Systemic Intervention in a University Department: Reflections on Arrested Action Research

This paper reflects on my experience as an insider researcher attempting to use critical systems ideas and practices to promote quality improvement in a university engineering department. Reflection is a key part of learning. This paper is intended to contribute to critically, self-reflective learning for the community of systems practitioners. These reflections on my questions about participation, ethics, politics of process, and the choices and actions resulting from them may help others to formulate their own. The complexity of systems practice places substantial demands on the researcher, particularly in the case of insider, practitioner research. Nevertheless, the exploration of critical systems approaches to critique boundaries and structure ‘problems’ in the core aspects of higher education in locally meaningful ways should continue. While demanding, it still can work to promote learning about authentic quality.     

PEAK COVARIANCE STABILITY OF A RANDOM RICCATI EQUATION ARISING FROM KALMAN FILTERING WITH OBSERVATION LOSSES

We consider the stability of a random Riccati equation with a Markovian binary jump coefficient. More specifically, we are concerned with the boundedness of the solution of a random Riccati difference equation arising from Kalman filtering with measurement losses. A sufficient condition for the peak covariance stability is obtained which has a simpler form and is shown to be less conservative in some cases than a very recent result in existing literature. Furthermore, we show that a known sufficient condition is also necessary when the observability index equals one.     

CONSTRUCTIVE KISSING NUMBERS IN HIGH-DIMENSIONAL SPACES

In the present paper, we focus on constructive spherical codes. By employing algebraic geometry codes, we give an explicit construction of spherical code sequences. By making use of the idea involved in the proof of the Gilbert-Varshamov bound in coding theory, we construct a spherical code sequence in exponential time which meets the best-known asymptotic bound by Shamsiev and Wyner.     

基于反相对称法的双边带通信系统

给出了一种基于反相对称法的双边带通信系统的实现方法,通过MATLAB仿真,证实了这种方法的可行性。     

需求特征对供应链中企业资源再利用的影响分析

为了了解需求因素对供应链中企业资源再利用的影响,选取工业园上下游企业的相互联系为分析背景,建立企业间的供应链模型,研究了需求不确定性σ和需求弹性k对供应链中企业资源再利用的影响.模型仿真结果表明:对存在物料供需关系的2个企业来说,随着主产品需求不确定性σ的不断增大,2个企业的总利润π呈不断下降的趋势,销售损失和库存成本增加,企业资源再利用受到阻碍;随着弹性因子k的不断增大,需求批量与供给批量差距呈现出一种先减小后增大的趋势,总利润π减小,对企业资源再利用起到了负面的影响,阻碍其发展.     

浅论医疗事业单位固定资产的规范化管理

剖析了医疗事业单位固定资产管理工作中存在的问题及其产生的原因,提出了医疗事业单位加强对固定资产进行规范化管理的若干建议。     

Philosophy of chemistry and the image of science

The philosophical analysis of chemistry has advanced at such a pace during the last dozen years that the existence of philosophy of chemistry as an autonomous discipline cannot be doubted any more. The present paper will attempt to analyse the experience of philosophy of chemistry at the, so to say, meta-level. Philosophers of chemistry have especially stressed that all sciences need not be similar to physics. They have tried to argue for chemistry as its own type of science and for a pluralistic understanding of science in general. However, when stressing the specific character of chemistry, philosophers do not always analyse the question ‘What is science?’ theoretically. It is obvious that a ‘monistic’ understanding of science should not be based simply on physics as the epitome of science, regarding it as a historical accident that physics has obtained this status. The author’s point is that the philosophical and methodological image of science should not be chosen arbitrarily; instead, it should be theoretically elaborated as an idealization (theoretical model) substantiated on the historical practice of science. It is argued that although physics has, in a sense, justifiably obtained the status of a paradigm of science, chemistry, which is not simply a physical science, but a discipline with a dual character, is also relevant for elaborating a theoretical model of science. The theoretical model of science is a good tool for examining various issues in philosophy of chemistry as well as in philosophy of science or science studies generally.     

Global Optimization in Any Minkowski Metric: A Permutation-Translation Simulated Annealing Algorithm for Multidimensional Scaling

It is well known that considering a non-Euclidean Minkowski metric in Multidimensional Scaling, either for the distance model or for the loss function, increases the computational problem of local minima considerably. In this paper, we propose an algorithm in which both the loss function and the composition rule can be considered in any Minkowski metric, using a multivariate randomly alternating Simulated Annealing procedure with permutation and translation phases. The algorithm has been implemented in Fortran and tested over classical and simulated data matrices with sizes up to 200 objects. A study has been carried out with some of the common loss functions to determine the most suitable values for the main parameters. The experimental results confirm the theoretical expectation that Simulated Annealing is a suitable strategy to deal by itself with the optimization problems in Multidimensional Scaling, in particular for City-Block, Euclidean and Infinity metrics.