Management Of Complex Systems Research Articles

THEORETICAL APPROACHES AND PRACTICAL INSTRUMENTS OF INNOVATIONS IMPLEMENTATION IN SOCIAL POLICY

It has been determined that the problem of formation of innovative mechanisms in the system of public administration becomes more and more relevant. The fundamental changes taking place in Ukraine today require the reorganization of the approaches, form and content of public administration from the state authorities and local self-government bodies. Crisis phenomena in the system of public administration, increasing criticism about the expenditure nature of the state policy, a sharp decline in public confidence in the public administration, necessitates the introduction of innovative state management as a new progressive model of public administration. It has been proved that the pace with which innovations in the system of state authorities of Ukraine are being implemented, compared to business, is rather slow due to certain bureaucratic obstacles. Many difficulties in introducing innovations, in the implementation of state and management functions, are connected with human and organizational factors, personal disinterest of civil servants, their lack of awareness of systemic changes. It has been substantiated that in general, innovations in the field of public administration are a necessary component of ensuring the efficiency and competitiveness of the country's life, and the attitude to innovation among civil servants is ambiguous. All this makes the process of introducing innovations internally conflicting, prone to the impact of various factors, both individual and psychological, and organizational. This should be taken into account when conducting administrative reform, introducing innovative technologies in the field of public administration. The essence of concepts "innovative state administration", "innovative mechanism of state administration", "innovative mechanism of formation and implementation of social policy" has been reviewed. It has been proved that the experience of implementation of innovative mechanisms in the field of public administration shows that effective management of the process of change is based on the application of innovative technologies, which takes into account the general requirements for methods of training and development of personnel, as well as specific specifics of the organization. It has been determined that innovation means the creation, dissemination and application of innovation, on the one hand, satisfies certain needs of man and society, on the other hand, which causes not only material, technological, etc., but also social change. It has been proved that innovative mechanisms of formation and implementation of social policy should be regarded as artificially created complex management system and based on the use of innovative tools for managing the development of social sphere in order to achieve the set goals.

Education of the Post-Industrial Era: Setting on Person and Intelligence

The article discusses theoretical background and empirical premises for supplementing the goals of education with orientation to individual actor as the “assemblage point” of the educational result in a constantly changing reality. The article has an interdisciplinary modus, its theoretical basis is the D. Bell’s concepts of the post-industrial society, the “liquid modernity” of Z. Bauman and the idea of C.S. Dweck about the ability of personality’s sets “plants for growth” or “for granted” to influence intellect and achievement of goals. The work proceeds from the understanding of the fact that the “spreading” state of education is due to the specifics of the transition to some post-state of the society that is not yet clear. It is characterized by the fundamental ambiguity of circumstances and tendencies when centralized management of complex systems is difficult or erroneous, and this makes it necessary to reduce the level of decision making to self-organizing local social forms, giving them greater autonomy, in this case – to an individual and his autonomy. However, in our culture we have a lack of confidence to the individual and his ability to make wise choices, as well as, wittingly or unwittingly, reduce the setting for growth and primacy. But if students are offered well-organized research practices instead of imitations of scientific work, then they form the true key competencies necessary for modern society – a willingness to be in search, continuously learn and create new solutions for new tasks, contribute to the development of good conceptual language, cooperation in group work, courage in posing problems, readiness to work with complex problems. The article presents a kind of a case analysis of such work. The article also poses the problem of exploiting the cognitive status and well-being of teachers in super-formalized labor practices.

Creating a Circular Tower Defense Game: Development and Game Experience Measurement of Orbital Defense X

In this paper, we propose a new style of tower defense game by using the circular placement of the tower. In this game, dubbed Orbital Defense X, the player must protect the earth with a circle of defensive tower circled around it. The game is developed using game development lifecycle from initiation phase through alpha version. To test the quality of the developed game, we measure the game experience using game experience questionnaire. The questionnaire is divided into three: core, social presence, and post-game questionnaire. The results show that male participant gains a significantly higher score than female participants. Overall, the game experience is received better by the male participant in the core and social presence components, with an average score of 2,27 vs 1,92 and 2,15 vs 1,86. However, in post-game experience, the female participant scores higher with 2,15 vs 1,95. The participant that previously played another tower defense game gave score more in the core, social presence, and post-game experience than the participant that haven’t played it before. Their score is 1,93 vs 2,37 in core, 1,67 vs 2,39 in social presence, and 2,07 vs 1,91 in post-game experience. The result also suggests for more attention in the challenge regarding the enemies (variety and difficulty) rather than more complex tower management system. The social ranking also suggested by the participant to improve the overall experience of this game.

A decision fusion based methodology for fault Prognostic and Health Management of complex systems

Prognostic and Health Management (PHM) represents an active field of research and a major scientific challenge in many domains. It usually focuses on the failure time or the Remaining Useful Life (RUL) prediction of a system.This paper presents a generic framework, based on a discrete Bayesian Network (BN), particularly tailored for decision fusion of heterogeneous prognostic methods. The BN parameters are computed according to the fixed prognostic objectives.The effectiveness of the proposed decision fusion based methodology for the prognostic is demonstrated through the RULs estimation of turbofan engines. The application highlights the ability of the approach to estimate RULs which overpasses the performance of most other published results in the literature.

Asymmetry and projecting the system of state economic security

The article is devoted to the substantiation of the necessity of impacting the effects of phenomenon of asymmetry in the development of theory and methodology of projecting the system of economic security of the state on the basis of the theory of systems, trans-disciplinary approach, of the law of Structural harmony of systems, the law of the Golden section. Attempt to prove the hypothesis that the phenomenon of asymmetry provides the main risks concerning durability of the system of economic security. It’s necessary to change the paradigm of forming the contour of system of economic security as main condition of base of economy growing.. Imperfection of legislative surroundings, critical terms created by absence of reaction of system of government control under processes of providing of economic security in Ukraine created the loss of the state system, economic and political independence. Height level of shadow economies, as to the complex of different types of the economic activity carried out of scopes of legislative surroundings stipulates asymmetries in economic. Our hypothesis requires further development and using of principles and models of Nature or biogenetic management for development of proof economic systems and system of economic security of state with optimal surplus and asymmetries, for example on the basis of model of phillotacsis. Phenomenon of phillotacsis as natural self-organized systems is mathematically described by the Law of Measure or law of golden section and its derivatives. Modern researches of transdisciplinary character deepened to the level of general acts of form-organization or self-organization of cycle, that present the main interest for the theory of management of complex systems.

What Is the User Value of AI? A Taxonomy Based on AI Startups in France in 2019

AI is currently primarily defined by its functional characteristics. But companies that find use its user value could open up new market and change the rules of the games in existing ones. Finding the new meanings introduced in industry by radically new technologies is known as tech epiphanies. We propose that studying the user values proposed by startups today can help identify budding tech epiphanies, and inspire new ones as some user values emerging in some industries are adopted in new ones. We qualitatively assessed the customer value proposition of 137 startups across 22 industries in France in 2019 to propose a taxonomy of user values brought by AI. We found eight user values: Augmenting human capabilities, Ease & Accessibility, Efficiency & Productivity, Managing complex systems for safety and ecology, Personalization, Instantaneity, Unique experiences, and Personal development. The last three have been overlooked in the literature. Finally, we see three budding tech epiphanies. Healthcare is seeing a revolution in the patient-doctor relationship through a redefinition of expertise. Natural interfaces make AI seem human, opening the way for new relationships with machines. Finally, AI’s help in managing complex system could help us solve safety and ecology grand challenges

Specifying Process Activities for Multi-Domain Matrix Analysis Using a Structured Textual Format

AbstractThis paper proposes a method to automatically generate a multi-domain matrix (MDM) from textual activity specifications. The format for specifying these activities is based on a structured grammar derived from natural language and consists of two types of activities: goal activities and transformation activities. A goal activity describes the purpose of an action performed by an actor for the benefit of another actor in the system. A transformation activity describes an activity from the viewpoint of a single actor, who receives, generates, and outputs information or artifacts. If one describes activities using these two types of activity specifications, dependencies can be automatically derived between actors, activities, and parameters of the system and visualized in an MDM. Thus the generated MDM presents an organization DSM (actors), a process DSM (activities), and a parameter DSM (flows of information or objects), as well as the mapping matrices coupling the different domains. An illustrative house construction example demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed activity specification format. The method may provide an outcome in understanding and managing complex systems.

Development of methods and tools to support regional management in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation based on cognitive interfaces

This article discusses the creation of methods and tools for decision-making information support for regional management systems in the context of ensuring environmental and technological security in the Arctic region. To implement information support for regional management, we propose to use information technology for spatial data visualization. This technology is used to synthesize cognitive interfaces of multi-subject information systems supporting regional management in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. The article describes the methodological support, composition and structure of information technology to identify implicit conflicts of environmental management based on the use of methods of conceptual and ontological modeling of the subject area, system analysis and theory of management of complex systems. The key elements of the technology are the conceptual model of the conflict situation of environmental management, the ontology of the subject area, the knowledge base and the cognitive user interface of the multi-subject information regional management support system for the Arctic territories. A brief classification of conflicts among the stakeholders of the Arctic region (using the example of the Murmansk region) is also described. The proposed technology allows to identify potential conflicts of environmental management, including the detection and identification of environmental and technological safety problems in the Arctic regions of the Russian Federation.

Electrode, Electrolyte and Architecture Assessment for High Power Thin Film Microbatteries

Silicon integrated on-chip energy storage is an attractive goal for hybrid power sources coupled with energy harvesting for ‘Internet of Things’ devices and applications. Typical thin film microbatteries are limited to low power and energy outputs in the 2D planar formats. One of the issues with solid-state thin film microbatteries is the high resistance of the electrolyte which can lead to significant potential drop when powering devices during sensor operation and communication. The ability to provide high currents in a small form factor is a critical need for the development of realistic long life devices. In this work we will describe the use of Comsol finite element simulations to assess electrode materials, appropriate electrolytes and optimised architectures for improved microbattery power outputs. The simulations were of a microbattery stack where non-porous additive-free LiCoO2 is the cathode, lithium metal is the anode and solid-state, polymer, polymer-gel and liquid electrolytes were investigated. The simulations show the material utilisation and overall electrochemical cell behaviour of Li-ion electrode materials at typical and high power rates. Core-shell structures based on nanoarchitectures for electronic contact and active electrode materials have been investigated to improve power delivery for nanoscale active materials and for low conductivity oxide cathodes. The simulations indicate that the implementation of nanoarchitectures such as 3D and 3D core-shell nanoarchitectures when coupled with the appropriate electrolytes and interfacial reactions can have a significant advantage in terms of areal energy and power capabilities compared to a thin-film geometry for a microbattery cell. The deployment of these architectures for microbatteries where area is at a premium and high power capabilities are desirable should result in better performing hybrid energy and less complex power management systems. Acknowledgments The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Grant number: 12/IP/1722, Nanomaterials design and fabrication for energy storage. This work is supported in part by a research grant from SFI co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund under Grant Number 13/RC/2077. This work is also supported in part by a research grant from the EU Horizon 2020 work programme – Enables, European Infrastructure Powering the Internet of Things, project number 730957.

A visão da engenharia de resiliênca sob o trabalho de operadores de sala de controle em uma distribuidora de energia elétrica

A variabilidade e complexidade do trabalho na distribuição de energia elétrica atribui às equipes envolvidas (operadores e eletricistas, por exemplo) o desenvolvimento de habilidades de resiliência (HR). A engenharia de resiliência é apresentada como um paradigma para gestão da segurança em sistemas complexos, o qual procurar medir, avaliar e melhorar a resiliência de um sistema. O presente estudo teve como objetivos: identificar HR dos operadores, fatores para compor cenários de treinamento, ações de re-projeto do sistema sócio-técnico e características de interação entre operador e eletricista. Entrevistas, observação em campo e análise de documentos foram os instrumentos utilizados para coletada de dados. Ao todo foram identificadas: 15 categorias de HR, 12 fatores e 16 ações de re-projeto do sistema. A análise da interação operador-eletricista constatou relação em 11 HR dos operadores, 9 fatores para operadores e 5 fatores para eletricistas. Tal resultado reforça a importância do desenvolvimento de cenários de treinamento que integrem a ação do operador e do eletricista.

An Integrated Event Summarization Approach for Complex System Management

Event mining is a useful way to understand computer system behaviors. The focus of recent works on event mining has been shifted to event summarization from discovering frequent patterns. Event summarization seeks to provide a comprehensible explanation of the event sequence on certain aspects. Previous methods have several limitations such as high time complexity, a low precision especially with the presence of noise and phase shifts, and providing a summary which is difficult for a human to understand. In this paper, we propose an integrated event summarization approach toward the understanding of the chaotic temporal data. Our approach focuses on two kinds of temporal relationships, the periodic pattern and the correlation pattern, hidden in event sequences of at most two event types. For the periodic patterns, we propose an event periodicity detection algorithm to discover them directly. For the correlation patterns, we make a simple statistical test based on low order statistics to check temporal dependency of events of two types and to eliminate event correlation candidate space dramatically, and then apply inter-arrival histograms to summarize an event sequence and capture the correlation patterns. In order to balance between accuracy and brevity, the minimum description length principle is used to guide the summarization process. Further, the event relationship network is built to describe discovered patterns. We conduct several groups of experiments on synthetic and real data. Experimental results show our approach is capable of producing usable event summarization, robust to noises, and scalable. The average compression ratio of event sequences reaches 99.7%.

Immigrant integration policy and practices in Poland

Globalization, open borders and population movements, especially from war torn countries, have brought a new set of chances and challenges to every modern state. Since its accession to the European Union in 2004, Poland has been experiencing a steady transformation from a country producing emigrants to a destination country for a growing number of immigrants. The aim of the article is to discuss the impact of immigration on policymaking at the national level with emphasis on the legal status of immigrants and integration policy issues. Furthermore, the paper aims to initiate scientific discussion on migration integration policy and a complex system of migration policy and management. The study uses critical analysis of secondary sources: literature and sectoral policies in areas such as the labour market, education, and welfare pointing out benefits offered to immigrants. The analysis presents immigration integration policies and practices adopted and implemented in Poland. The research leads to the conclusion that the number of immigrants in Poland will significantly increase by 2030. Therefore, it is urgent to develop comprehensive migration management system in Poland, which will regulate the status of immigrants paying close attention to resolving integration policy issues. <b></b> <b></b>

Complex system of the solid waste management in city

Complex system of the solid waste management in city

How does the discourse surrounding the Murray Darling Basin manage the concept of entitlement to water?

Globally, the challenges of climate change have resulted in significant water policy reform. Australia’s Murray Darling Basin (MDB) Plan is a complex transboundary water management system that aims to balance the need for environmental protection with the needs of social and economic users of water. In July 2017, media reports argued that some MDB irrigators were misappropriating water destined for the environment and downstream users. This article uses Foucauldian discourse analysis to explore this flashpoint in the long-standing tensions between all stakeholders including the Basin jurisdictions. Diverse understandings of who is entitled to water that are shaped by the historical, political and social context are central to this conflict. Findings suggest that both neoliberal governmentality and the agrarian discourse are threatened by an emerging governmentality that embraces non-farming interests. The broader experience of water scarcity in a rapidly changing climate suggests comparable issues will become evident across the world.

Reservoir Operations under Changing Climate Conditions: Hydropower-Production Perspective

AbstractClimate change has significant effects on the management of complex water resource systems. The objective of this study was to assess climate change effects on reservoir system operations. ...

Methodological Bases of Decision Support for Resource Management in Complex Systems

Рассматриваются методологические основы поддержки принятия решений при управлении ресурсами в сложных системах. Существующие подходы к управлению ресурсами используют в основном жесткий математический аппарат и данные числовой природы. При этом слабоформализуемая информация об особенностях предметной области зачастую не принимается во внимание. Предлагаемая методология представляет собой последовательность выполнения определенных этапов, базирующихся на соответствующих подходах, методах и принципах. Ее отличительной особенностью является интеграция многоагентных технологий и онтологических моделей, что позволяет учесть слабо формализуемую информацию о предметной области. Предложена формальная модель многоагентной системы для управления ресурсами в сложных системах, позволяющая проводить моделирование процесса распределения ресурсов и анализ результатов такого моделирования. Модель включает два основных типа агентов: агентов-ресурсов и агентов-потребителей ресурсов, а также соответствующие им базы знаний, что позволяет решать задачи распределения ресурсов с учетом семантических ограничений и в условиях динамично изменяющейся внешней среды. Предложена схема управления ресурсами в сложных системах, позволяющая формировать планы распределения ресурсов и вести мониторинг их исполнения. Результаты этого мониторинга используются в дальнейшем для повышения эффективности управления ресурсами.

Adaptive management of water resources based on an advanced entropy method to quantify agent information

Abstract Adaptive management is currently an important method to optimize the management of complex water resources systems. Regional water resources adaptive management was conducted based on the advanced theory of a complex system multi-agent model; the state of an agent was tracked and modified by information entropy theory, which was improved by using individual standard deviations. With the goal of optimizing the adaptation of each agent of the region, water resources in the major grain production area of China were managed under the constraints of the total annual available water resources and water use efficiency requirements for 2015 and 2030. By introducing the adaptive water resources management in 2015, the domestic benefits and economic benefits increased by 2.90% and 14.81%, respectively, with respect to observed values. The ecological benefits declined by 3.63%, but ecological water demand was fully satisfied, and the ecological water environment was improved. Given the water use efficiency targets in 2030, applying adaptive management resulted in an increase of domestic, economic, and ecological benefits of 34.29%, 21.14%, and 1.78%, respectively. The results show that the adaptive management method presented can help managers to balance the benefits of various agents to determine the direction of water resources management decisions.

Integrated water resource management in complex systems: How the catchment management strategies seek to achieve sustainability and equity in water resources in South Africa

It is increasingly evident amongst practitioners and academics alike that the management approaches of the past have failed to deal adequately with the challenges posed by complex and rapidly changing systems. Indeed the call for integrated approaches such as those embodied in integrated water resource management (IWRM) reflects such concerns. This is because these systems are characterised by complexity in which an understanding of linkages, multiple drivers and unpredictable outcomes is critical. It is also widely recognised that the management of such systems requires an iterative, 'learning-by-doing' approach that is reflexive in nature and builds learning into the next management cycle. We suggest that any attempt to define and implement viable and effective governance of water resources, as well as rehabilitation measures, requires understanding that catchments are complex systems showing the aforementioned characteristics. As a corollary, an adaptive management approach appears best suited to such conditions. In this paper we argue that South Africa's highly-acclaimed National Water Act and associated policy documents such as the National Water Resource Strategy is an example of a policy document that reflects this thinking, as is evident in the guidelines for the development of catchment management strategies which are introduced and described. These offer a framework for the development of a holistic, systems understanding which is strategic and adaptive. In particular, under such a framework, we select the two cornerstones of the Act - sustainability and equity - to explore this theme. We show that under such a framework ensuring that both these principles are achieved is not through one simplistic management action but through an integrated, systems approach. The development of strategies is driven by principles which help one to navigate issues that emerge in complex systems in a flexible way. Visioning and scenarios offer important management tools for establishing a hierarchy of actions that can achieve the overarching principles and that can accommodating change. In complex systems, the users must be part of deriving management solutions since this is where and how they learn. Self-organisation, identity and embeddedness are all essential characteristics of building resilience in a catchment system.

Synthesis: IWRM lessons for implementation

This paper provides a synthesis of the main issues discussed at a conference (International Conference on Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) entitled: Lessons from Implementation in Developing Countries which took place from 10 to 12 March 2008 in Cape Town, South Africa, at the Cape Town International Convention Centre) which was coordinated to share experiences and lessons learned on the implementation of IWRM in developing countries. This paper discusses six themes that emerged from the conference. These themes provide a perspective on the current status of IWRM and assist in formulating the agenda for further research and implementation approaches based on lessons learned. Firstly, although there is considerable history and international acceptance of IWRM, there is still ongoing debate on how IWRM is defined. However, aside from these debates there is general agreement on the principles underlying IWRM and the potential it holds for managing complex systems that cannot be adequately achieved through the single-sector management approach of the past. To overcome past management paradigms, new capacity building approaches are required. Secondly, implementation of IWRM requires a balance between policy and institutional support and community level projects that have small-scale tangible results for the poor. Thirdly, IWRM involves integration across many spheres, specifically the integration of groundwater management into long-term water resource planning. Fourthly, although there is general endorsement of the importance of public engagement in supporting IWRM approaches, effective public engagement requires considerable strategic planning to ensure that efforts are both applicable and relevant to those involved. Fifthly, the conference highlighted the importance of developing appropriate economic methods and instruments to address the economic trade-offs and decisions that are apparent in water management. Finally, appropriate data, information systems and indicators are required to adequately monitor progress with IWRM implementation. (Resume d'auteur)

Volumetric efficiency estimation based on neural networks to reduce the experimental effort in engine base calibration

Over the last decades, internal combustion engines have undergone a continuous evolution to achieve better performance, lower pollutant emissions and reduced fuel consumption. This evolution involved changes in the engine architecture needed to perform advanced management strategies. Therefore, Variable Valve Actuation, Exhaust Gas Recirculation, Gasoline Direct Injection, turbocharging and powertrain hybridization have widely equipped modern internal combustion engines. However, the effective management of a such complex system is due to the contemporaneous development of the on-board Engine electronic Control Unit. In fact, the additional degrees of freedom available for the engine regulation highly increased the complexity of engine control and management, resulting in a very expensive and long calibration process. For this reason, this study proposes an effective methodology based on the use of Neural Networks to overcome some critical issues concerning the calibration of engine control parameters. NN are adopted to provide a detailed engine data sheet starting from a reduced number of experimental data. To verify the potential of the proposed methodology, this detailed data set is subsequently used as input to a specific Computer Aided Calibration algorithm developed by the authors and the achievable calibration performance are evaluated. In particular, the calibration performance was assessed with reference to a specific ECU function in this paper. The research clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed approach since the calibration performance falls within acceptable limits even after a 60% cut of the experimental data usually acquired for calibration purposes, highlighting how the use of neural networks can allow a significant reduction of the experimental effort along with its related times and costs.