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Variants of the same process may be encountered in different organizations, e.g., any municipality will have a process to handle building permits. New paradigms such as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Cloud Computing stimulate organizations to share a BPM infrastructure. The shared infrastructure has to support many processes and their variants. Dealing with such large collections of similar process models for multiple organizations is challenging. However, a shared BPM infrastructure also enables cross-organizational process mining. Since events are recorded in a unified way, it is possible to cross-correlate process models and the actual observed behavior in different organizations. This paper presents a novel approach to compare collections of process models and their events logs. The approach is used to compare processes in different Dutch municipalities. Keywords: cross-organizational process mining – software-as-a-service – process model collections – configurable process models

Streams of research are emerging that emphasize the advantages of using declarative process modeling languages over more traditional, imperative approaches. In particular, the declarative modeling approach is known for its ability to cope with the limited flexibility of the imperative approach. However, there is still not much empirical insight into the actual strengths and the applicability of each modeling paradigm. In this paper, we investigate in an experimental setting if either the imperative or the declarative process modeling approach is superior with respect to process model understanding. Even when task types are considered that should better match one or the other, our study finds that imperative process modeling languages appear to be connected with better understanding.

Introduction - Satisfying the growing demand for agricultural products while improving N input efficiency in Mediterranean cereal systems (Hochman et al., 2013) will require significant change in cropping systems structure and management. Our hypothesis, developed from the concepts of eco-efficiency (Keating et al., 2010) is that it is possible to obtain a better compromise between production and resource efficiency by adopting transformational technologies, such as changing genotype or by temporal and/or spatial diversification of crops. In this study, the hypothesis is tested on rotation as a temporal complexification of a cereal system structure. We addressed the following question: does crop rotation allow for a better trade-off between nitrogen efficiency and yield of Durum wheat in farmers conditions and how far can it compensate for the reduction of area allocated to wheat? Materials and Methods - We introduced in the efficiency analysis two intermediate variables between nitrogen supply and grain yield in order to establish a four-quadrant diagram (Fig 1). Nitrogen uptake was used, on the right of this diagram, to separate the efficiencies of resource capture and resource conversion (De Wit, 1992). On the left, N-efficiency was introduced as intermediate variable, in order to visualize trade-offs between efficiencies and production or input. In each quadrant we established boundary curves which represent the maximum achievable performances (yield, N uptake, N efficiency) when the input (here N fertilizer) is the only limiting factor. This framework has been tested on 432 “agronomic situations” (climatic year, previous crop and N rate) of Durum wheat in farmers' fields representative of the diversity of farmers practices in four regions of Tunisia. Results and Discussion - Nitrogen capture by Durum wheat is benchmarked against boundary curves that represent achievable nitrogen uptake when nitrogen supply is the only limiting factor (Fig 1.A).These boundary curves were significantly different according to the preceding crop. The highest achievable N absorbed was found for irrigated wheat grown after vegetables (CM_Dwi), followed by rainfed wheat grown after legumes (LG_Dwr). In contrast, the lowest achievable N absorbed was found for rainfed wheat in a cereal-wheat rotation (CE_Dwr), revealing the poor N-capture potential of rotation sequences based on cereals only. Our method of estimation of N absorbed (Fig 1.B) does not allow discussion of the effect of the preceding crop on the efficiency of N conversion into grain but experimental data showed that this factor does not break the proportionality of yield to N absorbed. The equations of boundary curves of quadrants A and B allowed us to establish the trade-off curves between N efficiency and an objective of grain production (Fig 1.C) or of N fertilizer use (Fig 1.D). They show that in cereal-based systems of Tunisia high N efficiency can be obtained but only with low level of fertilization and grain yield. Changing the preceding crop into legume does not change this tendency but creates a new efficiency frontier which allows both an increase in Yield and N efficiency (Fig 1.C), especially if the level of N fertilizer used on this area has to be limited for environmental purposes (Fig 1.D). In irrigated systems, where wheat is grown after vegetable, these shifts in the efficiency frontiers are sufficiently high to compensate for the reduction of Durum wheat area in a 3 years rotation, especially at low level of N fertilization. Conclusions - This four quadrant framework allows to combine process-based (right part) and design oriented (left part) analysis of food production vs. resource use in cropping systems, making use of easy to access data in farmers fields. It showed the breakthrough which can be obtained in high production-low N input cereal-based systems through crop diversification and irrigation. Nevertheless the level and frequency of N absorption efficiency gaps for each preceding crop suggest that there are other crop management factors to be taken into account in farmers' fields.

Conference of 9th Workshop on Verification and Evaluation of Computer and Communication Systems, VECoS 2015 ; Conference Date: 10 September 2015 Through 11 September 2015; Conference Code:115655; International audience; Model checking is an effective technique for uncovering subtle errors in concurrent systems. Unfortunately, the state space explosion is the main bottleneck in model checking tools. Here we propose a state space reduction technique for model checking concurrent programs written in C. The reduction technique consists in an analysis phase, which defines an approximate agglomeration predicate. This latter states whether a statement can be agglomerated or not. We implement this predicate using a syntactic analysis, as well as a semantic analysis based on abstract interpretation. We show the usefulness of using agglomeration technique to reduce the state space, as well as to generate an abstract TLA+ specification from a C program.

T3. Crop modeling and yield gap analysis for agricultural systems analysis and design; International audience; In most Mediterranean regions, durum wheat yield is variable with time and location, depending on several factors, primarily water and nitrogen supply (Boussen et al., 2005). Nitrogen (N) is one of the most important nutrients applied as a fertilizer and responsible to a great extent for the large yields obtained from high input agriculture (Latiri, 1998). However, the increased use of N fertilizer can affect farmers' margins, causes excessive losses to the environment and make agriculture dependent of non-renewable energy. The simultaneous increase in both yield and N-efficiency is at the core of eco-efficient agriculture which targets efficient and sustainable use of resources in agricultural production and land management (Keating et al., 2010). It adds to the concept of ecological intensification (Cassman, 1999), the hypothesis of eco-efficiency frontiers that are determined by the genetic nature or by the agrobiodiversity of the cropping systems. This study aims to analyze the efficiency of nitrogen supply on durum wheat and its drivers in different regions in Tunisia and try to identify eco-efficiency frontiers, associated with constrasting rotation sequences. We addressed the following question: Can higher yields and greater N-efficiency be expected in wheat-based cropping systems by diversifying rotation sequences?

Substitution is fundamental to computer science, underlying for example quantifiers in predicate logic and beta-reduction in the lambda-calculus. So is substitution something we define on syntax on a case-by-case basis, or can we turn the idea of ‘substitution’ into a mathematical object? We exploit the new framework of Nominal Algebra to axiomatise substitution. We prove our axioms sound and complete with respect to a canonical model; this turns out to be quite hard, involving subtle use of results of rewriting and algebra.

The paper deals with automatic reconfiguration problems of distributed control systems that are composed of a group/set of networked reconfigurable devices. A multi-agent architecture is proposed such that each device of a distributed control system has a special self-governed agent named reconfiguration sub controller agent to manage its local reconfiguration. Accordingly a communication protocol is developed to handle interaction style among these agents for the purpose of consistency.The proposed architecture is modeled by RECATNets and the distributed reconfiguration process is modeled by an ECATNet. Furthermore, in order to check the correctness of the proposed approach, the model checker Maude is applied, where required properties are specified by Linear Temporal Logic. Finally, a virtual distributed control system contains two reconfigurable devices is applied to illustrate this work.

Organizations are looking for ways to collaborate in the area of process management. Common practice until now is the (partial) standardization of processes. This has the main disadvantage that most organizations are forced to adapt their processes to adhere to the standard. In this paper we analyze and compare the actual processes of ten Dutch municipalities. Configurable process models provide a potential solution for the limitations of classical standardization processes as they contain all the behavior of individual models, while only needing one model. The question rises where the limits are though. It is obvious that one configurable model containing all models that exist is undesirable. But are company-wide configurable models feasible? And how about cross-organizational configurable models, should all partners be considered or just certain ones? In this paper we apply a similarity metric on individual models to determine means of answering questions in this area. This way we propose a new means of determining beforehand whether configurable models are feasible. Using the selected metric we can identify more desirable partners and processes before computing configurable process models.

Process mining is an emerging topic in the BPM marketplace. Recently, several (commercial) software solutions have become available. Due to the lack of an evaluation framework, it is very difficult for potential users to assess the strengths and weaknesses of these process mining tools. As the first step towards such an evaluation framework, we developed a set of process mining use cases and validated these use cases by means of expert interviews and a survey. We present the list of use cases and discuss the insights from our empirical validation. These use cases will then form the basis for a detailed evaluation of current process mining tools on the market.

When multiple similar business processes must be designed, a trade-off is necessary between designing a single, standardized, process or designing multiple, specific, processes. Standardization, on the one hand, helps to benefit from re-use of resources and to reduce redundancy. Specificity, on the other hand, helps to tailor the processes to specific needs. The activity of deciding on this trade-off is called harmonization. This paper operationalizes the notion of process harmonization, identifies aspects that determine harmonization and defines metrics to determine the level of harmonization. Furthermore, it presents the factors that influence the level of harmonization that can be achieved in a company. The harmonization aspects and factors are extracted from case studies in practice. Together the metrics, aspects and factors can be used to determine the current and optimal level of harmonization for a company.

The ever growing set of regulations and laws organizations have to comply to, introduces many new challenges. Current approaches that check for compliance by implementing controls in an existing information system (IS) decrease the maintainability of both the set of compliance rules and the IS. In this position paper, we advocate the separation of the compliance process from the organization’s business processes. We introduce a life cycle for the management of compliance rules. A separate compliance engine is used to define and check compliance rules independent from the existing IS within an organization.

A real-life event log, taken from a Dutch Academic Hospital, provided for the BPI challenge is analyzed using process mining techniques. The log contains events related to treatment and diagnosis steps for patients diagnosed with cancer. Given the heterogeneous nature of these cases, we first demonstrate that it is possible to create more homogeneous subsets of cases (e.g., patients having a particular type of cancer that need to be treated urgently). Such preprocessing is crucial given the variation and variability found in the event log. The discovered homogeneous subsets are analyzed using state-of-the-art process mining approaches. More specifically, we report on the findings discovered using enhanced fuzzy mining and trace alignment. A dedicated preprocessing ProM plug-in was developed for this challenge. The analysis was done using recent, but pre-existing, ProM plug-ins. The high-level view of our approach is depicted in Fig. 1. [Figure omitted] Using this approach we are able to uncover many interesting findings that could be used to improve the underlying care processes.