In the last 50 years, a considerable amount of research workhas been completed in the mathematical system theory and theoryof control. Implementation of the results from this researchinto practice has drastically decreased the production costs.Most production processes are highly automated, and the use ofrobots in industry is growing. As far as office, or businessprocesses are concerned, the situation is quite different.Though the office workers and sales personnel have obtainedmuch help from the modern computers, the office and salesprocesses are far behind the production processes on the levelof automation. The computers are used in the office mainly tohelp in performing various activities, e.g., to write a letter,to print an invoice, to complete a transaction, etc. Thecontrol of the business processes in the office remains, to alarge extent, manual. There is a lot to gain if the controlover business processes could be automated, at leastpartially. The material presented in this thesis is aimed to supportthe following hypothesis: "The ideas worked out in the Mathematical system theory formodeling and controlling physical processes can be successfullyused for modeling and controlling business processes." Oneof the main ideas of mathematical system theory is to considera process as a set of valid trajectories in a state space, andthis idea is the keystone for the thesis. The thesis startswith reformulating the state-oriented approach for the domainof business processes to show what kind of sate space can beused in this domain. First, the approach is introducedinformally by means of an example. Next, a possibleformalization adjusted to the properties of business processesis discussed. Then, experimental evidences that the methodsuggested in the thesis can be used in practice are presented.The suggested method is also compared with other methods ofbusiness process modeling to find out the areas where it hasadvantages over the other methods. In the conclusion, theresults are summarized, and plansfor the future are drawn. Most of the material included in the thesis has beenpublished and presented at international conferences. Thecontribution of this thesis consists in organizing the materialin support of the main hypothesis.

Post-occupancy evaluations represent an important missed opportunity. While POEs are often used to inform design guides, and to support facility management, they are seldom used to support design decision-making. While there are several technical, methodological, and cultural impediments to the ongoing use of POE results in design, characteristics of POE data and data structure is an important, and often overlooked, impediment. Some evaluators have attempted to resolve this problem by involving actively as consultants in design teams or involving users, such as Placemaking or Process Architecture. Recent advances in conceptual data modeling provide another strategy to interface POE findings and design decision-making. This thesis uses EXPRESS modeling language to develop a conceptual data structure for POE data, and integrate POE data with as-built building descriptions. While this effort has the potential to develop an improved way to structure POE data and make it more useful, it is also an extension of ISO-STEP. This study develops a data structure based on post-occupancy evaluations of state and federal trial courtrooms conducted by the researcher. Thirty-one courtrooms were evaluated, resulting in usable data from 93 courtroom users in 26 courtrooms. An EXPRESS-G schema was developed and was translated into a relational database for holding data and running queries. The investigator illustrated a range of query-generated outcomes to support decision-making during design and design review. Such outcomes include exploring existing courtrooms, comprehending the types of design decisions implemented across federal and state courtrooms, identifying design decisions that have been rated favorably or otherwise by courtroom users, rating design decisions based on evaluation data from existing courtrooms, and predicting a designed environments supportiveness to task performance. Further, multivariate analysis of the POE data provides the first scientific investigation of courtrooms as work settings. Finally, eight key performance indicators of courtrooms were developed based on the POE data.

<p>In the last 50 years, a considerable amount of research workhas been completed in the mathematical system theory and theoryof control. Implementation of the results from this researchinto practice has drastically decreased the production costs.Most production processes are highly automated, and the use ofrobots in industry is growing. As far as office, or businessprocesses are concerned, the situation is quite different.Though the office workers and sales personnel have obtainedmuch help from the modern computers, the office and salesprocesses are far behind the production processes on the levelof automation. The computers are used in the office mainly tohelp in performing various activities, e.g., to write a letter,to print an invoice, to complete a transaction, etc. Thecontrol of the business processes in the office remains, to alarge extent, manual. There is a lot to gain if the controlover business processes could be automated, at leastpartially.</p><p>The material presented in this thesis is aimed to supportthe following hypothesis: "<i>The ideas worked out in the Mathematical system theory formodeling and controlling physical processes can be successfullyused for modeling and controlling business processes</i>." Oneof the main ideas of mathematical system theory is to considera process as a set of valid trajectories in a state space, andthis idea is the keystone for the thesis. The thesis startswith reformulating the state-oriented approach for the domainof business processes to show what kind of sate space can beused in this domain. First, the approach is introducedinformally by means of an example. Next, a possibleformalization adjusted to the properties of business processesis discussed. Then, experimental evidences that the methodsuggested in the thesis can be used in practice are presented.The suggested method is also compared with other methods ofbusiness process modeling to find out the areas where it hasadvantages over the other methods. In the conclusion, theresults are summarized, and plansfor the future are drawn.</p><p>Most of the material included in the thesis has beenpublished and presented at international conferences. Thecontribution of this thesis consists in organizing the materialin support of the main hypothesis.</p>

This volume contains contribution form the refereed “MobIS 2010” main program and selected papers of its tracks. The conference on information systems modeling was held in Dresden September 15-17, 2010. The guiding theme for MobIS 2010 focused on modeling topics between model-based management and component and service engineering.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-16T15:23:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 5792917 bytes, checksum: f2b6c446dbab56ec75fa24d66564c965 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-03-10 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Research in the Graduate Program in Information Science UFPB around the construction of a conceptual map of a domain ontology. The mapping process relied on analysis of the domain, conducting surveys that involved issues ranging from determining the appropriate side view until the capture of terms and concepts contained in the sources of information about the analyzed field. The corpus of study selected is classified by the Instituto do Patrimônio Artístico Histórico Nacional IPHAN, as Intangible Heritage. Much more of a theoretical, research purposed to describe how the lifting of a given area must be driven from its aspect of knowledge representation and how is the establishment of relations between terms and concepts, preliminary step in the development of ontologies and domain central objective of this work. No attempt to develop an ontology in the context of artificial intelligence, computational logic through, and even develop a new methodology, but the rescue and application of methods has long worked for CI today and the technologies needed for representation and retrieval of information, focusing on the Core Principles for Domains Modeling (CAMPOS, 2004). Reasoned from the strong interdisciplinary character of CI, the proposal was to map the area within the cutout area of the Intangible Heritage, through methodological triangulation, identifying the representations of signs that exist in information processes and representational knowledge based on analysis Semiotics (PEIRCE , 1977), Theory of the Concept of Dahlberg (1976) and graphical representation of conceptual maps (Novak,1995). / Pesquisa realizada no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciência da Informação da UFPB, em torno da construção de um mapa conceitual de uma ontologia de domínio. O processo de mapeamento se apoiou na análise do domínio, realizando levantamentos que envolveram questões que vão desde a determinação do recorte adequado, até a captura dos termos e conceitos constantes nas fontes de informação sobre o domínio analisado. O corpus de estudo selecionado é classificado pelo Instituto de Patrimônio Artístico Histórico Nacional IPHAN, como Patrimônio Imaterial. Muito mais de caráter teórico, a pesquisa tencionou descrever como o levantamento de determinado domínio deve ser conduzido a partir do seu aspecto de representação do conhecimento e como se dá o estabelecimento das relações entre termos e conceitos, etapa preliminar no desenvolvimento de ontologias de domínio e objetivo central desse trabalho. Não se buscou desenvolver uma ontologia no âmbito da inteligência artificial, através da lógica computacional, e nem mesmo desenvolver uma nova metodologia, mas o resgate e aplicação de métodos há muito trabalhado pela CI e hoje necessários para as tecnologias de representação e recuperação da informação, tendo como foco os Princípios Fundamentais para Modelagem de Domínios (CAMPOS, 2004). Fundamentada a partir da forte característica interdisciplinar da CI, a proposta foi mapear o domínio dentro da área de recorte do Patrimônio Imaterial, através de uma triangulação metodológica, identificando as representações sígnicas existentes nos processos informacionais e representacionais do conhecimento com base na análise Semiótica (PEIRCE, 1977); Teoria do Conceito de Dahlberg (1976) e representação gráfica dos Mapas conceituais (NOVAK, 1995).

In today’s market, sustainability has become an important competitive priority, affecting the way manufacturing companies need to develop their production systems. Increased external pressure from stakeholders, customers, law and regulations, as well as the undeniable consequences of the environmental crisis, causes a need for more sustainable production patterns. This affects manufacturing companies, since the social and environmental dimension of sustainability no longer can be ignored if companies want to retain their competitive position. Therefore, this thesis proposes a conceptual modeling framework that includes both sustainability and operational goals, with purpose to support manufacturers who want to develop sustainable production systems with the help of discrete event simulation. Empirical evidence from Swedish automotive industry indicates an unlocked potential in applying this framework to a discrete event simulation project, and findings in current research shows that alignment of sustainability and operational goals during production system development can help manufacturing companies achieve increased competitive advantage. However, there is two limitations to current knowledge; firstly, on how to align sustainability and operation goals in the early phases of a discrete event simulation project, namely at conceptual modeling; secondly, a lack of focus on conceptual modeling in discrete event simulation. In order to examine how to address this gap, a case study was conducted within the Swedish automotive industry, along with a literature study. As guidance in this work, four research questions were formulated and answered: RQ 1:    Why is the alignment between sustainability and operational goals important in development of production systems? RQ 2:    What sustainability goals may be included in a conceptual model in development of production systems? RQ 3:    What operational goals may be included in a conceptual model in development of production systems? RQ 4:    How can operational and sustainability goals be aligned in a conceptual model in development of production systems? As for the environmental dimension of sustainability, the goals that could be included at conceptual modeling are: pollution; emissions; and resource consumption. The most commonly involved operational goals at conceptual modeling are: quality and design; throughput; production layout and flow; automation levels; production volume; cycle times; lead times and change-over times; material handling; buildings and plant properties; storage and stock; capacity; price and costs. / Under de senaste åren har den alltmer påtagliga klimatkrisen och ändrade krav från intressenter, kunder och lagar, kommit att påverka faktorerna för hur tillverkande företag konkurrerar. Inom den tillverkande industrin finns det inte längre utrymme att se bort ifrån metoder som skapar hållbara tillverkningsmönster och produkter, i och med att hållbarhet numera även är kopplat till företagets förmåga att konkurrera. I linje med detta, föreslår denna uppsats ett ramverk för hur hållbarhetsmål och operationella mål kan inkluderas i den konceptuella fasen av en diskret händelsesimulering. Syftet med ramverket är att ge företag ett verktyg som kan appliceras vid utveckling av hållbara produktionssystem med hjälp av diskret händelsesimulering. Empiriska data från tillverkningsindustrin indikerar att det finns dold potential för applicering av det föreslagna ramverket inom projekt som använder sig av diskret händelsesimulering. Fynd i nutida forskning visar att en förening av hållbarhetsmål och operationella mål under utveckling av produktionssystem kan leda till att tillverkande företag uppnår fler konkurrensfördelar. Däremot saknas forskning på hur hållbarhetsmål och operationella mål skulle kunna förenas i en konceptuell modell under de tidiga faserna av ett simuleringsprojekt. Dessutom visar tidigare forskning att konceptuell modellering inte får tillräckligt med fokus vid simuleringsprojekt. I och med att den konceptuella modellen är den mest avgörande fasen i simuleringen kan det anses motiverat att förena hållbarhetsmål och operationella mål redan i denna fas, dock krävs mer forskning på området för att detta ska kunna realiseras. Med denna information som bakgrund genomfördes en litteraturstudie på området och en fallstudie inom den svenska tillverkningsindustrin. Som vägledning i forskningsstudien formulerades och besvarades fyra frågeställningar: Fråga 1:     Varför bör hållbarhetsmål och operationella mål förenas vid utveckling av produktionssystem? Fråga 2:     Vilka hållbarhetsmål är möjliga att inkludera i en konceptuell modell vid utveckling av produktionssystem? Fråga 3:     Vilka operationella mål är möjliga att inkludera i en konceptuell modell vid utveckling av produktionssystem? Fråga 4:     Hur kan hållbarhetsmål och operationella mål bli inkluderade i en konceptuell modell vid utveckling av produktionssystem? De miljömål som är möjliga att inkludera i en konceptuell modell är föroreningar, utsläpp och resursförbrukningar. De vanligaste operationella målen att inkludera i en konceptuell model är kvalitet och design, produktionstakt, produktionslayout och produktionsflöde, automationsnivåer, produktionsvolym, cykeltider, ledtider och ställtider, materialhantering, byggnader och fabriksegenskaper, lager och förråd, kapacitet, pris och kostnader.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:04:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 6824.pdf: 22060515 bytes, checksum: bde19feb7a6e296214aebe081f2d09de (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-07 / Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais / O data warehouse espacial (DWE) é um banco de dados multidimensional integrado e volumoso que armazena dados espaciais e dados convencionais. Já o processamento analítico espacial online (SOLAP) permite consultar o DWE, tanto pela seleção de dados espaciais que satisfazem um relacionamento topológico, quanto pela agregação dos dados espaciais. Deste modo, DWE e SOLAP beneficiam o suporte a tomada de decisão. As aplicações de DWE e SOLAP abordam majoritarimente fenômenos representados por dados espaciais exatos, ou seja, que assumem localizações e fronteiras bem definidas. Contudo, tais aplicações negligenciam dados espaciais afetados por imperfeições, tais como a vagueza espacial, a qual interfere na identificação precisa de um objeto e de seus vizinhos. Um objeto espacial vago não tem sua fronteira ou seu interior precisamente definidos. Além disso, é composto por partes que certamente pertencem a ele e partes que possivelmente pertencem a ele. Apesar de inúmeros fenômenos do mundo real serem caracterizados pela vagueza espacial, na literatura consultada não se identificaram trabalhos que considerassem a vagueza espacial no projeto de DWE e nem para consultar o DWE. Tal limitação motivou a elaboração desta tese de doutorado, a qual introduz os conceitos de DWE vago e de SOLAP vago. Um DWE vago é um DWE que armazena dados espaciais vagos, enquanto que SOLAP vago provê os meios para consultar o DWE vago. Nesta tese, o projeto de DWE vago é abordado e as principais contribuições providas são: (i) o modelo conceitual VSCube que viabiliza a criação de um cubos de dados multidimensional para representar o esquema conceitual de um DWE vago; (ii) o modelo conceitual VSMultiDim que permite criar um diagrama para representar o esquema conceitual de um DWE vago; (iii) diretrizes para o projeto lógico do DWE vago e de suas restrições de integridade, e para estender a linguagem SQL visando processar as consultas de SOLAP vago no DWE vago; e (iv) o índice VSB-index que aprimora o desempenho do processamento de consultas no DWE vago. A aplicabilidade dessas contribuições é demonstrada em dois estudos de caso no domínio da agricultura, por meio da criação de esquemas conceituais de DWE vago, da transformação dos esquemas conceituais em esquemas lógicos de DWE vago, e do processamento de consultas envolvendo as regiões vagas do DWE vago. / Spatial data warehouses (SDW) and spatial online analytical processing (SOLAP) enhance decision making by enabling spatial analysis combined with multidimensional analytical queries. A SDW is an integrated and voluminous multidimensional database containing both conventional and spatial data. SOLAP allows querying SDWs with multidimensional queries that select spatial data that satisfy a given topological relationship and that aggregate spatial data. Existing SDW and SOLAP applications mostly consider phenomena represented by spatial data having exact locations and sharp boundaries. They neglect the fact that spatial data may be affected by imperfections, such as spatial vagueness, which prevents distinguishing an object from its neighborhood. A vague spatial object does not have a precisely defined boundary and/or interior. Thus, it may have a broad boundary and a blurred interior, and is composed of parts that certainly belong to it and parts that possibly belong to it. Although several real-world phenomena are characterized by spatial vagueness, no approach in the literature addresses both spatial vagueness and the design of SDWs nor provides multidimensional analysis over vague spatial data. These shortcomings motivated the elaboration of this doctoral thesis, which addresses both vague spatial data warehouses (vague SDWs) and vague spatial online analytical processing (vague SOLAP). A vague SDW is a SDW that comprises vague spatial data, while vague SOLAP allows querying vague SDWs. The major contributions of this doctoral thesis are: (i) the Vague Spatial Cube (VSCube) conceptual model, which enables the creation of conceptual schemata for vague SDWs using data cubes; (ii) the Vague Spatial MultiDim (VSMultiDim) conceptual model, which enables the creation of conceptual schemata for vague SDWs using diagrams; (iii) guidelines for designing relational schemata and integrity constraints for vague SDWs, and for extending the SQL language to enable vague SOLAP; (iv) the Vague Spatial Bitmap Index (VSB-index), which improves the performance to process queries against vague SDWs. The applicability of these contributions is demonstrated in two applications of the agricultural domain, by creating conceptual schemata for vague SDWs, transforming these conceptual schemata into logical schemata for vague SDWs, and efficiently processing queries over vague SDWs.

Os sistemas de integração de dados que usam a arquitetura de data warehouse (DW) têm se tornado cada vez maiores e mais difíceis de gerenciar devido à crescente heterogeneidade das fontes de dados envolvidas. Apesar dos avanços tecnológicos e científicos, os projetos de DW ainda são muito lentos na geração de resultados pragmáticos. Este trabalho busca responder à seguinte questão: como pode ser reduzida a complexidade do desenvolvimento de sistemas de DW que integram dados provenientes de sistemas transacionais heterogêneos? Para isso, apresenta duas contribuições: 1) A criação de diretrizes metodológicas baseadas em ciclos de modelagem conceitual e análise de dados para guiar a construção de um sistema modular de integração de dados. Essas diretrizes foram fundamentais para reduzir a complexidade do desenvolvimento do projeto internacional Retrovirus Epidemiology Donor Study-II (REDS-II), se mostrando adequadas para serem aplicadas em sistemas reais. 2) O desenvolvimento de um método de validação de lotes de dados candidatos a serem incorporados a um sistema integrador, que toma decisões baseado no perfil estatístico desses lotes, e de um projeto de sistema que viabiliza o uso desse método no contexto de sistemas de DW. / Data integration systems that use data warehouse (DW) architecture are becoming bigger and more difficult to manage due to the growing heterogeneity of data sources. Despite the significant advances in research and technologies, many integration projects are still too slow to generate pragmatic results. This work addresses the following question: how can the complexity of DW development for integration of heterogeneous transactional information systems be reduced? For this purpose, we present two contributions: 1) The establishment of methodological guidelines based on cycles of conceptual modeling and data analysis to drive construction of a modular data integration system. These guidelines were fundamental for reducing the development complexity of the international project Retrovirus Epidemiology Donor Study-II (REDS-II), proving suited to be applied in real systems. 2) The development of a validation method of data batches that are candidates to be incorporated into an integration system, which makes decisions based on the statistical profile of these batches, and a project of a system that enables the use of this method in DW systems context.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-23T14:33:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao de Gleison Baioco.pdf: 1821375 bytes, checksum: 1f3ea977985979f854fd23c9e03a7bd8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-08-21 / A tecnologia da informação (TI) vem se tornando essencial para as organizações. Nesse contexto, o gerenciamento de TI vem evoluindo para incluir gerenciamento de serviços e governança de TI, apontando para paradigmas de gerenciamento de TI orientado ao negócio. Dessa forma, o alinhamento entre a TI e o negócio tem sido considerado como um dos fatores preponderantes para a efetividade de tais paradigmas. Em adicional, são mencionadas as contribuições provenientes da automação das atividades de gerenciamento. Acompanhando essa evolução, o gerenciamento de configuração desempenha um papel fundamental, fornecendo informações precisas da TI a todos os envolvidos no gerenciamento. Todavia, em função desse estreito relacionamento com todas as entidades ligadas ao gerenciamento, a interoperabilidade entre esses componentes tem sido caracterizada como um dos principais desafios de pesquisa em gerenciamento de redes e serviços. Nesse sentido, o uso de ontologias, em especial ontologias de fundamentação, tem sido indicado como uma maneira pro issora de se obter interoperabilidade semântica no domínio de gerenciamento de configuração, uma vez que elas expressam o significado dos conceitos do domínio, bem como os relacionamentos existentes entre eles, de forma clara e explícita. Além disso, ontologias permitem que esse significado seja definido em um formato legível por máquinas, tornando o conhecimento compartilhado não apenas por agentes humanos, mas também por sistemas computacionais, possibilitando a automação de processos. Assim, esta dissertação apresenta uma proposta de modelagem conceitual do domínio de gerenciamento de configuração, no contexto do gerenciamento de serviços e governança de TI, baseada em ontologias de fundamentação. O propósito dessa ontologia é prover um modelo conceitual desse domínio, comprometido em maximizar a expressividade, a clareza e a veracidade dos conceitos pertencentes a ele. Ademais, esta dissertação apresenta uma proposta de modelo de implementação, derivado do modelo conceitual desenvolvido. O objetivo é realizar uma prova de conceito da ontologia e também demonstrar como essa ontologia pode apoiar as atividades de gerenciamento de maneira automatizada / Information technology (IT) is becoming essential for organizations. In this context, IT management has evolved to include service management and IT governance, towards business driven IT management paradigms. Thus, the alignment between IT and business has been regarded as one of the leading factors for the effectiveness of such paradigms. Furthermore, contributions arising from management activities automation are mentioned. Following this evolution, configuration management plays a key role in providing accurate IT information to all involved in management. However, due to this close relationship with all entities related to management, interoperability among these components has been characterized as one of the main research challenges in network and service management. In this sense, the use of ontologies, foundational ontologies in particular, has been indicated as a promising way to achieve semantic interoperability in the configuration management domain, since they express the meaning of domain concepts, as well as the existing relationships between them, in a clear and explicit way. Moreover, ontologies allow that this meaning be defined in a machine readable format, making the knowledge shared not only by human agents, but also by computer systems, enabling process automation. Thus, this dissertation proposes a conceptual model of configuration management domain in the context of service management and IT governance, based on foundational ontologies. The purpose of this ontology is to provide a conceptual model of this domain, committed to maximizing the expressiveness, clarity and truthfulness of concepts that belong thereto. Moreover, this dissertation proposes an implementation model, derived from the developed conceptual model. The goal is to perform an ontology proof of concept and also demonstrate how this ontology can support the management activities in an automated way

Recently cognitive principles have been discussed for Conceptual Modeling with the aim to increase domain understanding, model comprehension and modeling efficiency. In particular, the principle of Perceptual Discriminability, which discusses the visual differences of modeling constructs, reveals potential for model comprehension if human attention is influenced in a way that important modeling constructs are more easily detected, and can hence faster be processed. Yet, so far no conditions how the human gaze can be influenced have been defined and evaluated for Conceptual Modeling. This dissertation extends Perceptual Discriminability for conditions to attract human attention for those constructs that are important for model comprehension. Furthermore, these conditions are applied to constructs of two different modeling grammars in general as well as to elements of the process flow of Business Process Models. To evaluate the results a laboratory experiment of extended Perceptual Discriminability is described in which significant differences have been identified for process flow comprehension. For the demonstration of the potential of extended Perceptual Discriminability BPMN secondary notation is improved by emphasizing those constructs that are most important for model comprehension. Therefore, those constructs that are important for model comprehension have been identified within a content analysis and have been worked on according to the conditions of extended Perceptual Discriminability for those visual variables that are free for an application in secondary notation.