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.     

Developing the methodology of TSI: From the oblique use of methods to creative design

During the last 13 years, a dialogue has been conducted in the Critical Systems literature on the subject of choice betwen methods. However, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, researchers went in two separate directions. One direction involved an exploration of the “creative design of methods.” This is when the problem situation is understood in terms of a series of systemically interrelated research questions, each of which might need to be addressed using a different method, or part of a method. A synthesis is generated that allows each individual research question to be addressed as part of a whole system of questions. The other research direction involved the development of “Total Systems Intervention” (TSI), a meta-methodology that, amongst other things, encourages the creative exploration of the problem situation prior to the choice of methods. One of the latest innovations in TSI is a theory of the “oblique” use of methods. This is the use of methods for purposes other than those they were originally designed for. However, it is argued here that all the case studies that have been subject to an “oblique” interpretation can be better explained if they are seen as examples of the creative design of methods. We can therefore bring together the two strands of research that have hitherto been pursued separately in the Critical Systems literature. it is suggested that TSI can be enhanced by an understanding of the creative design of methods because the latter allows us to explain the purposive, flexible, and responsive way in which TSI is most successfully used in practice.     

The coming crisis of western management education

The aim of this paper is to explore the contention that Western Management Education has entered a period of “crisis” and to examine the implications of such a development. Drawing on historical studies of management education in America and Europe, four modes of management “formation” are identified, each of which has been dominant in a particular period. From its preparadigmatic beginnings management education has been successively transformed under an “old” and latterly a “new” paradigm. Current changes in and critiques of the “new” paradigm imply that Western Management Education is entering a postparadigmatic mode. The implications of this postparadigmatic turn are considered in relation to management practice, management knowledge, and management “formation.” An earlier version of this paper was presented to the Annual Conference of the British Academy of Management, Aston University, Birmingham, September 16–18, 1996.     

The Japanese dilemmas of modernity: Negative ideology or neopositive ideology?

Japan's postwar economic “miracle” has attracted much attention. The question is whether the miracle arises from the “unique” and enigmatic nature of the Japanese culture. This paper presents Weber's views of modernity and Habermas's reconstruction of Weber's negative view of modernity. Then the paper turns to Habermas's theory of communicative action, especially, his two-level concept of society integrating the lifeworld and system, and his critical theory of modernity, which analyzes and accounts for its sociopathologies. Then the paper proceeds to argue that Japan's modernity was born, not out of disenchantment, but out of reenchantment, with the concimitant consequence in neopositive ideologies through which the system colonized the lifeworld, leading to imprisonment in a “soft” iron cage.     

A MODEL FOR THE ＂MAXIMUM CAPACITY＂ OF ROOMS OR OF SPACE

A discrete optimum mathematical model to derive the “maximum capacity“ of people in a room or in a space used for public gatherings is developed. There are two outcomes in the model. One is focused on whether the person farthest from exits can escape from the room. The other concentrates On the evacuation time of all the people in the room. According to the results of the two outcomes, a more reasonable “maximum capacity“ can be worked out in a simple way.     

Interval Time Series Analysis with an Application to the Sterling-Dollar Exchange Rate

Traditional econometrics has long employed ＂points＂ to measure time series data. In real life situations, however, it suffers the loss of volatility information, since many variables are bounded by intervals in a given period. To address this issue, this paper provides a new methodology for interval time series analysis. The concept of ＂interval stochastic process＂ is formally defined as a counterpart of ＂stochastic process＂ in point-based econometrics. The authors introduce the concepts of interval stationarity, interval statistics （including interval mean, interval variance, etc.） and propose an interval linear model to investigate the dynamic relationships between interval processes. A new interval-based optimization approach for estimation is proposed, and corresponding evaluation criteria are derived. To demonstrate that the new interval method provides valid results, an empirical example on the sterling-dollar exchange rate is presented.     

From Cybernetics and VSD to Management and Action

This paper uses Stafford Beer's Viable Systems Diagnosis (VSD) to suggest that the development of a model for actionable theory in organizations would take the form of a three-step process. The first step involves the definition and explanation of an appropriate theory base, the second theory interpretation into a coherent set of action principles and the third contextual action in organizations. We contend that even for a well-informed and widely read manager gleaning the theoretical basis for this process from the recognized Beer trilogy “Brain of the Firm,” “The Heart of the Enterprise” and “Diagnosing the System” is difficult to justify in terms of time, understanding, and action. We maintain that a sound set of action principles emanating from Beer's primary work must be considered before tackling the noted trilogy. We use Beer's initial text “Cybernetics and Management” to trace some fundamental operational research and the interdisciplinary tripartite science of cybernetics. We commence our action model process with some introductory thoughts into operational research, cybernetics, VSD, and contextual action. Our first step toward action involves some primary definitions and principles of cybernetic theory and the prospect of controlling overwhelming variety. Our second step provides our set of coherent potential action principles fundamental to cybernetic theory. The paper is written in a journalistic rather than academic style reflecting the need to couch the interpretation of the theory in a language that the well-informed manager may readily translate into third step contextual practice.     

The business team standard: A means of improving the effectiveness of individual businesses in a multibusiness corporation

The paper describes a project carried out within a major chemicals corporation to improve the performance of the individual businesses. This was to be done by clarifying some of the organisational uncertainties in its structure and improving the way that specialists form coalitions to address market challenges together. The approach used was based on “systems thinking”, which is an intellectual framework of knowledge that attempts to view organisations as wholes and which studies the processes of change in any part in the context of the whole organisation. Some of the important concepts of systems thinking are explored as they might be applied within a business organisation. Specifically the tool used was the Viable System Model of Stafford Beer, which the authors interpreted and developed into a set of statements (“a Standard”) which describe best practice in such organisations. Managers have used this to explore possible gaps in their organisations and, with this understanding, find ways to improve performance.     

STUDIES ON HORIZONTAL COMPETITION AMONG HOMOGENOUS RETAILERS THROUGH AGENT-BASED SIMULATION

1. Introduction A supply chain is a network composed osuppliers, manufacturers, retailers, etc., whichcooperate to offer a kind of goods or servicesThese supply chain members cooperate andcompete with each other to maximize theiown profits. For example,…     

“EII META—MODEL” ON INTEGRATION FRAMEWORK FOR VIABLE ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS——CITY PLANNING METAPHOR BASED ON STRUCTURAL SIMILARITY

Enterprise systems must have the structure to adapt the change of business environment.When rebuilding enterprise system to meet the extended operational boundaries,the concept of IT city planning is applicable and effective.The aim of this paper is to describe the architectural approach from the integrated imformation infrastructure(In3) standpoint and to propose for applying the “City Planning” concept for rebuilding “inter-application spaghetti” enterprise systems.This is mainly because the portion of infrastructure has increased with the change of information systems from centralized systems to distributed and open systems.As enterprise systems have involved heterogeneity or architectural black box in them,it may be required the integration framework (meta-architecture)as a discipline based on heterogeneity that can provide comprehensive view of the enterprise systems.This paper proposes “EII Meta-model” as the integration framework that can optimize the overall enterprise systems from the IT city planning point of view.EII Meta-model consists of “Integrated Information Infrastructure Map(In3-Map)”,“Service·Framework” and “IT Scenario”.It would be applicable and effective for the viable enterprise,because it has the mechanism to adapt the change.Finally,we illustrate a case of information system in an online securities company and demonstrate spplicability and effectiveness of EII Meta-model to meet their business goals.     

What is the Systems Approach Good for?

This paper examines and evaluates social systems with the help of a set of classical systems concepts and identifies a number of organisational failures that can be better understood from a systemic point of view. It then extends Kaplan’s “balanced scoreboard” to include these concepts.     

Threshold proxy re-signature

The focus of this paper is to design an efficient and secure solution addressing the semi trusted issue in proxy re-signature schemes, i.e., the proxy knows the re-signature key from user A to user B, so he is able to translate any signatures made by user A to user B, which damages the essential requirement (“non-repudiation” property) of proxy re-signature schemes. In this paper, the authors first define the security model for threshold proxy re-signature scheme, and then propose two threshold proxy re-signature schemes based on Ateniese-Hohenberger’s and Shao-Cao-Wang-Liang’s approach.     

DESIGN METHODOLOGY OF NETWORKED SOFTWARE EVOLUTION GROWTH BASED ON SOFTWARE PATTERNS

Recently,some new characteristics of complex networks attract the attentions of scientistsin different fields,and lead to many kinds of emerging research directions.So far,most of the researchwork has been limited in discovery of complex network characteristics by structure analysis in large-scalesoftware systems.This paper presents the theoretical basis,design method,algorithms and experiment results ofthe research.It firstly emphasizes the significance of design method of evolution growth for networktopology of Object Oriented(OO)software systems,and argues that.the selection and modulationof network models with various topology characteristics will bring un-ignorable effect on the processof design and implementation of OO software systems.Then we analyze the similar discipline of“negation of negation and compromise”between the evolution of network models with different topologycharacteristics and the development of software modelling methods.According to the analysis of thegrowth features of software patterns,we propose an object-oriented software network evolution growthmethod and its algorithms in succession.In addition,we also propose the parameter systems for OOsoftware system metrics based on complex network theory.Based on these parameter systems,it cananalyze the features of various nodes,links and local-world,modulate the network topology and guidethe software metrics.All these can be helpful to the detailed design,implementation and performanceanalysis.Finally.we focus on the application of the evolution algorithms and demonstrate it by a casestudy.Comparing the results from our early experiments with methodologies in empirical software engi-neering,we believe that the proposed software engineering design method is a computational softwareengineering approach based on complex network theory.We argue that this method should be greatlybeneficial for the design,implementation,modulation and metrics of functionality,structure and per-formance in large-scale OO software complex system.     

Group contingency test for two or several independent samples

This paper proposes a new and distribution-free test called “Group Contingency” test (GC, for short) for testing two or several independent samples. Compared with traditional nonparametric tests, GC test tends to explore more information based on samples, and it’s location-, scale-, and shapesensitive. The authors conduct some simulation studies comparing GC test with Wilcoxon rank sum test (W), Kolmogorov-Smirnov test (KS) and Wald-Wolfowitz runs test (WW) for two sample case, and with Kruskal-Wallis (KW) for testing several samples. Simulation results reveal that GC test usually outperforms other methods.     

FUZZY SATISFYING INTERACTIVE MULTIOBJECTIVE THERMAL POWER DISPATCH： SWT APPROACH

In multiobjective optimization, trade-off analysis plays an important role in determining most preferred solution. This paper presents an explicit interactive trade-off analysis based on the surrogate worth trade-off function to determine the best compromised solution. In the multiobjective framework thermal power dispatch problem is undertaken in which four objectives viz. cost, NOx emission, SOx emission and COx emission are minimized simultaneously. The interactive process is implemented using a weighting method by regulating the relative weights of objectives in systematic manner. Hence the weighting method facilitates to simulate the trade-offrelation between the conflicting objectives in non-inferior domain. Exploiting fuzzy decision making theory to access the indifference band, interaction with the decision maker is obtained via surrogate worth trade-off （SWT） functions of the objectives. The surrogate worth trade-off functions are constructed in the functional space and then transformed into the decision space, so the surrogate worth trade-off functions of objectives relate the decision maker＇s preferences to non-inferior solutions through optimal weight patterns. The optimal solution of thermal power dispatch problem is obtained by considering real and reactive power losses. Decoupled load flow analysis is performed to find the transmission losses. The validity of the proposed method is demonstrated on 11-bus, 17-lines IEEE system, comprising of three generators.     

A single server retrial queue with general retrial times and two-phase service

An M / G / 1 retrial queue with a first-come-first-served (FCFS) orbit, general retrial time, two-phase service and server breakdown is investigated in this paper. Customers are allowed to balk and renege at particular times. Assume that the customers who find the server busy are queued in the orbit in accordance with an FCFS discipline. All customers demand the first “essential” service, whereas only some of them demand the second “optional” service, and the second service is multioptional. During the service, the server is subject to breakdown and repair. Assume that the retrial time, the service time, and the repair time of the server are all arbitrarily distributed. By using the supplementary variables method, the authors obtain the steady-state solutions for both queueing and reliability measures of interest. This research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 10871020.     

A STAGE-STRUCTURED SI ECO-EPIDEMIOLOGICAL MODEL WITH TIME DELAY AND IMPULSIVE CONTROLLING*

This paper formulates a robust stage-structured SI eco-epidemiological model with periodic constant pulse releasing of infectious pests with pathogens. The authors show that the conditions for global attractivity of the ＇pest-eradication＇ periodic solution and permanence of the system depend on time delay, hence, the authors call it ＂profitless＂. Further, the authors present a pest management strategy in which the pest population is kept under the economic threshold level （ETL） when the pest population is uniformly persistent. By numerical analysis, the authors also show that constant maturation time delay for the susceptible pests and pulse releasing of the infectious pests can bring obvious effects on the dynamics of system.     

Going Green from the Inside: Insider Action Research at the Volvo Car Corporation

Various forms of action research have been proposed as remedies for the one-sided focus on theoretical interests existing in Business School research. Among other conceptual elaborations, Insider Action Research (IAR) suggests that action research needs to be supported by an insider's view of activities in order to achieve any substantial contribution to practice and theory. Even though the IAR model is potentially capable of overcoming a number of practical, political, and epistemological problems, it has been explored relatively little in terms of practical examples and lessons. This paper presents the account of an Insider Action researcher at the Volvo Car Corporation, aimed at studying the development of environmental strategies and “eco-benign” automobiles “from the inside”. The paper suggests that even though IAR remains a promising model, the political ingenuity and savoir-faire of the insider action researcher must not be underrated.

DENOISING AND HARMONIC DETECTION USING NONORTHOGONAL WAVELET PACKETS IN INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS

New industrial applications call for new methods and new ideas in signal analysis. Wavelet packets are new tools in industrial applications and they have just recently appeared in projects and patents. In training neural networks, for the sake of dimensionality and of ratio of time, compact information is needed. This paper deals with simultaneous noise suppression and signal compression of quasi-harmonic signals. A quasi-harmonic signal is a signal with one dominant harmonic and some more sub harmonics in superposition. Such signals often occur in rail vehicle systems, in which noisy signals are present. Typically, they are signals which come from rail overhead power lines and are generated by intermodulation phenomena and radio interferences. An important task is to monitor and recognize them. This paper proposes an algorithm to differentiate discrete signals from their noisy observations using a library of nonorthonormal bases. The algorithm combines the shrinkage technique and techniques in regression analysis using Shannon Entropy function and Cross Entropy function to select the best discernable bases. Cosine and sine wavelet bases in wavelet packets are used. The algorithm is totally general and can be used in many industrial applications. The effectiveness of the proposed method consists of using as few as possible samples of the measured signal and in the meantime highlighting the difference between the noise and the desired signal. The problem is a difficult one, but well posed. In fact, compression reduces the level of the measured noise and undesired signals but introduces the well known compression noise. The goal is to extract a coherent signal from the measured signal which will be “well represented” by suitable waveforms and a noisy signal or incoherent signal which cannot be “compressed well” by the waveforms. Recursive residual iterations with cosine and sine bases allow the extraction of elements of the required signal and the noise. The algorithm that has been developed is utilized as a filter to extract features for training neural networks. It is currently integrated in the inferential modelling platform of the unit for Advanced Control and Simulation Solutions within ABB’s industry division. An application using real measured data from an electrical railway line is presented to illustrate and analyze the effectiveness of the proposed method. Another industrial application in fault detection, in which coherent and incoherent signals are univocally visible, is also shown.