Workflow Engine Research Articles

A Blockchain-based and resource-aware process execution engine

Abstract Business Process Management provides concepts for enterprises to design, document and execute their business processes. Involved artefacts establish the basis for a profound enhancement of processes, like performance improvements or a substantiate assignment of employees (resources) to tasks. These artefacts comprise process models for documentation purposes or Workflow Management Systems for executing processes. Those concepts are adopted well within single companies but are barely implemented for inter-organizational processes reasoned in a lack of trust between participating business partners. For instance, questions like who the host of the workflow engine is and thus have sovereignty over the process execution remains open. Besides expensive third parties, we believe that Blockchain Technology bears potential to solve the lack of trust due to automated consensus finding. We present a Blockchain-based process engine guaranteeing a tamper-proof execution, which is both, highly scalable regarding the size of process models as well as capable of considering employees captured in the organizational perspective of the process model. Comparable approaches suffer from lack of trustworthiness either, are not applicable for large process models, or do not include organizational concerns.

Production Management System for Spacecraft MLI

In order to meet the requirements of high efficiency, synergy and refined management in the design and manufacturing process of spacecraft multi-layer insulation(MLI) components, the MLI design, CNC machining programming and MLI manufacturing process are modeled systematically, and the production management system is developed based on COM technology and C/S and B/S hybrid architecture layout method. The dynamic detection and analysis methods of working hours, workload and material consumption by integrating workflow technology and statistical control technology is proposed, and basic data can be obtained while completing planning process management, product status management, personnel capacity management, material status management, and file management.

Development of BIM-Based Innovative Workflow for Architecture, Engineering and Construction Projects in China

Development of BIM-Based Innovative Workflow for Architecture, Engineering and Construction Projects in China

SEMAFLEX: A novel approach for implementing workflow flexibility by deviation based on constraint satisfaction problem solving

AbstractThe concept developed during the SEMAFLEX project combines knowledge‐based document management with flexible workflow management to achieve ideal support for small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises. This paper focusses on the workflow approach that implements flexibility by deviation on the basis of constraint satisfaction problem solving. Workflow deviations due to unpredictable circumstances or upcoming events are tolerated at runtime, but still, support is maintained and possible succeeding work items are proposed. Procedurally modelled workflows are transformed to declarative constraints, which serve as database for the workflow engine. The described approach is fully implemented, and our experiments demonstrate sufficient runtime performance as well as improvements for practical use.

Error Investigations for a CT and Additive Manufacturing based Reverse Engineering Workflow

A typically occurring task when maintaining gas turbines is the replacement of broken or worn out turbine blades. In order to shorten costly downtimes, it is essential to provide spare parts with minimal lead time; this can turn out problematic in particular for older devices for which blueprints or type designations are not readily available. To overcome this limitation, reverse engineering (RE) methods can provide a remedy, since a geometrical representation of the piece can be obtained at short notice. Due to advances in additive manufacturing (AM) based production, it is also possible to print complex shapes with little additional effort. We present a framework that uses reverse engineering based on Computed Tomography (CT) and optical scanning to obtain the geometry of an AM-printed turbine blade test part and produces a duplicate thereof via the same fabrication technique. To verify the feasibility of the applied RE and manufacturing methods in practice, aberration of both procedures were investigated separately. Combining the results allowed us to review the replicated spare part for geometrical conformance with both, the original turbine blade and the initial design for the part. For this purpose we rely on a simplified approach based on standard deviation and shift of the mean value of error distributions that are obtained by comparing two known geometries to one another. We found that our workflow is capable of deriving the original part’s shape with adequate accuracy and offers the capability for obtaining a good baseline geometry that can be used for further treatment. The framework used is also able to provide meaningful information concerning manufacturing and imaging quality and quantify occurring aberrations of the workpiece. The replica itself exhibits acceptable geometrical deviations for actual productive service when compared to the initial design as well as the original part.

Script of Scripts: A pragmatic workflow system for daily computational research.

Computationally intensive disciplines such as computational biology often require use of a variety of tools implemented in different scripting languages and analysis of large data sets using high-performance computing systems. Although scientific workflow systems can powerfully organize and execute large-scale data-analysis processes, creating and maintaining such workflows usually comes with nontrivial learning curves and engineering overhead, making them cumbersome to use for everyday data exploration and prototyping. To bridge the gap between interactive analysis and workflow systems, we developed Script of Scripts (SoS), an interactive data-analysis platform and workflow system with a strong emphasis on readability, practicality, and reproducibility in daily computational research. For exploratory analysis, SoS has a multilanguage scripting format that centralizes otherwise-scattered scripts and creates dynamic reports for publication and sharing. As a workflow engine, SoS provides an intuitive syntax for creating workflows in process-oriented, outcome-oriented, and mixed styles, as well as a unified interface for executing and managing tasks on a variety of computing platforms with automatic synchronization of files among isolated file systems. As illustrated herein by real-world examples, SoS is both an interactive analysis tool and pipeline platform suitable for different stages of method development and data-analysis projects. In particular, SoS can be easily adopted in existing data analysis routines to substantially improve organization, readability, and cross-platform computation management of research projects.

Integrating Bacterial ChIP-seq and RNA-seq Data With SnakeChunks.

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) is becoming a routine approach in most domains of the life sciences. To ensure reproducibility of results, there is a crucial need to improve the automation of NGS data processing and enable forthcoming studies relying on big datasets. Although user-friendly interfaces now exist, there remains a strong need for accessible solutions that allow experimental biologists to analyze and explore their results in an autonomous and flexible way. The protocols here describe a modular system that enable a user to compose and fine-tune workflows based on SnakeChunks, a library of rules for the Snakemake workflow engine. They are illustrated using a study combining ChIP-seq and RNA-seq to identify target genes of the global transcription factor FNR in Escherichia coli, which has the advantage that results can be compared with the most up-to-date collection of existing knowledge about transcriptional regulation in this model organism, extracted from the RegulonDB database. © 2019 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Technology Focus: Drilling Innovation (February 2019)

Technology Focus From the beginning, the name of the game has been innovation. No single word has characterized drilling design and operations more completely during the 160 years since Colonel Drake first probed the Pennsylvania landscape for oil. This fundamental aspect of our business applies now more than ever across geographical and corporate boundaries. Examples of evolution in well construction during the past several years include new horizontal-well applications, breakthroughs in bit and directional-drilling technology, synthetic fluids, fracture-stimulation advancements, managed-pressure drilling, and the digital revolution. All this being said, few could have imagined the present state of the industry unfolding with the development of unconventional resources. During the past 7 years alone, US oil production has again become a dominant global force, doubling from 5.5 million to more than 11 million B/D. Even greater effects on gas reserves have been realized with the expansion of infrastructure to deliver a rising tide of new gas production to consumers. Around the globe, the ultimate benefits of these current trends remain to be seen as new reserves continue to be identified within most of the world’s oil- and gas-producing regions. Papers selected for this feature serve as superb examples of drilling evolution in a variety of locations, including US onshore, offshore Thailand, deepwater Gulf of Mexico, Sakhalin Island, and the North Sea. In each case, evolution in well design, equipment, and operational procedures has occurred, resulting in dramatic advancements in technical feasibility, efficiency, and safety. Paper SPE 191783, “Drilling Extended Laterals in the Marcellus Shale,” reveals advancements underpinning new unconventional production in that area as well as in the Permian Basin, the Bakken, the Eagle Ford, and the Utica fields. Successful results published by international and offshore operators in Papers SPE 191054 and OTC 29065 highlight not simply new tools or procedures but also far-reaching breakthroughs that fundamentally alter the outlook and value of these types of assets. Papers referenced in the pages that follow offer but a glimpse into a greater library and wealth of knowledge available to SPE readers desiring to remain connected with drilling innovations. Recommended additional reading at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org. SPE 191090 Simultaneously Drilling and Underreaming Directional Topholes With Underreamer Below Mud Motor Saves a Trip in Collision-Free Operations: Offshore Sakhalin Island Case Study by Ruslan Kasumov, Schlumberger, et al. IADC/SPE 191099 Complete Managed-Pressure-Drilling Rigs: Is This the Future? by Ben Gedge, PVD Well Service, et al. SPE 191331 Drilling a Challenging Kvitebjørn Field 53/4-in. Section in a Single Run Using a New Mud-Motor-Modeling Engineering Work Flow and New Long-Life Elastomer by Hany Ahmed Beeh, Schlumberger, et al. SPE 191338 Out-of-Zone Injection by A. Galiev, PJSC Tatneft, et al.

Scientific Workflow: Modeling Methods and Management System

With the development of network technology and resource virtualization platform such as e-Science, workflow technology has expanded its coverage from business management to scientific computing. It cooperates with scientists from different fields to achieve complex data processing. The workflow model stands as the core of the workflow management system, and its quality directly affects the execution ability of the whole system. Workflow modeling technology has been widely studied, and many kinds of modeling methods have emerged. This paper proposes a modeling method based on spatio-temporal topology which fuses data flow and control flow together, and presents a workflow management architecture.

Model Guided Application for Investigating Particle Number (PN) Emissions in GDI Spark Ignition Engines

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Model guided application (MGA) combining physico-chemical internal combustion engine simulation with advanced analytics offers a robust framework to develop and test particle number (PN) emissions reduction strategies. The digital engineering workflow presented in this paper integrates the <i>k</i>inetics & SRM Engine Suite with parameter estimation techniques applicable to the simulation of particle formation and dynamics in gasoline direct injection (GDI) spark ignition (SI) engines. The evolution of the particle population characteristics at engine-out and through the sampling system is investigated. The particle population balance model is extended beyond soot to include sulphates and soluble organic fractions (SOF). This particle model is coupled with the gas phase chemistry precursors and is solved using a sectional method. The combustion chamber is divided into a wall zone and a bulk zone and the fuel impingement on the cylinder wall is simulated. The wall zone is responsible for resolving the distribution of equivalence ratios near the wall, a factor that is essential to account for the formation of soot in GDI SI engines. In this work, a stochastic reactor model (SRM) is calibrated to a single-cylinder test engine operated at 12 steady state load-speed operating points. First, the flame propagation model is calibrated using the experimental in-cylinder pressure profiles. Then, the population balance model parameters are calibrated based on the experimental data for particle size distributions from the same operating conditions. Good agreement was obtained for the in-cylinder pressure profiles and gas phase emissions such as NO<sub>x</sub>. The MGA also employs a reactor network approach to align with the particle sampling measurements procedure, and the influence of dilution ratios and temperature on the PN measurement is investigated. Lastly, the MGA and the measurements procedure are applied to size-resolved chemical characterisation of the emitted particles.</div></div>

Scalable Workflows and Reproducible Data Analysis for Genomics.

Biological, clinical, and pharmacological research now often involves analyses of genomes, transcriptomes, proteomes, and interactomes, within and between individuals and across species. Due to large volumes, the analysis and integration of data generated by such high-throughput technologies have become computationally intensive, and analysis can no longer happen on a typical desktop computer.In this chapter we show how to describe and execute the same analysis using a number of workflow systems and how these follow different approaches to tackle execution and reproducibility issues. We show how any researcher can create a reusable and reproducible bioinformatics pipeline that can be deployed and run anywhere. We show how to create a scalable, reusable, and shareable workflow using four different workflow engines: the Common Workflow Language (CWL), Guix Workflow Language (GWL), Snakemake, and Nextflow. Each of which can be run in parallel.We show how to bundle a number of tools used in evolutionary biology by using Debian, GNU Guix, and Bioconda software distributions, along with the use of container systems, such as Docker, GNU Guix, and Singularity. Together these distributions represent the overall majority of software packages relevant for biology, including PAML, Muscle, MAFFT, MrBayes, and BLAST. By bundling software in lightweight containers, they can be deployed on a desktop, in the cloud, and, increasingly, on compute clusters.By bundling software through these public software distributions, and by creating reproducible and shareable pipelines using these workflow engines, not only do bioinformaticians have to spend less time reinventing the wheel but also do we get closer to the ideal of making science reproducible. The examples in this chapter allow a quick comparison of different solutions.

REANA: A System for Reusable Research Data Analyses

The revalidation, reinterpretation and reuse of research data analyses requires having access to the original computing environment, the experimental datasets, the analysis software, and the computational workflow steps which were used by researchers to produce the original scientific results in the first place. REANA (Reusable Analyses) is a nascent platform enabling researchers to structure their research data analyses in view of enabling future reuse. The analysis is described by means of a YAML file that captures sufficient information about the analysis assets, parameters and processes. The REANA platform consists of a set of micro-services allowing to launch and monitor container-based computational workflow jobs on the cloud. The REANA user interface and the command-line client enables researchers to easily rerun analysis workflows with new input parameters. The REANA platform aims at supporting several container technologies (Docker), workflow engines (CWL, Yadage), shared storage systems (Ceph, EOS) and compute cloud infrastructures (Ku-bernetes/OpenStack, HTCondor) used by the community. REANA was developed with the particle physics use case in mind and profits from synergies with general reusable research data analysis patterns in other scientific disciplines, such as bioinformatics and life sciences.

Rapid, automated, test, verification and validation for the CubeSats

Bringing up of a small-scale mission assurance and engineering workflow is described. The experiences learned in the ZACUBE-1 mission prompted the development of an automated systems engineering platform leading to conformity in system design, test, and verification. The platform implements the methodology of systems engineering by coordinating diverse elements of the lifecycle and by incorporating the tools involved. The phase B/C activities of system modelling, simulations, prototyping, and design may be unified to a compounding effect and raising the level of the system view. The Verification and Validation (V&V) is achieved by integrating a test and measurement facility to the platform. With the platform, we accomplish rapid electrical and functional test and verification of the CubeSat subsystems and thermal validation in 20 °C to +50 °C cycle. The platform is automated by an application software which executes functional and thermal environment tests and provides support for requirements flow, system definition, embedded development, and simulations by integrating real-time target hardware. The platform is exploited in validating an S-band communications subsystem while economizing time and obtaining valuable insight into transmission performance under thermal loading.

Pyteomics 4.0: Five Years of Development of a Python Proteomics Framework.

Many of the novel ideas that drive today's proteomic technologies are focused essentially on experimental or data-processing workflows. The latter are implemented and published in a number of ways, from custom scripts and programs, to projects built using general-purpose or specialized workflow engines; a large part of routine data processing is performed manually or with custom scripts that remain unpublished. Facilitating the development of reproducible data-processing workflows becomes essential for increasing the efficiency of proteomic research. To assist in overcoming the bioinformatics challenges in the daily practice of proteomic laboratories, 5 years ago we developed and announced Pyteomics, a freely available open-source library providing Python interfaces to proteomic data. We summarize the new functionality of Pyteomics developed during the time since its introduction.

Workflow-based automatic processing for Internet of Floating Things crowdsourced data

Data from sensors incorporated into mobile devices, such as networked navigational sensors, can be used to capture detailed environmental information. We describe here a workflow and framework for using sensors on boats to construct unique new datasets of underwater topography (bathymetry). Starting with a large number of measurements of position, depth, etc., obtained from such an Internet of Floating Things, we illustrate how, with a specialized protocol, data can be communicated to cloud resources, even when using delayed, intermittent, or disconnected networks. We then propose a method for automatic sensor calibration based on a novel reputation approach. Sampled depth data are interpolated efficiently on a cloud computing platform in order to provide a continuously updated bathymetric database. Our prototype implementation uses the FACE-IT Galaxy workflow engine to manage network communication and exploits the computational power of GPGPUs in a virtualized cloud environment, working with a CUDA-parallel algorithm, for efficient data processing. We report on an initial evaluation involving data from a sailing vessel in Italian coastal waters.

Information Technology and Workflow Technology for Enhancement and Strengthening of Companies in Maritime Sector

The relatively recent term of Workflow Management Technology System implies exactly a system related to the main actions on the available information and actions to take, namely the communication of information and coordination of related actions.Workflow Management Systems are capable to manage and use centralized databases and Database Management Systems and they are either stand-alone systems or embedded in ERPs (Enterprise Resource Planning). They are coordinating information and actions and utilization of respective available resources.In relationship with these Workflow Management Systems, three main issues are generally arising: at first the awareness (relevancy) of the information, secondly the control of information and thirdly securing (privacy or vulnerability prevention) of transmitting information.

Research and implementation of a universal workflow model to evaluate the soil fertility based on OGC Web Service

ABSTRACTA method based on workflow technology and Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) specification is proposed to establish a universal workflow conceptual model in the network environment. In this paper, the soil fertility evaluation conceptual model was developed as an evaluation method of soil fertility by analyzing the GIS-based fertility evaluation method and extracting the dynamic variable to verify the feasibility model. This validation process involves determining the instantiation of the conceptual model. The proposed conceptual model achieved the following goals. All data acquisition and processing functions were packaged into an OGC-compliant service model; these service models were organized into a processing chain in a certain order on the workflow platform by Petri-Net; the fertility evaluation was realized on the workflow platform by calling the processing chain. Results showed that processing functions and data can be shared in the network environment, and the network workflow model can be realized by the workflow technology. The successful implementation of fertility evaluation proved the feasibility of the network-based universal workflow conceptual model. In addition, the flexibility of our modeling method is demonstrated by reconstructing the workflow model.

Full Meta Object profiling for flexible geoprocessing workflows

AbstractThe design and running of complex geoprocessing workflows is an increasingly common geospatial modelling and analysis task. The Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) standard, which provides a graphical representation of a workflow, allows stakeholders to discuss the scientific conceptual approach behind this modelling while also defining a machine‐readable encoding in XML. Previous research has enabled the orchestration of Open Geospatial Consortium Web Processing Services (WPS) with a BPMN workflow engine. However, the need for direct access to predefined data inputs and outputs results in a lack of flexibility during composition of the workflow and of efficiency during execution. This article develops metadata profiling approaches, described as two possible configurations, which enable workflow management at the meta‐level through a coupling with a metadata catalogue. Specifically, a WPS profile and a BPMN profile are developed and tested using open‐source components to achieve this coupling. A case study in the context of an event mapping task applied within a big data framework and based on analysis of the Global Database of Event Language and Tone database illustrates the two different architectures.

ОПТИМИЗАЦИЯ УГАРА МОТОРНОГО МАСЛА В СУДОВОМ ДИЗЕЛЕ С ВЫСОКИМ НАДДУВОМ ПО КРИТЕРИЮ ИЗНАШИВАНИЯ

The results of modeling the impact of oil burning on the condition of the ship forced trunk piston diesel engine when using lubricants with different operating properties. The dependence of wear rate on oil fume, the quality of used lubricants and marine diesel forcing is obtained by modeling wear using the theory of planning experiments. The area of minimal wear has been determined. There has been detected the most efficient waste oil providing favorable conditions for resource-saving operation of the internal combustion engine. It is inferred that reduction of engine oil fume changes the main parameters of its aging. At the same time, the intensity of oil aging in main directions and of engine wear reduce from 0.75 to 2.25 g/(kW∙h), whereas the fume increases. Its further increase is accompanied by an increase in the rate of oil aging and engine wear. The detected "fracture" depending on И( g y) after passing the border g yopt = 2.25-2.5 g/(kW∙h) is stipulated by different ratio of oil exchange in the lubrication system and the ingress of gases into the crankcase. There has been determined the degree of oil burning, at which sludging and lacquer formation of the internal combustion engine is least intense. The smallest carbon deposits on pistons and in the crankcase of the engine can be observed when the diesel engine is operating in the zone of optimal carbonation. Experimentally, the dependence of tribotechnical properties, in particular, wear of insoluble products of oil aging has been detected at different degrees of oil burning. It is revealed that these characteristics also depend on the quality of the used fuels and lubricants and the conditions of formation and turnover of the oil film on the mirror of the cylinder, the thermal effect on it of the engine workflow. The result of simulation is the prediction of resource-saving operation of marine trunk diesel engines by maintaining oil fume at the optimal level.

Intelligent process-aware information systems to support agility in disaster relief operations: a survey of emerging approaches

Agility is a key characteristic in disaster relief operations. Intelligent process-aware information systems (IPAISs) can support agility in disaster relief operations through providing information and process reach and richness to manage dynamic inter-operations. In this research, based on relevant reference architectures, a conceptual overview of an IPAIS to support agility in disaster relief operations is described. This conceptual overview includes the dynamic partnering, the collaborative process composition, the collaborative ontology management, the global workflow engine, the run-time coordination, the dynamic rule management, the run-time process proposer, and the dynamic interoperability adaptor components. Based on this conceptual overview, a systematic literature review is conducted to explore emerging approaches that can be applied to realise intelligent process-centred collaborative inter-operations to respond disasters. The findings of the conducted review show the applicability of the emerging multi-agent service-oriented modelling and analysis approaches, optimal control theory based methodologies, social network analysis techniques, data-driven inductive methods, resilient-centred approaches for robustness and agility, self-organisation mechanisms based on cyber physical systems and systems of systems perspectives, simulation methods, and trust management procedures to support the realisation of the components of an IPAIS in the context of disaster relief operations.