1,454 research outputs found
Presentation of Design Science Research in Information Systems and Engineering Disciplines - Empirical Investigation of Common Structures and Differences
Design Science Research is a research paradigm suitable for application-oriented disciplines that develop (construct) artifacts as solutions to practical problems. Design Science Research is known to be a mainstream research paradigm in engineering and other disciplines. In recent years, Design Science Research (DSR) has become an established research approach in the field of Information Systems (IS). Nevertheless, there is an ongoing debate about the methodology and guidelines for Design Science Research in Information Systems (IS-DSR). This paper proposes to gather and leverage insights from other design disciplines, such as engineering, to provide clarity and inspiration for IS-DSR and to work towards a common understanding of design science research across disciplines. This paper provides results of an initial empirical analysis of research literature from engineering disciplines. The results provide suggestions for validating DSR results and contribute to the understanding of research guidelines for DSR. In addition, a novel, fine-grained, and operational framework for analyzing DSR papers and projects is presented. The third contribution is a proposal to develop a common basic schema for design science research, analogous to the standard IMRaD schema for empirical research. Based on the analysis of samples of papers, this paper proposes IDEaD as the standard scheme for Design Science Research, i.e., Introduction, Description, Evaluation, and Discussion
Supporting the Optimized Execution of Business Processes through Recommendations
In order to be able to flexibly adjust a company’s business
processes (BPs) there is an increasing interest in flexible Process-Aware
Information Systems (PAISs). This increasing flexibility, however, typically
implies decreased user guidance by the PAIS and thus poses additional
challenges to its users. This work proposes a recommendation
system which assists users during process execution to optimize performance
goals of the processes. The recommendation system is based on a
constraint-based approach for planning and scheduling the BP activities
and considers both the control-flow and the resource perspective.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN2009-1371
OptBPPlanner: Automatic Generation of Optimized Business Process Enactment Plans
Unlike imperative models, the specifi cation of business process (BP)
properties in a declarative way allows the user to specify what has to be done instead
of having to specify how it has to be done, thereby facilitating the human work
involved, avoiding failures, and obtaining a better optimization. Frequently, there
are several enactment plans related to a specifi c declarative model, each one
presenting specifi c values for different objective functions, e.g., overall completion
time. As a major contribution of this work, we propose a method for the automatic
generation of optimized BP enactment plans from declarative specifi cations. The
proposed method is based on a constraint-based approach for planning and scheduling
the BP activities. These optimized plans can then be used for different purposes
like simulation, time prediction, recommendations, and generation of optimized BP
models. Moreover, a tool-supported method, called OptBPPlanner, has been implemented
to demonstrate the feasibility of our approach. Furthermore, the proposed
method is validated through a range of test models of varying complexity.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN2009-1371
Optimized Time Management for Declarative Workflows
Declarative process models are increasingly used since they fit better
with the nature of flexible process-aware information systems and the requirements
of the stakeholders involved. When managing business processes, in addition,
support for representing time and reasoning about it becomes crucial. Given
a declarative process model, users may choose among different ways to execute
it, i.e., there exist numerous possible enactment plans, each one presenting specific
values for the given objective functions (e.g., overall completion time). This
paper suggests a method for generating optimized enactment plans (e.g., plans
minimizing overall completion time) from declarative process models with explicit
temporal constraints. The latter covers a number of well-known workflow
time patterns. The generated plans can be used for different purposes like providing
personal schedules to users, facilitating early detection of critical situations,
or predicting execution times for process activities. The proposed approach is
applied to a range of test models of varying complexity. Although the optimization
of process execution is a highly constrained problem, results indicate that
our approach produces a satisfactory number of suitable solutions, i.e., solutions
optimal in many cases
HIV-1 Protease: Structural Perspectives on Drug Resistance
Antiviral inhibitors of HIV-1 protease are a notable success of structure-based drug design and have dramatically improved AIDS therapy. Analysis of the structures and activities of drug resistant protease variants has revealed novel molecular mechanisms of drug resistance and guided the design of tight-binding inhibitors for resistant variants. The plethora of structures reveals distinct molecular mechanisms associated with resistance: mutations that alter the protease interactions with inhibitors or substrates; mutations that alter dimer stability; and distal mutations that transmit changes to the active site. These insights will inform the continuing design of novel antiviral inhibitors targeting resistant strains of HIV
Enhancing Validity and Reliability Through Feedback-Driven Exploration: A Study in the Context of Conjoint Analysis
This study proposes a research design for the enhancement of validity and reliability in conjoint analysis research. For this purpose, we are applying the concept of feedback-driven exploration to conjoint analysis and assess the proposed research design concerning its benefits and limitations in respect of validity and reliability of results. The article is of interest for the field of preference elicitation through stated preference methods, and for model validation in transdisciplinary research. By applying the principle of feedback-driven exploration, we allow for feedback loops between researchers, industry experts and survey participants in order to strengthen both validity and reliability. A multi-case study of the agricultural markets in Switzerland illustrates the functioning of the proposed research design. We find that feedback-driven exploration significantly increases validity and reliability by enhancing methodological rigor and implementing an error-correcting mechanism. Additionally, a better understanding of the underlying decision processes is supported by the design due to increased interaction between researchers, industry experts and market participant
Comparative studies on the substrate specificity of avian myeloblastosis virus proteinase and lentiviral proteinases
Correlation between therapy response assessment using FDG PET/CT and histopathologic tumor regression grade in hepatic metastasis of colorectal carcinoma after neoadjuvant therapy
Purpose: To evaluate the correlation between change in FDG uptake before and after chemotherapy in hepatic metastases of colorectal carcinoma (HCRC) and a histopathologic tumor regression grade (TRG). Methods: In patients with HCRC, PET/CT data prior to hepatic surgery were retrospectively analyzed under an IRB waiver. The maximum standard uptake value (SUVmax) was measured before and after chemotherapy. The relative change of FDG activity in the identified lesions was calculated (dSUV). Histopathological specimens of resected metastases were graded on a 5-score TRG scale. A TRG of 1-3 was rated as a responding to therapy, whereas TRG 4-5 were regarded as non-responding lesions. Results: 31 lesions were identified in 23 patients. Mean SUVmax before and after therapy was 6.9±3.7 and 3.5±1.8, respectively. The area under the receiver operator characteristic curve revealed a conclusive correlation between TRG and dSUV (AUC 0.773; 95% confidence interval 0.599-0.946) with a cut off at 41% decrease in FDG activity yielding a sensitivity and specificity of 72 and 75%, respectively. Conclusion: A relative change in FDG activity (dSUV) of more than 41% decrease correlated significantly with histopathological tumor regression and might be a prognostic tool for response to chemotherapy in HCR
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