DevOps represent the tight connection between development and operations. To address challenges that arise on the borderline between development and operations, we conducted a study in collaboration with a Swedish company responsible for ticket management and sales in public transportation. The aim of our study was to explore and describe the existing DevOps environment, as well as to identify how the feedback from operations can be improved, specifically with respect to the alerts sent from system operations. Our study complies with the basic principles of the design science paradigm, such as understanding and improving design solutions in the specific areas of practice. Our diagnosis, based on qualitative data collected through interviews and observations, shows that alert flooding is a challenge in the feedback loop, i.e. too much signals from operations create noise in the feedback loop. Therefore, we design a solution to improve the alert management by optimizing when to raise alerts and accordingly introducing a new element in the feedback loop, a smart filter. Moreover, we implemented a prototype of the proposed solution design and showed that a tighter relation between operations and development can be achieved, using a hybrid method which combines rule-based and unsupervised machine learning for operations data analysis.

Engineering distributed control systems is a complex task, where the complexity and, thus, costs of the software development are growing rapidly. To keep the software complexity at an acceptable level and save time for development and subsequent maintenance, new solutions are sorely needed. In this paper, we investigate the advantages of using skills - universal control device interfaces - for generating complex logic in distributed control environments. By enriching a skill interface with the information about the dynamic behavior of a component under control, we compose the functionalities of individual control devices. The logic, required for such composition, is automatically derived from the interface description and the production plan, identifying the required skill sequence. The evaluation, executed using two industrial demonstrators, shows that the approach successfully handles different behavioral models and is capable of generating fault-tolerant orchestrators, including error handling scenarios. Overall, for developing a complex logic in a distributed skill-based automation system, the proposed approach shows significant savings in development time allowing to automate the skill composition task.

The fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) anticipates unplanned changes of production processes. Production changes may trigger synthesis, and preferably optimization, of architecture-level decisions, such as service deployment and composition. Performing such architecture-level decisions manually is difficult due to the ever-rising complexity of Industry 4.0 systems. In order to (semi-)automate the architecture synthesis and optimization, we propose an approach of service deployment and composition by using existing domain models. Our contribution is threefold: (1) We suggest a workflow with domain models for architecture synthesis in the industrial automation. (2) We display the formalization on a part of the workflow and provide an initial prototype of service deployment synthesis using a satisfiability modulo theories (SMT) solver. (3) We envision a way of service composition and code generation, and prototypically implemented it as conclusion of the suggested workflow. We demonstrate the practical use of the proposed approach in the Industry 4.0 scenario, i.e., flexible production of new products.

An asset administration shell (AAS), as a key concept of Industry 4.0 (I4.0), provides a machine-accessible interface to any kind of asset. To enable interoperability and smooth integration of the devices into the I4.0 middleware, an application implementing the device's functionality should be able to interact with different AASs. In this work, we investigate the integration of the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) runtime systems into the I4.0 middleware. For doing this, we specify the function blocks (FBs) for connecting the PLCs with AASs and other I4.0 components, such as registry and discovery server. We analyze the requirements of such FBs while focusing on REST/HTTP- and OPC UA-based AASs, and provide interface specification for IEC 61499- and IEC 61131-3-based FBs. Furthermore, we implemented an FB library that enables communication with an AAS from the respective control applications. Those FBs allow accessing properties and invoking operations of remote AASs, as well as hosting AASs submodels. Common functionalities, such as registering the runtime system at the registry component, or finding AASs, are also supported. The results obtained in this paper will ease interaction with the complex AAS structure from the low-level devices.

School of Energy Systems, Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology, Lappeenranta, Finland, Department of Communications, University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil, Department of Electronic Systems, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark, School of Computing, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom, School of Public Health and Health Systems, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada, Department of Computer Science, Federal University of Lavras, Lavras, Brazil, Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, Department of Computer Science, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland, College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, United States

Abstract Oocyte/embryo in vitro culture is one of the most important assisted reproductive technologies used as a tool for maintaining genetic resources biodiversity and the inheritance of valuable genetic resources through generations. The success of such processes affects the final goal of the in vitro culture, getting viable and healthy offspring. In common in vitro oocyte maturation and/or embryo development techniques, the development of oocytes/embryos is carried out at 5% carbon dioxide and roughly 20% atmosphere-borne oxygen ratios in cell culture incubators due to their reduced cost in comparison with low atmospheric oxygen-tension incubators. These conditions are usually accompanied by the emergence of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which can extremely damage cell membrane integrity and other vital cellular organelles, as well as genetic material. The present review mainly focuses on the antioxidant roles of different vitamins on in vitro oocyte maturation competence and embryo development in farm animals. The use of antioxidant agents may prevent the extreme augmentation of ROS generation and enhance in vitro matured oocyte competence and embryo development. Therefore, this review aimed to provide an updated outline of the impact of antioxidant vitamin (Vit) supplementations during in vitro maturation (IVM) and in vitro fertilization (IVF) on oocyte maturation and consequent embryo development, in various domestic animal species. Thus, the enrichment of the culture media with antioxidant agents may prevent and neutralize the extreme augmentation of ROS generation and enhance the in vitro embryo production (IVEP) outcomes.

Environmental threats increasingly entail important risks from government responses. In considering the risks of a new vector-borne disease, for example, decision-makers must also grapple with potential risks from responses such as the aerial spraying of pesticides. In communicating about these complex risks, public officials often choose different “frames” that promote different conceptualizations of the issue. Yet prior research has paid limited attention to how public officials frame the related risks of the environmental threat and the public response. This paper starts to fill that gap by conducting a content analysis of statements by public officials regarding risks from the threat of a local outbreak of the Zika virus in South Florida in 2016, as well as risks from the response of aerial pesticide spraying. Based on limited prior research, we hypothesize that public officials are likely to have adopted a “risk maximization” frame that stressed the high risks from exposure to Zika, but a “risk trade-off” frame when discussing aerial spraying. In actuality, we find that officials strongly favored a “reassurance” frame that downplayed both types of risks. Based on this analysis, we suggest framing strategies for disease outbreaks and other threats with potentially risky government responses may vary significantly depending on local contexts and that the South Florida experience was a missed opportunity to test the strategy of trade-off framing.

Knowledge building is a social process that is driven by the willingness of people to share their expertise and create new knowledge. Scientific Communities of Practice (CoPs) are communities of professors and researchers whose aim is to foster scientific knowledge generation. In the KM literature, research concerning this kind of CoPs has been substantially neglected so far. The present research analyses the case study of the International Association for Knowledge Management (IAKM) seen as a scientific CoP where members are mostly academics with research interests in developing and promoting knowledge management. Based on a collection of quantitative and qualitative data about member collaborations and scientific production, the study investigates the structure of interactions and the collaborative processes of IAKM members and the specific mechanisms of knowledge building within this CoP, seen as a paradigmatic example of scientific community. Members were asked to respond to a survey regarding their collaborative activities carried out with other IAKM members in the period of 2011 – 2020. The descriptive analysis revealed the kind of collaborations, the distribution of interactions across the community, and the dynamic patterns over time. A follow-up social network analysis was used to provide deeper insight into the community structure and dynamics. The research found that a CoP can really be useful for progress in a scientific field because it can provide a platform for trust and mutual acquaintance that reduces barriers to collaboration and knowledge building across different universities, professional roles, countries, and cultures, which is increasingly important for the progress of science. Most importantly, IAKM exhibited a cohesive and active core membership with pivotal roles played by a number of active members, which contributed significantly to the growth of the Association and, in general, to the advancements in the field of KM through collaborative knowledge building.

Europe is one of the leading tourist destinations where tourism is one of the key economic sectors. The quality of bathing waters is a very important factor when choosing a vacation destination. Croatia recognized this early and was one of the first Mediterranean countries to start systematic monitoring of bathing waters. On the other hand, monitoring of inland bathing waters is relatively new and includes a much smaller number of sites (41) compared to coastal waters (894). The aim of this paper was to summarize and analyze the water quality of inland and coastal bathing sites of Croatia, closer regions (non-EU Member States) and in the EU for the last decade. The share of excellent water quality in EU Member States increased by 10.1% and 6.6% for inland and coastal waters, respectively (2011–2020). Germany recorded the highest proportion of excellent water quality for inland waters (92.2%) and Cyprus for coastal waters (99.3%). Looking at the 10-year average of the proportion of bathing waters with excellent quality, the proportion of coastal bathing sites exceeds that of inland waters by 7.1%. It is clear that additional efforts should be made to improve the management and monitoring of inland waters.