An LTL Semantics of Business Workflows with Recovery

We describe a business workflow case study with abnormal behavior management (i.e. recovery) and demonstrate how temporal logics and model checking can provide a methodology to iteratively revise the design and obtain a correct-by construction system. To do so we define a formal semantics by giving a compilation of generic workflow patterns into LTL and we use the bound model checker Zot to prove specific properties and requirements validity. The working assumption is that such a lightweight approach would easily fit into processes that are already in place without the need for a radical change of procedures, tools and people's attitudes. The complexity of formalisms and invasiveness of methods have been demonstrated to be one of the major drawback and obstacle for deployment of formal engineering techniques into mundane projects

Size Matters: Microservices Research and Applications

In this chapter we offer an overview of microservices providing the introductory information that a reader should know before continuing reading this book. We introduce the idea of microservices and we discuss some of the current research challenges and real-life software applications where the microservice paradigm play a key role. We have identified a set of areas where both researcher and developer can propose new ideas and technical solutions.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1706.0735

LTL-based verification of reconfigurable workflows

© 2014 Manuel Mazzara. Logics and model-checking have been successfully used in the last decades for modeling and verification of various types of hardware (and software) systems. While most languages and techniques emerged in a context of monolithic systems with a limited self-adaptability, modern systems require approaches able to cope with dynamically changing requirements and emergent behaviors. The emphasis on system reconfigurability has not been followed by an adequate research effort, and the current state of the art lacks logics and model checking paradigms that can describe and analyze complex modern systems in a comprehensive way. This paper describes a case study involving the dynamic reconfiguration of an office workflow. We state the requirements on a system implementing the workflow and its reconfiguration and we prove workflow reconfiguration termination by providing a compilation of generic workflows into LTL, using the Bound model checker Z{double-strok}ot. The objective of this paper is demonstrating how temporal logics and model checking are effective in proving properties of dynamic, reconfigurable and adaptable systems. This simple case study is just a "proof of concept" to demonstrate the feasibility of our ideas

A PLS-SEM Neural Network Approach for Understanding Cryptocurrency Adoption

© 2013 IEEE. The majority of previous research on new technology acceptance has been conducted with single-step Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) based methods. The primary purpose of the study is to enhance the new technology acceptance based research with the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) method to enable more precise and in-depth research results as compared to the single-step SEM method. This study measures the relation between technology readiness dimension (optimism, innovativeness, discomfort, insecurity) and the technology acceptance (perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness) - and the intention to use cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin. The contribution of this study include the use of a multi-analytical approach by combining Partial Least Squares- Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) analysis. First, PLS-SEM was applied to assess which factor has significant influence toward intention to use cryptocurrency. Second, an ANN was employed to rank the relative influence of the significant predictor variables attained from the PLS-SEM. The findings of the two-step PLS-SEM and ANN approach confirm that the use of ANN further verifies the results obtained by the PLS-SEM analysis. Also, ANN is capable of modelling complex linear and non-linear relationships with high predictive accuracy compared to SEM methods. Also, an Importance-Performance Map Analysis (IPMA) of the PLS-SEM results provides a more specific understanding of each factor's importance-performance

ICE DETECTION ON AIRPLANE WINGS USING A PHOTOGRAMMETRIC POINT CLOUD: A SIMULATION

Abstract. This study describes some tests carried out, within the European project (reference call: MANUNET III 2018, project code: MNET18/ICT-3438) called SEI (Spectral Evidence of ice), for the geometrical ice detection on airplane wings. The purpose of these analysis is to estimate thickness and shape of the ice that an RGB sensor is able to detect on large aircrafts as Boeing 737-800. However, field testing are not available yet, therefore, in order to simulate the final configuration, a steel panel has been used to reproduce the aircraft surface. The adopted methodology consists in defining a reference surface and modelling its 3D shape with and without ice through photogrammetric acquisitions collected by a DJI Mavic Air drone hosting a RGB camera and processed by Agisoft Metashape software. The comparison among models with and without the ice has been presented and results show that it is possible to identify the ice, even though some noise still remains due to the geometric reconstruction itself. Finally, using 3dReshaper and Matlab software, the authors develop various analysis defining the operative limits, the processing time, the correct setting up of Metashape for a more accurate ice detection, the optimization of the methodology in terms of processing time, precision and completeness. The procedure can certainly be more reliable considering the usage of the hyperspectral sensor technique as future implementation

Monitored Energy Use Patterns in Low-Income Housing in a Hot and Humid Climate

The Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) is metering energy use in two Habitat for Humanity developments. The objective is to understand how energy is used in low income housing and how it can be effectively reduced. The ten "control homes" come from a conventional housing project built by in 1993 Habitat for Humanity in Homestead, Florida. Another ten "experimental homes" have been recruited from the 190 home Jordan Commons development in the same vicinity. These houses, which are soon to be metered, are designed to be energy efficient with high SEER air conditioners, reflective roofing, solar water heaters and energy efficient lighting and appliances.' The instrumentation was installed in the control homes in July of 1994 with a year of 15-minute data now collected on all sites. Data are obtained on seven electrical end-uses (air conditioning, heating, hot water, dryer, range, refrigerator, washer/freezer) as well as total. Weather conditions are also monitored as well as interior comfort conditions (temperature and humidity) and hot water consumption and window ventilation status. The field data allow unique insight into how energy is used in low income housing in a hot and humid climate

A Calculus for Orchestration of Web Services

We introduce COWS (Calculus for Orchestration of Web Services), a new foundational language for SOC whose design has been influenced by WS-BPEL, the de facto standard language for orchestration of web services. COWS combines in an original way a number of ingredients borrowed from well-known process calculi, e.g. asynchronous communication, polyadic synchronization, pattern matching, protection, delimited receiving and killing activities, while resulting different from any of them. Several examples illustrates COWS peculiarities and show its expressiveness both for modelling imperative and orchestration constructs, e.g. web services, flow graphs, fault and compensation handlers, and for encoding other process and orchestration languages

Covid 19: How Really is the Epidemiological Curve? Epidemiological Curve Growth Rate is Less than One

This paper shows some views on the mathematical structure of the diffusion of the Coronavirus (COVID-19), often claimed to have a positive exponential structure. However, we find that the exponential growth rate is past the inflection point and that growth is much slower than this implication. It presents conclusions on the future expected outcome of the current situation-not only in terms of diffusion of the disease but also for the hysteria that have been created around it

ICE DETECTION on AIRPLANE WINGS USING A PHOTOGRAMMETRIC POINT CLOUD: A SIMULATION

This study describes some tests carried out, within the European project (reference call: MANUNET III 2018, project code: MNET18/ICT-3438) called SEI (Spectral Evidence of ice), for the geometrical ice detection on airplane wings. The purpose of these analysis is to estimate thickness and shape of the ice that an RGB sensor is able to detect on large aircrafts as Boeing 737-800. However, field testing are not available yet, therefore, in order to simulate the final configuration, a steel panel has been used to reproduce the aircraft surface. The adopted methodology consists in defining a reference surface and modelling its 3D shape with and without ice through photogrammetric acquisitions collected by a DJI Mavic Air drone hosting a RGB camera and processed by Agisoft Metashape software. The comparison among models with and without the ice has been presented and results show that it is possible to identify the ice, even though some noise still remains due to the geometric reconstruction itself. Finally, using 3dReshaper and Matlab software, the authors develop various analysis defining the operative limits, the processing time, the correct setting up of Metashape for a more accurate ice detection, the optimization of the methodology in terms of processing time, precision and completeness. The procedure can certainly be more reliable considering the usage of the hyperspectral sensor technique as future implementation