scholarly journals The Role of Energy Return on Energy Invested (EROEI) in Complex Adaptive Systems

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (24) ◽  
pp. 8411
Author(s):  
Ilaria Perissi ◽  
Alessandro Lavacchi ◽  
Ugo Bardi
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Energy Transition ◽  
Volterra Model ◽  
Dissipative Systems ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
First Time

The energy return on energy invested, EROI or EROEI, is the ratio of the energy produced by a system to the energy expended to build, maintain, and finally dismantle the system. It is an important parameter for evaluating the efficiency of energy-producing technologies. In this paper, we examine the concept of EROEI from the general viewpoint of dynamic dissipative systems, providing insights on a wider range of applications. In general, natural resources can be assimilated to energy stocks characterized by a potential that can be exploited by creating intermediate stocks. This transformation is typical of dissipative systems and for the first time, we report that the Lotka–Volterra model, usually confined to the study of the biology of populations, can represent a powerful tool to estimate the EROEI of dissipative systems and, in particular, those systems subjected to depletion. This assessment is important to evaluate the ongoing energy transition since it provides us with a model for the decline of the EROEI in the exploitation of fossil fuels.

scholarly journals The Role of Energy Return for Energy Invested (EROEI) in Dissipative Autocatalytic Systems

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ugo Bardi ◽  
Alessandro Lavacchi ◽  
Ilaria Perissi
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Volterra Model ◽  
Dissipative Systems ◽  
First Time

The Energy Return on Energy Invested, EROEI, is known as an important parameter for evaluating the efficiency of energy-producing technologies. In this paper we examine the concept of EROEI from a general viewpoint, giving insights on a wider range of applications. In general, natural resources can be seen as energy stocks characterized by a “potential” that can be exploited by creating intermediate stocks. This transformation is typical of dissipative systems and for the first time we found that Lotka-Volterra model, usually confined to the study of biology of populations, can represent a powerful tool to estimate EROEI for some such systems, providing an understanding of the reason for the overexploitation phenomenon and, in some cases, the collapse of the exploiting system.

La politica dei Cluster in Europa: tendenze e criticitŕ emergenti

ARGOMENTI ◽  
2009 ◽  
pp. 99-122
Author(s):  
Alessandro Minello
Keyword(s):  
European Commission ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Triple Helix ◽  
Cluster Policy ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Critical Elements ◽  
Complex Adaptive

- Cluster policy today represent one of the main elements of the European agenda, both for policy makers and for practitioners. In the last decade an extensive-type cluster policy has produced a proliferation of clusters all over the Europe, but the generated quality of clusters created has not always been quite satisfactory. Following the input by the European commission, currently is underway a qualitative review of the goals and processes of European cluster policy. This paper aims at presenting such changes in the European cluster policy, beside the main lessons that can be learned. The analysis emphasizes some critical elements of the current process of "clustering" and highlights the role of the institutions, besides the market, in the planning of new clusters and the strengthening of those existing. The final message is that Europe needs a better cluster policy, rather than more clusters, according to the growing complexity and dynamism of clusters.Parole chiave: cluster, politica dei cluster, approccio triple-helix, sistemi adattivi complessi.Keywords: cluster, cluster policy, triple helix approach, complex adaptive systems.

Strategy in the era of “swans”: the role of strategic leadership under uncertainty and unpredictability

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Adobor ◽  
William Phanuel Kofi Darbi ◽  
Obi Berko O. Damoah
Keyword(s):  
Mental Models ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Strategic Leadership ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Complexity Leadership ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Strategic Leaders ◽  
Impact Events

PurposeThe purpose of this conceptual paper is to explore the role of strategic leadership under conditions of uncertainty and unpredictability. The authors argue that highly improbable, but high-impact events require the upper echelons of management, traditionally the custodians of strategy formulation to offer a new kind of strategic leadership focused on new mindsets, organizational capabilities, more in tune with high uncertainty and unpredictability.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on strategic leadership, and complexity leadership theory, the authors review the literature and present a conceptual framework for exploring the nature of strategic leadership under uncertainty. The authors conceptualize organizations as complex adaptive systems and discuss the imperatives for developing new mental models for emergent leadership.FindingsStrategic leaders have a key role to play in preparing their organizations for episodic disruptions. These include developing their adaptive capabilities and building resilient organizations to ensure their organizations cannot only bounce back after a disruption but have the capacity for transformation to new fitness levels when necessary. Strategic leaders must engage with complexity leadership by seeing their organizations as complex adaptive systems, reconfigure their leadership approaches and organizations to build strategic adaptive capability.Research limitations/implicationsThis is a conceptual paper and the authors cannot make any claims of causality.Practical implicationsOrganizational leaders need to reconfigure their mental models and leadership approaches to reflect the new normal of uncertainty and unpredictability. Developing the strategic adaptive capability of organizations should prepare them for dealing with high impact events. To assure business continuity in the face of disruptions requires building flexible, adaptable business models.Originality/valueThe paper focuses on how managers can offer strategic leadership for a new normal that challenges some of our most cherished leadership and strategic management paradigms. The authors explore the new mental models and leadership models in an era of great uncertainty.

Food Webs as Complex Adaptive Systems

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin S. McCann
Keyword(s):  
Food Webs ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Lake Trout ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Interaction Strength ◽  
Ecosystem Dynamics ◽  
Ecosystem Size ◽  
Complex Adaptive

This chapter examines some of the potential empirical signatures of instability in complex adaptive food webs. It first considers the role of adaptive behavior on food web topology, ecosystem size, and interaction strength before discussing the implications of this behavior for ecosystem dynamics and stability. It then analyzes the results of empirical investigations of Canadian Shield lake trout food webs and how human influences and ecosystems coupled in space may drive biomass pyramids, potentially leading to species loss. It also explores the tendency of subsidies, through human impacts, to homogenize natural ecosytems and concludes by assessing some of the changing conditions that are being driven by humans and how these may change ecosystems.

scholarly journals Understanding health professional role integration in complex adaptive systems A multiple-case study of Physician Assistants in Ontario, Canada

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen Burrows ◽  
Julia Abelson ◽  
Patricia Miller ◽  
Mitch Levine ◽  
Meredith Vanstone
Keyword(s):  
Complexity Theory ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
Physician Assistants ◽  
Role Integration ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Multiple Case

Abstract Background To meet the complex needs of healthcare delivery, the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (MOHLTC) introduced Physician Assistants (PAs) into the Ontario health care system in 2006 to help increase access to care, decrease wait times, and improve continuity of care. Integration of new health professional roles is often stymied by role resistance and funding barriers. The characterization of healthcare organizations as complex adaptive systems (CAS) may offer insight into the relationships and interactions that optimize and restrict successful PA integration. The aim of this study is to explore the integration of PAs across multiple case settings and to understand the role of PAs within complex adaptive systems.Methods An exploratory, multiple-case study was used to examine PA role integration in four settings: family medicine, emergency, general surgery, and inpatient medicine. Interviews were conducted with 46 healthcare providers and administrators across 13 hospitals and 6 family medicine clinics in Ontario, Canada. Analysis was conducted in three phases: inductive thematic analysis within each of the four cases; a cross-case thematic analysis; and a broader exploration of cross-case patterns pertaining to specific complexity theory principles of interest.Results Support for PA contributions across various health care settings, the importance of role awareness, supervisory relationship attributes, and role vulnerability (in relation to sustainability and funding) are interconnected and dynamic in hospital and community settings. Findings represent the experiences of PAs and other healthcare providers, and demonstrate how the PA’s willingness to work and ability to build relationships within existing health systems allows for the establishment of interprofessional, collaborative, and person-centered care. As a self-organizing agent in complex adaptive systems (i.e. health organizations), PA role exploration revealed patterns of team behavior, non-linear interconnections, open relationships, dynamic systems, and the legacy of role implementation as defined by complexity theory.Conclusions By exploring the role of PAs across multiple sites, the complexity theory lens concurrently fosters an awareness of emerging patterns, relationships and non-linear interactions within the defined context of the Ontario healthcare system. By establishing collaborative, interprofessional care models in community and hospital settings, PAs are making a significant contribution to Ontario healthcare settings.

scholarly journals The Many Faces of Design

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Perin L.Z. Ruttonsha
Keyword(s):  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Response ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Creative Agency ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
The Many ◽  
Systems Transformation

In light of contemporary global pressures, designers have been considering how to apply their thinking and practice more broadly within the enterprise of sustainability. Given the often wicked nature and cross-scale dynamics of related challenges, there is reason to reassess the role of design in processes of systems transformation amidst complexity. In this manuscript, the author contemplates the diversity of ‘designerly ways’, in interpretation of designers’ encounters with complex adaptive systems. These interactions are classified here using the three lenses of adaptive response, creative agency and emergent engagement.

Fostering general transfer with specific simulations

2009 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ji Y. Son ◽  
Robert L. Goldstone
Keyword(s):  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Scientific Principle ◽  
Transfer Experiment ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Scientific Principles ◽  
Computer Based ◽  
Specific Learning

Science education faces the difficult task of helping students understand and appropriately generalize scientific principles across a variety of superficially dissimilar specific phenomena. Can cognitive technologies be adapted to benefit both learning specific domains and generalizable transfer? This issue is examined by teaching students complex adaptive systems with computer-based simulations. With a particular emphasis on fostering understanding that transfers to dissimilar phenomena, the studies reported here examine the influence of different descriptions and perceptual instantiations of the scientific principle of competitive specialization. Experiment 1 examines the role of intuitive descriptions to concrete ones, finding that intuitive descriptions leads to enhanced domain-specific learning but also deters transfer. Experiment 2 successfully alleviated these difficulties by combining intuitive descriptions with idealized graphical elements. Experiment 3 demonstrates that idealized graphics are more effective than concrete graphics even when unintuitive descriptions are applied to them. When graphics are concrete, learning and transfer largely depend on the particular description. However, when graphics are idealized, a wider variety of descriptions results in levels of learning and transfer similar to the best combination involving concrete graphics. Although computer-based simulations can be effective for learning that transfers, designing effective simulations requires an understanding of concreteness and idealization in both the graphical interface and its description.

scholarly journals Hungarian Energy Law as an Example of Using Complex System Viewpoints to Understand Risks in Public Administration Normativity

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 30-55
Author(s):  
Máté Tóth ◽  
Gyula Vastag
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Complex Adaptive System ◽  
The Public ◽  
Systemic Risks ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
First Time ◽  
Energy Law

Complex networks and complex adaptive systems theories come from hard sciences. The question arises whether these viewpoints can add anything to the understanding of the operation and failures of continental normativity governing the public sector. In the first part, this paper intends to demonstrate for the first time via industry-specific examples that Hungarian energy law, one of the absolute extremes of the rigid continental law is per se following complex adaptive system attributes as being implemented by the public administration, thus refuting any reductionist and linear concepts of ‘classical’ continental public law routines and prejudice. This leads to such essential features of complex systems like emergence, the ‘robust yet fragile’ dilemma and the issue of systemic risk that we investigate in the second part, also covering unpublished case studies, letting us closer to identify risks within the law applied by public administration. This in our view can add a lot to the understanding and improvement of the quality of normativity in order to mitigate systemic risks within law and public administration.

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