Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

From Contemporary Workflow Process Automation To Adaptive And Dynamic Work Activity Coordination And Collaboration, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

The article outlines a research agenda for researchers in the area of workflow. We believe that today's workflow systems should evolve to what is termed as work coordination and collaboration systems (WCCSs). A WCCS will: (a) adapt to various changes in the organization (including its interactions with external organizations) and the organizational processes by being able to change the process definitions as well as change the processes and component activities while they are being enacted or executed; and (b) support a unified framework for managing coordination, collaboration, and information based decision making activities that naturally occur as part of organizational …

A Vhdl-93 Hardware Description Browser, Laura C. Debrock, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan

Kno.e.sis Publications

This paper describes the design and implementation of the VHDL-93 Hardware Description Browser, which is a tool for the intelligent retrieval of information from VHDL designs. The Browser consists of two UNIX processes: a TCL/TK Graphical User Interface and a Prolog search engine. The GUI elicits queries from the user and submits them to the Prolog search engine via a two-way communication pipe. The search engine satisfies queries by traversing a forest of parse trees corresponding to the associated VHDL designs. The results are then sent to the GUI for posting.

Two public-domain tools were used to implement the Browser: …

Characterizing A Portable Subset Of Behavioral Vhdl-93, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Robert Ewing

Kno.e.sis Publications

Goossens defined a structural operational semantics for a subset of VHDL-87 and proved that the parallelism present in VHDL is benign. We extend this work to include VHDL-93 features such as shared variables and postponed processes that change the underlying semantic model. In the presence of shared variables, nondeterministic execution of VHDL-93 processes destroys the unique meaning property. We identify and characterize a class of portable VHDL-93 descriptions for which unique meaning property can be salvaged. Our specification can serve as a correctness criteria for a VHDL-93 simulator.

The Carnot Heterogeneous Database Project: Implemented Applications, Munindar Singh, Phil Cannata, Michael N. Huhns, Nigel Jacobs, Tomasz Ksiezyk, Kayliang Ong, Amit P. Sheth, Christine Tomlinson, Darrell Woelk

Kno.e.sis Publications

The Carnot project was an ambitious research project in heterogeneous databases. It integrated a variety of techniques to address a wide range of problems in achieving interoperation in heterogeneous environments. Here we describe some of the major implemented applications of this project. These applications concern(a) accessing a legacy scientific database, (b) automating a workflow involving legacy systems, (c) cleaning data, and (d) retrieving semantically appropriate information from structured databases in response to text queries. These applications support scientific decision support, business process management, data integrity enhancement, and analytical decision support, respectively. They demonstrate Carnot‘s capabilities for (a) heterogeneous query processing, …

Some Relationships Between Foies And Sigma 1 1 Arity Hierarchies, Guozhu Dong, Limsoon Wong

Kno.e.sis Publications

No abstract provided.

Structural Issues In Active Rule Systems, James Bailey, Guozhu Dong, Kotagiri Ramamohanarao

Kno.e.sis Publications

Active database systems enhance the functionality of traditional databases through the use of active rules or ‘triggers’. There is little consensus, though, on what components should be included in a rule system. In this paper, the expressive power of some simple active database rule systems is examined and the effect of choosing different features studied. Four important parameters of variation are presented, namely the rule language, the external query language, the meta rule language and the pending rule structure. We show that each of these is highly influential in determining the expressiveness of the rule system as a whole, and …

An Error Handling Framework For The Orbwork Workflow Enactment Service Of Meteor, Davasish Worah, Amit P. Sheth, Krzysztof J. Kochut, John A. Miller

Kno.e.sis Publications

Workflow Management Systems (WFMSs) can be used to re-engineer, streamline, automate, and track organizational processes involving humans and automated information systems. However, the state-of-the-art in workflow technology suffers from a number of limitations that prevent it from being widely used in large-scale mission critical applications. Error handling is one such issue. What makes the task of error handling challenging is the need to deal with errors that appear in various components of a complex distributed application execution environment, including various WFMS components, workflow application tasks of different types, and the heterogeneous computing infrastructure.

In this paper, we discuss a top-down …

The Feasibility Of Using Hedonic Pricing Models To Predict The Cost To The Air Force Of Aircraft Engines, Richard Albert Hyde Ii

Masters Culminating Experiences (1993-2011)

The objective of this paper is to determine the feasibility of using hedonic pricing models to predict the cost to the Air Force of aircraft engines purchased under government contracts. A hedonic pricing model is constructed using an ordinary least square regression format. The distinguishing factor is that cost is always the dependent variable in a hedonic pricing model. The word hedonic means pertaining to pleasure. Economists relate pleasure to value. Therefore, the predicted coefficients of variables produced by the hedonic model, represent marginal values of each variable. The coefficients also show how the variables impact cost. A good hedonic …

Isolation Or Interdependence? The Impact Of Central City And Metropolitan Statistical Area Economic Growth On The Welfare In Poor, Inner-City Census Tracts, Amy C. Novak

Masters Culminating Experiences (1993-2011)

This paper critically analyzes the relationship between the central city low income census tract and the economic vitality of the central city and the metropolitan statistical area. It attempts to provide an understanding of the impact of central city and metropolitan statistical area (MSA) economic activity on inner-city, poor census tracts. This study began by examining ninety-six low income census tracts in twenty-four of the fifty largest US cities. The variables examined included income levels, employment, and social variables (educational attainment, female-headed households, type of employment, percent of persons in poverty, percent of persons receiving federal public assistance dollars) in …

Economics Of Quebec Separatism, J. Scott Attenborough

Masters Culminating Experiences (1993-2011)

The status of the economies in various regions of Canada is continually a key concern for the nation's political leaders. Historically disparities have existed between regions as the nation developed over time. The fact that the regions have not developed equally has been highlighted by the Premiers of each province bringing their plight before Canada's parliament.

One region that has recently lagged behind the economic development of most other regions is the province of Quebec. Although quite competitive with the overall Canadian economy until 1960, the Quebec economy now lags behind overall national economic performance. Quebec's unemployment rate remains high …

Economic Reform And Its Impact On Women In Rural China, Haiping Luo

Masters Culminating Experiences (1993-2011)

China’s rural reform is composed of two parts - changing the old agricultural system and gradually establishing the market mechanism. The agricultural reform is characterized by the adoption of the household responsibility system. The goal of the rural reform is first to achieve effective allocation of labor and land, and second to realize equity and efficiency in rural earnings distribution.

The old agricultural system over-emphasized equality but ignored efficiency. It aimed to keep full employment and a standard wage. This gave rise to an income distribution characterized by the principle “everybody has a share in eating from the same big …