International Society for the Systems Sciences: Journals ISSS
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RADIO-HELP AS A SMART EARLY WARNING AND NOTIFICATION SYSTEM
No full textCrises can occur on any day in our lives. Contemporary society is increasingly exposed to a multitude of situations where it is required to reconcile the diverse information needs of differing groups of people in different places. The consequential level of economic and human loss depends on timely and relevant information distribution together with appropriate guidance to actual and potential victims. The sharing, distribution and dissemination of adequate information in special and unexpected situations is one of the crucial roles of any governmental level. Unfortunately this role is not always fulfilled correctly. The current emergency and communication systems, controlled mostly by governmental agencies, are currently unable to satisfy the existing information needs of individuals as well as distributing the required information only to affected areas. Critical deficiencies of current warning system are highlighted in the paper, including failure of information channels during electrical black-outs and absence of positional based broadcasting. The article describes Radio-Help as a possible solution based on the integration and exploitation of existing ICT. The special broadcasting sender transmits in HD-Radio or DRM mode data and voice to Personal Communication Terminals (PCT) that are, for the most part, already integrated within mobile phones. The role of PCT is compared with that of position codes in digital broadcasting. Matching of internal and received codes activates radio reception in the target location. The Radio-Help receivers could be realized as an integral part of any audio/video devices. This paper outlines systemic approach to alternatives based on the integration and application of Radio-Help system with respect to real problems using examples in transport and electricity distribution
The Intrinsic Nature of Emergence
No full textGeorge Henry Lewes introduced anthropomorphism into the emergence literature. This opened the way for attempts to define emergence with factors that are not relevant to its intrinsic nature. In this paper, the general context of emergence in the universe is presented, mainly in terms of general systems understanding. This is followed by a descriptive definition of the intrinsic nature of emergence, and a discussion of how the process of emergence changes due to the roles of various factors. Material-reality is composed of elementary particles organized into seemingly endless patterns-of-organization of material structure and process. The difference between the smaller or the simpler patterns and the larger or the more complex patterns is the quantity of elementary particles and the patterns-of-organization of those particles. Reality is that which exists. There is but one reality—all that exists. Reality develops, that is, everything that exists takes part in one way or another in a universally omnipresent transition, a sequential-difference from one time, place, part, pattern, level, condition, or situation to another involving some form of enhancement. Emergence is a type of development. Emergence is a general-factor, a process-pattern-of-organization that plays a universal role in the coming into existence of new pattern-of-material-organization as a consequence of motion. Emergence itself develops, occurring in simple form in situations where few factors are playing roles, and in more complex form in situations where more factors are playing roles. Some additional factors that result in the foundational developments of emergence are combinatorial-enhancement, contact, causal push, throughflow wherein the flow of energy reorganizes matter and blocking matter reorganizes the flow of energy, and coherent bonding of one part of matter with another. Emergence is intrinsically determinate in that, in the process of emergence, the existence and intrinsic qualities of what goes before determine the existence and intrinsic qualities of what follows. Both complexity and the hierarchic organization of material-reality are consequences of emergence
REGIONAL DISASTERS AND SYSTEMIC REACTIONS
No full textToday’s catastrophes (many of them man-made or at least triggered by human activity) seemingly endanger an increasing number of humans and a spreading portion of land in numerous different ways, calling for more attention concerning appropriate reactions. We will discuss the basic question of what constitutes a ’disaster’. Consequently various alternatives are considered as to reacting in view of a "disaster" (Flight/run away, Fight/intervene, Freeze, Submit/sustain/endure, Ignore/deny). Taking a closer look at interventions as the classical reaction, we distinguish between different points of view: systemic (a system leaving its domain of dependability), process-oriented (a system of interlinked process steps), human (communication, psychology, and mental health of intervention personell and victims), and multicultural (problems of communication, trust, and habits)
SUMMARY OF THE FOURTH ANNUAL WORKSHOP - SERVICE SYSTEMS SCIENCE
No full textFrom March 6 through March 8, 2011, Kyoichi Kijima, Ph.D., Professor of Decision Systems Science, hosted the Fourth Annual Workshop and Open Symposium on Service Systems Science, sponsored by Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society (RISTEX), Japan Science and Technology (JST), at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. The purpose of the workshop and symposium was to bring together leading researchers, educators, and practitioners from North America, Europe, Asia, and Japan to share experiences and exchange expertise related to service science, management, and engineering (SSME). Through participation in the workshop, these leaders clarified important concepts, practices, and challenges in a collaborative venue using a systems science perspective. At the open symposium, distinguished speakers shared their experience from the frontiers of the field and their visions for the future of service systems science. The three days concluded with a panel discussion about state-of-the art approaches to advance the field of service systems science. This paper presents a summary of the workshop proceedings and shares ideas about next steps in the development of the field of service systems science
SYSTEMIC VISION TOWARD THE STUDIES OF WU-LI SHI-LI REN-LI SYSTEM APPROACH
No full textSince the Wu-li Shi-li Ren-li system approach proposed by Jifa Gu and Zhichang Zhu at the University of Hull in November of 1994, the studies on WSR system approach undergo continual development. As an oriental system approach, WSR is mainly based on systems practice in China. With a collection of literatures relevant to WSR system approach, we apply the iView, a supporting technology toward qualitative meta-synthesis, to those literatures to show a systemic vision towards the studies on WSR system approach. The scopes, especially the practical areas are detected. Moreover, the main themes and expansions of topics are detected at different periods. The results are based on computing and visualized for better understanding and exploratory analysis. Such a study not only shows the development of WSR studies, but also exhibits that the iView analysis is an effective technology to support such kind of qualitative study
A Theory of Smart Cities
No full textWe entered the 21st century with a strong, global trend to increasing concentration of the population in relatively few, large cities. Large, dense cities can be highly productive, innovative, and per capita very green and hence desirable for our future. However the rapid influx of new citizens presents overwhelming challenges to their governments. Along with the positive benefits that accumulate from dense, diverse cities come in equal measure the negative aspects such as informal development, traffic congestion, waste management, and access to resources and crime. The demand for services is immediate, but the tax revenues to fund them come later. At the same time, globalization has connected cities on opposite sides of the planet in forms of competition previously unknown – for capital, for resources, and for the Creative Class. These challenges lead to experiments with new approaches to the planning, design, finance, construction, governance, and operation of urban infrastructure and services that are broadly called Smart Cities. Some of these approaches are related to emerging roles of information technology.
A new professional community – the Urban Systems Collaborative – has formed to foster mutual learning among members of the architecture, planning, engineering, transportation, utilities, information technology, operations research, social sciences, geography and environmental science, public finance and policy, and communications profession. One of its hypotheses is a new theory of cities that makes use of new, rich sources of information about what is going on in the city. Among other things, it seeks to understand the impact that information technology can have on the urban fabric and norms of behaviour.
Systems Science, in particular work on systems of systems and scaling laws, has provided new observations of urban systems at a macro-level. The Smart City provides new instrumentation that enables observation of urban systems at a micro-level.
This paper describes steps towards a model that can unify the perspectives of the professions in the Urban Systems Collaborative. It begins with examples of Smart Cities and why this movement is so active. It describes how information technology plays roles in shaping new norms of behaviour intended to facilitate the continuing growth of dense populations. It then explains a key hypothesis of the Urban Systems Collaborative that the increasing accessibility of information will enable us to develop Urban Systems models that are capable of helping citizens, entrepreneurs, civic organizations, and governments to see more deeply into how their cities work, how people use the city, how they feel about it, where the city faces problems, and what kinds of remediation can be applied
Method for visualizing risk factors of system failures and its application to ICT systems
No full textThis paper proposes a method for visualizing risk factors of system failures. This method enables us to visualize risk factors and monitor them over time and compare them among systems. This is valuable for promoting system safety and reliability. First we introduce a methodology of holistically defining system failure then introduce our method for quantifying the risk factors of system failures with an interaction and coupling (IC) chart using normal accident theory (Perrow, 1999). Defining system failure is done using system of system failure (SOSF) (Nakamura and Kijima, 2007, 2008b, 2009a) with a meta-system frame called system of system methodology (SOSM) (Jackson, 2003, 2006). System of system failure enables us to understand system failure holistically. The IC chart is used to classify object systems – nuclear power plants, chemical plants, aircraft and air traffic control, ships, dams, nuclear weapons, space missions, and genetic engineering- using interaction (i.e. linear and complex) and coupling (i.e. tight and loose) between the components that constitute such systems. The IC chart (Perrow, 1999) is limited by the subjectivity in classifying target systems. We propose a method for quantitatively measuring risk factors (i.e. objective) from incidents that have occurred over time to complement the current IC chart shortcoming (i.e. subjective). This enables us to understand system features and the effectiveness of countermeasures quantitatively introduced to object systems. There have been several findings with this methodology. It enables us to quantify the risk factors in terms of the IC chart. Stock exchange, meteorological, and healthcare systems are located sequentially from linear to complex interaction and tight to loose coupling. Intel Architecture (IA) servers’ quality control measures (i.e. educating engineers for becoming hybrid engineers and altering server design goal) cause a shift in the linear interaction and tight coupling directions with less incident rates. Healthcare systems are migrating toward the complex interaction and loose coupling direction with deteriorating system quality. The Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) policy in the healthcare sector is one of the reasons for this migration. Application examples in information and communication technologies (ICT) engineering demonstrated that using the proposed method to quantitatively monitor risk factors will help improve safety and quality of various object systems
A Systemic Review of Open Access in Systems Engineering Research
No full textThe Open Access Movement is promising to grant universal unrestricted access to the knowledge and data outputs of publicly funded research.However, a systematic review of publicly funded projects in the systems engineering domain reveals such policy has had limited uptake. This paper presents the rationale methodology and preliminary results for this research
The General Theory of Metadynamics Systemicity
No full textABSTRACT Ever since 1996, J.-J. Blanc, the author of this theory, made an extensive research on "Systems science" that induced to his developing a new systemic paradigm in terms of a transdisciplinary approach to "Living systems" that he named “The Bioethism” (see note ). The transdisciplinary approach is meant to support the acquisition of a large understanding of living systems' origin, of their natural structure and their adaptive behaviors. Their specific bonds and traits, as well as their evolution trends, while permanently interacting with environmental events for survival , require actions-reactions from ago-antagonistic signals and stimuli. Endogenous within their body milieu and exogenous, these signals and stimuli are adapting with conditions of ecosystemic and sociosystemic environments. Thereby, living beings are closely linked with and affected by - a) Cosmo-planetary and terrestrial meta-dynamic forces, - b) early Earth metadynamics conditions for Life to have happened - c) the specific biological individualities and social traits and statuses accounting for the biodiversity of species to thrive and/or to get extinct – d) behavioral and evolutionary trends emerging from the systemicity of biological metadynamics sets. For example the drastic extinction of species, except some bacteria, when the Earth became a "snowball" from a nearly total glaciation (-600 Mo/y) and, on the contrary, an extraordinary explosion of marine species bearing new functions (- 545Mo/y) after the planet reheating. At this point of publications, this theory work has required several communications and a few more are expected to come. The “General Theory of Systemicity”, here “fourth part” describes largely the metadynamics systemicity at the origin of Earth and the “hatch” of Life with a progressive apparition of living organisms (pre-viruses…) capable to reproduce, to survive and evolve. This large transdisciplinary work describes the fluxes and moves that structure the complexity of the Universe, the Cosmo-planetary, terrestrial and biological metadynamics that are part of the universal atomic and molecular systemic cycles. For billions of years, fluxes and moves of the universal matter and forces participated in building up stellar systems, the Sun system, and the planet Earth on which a flourishing phenomenon called Life found an adaptable sustainability. Sets of meta-drivers, their systemicity with synergetic moves are sustaining a large number of cycles (water, rocks...) and are permanently adapting, changing environmental events, which occurrence values have to be observed in the short and long term. This 2011 communication stands for a large description of the "Early Earth and the origin of Life’s meta-dynamics systemicity". It also stresses the observation of both the “molecule cycle” and the “universality of metabolism”. In the conclusion, it assumes the fundamental objectivity, evidence and realism of a "General Theory of metadynamics Systemicity"