|
SIWN Abstracts Index
sai: cosiwn.2009.05.041 Supporting Business Process Modeling Practice in an Aerospace Company A. Aurelio, A. Caforio, A. Corallo, A. Dimartino, A. Filograna, R. Merotto and C. Vicari Communications of SIWN, Vol. 7, May 2009, pp. 1-6 Abstract: Business process modeling is an activity performed to share the business process information with all the stakeholders of the process. Currently Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN), an intuitive, graphical and easy to use notation for business processes, has become the standard de facto. Many tools have been created to support modeling with BPMN, proprietary and open source. The bxModeller is an open source collaborative Web-application designed for that purpose. This paper highlights how this tool can address companies’ needs to share business process knowledge through a case study in an Italian aerospace company, Avio S.p.A. Keywords: business process modeling, Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN), case study, software requirements, XML Process Definition Language (XPDL).
sai: cosiwn.2009.05.042 Modeling and Enforcement of Business Policies and Rules in Semantic Business Process Modeling Ivan Markovic, Sukesh Jain, Mahmoud El-Gayyar and Armin B. Cremers Communications of SIWN, Vol. 7, May 2009, pp. 7-13 Abstract: Business policies and rules govern and guide the business processes of an organization. Enterprises usually only document their business policies and rules in natural language. This makes the procedure of determining which business policies and rules apply to a certain process and the verification of their adherence within this process very costly and cumbersome. In order to support explicit specification and automated enforcement of business policies and rules on business processes, in this work we have devised an approach supported by Semantic Web technologies. The approach uses the notion of anti-patterns of process models [8] to capture policies and rules as constraints on process models. Using our approach, we can formally capture and match the context in which a policy/ rule applies and enforce it on a process model in an automated way. The approach was designed based on a described set of requirements and prototypically implemented within a process modeling tool. An example scenario is provided to illustrate the benefits of the approach. Keywords: semantic business process modeling, business policy, business rule.
sai: cosiwn.2009.05.043 Process-Oriented Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration through Semantic-Enabled Services Jiangbo Dang, Luc Dubouloz, Ken Hampel and Candemir Toklu Communications of SIWN, Vol. 7, May 2009, pp. 14-22 Abstract: Regardless of the fact that ubiquitous communication and the Internet connect people much closer, knowledge sharing and collaboration among people in particular knowledge workers is still a challenging issue. Effective knowledge sharing and collaboration is becoming vital for enterprises to keep their core business competences and collaborate with other parties for value creation and production. Ontology provides a foundation upon which machine understandable knowledge can be obtained, and as a result, it makes machine intelligence possible. Therefore, it allows knowledge to be easily processed by machines and be shared across application, enterprise, and community boundaries. By applying ontologies to collaboration processes, this paper proposes an approach that adopts Microsoft SharePoint as the collaboration platform and uses workflows to drive users through the collaboration process made of different business tasks. We use semantic annotated context-aware workflows to facilitate the collaboration among knowledge workers and to improve collaboration flexibility and efficiency. Keywords: Process, collaboration, ontology, knowledge management
sai: cosiwn.2009.05.044 Intriguing Symmetry in Genomes Reveals Some Aspects in Structure-Function Relations Michael G. Sadovsky and Maria Yu. Kazakova¤ Communications of SIWN, Vol. 7, May 2009, pp. 23-26 Abstract: This paper studies the statistical properties of nucleotide sequences determined over the entire genomes or genome-like entities. Frequency dictionary is the key tool to do that; that latter is the list of all the strings (words) of the given length accompanied with their frequency. Each word is assigned with its information value; that latter is the ratio of real frequency to the expected one. The expected frequency is determined through the principle of entropy maximum of reconstructed frequency dictionary, which yields the most expected frequency of a string derived from the frequency of shorter strings combining the given one. It was found that sense and relevant anti-sense words exhibit very close level of information value. Some biological issues standing behind this symmetry are discussed. Keywords: entropy, mutual entropy, classification, frequency, knowledge retrieval, population genomics.
sai: cosiwn.2009.05.045 Naïve Bayesian Classification of Unknown Sequence Fragments Based on Chaos Game Representation of Mitochondrial Genomes Vrinda V. Nair, Lissy Anto P. and Achuthsankar S. Nair Communications of SIWN, Vol. 7, May 2009, pp. 27-33 Abstract: Various experimental and computational techniques have been reported for biological sequence classification. This paper proposes a novel combined technique of chaos game representation and naïve Bayesian classification, the former for genomic feature extraction and the latter for the subsequent species classification, of unknown mitochondrial genome sequences. The sequences are initially mapped into their Chaos Game Representation (CGR) format. Genomic feature extraction is implemented by computing the Frequency Chaos Game Representation (FCGR) matrix. An order 3 FCGR matrix is considered here, which consists of 64 elements. The 64 element matrix acts as the feature descriptor for classification. A probabilistic model is constructed with a set of training sequences from 6 different categories of organisms. The classification accuracy obtained is above 99% for Vertebrata and Acoelomata groups, above 88% for Fungi and Cnidaria, 80% for Plant and 73.3% for Pseudocoelomata. Keywords: chaos game representation, genomic signature, mitochondrial genomes, naïve Bayesian classifier
sai: cosiwn.2009.05.046 An Analysis of Robust Experimental Design for Signaling Pathway Modeling Fei He and Martin Brown Communications of SIWN, Vol. 7, May 2009, pp. 34-40 Abstract: Experimental design is an important part of any system identification process, especially when the models are complex and the data is sparse and relatively noisy, as occurs in cellular pathway identification studies. However, conventional optimal experimental design uses the parameter estimates, which are unavailable at that time, as part of its procedure. Robust experimental design procedures have been proposed which optimize the experimental parameters across some bounded region in parameter space. This paper analyses one such recent algorithm and shows that while it has computationally attractive features, the approximations cause the computed design points to be, in general, both very conservative and often infeasible. This is demonstrated with an application to the Michaelis-Menten enzyme kinetic pathway model. Keywords: robust experimental design, system identification.
sai: cosiwn.2009.05.047 A Consensus Service for Complex Dependable Applications Khaled Barbaria Communications of SIWN, Vol. 7, May 2009, pp. 41-47 Abstract: Middleware technologies are of a great interest when designing complex distributed applications. Consensus is at the heart of the theory and practice of dependability. This work contributes to the theory and practice of the dependability of complex distributed applications. First, we discuss the middleware properties required to design and develop complex dependable applications. Then, we describe an existing middleware architecture that provides useful properties to our problematic. We enhance this architecture with a generic consensus service. Finally, we prototype and evaluate the design and performance of a CORBA application based on this consensus service. Keywords: Consensus, Dependability, Middleware.
sai: cosiwn.2009.05.048 Experimental Arguments Pleading for the Use of Solid Propellant Rocket Motor in Impulsive Start Gheorghita Toncu, Virgil Stanciu and Dana-Cristina Toncu Communications of SIWN, Vol. 7, May 2009, pp. 48-53 Abstract: An experiment under various real working conditions was carried out in order to determine those functional characteristics of solid rocket motor which provide impulsive start solution for a given payload. Resulting data confirmed Goddard’s theoretical approach and revealed hyperbolic time evolution of SPRM parameters. Also, the impulsive start and the economy of fuel were studied based on diagrams provided during tests. Keywords: burning rate, solid propellant, rocket motor, Goddard’s solution.
sai: cosiwn.2009.05.049 A Reputation-Based Trust Framework Leveraging the Dynamics of Complex Socio-Economic Networks for Information Dissemination Sascha Hauke, Martin Pyka, Dominik Heider and Markus Borschbach Communications of SIWN, Vol. 7, May 2009, pp. 54-59 Abstract: A peer-to-peer (p2p) trust framework is being developed that takes into account not only directly verifiable information, but also, as its new contribution, information that could be regarded as word-of-mouth advertising or hearsay. By supplying this sort of information, it is intended to both broaden the available knowledge of nodes at the fringes of the networks – i.e. not-highly connected entities, such as a casual online shopper – and explicitly expand existing trust models to further mimic real-life social behavior. Furthermore, dynamic effects of complex networks in the dissemination of reputation information for trust-decision making in social networks are leveraged. A formalization for the inclusion of so-called ’weak reputation’ is presented, and prototypically implemented through the use of fuzzy logic mechanisms. Preliminary simulation results showing the general practicability of the concept are presented. Keywords: reputation-based trust, complex dynamics, social networks, trust framework, peer-to-peer
sai: cosiwn.2009.05.050 An Investigation in Image Retrieval for Analysing Welding Defects Raoul Pascal Pein, Joan Lu and John Birger Stav Communications of SIWN, Vol. 7, May 2009, pp. 60-65 Abstract: The development of new approaches in image processing and retrieval provides several opportunities in supporting in different domains. The group of welding engineers frequently needs to conduct visual inspections to assess the quality of weldings. It is investigated, if this process can be supported by different kinds of software. A generic CBIR system has been successfully used to sort welding photographs according to the severity of visual faults. Similar algorithms were used to automatically spot and measure the diameter of gas pores. Keywords: image analysis, content-based image retrieval, repository, welding defects, surface analysis
sai: cosiwn.2009.05.051 Harmonious Foundations of Intelligence Alexander V. Sosnitsky Communications of SIWN, Vol. 7, May 2009, pp. 66-72 Abstract: In the given paper the adequate System of Initial Intellectual Concepts deduced from the most general properties of our World is produced for the first time. Because of principal methodical deficiencies, it is impossible within the limits of modern Science; for this purpose, the Abstract Scientific Methodology on the basis of new World representation is essentially developed. It is shown that Intelligence is the result of the natural development of the World and a special case of the more general concept of Harmonization. For the first time new high-level abstracts, which are allowed to classify Intelligence and to prove its basic design and mechanisms of realization, are opened. The basic structure of intellectual procedures is defined. For the first time completeness of the deduced concepts is proved. Results of the work are focused on the use in various areas of Science and technology and first of all in the development of AI. Keywords: abstract scientific methodology, the world harmonization, intelligence classification, the definition of intelligence, the intellectual system of Concepts, AI.
sai: cosiwn.2009.05.052 Performance of Diversity Reception for MIMO CDMA Systems in Non-Gaussian Channels Hasan Abu Hilal, Tariq Abu Hilal and Shadi El Hajjar Communications of SIWN, Vol. 7, May 2009, pp. 73-77 Abstract: In this paper the performance of the Decorrelating Detector (DD) in a Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system under impulsive noise model is investigated. In wireless communications, a large class of physical phenomena which exhibit non-Gaussian behavior are observed. Therefore, the performance of many multiuser detectors can degrade substantially in the presence of such impulsive ambient noise. We use middleton’s Class A noise model for the impulsive noise and derive the expression for the Bit Error Rate (BER) and propose a robust detection technique to overcome the impulsive effect on the system. Throughout the paper, Maximal Ratio Combining (MRC) and Post Detection Combining (PDC) are used to achieve diversity reception. For the MRC combining technique, analytical results are presented and simulations are performed. The simulation results are in full agreement with the analytical ones which in turn confirm the advantages achieved using the proposed robust detector in non-Gaussian noise. Keywords: MIMO CDMA, Impulsive noise.
sai: cosiwn.2009.05.053 An OSGi-Based Approach for Context-Aware Discovery Protocols Interoperability Younès El Bouzekri El Idrissi and Rachida Ajhoun Communications of SIWN, Vol. 7, May 2009, pp. 78-83 Abstract: Pervasive environments pose more requirements at all levels especially on service discovery mechanism. In such environments servers and clients use different discovery protocols respectively for publishing or looking for services. Nevertheless, the lack of cooperation between discovery protocols (SDP) reduces the network performances. The interoperability between (SDP) will allow users using a large variety of devices to discover and consume numerous network-based services. However, selecting the most favorable service among a set of appropriate services according to a given request can become complex and time-consuming for the user. In such situations, interaction between the user and the device should be minimal for more facilities. The main aim of this work is to improve the service discovery in pervasive environments. It is based on two main functionalities: (i)overcome the lack of cooperation between traditional service discovery protocols by ensuring the interoperability protocols using the OSGi middleware, (ii) Adding an extra layer for profiling-based selection of relevant services, which explore the contextual information. Keywords: discovery protocols, interoperability, context-aware and profiling technique
sai: cosiwn.2009.05.054 QoS Aware Publish/Subscribe System Deployed on a Mobile Ad-hoc Network Imene Lahyani, Soumaya Marzouk and Mohamed Jmaïel Communications of SIWN, Vol. 7, May 2009, pp. 84-90 Abstract: Improving information propagation in distributed systems is an important concern of publish/subscribe systems especially when deployed on mobile ad-hoc networks. In fact, this matter introduces new problems such as system failure and Quality of Service (QoS) degradation. These problems have to be addressed in order to provide a performant and reliable publish/subscribe system. This paper is concerned with QoS support and failure prevention. Our goal is first to ensure information delivery to consumers in case of dispatcher or link failures, then to optimize the overall performance of the system by ensuring desired QoS. We propose a distributed solution for publish/subscribe system based on code mobility of dispatchers. We implemented our solution on the SIENA middleware. Hence, we prove the usability of our approach since it has an acceptable overhead. Experimental results show the approach’s effectiveness. Keywords: publish/subscribe systems, Quality of Service, failure prevention, self-adaptativity, code mobility, migration operation.
sai: cosiwn.2009.05.055 Programming Adaptivity by Complementing Agent Function with Agent Coordination: A Systemic Programming Model and Development Methodology Integration Jan Sudeikat and Wolfgang Renz Communications of SIWN, Vol. 7, May 2009, pp. 91-102 Abstract: Engineering self-adaptive software systems which are able to purposefully adjust to external execution contexts requires developers to systematically conceive and integrate closed-loop control mechanisms among software components. Here, we show how schemes of decentralized agent coordination, as known from biological, physical and social selforganizing systems, can be integrated in Multi–Agent Systems to coordinate agent activities. We discuss a programming model that is built upon a systemic modeling approach which expresses agent coordination strategies as structures of feedback loops. The methodic development of coordination strategies and their systematic integration in MAS implementations is supported by a method fragment that extends established development approaches. The systematic utilization of the systemic programming approach is exemplified by the development of an agent-based (web) service management systems that balances service deployments on J2EE application servers with varying service workloads. Keywords: Decentral coordination, multi-agent system, system dynamics, method fragment, self-organization.
sai: cosiwn.2009.05.056 A Software Architecture Supporting Run-Time Configuration and Self-Management Richard Anthony, Mariusz Pelc, Paul Ward and James Hawthorne Communications of SIWN, Vol. 7, May 2009, pp. 103-112 Abstract: This paper describes a component architecture that facilitates highly flexible dynamic configuration and self-management. Innovative features of the approach include: Design-time support for the demarcation of static and dynamic aspects of components’ behaviors and thus formal validation techniques can be partially used. Run-time configuration and self-management are decentralized and can be deployed at any number of developer-specified places called ‘dynamic decision points’ (DP). A wrapper is automatically associated with each DP and provides run-time supervision, guaranteeing that a legal decision is returned, no matter what internal faults occur in the evaluation of the self-management logic; this significantly enhances robustness and reduces the extent of the dynamic validation challenge. A sophisticated policy technology is encapsulated as the core self-management technique, yet the architecture is sufficiently flexible that it is possible to replace the core technology in a modular fashion as well as to deploy different technologies at each DP if required. A performance management application exemplifies the approach. This uses a variety of context sources and has multiple embedded DPs. The example illustrates how policies can be dynamically upgraded, each with specific context requirements which are automatically satisfied. The high robustness provided by the wrapper’s silent internal error handling is demonstrated under various fault scenarios. Keywords: policy-based computing, self-managing systems
sai: cosiwn.2009.05.057 Neighbor-Avoiding Random Walks for Information Dissemination Gabriele Gianini and Ernesto Damiani Communications of SIWN, Vol. 7, May 2009, pp. 113-118 Abstract: In order to behave correctly, distributed consensus algorithms – which play a key role in several self-organized systems - require an efficient information dissemination mechanism. This is a non-trivial issue when agents communicate over an unstructured network, where each node has to rely only on local information to perform packet forwarding. Often this issue is approached by having the message to be disseminated by gossiping, i.e. by means of some kind of random walk. However, in many networks, topological bottlenecks can hinder information propagation from one network region to another, thus allowing distinct regions to settle on a consensus state on their own. In this work we study the performance of neighbor-avoiding random walks for information dissemination and show – using random 2D geometric networks as reference networks – that such walks have a higher probability of crossing topological bottlenecks and lower hitting time with respect to other random walk policies. Keywords: information dissemination, memoryless random walks, self-avoiding random walks, neighbor-avoiding random walks, unstructured networks, bridges, hitting time.
sai: cosiwn.2009.05.058 An Approach to Building Self-Adaptive Software in Distributed Systems Najla Hadj Kacem, Ahmed Hadj Kacem and Khalil Drira Communications of SIWN, Vol. 7, May 2009, pp. 119-126 Abstract: Autonomy and self-adaptation are emerging as a promising solution to deal with the ever increasing need for mastering software systems complexity in dynamic environments. But the greater the system control delegated to the system itself, the more challenging it is to ensure its consistency. Inevitably, systems may deviate from intended behaviour and show undesirable or inconsistent states. This paper proposes an approach which does not only make it possible to address consistency at the micro level of an individual component, but also at the macro level of a distributed system. In this approach, the benefit of dynamic adaptation is fully realized with a formal way that trusts systems to operate correctly after adaptation. Keywords: Self-adaptation, consistency preservation, (non-) intrusive adaptation, voting protocol, synchronization protocol, formal model.
sai: cosiwn.2009.05.059 A Hybrid Modeling Approach for Self–Organizing Systems Development Jan Sudeikat, Martin Randles Wolfgang Renz and A. Taleb-Bendiab Communications of SIWN, Vol. 7, May 2009, pp. 127-134 Abstract: The use of self–organizing dynamics as a design principle for distributed, agent–based systems provides a novel approach to support the development of decentralized, autonomic applications. Such a design approach, however, demands the ability to introspect and refine the dynamic processes of individual components that collectively give rise to a given macroscopic system phenomena (emergent behavior). Current approaches to address this concern fall into two categories namely; top–down refinement, to specify individual agent behavior, or bottom–up analysis/ prototyping, to derive an agent behavioral model from an observed global outcome. This paper presents a proposed hybrid modeling method, which combines the benefits of top-down and bottom-up techniques to support the principled development of self–organizing systems. The approach is based on two well-established formalisms, namely: MASDynamics to facilitate the description of macroscopic behavior exhibited by the cooperative and interactive actions of agents and the situation calculus to validate a given observed outcome of MAS behaviors and/or capture behavior deviation away from the original model specified. Keywords: multi-agent system, self-organization
sai: cosiwn.2009.05.060 ARCAMODE: An Architecture for the Development of Context-Aware Services Using Model Driven Architecture and Ontologies Samyr Vale and Slimane Hammoudi Communications of SIWN, Vol. 7, May 2009, pp. 135-141 Abstract: Most ubiquitous or pervasive applications focus on the development of legacy or ad hoc architectures and artifacts that adapt context information into business logic. The lack of standards in context-aware development restrains context definition, reasoning and representation, and inhibits reuse and interoperability. In this work we present ARCAMODE, an architecture for the development of context-aware services based on Model Driven Engineering and Ontologies. Founded on the concerns separation in individual and independent models we provide interoperability and reuse to context-aware development. We also present our context metamodel based on the OMG’s ODM (Ontology Definition Metamodel) and supported by OMG’s MDA (Model Driven Architecture). Keywords: architecture, model, context-aware, service, ontology.
sai: cosiwn.2009.05.061 An Extensible Self-Configuration Framework and Control Plane Overlay To Support Agile System Infrastructures E. C. L. Watts, M. Merabti and A. Taleb-Bendiab Communications of SIWN, Vol. 7, May 2009, pp. 142-148 Abstract: Pervasive networked appliances are demanding timely, agile and complex configuration data from an assorted compilation of infrastructures. The challenging nature of such complex configuration data remains a key area of research. Current research focuses upon three key ‘planes’; the knowledge plane, the control plane, and the data plane. However, much more work is required to improve our perception of the required management principles for these three planes to prevent autonomic self-configuration control mechanisms adversely affecting an underlying system infrastructure. This work proposes and presents a prototype for an autonomic self-configuration control framework, comprising of a Control Plane Control Protocol, and optional algorithmic overlay. The framework bridges the three networking planes, with the knowledge plane governance selecting the required configuration data, and the control plane controlling the negotiation and dissemination of the payload, through a generic control protocol, and an optional control plane overlay. The new framework can form part of a hierarchical or flat system infrastructure. A novel aspect of this framework is that it is extensible. It can autonomically self-configure framework components, such as the control protocol (fields and stages), overlay algorithm(s), and payload(s) in addition to the configuration data. These attributes are evaluated using a prototype to demonstrate payload, control protocol and control overlay extensibility. Keywords: extensibility, self-configuration, framework, control plane, overlay, agile infrastructures
sai: cosiwn.2009.05.062 Investigating a Mathematical Tool for Swarm Pattern Transformation Blesson Varghese and Gerard McKee Communications of SIWN, Vol. 7, May 2009, pp. 149-155 Abstract: The work reported in this paper is motivated by the need to investigate general methods for pattern transformation. A formal definition for pattern transformation is provided and four special cases namely, elementary and geometric transformation based on repositioning all and some agents in the pattern are introduced. The need for a mathematical tool and simulations for visualizing the behavior of a transformation method is highlighted. A mathematical method based on the Moebius transformation is proposed. The transformation method involves discretization of events for planning paths of individual robots in a pattern. Simulations on a particle physics simulator are used to validate the feasibility of the proposed method. Keywords: mathematical transformation, moebius transformation, pattern formation, pattern transformation.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 2009 Systemics and Informatics World Network |