The 1+5 Architectural Views Model in Designing Blockchain and IT System Integration Solutions

Service fulfillment for clients increasingly involves cooperation between information technology (IT) systems. Designing such solutions requires an architectural approach that ensures symmetry between the communicating parties. For the design of such systems, the author introduces the 1+5 architectural views model. The model contains three new architectural views. For business process modeling, it ensures the integrated processes view. Integration aspects cover two additional views: integrated services, and contracts. Moreover, new stereotypes and tagged values have been added to the unified modeling language (UML). The author has introduced two profiles: UML profile for integration flows, and UML profile for distributed ledger deployment. Communication between systems requires flows that arrange mediation mechanisms. The paper describes an integration flow diagram that extends a UML activity diagram. In the case of blockchain, the author has proposed the smart contract design pattern. The paper describes three case studies that have employed the model to design various solutions. The 1+5 model has proven to be well suited for designing both centralized integration environments with enterprise service bus (ESB) and distributed blockchain solutions with peer-to-peer (P2P) connections.

3D Automatic Segmentation of Aortic Computed Tomography Angiography Combining Multi-View 2D Convolutional Neural Networks

Purpose The quantitative analysis of contrast-enhanced Computed Tomography Angiography (CTA) is essential to assess aortic anatomy, identify pathologies, and perform preoperative planning in vascular surgery. To overcome the limitations given by manual and semi-automatic segmentation tools, we apply a deep learning-based pipeline to automatically segment the CTA scans of the aortic lumen, from the ascending aorta to the iliac arteries, accounting for 3D spatial coherence. Methods A first convolutional neural network (CNN) is used to coarsely segment and locate the aorta in the whole sub-sampled CTA volume, then three single-view CNNs are used to effectively segment the aortic lumen from axial, sagittal, and coronal planes under higher resolution. Finally, the predictions of the three orthogonal networks are integrated to obtain a segmentation with spatial coherence. Results The coarse segmentation performed to identify the aortic lumen achieved a Dice coefficient (DSC) of 0.92 ± 0.01. Single-view axial, sagittal, and coronal CNNs provided a DSC of 0.92 ± 0.02, 0.92 ± 0.04, and 0.91 ± 0.02, respectively. Multi-view integration provided a DSC of 0.93 ± 0.02 and an average surface distance of 0.80 ± 0.26 mm on a test set of 10 CTA scans. The generation of the ground truth dataset took about 150 h and the overall training process took 18 h. In prediction phase, the adopted pipeline takes around 25 ± 1 s to get the final segmentation. Conclusion The achieved results show that the proposed pipeline can effectively localize and segment the aortic lumen in subjects with aneurysm.

Approaches to Integration of Knowledge: A Study of Al-Ghazali And Alwani’s Views (Pendekatan ke Arah Mengintegrasikan Ilmu Pengetahuan: Satu Kajian terhadap Pandangan Al-Ghazali dan Alwani )

This research aims to study the approaches to integrating scientific and Islamic knowledge based on the views of two selected Muslim scholar, namely Al-Ghazali and Alwani. A considerable amount of research has been produced on knowledge integration, yet there is still a lack of study in exploring the ‘processes’ of integration. Hence, this research highlights this particular aspect from both traditional and contemporary perspectives. Qualitative in nature, the data for this work was collected from the writings of the selected scholars and analyzed in order to find out how the integration is achieved. As a result, this study finds out two distinctive approaches to integration: Firstly, in al-Ghazali’s view, integration is an external and complementary factor where Islamic knowledge and science maintain their own entity but the later complements the former as a supportive tool; secondly, Alwani sees the integration as an internal and essential matter where a knowledge evolves as a result of a mix of scientific reading of the Quranic texts as well as reading of the nature based on Quranic worldview. Keywords: Generic skills, Integration of Knowledge, Islamization of knowledge, Al-Ghazali, Alwani, Islamic Worldview. Abstrak Kajian ini bertujuan mengkaji pendekatan untuk mengintegrasikan ilmu Sains dan Islam berdasarkan pandangan dua cendiakawan Islam iaitu Al-Ghazali dan Alwani. Sejumlah besar kajian telah pun dilakukan namun masih terdapat kekurangan kajian dari aspek proses integrasi ilmu pengetahuan. Oleh itu kajian ini secara khususnya akan memaparkan proses tersebut berdasarkan perspektif tradisional dan kontemporari. Disebabkan bersifat kualitatif, data-data kajian ini diperolehi daripada penulisan-penulisan para cendiakawan yang terpilih yang kemudiannya akan dianalisa untuk mengetahui proses bagaimana integrasi dapat dicapai. Hasil kajian mendapati dua pendekatan untuk tujuan integrasi, yang pertama menurut pandangan al-Ghazali, integrasi merupakan faktor luaran dan pelengkap dimana ilmu pengetahuan Islam dan Sains mengekalkan entiti tersendiri, namun Sains merupakan penyokong kepada ilmu pengetahuan tersebut. Kedua, Alwani melihat integrasi sebagai faktor dalaman yang penting untuk perkembangan ilmu hasil daripada pembacaan saintifik teks-teks al-Quran dan alam menurut perspektif al-Quran. Kata Kunci: Kemahiran Generic, Pengintegrasian ilmu, Pengislaman ilmu, Al-Ghazali, Alwani, Pandang dunia menurut Islam.