indicating that the benefits of high moisture storage were already obtained by 10 days

Navier-Stokes analysis and experimental data comparison of compressible flow in a diffusing S-duct

Full three-dimensional Navier-Stokes computational results are compared with new experimental measurements for the flowfield within a round diffusing S-duct. The present study extends previous computational and experimental results for a similar smaller scale S-duct. Predicted results are compared with the experimental static and total pressure fields, and velocity vectors. Additionally, wall pressures, velocity profiles in wall coordinates, and skin friction values are presented. The CFD results employ algebraic and k-epsilon turbulence models. The CFD computed and experimentally determined separated flowfield is carefully examined

Navier-Stokes analysis and experimental data comparison of compressible flow within ducts

Many aircraft employ ducts with centerline curvature or changing cross-sectional shape to join the engine with inlet and exhaust components. S-ducts convey air to the engine compressor from the intake and often decelerate the flow to achieve an acceptable Mach number at the engine compressor by increasing the cross-sectional area downstream. Circular-to-rectangular transition ducts are used on aircraft with rectangular exhaust nozzles to connect the engine and nozzle. To achieve maximum engine performance, the ducts should minimize flow total pressure loss and total pressure distortion at the duct exit. Changes in the curvature of the duct centerline or the duct cross-sectional shape give rise to streamline curvature which causes cross stream pressure gradients. Secondary flows can be caused by deflection of the transverse vorticity component of the boundary layer. This vortex tilting results in counter-rotating vortices. Additionally, the adverse streamwise pressure gradient caused by increasing cross-sectional area can lead to flow separation. Vortex pairs have been observed in the exit planes of both duct types. These vortices are due to secondary flows induced by pressure gradients resulting from streamline curvature. Regions of low total pressure are produced when the vortices convect boundary layer fluid into the main flow. The purpose of the present study is to predict the measured flow field in a diffusing S-duct and a circular-to-rectangular transition duct with a full Navier-Stokes computer program, PARC3D, and to compare the numerical predictions with new detailed experimental measurements. The work was undertaken to extend previous studies and to provide additional CFD validation data needed to help model flows with strong secondary flow and boundary layer separation. The S-duct computation extends the study of Smith et al, and Harloff et al, which concluded that the computation might be improved by using a finer grid and more advanced turbulence models. The present study compares results for both the Baldwin-Lomas and k-epsilon turbulence models and is conducted with a refined grid. For the transition duct, two inlet conditions were considered, the first with straight flow and the second with swirling flow. The first case permits examination of the effects of the geometric transition on the flow field, while the second case includes the rotational flow effect characteristic of a gas turbine engine

The Causal Link Between Financial Incentives and Weight Loss – An Evidence-based Survey of the Literature

Obesity and overweight are linked to diseases that cost society a significant amount of resources. While behavior modification can reduce the problem, instigating such lifestyle changes is an uneasy task. One potential way to reduce the problem is through the use of financial incentives. In this survey, we review the available evidence with a significant emphasis on studies that yield credible estimates of the effect of financial incentives on weight loss. We find that the scientific literature on the subject has not yet satisfactorily settled whether such a mechanism is effective at eliciting the desired behavioral and health outcomes. We therefore advocate a rigorous large-scale randomized experiment to provide reliable estimates of the effect.Financial incentives; weight loss; obesity; randomized experiment; survey