Complex Systems Thinking Research Articles

Using the Principles of Complex Systems Thinking and Implementation Science to Enhance Maternal and Child Health Program Planning and Delivery

Traditionally, epidemiologic methodologies have focused on measurement of exposures, outcomes, and program impact through reductionistic, yet complex statistical modeling. Although not new to the field of epidemiology, two frameworks that provide epidemiologists with a foundation for understanding the complex contexts in which programs and policies are implemented were presented to maternal and child health (MCH) professionals at the 2012 co-hosted 18th Annual MCH Epidemiology Conference and 22nd CityMatCH Urban Leadership Conference. The complex systems approach offers researchers in MCH the opportunity to understand the functioning of social, medical, environmental, and behavioral factors within the context of implemented public health programs. Implementation science provides researchers with a framework to translate the evidence-based program interventions into practices and policies that impact health outcomes. Both approaches offer MCH epidemiologists conceptual frameworks with which to re-envision how programs are implemented, monitored, evaluated, and reported to the larger public health audience. By using these approaches, researchers can begin to understand and measure the broader public health context, account for the dynamic interplay of the social environment, and ultimately, develop more effective MCH programs and policies.

7.1.2 Concept Selection ‐ Applying Pugh Matrices in the Subsea Processing Domain

AbstractThis paper discusses the application of Pugh matrices in concept selections within the subsea processing department of FMC Technologies. The focus is not the concepts themselves or requirements management, but on applying Pugh matrices in conceptual system studies. Previous research by Master students in the oil & gas industry shows resistance amongst engineers and managers towards using Pugh matrices. The application of the Pugh matrix in these studies showed that if applied on the correct level of detail as part of the concept selection process, it is a powerful tool. It forces reasoning to be based on explicit criteria and also serves the purpose of documenting the decision making. This level of documentation and definition/selection of criteria goes beyond the normal practice today. The study teams gained a broader and deeper understanding of the design problems in addition to securing the quality of the concept selection process. The involved engineers readily adopted the Pugh matrix and they intend to continue using it, mainly due to its ability to force structural thinking in complex systems.

Cultural Differences Between Favela and Asfalto in Complex Systems Thinking

Abstract Favela residents in Brazil have been marginalized throughout their history. Nonetheless, the favela environment seems to create conditions conducive to a cognitive orientation that could be advantageous for engaging in complex systems thinking. This study is a preliminary examination of people from different social backgrounds in Rio de Janeiro, both favela (working-class) and asfalto (middle-class) dwellers, and evaluates whether their cognitive orientations might present any markers for the potential of complex systems thinking, including: (1) the ability to see multiple perspectives, and (2) a tendency to focus on relationships. I conducted a mixed methods research study based on in-depth interviews with 89 residents in Rio de Janeiro. The data indicate that favela residents in Rio de Janeiro show markers for systems thinking, appealing to relational information and taking multiple perspectives spontaneously.

Complex Systems Thinking and Current Impasses in Health Disparities Research

Complex Systems Thinking and Current Impasses in Health Disparities Research

Complex Systems Thinking and Current Impasses in Health Disparities Research

Complex systems approaches have received increasing attention in public health because reductionist approaches yield limited insights in the context of dynamic systems. Most discussions have been highly abstract. There is a need to consider the application of complex systems approaches to specific research questions. I review the features of population health problems for which complex systems approaches are most likely to yield new insights, and discuss possible applications of complex systems to health disparities research. I provide illustrative examples of how complex systems approaches may help address unanswered and persistent questions regarding genetic factors, life course processes, place effects, and the impact of upstream policies. The concepts and methods of complex systems may help researchers move beyond current impasse points in health disparities research.

Demonstrating nursing care as a social practice

This study aimed to understand the meaning of nursing care as a social practice based on interactions and associations with complex-systemic thinking. Grounded Theory was the methodological framework used and 35 health professionals distributed in different sample groups were interviewed through a semi-structured questionnaire. Simultaneous data codification and analysis permitted the identification of the central category: 'Evidencing nursing care as social practice'. Nursing care as a social practice based on complex-systemic thinking constitutes a new paradigm of intervention, capable of strengthening social actions through interactive and associative networks, and of acting in a proactive, innovating and participative manner.

Biofuels, solar and wind as renewable energy systems: benefits and risks

Renewable and Solar Energy Technologies: Energy and Environmental Issues.- Can the Earth Deliver the Biomass-For-Fuel We Demand?- A Review of the Economic Rewards and Risks Of Ethanol Production.- Subsidies to Ethanol in the United States.- Peak Oil, EROI, Investments, and the Economy in an Uncertain Future.- Wind Power: Benefits and Limitations.- Renewable Diesel.- Complex Systems Thinking and Renewable Energy Systems.- Sugarcane and Ethanol Production and Carbon Dioxide Balances.- Biomass Fuel Cycle Boundaries and Parameters: Current Practice and Proposed Methodology.- Our Food and Fuel Future.- A Framework For Alternative Energy: Net Energy and Multi-Criteria Analysis.- Bio-Ethanol Production In Brazil.- Ethanol Production: Energy and Economic Issues Related To U.S. and Brazilian Sugarcane.- Ethanol Production Using Corn, Switchgrass and Wood Biodiesel Production Using Soybean.- Developing Energy Crops for Thermal Applications: Optimizing Fuel Quality, Energy Security and GHG Mitigation.- Organic and Sustainable Agriculture and Energy Conservation.- Biofuel Production in Italy and Europe: Benefits and Costs, in the Light of the Present European Union Biofuel Policy.- The Power Density of Ethanol from Brazilian Sugarcane.- A Brief Discussion on Algae for Production: Energy Issues.

An Evolutionary Approach to Harnessing Complex Systems Thinking in the Science and Technology Classroom

Educational efforts to incorporate ethical decision‐making in science classrooms about current science and technology issues have met with great challenges. Some research suggests that the inherent complexity in both the subject matter content and the structure and dynamics of classrooms contribute to this challenge. This study seeks to investigate the viability of an educational heuristic based on a complex s ystems evolutionary approach to both harness complexity inherent in the learning system of the classroom and to improve student knowledge of a complex scientific issue. The evolutionary mechanisms of variation, interaction, and selection were used to construct a 10‐day curriculum and instruction unit on the topic of genetic engineering. Eleven Grade 9 students participated in the study. The data analysis was completed using three data sources: daily database discussions and ratings and rationales provided over four time‐points, probing student opinions and understanding of genetic engineering research. A repeated‐measures analysis of variance conducted on 43 student rationales indicated a continuing trend of increasing understanding of complex systems concepts over time. There is also evidence to show that students as a whole group operated as a complex system in their patterns of decision‐making. A number of themes identified in student database discussions reveal processes students themselves believed influenced change at the social and conceptual level, including the evolutionary mechanisms upon which the program was designed.

Land-Use Policy and Planning, Theorizing, and Modeling: Lost in Translation, Found in Complexity?

This paper ventures an examination of the linkages among three worlds—those of land-use theorizing and modeling, and that of policy making and planning—which, despite historical and recent advances, remain comparatively poor and haunted by defective communication and problematic translation between them. It is motivated by shifts that have taken place since the late 1980s in all three worlds, away from ‘classical’ thinking (positivism, reductionism, and linear and static worldviews) and towards complex systems (CS) thinking (alternative epistemologies, holism, and nonlinear and dynamic worldviews). The principal question is whether or not CS thinking, compared to classical thinking, addresses more satisfactorily key policy and planning issues, thus holding the potential to improve communication and bridge the gaps between the three worlds. The issues examined are the representation of the sociospatial system, the land-use change process, and policy and planning intervention. After delimiting each world and the diffusion of CS thinking, the paper investigates how the classical approach and the CS approach fare in handling these issues. The analysis suggests that it is not yet possible to determine which approach is superior. The main points are summarized and CS specific and more general future research directions are indicated.

Acquisition of Complex Systemic Thinking: Mental Models of Evolution

We investigated the impact of introducing college students to complex adaptive systems on their subsequent mental models of evolution compared to those of students taught in the same manner but with no reference to complex systems. The students' mental models (derived from similarity ratings of 12 evolutionary terms using the pathfinder algorithm) were significantly similar to their teachers' mental models and were correlated to their performance on an essay on evolution. Introducing students to complex systems facilitated their understanding of the mechanism of inheritance, the mechanism of evolution, and the role of chance in evolution.

An ecosystem approach for sustainability: addressing the challenge of complexity

The dynamics of ecosystems and human systems need to be addressed in the context of post-normal science grounded in complex systems thinking. We portray these systems as Self-Organizing Holarchic Open (SOHO) systems and interpret their behaviours and structures with reference to non-equilibrium thermodynamics: holons, propensities and canons; and information and attractors. Given the phenomena exhibited by SOHO systems, conventional science approaches to modelling and forecasting are inappropriate, as are prevailing explanations in terms of linear causality and stochastic properties. Instead, narratives in the form of scenarios to depict morphogenetic causal loops, autocatalysis, and multiple possible pathways for development need to be considered. Short examples are given. We also link SOHO system descriptions to issues of human preferences and choices concerning the preferred attributes of particular SOHO systems, and to the implications for achieving them through adaptive management, monitoring and appropriate structures for governance. A heuristic framework to guide reasoning for this is presented, and reiterative steps for applying it are identified. In this way we provide a coherent conceptual basis, in the workings of both natural systems and decision systems, for the practice of post-normal science.

Science in the Systems Age: Beyond IE, OR, and MS

I believe we are leaving one cultural and technological age and entering another; that we are in the early stages of a change in our conception of the world, a change in our way of thinking about it, and a change in the technology with which we try to make it serve our purposes. These changes, I believe, are as fundamental and pervasive as were those associated with the Renaissance, the Age of the Machine that it introduced, and the Industrial Revolution that was its principal product. The socio-technical revolution we have entered may well come to be known as the Resurrection.