Humans, Processes and Robots: A Journey to Hyperautomation

Automating business processes is one of the most recurrent topics in indus tries, independent of its digital orientation. Competitiveness pushes companies to deliver their products or services efficiently and effectively. Besides providing the appropriate value, they are required to do it faster and with higher quality. This agile context leads to automate everything that can be automated to keep the focus on the value while optimizing the processing times, errors, and process performance, in general [9]. Human beings have historically suffered various industrial revolutions that transformed the way of working, producing, and thinking. Although resistance to change has always appeared, they ended up being adopted by companies and people to avoid inevitable obsolescence [11]. The irruption of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in the area of business process automation seems to have laid the seeds for a new revolution of administrative digital work [3]. RPA is a software paradigm that enables software machines (also referred as robots) to interact with information systems through their user interfaces (UIs) in a process-oriented way. Freeing humans from repetitive and mundane work is its main mantra. It started receiving increasing interest in the last decade and has become the fastest-growing enterprise software market in the last years [2]. After an initial hype of unfulfilled promises, RPA keeps a significant traction [12]. Nonetheless, some companies still fail when trying to incorporate RPA in their projects. This paper serves as a discussion on, first, how to frame RPA in the existing Business Process Management (BPM) paradigm (cf. Sect. 1.1). And second, it deals with its natural evolution to a wider automation technology across the entire organization: Hyperautomation (cf. Sect. 1.2).Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades PID2019-105455GB-C3

Which team will win the 2014 FIFA World Cup? A Bayesian approach for dummies

This paper presents several "ex ante" simulation exercises of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Specifically, we estimate the probabilities of each national team advancing to different stages, using a basic Bayesian approach based on conjugate families. In particular, we use the Categorical-Dirichlet model in the first round and the Bernoulli-Beta model in the following stages. The novelty of our framework is given by the use of betting odds to elicit the hyperparameters of prior distributions. Additionally, we obtain the posterior distributions with the Highest Density Intervals of the probability to being champion for each team. We find that Brazil (19.95%), Germany (14.68%), Argentina (12.05%), and Spain (6.2%) have the highest probabilities of being champion. Finally, we identify some betting opportunities with our simulation exercises. In particular, Bosnia & Herzegovina is a promising, whereas Australia shows the lowest betting opportunities return

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

An Automatic and Intelligent System for Integrated Healthcare Processes Management

In this work, an automatic and intelligent system for integrated healthcare processes management is developed on a constraint based system. This project has been carried out in collaboration with a real assisted repro-duction clinic. Our goal is to improve the efficiency of the clinic by facilitating the management of the integrated healthcare system. This is very important in an environment in which the healthcare processes present complex temporal and resource constraints.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2016-76956-C3-2-RMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2015-71938-RED

A Microcontroller Based System for Controlling Patient Respiratory Guidelines

The need of making improvements in obtaining (in a non-invasive way) and monitoring the breathing rate parameters in a patient emerges due to (1) the great amount of breathing problems our society suffer, (2) the problems that can be solved, and (3) the methods used so far. Non-specific machines are usually used to carry out these measures or simply calculate the number of inhalations and exhalations within a particular timeframe. These methods lack of effectiveness and precision thus, influencing the capacity of getting a good diagnosis. This proposal focuses on drawing up a technology composed of a mechanism and a user application which allows doctors to obtain the breathing rate parameters in a comfortable and concise way. In addition, such parameters are stored in a database for potential consultation as well as for the medical history of the patients. For this, the current approach takes into account the needs, the capacities, the expectations and the user motivations which have been compiled by means of open interviews, forum discussions, surveys and application uses. In addition, an empirical evaluation has been conducted with a set of volunteers. Results indicate that the proposed technology may reduce cost and improve the reliability of the diagnosis.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2016-76956-C3-2-RMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2015-71938-RED

LA FUNCIÓN DEL ASESOR TÉCNICO PEDAGÓGICO DE UN CENTRO DE RECURSOS E INFORMACIÓN PARA LA INTEGRACIÓN EDUCATIVA, DE LA ZONA 08 DE EDUCACIÓN ESPECIAL EN EL VALLE DE TOLUCA

El ideal del Sistema Educativo en México, es que todos los niños compartan los mismos espacios educativos y el mismo tipo de educación. El artículo 3º constitucional establece la obligación del Estado de garantizar la calidad en la educación obligatoria de manera que los materiales y métodos educativos, la organización escolar, la infraestructura educativa y la idoneidad de los docentes y los directivos garanticen el máximo logro de aprendizaje de los educandos. Una de las condiciones para impulsar la integración efectiva de niñas y niños con necesidades educativas especiales a las aulas regulares es el conocimiento de elementos para el diagnóstico de la situación personal de cada niña y cada niño, de la influencia que ejercen en el desarrollo de sus capacidades el entorno familiar, escolar y social, así como de estrategias específicas de atención para favorecer una relación adecuada y estimulante con sus compañeros en el aula y en la escuela que favorezca el desarrollo de todas sus potencialidades. En la escuela inclusiva se debe saber cuáles son las barreras que producen la inclusión en las aulas y cuáles deberían ser las ayudas para reconducir la inclusión. Para dar respuesta a lo anterior, como resultado de las diferentes funciones del Asesor Técnico Pedagógico, autor del presente trabajo, se crea el Centro de Recursos e Información para la Integración Educativa CRIE, del Valle de Toluca, con domicilio en la calle de Cenzontle No. 36, Col. El Porvenir, Zinacantepec, Estado de México. Perteneciente a la zona 08 de Educación Especial en el Valle de Toluca, dependiente de los Servicios Educativos Integrados al Estado de México, SEIEM, que tiene como una de sus principales funciones la promoción de la Integración Educativa.La presente memoria tiene como propósito dar a conocer las actividades y productos que como asesor técnico pedagógico se realizaron en diferentes momentos en el Centro de Recursos e Información para la Integración Educativa, CRIE del Valle de Toluca.Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Méxic

A Constraint-Based Approach for Managing Declarative Temporal Business Process Models

There is an increasing interest in aligning information systems in a process-oriented way. As an alternative of the traditional imperative models which tend to be too rigid, processes may be specified in a declarative (e.g., constraint-based) way. Nonetheless, in general, offering operational support (e.g., generating possible execution traces) to declarative business process models entails more complexity when compared to imperative modeling alternatives. Such support becomes even more complex in many real scenarios where the management of complex temporal relations between the process activities is crucial (i.e., the temporal perspective should be managed). Despite the needs for enabling process flexibility and dealing with temporal constraints, most existing tools are unable to manage both. In a previous work, we then proposed TConDec-R, which is a constraint-based process modeling language which allows for the specification of temporal constraints. However, TConDec-R revealed a number of limitations that are overcome with the present work. More specifically, this paper significantly extends and improves our previous work by (1) defining TConDec-R process models based on high-level elements from the constraint programming paradigm, (2) introducing a constraint-based tool with a client/server architecture for providing operational support to TConDec-R process models, and (3) performing an empirical evaluation of the approach

What is the effect of sample and prior distributions on a Bayesian autoregressive linear model? An application to piped water consumption

In this paper we analyze the effect of four possible alternatives regarding the prior distributions in a linear model with autoregressive errors to predict piped water consumption: Normal-Gamma, Normal-Scaled Beta two, Studentized-Gamma and Student's t-Scaled Beta two. We show the effects of these prior distributions on the posterior distributions under different assumptions associated with the coefficient of variation of prior hyperparameters in a context where there is a conflict between the sample information and the elicited hyperparameters. We show that the posterior parameters are less affected by the prior hyperparameters when the Studentized-Gamma and Student's t-Scaled Beta two models are used. We show that the Normal-Gamma model obtains sensible outcomes in predictions when there is a small sample size. However, this property is lost when the experts overestimate the certainty of their knowledge. In the case that the experts greatly trust their beliefs, it is a good idea to use Student's t distribution as the prior distribution, because we obtain small posterior predictive errors. In addition, we find that the posterior predictive distributions using one of the versions of Student's t as prior are robust to the coefficient of variation of the prior parameters. Finally, it is shown that the Normal-Gamma model has a posterior distribution of the variance concentrated near zero when there is a high level of confidence in the experts' knowledge: this implies a narrow posterior predictive credibility interval, especially using small sample sizes

Towards a unified model representation of machine learning knowledge

Nowadays, Machine Learning (ML) algorithms are being widely applied in virtually all possible scenarios. However, developing a ML project entails the effort of many ML experts who have to select and configure the appropriate algorithm to process the data to learn from, between other things. Since there exist thousands of algorithms, it becomes a time-consuming and challenging task. To this end, recently, AutoML emerged to provide mechanisms to automate parts of this process. However, most of the efforts focus on applying brute force procedures to try different algorithms or configuration and select the one which gives better results. To make a smarter and more efficient selection, a repository of knowledge is necessary. To this end, this paper proposes (1) an approach towards a common language to consolidate the current distributed knowledge sources related the algorithm selection in ML, and (2) a method to join the knowledge gathered through this language in a unified store that can be exploited later on. The preliminary evaluations of this approach allow to create a unified store collecting the knowledge of 13 different sources and to identify a bunch of research lines to conduct.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2016-76956-C3-2-RCentro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial P009-18/E0

Conflito trabalho-família, percepção de equidade de gênero e bem-estar subjetivo em funcionários da saúde na região de Maule

The aim of this study was to describe the relationship between work- family conflict, perception of gender equality and subjective well-being of health officials in the Maule Region (Chile). The sample used was 255 health officials from three public services of the Maule Region. The instruments used were the CTF/CFT Scale, the Gender Equity Perception Questionnaire, the Satisfaction with Life Scale and the Subjective Happiness Scale. It was observed that the direction of work-family conflict is predominantly from family to work. In the same way, it was found that there is a statistically significant and negative relationship between the work-family conflict variables and the perception of gender equity, as well as in the work-family conflict and subjective well-being variables. On the other hand, it is evidenced that there is a statistically significant and positive relationship between the perception of gender equity and subjective well-being. It is concluded that it is necessary to face the social changes that have been experienced with the insertion of women into the labor market and how a mismatch occurs in terms of work- family conciliation, understanding the post-pandemic challenges.El objetivo del presente trabajo fue describir la relación que existe entre conflicto trabajo- familia, percepción de equidad de género y bienestar subjetivo en funcionarios de la salud en la región del Maule (Chile). A 255 funcionarios de tres servicios públicos de salud se les administraron los instrumentos de Escala CTF/CFT, Cuestionario de Percepción de Equidad de Género, Escala de Satisfacción Vital y la Escala de Felicidad Subjetiva. Se observó que la dirección del conflicto trabajo-familia se orienta predominantemente de la familia hacia el trabajo. Asimismo, se encontró que existe una relación estadísticamente significativa y negativa entre las variables de conflicto trabajo-familia y la percepción de equidad de género, al igual que en las variables de conflicto trabajo-familia y bienestar subjetivo. Por el contrario, se evidencia que existe una relación estadísticamente significativa y positiva entre la percepción de equidad de género y el bienestar subjetivo. Se concluye la necesidad de afrontar los cambios sociales que se han ido experimentando con la inserción de la mujer al mundo laboral y en cómo ocurre un desajuste en términos de conciliación trabajo-familia a partir de los desafíos pospandemia.O objetivo deste trabalho foi descrever a relação que existe entre conflito trabalho- família, percepção de equidade de gênero e bem-estar subjetivo em funcionários da saúde na região de Maule. A 255 funcionários de três serviços públicos de saúde, foram administrados os instrumentos Escala CTF/CTF, Questionário de Percepção de Equidade de Gênero, Escala de Satisfação Vital e Escala de Felicidade Subjetiva. Observou-se que a direção do conflito trabalho-família se orienta predominantemente da família para o trabalho. Também se verificou que existe uma relação estatisticamente significativa e negativa entre as variáveis de conflito trabalho-família e a percepção de equidade de gênero, da mesma forma que as variáveis de conflito trabalho-família e bem-estar subjetivo. Contrariamente, é evidente que existe uma relação estatisticamente significativa e positiva entre a percepção de equidade de gênero e o bem-estar subjetivo. Conclui-se a necessidade de enfrentar as mudanças sociais que vão sendo experimentadas com a inserção da mulher no mundo do trabalho e em como ocorre um desajuste em termos da conciliação trabalho-família, compreendendo os desafios pós-pandemia