A Systemic Exploration of Lesotho’s Basic Education through Interactive Management

Lesotho is an inland country striving to improve its economy. Accessible education is perceived as an effective approach to economic growth. Over the years, various projects were commenced to improve Lesotho’s basic education provision. However, the progress is not satisfactory or stable. This paper argues for systemic thinking and adopts Warfield’s interactive management to identify the difficulties in Lesotho’s education projects. Interactive management can help stakeholders to identify system elements, structure the relationship between systems elements and produce a diagraph representing the system in question. The core mechanism of interactive management is a binary matrix which can infer the existence of a relationship between system elements, provided that the relationship is transitive. Four root problems were identified through the interactive management process: ‘board members not educated’, ‘poor service delivery by the Ministry of Education and Training to teachers’, ‘food insecurity’ and ‘reduced and standardisation of school fees at post primary schools’. The developed model demonstrates how system elements are interconnected. The model has potential to be used as a starting point for the Lesotho government to manage on its basic education problems through the identified root causes.     

The Acceptance and Progress in Argentina of Multi-Modal Systems Thinking for Community Development

This article describes the acceptance and development of multi-modal systems thinking in Argentina in the last 5 years, both in theory and in practice. On the theoretical side, we show the efforts made to provide compatible epistemological doctrines for different modalities, starting with ethics and aesthetics. This took place first through the phenomenology of values and more recently in the context of Christian existentialism and continuing later on with the study of the relationship among other modalities. On the practical side, we describe the applications of this framework to study the so-called “crisis of the Argentine countryside”. This is a conflict between the community of farmers, the national government and the present situation with cattle producers. Other applications include a programme to teach action-research and projects related to abandoned children and education in indigenous communities.     

Systems Pluralism in Infrastructure Decision-Making for Socially Connected Greenfield Communities

The problem in planning for relevant infrastructure in new communities is that the community doesn’t yet exist and is not engaged in the planning process. As such, planners draw on available housing and demographic information and essentially ‘best guess’ the future community’s infrastructure and social connection needs. This situation spotlights a gap in the planning literature concerning ways to ‘better determine’ a future community’s infrastructures that enable social connection between residents. In seeking to help address that knowledge gap, the purpose of this paper is to theoretically argue for the process of and illustrate the value of, pursuing a hybrid systems thinking approach to the identification and deployment of the physical infrastructures that may help better facilitate the social connectedness of a future community in new greenfield development areas. This approach combines aspects of Soft systems methodology and system dynamics. Such a process informs the development of a decision support model for Planners’ that incorporates multiple user perspectives in these local planning decisions and contributes to the structural advancement of socially connected communities.     

Evolutionary Dynamics for Firm's Organizational Mode based on Theory of Learning in Games

This article studies the evolutionary dynamics of the firm's organizational mode by applying the theory of learning in games. It is assumed that the firms are bounded rationally and are myopic, and they choose the organizational mode in terms of their own preferences and the market share of the organizational mode. Considering entry behavior of the firms, this article presents one-population evolutionary dynamics and the adaptive learning algorithm. Furthermore, it turns out that the profit function greatly impact on the evolutionary equilibria. On the basis of the internal spillover effect within the population and external spillover effect of two populations, it develops the corresponding two-population evolutionary dynamics and discusses the evolutionary equilibria and their basins of attraction. Theoretical analysis and numerical examples show that the evolutionary equilibria for the firms' organizational mode depend on the spillover effect from the perspectives of long run.     

BOO Model for Outsourcing E-Government Services

Outsourcing E-government services helps governments to overcome barriers, such as lacking skilled IT Staff and limited financial resources. There are some models for the government to outsource its E-government services. This article analyzes one of such outsourcing model; building-owning-operation (BOO) using a transaction cost theory approach. By modeling the outsourcing strategy, the article argues about the maximum E-government benefit and the maximum profit of the vendor. It also discusses the expected E-government benefit that is affected by the vendor's some degree of shirking and the incentive policy which the government can adopt to remove the attractiveness of shirking to the vendor. The approach used in this article provides both of the contracting parties with a strategy and techniques for analyzing some complex issues when they deal with outsourcing decision-problems.     

Morality materialized: Notes on public prevention as a policy system

Public prevention is discussed as a policy system that owes its coherence to a number of “constitutive principles” rather than to an institutional fabric of its own. Notions from Luhmann's autopoietic social systems theory are combined with some recent developments in discourse analysis to outline this discussion theoretically. As to the constitutive principles, first, it is argued that public prevention is negatively constituted by its divorce from the regular healthcare system. Second, it is demonstrated that the constitutive principles of the public prevention system itself stem from the basic insecurities of this type of social policy. Public prevention strategies always have to impose themselves on existing (social) policy fields, and, more importantly, they often intrude upon people's private lives. That is why they tend to locate responsibility “outside,” moralizing the environment and moralizing things.     

Scalably revealing the dynamics of soft community structure in complex networks

Revealing the dynamics of community structure is of great concern for scientists from many fields. Specifically, how to quantify the dynamic details of soft community structure is a very interesting topic. In this paper, the authors propose a novel framework to study the scalable dynamic behavior of the soft community structure. First, the authors model the Potts dynamics to detect community structure using a “soft” Markov process. Then the soft stability of in a multiscale view is proposed to naturally uncover the local uniform behavior of spin values across multiple hierarchical levels. Finally, a new partition index is developed to detect fuzzy communities based on the stability and the dynamical information. Experiments on the both synthetically generated and real-world networks verify that the framework can be used to uncover hierarchical community structures effectively and efficiently.     

Environmental Education: Enhancing Learning and Awareness Through Assessment

Environmental issues are rapidly gaining momentum globally as humans try to find sustainable solutions to the effects of climate change, carbon emissions, and the actions of human-kind (see Olver, Blacklist those who ‘greenwash’. Companies must walk the talk regarding climate. The Times, 2011a; The weather warriors’ war. Real change will come when a few good men and women say ‘enough is enough’. The Times, 2011b). To enhance learning and awareness of environmental issues among Environmental Education students and the community at large, this study situated assessments within communities of practice around the university. Using action engagement within action research students had to work with insiders from the community to identify, formulate action or intervention plans and find solutions to problem situations in the community. Using action engagement within action research in this study definitely enhanced student’s knowledge of their community’s problems. Their personal involvement and the cyclical approach adopted, enhanced students’ emotional understanding and gave them an insider perspective into the situations and problems that required intervention; and trust was built between the students and members of the community as they worked together to accomplish a common goal.     

Augmented reality system for aiding engineering design process of machinery systems

The paper presents the application of augmented reality for aiding product design and development of machinery systems.Augmented reality technology integrates an interactive computer-generated word with an interactive real word in such a way that they appear as one environment.AR technology can enhance a user's perception of the real world with information that is not actually part of the scene but is relevant to the user's present activity.Presented in the AR system is a mode for changing views of data-...     

Promoting Entrepreneurship through a Community Learning Model – Case Study: Green Businesses

This article presents a community learning model formulated by Engineers Without Borders Colombia with the aim of providing communities with tools to create sustainable productive solutions which have relevancy for members and for potential customers. The goal of this formulation is to promote learning processes that are guided by decisions made by community members to propose sustainable and replicable initiatives. The model applicability is evidenced through a case study devoted to strengthening community-led green businesses in the Guavio Province, Colombia by collecting lessons and conclusions. Ultimately, this collection will prove useful in replicating the learning model in other similar rural communities.

     

A monitoring system for the social development program in Colombia

This paper describes and analyzes “the Social Solidarity Network” (SSN), which is an agency of the Office of the President of the national government of Colombia. Its purpose is to promote self-development programs in the poorest communities in the country, as well as to improve their local public decision-making and other organizational mechanisms. The workings of the “monitoring system” used by the SSN, whose design has been inspired by Beer's ideas of monitoring and control, are introduced and discussed (Beer, 1979/1981a,b; Espejo and Harnden, 1989). The paper also offers a brief analysis of the structural mechanisms currently in use for communicating among local government agencies and the other departmental, regional, and national levels of government. This analysis indicates that the national authorities design and supervise the local planning and control mechanisms too closely and often ignore the existence and views of the intermediate recursions of government and the priorities of the local communities. The paper concludes with an assessment of the multi-university-based monitoring system used to follow up the activities and results of the SSN.     

基于改进PSO的保障性社区公共服务设施配置空间优化研究

近年来,房地产价格持续快速上涨,居民住房问题日益突出,为了缓解中低收入居民住房问题,政府兴建了大批保障性社区.而当前保障性社区公共服务设施普遍存在配置不完善,供给滞后,低效与供给过剩同时存在的问题,导致人口入住过程缓慢,入住率低.这不仅影响到居民的生活质量,同时也影响到保障效果的实现及和谐社会的构建.文章以上海市保障性社区为研究对象,在多目标约束条件下,构建了可以清晰表达保障性社区公共服务设施配置空间的多目标微粒群算法(particle swarm optimization,PSO)优化模型,并基于所构建模型,实证分析保障性社区公共服务设施配置优化模拟,在此基础上求出了公共服务设施最优配置方案,这对于提高保障性社区公共服务设施配置的科学性和合理性,完善社区公共服务设施的配置理论,具有较大的理论意义和实践意义.     

The Oblivion of Churchman's Plea for a Systems Approach to World Problems. III. The Fall of the Modern Constellation

This is the third article in a trilogy devoted to inquiring about the historical rise and fall of the ideal involved in a systems approach to world problems, so clearly stated by Churchman at the end of the sixties. In the first part of this third article, the historical conditions for the extinction of the modern constellation are discussed. In the second part, a rough outline of what is left by that process of extinction is drawn. In that way, on the one hand, an explanation of the oblivion of Churchman's plea for a systems approach to world problems is completed and, on the other, Rorty's proposition to perform economic triage is comprehended and, thus, refuted.     

基于微分博弈的政企救灾合作策略研究

为应对灾害事故频发,政府和企业合作救灾已经受到人们的广泛关注,但企业救灾过程中慈善行为的动机并不单纯.文章首先假设在政府和救灾企业组成的简单系统中,政府处于主导地位,政府和企业的救灾投入会产生慈善商誉,企业的救灾投入还会产生广告效应,消费者需求受到二者的共同影响;然后利用微分博弈理论,构建了政府和企业的3种微分博弈模型.研究发现,在一定条件下,成本分担契约可以实现政府、企业和系统整体效益的帕累托改善;在协同合作契约下,政府、企业和系统整体效益都是最优的.最后,通过算例分析证明了结论的有效性,并对相关参数进行了灵敏度分析,为政企合作协同救灾提供理论依据.     

防洪减灾Stackelberg问题研究

为了研究中央政府和大江大河的左、右岸地方政府在防洪减灾中的相互影响和相互作用及其均衡,构造了由中央政府和两个地方政府作为参与人的复杂博弈模型,构成内层问题有关联的两阶Stackelberg问题,利用基于可行域分析的遍历全局搜索法对该数学模型进行了求解,并完成两个案例的计算.研究发现中央政府增加防洪投资并不必然导致防洪投资总额的增加,相反会引起地方政府的防洪减灾投资的减少,因而中央政府应该淡化自身的投资人的角色,而更多地关注如何通过机制对地方政府的防洪投资进行引导,从而实现全社会的最优配置.     

具有不同时间偏好的反恐重复博弈分析

面对着恐怖主义威胁的日益长期化,政府、平民和恐怖分子表现出不同的时间偏好.本文构建了具有不同时间偏好的反恐重复博弈模型.首先构建了政民协同反恐和反恐失利两种反恐情景下的阶段博弈模型.然后,博弈方在重复博弈中的策略设计为分别采取了趋于均衡的随机化策略以及采取趋于偏离的随机化策略,比较了两种随机化策略下不同时间偏好和参与方偏离行为对于博弈支付函数的影响.研究结果表明,首先,随着政府或恐怖分子采取的随机化策略趋于稳定其将注重长期收益,随着政府或恐怖分子采取的策略愈发非理性和不稳定他们的行为将趋于短期化.其次,由于政府、平民和恐怖分子在反恐博弈中接近于零和博弈,因此任何一方采取非均衡的随机化行为都将导致其它两方收益的上升,但是政府和平民之间存在着一损俱损、一荣俱荣的政民协同效应.第三,如果恐怖分子采取了趋于均衡的随机化策略,则政府充分利用恐怖分子的失误实现短期收益最大化.但是,如果恐怖分子采取了趋于偏离的随机化策略,则政府注重制定长期的反恐策略.     

Feasibility-Oriented Application of System Analysis in SMEs-The Cybernetic Approach of VSM Applied to Horticultural Retail Companies in Germany

Many approaches of business analysis focus on single disciplines or specific problems but ignore complex and dynamic interrelations between small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), their stakeholders, and their business environment. In order to meet these challenges, the system analysis tool Vester sensitivity model (VSM) is applied on a reference company representative of the German horticultural retail sector. Based on the principles of system theory and (bio-) cybernetics, the VSM system building tool uses net thinking, heuristics, and a participatory approach to illustrate and evaluate the systemic role of relevant key variables, and their interrelations in the example company. In this article, the analytical steps of the VSM are applied up to the finalized effect system model of the reference company. As an innovative aspect, the article emphasizes how the multilevel process of the system analysis can be put into practice more effectively by using interactive media tools to enable the required communication and consensus by the participating stakeholder panel. Elements such as the manager’s ability of strategic planning, the organizational climate, and the company’s image were uncovered as critical, but also stabilizing key factors for such companies. Although the study focuses on the specific situation of German horticultural retail companies as the research subject, the suggested procedure of integrated knowledge generation is transferrable to any business, industry branch, and country. Especially scholars, advisors, and business analysts working in the field of SME management can use the concept to evaluate such systems in the overall context of the companies under investigation.     

大规模神经网络的混合结构和立体表示系统—HYBNOTATION

在文献［２４］中，我们提出了一个通用自适应神经网络框架ＧＡＦ，它具有许多优越性。但是，在利用神经网络模型构造具有特定功能的神经网络时，采用什么样的组织结构是很重要的。它决定着系统的代价和性能比。本文首先讨论了神经网络的自顶向下、自底向上和交互式三种基本结构及其局限性。然后提出了大规模神经网络的一个混合立体表示系统。接着通过两个实例，神经系统的反射弧和躯体感觉系统的定义，来说明上述混合立体表示系统对于神经网络微观及宏观结构描述的优越性以及如何用它来定义大规模神经网络的混合立体结构。     

基于谱方法的复杂网络中社团结构的模块度

现实中的大量复杂网络表现出明显的社团结构, 模块度是衡量网络社团结构划分的重要指标函数, 但最常用的NG模块度存在分辨率限制问题, 不能识别出小于一定规模的社团. 文章在谱映射的基础上, 提出了复杂网络社团结构的两种模块度. 改进的表现模块度不仅能够应用于有权网络, 而且部分解决了NG模块度的局限性问题; 内聚模块度以社团内部的内聚度为衡量依据, 从根本上避免了NG模块度和表现模块度可能出现的不恰当划分情况. 最后通过计算机生成的测试网络和两个经典网络, 与NG模块度对比验证了表现模块度和内聚模块度的可行性和有效性.     

STRUCTURAL DECOMPOSITION AND ITS PROPERTIES OF LINEAR MULTIVARIABLE SINGULAR SYSTEMS

We present in this paper a structural decomposition for linear multivariable singular systems. Such a decomposition has a distinct feature of capturing and displaying all the structural properties, such as the finite and infinite zero structures, invertibility structures, and redundant dynamics of the given system. As its counterpart for non-singular systems, we believe that the technique is a powerful tool in solving control problems for singular systems.