The Third Track of the Open-Systems-Thinking School: An Application of Domain Theory to New Zealand Ports

The Open-Systems Thinking (OST) school identified with Emery and Trist is situated as an important but underutilized approach in systems thinking. The main features of OST are described, including four "tracks" along which OST has developed. The third track, which focuses on interorganizational domains, is considered in detail. It is then applied to a case concerning the complex social dynamics of and in port domains in New Zealand. This exercise enables us to illuminate some lacunae in previous representations of the port domain research, to assess OST's third track regarding its relevance for systemic practice, and to help to bring OST to the table with other systems approaches that are all vying for the attention of researchers, practicing managers, students, and consultants.     

The Current Version of Emery's Open Systems Theory

There are variations on the idea of an open systems theory (OST) or socioecology. This paper deals with the "current" variant developed primarily by Fred Emery, or OST(E). It is "current" because that terminology acknowledges a continuing development of knowledge. OST(E) is heir to a long line of intellectual development known as the "thin red line" and can be distinguished from other variants by its adherence to that line of development. The paper outlines the state of the art of OST(E) and its historical relation to the thin rd line.     

Facilitation of Collaborative Management: Reflections From Practice

Collaborative management of natural resources requires that multiple stakeholders come together to negotiate agreements. Who is a stakeholder, what is the boundary and the definition of an issue, and who has legitimacy to convene are interrelated, systemic questions. To address this challenge, this paper provides a conceptual framework with nine Contextual Dimensions. A workshop on collaborative and conflict management of the fishery in Chile, designed and facilitated by the authors, serves as a case study where multiple stakeholders came together to vision desirable futures and explored organizational linkages that could accommodate the different agendas. The workshop is analyzed through a conceptual framework and some conclusions are drawn on the value of experiential learning and on the importance of the iterative consultations that must precede such collaborative management events.Member of the International Support Group (www.isglink.org), a community of practice dedicated to facilitating collaborative learning for natural resource management.     

Family building intentions in England and Wales: trends,outcomes and interpretations

This article presents and analyses women's childbearing intentions collected in the General Household Survey (GHS). Data from the 21 surveys from 1979 to 2001 show that over that period there has been a fall in women's intended numbers of births. However the latest data (from the 1998, 2000 and 2001 surveys) show that the average number of children intended is still around two, somewhat higher than the average number of children current fertility rates suggest women will have. The questions of whether this difference can be interpreted as possible unmet need for children, whether past intentions have been good predictors of fertility, and how current intentions may be used to inform projections assumptions are discussed. In relation to the last question, fertility intentions by ethnic group are also presented.     

Approaching Action Research from a Socioecological Perspective

The paper seeks to explicate an action research methodological framework that can provide practical guidance to those approaching action research from a socioecological perspective. It does so by revisiting the developmental foundations of the Emery and Trist socioecological paradigm, by drawing on insights left scattered throughout Emery's writings, and by drawing on the author's own experience in action research. The framework explicated seeks to provide practical guidance for (i) intervention in field settings, to coproduce open social systems–environment active adaptation, i.e., action-research guided interventions to produce sought management outcomes, and (ii) generation and formalization of theory extensions to socioecological theory concerned with intervention strategy and intervention methodologies, i.e., action-research guided generation of socioecological theory suitable for social scientific publication.     

Action Research: Its Foundations in Open Systems Thinking and Relationship to the Scientific Method

This paper considers those interpretations of action research that can be traced to Kurt Lewin at the Research Center for Group Dynamics at the University of Michigan, and the work in social ecology by Emery and Trist at the Tavistock Institute. It locates the logical basis of these interpretations in the philosophy of pragmatism, particularly as it relates to Peirce’s inferential logic and inquiry system. Drawing on this argument, and on the significant developments in approaches to systemic thinking over the past 40–50 years, a normative set of criteria is established for action research. The paper concludes that both positivist science (which relates to closed systems thinking) and action research (which relates to open systems thinking) are essential to any complete scientific approach.     

面向信息时代的系统仿真方法学

面向２１ 世纪的信息时代,由于计算机技术及现代信息技术与仿真的紧密结合,以及人类对开放复杂巨系统的研究日益深入,推动着系统仿真方法学新的发展。本文从概念建模与仿真方法学的基本概念出发,剖析数学建模信息环境的局限,探讨解决障碍的可能途径,和论述了问题域和技术支撑对仿真方法学的影响。     

人工神经网络在作物生产管理中的应用

基于模型的专家系统方法是处理作物生产这个综合、复杂系统的有效手段。文中分析了模拟模型与产生式规则在专家系统智能表达中的局限性,指出人工神经网络方法在作物生产智能决策系统中的意义,介绍分析人工神经网络应用的基本步骤与技术关键,探讨了ＡＮＮ在作物生产中可能的应用。     

一个通用试题库管理系统的设计与实现

通用试题库管理系统是ＣＡＩ（计算机辅助教学）的一个重要分支．本文介绍了在ＦＯＸＰＲＯＦＯＲＷＩＮＤＯＷＳ下开发的能够对图文进行统一管理的通用试题库管理系统，利用本系统可以为任意学科建立选题随机性强、成卷速度快、操作灵活方便的试题库系统，并可对其进行管理。     

高层体系结构HLA/RTI及其实现综述

介绍了ＨＬＡ／ＲＴＩ的基本功能和它的内部结构,对ＲＴＩ的实现方法和关键技术进行了全面的综述。对当前时间管理、数据分布管理的实现方法进行了深入的研究,并进一步阐述了ＲＴＩ的发展趋势及其在设计实现上还需解决的几个问题     

ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS THEORY： SOME BASIC CONCEPTS, METHODS AND RESULTS

The adaptive systems theory to be presented in this paper consists of two closely related parts: adaptive estimation (or filtering, prediction) and adaptive control of dynamical systems. Both adaptive estimation and control are nonlinear mappings of the on-line observed signals of dynamical systems, where the main features are the uncertain-ties in both the system‘s structure and external disturbances, and the non-stationarity and dependency of the system signals. Thus, a key difficulty in establishing a mathematical theory of adaptive systems lies in how to deal with complicated nonlinear stochastic dynamical systems which describe the adaptation processes. In this paper, we will illustrate some of the basic concepts, methods and results through some simple examples. The following fundamental questions will be discussed: How much information is needed for estimation? How to deal with uncertainty by adaptation? How to analyze an adaptive system? What are the convergence or tracking performances of adaptation? How to find the proper rate of adaptation in some sense? We will also explore the following more fundamental questions: How much uncertainty can be dealt with by adaptation ? What are the limitations of adaptation ? How does the performance of adaptation depend on the prior information ? We will partially answer these questions by finding some “critical values“ and establishing some “Impossibility Theorems“ for the capability of adaptation, for several basic classes of nonlinear dynamical control systems with either parametric or nonparametric uncertainties.     

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.     

载人飞行过程中地理位置指示器显示方式工效设计仿真软件的研制

地理集团指示顺是载人航天器中重要的控制类显示仪表，对其进行工效学设计使之符合人的信息感知能力和特性，已成为充分发挥航天员作用可靠的技术途径。本文在查阅国内外相关文献的基础上，首先阐述了地理位置指示器设计的发展现状，基于其显示界面工效设计的目的，提出了该仿真软件系统的结构、设计思想并说明了须解决的关键技术。最终研制地理位置指示器仪器表显示界面仿真软件可为实际的工程设计提供一种工效学实验评价手段。     

谈谈TEMPEST技术

本文提出有关TEMPEST亟需解决的几个问题,如正名、标准的制定、宣传和人员培训、各种控制措施、检测和认证等,以期引起各方面的注意。     

网上3D虚拟商城的设计与实现

分析基于超文本链接和2D场景的网上购物商务平台的不足，设计并实现了具有真实感购物环境的网上3D虚拟商城。系统全面虚拟了购物的浏览、挑选、支付过程，并具有人机交互功能。系统还提供了数字化的商品管理、财务管理和安全系统。同时对虚拟商城的技术扩展及进一步发展作了讨论。     

The Holistic Sense of Prison Phenomena in Venezuela. II. Toward a Profound Unveiling of the “Background”

This is the second article of the trilogy devoted to the study of the sense of Venezuelan prison institutions. It shows how the research reported in the first article gives way to the central question presented in this paper: What are the conditions of possibility of our discomfort and dissatisfaction with the current situation in the Venezuelan prisons? The reflection on this question progresses by uncovering different ways of understanding the sense of prisons. These serve as hypothetical grounds of the moral intuitions that make the prisons problematical. As the reflection develops, it seems to indicate that what underpins the problematical nature of the prison problem is the same post-modern liberal order which, according to the first article of the trilogy, underpins prison schizophrenia. This poses some theoretical questions, which give way to the third article of the trilogy. Finally, the possibility of an in-depth solution to the Venezuelan prison problem is discussed.

     

A Maturing of Systems Thinking? Evidence from Three Perspectives

This paper reviews trends in systems theory/thinking from the 1970s to the early 2000s. It proposes a maturation of the field based on certain conceptual and methodological advances that have sought to liberate systems thinking from earlier strictures. An edited dialogue among three prominent systems thinkers from different systems schools—Merrelyn Emery, Bob Flood, and Eric Wolstenholme—provides evidence. Similarities and differences are identified, complementarities among the schools are derived and analyzed, and trajectories for future research are indicated.     

Ecological communication: Coping with the unknown

There is growing concern with how science and modern society can cope with major problems, especially those of an ecological kind. This has grown in parallel with a skepticism which questions our processes of rational decision making, questions our ability to plan, and questions our cognitive capacity for prediction and directing action. Faced with these problems, the scientific establishment demands more investment to increase levels of knowledge. It maintains that we can change and master the environment. But the way forward is to recognize the increasing uncertainties we face. Some theoretical development is possible in this area owing to the study of risk, but this needs generalizing to the level of society. An attempt is made in the final section to assimilate this particular theoretical approach with ideas in evolutionary theory.     

医院手术室运作管理:研究热点及发展方向

手术室是医院的瓶颈资源,其运作管理涉及到多部门、多资源的协调优化.由于其在医院管理中具有重要的地位,手术室运作管理已成为学界的研究热点.本文从管理科学角度阐述了手术调度问题;针对手术室管理模式与运作流程,探讨了目前手术室管理过程中面临的问题与挑战.根据医院的现实场景构建了手术室运作管理的研究框架,进而在这一框架下对现有研究进行系统综述,从问题分类、影响因素、研究方法入手总结了目前研究的热点、难点,并结合目前研究成果指出了研究的空白点及发展方向.     

中国金融系统工程:研究现状及未来发展

本文针对2010-2014年我国金融系统工程学科发展状况进行回顾和总结,在此基础上提出了未来学科发展趋势与对策.首先,本报告对金融系统学科研究对象和方法论进行界定;在此基础上,选取中文及英文国内外优秀期刊进行文献搜索,以此作为近5年金融系统工程学科取得科研成果依据.通过对成果进行汇总分析,得出国内外主要从事相关研究的科研机构、研究团队、主要发表期刊与基金支持机构情况.通过对期刊的布拉德福德检验以及作者发文数目的洛特卡检验,得出了金融系统工程在我国的研究现状.在文献检索基础上,通过文献阅读,将现有研究总结提炼为9个科学问题,以此来归纳过去5年中金融系统工程研究重点领域.以上述9个科学问题为基础,对国内外研究现状差异及进展进行对比.最后,本文结合最近5年金融系统工程领域研究发展进展及国内外金融形势,提出了金融系统工程研究发展的对策与建议.