V.I. Astafyev, Yu.M. Gorsky and L.N. Yolkov
After relatively a short period of neglect, cybernetics has been recognized in the former USSR and attracted a broad range of scientists. A brief review of some cybernetical…
Abstract
After relatively a short period of neglect, cybernetics has been recognized in the former USSR and attracted a broad range of scientists. A brief review of some cybernetical researches in the former USSR and in modern Russia is presented. On the basis of Arturo Rosenblueth and Norbert Wiener’s concept of homeostasis, a special approach to studying systems of various kinds has been formed in the last ten years. A brief picture of the main features of this approach, called “Homeostatics” and its results during the last five years, is displayed. In the line of Stafford Beer the foremost attention is paid to social systems and organizations, their control and survivability. A few other important cybernetical directions in the Russian science, such as artificial intelligence and informatization, are described.
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Yu M. Gorsky, V.I. Razumov and A.G. Teslinov
Discusses the conjecture that mankind is moving towards global crises and catastrophes because of the lack of strategies and policies to deal with information. Sees the need for…
Abstract
Discusses the conjecture that mankind is moving towards global crises and catastrophes because of the lack of strategies and policies to deal with information. Sees the need for new concepts in information as paramount. Outlines how a transition to noospheric thinking may be a way to the survival of human civilisation. Presents new concepts in information that are backed by a mathematical methodology.
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Yu. M. Gorsky, A.M. Stepanov, A.G. Teslinov, O.V. Kudrevatova and S.V. Pokrovsky
Describes how homeostatic models can be applied to modelling the normal processes, as well as the critical phenomena, such as paralysis, shock or collapse, which work in the…
Abstract
Describes how homeostatic models can be applied to modelling the normal processes, as well as the critical phenomena, such as paralysis, shock or collapse, which work in the polarised world. Discusses the development of civilisation against a background of the fight for resources, territories, spheres of influence, as well as the war between the technologies, behind which are the people. This produces an ultimately bad effect upon the ecology. Thus, unless the human race does not think better of it and changes the prevailing paradigm in relation to the nature and to the people themselves, a bitter pay‐off – the global ecological catastrophe – is due. Outlines a created simulating model of the community, which shows that a global ecological catastrophe is likely to occur between 2020 and 2050. This time frame represents a zone of bifurcation, which, it is said, may result in either the death of civilisation, or an excruciating process of rebirth, which would also involve a transition to the new information technologies (based on the principles of the plasma, vacuum, or torsion fields, and so forth). In order to avert the global ecological catastrophe, suggests that it is necessary to accept the noospheric thinking code and, among other changes the organisational structure of the United Nations Organization (UNO), and the relationships between countries.
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Yu. M. Gorsky, A.M. Stepanov and A.G. Teslinov
Homeostatics is a new science, which, it is considered, advances at a rate which may supersede cybernetics. It reveals the informational laws that govern the living matter and…
Abstract
Homeostatics is a new science, which, it is considered, advances at a rate which may supersede cybernetics. It reveals the informational laws that govern the living matter and projects them on to all systems. Homeostasis (Gk: homoios – “similar” and stasis – “state” or “standing”) can be represented as a dynamic maintenance of assigned values, parameters, functions and trends of development (decay).
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Yu M. Gorsky and A.M. Stepanov
Focuses on homeostatics which deals with the problems of maintaining dynamic stability of vital parameters, functions, rhythms, cycles and trends of development. The paper also…
Abstract
Focuses on homeostatics which deals with the problems of maintaining dynamic stability of vital parameters, functions, rhythms, cycles and trends of development. The paper also considers the problems of harmony and disharmony in living organisms, natural, social and artificial systems.
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Diet therapy or nutritional therapy has become a real challenge in the fight against the increasing number of modern illnesses such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases…
Abstract
Diet therapy or nutritional therapy has become a real challenge in the fight against the increasing number of modern illnesses such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancers. The scientific community has recognized the importance of studies that will support or rebut the association of certain nutrition/energy inputs with the prevention and/or improvement of certain diseases. Patient counseling is offered by medical doctors, nutritionists and dieticians, but patients often seek additional sources of information from popular media that may not be adequately scientifically supported. Whose responsibility is it when the Diet Therapy is not an effective treatment and where does the consequent ethical and moral responsibility lie?
This chapter argues for the importance of a nutritionally educated scientist evaluating the diets that are seen to be related with the health improvement also excluding diets that are mostly related to the patients’ well-being as the Mediterranean, DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension), Ketogenic and Vegetarian diet. Diet guidelines are often explained with linguistic variables (as “reduce the input of” etc.) which can be differently perceived by the end user. The interpretation if a linguistic variable is presented using the body mass index categories using a bell-shaped curve. The preferable area fits to the linguistic variable “acceptable BMI.” But also are indicated those areas which are less preferable. Those examples of information interpretations show the necessity of knowledge transfer. The quantity of information presented in diet guidelines can be experienced as a great muddle for patients; leaving them not knowing where and how to start. So, remains the ethical and moral responsibility of all links in the chain of nutritional and diet research and recommendations. Only objective and open-minded recommendations based on the latest scientific facts can gain confidence of the social, economical, and political subjects which must put the well-being of the population uppermost in their mind.
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Sinan Obaidat, Mohammad Firas Tamimi, Ahmad Mumani and Basem Alkhaleel
This paper aims to present a predictive model approach to estimate the tensile behavior of polylactic acid (PLA) under uncertainty using the fused deposition modeling (FDM) and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present a predictive model approach to estimate the tensile behavior of polylactic acid (PLA) under uncertainty using the fused deposition modeling (FDM) and American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) D638’s Types I and II test standards.
Design/methodology/approach
The prediction approach combines artificial neural network (ANN) and finite element analysis (FEA), Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) and experimental testing for estimating tensile behavior for FDM considering uncertainties of input parameters. FEA with variance-based sensitivity analysis is used to quantify the impacts of uncertain variables, resulting in determining the significant variables for use in the ANN model. ANN surrogates FEA models of ASTM D638’s Types I and II standards to assess their prediction capabilities using MCS. The developed model is applied for testing the tensile behavior of PLA given probabilistic variables of geometry and material properties.
Findings
The results demonstrate that Type I is more appropriate than Type II for predicting tensile behavior under uncertainty. With a training accuracy of 98% and proven presence of overfitting, the tensile behavior can be successfully modeled using predictive methods that consider the probabilistic nature of input parameters. The proposed approach is generic and can be used for other testing standards, input parameters, materials and response variables.
Originality/value
Using the proposed predictive approach, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the tensile behavior of PLA is predicted for the first time considering uncertainties of input parameters. Also, incorporating global sensitivity analysis for determining the most contributing parameters influencing the tensile behavior has not yet been studied for FDM. The use of only significant variables for FEA, ANN and MCS minimizes the computational effort, allowing to simulate more runs with reduced number of variables within acceptable time.
From the sixteenth to eighteenth century, China underwent a commercial revolution similar to the one in contemporaneous Europe. The rise of market did foster the rise of a nascent…
Abstract
From the sixteenth to eighteenth century, China underwent a commercial revolution similar to the one in contemporaneous Europe. The rise of market did foster the rise of a nascent bourgeois and the concomitant rise of a liberal, populist version of Confucianism, which advocated a more decentralized and less authoritarian political system in the last few decades of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). But after the collapse of the Ming Empire and the establishment of the Qing Empire (1644–1911) by the Manchu conquerors, the new rulers designated the late-Ming liberal ideologies as heretics, and they resurrected the most conservative form of Confucianism as the political orthodoxy. Under the principle of filial piety given by this orthodoxy, the whole empire was imagined as a fictitious family with the emperor as the grand patriarch and the civil bureaucrats and subjects as children or grandchildren. Under the highly centralized administrative and communicative apparatus of the Qing state, this ideology of the fictitious patrimonial state penetrated into the lowest level of the society. The subsequent paternalist, authoritarian, and moralizing politics of the Qing state contributed to China’s nontransition to capitalism despite its advanced market economy, and helped explain the peculiar form and trajectory of China’s popular contention in the eighteenth century. I also argue that this tradition of fictitious patrimonial politics continued to shape the state-making processes in twentieth-century China and beyond.
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Abram L.J. Walton, Brian Glassman and Darrel L. Sandall
This paper aims to investigate the phenomenology behind how an idea stock market created employee engagement of 80 per cent+ within the largest telecom company in Portugal. More…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the phenomenology behind how an idea stock market created employee engagement of 80 per cent+ within the largest telecom company in Portugal. More importantly, this case study investigates the results created using this system, and whether the “investment/betting” process yielded successful and replicable results.
Design/methodology/approach
This critical review took the form of an exploratory-grounded theory study. Initial conversations led to creation of questionnaires regarding the internal workings of Sonaecom’s idea market, implementation methods, incentive structures, necessary cultural adjustments, system outcomes and topics related to idea screening, types of users, herd behavior, idea storage, diffusion, implementation and perceptions of the idea market and its success.
Findings
The idea market produced engagement outcomes nearly twice that of standard industry engagement methodologies and showed promise for increasing corporate innovation outcomes.
Research limitations/implications
This study was limited to a single idea market within one company. As such, the conclusions from the study are limited in their generalizability to other companies implementing idea markets.
Practical implications
Because the challenges faced by Sonaecom are the same challenges faced by any company implementing an idea market, the findings from the study have important practical implications for any organization implementing an idea market.
Social implications
There are behavioral, psychological and leadership implications for organizations implementing an idea market.
Originality/value
Based on a thorough literature review, no other study has been made of Sonaecom’s Idea Market system, nor has a study of this depth and breadth been completed with any idea market system. The findings of the study have broad implications for any organization seeking to implement an idea management system.