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Reliability engineering is a well-defined field and systemic analysis is not new. Typically, the first raw-moment (MTTF) is all that is sought in applications of this method and a rule-of-thumb method achieves this algebraically without the need for calculus by assuming exponential distributions. However, there is no standard labelling or naming of the different block diagrams used, nor\ud is there a standard list of solutions for low-order networks. In this paper different moments are compared, and the vector algebra approach is emphasised. A small amount of fine structure is evident in the moments, but broadly they are found to be equivalent for bulk system analysis. Analogy is made to statistical physics and a set of characteristic values is developed.

In this present paper, we analyse the geopolitical distribution of different research approaches represented by the published papers in all the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) journals in communicat...

This article provides a holistic analysis of traffic congestion in Metro Manila, treating traffic and transport in the Philippines’ national capital region as an ecosystem which has entrenched itself, endured, and evolved in the face of ongoing demographic, economic, and technological change. The article focuses on the activities and initiatives of a new “species” within Metro Manila’s transport ecosystem–the transport reform advocacy group–to identify and examine both the constituent elements and complex operations of the ecosystem and its capacities for resistance, resilience, and reconstitution in the face of reforms. These reform initiatives include a proposed bus rapid transit (BRT) system, the loosening of number coding restrictions on public utility vehicles, the liberalization of point-to-point (P2P) bus services, the legalization of motorcycle taxis, the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP), the establishment of bicycle lanes, and the expansion and improvement of pedestrian walkways to improve micro-mobility in the metropolis. The article concludes with a consideration of the efforts of transport reform advocacy groups to advance these elements of their reform agenda amidst the ongoing global pandemic and the government-imposed quarantine and economic downturn in the Philippines in early-mid 2020.

Match Analysis has provided valuable insights for understanding performance. Social Network Analysis has delivered powerful contributions, especially with its most recent game-centred appro...

Drawing from critical trans theory’s methods of systemic analysis, this article examines how #MeToo’s carceral politics have reinforced the exclusion and ongoing abuse of those most vulnerable to g...

A recent RIPE article by Jerry Cohen argues that current research on the political economy of money has stagnated because of its overemphasis on the scientific method and domestic variables. We argue that a wide array of scientifically oriented research on the IPE of money considers the system in many different ways. To help build a dialogue, we categorize each of these conceptions of ‘the system’ and give examples of their application from recent research on the IPE of money. Our hope is that this typology will help scholars of different approaches recognize the similarities and differences in their research, beyond simply whether the research is scientific or heterodox.

The structure of the emergent global system – a volatile ‘polyarchy’ of state and non-state actors – accentuates temptations to employ military proxies, but also multiplies the risks when the prior...

In the transition literature, ‘free and fair elections’ is often treated as the most important indicator of democratic quality. In this paper, however, we argue that ‘free deliberation among equals’ is in many respects a more telling measure. On the face of it, this argument might strike one as implausible. After all, the decisive moment in many transitions is the signing of a pact between elements in the government and opposition who are more concerned to protect their own interests than to explain themselves to others. Yet while pacts may not be particularly deliberative, they still occasion a great deal of deliberation across society as a whole. We argue that the different sites where deliberation occurs can be understood as forming a deliberative system. To give substance to this idea, we then outline a systemic framework that may be used to describe and evaluate the deliberative capacity of transitional regimes. Finally, we turn to the cases of Venezuela and Poland to illustrate the empirical applica...

Collisions at intersections represent a significant road safety issue worldwide but have seen little reduction in casualties and serious injuries over the past decade. This is partly because research and countermeasures have focussed on specific road user types or design components in isolation and has failed to consider the complex interactions between different road users, vehicles and infrastructure and the resulting implications for intersection design. Cognitive work analysis (CWA) is proposed as an appropriate framework to do so; presenting a systemic analysis of the behaviour of drivers, motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians, and the interaction with vehicles and infrastructure at intersections. The results indicate that the framework is suited to identifying differences in constraints, functions and behaviour across different road user groups. CWA therefore provides a suitable systems approach to aid the design of a road system that supports a variety of different road users. The implications fo...

Atg5-null mice are neonatal lethal. We have revealed in our recent paper that these mice die due to neuronal dysfunction resulting in suckling failure. Our new mouse model, atg5–/–;Eno2/Nse-Atg5 mice, where Atg5 is deficient in the whole body except for neurons, enables us to analyze the consequences of macroautophagy/autophagy-deficiency in the whole body of adult mice.

This paper extends the leadership-long cycle systemic perspective, which so far has tended to focus on major power, rise-and-decline dynamics and global war, to explain Southern democratization. Unlike studies of democratization at the national level of analysis, we conduct a systemic level analysis, with a specific focus on the global South. Our extension the leadership-long cycle perspective predicts that Southern democracy will be driven, in part, by systemic leadership and world economic growth. Other variables also may have a role in Southern democratization, with levels of Southern economic development, Southern conflict, and Southern democratic inertia serving as controls in our model. The leadership-long cycle approach requires one to open the time window of observation to include longer time periods than is typically customary. Using data from 1870 to 1992, the empirical analysis strongly supports our theory. Increases in the level of systemic leadership and the growth rate of the world economy p...

Motivating environments include elements across the whole school-as-system, with contributions made by teachers, students, administrators, and factors outside the school in the surrounding community. Positive motivating environments can support self-determination and intrinsic motivation of both students and teachers despite a number of risk factors for school failure. This study addresses schoolwide environments that may promote motivation in areas characterized by isolation and resource limitations. The researcher conducted a systemic analysis of motivationally relevant resources and conditions across four rural schools and communities, using teacher, administrator, school and community profile data. The data indicate that external resources (family, institutional, and community) and internal (motivational) resources are critical elements of the motivating environments in these rural high schools. Teachers' and administrators' motivational perceptions shaped by their prior experiences and current contex...

Systemic analysis shows that the East Asian "tigers" and "dragons" frequently mentioned in the press, if only because their numbers are small, are most likely exceptions to the overall socioeconomic picture of the world. Such islands of order in the ocean of world chaos are called attractors. The development of processes in the nonlinear environment in which attractors are present and new ones are appearing relatively rapidly usually leads to the appearance of the so-called strange attractor when the number of isolated attractors becomes sufficiently large for them to form a wide, closed-in area. It is well known that during this process their number increases in response to the operation of a bifurcation mechanism.

This paper examines the importance of 'discourse architecture' and 'community' to the maintenance and growth of virtual publics. 'Virtual publics' are computer mediated discourse spaces created by using various technologies including email, the USENET, web based bulletin boards, IRC, MUDS, etc. It is argued that the over-emphasis to date on 'community' has discouraged systemic analysis of collaborative media systems. Further, it has distracted researchers' attention away from how 'discourse architecture' created by the interplay of technology and content can both enable and constrain the growth of a collaborative system's user population and participation. The paper suggests that systems-theory can be used to inform our understanding of virtual public growth. Further, we examine the genesis of virtual metropolises, where tens of thousands of individuals are engaged in public computer-mediated discourse. We suggest that an effective virtual public segmentation strategy is an essential element for those wis...

In order to provide a means for identifying children at risk for socio-emotional dysfunctions, an inventory was developed based on a systemic analysis of factors influencing their divorce adjustment. A conceptual model resulted from a thorough review revealing five general sources of variation with regard to children's post-divorce adjustments. Items were empirically developed and analyzed in each of the five conceptual areas. Items that discriminated between well and poorly adjusted children as well as "well" and dysfunctional families were retained for the inventory. The study involved a factor analysis of the selected items to test the original model and produced four general factors related to children's divorce adjustment.

One of the most common yet unrecognized breaches of confidentiality occurs when family therapists share confidential information with their own families. For many therapists, the boundaries between professional and private seem unclear, especially pertaining to disclosing clients' confidential information. Therapists are encouraged to examine their own practices concerning sharing confidential information with their families. Therapists' families have their own rules, patterns, boundary issues, and power struggles which affect therapists' behaviors. Therapists can discuss this issue with their families and develop postures that insure clients' privacy.

Eighteenth years been treated by a number of scholars to a systemic analysis, one that borrows ideas and idioms from the modern science of international relations. The approach has at times been very rewarding,1 and it accords with an understandable desire to search out the major themes of the period and to understand the dynamics of change. It also springs from a measure of irritation with traditional scholars whose accounts, drawing heavily on the archives, do not always appear to match modern preoccupations. The danger of such an approach, however, is that in moving away from the archives, accounts can be presented that would have surprised the statesmen of the period; moreover, the scholar has little to offer other than suggestions that can be as readily queried as asserted. A recent study of Austrian foreign policy in the eighteenth century concludes

The aim of this article is to discuss operational difficulties of West End policing, in particular those pertaining to female prostitution, whilst also drawing up lessons for operational research and systems methodologies, in this “real-world” context, through practical application of such approaches. A systemic analysis is briefly presented, and the findings of this in terms of (a) methodological reflections, and (b) ways forward in the situation, are discussed.

A capacity for anticipating reactions realizes itself in the course of systemic activity formation, events. There is no doubt that probability of prediction proves to be possible on the basis of formation in brain structures of certain systems of anticipating excitations. Dynamics of EP analogues is an objective criterion of evaluation of the anticipating reaction central mechanisms. The term "EP analogue" conveys the phenomenon of reproduction of the EP configurations in intersignal spans. On the basis of analysis of EP analogue dynamics, we succeeded in following the process of brain structure organization into the anticipating intercentral integrations and also in elucidating the role that different afferentation redistributions play in this process by their functional significance.