Eliciting and Modeling Business Process Stories

Most business process modeling tools used today encourage the rendition of lean, prescribed and clearly coordinated activities, which often clash with far more intricate business realities. This paper evaluates an alternative approach that adopts concepts from storytelling and sense-making theories to elicit process stories. The viability of this approach is tested in a case study involving sixteen individuals from the same organization who tell their personal views about a business process, thus gathering a total of twenty process stories. The obtained results suggest that process stories may increase the meaningfulness, contextualization and overall richness of process models

Cork : properties, capabilities and applications

Cork is a natural, renewable, sustainable raw material that has been used for many centuries. As a result of this very long term interest, the scientific literature on cork is extensive. The present review focuses on the chemical composition, physical and mechanical properties of cork and on its products and sub-products. The substantial efforts to fully characterise cork, as well as new developments and evolving research, are reviewed, beginning with its histology, growth and morphology (at macro- and microscales). The chemical structure is analysed in detail, covering both the materials that form the wall structure and the low molecular weight, extractable components. The unique properties of cork are discussed and correlated with current knowledge on morphology and chemical structure. Finally, the important industrial applications of cork are reviewed, in the context of research to provide cork with novel, high added-value applications

A Gdss Agenda Builder For Inexperienced Facilitators

One resource playing a critical role in computer supported decision-making groups is the facilitator. Facilitation is a complex task, encompassing social abilities, pre-meeting planning of decision-making processes and supervising the technology usage during meetings. We identify one problem with current support to electronic facilitators: agenda builders do not allow inexperienced facilitators plan GDSS meetings with success. We developed an agenda builder to tackle this problem. The tool was built around a comprehensive model, which incorporates patterns of activity and guidance into the pre-meeting activities. An experiment revealed that the tool increases the logical sequence and clarity but decreases the structure and efficiency of generated agendas. 1. INTRODUCTION The work reported in this paper occurred from a project which main goal was to set up a Group Decision Support System (GDSS) at a Portuguese higher education institution. The GDSS is now operational with the followin..

Workshop on inconspicuous interaction

Growing usage of interactive systems in the public space has highlighted the prevalence of conflicts between desired functionality and maintenance of privacy / social comfort. This has inspired researchers and practitioners, in communities concerned with usable security, wearable and mobile interfaces, natural user interfaces, accessibility and social interaction, to employ inconspicuous interaction styles. This workshop will bring these communities together to produce forward-looking insights that can shape the way users interact with tomorrow's computers, in interactive systems that account for the social nomadic contexts where they are bound to be used

Lactobacillus mulieris sp. nov., a new species of Lactobacillus delbrueckii group

One Gram-stain-positive, non-motile, non-spore-forming, catalase-negative, and coccobacilli-shaped strain, designated c10Ua161MT, was isolated from a urine sample from a reproductive-age healthy woman. Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated that strain c10Ua161MT belonged to the genus Lactobacillus . Phylogenetic analysis based on pheS and rpoA gene sequences strongly supported a clade encompassing strains c10Ua161MT and eight other strains from public databases, distinct from currently recognized species of the genus Lactobacillus. In silico Average Nucleotide Identity (ANI) and Genome-to-Genome Distance Calculator (GGDC), showed 87.9 and 34.3 % identity to the closest relative Lactobacillus jensenii , respectively. The major fatty acids of strain c10Ua161MT were C18 : 1ω9c (65.0%), C16 : 0 (17.8%), and summed feature 8 (10.2 %; comprising C18 : 1ω7c, and/or C18 : 1ω6c). The DNA G+C content of the strains is 34.2 mol%. On the basis of data presented here, strain c10Ua161MT represents a novel species of the genus Lactobacillus , for which the name Lactobacillus mulieris sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is c10Ua161MT (=CECT 9755T=DSM 108704T).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Diagnosis of Respiratory Syncytial Virus in Adults Substantially Increases When Adding Sputum, Saliva, and Serology Testing to Nasopharyngeal Swab RT–PCR

Abstract Introduction Nearly all existing respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) incidence estimates are based on real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT–PCR) testing of nasal or nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs. Adding testing of additional specimen types to NP swab RT–PCR increases RSV detection. However, prior studies only made pairwise comparisons and the synergistic effect of adding multiple specimen types has not been quantified. We compared RSV diagnosis by NP swab RT–PCR alone versus NP swab plus saliva, sputum, and serology. Methods This was a prospective cohort study over two study periods (27 December 2021 to 1 April 2022 and 22 August 2022 to 11 November 2022) of patients aged ≥ 40 years hospitalized for acute respiratory illness (ARI) in Louisville, KY. NP swab, saliva, and sputum specimens were collected at enrollment and PCR tested (Luminex ARIES platform). Serology specimens were obtained at acute and convalescent timepoints (enrollment and 30–60-day visit). RSV detection rate was calculated for NP swab alone and for NP swab plus all other specimen type/test. Results Among 1766 patients enrolled, 100% had NP swab, 99% saliva, 34% sputum, and 21% paired serology specimens. RSV was diagnosed in 56 (3.2%) patients by NP swab alone, and in 109 (6.2%) patients by NP swab plus additional specimens, corresponding to a 1.95 times higher rate [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.62, 2.34]. Limiting the comparison to the 150 subjects with all four specimen types available (i.e., NP swab, saliva, sputum, and serology), there was a 2.60-fold increase (95% CI 1.31, 5.17) compared to NP swab alone (3.3% versus 8.7%). Sensitivities by specimen type were: NP swab 51%, saliva 70%, sputum 72%, and serology 79%. Conclusions Diagnosis of RSV in adults was several-fold greater when additional specimen types were added to NP swab, even with a relatively low percentage of subjects with sputum and serology results available. Hospitalized RSV ARI burden estimates in adults based solely on NP swab RT–PCR should be adjusted for underestimation

Diagnosis of Respiratory Syncytial Virus in Adults substantially increases when adding sputum, saliva, and serology testing to nasopharyngeal swab RT-PCR

    The article associated with this page has been accepted for online publication and is in the final stages of production. The link to the full text will be made available on this page in the coming days. In the meantime, a pre-typeset version of the article is attached. This is not the final publication and may be subject to some minor changes. </p