Supporting flexible processes through recommendations based on history

In today's fast changing business environment exible information systems are required to allow companies to rapidly adjust their business processes to changes in the environment. However, increasing exibility in large information system usually leads to less guidance for its users and consequently requires more experienced users. In order to allow for exible systems with a high degree of guidance, intelligent user assistance is required. In this paper we propose a recommendation service, which, when used in combination with exible information systems, can guide end users during process execution by giving recommendations on possible next steps. Recommendations are generated based on similar past process executions by considering the specific optimization goals. This paper also describes an implementation of the proposed recommendation service in the context of ProM and the declarative work ow management system DECLARE

Vortex corrections to universal scaling of magnetic fluctuations in 2D XY model

The vortex contribution to the probability density function of longitudinal magnetization fluctuations is examined in finite 2D XY systems close to the Kosterlitz-Thouless-Berezinskii transition temperature. Within the temperature range studied their relevance is limited to rare fluctuations, where they increase the probability of events exceeding four standard deviations below the mean magnetization.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Refs adde

The Dark Matter Density in the Solar Neighborhood reconsidered

Both the gas flaring and the dip in the rotation curve, which was recently reconfirmed with precise measurements using the VERA VLBI array in Japan, suggest doughnut-like substructure in the dark matter (DM) halo. A global fit to all available data shows that the data are indeed best described by an NFW DM profile complemented by two doughnut-like DM substructures with radii of 4.2 and 12.4 kpc, which coincide with the local dust ring and the Monocerus ring of stars, respectively. Both regions have been suggested as regions with tidal streams from "shredded" satellites. If real, the radial extensions of these nearby ringlike structures enhance the local dark matter density by a factor of four to about 1.3$\pm0.3$ GeV/cm$^3$. It is shown that i) this higher DM density is perfectly consistent with the local gravitational potential determining the surface density and the local matter density (Oort limit), ii) previous determinations of the surface density were biased by the assumption of a smoothly varying DM halo and iii) the s-shaped gas flaring is explained. Such a possible enhancement of the local DM density is of great interest for direct DM searches and would change the directional dependence for indirect DM searches.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, extended version, accepted for publication in JCA

Sociology Back to the Publics

This article is a reading of the `new sociology' that is mainly identified with the works of C. Wright Mills and Alvin Gouldner. Its main argument is that during the past 40 years the new sociology gave back a public face to sociology. This distinguishes it from the `old sociology' that had not been able to free itself from `private' social values. It is argued that Mills' power elite and Gouldner's coming crisis theses provided the foundation for a common enterprise among many `new sociologists' to develop a critical and public sociology that would seek to shape what Mills called the `democratic society of publics'.`New sociologists' share a critique of modern societies, namely, that though most modern societies have formal democracies, a substantial democratic social structure of publics is often lacking, due to the erosion of the public sphere by private values

Enhancing modeling and change support for process families through change patterns

The increasing adoption of process-aware information systems (PAISs), together with the variability of business processes (BPs), has resulted in large collections of related process model variants (i.e., process families). To effectively deal with process families, several proposals (e.g., C-EPC, Provop) exist that extend BP modeling languages with variability-specific constructs. While fostering reuse and reducing modeling efforts, respective constructs imply additional complexity and demand proper support for process designers when creating and modifying process families. Recently, generic and language independent adaptation patterns were successfully introduced for creating and evolving single BP models. However, they are not sufficient to cope with the specific needs for modeling and evolving process families. This paper suggests a complementary set of generic and language-independent change patterns specifically tailored to the needs of process families. When used in combination with existing adaptation patterns, change patterns for process families will enable the modeling and evolution of process families at a high-level of abstraction. Further, they will serve as reference for implementing tools or comparing proposals managing process families. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.This work has been developed with the support of MICINN under the Project EVERYWARE TIN2010-18011.Ayora Esteras, C.; Torres Bosch, MV.; Weber, B.; Reichert, M.; Pelechano Ferragud, V. (2013). Enhancing modeling and change support for process families through change patterns. En Enterprise, Business-Process and Information Systems Modeling, BPMDS 2013. Springer Verlag. 246-260. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38484-4_18S246260van der Aalst, W.M.P., ter Hofstede, A.H.M., Barros, B.: Workflow Patterns. Distributed and Parallel Databases 14(1), 5–51 (2003)Aghakasiri, Z., Mirian-Hosseinabadi, S.H.: Workflow change patterns: Opportunities for extension and reuse. In: Proc. SERA 2009, pp. 265–275 (2009)Ayora, C., Torres, V., Reichert, M., Weber, B., Pelechano, V.: Towards run-time flexibility for process families: Open issues and research challenges. In: La Rosa, M., Soffer, P. (eds.) BPM 2012 Workshops. LNBIP, vol. 132, pp. 477–488. Springer, Heidelberg (2013)Ayora, C., Torres, V., Weber, B., Reichert, M., Pelechano, V.: Change patterns for process families. Technical Report, PROS-TR-2012-06, http://www.pros.upv.es/technicalreports/PROS-TR-2012-06.pdfDadam, P., Reichert, M.: The ADEPT project: a decade of research and development for robust and flexible process support. Com. Sci. - R&D 23, 81–97 (2009)Dijkman, R., La Rosa, M., Reijers, H.A.: Managing large collections of business process models - Current techniques and challenges. Comp. in Ind. 63(2), 91–97 (2012)Döhring, M., Zimmermann, B., Karg, L.: Flexible workflows at design- and runtime using BPMN2 adaptation patterns. In: Abramowicz, W. (ed.) BIS 2011. LNBIP, vol. 87, pp. 25–36. Springer, Heidelberg (2011)Gottschalk, F.: Configurable process models. Ph.D. thesis, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands (2009)Grambow, G., Oberhauser, R., Reichert, M.: Contextual injection of quality measures into software engineering processes. Intl. J. Adv. in Software 4, 76–99 (2011)Gschwind, T., Koehler, J., Wong, J.: Applying patterns during business process modeling. In: Dumas, M., Reichert, M., Shan, M.-C. (eds.) BPM 2008. LNCS, vol. 5240, pp. 4–19. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)Günther, C.W., Rinderle, S., Reichert, M., van der Aalst, W.M.P.: Change mining in adaptive process management systems. In: Meersman, R., Tari, Z. (eds.) OTM 2006. LNCS, vol. 4275, pp. 309–326. Springer, Heidelberg (2006)Hallerbach, A., Bauer, T., Reichert, M.: Context-based configuration of process variants. In: Proc. TCoB 2008, pp. 31–40 (2008)Hallerbach, A., Bauer, T., Reichert, M.: Capturing variability in business process models: the Provop approach. J. of Software Maintenance 22(6-7), 519–546 (2010)Kitchenham, B., Charters, S.: Guidelines for performing Systematic Literature Reviews in Software Engineering, Technical Report EBSE/EPIC–2007–01 (2007)Kulkarni, V., Barat, S., Roychoudhury, S.: Towards business application product lines. In: France, R.B., Kazmeier, J., Breu, R., Atkinson, C. (eds.) MODELS 2012. LNCS, vol. 7590, pp. 285–301. Springer, Heidelberg (2012)Küster, J.M., Gerth, C., Förster, A., Engels, G.: Detecting and resolving process model differences in the absence of a change log. In: Dumas, M., Reichert, M., Shan, M.-C. (eds.) BPM 2008. LNCS, vol. 5240, pp. 244–260. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)Küster, J.M., Gerth, C., Engels, G.: Dynamic computation of change operations in version management of business process models. In: Kühne, T., Selic, B., Gervais, M.-P., Terrier, F. (eds.) ECMFA 2010. LNCS, vol. 6138, pp. 201–216. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)Lanz, A., Weber, B., Reichert, M.: Time patterns for process-aware information systems. Requirements Engineering, 1–29 (2012)La Rosa, M., van der Aalst, W.M.P., Dumas, M., ter Hofstede, A.H.M.: Questionnaire-based variability modeling for system configuration. Software and System Modeling 8(2), 251–274 (2009)Lerner, B.S., Christov, S., Osterweil, L.J., Bendraou, R., Kannengiesser, U., Wise, A.: Exception Handling Patterns for Process Modeling. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 36(2), 162–183 (2010)Li, C., Reichert, M., Wombacher, A.: Mining business process variants: Challenges, scenarios, algorithms. Data Knowledge & Engineering 70(5), 409–434 (2011)Marrella, A., Mecella, M., Russo, A.: Featuring automatic adaptivity through workflow enactment and planning. In: Proc. CollaborateCom 2011, pp. 372–381 (2011)Müller, D., Herbst, J., Hammori, M., Reichert, M.: IT support for release management processes in the automotive industry. In: Dustdar, S., Fiadeiro, J.L., Sheth, A.P. (eds.) BPM 2006. LNCS, vol. 4102, pp. 368–377. Springer, Heidelberg (2006)Reichert, M., Weber, B.: Enabling flexibility in process-aware information systems: challenges, methods, technologies. Springer (2012)Reinhartz-Berger, I., Soffer, P., Sturm, A.: Organizational reference models: supporting an adequate design of local business processes. IBPIM 4(2), 134–149 (2009)Rosemann, M., van der Aalst, W.M.P.: A configurable reference modeling language. Information Systems 32(1), 1–23 (2007)Russell, N., ter Hofstede, A.H.M., Edmond, D., van der Aalst, W.M.P.: Workflow data patterns. Technical Report FIT-TR-2004-01, Queensland Univ. of Technology (2004)Russell, N., ter Hofstede, A.H.M., Edmond, D., van der Aalst, W.M.P.: Workflow resource patterns. Technical Report WP 127, Eindhoven Univ. of Technology (2004)Russell, N., van der Aalst, W.M.P., ter Hofstede, A.H.M.: Workflow Exception Patterns. In: Martinez, F.H., Pohl, K. (eds.) CAiSE 2006. LNCS, vol. 4001, pp. 288–302. Springer, Heidelberg (2006)Smirnov, S., Weidlich, M., Mendling, J., Weske, M.: Object-sensitive action patterns in process model repositories. In: Muehlen, M.z., Su, J. (eds.) BPM 2010 Workshops. LNBIP, vol. 66, pp. 251–263. Springer, Heidelberg (2011)Weber, B., Reichert, M., Rinderle-Ma, S.: Change patterns and change support features - Enhancing flexibility in process-aware information systems. Data Knowledge & Engineering 66, 438–466 (2008)Weber, B., Sadiq, S., Reichert, M.: Beyond rigidity - dynamic process lifecycle support. Computer Science 23, 47–65 (2009)Weber, B., Reichert, M., Reijers, H.A., Mendling, J.: Refactoring large process model repositories. Computers in Industry 62(5), 467–486 (2011

Analysis of the FoodNet case-control study of sporadic Salmonella serotype Enteritidis infections using persons infected with other Salmonella serotypes as the comparison group

Use of well persons as the comparison group for laboratory-confirmed cases of sporadic salmonellosis may introduce ascertainment bias into case-control studies. Data from the 1996-1997 FoodNet case-control study of laboratory-confirmed Salmonella serogroups B and D infection were used to estimate the effect of specific behaviours and foods on infection with Salmonella serotype Enteritidis (SE). Persons with laboratory-confirmed Salmonella of other serotypes acted as the comparison group. The analysis included 173 SE cases and 268 non-SE controls. SE was associated with international travel, consumption of chicken prepared outside the home, and consumption of undercooked eggs prepared outside the home in the 5 days prior to diarrhoea onset. SE phage type 4 was associated with international travel and consumption of undercooked eggs prepared outside the home. The use of ill controls can be a useful tool in identifying risk factors for sporadic cases of Salmonella

Dependence of direct detection signals on the WIMP velocity distribution

The signals expected in WIMP direct detection experiments depend on the ultra-local dark matter distribution. Observations probe the local density, circular speed and escape speed, while simulations find velocity distributions that deviate significantly from the standard Maxwellian distribution. We calculate the energy, time and direction dependence of the event rate for a range of velocity distributions motivated by recent observations and simulations, and also investigate the uncertainty in the determination of WIMP parameters. The dominant uncertainties are the systematic error in the local circular speed and whether or not the MW has a high density dark disc. In both cases there are substantial changes in the mean differential event rate and the annual modulation signal, and hence exclusion limits and determinations of the WIMP mass. The uncertainty in the shape of the halo velocity distribution is less important, however it leads to a 5% systematic error in the WIMP mass. The detailed direction dependence of the event rate is sensitive to the velocity distribution. However the numbers of events required to detect anisotropy and confirm the median recoil direction do not change substantially.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, v2 version to appear in JCAP, minor change

Detergents and chaotropes for protein solubilization before two-dimensional electrophoresis

Because of the outstanding ability of two-dimensional electrophoresis to separate complex mixtures of intact proteins, it would be advantageous to apply it to all types of proteins, including hydrophobic and membrane proteins. Unfortunately, poor solubility hampers the analysis of these molecules. As these problems arise mainly in the extraction and isoelectric focusing steps, the solution is to improve protein solubility under the conditions prevailing during isoelectric focusing. This chapter describes the use of chaotropes and novel detergents to enhance protein solubility during sample extraction and isoelectric focussing, and discusses the contribution of these compounds to improving proteomic analysis of membrane proteins

The detection of Gravitational Waves

This chapter is concerned with the question: how do gravitational waves (GWs) interact with their detectors? It is intended to be a theory review of the fundamental concepts involved in interferometric and acoustic (Weber bar) GW antennas. In particular, the type of signal the GW deposits in the detector in each case will be assessed, as well as its intensity and deconvolution. Brief reference will also be made to detector sensitivity characterisation, including very summary data on current state of the art GW detectors.Comment: 33 pages, 12 figures, LaTeX2e, Springer style files --included. For Proceedings of the ERE-2001 Conference (Madrid, September 2001

Imaging the molecular dynamics of dissociative electron attachment to water

Momentum imaging experiments on dissociative electron attachment to the water molecule are combined with ab initio theoretical calculations of the angular dependence of the quantum mechanical amplitude for electron attachment to provide a detailed picture of the molecular dynamics of dissociation attachment via the two lowest energy Feshbach resonances. The combination of momentum imaging experiments and theory can reveal dissociation dynamics for which the axial recoil approximation breaks down and thus provides a powerful reaction microscope for DEA to polyatomics