International Society for the Systems Sciences: Journals ISSS
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Yin/Yang Cancer Treatment System:A Fundamental Shift in Cancer Management
No full textABSTRACT Better cancer screening and advances in various treatments have increased the survival rate of the majority of cancer patients to over five years. The purpose of this case study is to demonstrate that with a restructured and balanced Yin/Yang management system, the survival rate of a male patient with bone metastatic prostate cancer can potentially exceed 15 years. The fundamental shift in cancer management begins from ground zero at the initial diagnosis to create a balanced integration of western and eastern healing modalities This 15-year case study uses Nobel laureate Dr. Daniel Kahneman’s “System 1 and System 2” decision making process. (Thinking, Fast and Slow, Doubleday, Canada, 2011). These 2 systems of thinking can be useful in adjusting physician’s orders to “best fit” patients’ needs. The goal is to select the most effective cancer management for the patient in an optimal supportive environment. The focus becomes the patient as a client participant. The method for treating cancer successfully requires proactive rules of behavior at home, at clinics and in hospitals. The functional framework for treating cancer successfully requires adopting roles of behavior for the patient as a proactive client, the physician as an effective communicator and administrator of treatments, and for the family, friends and other patients as a socio-emotive support group. The effectiveness of a Yin/Yang system recommends the participation of all practitioners in client advocacy workshop run by holistically trained persons such as a cancer nurse, or a case management technician. A complex array of Yin and Yang treatments can include CBD (Cannabidiol), DCT (Dendritic Cell Therapy), hormones, hyperthermia, meditation, IV infusions, nutrition, surgery, proton radiation, photon radiation (X-Ray), green tea (Gyokuro, Matcha, Sencha), Ginger, Turmeric, CQ10, and many other ingredients that are considered in a balanced use of Allopathic and Complementary treatments. All treatment data must be stored and organized as a computer application that is “designed” for the patient/client. The Yin/Yang system can also assure that the patient’s financial considerations do not add additional stress while receiving treatments both locally and internationally. Advocacy must be balanced using a harmonious and symbiotic mix of western and eastern medicine, using traditional and complementary treatment integration. A psychological perspective enhanced the application of the Yin/Yang system for treating cancer and was based on a 15-year case study. The criterion validity of this case study was established by examining the relationship between various traditional-complementary treatment modalities and their outcome as measured by blood tests, PSA levels, Testosterone levels, immunoglobulin changes and other bio-markers such as repeated MRI images and limited use of CT scanning and X-rays. Reliability has been established by repeated measurements. The results of this case study show that the patient as a participating client has improved self-confidence, assertiveness and spirituality that resulted in an improved cancer prognosis. The Yin/Yang treatment model worked to effectively arrest cancer growth. The allopathic physicians accepted the changes in the treatment protocol initiated by the proactive advocacy of the patient
Educating and Empowering Children for Governing the Anthropocene: A Case Study of Children’s Homes in Sri Lanka
No full textEducating children and young people on how to care for the environment is the focus of this paper. Today's children will encounter the adverse effects of global population growth and subsequent pollution by adults at the expense of the environment. Thus it is important to draw children's attention to carbon footprints and climatic changes. Through participation they will have opportunities to learn more about the implications of the way we choose to live our lives in the short, medium and long terms. Children learn about their rights and responsibilities by being given the opportunity to express their ideas and to translate policy into practice through small scale interventions that make a difference to this generation and succeeding ones. Such interventions can include lessons on recycling, use and re-use of resources, composting, organic and ethical farming, water and energy conservation techniques and much more. The essence of this paper has been extracted from my Participatory Action Research (PAR) on the life chances of children and young people in institutional care in Sri Lanka. This PAR largely employs qualitative investigations to manipulate the information collected during the study in order to assess and evaluate the findings. During the PAR, it was identified that some children's homes have initiated a few enhanced ecosystem governance practices that redress problems associated with the worst aspects of industrialisation. These practices promote the harmonious coexistence of humanity and nature and have adopted the concerns of critical systemic thinking with consequent improvement of human well-being and ecosystem health. The potential of these homes to provide education for these vulnerable children by improving their ability to deliver stewardship responsibilities towards the environment should never be underestimated
Toward the definition of the local development system in tourism
No full textAbstrac The local development is an interpretive concept, which is generated by the definition that individuals and groups make on it. However, in general it helps to reduce poverty by expanding the people's capacity to generate productive activities that have an impact on the social and individual wellbeing. Tourism is a relevant activity for this type of development, because it allows either people or communities to interact with other actors in order to get bases to support its own development and the development of the environment. This function begins with understanding the use of the livelihood means and the relationship among the different environments that make up the local development. In this study a theoretical proposal is presented about local development through the systemic view in order to generate new ideas that support the local development of communities through tourism activity in Mexico
Self-governance and symbiosis: a systemic approach to Socio Ecological Systems resilience
No full textSeveral approaches understand resilience as a systemic attribute that emerges in the relationship between the system and its niche or environment; it is distinguished by an observer as a system's capability to persist or to maintain its intern change dynamics in consideration with (in some cases, despite of) environmental change dynamics. Described this way, resilience is an attribute related with viability, which implies considering aspects such as adaptability and transformability. Throughout this document we argue that it may be desirable to take into account a more holistic and complex way to approach resilience in Socio Ecological Systems - SES. Looking for a deep understanding of change dynamics in SES and what it may be a desirable change path for human societies, the aim of the paper is to introduce the symbiotic metaphor as a way to describe and understand relationships between human and ecological systems. We also argue that this approach brings up useful implications for self-organisation at various levels of systemic aggregation in human systems. Along the document we build a statement for changing resilience and governance analysis in terms of intern and environmental change dynamics, in such a way that change and self-organisation considerations are structured around relationship dynamics. The paper concludes showing how this approach has been useful for understanding dynamics of two different SES in the Colombian Andean Eco Region and discusses the implications we may draw for future research
Transnational Knowledge: Its Creation and Distribution Exploiting Entrepreneurship and Organisational Behaviour
No full textHow can knowledge be created (incentivised) and distributed (shared socially) when it is what economists define as a public good - it is very expensive to produce, its use by any one person leaves no less for anyone else and it is generally difficult to sustain property rights over? In economic terms the marginal cost of distributing knowledge is zero and as marginal cost should equal price for optimality, price should be zero. Clearly if the price were zero there will be no incentive for anyone to produce it. So what is to be done? 
Systems Thinking and Wildland Fire Management
No full textA changing climate, changing development and land use patterns, and increasing pressures on ecosystem services raise global concerns over growing losses associated with wildland fires. New management paradigms acknowledge that fire is inevitable and often uncontrollable, and focus on living with fire rather than attempting to eliminate it from the landscape. A notable example from the U.S. is the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy, which aims to bring multiple agencies, landowners and stakeholders together to achieve three broadly defined goals: resilient landscapes, fire-adapted human communities, and safe and effective response to fire. Implicit in the structure of these three goals is the nexus of three systems: the ecological system, the social system, and the fire management system, respectively. This systems-based structure reflects a perspective that contextualizes fire as a disturbance process that influences and is in turn influenced by other agents and processes within a broader socio-ecological system. While the need for transformative system change is well-recognized, at least three central challenges remain: (1) the need for more parties to accept that how fires are managed is in many instances the limiting factor of system behaviour; (2) the need to improve our understanding of the characteristics and complexities of the fire management system itself; and (3) perhaps most fundamentally, the need to coherently apply systems analysis principles in order to improve system performance. In this paper we attempt to bridge these gaps by applying systems thinking to contemporary wildfire management issues in the U.S. We review in more detail what we mean when we say fire management system, describe observed system behaviours and patterns, and begin to unravel factors that may influence behaviour. We synthesize findings from various lines of fire-related research and identify how collectively they reflect systemic flaws stemming from feedbacks, delays, bounded rationality, misaligned incentives, and other factors. These flaws are manifest in what is known as the “fire paradox,” whereby a legacy of fire exclusion in fire-prone forests has led to hazardous accumulations of flammable vegetation such that future fires burn with higher intensity and are more resistant to control; today’s “success” begets tomorrow’s failure. To conclude we offer some ideas for next steps and system redesign to better align behaviour with purpose, largely borrowing from risk and decision analysis. Our primary objective is to sufficiently frame and gain agreement on what we view as essentially a systemic problem
TPO Theory, Boulding's Typology, and the Display/Pickup Poster
No full textTPO Theory, Boulding's Typology, and the Display/Pickup Poster Sue Gabriele [email protected] TPO Theory classifies three parts of a social system, such as a school district, by their very different behavioral laws. Boulding’s Nine-Level Typology of System Complexity underpins TPO Theory and also clarifies how the nine levels cluster into the three distinct natures. Boulding’s Levels 1- 3 systems—frameworks, clockworks, and control systems (thermostat)—are Things (T), which can be predicted and/or regulated to exteriorly prescribed criteria. Levels 4 – 7 are organisms, which are self-regulating and behave according to interiorly prescribed criteria, especially sophisticated in Level 7, people (P). Levels 8 – 9, social and transcendent systems, have transient boundaries (illustrated by dashed lines). In contrast to Levels 8 and 9, Levels 4 -7 boundaries are fixed (marked by solid lines). Thus, Level 7 individual human needs are mandatory; Level 8 organization needs are optional. People can leave their level 8 systems (their schools or workplaces); they cannot leave their Level 7 systems (their physical bodies). It follows that individual goals are primary; organization goals are secondary. The great distinction between Levels 3 and 4 is a great shift in cause or agency. People are agents of their own learning -- agency represented by the color yellow. Thus, it is more accurate to describe the classroom instructional process as display/pickup: Teachers display subject matter; learners acquire it by pickup. Not only does pickup depend on each individual learner, rather than the teacher. But each learner has increasing variability in needs (Level 4), abilities (Level 5), perceptions (Level 6), and choices (Level 7). A close up on people (P) allows identification of four main pickup points for learning (pickup illustrated by graspers, rather than arrows). The four areas are people’s [1] eyes, [2] ears, [3] hands (and body), as well as [4] their own reflection on observed and intended outcomes. Such a close up also allows identification of four main output points for behavior, performance and creativity (arrows) – people’s [1] mouths, [2] hands, [3] feet (and body), as well as [4] their creating or participating in the creation of their input, subject matter, and tasks (T). Outcomes are even more unpredictable. People’s learning and performance are unpredictable and also infinitely variable (multiple colors) in O. Moreover, if a Level 8 system is not meeting an individual’s Level 7 goals, it is natural (and perhaps even healthy) that the individual Level 7 system will ignore Level 8 goals and use his/her energy for Level 7 goals. Finally, all people are learners, even leaders. In a nutshell, TPO theory proposes that, for best outcomes (O), Things (T) are to be carefully designed/displayed (input carefully turned from pointed arrows to rounded arrows) to optimize pickup by People (P) who learn and behave each according to their own interiorly prescribed criteria, each at their own pace, according to their own purposes.  
A Systemic Model for Communication Innovation
No full textA Systemic Model for a telecommunications innovation system was designed with the proposal for technological development, to avoid situations that endanger the cancellation, by the International Union of Communications of the satellite orbits assigned to Mexico, and thus promote public and private investment through the integration of basic and applied scientific research in enterprises. The idea is to make appropriate innovations and make significant improvements to products, thus meeting the demands of domestic and international consumers
Typology of Social Actions based on the Living Systems Theory
No full textIt is impossible to make progress in social theory without inquiring about social actions; therefore, many leading sociologists refer to this notion in their work. Max Weber, Talcott Parsons and many other sociologists attempted to ground not only their works but also the science of sociology as a whole on a theory of social actions. Max Weber defined sociology as "the science which attempts the interpretative understanding of social action in order thereby to arrive at a casual explanation of its course and effects". Moreover, he explicitly singled out social action as the “central subject matter” of his sociology. Hence, comprehensive typology of social actions can be very helpful in sociological analysis. Usually, social actions are classified by actors’ intentions. In this paper, types of social actions are categorized both by actors’ intentions and by the actions’ results, including both the intentional and unintentional outcomes. This was achieved through consideration of the social actions in the framework of J.G. Miller’s living systems theory. This theory regards each living system as composed of 20 subsystems that process information and matter/energy inside the living system and between the living system and its environment. These 20 subsystems are considered at eight levels: cell, organ, organism, group, organization, community, society and supranational systems. The first three constitute the level of biological living systems; the other five comprise the level of social living systems. Social actions are interactions among living systems or among different parts of one living system at the social level. The proposed typology of social actions is based on analysis of developmental, reproductive and interactional processes in the social systems. In order to live and function, living systems must allow their matter/energy-processing subsystems to work, so all social actions in social living systems can be associated with the functioning of these subsystems. Seemingly, the number of goals for social actions as well as the number of their outcomes is very high, however, by relating principal intention and main outcome of the considered social action to specific matter/energy-processing subsystems, their number can be significantly reduced. This is done by determining the main subsystem that was intended to be affected by the planned social action, and the main subsystem that was actually impacted by it. In many cases, it is the same subsystem; that is, the intention coincides with the consequence. As a result of this analysis, the two-dimensional matrix of types of social actions was constructed, and the methodology of assigning any social action to a specific cell in the typological matrix was proposed. Every social action in this typology is designated by the names of the pair of the involved subsystems; if they coincide, the type is labeled by the name of one subsystem. Obviously, as in any classification, there also exists an element of arbitrariness in the relating of the social action to its type. More detailed typology of social actions on the basis of the living systems theory can be developed by including in the analysis the information-processing subsystems.
Designing an Accessible Tourism Destination: The Soft System Methodology and the Triple Helix as a Theoretical and Practical Proposal
No full text Accesible tourism has its origin in the 90´s, at the beginning it was proposed as part of the Social Tourism or Tourism for All programs that had their basis in the human rights. Later, with the changes in the paradigms about people with disabilities accessible tourism has not only become a matter of human rights but also an opportunity to develop business that satisfy a growing population of people with disabilities and older people that acquires one or more types of disabilities.Demographic factors such as the increasing in life expectancy, better health care and retirement of people increase the needs of designing and building products and services that satisfy this demand. The Soft System Methodology, developed by Peter Checkland consider social factors and complex relations in tourism, its 7 phases allow the researcher to compare and simulate different scenarios that brings to the most viable practice, it brings an approximation to a model of accessible tourism, gathering elements such as research, infrastructure needs, human resources and labour market, communications, signalling, and other things that should be considered in a competitive destination.The Triple Helix, as a theoretical and practical model allow the three main sectors, Academy, Government and Industry to join efforts to strengthen the tourism industry. The Triple Helix from Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff show that innovation can have its origins in the academy, considering that knowledge is the most valuable element nowadays in the innovation policies around the word.The Triple Helix propose that academy should work with the research and design of products and services, the government, as the policy maker should provide elements that enable academy and the industry to work together in the incorporation of research, development of products and services and funding projects.This model, designed from the Soft System Methodology considering the Triple Helix as the basis of the tourism offer propose a better way of building policies, products and services for people with disabilities and senior adults, making more competitive the destinations and it can be considered not only for this population, research has shown that accessible destinations are conceived as better places for all people because its conditions allow tourists to walk along, drive, take a bus in an easier way.