Distributed Global Transaction Support for Workflow Management Applications

Workflow management systems require advanced transaction support to cope with their inherently long-running processes. The recent trend to distribute workflow executions requires an even more advanced transaction support system that is able to handle distribution. This report presents a model as well as an architecture to provide distributed advanced transaction support. Characteristic of the transaction support system is the ability to deal with arbitrary distribution of business processes over multiple workflow management systems and the support for flexible rollbacks. The modularity of the architecture and the orthogonality with respect to the workflow management system allows the transaction system to be applied in other application areas as well. The high scalability of the architecture allows an arbitrary combination of transaction support systems and workflow management systems of which the locations are irrelevant. In the WIDE project, the developed echnology is applied to the FORO workflow management system

Moa: extensibility and efficiency in querying nested data

Advanced non-traditional application domains such as geographic information systems and digital library systems demand advanced data management support. In an effort to cope with this demand, we present a novel multi-model DBMS architecture which provides efficient evaluation of queries on complexly structured data. A vital role in this architecture is played by the Moa language featuring a nested relational data model based on XNF2, in which we placed renewed interest. Furthermore, the architecture allows extensibility on all of its levels providing the means to better integrate domain-specific algorithms into the system. In addition to this, the extensibility of the Moa language is designed in a way that optimization obstacles due to blackbox treatment of ADTs is avoided. This combination of well-integrated domainspecific algorithms, extensibility open to optimization, and a mapping of queries on complexly structured data to an efficient physical algebra expression via a nested relational algebra, makes that the Moa system can efficiently handle complex queries from non-traditional application domains

Green Space Visits among Adolescents: Frequency and Predictors in the PIAMA Birth Cohort Study.

Green space may influence health through several pathways, for example, increased physical activity, enhanced social cohesion, reduced stress, and improved air quality. For green space to increase physical activity and social cohesion, spending time in green spaces is likely to be important

TxQoS: concept, scenario, and framework

We have proposed the TxQoS (Transactional Quality of Service) approach to infuse transactional semantics into contracts so that a gap between business and technical communities with regard to transaction awareness is filled. In this paper we continue to refine the proposed TxQoS concepts in SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) context. We illustrate the complete TxQoS picture by a scenario with three parties interacting through the four phases of a TxQoS lifecycle. The specification of the four TxQoS attributes is discussed in detail to demonstrate how the TxQoS concepts are operationalized. To support the TxQoS scenario, we present a framework containing an architecture, a mapping and matching model and a monitoring mechanism. With in-depth investigation of various aspects of the TxQoS framework, we aim to deliver a proactive approach of transaction management that is feasible, extensible and effective to enhance process and service reliability

Model, Architecture and System for Cross- Organizational Transaction Support in Virtual Enterprises♣

A shorter version of this report has appeared in [Vonk00]

Abstract transaction construct:building a transaction framework for contract-driven, service-oriented business processes

Transaction support is vital for reliability of business processes which nowadays can involve dynamically composed services across organizational boundaries. However, no single transaction model is comprehensive enough to accommodate various transactional properties demanded by these processes. Therefore we develop the Business Transaction Framework, which is built on Abstract Transactional Constructs (ATCs). ATCs are abstract types of existing transaction models that can be composed and executed in a service-oriented transaction framework according to the ATC algebra. By selecting and composing ATCs on demand, flexible and reliable process execution is guaranteed