Principles Of Systems Science Research Articles

Demonstrating a systems approach for integrating disparate data streams to inform decisions on children\u2019s environmental health

BackgroundThe use of systems science methodologies to understand complex environmental and human health relationships is increasing. Requirements for advanced datasets, models, and expertise limit current application of these approaches by many environmental and public health practitioners.MethodsA conceptual system-of-systems model was applied for children in North Carolina counties that includes example indicators of children’s physical environment (home age, Brownfield sites, Superfund sites), social environment (caregiver’s income, education, insurance), and health (low birthweight, asthma, blood lead levels). The web-based Toxicological Prioritization Index (ToxPi) tool was used to normalize the data, rank the resulting vulnerability index, and visualize impacts from each indicator in a county. Hierarchical clustering was used to sort the 100 North Carolina counties into groups based on similar ToxPi model results. The ToxPi charts for each county were also superimposed over a map of percentage county population under age 5 to visualize spatial distribution of vulnerability clusters across the state.ResultsData driven clustering for this systems model suggests 5 groups of counties. One group includes 6 counties with the highest vulnerability scores showing strong influences from all three categories of indicators (social environment, physical environment, and health). A second group contains 15 counties with high vulnerability scores driven by strong influences from home age in the physical environment and poverty in the social environment. A third group is driven by data on Superfund sites in the physical environment.ConclusionsThis analysis demonstrated how systems science principles can be used to synthesize holistic insights for decision making using publicly available data and computational tools, focusing on a children’s environmental health example. Where more traditional reductionist approaches can elucidate individual relationships between environmental variables and health, the study of collective, system-wide interactions can enable insights into the factors that contribute to regional vulnerabilities and interventions that better address complex real-world conditions.

Democracy is Failing, Health of Nations is Failing, and Pandemic is Raging: Systems Science Exposés

All societies have goals of achieving health, happiness, and longevity, but without success. Visible to all are organizational structures that are under stress, international collaboration that is without harmony, and priorities that are missing their targets. A search for etiology and a possible common denominator of such outcomes has been conducted in this study using systems science. Results of this research indicate that, in many societies, there exist numerous deviations from systems science principles, regarding health, components relationships, decisions – consequences learning loops, and many others; all such nonconformities lead to fragmentation of collective intelligence, predominantly affecting rationality and responsibility to self and to all-related larger systems.

Applying systems and complexity science to real patient care.

To describe the application of systems and complexity science principles to real patient care. Our current global health care system is not sustainable. It is structured based on the principles of reductionist science, which was discovered and developed over the past 400 to 600 years. Because of increasing pace of change and increasing complexity in our world, we have increased fragmentation in our health care system leading to more harm and waste. Over 100 years ago, the principles of systems, or complexity, science were discovered, first in the discipline of physics. These principles accommodate the constant change and biologic variability in our world. While reductionist principles would be applicable in a static, mechanical world where parts of the system could be isolated, this does not exist in the real biologic world. For the past decade, our abdominal wall hernia team has been applying the principles of systems science to real patient care. Some of the tools we have applied include continuous quality improvement for whole hernia patient processes and non-linear analytical tools to gain insight to improve value-based outcomes. Until we learn to apply and scale these principles across our whole global health care system, we will continue to suffer the consequences of our current unsustainable system. We have learned that the application of systems and complexity science to real patient care can lead to lower costs and better outcomes in the context of patients with complex hernia problems. However, these concepts have not yet been adopted in our global health care system. Applying the principles of systems and complexity science to our global health care system has the potential to lower costs and improve patient outcomes for any patient care process to which it is applied.

Integrating Complex Systems Methods to Advance Obesity Prevention Intervention Research.

Background. Whole-of-community interventions have been recommended and show promise for preventing obesity; however, research to understand the mechanisms underlying their success or failure is lacking. Complex systems approaches may be useful to address this gap. Purpose. To describe the evolution and utilization of qualitative and quantitative complex systems methods to understand and model whole-of-community obesity prevention interventions. Approach. We illustrate the retrospective qualitative development of a systems map representing community change dynamic within the Shape Up Somerville (SUS) intervention. We then describe how this systems map, and complementary work of other successful obesity prevention interventions (Romp & Chomp intervention), informed the COMPACT (childhood obesity modeling for prevention and community transformation) study. COMPACT's design aligns complex systems science principles and community-engaged research to better understand stakeholders' leadership roles in whole-of-community interventions. We provide an overview of the complex systems tools used in COMPACT: agent-based modeling, group model building, and social network analysis and describe how whole-of-community intervention stakeholders ("agents") use their social networks to diffuse knowledge about and engagement with childhood obesity prevention efforts, laying the groundwork for community readiness for sustainable change. Conclusion. Complex systems approaches appear feasible and useful to study whole-of-community obesity prevention interventions and provide novel insights that expand on those gained from traditional approaches. Use of multiple methods, both qualitative and quantitative, from the complex systems toolkit working together can be important to success.

From a Quantum State to a Quantum State. <i>Life as a Temporary Emergence of a Differentiated Physicality</i>

Introduction: Neither Life nor a quantum state are isolated phenomena; both are inter-related systems with mutual dependency and shared doctrines. Material/Method: Public domain records were searched for identifiable observations that were considered relevant to Life principles of systems science; similarities with quantum space-time were explored. Results/Conclusions: A quantum state has directionality within its cycle, from a very long expansion/inflation to a very short contraction/deflation through singularities of reversals in a Black Hole, all followed by a new Big Bang with a new inflationary phase. Living systems represent recapitulation of their evolutionary history and carry it within own coded genome. Sun, Earth, and Life are estimated to have emerged almost simultaneously, within a plateau of about 600 million years (4.6-4 billion years ago), at the transition from the inflationary/expanding quantum state of the Universe to the deflationary/contracting one with the appearance of a definable manifestation of quantum system’s output, the emergence, in the physicality of Sun, Earth, Life, etc. Life has its own Big Bang, symbolized by the unwinding of the nuclear DNA spiral during embryogenesis; within its scale, it is just as massive and rapid as the inflation following the Big Bang in the Universe that is generally dated to about 14 billion years ago. A pathway is also explored to consider ‘how we know that we know’, an outcome of translation of signal processing to cognitive understanding that impact measurements and observations.

Health, Health Care, and Systems Science: Emerging Paradigm

Health is a continuum of an optimized state of a biologic system, an outcome of positive relationships with Self and others. A healthy system follows the principles of systems science derived from observations of Nature, highlighting the character of relationships as the key determinant. Relationships evolve from our decisions, which are consequential to the function of our own biologic system on all levels, including the genome, where epigenetics impact our morphology; in healthy systems, decisions emanate from the reciprocal collaboration of hippocampal memory and the executive prefrontal cortex. We can decide to change relationships through choices. What is selected, however, only represents cognitive interpretation of our limited sensory perception; it strongly reflects inherent biases toward either an optimizing state, making a biologic system healthy, or not; health or its absence is then the outcome; there is no inconsequential choice.Public health effort should not focus on punitive steps (e.g. taxation of unhealthy products or behaviors) in order to achieve a higher level of public’s health; it should teach people the process of making healthy decisions; otherwise, people will just migrate/shift from one unhealthy product/behavior to another and well-intended punitive steps will not make much difference. Physical activity, accompanied by nutrition and stress management, have the greatest impact on fashioning health and simultaneously are the most cost-effective measures; moderate-to-vigorous exercise not only improves aerobic fitness but also positively influences cognition, including memory and senses; collective, rational societal decisions, can then be anticipated.Health care is a business system principally govern by self-maximizing decisions of its components; uneven and contradictory outcomes are the consequences within such a non-optimized system.Main thesis: health is not health care; we are biologic systems subject to the laws of biology in spite of our incongruous decisions that are detrimental to health; a biologic system/a human body originates from structural, deterministic genes as well as shared epigenetic memory of our ancestors affecting our bodily function and structure; the political governing systems’ vertical hierarchy has control over money and laws neither of which materially affect individual lifestyle/behavioral choices toward health; improved health comes from focusing on enhancing biologic age and not chronologic one which simply represents a linear time from a birth certificate to a death certificate and is applicable only in its extremes; “age-related diseases” are simply reflections of a given culture; biologic age, reflecting the actual state of health, could be used in all health-related assessments including health-life insurance premiums, licensing of job categories, etc., all with a broader and healthy societal impact.

Health, Health Care, and Systems Science: Emerging Paradigm.

Health is a continuum of an optimized state of a biologic system, an outcome of positive relationships with the self and others. A healthy system follows the principles of systems science derived from observations of nature, highlighting the character of relationships as the key determinant.Relationships evolve from our decisions, which are consequential to the function of our own biologic system on all levels, including the genome, where epigenetics impact our morphology. In healthy systems, decisions emanate from the reciprocal collaboration of hippocampal memory and the executive prefrontal cortex.We can decide to change relationships through choices. What is selected, however, only represents the cognitive interpretation of our limited sensory perception; it strongly reflects inherent biases toward either optimizing state, making a biologic system healthy, or not. Health or its absence is then the outcome; there is no inconsequential choice.Public health effort should not focus on punitive steps (e.g. taxation of unhealthy products or behaviors) in order to achieve a higher level of public’s health. It should teach people the process of making healthy decisions; otherwise, people will just migrate/shift from one unhealthy product/behavior to another, and well-intended punitive steps will not make much difference.Physical activity, accompanied by nutrition and stress management, have the greatest impact on fashioning health and simultaneously are the most cost-effective measures. Moderate-to-vigorous exercise not only improves aerobic fitness but also positively influences cognition, including memory and senses. Collective, rational societal decisions can then be anticipated.Health care is a business system principally governed by self-maximizing decisions of its components; uneven and contradictory outcomes are the consequences within such a non-optimized system.Health is not health care. We are biologic systems subject to the laws of biology in spite of our incongruous decisions that are detrimental to health. A biologic system/a human body originates from structural, deterministic genes as well as shared epigenetic memory of our ancestors affecting our bodily function and structure. The political governing systems’ vertical hierarchy has control over money and laws, neither of which materially affect individual lifestyle/behavioral choices toward health. Improved health comes from focusing on enhancing the biologic age and not the chronologic one, which simply represents a linear time from a birth certificate to a death certificate and is applicable only in its extremes. “Age-related diseases” are simply reflections of a given culture. Biologic age, reflecting the actual state of health, could be used in all health-related assessments including health-life insurance premiums, licensing of job categories, etc., all with a broader and healthy societal impact.

Enhancing implementation science by applying best principles of systems science.

BackgroundImplementation science holds promise for better ensuring that research is translated into evidence-based policy and practice, but interventions often fail or even worsen the problems they are intended to solve due to a lack of understanding of real world structures and dynamic complexity. While systems science alone cannot possibly solve the major challenges in public health, systems-based approaches may contribute to changing the language and methods for conceptualising and acting within complex systems. The overarching goal of this paper is to improve the modelling used in dissemination and implementation research by applying best principles of systems science.DiscussionBest principles, as distinct from the more customary term ‘best practices’, are used to underscore the need to extract the core issues from the context in which they are embedded in order to better ensure that they are transferable across settings. Toward meaningfully grappling with the complex and challenging problems faced in adopting and integrating evidence-based health interventions and changing practice patterns within specific settings, we propose and illustrate four best principles derived from our systems science experience: (1) model the problem, not the system; (2) pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable; (3) leverage the utility of models as boundary objects; and (4) adopt a portfolio approach to model building. To improve our mental models of the real world, system scientists have created methodologies such as system dynamics, agent-based modelling, geographic information science and social network simulation. To understand dynamic complexity, we need the ability to simulate. Otherwise, our understanding will be limited. The practice of dynamic systems modelling, as discussed herein, is the art and science of linking system structure to behaviour for the purpose of changing structure to improve behaviour. A useful computer model creates a knowledge repository and a virtual library for internally consistent exploration of alternative assumptions.ConclusionAmong the benefits of systems modelling are iterative practice, participatory potential and possibility thinking. We trust that the best principles proposed here will resonate with implementation scientists; applying them to the modelling process may abet the translation of research into effective policy and practice.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12961-016-0146-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The Application of Systems Science to Addressing Obesity at the Workplace: Tapping into Unexplored Potential.

The aim of the study was to address the need for explicit recognition that obesity is complex in its biological, social, psychological, and societal determinants and ramifications, and that applications of programs to address obesity at the workplace need to recognize this setting as a complex social environment. Efforts to address this complexity more meaningfully demand intentional application of systems science principles and approaches. Along with several relevant examples, a description of systems sciences and the application of its principles to obesity and the workplace setting are presented. Systems science provides a method to explore large proportions of unexplored potential and unexplained variation in obesity research as applied to the workplace.

Synthesizing Marketing, Community Engagement, and Systems Science Approaches for Advancing Translational Research.

The adoption and implementation of evidence-based interventions (EBIs) are the goals of translational research; however, potential end-users' perceptions of an EBI value have contributed to low rates of adoption. In this article, we describe our application of emerging dissemination and implementation science theoretical perspectives, community engagement, and systems science principles to develop a novel EBI dissemination approach. Using consumer-driven, graphics-rich simulation, the approach demonstrates predicted implementation effects on health and employment outcomes for socioeconomically disadvantaged women at the local level and is designed to increase adoption interest of county program managers accountable for improving these outcomes in their communities.

Incorporating Systems Science Principles into the Development of Obesity Prevention Interventions: Principles, Benefits, and Challenges.

Systems modeling represents an innovative approach for addressing the obesity epidemic at the community level. We developed an agent-based model of the Baltimore City food environment that permits us to assess the relative impact of different programs and policies, alone and in combination, and potential unexpected consequences. Based on this experience, and a review of literature, we have identified a set of principles, potential benefits, and challenges. Some of the key principles include the importance of early and multilevel engagement with the community prior to initiating model development and continued engagement and testing with community stakeholders. Important benefits include improving community stakeholder understanding of the system, testing of interventions before implementation, and identification of unexpected consequences. Challenges in these models include deciding on the most important, yet parsimonious factors to consider, how to model food source and food selection behavior in a realistic yet transferable manner, and identifying the appropriate outcomes and limitations of the model.

Educator Perspectives on Earth System Science Literacy: Challenges and Priorities

ABSTRACTThe challenges and priorities of defining and achieving Earth System Science (ESS) literacy are examined through surveys of geoscience educators attending a professional geological meeting. Two surveys with Likert-style and free-response questions were distributed to geoscientists and K–12 teachers to elicit what instructors think are important concepts, experiences, and hurdles to ESS literacy. Survey 1 asked participants open-ended questions about the challenges and priorities of ESS literacy. Survey 2 asked participants to evaluate the importance of various concepts for nonscience majors taking an ESS course. Survey 1 results indicate that the geoscience professors and K–12 teachers place emphasis on the relevance of Earth Science for public decision-making and regard formal education as having an important role in building Earth Science literacy. Respondents identified weaknesses of K–12 ESS education and the lack of respect for the geosciences as substantial hurdles for ESS literacy. Survey 2 results reveal that respondents highly value integrated Earth Systems concepts, such as, Earth systems involve complex interactions between rock, water, air, and life. Less value is placed on fact-like statements that cover a narrow range of content, such as the age of the Earth and that Earth is mostly covered by an ocean. Results from both surveys indicate that K–12 teachers value teaching the interconnectedness of humanity and the Earth more so than do professors. This study identifies geoscience educators' perspectives of Earth Systems Science Principles and reveals the need for a more cohesive movement to promote the importance of ESS and develop ESS literacy in the general public.

3.5.0 Systems Science

AbstractWe will provide reports on current projects of the Systems Science Working Group: System Pathologies Unified Systems Science Theory Unified Ontology of Scientific Method & Systems The purpose of this working group is to promote the advancement and understanding of Systems Science and its application to SE. Our are objectives are to: (1) Encourage advancement of Systems Science principles and concepts as they apply to Systems Engineering, (2) Promote awareness of Systems Science as a foundation for Systems Engineering, and (3) Highlight linkages between Systems Science theories and empirical practices of Systems Engineering.

Is U.S. health care an appropriate system? A strategic perspective from systems science.

ContextSystems science provides organizational principles supported by biologic findings that can be applied to any organization; any incongruence indicates an incomplete or an already failing system. U.S. health care is commonly referred to as a system that consumes an ever- increasing percentage of the gross domestic product and delivers seemingly diminishing value.ObjectiveTo perform a comparative study of U.S. health care with the principles of systems science and, if feasible, propose solutions.DesignGeneral systems theory provides the theoretical foundation for this observational research.Main Outcome MeasuresA degree of compliance of U.S. health care with systems principles and its space-time functional location within the dynamic systems model.Results of comparative analysisU.S. health care is an incomplete system further threatened by the fact that it functions in the zone of chaos within the dynamic systems model.ConclusionComplying with systems science principles and the congruence of pertinent cycles, U.S. health care would likely dramatically improve its value creation for all of society as well as its resiliency and long-term sustainability.Immediate corrective steps could be taken: Prioritize and incentivize health over care; restore fiscal soundness by combining health and life insurance for the benefit of the insured and the payer; rebalance horizontal/providers and vertical/government hierarchies.

Cancer control through principles of systems science, complexity, and chaos theory: A model

Cancer is a significant medical and societal problem. This reality arises from the fact that an exponential and an unrestricted cellular growth destabilizes human body as a system. From this perspective, cancer is a manifestation of a system-in-failing.A model of normal and abnormal cell cycle oscillations has been developed incorporating systems science, complexity, and chaos theories. Using this model, cancer expresses a failing subsystem and is characterized by a positive exponential growth taking place in the outer edge of chaos. The overall survival of human body as a system is threatened. This model suggests, however, that cancer's exponential cellular growth and disorganized complexity could be controlled through the process of induction of differentiation of cancer stem cells into cells of low and basic functionality. This concept would imply reorientation of current treatment principles from cellular killing (cyto-toxic therapies) to cellular retraining (cyto-education).

Quality and safety in a complex world: why systems science matters to otolaryngologists.

Almost all modern medical care is delivered in the setting of many overlapping systems. Each system may consist of multiple providers and in most cases electronic and mechanical components. Even "simple" outpatient care is delivered by teams of providers, administrators, and devices. Critically ill inpatients are cared for in extraordinarily complex systems with hundreds of human and non-human elements. The science of complex systems has exploded in recent decades, and there is a large body of knowledge about how such systems function effectively or ineffectively. Many principles of systems science are simple to understand and apply, but few Otolaryngologists are well educated about them. A basic knowledge of systems science will greatly improve the Otolaryngologist's ability to function in complex health care systems and to provide the best care for his or her patients.

Some principles of efficient organizational design

The efficiency of organizations and bureaucracies in both design and operation depends to some extent on internal and external factors Examples of the former include overstaffing, a top-heavy management structure, uneven distribution of the workload, and intersupervisory conflict. The latter includes variation in the market competition, communication breakdowns, and the effects of outside agents. Inefficiency is rarely deliberately incorporated within any structure : it most often develops as a result of overfast, haphazard or unnecessary growth, and can often be avoided or remedied. As societies develop, they depend increasingly upon organizational structures and it is thus the intention of this paper to examine some aspects of organizational efficiency by drawing on some of the basic principles of systems science

Systems Science and Mental Health

Hayes-Roth, Longabaugh, & Ryback* describe some of the elementary principles of systems science and suggest some ways these principles might be applied in the study of mental health care delivery. A clear understanding of the fundamental concepts used in systems analysis is essential for an understanding of the problems faced by our mental health care system today. But carrying out a systems analysis normally entails much more than describing a system by a series of flow charts, and these authors do not do justice to the spectrum of tools systems science can bring to bear on a problem, or to the limitations of those tools. Systems science comprises, in addition to the elementary concepts, a loose collection of techniques developed in several disciplines for the solution of particular classes of problems. Some techniques used by systems analysts, decision theory, for example, are likely to be useful in working with mental health systems, whereas other techniques, such as methods for solving systems of partial differential equations, are likely to be of more limited utility. Unfortunately, there are no simple, general rules that will automatically lead to a correct analysis and appropriate policy recommendations.