Descriptive business process models at run-time

Today's competitive markets require organisations to react proactively to changes in their environment if financial and legal consequences are to be avoided. Since business processes are elementary parts of modern organisations they are also required to efficiently adapt to these changes in quick and flexible ways. This requirement demands a more dynamic handling of business processes, i.e. treating business processes as run-time artefacts rather than design-time artefacts. One general approach to address this problem is provided by the community of [email protected], which promotes methodologies concerned with self-adaptive systems where models reflect the system's current state at any point in time and allow immediate reasoning and adaptation mechanisms. However, in contrast to common self-adaptive systems the domain of business processes features two additional challenges: (i) a bigger than usual abstraction gap between the business process models and the actual run-time information of the enterprise system and (ii) the possibility of run-time deviations from the planned models. Developing an understanding of such processes is a crucial necessity in order to optimise business processes and dynamically adapt to changing demands. This thesis explores the potential of adopting and enhancing principles and mechanisms from the [email protected] domain to the business process domain for the purpose of run-time reasoning, i.e. investigating the potential role of Descriptive Business Process Models at Run-time (DBPMRTs) in the business process management domain. The DBPMRT is a model describing the enterprise system at run-time and thus enabling higher-level reasoning on the as-is state. Along with the specification of the DBPMRT, algorithms and an overall framework are proposed to establish and maintain a causal link from the enterprise system to the DBPMRT at run-time. Furthermore, it is shown that proactive higher-level reasoning on a DBPMRT in the form of performance prediction allows for more accurate results. By taking these steps the thesis addresses general challenges of business process management, e.g. dealing with frequently changing processes and shortening the business process life cycle. At the same time this thesis contributes to research in [email protected] by providing a complex real-world use case as well as a reference approach for dealing with volatile [email protected] of a higher abstraction level

Towards Semi-Virtual Design Thinking - Creativity in Dispersed Multicultural and Multidisciplinary Innovation Project Teams

This paper aims at examining whether the innovation approach Design Thinking (DT), which is usually performed in an analogue setting, can also be performed in a semi-virtual setting. We conducted an experiment comparing a fully analogue to a semi-virtual DT workshop with overall 59 participants from 27 different countries and 11 different disciplines separated into an experimental- and control group. For the evaluation, we composed items from the psychological construct of Shared Mental Models (SMM) and discussed existing Media Theories in order to draw conclusions on the impact of performing DT semi-virtually in regard to using a digital whiteboard. Against our expectations and assumptions from theory, we reveal that a semi-virtual DT workshop can lead to high levels of shared understanding, satisfaction and perceived effectiveness. We argue that the applied digital whiteboard supports a creative semi-virtual collaboration due to its advanced functionalities, which supports the Media Richness Theory

Toward a unified equation of state for multi-messenger astronomy

We present a first step in developing a benchmark equation-of-state (EoS) model for multi-messenger astronomy that unifies the thermodynamics of quark and hadronic degrees of freedom. A Lagrangian approach to the thermodynamic potential of quark-meson-nucleon (QMN) matter was used. In this approach, dynamical chiral-symmetry breaking is described by the scalar mean-field dynamics coupled to quarks and nucleons and their chiral partners, whereby its restoration occurs in the hadronic phase by parity doubling, as well as in the quark phase. Quark confinement was achieved by an auxiliary scalar field that parametrizes a dynamical infrared cutoff in the quark sector, serving as an ultraviolet cutoff for the nucleonic phase space. The gap equations were solved for the isospin-symmetric case, as well as for neutron star (NS) conditions. We also calculated the mass-radius (MR) relation of NSs and their tidal deformability parameter. The obtained EoS is in accordance with nuclear matter properties at saturation density and with the flow constraint from heavy ion collision experiments. For isospin-asymmetric matter, a sequential occurrence of light quark flavors is obtained, allowing for a mixed phase of chirally-symmetric nucleonic matter with deconfined down quarks. The MR relations and TDs for compact stars fulfill the constraints from the latest astrophysical observations for PSR J0740+6620, PSR J0030+0451, and the NS merger GW170817, whereby the tension between the maximum mass and compactness constraints rather uniquely fixes the model parameters. The model predicts the existence of stars with a core of chirally restored but purely hadronic (confined) matter for masses beyond $1.8~M_\odot$. Stars with pure-quark matter cores are found to be unstable against the gravitational collapse. This instability is shifted to even higher densities if repulsive interactions between quarks are included.Comment: version accepted for publication in A&

Product Development through Co-Creation Communities - General Measures For A Distributed And Agile Planning Preparation in Cross-Company Production

The crises of recent years revealed the vulnerability of our global and linearly aligned value chains, and new concepts are being sought to meet ecological, economic and social demands. The possibility of producing locally at the place of need in adaptable and highly dynamic manufacturing networks is increasingly coming into focus. However, such structures would have to be built up laboriously, whereas an existing network of small and medium-sized enterprises is available in many industrial nations. Cross-Company Production (CCP) in such local networks could help to address the problems mentioned. Another recent phenomenon is the shift of development processes into the digital sphere and its simultaneous opening up to the public. Open development processes can offer considerable advantages by bundling the wisdom of the crowd across company boundaries, however the digital platforms for collaboration do not have their own product capacities. The interaction of Co-Creation Communities (CCC) and Cross-Company Production (CPP) networks could counter this shortcoming. To ensure cost-efficient production and success on the market, an early exchange of knowledge between development and production is targeted in every company through highly standardised processes in the field of Planning Preparation (PP) a subdivision of Operations Planning and Scheduling (OPS). In the new value creation constellation this exchange is limited, as high fluctuation, various developers and numerous companies involved lead to new challenges. In this approach, a meta synthesis of known innovation and product development processes was performed to gain a better understanding of their structure and to identify measures fulfilling the tasks of Planning Preparation (PP). Aligned with the principles of Cooper's Stage-Gate Process a basis of measures is built up. After that each measure is valued according to relevance and involvement for the introduced entities creating an overview of general measures. Finally, the need for a distributed and agile Planning Preparation (PP) is derived

Evaluation of the dynamic construct competition miner for an eHealth system

Business processes of some domains are highly dynamic and increasingly complex due to their dependencies on a multitude of services provided by various providers. The quality of services directly impacts the business process’s efficiency. A first prerequisite for any optimization initiative requires a better understanding of the deployed business processes. However, the business processes are either not documented at all or are only poorly documented. Since the actual behaviour of the business processes and underlying services can change over time it is required to detect the dynamically changing behaviour in order to carry out correct analyses. This paper presents and evaluates the integration of the Dynamic Construct Competition Miner (DCCM) as process monitor in the TIMBUS architecture. The DCCM discovers business processes and recognizes changes directly from an event stream at run-time. The evaluation is carried out in the context of an industrial use-case from the eHealth domain. We will describe the key aspects of the use-case and the DCCM as well as present the relevant evaluation results

Five-Dimensional Supersymmetric Gauge Theories and Degenerations of Calabi-Yau Spaces

We discuss five-dimensional supersymmetric gauge theories. An anomaly renders some theories inconsistent and others consistent only upon including a Wess-Zumino type Chern-Simons term. We discuss some necessary conditions for existence of nontrivial renormalization group fixed points and find all possible gauge groups and matter content which satisfy them. In some cases, the existence of these fixed points can be inferred from string duality considerations. In other cases, they arise from M-theory on Calabi-Yau threefolds. We explore connections between aspects of the gauge theory and Calabi-Yau geometry. A consequence of our classification of field theories with nontrivial fixed points is a fairly complete classification of a class of singularities of Calabi-Yau threefolds which generalize the ``del Pezzo contractions'' and occur at higher codimension walls of the K\"{a}hler cone.Comment: harvmac, 52 pp., 5 figures (reference added

Towards Smaller Value Creation Cycles: Key Factors and their Interdependencies for Local Manufacturing

The unpredictable occurrence of a global pandemic and trade conflicts have currently shown us the fra-gility of global, industrial value chains. In contrast to this, local value creation structures have numerous potentials to meet present ecological, economic and social challenges (e.g. increasing the resilience of the manufacturing sector, reducing CO2 emissions through smaller loops of value creation, empowering regional stakeholders). This paper presents a study on local manufacturing designed to achieve a better understanding of the internal systematic of value creation in a local context using a sensitivity analysis. By modelling the causal effects, the direct and indirect influences of internal and environmental factors of local production as well as their independencies can be shown. This in turn will enable scenario anal-yses that show possible developments for local production systems arising due to changing social, politi-cal and technological factors. In the future these options may aid in decision-making processes aiming at a sustainable circular economy

Measuring hadron properties at finite temperature

We estimate the numbers and mass spectra of observed lepton and kaon pairs produced from $\phi$ meson decays in the central rapidity region of an Au+Au collision at lab energy 11.6 GeV/nucleon. The following effects are considered: possible mass shifts, thermal broadening due to collisions with hadronic resonances, and superheating of the resonance gas. Changes in the dilepton mass spectrum may be seen, but changes in the dikaon spectrum are too small to be detectable.Comment: 9 pages (revtex), 3 figures (uuencoded postscript