Activity Relations: A Dataflow Approach to Workflow Design

A key step in workflow design is to determine the activity sequences, which are often driven by the dataflow constraints in a business process. Therefore, the literature has suggested that workflow design can start with dataflow analysis. However, no formalism exists for deriving activity sequences from a set of identified activities and their input and output data. In this paper, we formalize the problem of workflow design on the basis of dataflow analysis. We tackle the problem by using the concept of “activity relations” as an intermediate step for identifying the possible activity execution sequences from dataflow. We investigate how to derive activity relations from dataflow and discuss their implication in workflow design

The Impact of IQ+EQ+CQ Integration on Student Productivity in Web Design and Development

As the entry-level information technology jobs could be easily outsourced offshore, the demand for U.S. employees who are innovative and productive in information technology (IT) project design, development, and management is growing among U.S. companies. This controlled experiment presents how a model of integrating students’ intelligence quotient (IQ), emotion quotient (EQ), and creativity quotient (CQ) into teaching and learning activities has impacted student productivity in Web design and development. The purpose of this research is to provide IT educators with the empirical results they need to decide whether they should consider incorporating the 3Qs integration model into their curricula to prepare a new generation of IT graduates. The findings indicate that (a) at the initial stage, the 3Qs integration model had no positive impact on student time efficiency, but had significantly reduced student errors in Web application design and development; (b) the 3Qs integration model enabled students to continuously improve their time efficiency and error reduction in designing and developing a series of Web applications; and (c) the gender difference did not moderate the positive impact of 3Qs integration on student productivity in terms of time efficiency and error occurrence in Web design and development

Evaluation of Image Registration Accuracy for Tumor and Organs at Risk in the Thorax for Compliance With TG 132 Recommendations

Purpose To evaluate accuracy for 2 deformable image registration methods (in-house B-spline and MIM freeform) using image pairs exhibiting changes in patient orientation and lung volume and to assess the appropriateness of registration accuracy tolerances proposed by the American Association of Physicists in Medicine Task Group 132 under such challenging conditions via assessment by expert observers. Methods and Materials Four-dimensional computed tomography scans for 12 patients with lung cancer were acquired with patients in prone and supine positions. Tumor and organs at risk were delineated by a physician on all data sets: supine inhale (SI), supine exhale, prone inhale, and prone exhale. The SI image was registered to the other images using both registration methods. All SI contours were propagated using the resulting transformations and compared with physician delineations using Dice similarity coefficient, mean distance to agreement, and Hausdorff distance. Additionally, propagated contours were anonymized along with ground-truth contours and rated for quality by physician-observers. Results Averaged across all patients, the accuracy metrics investigated remained within tolerances recommended by Task Group 132 (Dice similarity coefficient \u3e0.8, mean distance to agreement \u3c3 \u3emm). MIM performed better with both complex (vertebrae) and low-contrast (esophagus) structures, whereas the in-house method performed better with lungs (whole and individual lobes). Accuracy metrics worsened but remained within tolerances when propagating from supine to prone; however, the Jacobian determinant contained regions with negative values, indicating localized nonphysiologic deformations. For MIM and in-house registrations, 50% and 43.8%, respectively, of propagated contours were rated acceptable as is and 8.2% and 11.0% as clinically unacceptable. Conclusions The deformable image registration methods performed reliably and met recommended tolerances despite anatomically challenging cases exceeding typical interfraction variability. However, additional quality assurance measures are necessary for complex applications (eg, dose propagation). Human review rather than unsupervised implementation should always be part of the clinical registration workflow

Interobserver Reliability in Describing Radiographic Lung Changes After Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy

Purpose Radiographic lung changes after stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) vary widely between patients. Standardized descriptions of acute (≤6 months after treatment) and late (\u3e6 months after treatment) benign lung changes have been proposed but the reliable application of these classification systems has not been demonstrated. Herein, we examine the interobserver reliability of classifying acute and late lung changes after SBRT. Methods and materials A total of 280 follow-up computed tomography scans at 3, 6, and 12 months post-treatment were analyzed in 100 patients undergoing thoracic SBRT. Standardized descriptions of acute lung changes (3- and 6-month scans) include diffuse consolidation, patchy consolidation and ground glass opacity (GGO), diffuse GGO, patchy GGO, and no change. Late lung change classifications (12-month scans) include modified conventional pattern, mass-like pattern, scar-like pattern, and no change. Five physicians scored the images independently in a blinded fashion. Fleiss\u27 kappa scores quantified the interobserver agreement. Results The Kappa scores were 0.30 at 3 months, 0.20 at 6 months, and 0.25 at 12 months. The proportion of patients in each category at 3 and 6 months was as follows: Diffuse consolidation 11% and 21%; patchy consolidation and GGO 15% and 28%; diffuse GGO 10% and 11%; patchy GGO 15% and 15%; and no change 49% and 25%, respectively. The percentage of patients in each category at 12 months was as follows: Modified conventional 46%; mass-like 16%; scar-like 26%; and no change 12%. Uniform scoring between the observers occurred in 26, 8, and 14 cases at 3, 6, and 12 months, respectively. Conclusions Interobserver reliability scores indicate a fair agreement to classify radiographic lung changes after SBRT. Qualitative descriptions are insufficient to categorize these findings because most patient scans do not fit clearly into a single classification. Categorization at 6 months may be the most difficult because late and acute lung changes can arise at that time

A Multi-Agent-Based System for eProcurement

E-procurement has become an important function of enterprise information systems. The process of e-procurement includes automatic definition of product requirements, search and selection for suppliers, negotiation and contracting with suppliers. In this paper, we propose a novel agentbased architecture for e-procurement system, in which various agents take such responsibilities as negotiating and contracting. Moreover, the architecture that we propose can monitor transaction status and enhance the flexibility to handle unexpected exceptions, thus leading to agile procurement management

On The Theoretical Foundation for Data Flow Analysis in Workflow Management

In workflow management, the data flow perspective specifies how data are produced and consumed by activities in a workflow. Data flow analysis can detect data flow anomalies occurring in a workflow while its control flow can be syntactically error-free. Currently, most commercial workflow management systems do not provide the tools for data flow analysis at design time. We have previously proposed a data flow analysis approach and developed the basic concepts and the essential algorithms. As another step forward, this paper examines the issues of data flow anomalies and their verification from a theoretical point of view and validates the correctness of the proposed approach

Gestural overlap of stop-consonant sequences

Thesis (M.Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2003.Includes bibliographical references (p. 79).This study used an analysis-by-synthesis approach to discover possible principles governing the coordination of oral and laryngeal articulators in the production of English stop-consonant sequences. Recorded utterances containing stop-consonant sequences were analyzed acoustically, with focus on formant movements, closure durations, release bursts, and spectrum shape at low frequencies. The results of the acoustic analysis were translated into general gestural timing estimates. From these estimates, a set of possible principles was derived. Both the general gestural estimates and the derived principles were verified and refined through quasi-articulatory synthesis using HLsyn. Perception tests composed of synthetic sequences with varying degrees of overlap were administered. From acoustic analysis, synthesis verification, and perception testing, two principles emerged. First, V1Cl#C2V2 stop-consonant sequences with front-to-back order of place of articulation have more overlap of articulators than those with back-to-front order; this agrees with past research findings (Chitoran, Goldstein, and Byrd, 2002). The extent of the overlapping usually does not go beyond the obliteration of the Cl release burst. Second, gestural overlap involving laryngeal articulators exists but varies from individual to individual. The voicing of C1 usually affects the voicing of C2 in V1CI#C2V2 sequences.by Sherry Yi Zhao.M.Eng

The stop-like modification of /ð/ : a case study in the analysis and handling of speech variation

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 138-142).Phonetic variation is pervasive in everyday speech. Studying these variations is essential for building acoustic models and lexical representations that effectively capture the variability of speech. This thesis examines one of the commonly-occurring phonetic variations in English: the stop-like modification of the dental fricative /ð/. This variant exhibits a drastic change from the canonical /ð/; the manner of production is changed from one that is fricative to one that is stop-like. Furthermore, the place of articulation of stop-like /0/ has been a point of uncertainty, leading to the confusion between stop-like /ð/1 and /d/. This thesis aims to uncover the segmental context of stop-like /ð/, possible causes of the modification, whether the dental place of articulation is preserved despite modification, and if there are salient acoustic cues that distinguish between stop-like /ð/ and /d/. Word-initial /ð/ in the read speech of the TIMIT Database, the task-oriented spontaneous speech of the AEMT Corpus, and the non-task-oriented spontaneous speech of the Buckeye Corpus are examined acoustically. It is found that stop-like /ð/ occurs most often when it is preceded by silence or when preceded by a stop consonant. The occurrence is less frequent when /ð/ is preceded by a fricative or an affricate consonant. This modification rarely occurs when /ð/ is preceded by a vowel or liquid consonant. The findings suggest that possible factors that may contribute to the stop-like modification of /ð/include physiological mechanisms of speech production, prosody, and/or other aspects of speaking style and manner. Acoustic analysis indicates that stop-like /ð/ is significantly different from /d/ in burst amplitude, burst spectrum shape, burst peak frequency, and second formant at following- vowel onset.(cont.) Moreover, the acoustic differences indicate that the dental place of articulation is preserved for stop-like /ð/. Automatic classification experiments involving these acoustic measures suggest that they are robust in distinguishing stop-like /ð/ from /d/. Applications of these findings may lie in areas of automatic speech recognition, speech transcription, and development of acoustic measures for speech disorder diagnosis.by Sherry Y. Zhao.Ph.D