Prologue: The Global Challenge Outlined: Representation Accountability and Sustainable Futures

This volume reflects on the program of research undertaken by members and associates of the International Sociological Association’s Joint Session of Research Committee 10 on Participation and Research Committee 51 on sociocybernetics and the graduates and contributors to the Flinders University research cluster on user centric design to enhance representation and accountability for a sustainable future.

Correction to: Knowledge Sharing: What Works and What Doesn’t Work: A Critical Systems Thinking Perspective

Systemic Practice and Action Research - The article missed to include the article Acknowledgment that should be written as follows.     

Technical Note ：SINGLE-PERIOD TWO-PRODUCT INVENTORY MODEL WITH SUBSTITUTION： SOLUTION AND PROPERTIES

In this paper, we study a single-period two-product inventory model with stochastic demands and downward substitution. The optimal order quantities are presented and some properties are provided. Comparing with newsboy model, we prove that both the profit and the fill rate can be improved by using the substitution policy. This work was supported partly by NSFC/RGC Joint Research Program under grant 79910161987 and the National Science Foundation of China (79825102, 70231010, 70321001). Lianqiao CAI is lecturer of School of International Business, Beijing Foreign Studies University. He received his B.S. and M.S. from School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, in 1995 and 1998, and Ph.D of Management Science from Tsinghua University in 2002. His research areas include supply chain management, optimization techniques. Jian Chen is Professor and Chairman of the Management Science Department and co-director of the Research Center for Contemporary Management, Tsinghua University. He has over 80 papers published in some leading international journals and first class Chinese journals, and has been a principal investigator for over 20 grants or research contracts with National Science Foundation of China, governmental organizations, and companies. His main research interests include supply chain management, E-commerce, modeling and control for complex systems, decision support systems and information systems, and forecast and optimization techniques. He serves as associate editor of the “IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics: Part A” and “IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics: Part C”, and on the Editorial Board of “The International Journal of Electronic Business” and “System Research and Behavioral Science”. He is the recipient of the Outstanding Contribution Award of IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society in 1996, and the Young Scientist Award of China in 1992. He was Secretary General of the 1996 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics in Beijing, Co-chair of the IPC of 1998 International Conference on Systems Science and Systems Engineering, Chair of the First Asian eBiz Workshop in 2001, Co-chair of the Asian eBiz Workshop in 2002 and 2003, and Co-chair of the international conference on Global Supply Chain Management in 2002. Houmin Yan received his B.S. and M.S. from the Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, in 1982 and 1985, respectively, and his Ph.D. from the Faculty of Management, University of Toronto in 1993. From Jan. 1994, he is with the Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management, the Chinese University of Hong Kong as an Assistance, Associate and Full Professor. He was a tenured Associate Professor at School of Management, the Univ. of Texas at Dallas. His main research areas are operations management, stochastic models, simulations, and supply chain management. He has published in journals such as Operations Research, Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, Journal of Optimization: Theory and Applications, IIE Transactions and IEEE Transactions. He consults several high-tech companies, such as Motorola, C&K Systems, and Oriental Power, on issues spanning from production planning and scheduling, supply chain management to business process re-engineering. He is a member of INFORMS.     

系统视角：经济文化一体化研究

世界范围内经济化一体化的发展势头愈来愈强劲。这是一种系统整体化趋势。它要求我们必须具备系统眼光，应用系统方法加以观察、研究。还探讨了经济化复合体这一系统综合性事物和经济化力这一种系统综合力，强调系统方法是把握经济化一体化与走向可持续发展的时代性方法。     

Interdisciplinarity: Potentials and Challenges

Interdisciplinarity, as a concept and practice, is reviewed and related to a recent article (Romm, 1998) in this journal. Authors advocating interdisciplinarity for social research and problem solving seem to have diverse, if often largely implicit, epistemological, and other assumptions informing their proposals. Romm (1998) develops and advocates a critical and reflexive orientation for tying interdisciplinarity to action research and related endeavors. For some academicians, however, interdisciplinarity appears to be considered a relatively unproblematic pursuit of merely selecting appropriate methods. Significant issues and questions concerning interdisciplinary pursuits, particularly in academic settings, exist and are briefly explored, based on the experiences and perceptions of the author. Basic structures and processes found in fields such as action research/science and management systems often seem neglected and very much needed for interdisciplinary inquiry and knowledge construction.     

Systemic therapy: An overview

An outline is given of the historical development of systems ideas within the field of therapy. A history of systemic therapy is provided, from the early days of the Mental Research Institute to recent influences upon therapeutic practice. Key applications of theory are described and current areas of debate are highlighted.     

Big Data: Unleashing information

At present,it is projected that about 4 zettabytes(or 10**21 bytes)of digital data are being generated per year by everything from underground physics experiments to retail transactions to security cameras to global positioning systems.In the U.S.,major research programs are being funded to deal with big data in all five sectors(i.e.,services,manufacturing,construction,agriculture and mining)of the economy.Big Data is a term applied to data sets whose size is beyond the ability of available tools to undertake their acquisition,access,analytics and/or application in a reasonable amount of time.Whereas Tien(2003)forewarned about the data rich,information poor(DRIP)problems that have been pervasive since the advent of large-scale data collections or warehouses,the DRIP conundrum has been somewhat mitigated by the Big Data approach which has unleashed information in a manner that can support informed-yet,not necessarily defensible or valid-decisions or choices.Thus,by somewhat overcoming data quality issues with data quantity,data access restrictions with on-demand cloud computing,causative analysis with correlative data analytics,and model-driven with evidence-driven applications,appropriate actions can be undertaken with the obtained information.New acquisition,access,analytics and application technologies are being developed to further Big Data as it is being employed to help resolve the 14 grand challenges(identified by the National Academy of Engineering in 2008),underpin the 10 breakthrough technologies(compiled by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2013)and support the Third Industrial Revolution of mass customization.     

Wholeness: Dimensions of Power

The development of a social systems model is traced from its beginnings in 1976. The initial concern was how to explain a dramatic increase in the performance of an organization. The conditions for this change could eventually be explained, and regularly reproduced, by employing the three relationships and phases of appreciation, influence, and control. The relationships can be used to develop power whose source is in purpose. Cases, procedures, and diagrams are reviewed that guide application of the model and point to its further elaboration.     

Earthdream: A critical interpretation

“The Earth is on the verge of destruction” has become a common cry nowadays. This cry embodies “the Earth and its ailments” as a symbol which synthesizes many concerns revolving around modern decadence and the current predicament of human-kind. But what contexts provide full meaning to this symbol? What conditions have made possible the emergence not only of extremely waste-oriented and environmentally dangerous societies but also of a spiritually impoverished world? In the spirit of interpretive systemology, a critical interpretation of the “Earth's ailments” is undertaken in this paper. The interpretive task is cast in the form of a hermeneutical exercise, namely, the exegesis ofEarthdream, a book written by Robert Hamilton. This particular piece of work, upon which the present paper is fully based, is chosen as a vehicle for the critical interpretive inquiry, not only because it summarizes the current debate on the world crisis (thus providing a standard reference for beginning the interpretive inquiry), but also because the argument it develops can be molded within a format which facilitates the critical interpretation to be conducted. Accordingly, two interpretive contexts will be uncovered, and internal and external critiques outlined; to give full meaning to the symbol “Earth's ailments.” Two major interests propel the interpretive task. One relates to the participation of systems practitioners in the current crisis and the need to encourage responsible systems practice. The other interest arises simply from the fact that we are all on the same raft called Earth, and the raft seems to be sinking!     

二进制译码器综述

指令二进制码的译码过程是指令集模拟器、反汇编器以及调试器等软件的重要组成部分,译码效率直接影响到这类工具的性能。硬件译码中多个逻辑表达式可并发求值,而软件译码是串行过程,速率较低,成为ISS等软件工具性能提升的瓶颈。随着ISS由简单的解释型发展为编译型,二进制码译码器也随之朝着性能提升、可适用于多种体系结构、易于软件维护的方向发展。本文分析现有的典型指令模拟器的译码部分,并对其进行分类:由简单的逐条指令译码过程构成的循环,发展至直观的译码结果的缓存,再到利用编译器对译码过程的加速,以及针对ISS便于向多种体系结构移植而构建的译码器生成算法的研究。分析各种译码方式的优缺点,包括速率、可移植性及软件维护性等方面。     

复杂网络: 结构和动力学

(续本刊2006年第4期) 6 应用 本章将讨论前述理论在实际网络中的应用,包括网络的结构和动力学两方面的问题.首先回顾社会网络的某些结构并考虑两类社会网络(意见形成和博弈模型)的动态演化,然后探讨因特网和万维网的统计属性,最后集中讨论生物和医学复杂网络,如分子成分之间的相互作用网和神经网络.     

Meta-Decision Making: Concepts and Paradigm

This Research Note outlines some preliminary findings of a meta-decision making study. The paper introduces the idea of meta-decision making and develops this into a new broader approach. The notion of the dual role, or identity, of the decision maker is put forward: s/he is both an ego-meta-decision maker and an ego-decision maker. These concepts are based on the idea of being "detached from oneself," an important element of the ancient Chinese philosophy of Taoism. Additionally a framework of meta-decision-making tasks is discussed.     

Soft Systems Methodology: Other Voices

This issue of Systemic Practice and Action Research, celebrating the work of Peter Checkland, in the particular nature and development of soft systems methodology (SSM), would not have happened unless the work was seen by others as being important. No significant contribution to thinking happens without a secondary literature developing. Not surprisingly, many commentaries have accompanied the ongoing development of SSM. Some of these are insightful, some full of errors, and some include both insight and absurdity. Checkland (1999, p. A42) opines, in the recently published 30-year retrospective, that "SSM has been ill-served by its commentators." Scrutiny of the secondary literature on SSM provides support for this view and also identifies some general characteristics and trends that are important to the development of SSM and, incidentally, reinforces some existing conclusions.