bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Systems thinking and neurological positivism: Further elucidations and implications
Authors: Vandervert Larry R. 
Published: February 2011

AbstractThe ideas, goals, and postulates of neurological positivism (np) are reviewed briefly. Three new lines of scientific research and systems modeling are described which clucidate np further, and which np helps to unify. (1) fractals and fractal dynamics (chaos) in both living and nonliving systems; (2) a generalized ecosystems model, and (3) a micro/macro deterministic model of upward and downward causation, with downward causation supervenient. Three implications stemming from these clarifications are described: (1) the limitations of reductionistic science; (2) the brain as a fractal‐projective generating system; and (3) a redefinition of the mind‐body problem. It is concluded that the new supportive sources of research and the new implications establish further, in ways understandable by a broad variety of people, the capacity of np to organize what we know, to unify disparate categories of knowledge within the systems thinking perspective, and to promote the rapprochement between science and the humanities.As long as our brain is a mystery, the universe—the reflection of the structure of the brain—will be a mystery.
Supplementary systems paradigms for different stages of societal evolution with special reference to war and peace
Authors: De Greene Kenyon B. 
Published: February 2011

AbstractThe need for different but supplementary paradigms, one applicable to ‘normal’ conditions and one applicable to conditions yielding structural change, is emphasized. The two paradigms are briefly contrasted and mathematical examples given. Three principles, dealing with systems that have evolved or have been driven far from equilibrium, are then presented. These principles concern themselves with the role of internal fluctuations, the role of external perturbations and fluctuations (noise), and the emergence of new structure at a more microscopic level even though the system appears to be ‘normal’ at a macroscopic level. Examples and discussion about meaning are provided for each principle. An extended example on nuclear weaponry, national security, and international stability follows. Structure and texture of societal fields are then contrasted. Next, the two paradigms are discussed in terms of theory and modeling as applicable to societal management, and differential applicability of the paradigms at different evolutionary or historical times is stressed. Criteria for paradigm choice are offered.
Nonlinear management in technologically‐induced fields
Authors: De Greene Kenyon B. 
Published: February 2011

AbstractFour key words, ‘technology,’ ‘environment,’ ‘nonlinear,’ and ‘field,’ are defined with special reference to management in high‐technology environments. Evolving system‐environment interrelationships are described in terms of several systems theories, and a number of laws and principles, useful as heuristics, are presented. Some assumptions of ‘linear’ management are summarized. The consequences of applying linear thinking to nonlinear situations is discussed in considerable detail. Particular attention is paid to the continued use of a Machine Model of Humanity and to the decline of American competitiveness. A concluding section presents some difficulties involved in helping American top management. Especially, the logic of the American management system is questioned.
Analogy and expert systems: Some epistemic elements in their design
Authors: Counelis James Steve 
Published: February 2011

AbstractAn expert system is a constructed analogue of human memory, thinking and language. The epistemic elements involved in the design of an expert system are six: (a) the metatheory of analogy; (b) the structural, substantive, processual and telic characteristics of the analogue; (c) the cognitive state of knowing built into the expert system; (d) the relation of knowing and believing to the interpretation of an expert system's derived results; (e) the principle of the unity of fact and value built into the expert system; (f) the interpretation of the expert system's calculated results, given the unity of fact and value built into the expert system. Prolog is used to illustrate expert systems design. The expert system is found to be the subjective product of the designer's intentions. Additionally, the expert system as artifact is a factually‐ladened value.
Impact of indirect relationships in classification of variables—a micmac analysis for energy conservation
Authors: Saxena J. P. , Sushil  , Vrat Prem 
Published: February 2011

AbstractStructural analysis of the system is important from various points of view. Structural analysis provides an opportunity for a thorough presentation of the system under study and reduces the complexities of the system in simple understandable language. Structural analysis can be used in decision making for achieving the desired objectives and in forecasting. Identification of key variables which could influence the future dimensions is necessary to evolve appropriate policies and strategies.The paper presents the methodology for identification of key variables based on direct as well as indirect inter‐relationships which, often, may not be clearly visible. Classification of the variables in different types of roles being played by each one is also presented by using the driver‐dependence matrix. The successful application of methodology has then been demonstrated in a case study for energy conservation in the Indian cement industry.
Modelling and analysis of authority‐responsibility relationships in an organizational system—a physical system theory approach
Authors: Sushil  
Published: February 2011

AbstractThis paper is an attempt to apply the principles and concepts of physical system theory to model multi‐level hierarchical organizational systems. The modelling can be carried out for both the official organizational system and the operating or problem‐solving organizational system derived from task processes. The graph theoretic approach is used to model authority‐responsibility relationships existing in the organizational network. A manager at any level is conceptualized as a multiterminal component interacting between the superior and subordinates, representing each interaction as a two‐terminal component. The unit authority across two levels is different and hence taken as an ‘across variable’ while the responsibility, which flows through the organization, is taken as a ‘through variable’. An operational and pragmatic concept is provided to measure the authority and responsibility based on facts as well as opinion. The analysis has been carried out for a hypothetical illustrative organizational system with three levels. The model may prove to be of help in analysing the inconsistencies in authority‐responsibility relationships which can be used for improving the organizational design.
Cybernetics, systems science, and the great university
Authors: Warfield John N. 
Published: February 2011

AbstractIt is time that the related fields of cybernetics and systems science began to make a significant contribution to the design of organizations. A good place to begin is with the design of the Great University.The Great University does not presently exist, either in any institution or in a conceptual form. If it can be designed conceptually, the possibility exists that it may be realized in practice, and that it could serve as an example to existing institutions.The Great University represents a sufficiently sophisticated concept that its design and operation both can serve as tests of the quality and utility of concepts from systems science and cybernetics.The Great University is founded on the Leibniz Principle of Reason. In order to reflect this Principle, it is animated by and organized around three objectives of education set forth by Ralph Barton Perry, which are founded in the aim to prepare people for the exercise of citizenship in a free society.Evaluation of the Great University will lie in the performance of university graduates in society. The Great University will strive to create and implement exemplary practices that reinforce high quality performance of university graduates and correct the factors that promote low‐quality performance in university graduates.In creating an organization and programs that are responsive to the Leibniz Principle and the Perry Objectives, the Great University will set behavioral standards of the highest ethical quality, and its internal incentive system for faculty and student performance will be designed to promote balanced attention to the three objectives. In order to achieve this, a double infrastructure will be required to meet the vastly different requirements of subsumptive and supersumptive activity, both types being essential in the Great University.“… the paradox is now fully established that the utmost abstractions are the true weapons with which to control our thought of concrete fact.”Alfred North Whitehead
Thermodynamics of complexity
Authors: Fivaz Roland 
Published: February 2011

AbstractFoundations of thermodynamics are reviewed in terms of the elementary processes driving spontaneous evolution in physical systems. These processes lead to ergodic and mixing behavior as well as to conservation of macroscopic quantities such as total energy; finally a tendency towards order through instabilities results when the environment is cold enough. Instabilities are in turn considered as processes driving a spontaneous evolution in complex systems in their natural environment; again ergodic and mixing behavior is exhibited as well as new conserved quantities. As a result, a second thermodynamics is built which relates complexity to the corpuscular nature of matter. Thus, general properties of complex systems are pointed out, such as spontaneous and irreversible tendency towards complexity, development by stages and information flow between systems of different complexity.
Providing complete and integrated information science education
Authors: Forgionne Guiseppi A. 
Published: February 2011

AbstractInformation is needed by a variety of users for various purposes in private and public enterprises. Colleges and universities help meet this need by conducting research and educating people in information science. The relevant education and research is provided by these institutions through business, computer science, and other programs (including library science, communication, and engineering). Each of these approaches has inherent shortcommings that will prevent them from delivering complete and integrated information science education and research. This paper examines the various approaches, explains the shortcommings, and proposes an alternative approach to resolve the difficulties.
Design of the modern inquiring system — VII. Ramon Lull (1232–1315) and His ARS MAGNA
Authors: Pavesi Pedro F. J. , Pavesi Pablo E. 
Published: February 2011

AbstractThis is the seventh installment of a series of articles which traces the development of the modern inquiring system (IS), a system dedicated to the acquisition, production and dissemination of knowledge. The main idea behind this series is to resurrect classic works which bear relevance to the systems movement, in general, and to the understanding of how the modern inquiring system has evolved in particular.Previous installments of this series, Parts I to VI, have appeared in Systems Research as follows: Part I and II in Vol.5,(3), 1988; Part III and IV in Vol.5,(4), 1988; Part V in Vol.6,(2); and Part VI in Vol.6,(3). Readers are referred to those publications [14][15][16][13][11][7] respectively. They are also invited to submit appropriate sequels to these articles by sending them to the author‐editor whose address appears above. Contributions are welcome.
Evolving system‐fields, versus context‐free, futures perspectives: Some thoughts on controllability
Authors: De Greene Kenyon B. 
Published: February 2011

AbstractContext‐free, mechanistic forecasting is reviewed and some examples of deficiencies in this approach noted. Reasons for and benefits and dangers of using forecasts are dicussed. The evolution of the world system‐field of forces is dicussed in considerable detail. Predictability and acceptability of scientific theory are summarized. A heuristic forecast is made of politicomilitary, social, economic, and ecological changes, within the context of evolving fields of forces, over the epoch 1990–2025. Human nature may not be sufficiently resilient to cope with the challenges and opportunities associated with imminent reconfigurational change.
Modeling artistic creativity: Implications for grants
Authors: Cawelti G. S. , Rappaport Allen , Wood W. C. 
Published: February 2011

AbstractAbstract — The nature and origin of creativity in the arts is an ancient question that continues to be puzzling. Modeling creativity as a system is an issue spanning most of this century. Among those with pragmatic concerns are university faculty and administrators charged with funding creative projects where artists have difficulty articulating their proposals and favorable outcomes are often difficult to anticipate. Interpretive Structural Modeling is used to give systemic form to the creative process as developed by five faculty in the “creative” areas. A simultaneous process involving multiple events occuring continuously is identified as the dominant nature of the creative process. The dilemmas involved in modifying grant systems to allow for the creative process in the arts are discussed.
Specialization, socialization and identity in an interdependent world
Authors: Koizumi Tetsunori , Koizumi Hisako 
Published: February 2011

AbstractFrom a systems perspective, man is an open system whose life is defined in the space of interaction with other systems ‐ individuals, families, groups, communities, nations, international organizations, and nature. The space of that interaction, the space in which “specialization” and “socialization” take place, has dramatically expanded in the last couple of centuries with the evolution of industrial and information societies. The space of specialization and socialization is also the space in which human development takes place. The purpose of the present discussion is to examine the meaning of “identity” for the individual who now finds himself confronted with the difficult task of human development, willingly or unwillingly, in the world of global interdependence in his life as a biological, a psychological, and a social being.
Specialization V. Socialization: Will information technology affect the outcome?
Authors: Jackson David , Little Janet 
Published: February 2011

AbstractIn this paper, the role of computer technology in the specialization/socialization conflict is examined. It is contended that, to a large extent, computers can relieve people from a number of highly specialized tasks, but, on the other hand, they may also be having quite profound effects on the nature of socialization. The paper goes on to consider what the implications of these changes for society might be, and to what extent they are desirable.
Socialization and specialization in the legal profession
Authors: Justin Robert M. 
Published: February 2011

AbstractThe amount of law in the United States increases daily in volume and scope. It is impossible for one attorney to stay current in all aspects of these growing bodies of law. An attorney must specialize in specific areas of the law. An attorney likes to be able to meet all of the legal needs of a client so that the attorney will not risk losing the client. Clients tend to believe that if you have a legal problem, you see an attorney and expect that problem will be solved. Specialization limits the attorney's ability to meet all of the client's needs without a corresponding change in the client's expectations. This paper will look at the socialization that will occur in the delivery of legal services as attorneys specialize more.
Analysis and synthesis: On scientific method – based on a study by bernhard riemann
Authors: Ritchey Tom 
Published: February 2011

AbstractThere are important situations in which a method can be regarded as more suitable than the other. This concerns the question of which method is most appropriate as the primary method of chief point of departure for the study of a given system or object of scientific inquiry.This article deals with the foundations of analysis and synthesis as scientific methods, and especially with the requirements for the successful application of these methods.
The progression of the entropy of a five dimensional psychotherapeutic system
Authors: Badalamenti Anthony F. , Langs Robert J. 
Published: February 2011

Abstract— This paper presents a study of the deterministic and stochastic behavior of the entropy of a 5‐dimensional, 2400 state, system across each of six psychotherapeutic sessions. The growth of entropy was found to be logarithmic in each session. The stochastic behavior of a moving 600 second estimator of entropy revealed a Box‐Jenkins model of type (1,1,0) — that is, the first difference of the entropy series was first order autoregressive or prior state sensitive. In addition, the patient and therapist entropy series exhibited no significant cross correlation across lags of −300 to +300 seconds. Yet all such pairs of series exhibited high coherency past the frequency of.06 (on a full range of 0 to.5). Furthermore, all the patients and therapists were attracted to a geometric center of mass in 5‐dimensional space which was different from the geometric center of the region where the system lived. The process significance of the findings and the relationship between the deterministic and stochastic results are discussed. The paper is then placed in the broader context of our efforts to provide new and meaningful quantitative dimensions and mathematical models to psychotherapy research.
The Influence of SiO2 on the Extraction of Ti Element from Ti‐bearing Blast Furnace Slag
Authors: Li Jing , Zhang Zuotai , Zhang Mei , Guo Min , Wang Xidong 
Published: February 2011

AbstractThe present paper investigated the crystallization behavior of Ti‐concentrating phases in titanium‐bearing blast furnace slags influenced by the silica content. The objective was to recycle the titanium from titanium‐bearing blast furnace slags by enriching Ti element in anosovite. The effect of SiO2 on the formation of anosovite in the titanium‐bearing blast furnace slags was studied under C/CO equilibrated atmospheres using a combination of X‐ray Diffraction (XRD) and Energy Dispersive X‐ray Spectroscopy (EDX). It was found that, under the C/CO equilibrated atmospheres, the formed primary phases transformed from perovskite to anosovite by adding SiO2 up to 35 wt% in the slags. The related mechanism was investigated according to the theory of molten slags structure and the principle of thermodynamics.
Wnt and Notch Pathways Have Interrelated Opposing Roles on Prostate Progenitor Cell Proliferation and Differentiation
Authors: Shahi Payam , Seethammagari Mamatha R. , Valdez Joseph M. , Xin Li , Spencer David M. 
Published: February 2011

Abstract
Tissue stem cells are capable of both self-renewal and differentiation to maintain a constant stem cell population and give rise to the plurality of cells within a tissue. Wnt signaling has been previously identified as a key mediator for the maintenance of tissue stem cells; however, possible cross-regulation with other developmentally critical signaling pathways involved in adult tissue homeostasis, such as Notch, is not well understood. By using an in vitro prostate stem cell colony (“prostasphere”) formation assay and in vivo prostate reconstitution experiments, we demonstrate that Wnt pathway induction on Sca-1+CD49f+ basal/stem cells (B/SCs) promotes expansion of the basal epithelial compartment with noticeable increases in “triple positive” (cytokeratin [CK] 5+, CK8+, p63+) prostate progenitor cells, concomitant with upregulation of known Wnt target genes involved in cell-cycle induction. Moreover, Wnt induction affects expression of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition signature genes, suggesting a possible mechanism for priming B/SC to act as potential tumor-initiating cells. Interestingly, induction of Wnt signaling in B/SCs results in downregulation of Notch1 transcripts, consistent with its postulated antiproliferative role in prostate cells. In contrast, induction of Notch signaling in prostate progenitors inhibits their proliferation and disrupts prostasphere formation. In vivo prostate reconstitution assays further demonstrate that induction of Notch in B/SCs disrupts proper acini formation in cells expressing the activated Notch1 allele, Notch-1 intracellular domain. These data emphasize the importance of Wnt/Notch cross-regulation in adult stem cell biology and suggest that Wnt signaling controls the proliferation and/or maintenance of epithelial progenitors via modulation of Notch signaling.
Transforming Growth Factor β-Mediated Sox10 Suppression Controls Mesenchymal Progenitor Generation in Neural Crest Stem Cells
Authors: John Nessy , Cinelli Paolo , Wegner Michael , Sommer Lukas 
Published: February 2011

Abstract
During vertebrate development, neural crest stem cells (NCSCs) give rise to neural cells of the peripheral nervous system and to a variety of mesenchymal cell types, including smooth muscle, craniofacial chondrocytes, and osteocytes. Consistently, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have recently been shown to derive in part from the neural crest (NC), although the mechanisms underlying MSC generation remains to be identified. Here, we show that transforming growth factor β (TGFβ)-mediated suppression of the NCSC transcription factor Sox10 induces a switch in neural to mesenchymal potential in NCSCs. In vitro and in vivo, TGFβ signal inactivation results in persistent Sox10 expression, decreased cell cycle exit, and perturbed generation of mesenchymal derivatives, which eventually leads to defective morphogenesis. In contrast, TGFβ-mediated downregulation of Sox10 or its genetic inactivation suppresses neural potential, confers mesenchymal potential to NC cells in vitro, and promotes cell cycle exit and precocious mesenchymal differentiation in vivo. Thus, negative regulation of Sox10 by TGFβ signaling promotes the generation of mesenchymal progenitors from NCSCs. Our study might lay the grounds for future applications demanding defined populations of MSCs for regenerative medicine.
The effect of concept mapping on students' anxiety and achievement in biology
Authors: Jegede Olugbemiro J. , Alaiyemola Folusho F. , Okebukola Peter A. O. 
Published: February 2011

AbstractThe results of recent studies into the use of the concept mapping heuristic seem to demonstrate that meaningful learning results through its use in science classrooms. While this underscores the need to use more effective instructional strategies in science teaching, the issue of the intervening variable of anxiety in learning and science achievement, and the possible use of a metacognitive strategy in anxiety reduction have not been addressed. This study, therefore, sought to find out if the metacognitive strategy of concept mapping reduces anxiety and thereby enhances achievement in biology. A total of 51 (30 boys, 21 girls) senior secondary one (grade 10) students participated in this experiment. Two instruments—the Zuckerman Affect Adjective Checklist and the Biology Achievement Test—were used in pre‐ and posttest administrations to measure the treatment effect on anxiety and achievement, respectively. Findings support the stand that concept mapping is significantly more effective than the traditional/expository teaching strategy in enhancing learning in biology. In addition, it apparently reduces students' anxiety towards the learning of biology. A significant reduction of anxiety was noticed for male subjects.