Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
J. Ladyman ◽  
K. Wiesner
Keyword(s):  
Complex Systems ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
Intelligent Systems ◽  
Complexity Science ◽  
Scientific Discipline ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Conceptual Foundations

This introductory chapter provides an overview and a brief history of complexity science, which is the study of complex systems. All living systems and all intelligent systems are complex systems. Complexity science is relatively new but already indispensable. Many of the most important problems in engineering, medicine, and public policy are now addressed with the ideas and methods of complexity science. However, there is no agreement about the definition of 'complexity' or 'complex system', nor even about whether a definition is possible or needed. The conceptual foundations of complexity science are disputed, and there are many and diverging views among scientists about what complexity and complex systems are. Even the status of complexity as a discipline can be questioned given that it potentially covers almost everything. The origins of complexity science lie in cybernetics and systems theory, both of which began in the 1950s. Complexity science is related to dynamical systems theory, which matured in the 1970s, and to the study of cellular automata, which were invented at the end of the 1940s. By then computer science had become established as a new scientific discipline.

What Is a Complex System?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Ladyman ◽  
Karoline Wiesner
Keyword(s):  
Complex System ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Complex Systems ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
Complexity Science ◽  
System P ◽  
Economic Markets ◽  
History Of ◽  
Conceptual Foundations ◽  
Do So

What is a complex system? Although “complexity science” is used to understand phenomena as diverse as the behavior of honeybees, the economic markets, the human brain, and the climate, there is no agreement about its foundations. In this introduction for students, academics, and general readers, the authors develop an account of complexity that brings the different concepts and mathematical measures applied to complex systems into a single framework. The book begins with an overview and a brief history of complexity science. Complexity science is relatively new but already indispensable. Many of the most important problems in engineering, medicine, and public policy are now addressed with the ideas and methods of complexity science. The conceptual foundations of complexity science are disputed, and there are many and diverging views among scientists about what complexity and complex systems are. Its origins lie in cybernetics and systems theory and it is related to dynamical systems theory and the study of cellular automata. The book introduces the different features of complex systems and discusses different conceptions of complexity with the authors documenting their own account. In do so, they explain why complexity science is so important in today's world.

AF 447 as a Paradigmatic Accident

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Antonio Chialastri
Keyword(s):  
Complex Systems ◽  
Human Factors ◽  
Cognitive Demands ◽  
Human Machine Interaction ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Machine Interaction

In this chapter, the author presents a human factors problem for automation: why, when, and how automation has been introduced in the aviation domain; what problems arise from different ways of operating; and the possible countermeasures to limit faulty interaction between humans and machines. This chapter is divided into parts: definition of automation, its advantages in ensuring safety in complex systems such as aviation; reasons for the introduction of on-board automation, with a quick glance at the history of accidents in aviation and the related safety paradigms; ergonomics: displays, tools, human-machine interaction emphasizing the cognitive demands in high tempo and complex flight situations; illustration of the AF 447 case, a crash happened in 2009, which causes are linked to faulty human-machine interaction.

scholarly journals International Slavic Studies: Concepts, History and Evolution

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenfei Liu
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The West ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Formal Establishment ◽  
Slavic Studies

Abstract This paper departs from the definition of Slavistics and reviews the history of international Slavic studies, from its prehistory to its formal establishment as an independent discipline in the mid-18th century, and from the Pan-Slavic movement in the mid-19th century to the confrontation of Slavistics between the East and the West in the mid-20th century during the Cold War. The paper highlights the status quo of international Slavic studies and envisions the future development of Slavic studies in China.

On Passion for Work

2019 ◽  
pp. 3-14
Author(s):  
Robert J. Vallerand ◽  
Nathalie Houlfort
Keyword(s):  
Short History ◽  
Organizational Research ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Passion For Work

Passion has long been mentioned in the field of work. This chapter introduces the book by discussing the relevance of studying passion at work. A short history of the passion construct at large is followed by how the passion construct has been understood and studied in organizational research. Following a presentation of the definition of the passion construct, this introductory chapter ends by briefly summarizing the perspective of each chapter, thereby outlining the contribution of each one.

scholarly journals Classifying Economics: A History of the JEL Codes

2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 545-579 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beatrice Cherrier
Keyword(s):  
Classification System ◽  
Publishing Industry ◽  
General Structure ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Economic Literature ◽  
Economic Association ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Military

In this paper, I suggest that the history of the classification system used by the American Economic Association (AEA) to list economic literature and scholars is a relevant proxy to understand the transformation of economics science throughout the twentieth century. Successive classifications were fashioned through heated discussions on the status of theoretical and empirical work, data and measurement, and proper objects of analysis. They also reflected the contradictory demands of users, including economists but also civil servants, journalists, publishers, librarians, and the military, and reflected rapidly changing institutional and technological constraints. Until the late 1940s, disagreements on the general structure of the classification dominated AEA discussions. As the subject matters, methods, and definition of economics rapidly evolved after the war, methodological debates raged on the status of theoretical and empirical work and the degree of unification of the discipline. It was therefore the ordering and content of major categories that was closely discussed during the 1956 revision. The 1966 revision, in contrast, was fueled by institutional and technical transformations rather than intellectual ones. Classifiers essentially reacted to changes in the way economists' work was evaluated, the nature and size of the literature they produced, the publishing industry, and the use of computer facilities. The final 1988–90 revision was an attempt by the Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) editors to translate the mature core fields structure of their science into a set of codes and accommodate the new types of applied work economists identified themselves with. The 1990 classification system was only incrementally transformed in the next twenty years, but that the AEA is currently considering a new revision may signal more profound changes in the structure of economics. (JEL A14)

Future of Classification in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

2012 ◽  
pp. 53-66
Author(s):  
Terence M. Keane ◽  
Mark W. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Stress Disorder ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Statistical Manual ◽  
Diagnostic And Statistical Manual ◽  
Dsm 5 ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of

This chapter reviews the status of modifications to the definition of PTSD and proposed changes for DSM-5. We include a brief history of the diagnosis and trace its evolution in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). We discuss some of the current controversies related to the definition of PTSD including its location among the anxiety disorders, the utility of Criterion A and its subcomponents, and the factor structure of the symptoms. We review the rationale for the addition of new symptoms and modifications to existing criteria now and conclude with comments on future directions for research on PTSD.

Mexican Women's Pelves and Obstetrical Procedures: Interventions with Forceps in Late 19th-Century Medicine

2005 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Cházaro ◽  
Paul Kersey
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Mexican Women ◽  
Early 19Th Century ◽  
Safe Delivery ◽  
Medical Instruments ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Living Nature ◽  
Definition Of

This essay is an inquiry into the socio-cultural history of the use of forceps in 19th-century Mexico. It argues that the knowledge and practices that the use of such instruments implied were related to complex and controversial issues of the time regarding gender, race and national identity. In my study of operations involving forceps, I found that the adoption of medical instruments depended not only upon their supposedly greater operative efficiency but also upon the political and medical meanings attributed to the pelves of Mexican women. Early 19th-century obstetrics conceived the womb as an example of ‘living nature’ whose qualities assured that births were ‘normally happy events’ making the use of forceps and other instruments unnecessary. However, by mid-century, in the aftermath of independence, Mexico was desperately attempting to forge its identity as a nation. Due to European theories of race, Mexican women came to be characterized as having pathologically deformed pelves that evidenced possible defects of racial formation. The analysis of operative practices involving forceps reveals just how strongly such medical instruments became charged with a complex political definition of the ‘mestizo race’, which was seen to hold political promise for the future. In this context, forceps ceased to symbolize the threat of death, with which they had been associated since colonial times, and became artefacts that helped to assure the safe delivery of newborn mestizos by overcoming the problems of Mexican women's pathological pelves; although by the same token, the status of women as biologically inferior beings in need of medical assistance was reconfirmed.

scholarly journals Association between Appendicitis and Incident Systemic Sclerosis

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 2337
Author(s):  
Kuang-Tsu Yang ◽  
James Cheng-Chung Wei ◽  
Renin Chang ◽  
Chi-Chien Lin ◽  
Hsin-Hua Chen
Keyword(s):  
Systemic Sclerosis ◽  
Periodontal Disease ◽  
Index Date ◽  
Conditional Logistic Regression ◽  
Sensitivity Analyses ◽  
Newly Diagnosed ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
And Control

Objective: This nationwide study aimed to investigate the association between newly diagnosed systemic sclerosis (SSc) and previous appendicitis history. Methods: A total of 1595 patients who were newly diagnosed with SSc were recruited as the SSc cases from the 2003 to 2012 claims data of the entire population in Taiwan. The other 15,950 individuals who had never been diagnosed with SSc during 2003 and 2012 were selected as the non-SSc controls to match the SSc cases. We defined that the index date as the first date of SSc diagnosis of SSc cases and the first date of ambulatory visit for any reason of non-SSc controls. Conditional logistic regression analysis was applied for the association between appendicitis and the risk of the incident SSc, tested by estimating odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Potential confounders, including the Charlson comorbidity index (CCI), a history of periodontal disease, salmonella infection, and intestinal infection, were controlled. We further designed sensitivity analyses by varying the definition of appendicitis according to the status of receiving primary appendectomy. Results: The mean age was 51 years in the case and control groups. Females accounted for 77.5%. A total of 17 (1.1%) out of 1595 SSc cases and 81 (0.5%) out of 15,950 non-SSc controls had a history of appendicitis before the index date had a history of appendicitis. A significant association between appendicitis and the risk of SSc was confirmed (OR, 2.03; 95% CI, 1.14–3.60) after adjusting potential confounders. CCI ≥ 1 (OR, 8.48; 95% CI, 7.50–9.58) and periodontal disease (OR, 1.55; 95% CI, 1.39–1.74) were also significantly associated with the risk of SSc. The association between appendicitis and SSc risk remained robust using various definitions of appendicitis. Conclusion: Our study demonstrated appendicitis was associated with the incident SSc. CCI ≥ 1 and periodontal disease also contributed to the risk of developing SSc.

scholarly journals Justice in Sociological Discourse: Semantic, Empirical, Historical, and Conceptual Challenges

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 218-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina Trotsuk
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
Military Conflicts ◽  
Order Construct ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Sociological Discourse ◽  
Conceptual Foundations ◽  
Additional Explanation

One of the key features of social sciences and humanities distinguishing them from technical and natural sciences are the frequent intersections of their terminology with everyday discourse. Some social concepts have completely different interpretations in sociological discourse and everyday life, with the words “field” and “panel” as good examples. However, the majority of similar concepts of everyday life and sociological research have quite the same content. The word “justice” and its derivatives stand out in this set of terms, for hardly any other concept in human history is saturated with political connotations, or requires little additional explanation when used in social-economic debates or military conflicts. As a result, the word “justice” is widely used in all “life-worlds” (i.e., according to A. Schütz, justice seems to be both a ‘first-order construct’ and a ‘second-order construct’), which complicates its unambiguous conceptual and empirical interpretations in sociological research. The article was supposed to be a review of two books, A History of Justice: From the Pluralism of Forums to the Modern Dualism of Conscience and Law by P. Prodi, and The Idea of Justice by A. Sen, providing a clearer conceptual definition of justice. However, it turned into reflections with some theoretical and empirical examples on why such searches in sociology are important and inevitable, but are unlikely to end with a satisfying result. This does not make such searches meaningless, but rather utopian in nature, and essential for the self-identification of the discipline through the questioning of its own conceptual foundations.

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