Cybernetic Principles Research Articles

Molecular biocoding of insulin – amino acid Ser

The modern science mainly treats the biochemical basis of sequencing in bio-macromolecules and processes in medicine and biochemistry. One can ask weather the language of biochemistry is the adequate scientific language to explain the phenomenon in that science. Is there maybe some other language, out of biochemistry, that determines how the biochemical processes will function and what the structure and organization of life systems will be? The research results provide some answers to these questions. They reveal to us that the process of sequencing in bio-macromolecules is conditioned and determined not only through biochemical, but also through cybernetic and information principles. Many studies have indicated that analysis of protein sequence codes and various sequence- based prediction approaches, such as predicting drug-target interaction networks [ 14 ], predicting functions of proteins [ 15 , 18 ], analysis and prediction of the metabolic stability of proteins [ 16 ], predicting the network of substrate-enzyme- product triads [ 7 ], membrane protein type prediction [ 1 , 2 , 5 ]. protein structural class prediction [ 4 , 12 ], protein secondary structure prediction [ 6 , 11 ], enzyme family class prediction [ 3 , 11 ], identifying cyclin proteins [ 20 ], protein subcellular location prediction [ 9 , 10 , 17 , 19 ] , among many others as summarized in a recent review [ 15 ] , can timely provide very useful information and insights for both basic research and drug design and hence are widely welcome by science community. The present study is attempted to develop a novel sequence-based method for studying insulin in hopes that it may become a useful tool in the relevant areas.

Role and contribution of formal models to governing: a heuristic

PurposeThe paper aims to investigate the link between models and system results. It looks at fundamental principles underlying social activities and strives to understand the logical role of models in social governing. Based on these a heuristic is assembled enabling the recognition of the specific contribution formal models can provide for social contexts and also for recognizing the limitations that apply.Design/methodology/approachThe heuristic is developed based on first principles of systems theory and cybernetics with particular consideration of managerial cybernetics. It starts with the assumption that human cognition roots in an autopoietic process from which individual “realities” and Weltanschauungen evolve. Interaction then leads human actors to adopt social system notions through which they initiate and constantly reconcile the implementation of their commonly aspired purposes. With system structures, it is referred to how actors relate to each other in governing – which is a key to learning about what models can contribute. Therefore, the concept of system structure is derived from interaction and rooted in the social system notion distinguishing aspects of structural capacity that pre‐condition the implementation of desired social outcomes. Subsequently, a logical anatomy of system notions is revealed and expressed with a set of invariant systemic topics necessary when being addressed in governing.FindingsThe paper finds a heuristic for identifying the contribution formal models provide to the governance of social systems and recognition of the benefits and limitations specific models provide to governing. Conclusions are drawn on the pre‐conditions securing sustained organizational development through the application of formal models.Originality/valueThe heuristic assembled in this paper facilitates the harmonization and alignment of models in governance settings. The recognition of the role of models in social governing is identified as a logical pre‐condition of sustainable governance. The heuristic presented facilitates assessing and optimizing governing structures with respect to those pre‐conditions.

The Viable Governance Model

Empirical studies into the governance of Information Technology (IT) have advanced our understanding of the mechanisms used to control the management of IT. However, there has been relatively little research into the formulation of a theoretical model of IT governance that explains and organises the growing collection of mechanisms into a coherent whole. To further advance the concept of the corporate governance of IT, the Viable Governance Model (VGM) is proposed. The VGM is a theoretical model of governance based on the laws and principles of cybernetics as embodied in Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model (VSM). The VGM is used to formulate a series of design propositions or principles that may be used to guide the design and implementation of specific IT governance arrangements. The study draws on empirical studies or professional standards to establish how these theoretical design propositions may be satisfied in practice.

Managing without measuring: a study of an electricity distribution company

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present an exception to the common belief “If you can't measure it, you can't manage it”. It aims to show how in certain situations particular practices, attitudes and cultures can remove the need for individual performance measurement.Design/methodology/approachFirst, the paper identifies the usual roles of performance measurement in managing individual employees as described by control and motivation theorists. Second, it identifies a market‐leading organisation where managers deliberately refuse to use their top‐level performance measurement system to manage the performance of individual employees. A case study is carried out to test what non‐measurement mechanisms fulfil the roles of individual performance measurement in this organisation.FindingsBuilding on situations observed at this company, a set of possible characteristics of companies that do not require formalised individual performance measurement systems in order to achieve high performance standards is put forward.Practical implicationsManagers should not always assume that individual performance measurement is the only way to achieve excellent performance. This study shows that, by granting responsibilities and providing appropriate support, managers can channel workers' enhanced motivation towards meeting wider organisational goals.Originality/valueThis work broadens the understanding of how excellent performance can be achieved. It shows that excellence can be achieved through practices based on shared values linked to motivation, trust, and a common sense of mission, without the need to install individual performance measurement systems based on cybernetic principles.

Application of the Principles of Systems Biology and Wiener's Cybernetics for Analysis of Regulation of Energy Fluxes in Muscle Cells in Vivo

The mechanisms of regulation of respiration and energy fluxes in the cells are analyzed based on the concepts of systems biology, non-equilibrium steady state kinetics and applications of Wiener’s cybernetic principles of feedback regulation. Under physiological conditions cardiac function is governed by the Frank-Starling law and the main metabolic characteristic of cardiac muscle cells is metabolic homeostasis, when both workload and respiration rate can be changed manifold at constant intracellular level of phosphocreatine and ATP in the cells. This is not observed in skeletal muscles. Controversies in theoretical explanations of these observations are analyzed. Experimental studies of permeabilized fibers from human skeletal muscle vastus lateralis and adult rat cardiomyocytes showed that the respiration rate is always an apparent hyperbolic but not a sigmoid function of ADP concentration. It is our conclusion that realistic explanations of regulation of energy fluxes in muscle cells require systemic approaches including application of the feedback theory of Wiener’s cybernetics in combination with detailed experimental research. Such an analysis reveals the importance of limited permeability of mitochondrial outer membrane for ADP due to interactions of mitochondria with cytoskeleton resulting in quasi-linear dependence of respiration rate on amplitude of cyclic changes in cytoplasmic ADP concentrations. The system of compartmentalized creatine kinase (CK) isoenzymes functionally coupled to ANT and ATPases, and mitochondrial-cytoskeletal interactions separate energy fluxes (mass and energy transfer) from signalling (information transfer) within dissipative metabolic structures – intracellular energetic units (ICEU). Due to the non-equilibrium state of CK reactions, intracellular ATP utilization and mitochondrial ATP regeneration are interconnected by the PCr flux from mitochondria. The feedback regulation of respiration occurring via cyclic fluctuations of cytosolic ADP, Pi and Cr/PCr ensures metabolic stability necessary for normal function of cardiac cells.

Agility in Information Systems:Enabling Capabilities for the IT Function

This research identifies how the IT function can create agility in existing information systems. Agility is the capability to quickly sense and respond to environmental perturbations. We contrasted perspectives on agility from a widely used industry framework and that of the IS research literature. Beer’s Viable System Model was a useful meta-level theory to house agility elements from IS research and it introduced cybernetic principles to identify the processes required of the IT function. Indeed, our surveys of 70 organizations confirmed that the applied theory better correlates with reported agility than does existing industry best practice. The research conducted two quantitative surveys to test the applied theory. The first survey mailed a Likert-type questionnaire to the clients of an Australian IT consultancy. The second survey invited international members of professional interest groups to complete a web-based questionnaire. The responses from the surveys were analyzed using partial-least-squares modeling. The data analysis positively correlated the maturity of IT function processes prescribed by the VSM and the likelihood of agility in existing information systems. We claim our findings generalize to other large organizations in OECD member countries. The research offers an agility-capability model of the IT function to explain and predict agility in existing information systems. A further contribution is to improve industry ‘best practice’ frameworks by prescribing processes of the IT function to develop in maturity.

Cybernetics and the White House

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to review proposals concerned with advice to President Obama from a cybernetics viewpoint, along with critical comments on the new administration by Noam Chomsky. Also reviewed are proposals for an international conference on the financial crisis.Design/methodology/approachThe aim is to review developments on the internet, especially those of general cybernetic interest.FindingsThere is enthusiasm about introducing cybernetics principles in the new administration. Reservations by Chomsky about some aspects are mentioned, as is also a separate initiative for application of cybernetics to world problems.Practical implicationsThe proposals relating to the Obama administration include not only giving off advice but also possible installation of a specialist on cybernetics in the White House, and founding of a new research facility. For the proposed international conference mentioned, the advice is to watch the CYBCOM list for developments.Originality/valueIt is hoped that this paper is a valuable periodic review.

I Play Therefore I Am

Sid Meier's Civilization allows players to build empires that span the earth and the ages. Complementing existing scholarship on ideologies, practices, and subject positions inculcated by the game, this article interrogates the very conception of subjectivity Civilization fosters in players. Building upon ludological and cybernetic principles, the author takes a formal approach to analyze the processes of human—computer interaction that emerge in the course of players' engagement with the game. Characteristics of the turn-based genre as well as Civilization's interface mechanics, representations of historical processes, and manual are considered for the ways in which they solicit player input. The author contends that player interaction with Civilization reifies a conception of himself or herself as a sovereign agent constituted of pure internality.

John Rose and the early years of sociocybernetics

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to sketch the most valuable contribution of Dr Rose to the development of social cybernetics over the period 1975‐1995.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on an analysis of the proceedings of the sections on “Social Systems” or “Social Cybernetics” of the WOSC conferences from 1978 through 1991, and on an analysis of the entries of the Bibliography on Social Cybernetics (1998).FindingsThe sections on “Social Systems” of the International Congresses on Systems and Cybernetics, initiated by Dr Rose, provided in the period 1978‐1995 the most important meeting point for social scientists aiming at the application of the cybernetic approach to social systems and social processes, and for cyberneticians wanting to use the principles of cybernetics for the analysis and solution of social problems.Originality/valueThe paper shows how the journal Kybernetes, founded by Dr Rose, became the most frequently used publication medium of social cyberneticians: of the 184 papers on social cybernetics mentioned in this bibliography 76 (41 per cent) were published in Kybernetes, more than in any other journal in the domain of cybernetics or social science.

The Atomic Genetic Code

The modern science mainly treats the biochemical basis of sequencing in bio-macromolecules and processes in biochemistry. One can ask weather the language of biochemistry is the adequate scientific language to explain the phenomenon in that science. Is there maybe some other language, out of biochemistry, that determines how the biochemical processes will function and what the structure and organization of life systems will be? The research results provide some answers to these questions. They reveal to us that the process of sequencing in bio-macromolecules is conditioned and determined not only through biochemical, but also through cybernetic and information principles.

The cybernetics of social change – and history

PurposeThis paper aims to show how basic cybernetics principles of the interaction of two or more goal‐oriented systems determine the possibilities of social change – and of history.Design/methodology/approachThe starting‐point is the assumption of a social unit organized in two levels in which leaders and subordinated members share mutual goal‐values. As sources for differentiation within this unit diverging individual strivings and questions of leadership (i.e. defining goals, internal and external policy) are identified.FindingsThese sources for differentiation suffice to explain the emergence of individual, political and economic conflicts, as well as the necessary emergence of a multilevel hierarchical organization of society in order to deal with these conflicts. The options of how to deal with these conflicts are analyzed in detail.Practical implicationsTo avoid the emergence of a proletariat, i.e. a fraction of a society whose interests are neither represented nor pursued by its leaders, is identified as crucial for the long‐term stability of a social unit.Originality/valueThe paper shows how a few cybernetic principles – primarily the cybernetics of decision making and Ashby's law – can explain complex social phenomena. Thus, it shows the applicability of elements of a cybernetic epistemology.

Elements of a cybernetic epistemology

PurposeThe paper seeks to put together cybernetics principles determining the possibilities of interaction between two or more goal‐oriented systems to show that they are determining the patterns of societal organization, too.Design/methodology/approachGoal‐orientation and decision‐rules, as found in simple feedback systems, and Ashby's Law of requisite variety are repeatedly applied to investigate the cybernetic possibilities for the interaction and organization of goal‐oriented systems.FindingsThe interaction of goal‐oriented systems can lead directly to conflict, cooperation or hierarchy. Out of conflict and cooperation there is a further tendency to develop hierarchies. And in a diversifying environment a hierarchical higher system can grow, get suppressive or perish. It is shown how all this abstract cybernetic reasoning applies to societal organization, too: laws follow the form of decision‐rules of feedback systems. Institutions making laws have to define the elements of such decision‐rules. And societal organization processes for solving conflicts face exactly the options derived from the interaction of goal‐oriented systems.Practical implicationsThe goals and the goal‐oriented decisions pursued by a “system” like a person or an institution, are identified as the most important cybernetic determinants to explain seemingly complex phenomena like societal organization.Originality/valueThe paper shows that just a few cybernetics principles determining the possibilities of interaction between two or more goal‐oriented systems suffice to analyze and explain processes of societal differentiation and organization.

NIKOLA TESLA AND ROBOTICS

The paper analyzes some of Tesla's works and his most remarkable views concerning the problem of formulating theoretical bases of automatic control. As a tribute to Tesla's work on remote control of automated systems, as well to his (at the time) far-seeing visions, special attention is paid to solving the complex problem of control and feedback application. A more detailed discussion of the way and origin of formulating theoretical bases of automatic control is given. Besides, in more detail are presented the related pioneering works of Professor Nicholas Bernstein, great Russian physiologist who formulated the basic rules of the self-regulating movements of man. Bernstein has achievements of highest scientific significance that has been in a direct function of identifying and proving the priority of his pioneering contributions in the domain of feedback, i.e. control and principles of cybernetics.

A cybernetic communication model for advertising

Taking as its starting point Barbara B. Stern's (1994) `A Revised Communication Model for Advertising', the article argues for the application of first-order and second-order cybernetic principles to the construction of a more multidimensional and realistic model that is able to address well-documented tensions and problems in the advertising system and provide a fresh perspective on issues connected with interactive advertising and the creative component in advertising communication. The article culminates in a radical second-order cybernetic model of advertising communication that is founded upon the relationship between various observing frames and the stabilized eigenforms (constructions of the self and others produced by an observer) that are generated in the communication process.

Rethinking the cybernetic basis of design: the concepts of control and organization

PurposeEven though design as a purposeful activity naturally fits into the realm of cybernetics, the emphasis on control has limited the scope of using cybernetic principles in design. The idea of organization, another fundamental concept in cybernetics, has received less attention in design research and seems worthy of further exploration. The purpose of the paper is to review the two concepts and clarify their role and meaning in design. Overall, using insights from complex systems science, the paper attempts to recast the relationship between cybernetics and design.Design/methodology/approachThe treatment uses category theory as a language and methodological approach in order to formally express the concepts of “organization” “control” and “design” and then study the relations between them.FindingsOrganization is defined using the mathematical concept of sketch, i.e. as a characterization of the complementary relation between theories and models. The paper demonstrates that the peculiarity of design rests on the fact that the distinction between theories and models is an anticipated but emergent state. In contrast, control‐based representations assume that the theory‐model distinction is given in advance, as an intrinsic characteristic. The paper demonstrates that design is a distinct paradigm in relation to control, yet it falls within the domain of cybernetic and complex systems enquiry.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the understanding of design as a distinct type of problem in cybernetics by exposing differences between control and design problems. The paper also further lays the foundations for developing a cybernetic theory of design based on the concept of organization.

The magic of three

PurposeThis paper aims to combine several modes of thought based on systems organization and observing systems in order to construct a model for a “designerly way of thinking”.Design/methodology/approachThe approach is to regard design as a “groundless field of knowledge” that may source methodological insights from cybernetics, systems theory, cognitive studies and complexity theory, among others.FindingsThe focus of this research is to model an adaptive frame‐of‐reference that design students may use in order to construct their own autopoietic identity systems. The semantic question “How does a student obtain information about design?” is changed to a structural question “How could students acquire a structure enabling them to operate innovatively in a modern design environment?” With the backing of cybernetic principles, it is apparent that this process is not only feasible but also preferable.Practical implicationsWhile the practical use that can be made of any design theory is not within the remit of this paper, it is nonetheless the goal of theory to enhance the individual's analytical and communicative skills.Originality/valueThis paper suggests an autopoietic model‐for‐becoming that can have the virtual potential of bringing one to understand the grey areas of human‐object relationships.

Cybernetic principles for learning design

Purpose – This paper aims to present an approach from first principles to the design of learning experiences in interactive learning environments, that is “learning designs” in the broadest sense.Design/methodology/approach – The approach is based on conversation theory (CT), a theory of learning and teaching with principled foundations in cybernetics. The approach to learning design that is proposed is not dissimilar from other approaches such as that proposed by Rowntree. However, its basis in CT provides a coherent theoretical underpinning.Findings – Currently, in the world of e‐learning, the terms “instructional design” and “learning design” are used to refer to the application of theories of learning and instruction to the creation of e‐learning material and online learning experiences. The paper examines the roots of the two terms and discusses similarities and differences in usage. It then discusses how the processes of learning design fit into the larger processes of course, design, development an...

Cybernetic principles for learning design

Cybernetic principles for learning design

A SOCIAL CYBERNETICS APPROACH TO COMMUNITY USE OF SPATIAL DATA FOR RESOURCE PROTECTION: FIELD STUDY ON A NORTH-CENTRAL IDAHO INDIAN RESERVATION

This study investigates the engagement of communities with little or no GIS expertise in the use of publicly available spatial data for self-education in the protection of drinking water sources. A traditional administrative top-down approach to assisting communities in getting or using spatial information was replaced in the study with a bottom-up approach based on the principles of social cybernetics. The study investigated how communities used spatial datasets provided by the state to facilitate public participation in creating maps for water resource protection. Nine rural communities in the State of Idaho within the Nez Perce Indian Reservation participated in a field study from 2001–2002. Results included "map archetypes" developed by the communities and a validation of the bottom-up approach stressing community control over the process of using spatial data.

System dynamics approach for change management in new product development

PurposeNew product development (NPD) project is an organizational competitiveness strategic weapon. Yet, many NPDs projects fail due to the dynamic nature of critical success factors such as time, cost, quality, and scope. Scope and change management (CM) are crucial factors and have a direct bearing on the other three factors. Thus, there is a need for effective CM in NPD projects to sustain the competitiveness and focusing on scope. This study aims to examine this issue.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, the principles of cybernetics and system dynamics (SD) methodology have been used in developing causal loop diagrams, flow diagrams, and the governing equations. The SD model thus developed has been used to analyze the factors such as change in scope due to the development of new technology.FindingsThe dynamic simulation of the SD model was carried out; the results indicate that effective knowledge management (KM) constitutes the main controlling factor that has a significant control over project dynamics. Accordingly, suggestions have been made to improve on the KM aspects in the manufacturing sector, based on which the model has been developed.Practical implicationsThe model developed in this research gives an in‐depth study of the influence of “change in scope” on competence loss, competence development, and competence absorption of the knowledge workers. The results lay special emphasis on efficient KM in the manufacturing sector. Accordingly, suggestions on KM implementation include the processes of knowledge creation, storage, distributions, validation, and application.Originality/valueThis paper is unique in the sense that it develops a model with in‐depth structures, which helps the strategic managers in better understanding of the dynamics of NPD when change in scope occurs.