The self‐adaptation of constitutional dynamic systems based on selective coordination between 5,5′‐dimethyl‐2,2′‐bipyridine and deuterium‐labeled 4,4′‐dimethyl‐2,2′‐bipyridine to FeII, CoII, NiII, ...CuII, or ZnII has been evaluated by ESI‐MS in methanol. The equilibration rates of the systems proved dependent on the metal species, following the order ZnII > CuII > CoII > NiII > FeII, where ZnII resulted in rapid rearrangement of the original homoleptic complexes. The heteroleptic complexes were favored in the systems with CoII, CuII and ZnII, whereas the homoleptic complexes were more pronounced with FeII and NiII.
The constitutional dynamics of adaptive coordination systems based on FeII, CoII, NiII, CuII, and ZnII has been evaluated by ESI‐MS and NMR. The resulting dynamic equilibration processes could be easily followed over time, and the kinetic and thermodynamic properties assessed.
The aim of this paper is to show how Niklas Luhmann's concept of self‐organization can be formalized using fuzzy logic. This approach is based on the shared assumptions of systems theory and fuzzy ...logic and focuses on natural language expression and the complexity of social processes. It involves modelling the operations of the system in relation to the fuzziness of the environment, that is, the transformation of environmental stimuli in gradual uncertainty to binary codes of communication. Based on these operations, it is possible to formalize their unified pattern, which shows the observation of past operations and the simultaneous observation of the environment. An example is given of the formalization of restaurant self‐organization in the Czech Republic during the Covid‐19 pandemic. The model illustrates and explains how the restaurant system reduces lockdown as an environment, in other words, how the system stabilizes its behaviour in a complex pandemic period.
This study compares illegitimate tasks and appreciation in traditional work organisations and holacracy work organisations based in Switzerland and Germany. In addition, the study tests whether the ...fit between employees and holacracy organisations depends on personality characteristics. Ninety-five employees working in holacratic companies participated in an online survey with standardised questionnaires on illegitimate tasks, Big Five personality dimensions, perceived holacracy satisfaction and person-organisation fit. For the comparison of illegitimate tasks and appreciation, a propensity-matching comparison group of people working in traditional companies was used. The results revealed significantly lower illegitimate tasks t(53) = -2.04,
< 0.05, with a lower level (2.49) in holacracy than in traditional work (2.78). Concerning appreciation, the results showed significantly higher values for holacratic (5.33) than for traditional work 4.14, t(53) = 4.86,
< 0.001. Multiple linear regression of holacracy satisfaction on personality dimensions showed neuroticism (b = -4.72,
= 0.006) as a significant predictor. Agreeableness showed marginally significant results (b = 2.39,
= 0.06). This indicates that people scoring low on neuroticism and high in agreeableness may thrive better in holacracy organisations. Based on the results, theoretical and practical implications as for example implications for corporates hiring strategy, are discussed. Finally, this study presents numerous directions for future research.
Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) was introduced as a new diagnostic category in ICD-11. It encompasses PTSD symptoms along with disturbances in self-organisation (DSO), i.e., affect ...dysregulation, negative self-concept, and disturbances in relationships. Quantitative research supports the validity of CPTSD across different cultural groups. At the same time, evidence reveals cultural variation in the phenomenology of PTSD, which most likely translates into cultural variation with regard to DSO. This theoretical review aims to set the ground for future research on such cultural aspects in the DSO. It provides a theoretical introduction to cultural clinical psychology, followed by a summary of evidence on cultural research related to PTSD and DSO. This evidence suggests that the way how DSO symptoms manifest, and the underlying etiological processes, are closely intertwined with cultural notions of the self, emotions, and interpersonal relationships and interpersonal relationships. We propose directions for future research and implications for culturally sensitive clinical practice.
•Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) is a new diagnosis in ICD-11.•C-PTSD captures universal features of human reactions to severe trauma.•C-PTSD includes symptoms of PTSD along with disturbances in self-organization (DSO).•Evidence reveals cultural variation regarding the DSO, but more research is needed.
Pedestrian simulation plays an important role in the fields of transport station management, building evacuation and safety management of large public events. Among the continuous pedestrian flow ...models, the social force model is one of the most widespread and supports all of the above use cases. Since its initial proposal by Helbing and Molnar (1995). Social force model for pedestrian dynamics. Physical Review E, 51, 4282, many improvements of the social force model have been put forward for solving various, but mostly specific, problems. However, an up-to-date and essentially comprehensive review bringing all the model variants into a common context is missing. In this paper, we propose such a framework in terms of assessment criteria for pedestrian models considering pedestrian attributes, motion base cases, self-organisation phenomena and some special cases. Starting with the initial version of Helbing and Molnar (1995). Social force model for pedestrian dynamics. Physical Review E, 51, 4282 and the escape panic version of Helbing, Farkas, and Vicsek (2000a). Simulating dynamical features of escape panic. Nature, 407, 487-490, we classify the improvements and assess their degree of the improvements. Further discussion is presented from the perspectives of description ability, parameter calibration and flexible application in a complex environment.
Edge computing promotes the execution of complex computational processes without the cloud, i.e., on top of the heterogeneous, articulated, and possibly mobile systems composed of IoT and edge ...devices. Such a pervasive smart fabric augments our environment with computing and networking capabilities. This leads to a complex and dynamic ecosystem of devices that should not only exhibit individual intelligence but also collective intelligence—the ability to take group decisions or process knowledge among autonomous units of a distributed environment. Self-adaptation and self-organisation mechanisms are also typically required to ensure continuous and inherent toleration of changes of various kinds, to distribution of devices, energy available, computational load, as well as faults. To achieve this behaviour in a massively distributed setting like edge computing demands, we seek for identifying proper abstractions, and engineering tools therefore, to smoothly capture collective behaviour, adaptivity, and dynamic injection and execution of concurrent distributed activities. Accordingly, we elaborate on a notion of “aggregate process” as a concurrent collective computation whose execution and interactions are sustained by a dynamic team of devices, whose spatial region can opportunistically vary over time. We ground this notion by extending the aggregate computing model and toolchain with new constructs to instantiate aggregate processes and regulate key aspects of their lifecycle. By virtue of an open-source implementation in the ScaFi framework, we show basic programming examples as well as case studies of edge computing, evaluated by simulation in realistic settings.
•Aggregate Processes capture dynamic, concurrent, collective computations for Edge Computing.•Aggregate Processes extend the practical expressivity of the field calculus.•Aggregate Processes can be programmed using the ScaFi aggregate programming toolkit.•Aggregate Processes promote engineering of computational collective intelligence and self-organisation.•Distributed algorithms based on aggregate processes can provide performance advantages over plain field computations.
Abstract
Child abuse and neglect is a ‘wicked problem’ (Devaney, J. and Spratt, T. (2009) ‘Child abuse as a complex and wicked problem: Reflecting on policy developments in the United Kingdom in ...working with children and families with multiple problems’, Children and Youth Services Review, 31(6), pp. 635–41.). Child Protection and Welfare (CPW) systems are open systems in which a wide variety of practitioners and families themselves contribute to outcomes. Small interacting changes in one part of a CPW system can lead to unpredictable and systemic effects so linear, technocratic solutions are not sufficient in addressing this complexity. Whilst CPW systems may aim to make clear roles and responsibilities, steered by legislation and regulatory guidance, complex systems do not behave as system designers expect. Recent literature has demonstrated a turn to complexity theory and systems theory concepts for understanding and working in the world of child protection. This article suggests a practice framework based on complexity theory concepts of self-organisation/emergence/adaptation, path-dependency and bifurcation. The utility of the framework is tested by its application to a fictionalised case study built on a thematic analysis of five National Review Panel published case reviews in the Irish child protection context (2019–2020). We argue that complexity theory may be a useful tool for both post hoc analytics as well as providing a proactive tool for application to practice to assist decision making in CPW systems, services and organisations.
Child abuse and neglect is a ‘wicked problem’ (Devaney and Spratt, 2009). Complexity Theory has historically been critiqued for lacking explanatory power and transferability to social contexts. This article suggests a practice framework based on complexity theory concepts of self-organisation/emergence/adaptation, path-dependency and bifurcation to assist practitioners and managers to adopt a holistic socio-technical approach to child protection practice. The utility of the framework is tested by its application to a fictionalised case study built on a thematic analysis of five National Review Panel published case reviews in the Irish child protection context (2019–2020). Our findings suggest that even though adopting a complexity lens to CPW work can be challenging, it can assist practitioners and managers to consider risk, volatility and relationships in child protection work in a more open way in practice and through case review. At the case level, a complexity focus allows practitioners to reflect in the first place on the system that they are part of and to consider who are the key practitioners, teams and networks that they need to interact with and how. At the system level, a complexity focus reinforces the importance of interactional, transactional and collaborative approaches to child protection and welfare work.
Resilience has become a dominant disaster governance discourse. It has been criticised for insufficiently addressing systemic vulnerabilities while urging the vulnerable to self‐organise. The urban ...resilience discourse involves a particular disconnect: it evokes ‘robustness’ and unaffectedness at the city scale on the one hand, and self‐organisation of disaster‐affected people and neighbourhoods on the other. This paper explains and illustrates the dual discourse through a case study on the reconstruction of informal and low‐income settlements in the aftermath of the fire in Valparaíso, Chile, in 2014, focusing on the communication contents of two non‐governmental organisations (NGOs). These NGOs deployed the discourse differently, yet both called for affected neighbourhoods to build a more robust city through self‐organisation, and both suggested their work as the missing link between self‐organisation and robustness. A danger in deploying the dual discourse is that it requires people who live in informal and low‐income settlements to earn their right to the robust city through ‘better’ self‐organisation based on fragmented visions.
We study a process of pattern formation for a generic model of species anchored to the nodes of a network where local reactions take place, and that experience non-reciprocal non-local long-range ...interactions, encoded by the network directed links. By assuming the system to exhibit a stable homogeneous equilibrium whenever only local interactions are considered, we prove that such equilibrium can turn unstable once suitable non-reciprocal non-local long-range interactions are allowed for. Stated differently, we propose sufficient conditions allowing for patterns to emerge by using a non-symmetric coupling, while initial perturbations about the homogeneous equilibrium always fade away by assuming reciprocal coupling, namely the latter is stable. The instability, precursor of the emerging spatio-temporal patterns, can be traced back, via a linear stability analysis, to the complex spectrum of an interaction non-symmetric Laplace operator. The proposed theory is then applied to several paradigmatic dynamical models largely used in the literature to study the emergence of patterns or synchronisation. Taken together, our results pave the way for the understanding of the many and heterogeneous patterns of complexity found in ecological, chemical or physical systems composed by interacting parts, once no diffusion takes place.
•Patterns in dynamical systems with non-local long-range interactions are studied.•A novel mechanism for patterns emergence without diffusion is proposed.•Non-reciprocity of non-local long-range interaction drives the onset of patterns.•Sufficient conditions for patterns emergence are presented.•We propose applications to study the emergence of patterns or synchronisation.
The modest clinical impact of musculoskeletal tissue engineering (TE) can be attributed, at least in part, to a failure to recapitulate the structure, composition and functional properties of the ...target tissue. This has motivated increased interest in developmentally inspired TE strategies, which seek to recapitulate key events that occur during embryonic and post-natal development, as a means of generating truly biomimetic grafts to replace or regenerate damaged tissues and organs. Such TE strategies can be substantially enabled by emerging biofabrication and bioprinting strategies, and in particular the use of cellular aggregates, microtissues and organoids as ‘building blocks’ for the development of larger tissues and/or organ precursors. Here, the application of such biological building blocks for the engineering of musculoskeletal tissues, from vascularised bone to zonally organised articular cartilage, will be reviewed. The importance of first scaling-down to later scale-up will be discussed, as this is viewed as a key component of engineering functional grafts using cellular aggregates or microtissues. In the context of engineering anatomically accurate tissues of scale suitable for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications, novel bioprinting modalities and their application in controlling the process by which cellular aggregates or microtissues fuse and self-organise will be reviewed. Throughout the paper, we will highlight some of the key challenges facing this emerging field.
The field of bioprinting has grown substantially in recent years, but despite the hype and excitement it has generated, there are relatively few examples of bioprinting strategies producing implants with superior regenerative potential to that achievable with more traditional tissue engineering approaches. This paper provides an up-to-date review of emerging biofabrication and bioprinting strategies which use cellular aggregates and microtissues as ‘building blocks’ for the development of larger musculoskeletal tissues and/or organ precursors – a field of research that can potentially enable functional regeneration of damaged and diseased tissues. The application of cellular aggregates and microtissues for the engineering of musculoskeletal tissues, from vascularised bone to zonally organised articular cartilage, will be reviewed. In the context of engineering anatomically accurate tissues of scale, novel bioprinting modalities and their application in controlling the process by which cellular aggregates or microtissues self-organise is addressed, as well as key challenges facing this emerging field.
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