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PurposeIn Latin America and the Caribbean, the access of students to higher education has presented an extraordinary growth over the past fifteen years. This rapid growth has presented a challenge for increasing the system resources and capabilities while maintaining its quality. As a result, the networked universities (NUs) organized themselves as a collaborative network, and they have become an interesting model for facing the complexity driven by globalization, rapidly changing technology, dynamic growth of knowledge and highly specialized areas of expertise. In this article, we studied the NU named Red Universitaria Mutis (Red Mutis) with the aim of characterizing the collaboration and integration structure of the network.Design/methodology/approachNetwork analytic methods (visual analysis, positional analysis and a stochastic network method) were used to characterize the organizational structure and robustness of the network, and to identify what variables or structural tendencies are related to the likelihood that specific areas of a university would collaborate.FindingsRed Mutis is a good example of regional NUs that could take advantage of the strengths, partnerships, information and knowledge of the regional and international universities that form the network. Analyses showed that Red Mutis has a differentiated structure consisting of academic and non-academic university areas with a vertical coordination (by steering and management) of the different university areas.Originality/valueThe methodology could be used as a framework to analyze and strengthen other strategic alliances between universities and as a model for the development of other NU in local and global contexts.

The explosion of network science has permitted an understanding of how the structure of social networks affects the dynamics of social contagion. In community-based interventions with spill-over effects, identifying influential spreaders may be harnessed to increase the spreading efficiency of social contagion, in terms of time needed to spread all the largest connected component of the network. Several strategies have been proved to be efficient using only data and simulation-based models in specific network topologies without a consensus of an overall result. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to benchmark the spreading efficiency of seeding strategies related to network structural properties and sizes. We simulate spreading processes on empirical and simulated social networks within a wide range of densities, clustering coefficients, and sizes. We also propose three new decentralized seeding strategies that are structurally different from well-known strategies: community hubs, ambassadors, and random hubs. We observe that the efficiency ranking of strategies varies with the network structure. In general, for sparse networks with community structure, decentralized influencers are suitable for increasing the spreading efficiency. By contrast, when the networks are denser, centralized influencers outperform. These results provide a framework for selecting efficient strategies according to different contexts in which social networks emerge.

First, we estimate the connectivity properties of a predefined (fixed node locations) spatial network which optimizes a connectivity functional that balances construction and transportation costs. In this case we obtain a Gaussian distribution for the connectivity. However, when we consider these spatial networks in a growing process, we obtain a power law distribution for the connectivity. If the transportation costs in the functional involve the shortest geometrical path, we obtain a scaling exponent γ = 2.5 . However, if the transportation costs in the functional involve just the shortest path, we obtain γ = 2.2 . Both cases may be useful to analyze in some real networks.

Purpose – Overweight, obesity, and physical inactivity have in recent years become an important public health problem worldwide. Investigations that study obesity using a systemic approach in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are limited. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to study the nutritional stages dynamics within the Colombian urban population. Design/methodology/approach – The authors used a population-level systems dynamics (SD) model that captures the transitions of population by body mass index (BMI) categories. The authors proposed a heuristic to estimate the transference rates (TRs) between BMI categories using data from the Colombian Demographic and Health Survey 2005 and 2010. Findings – The Colombian urban population is moving to overweight and obese categories. The TRs from not overweight to overweight and from overweight to obese (0.0076 and 0.0054, respectively) are higher than the TRs from obese to overweight and from overweight to not-overweight (1.025×10e−7 and 3.47×10e−7, respectively). The simulation results show that the prevalences of overweight and obesity will increase by 6.2 and 7.5 percent by 2015, and by 13.4 and 18.9 percent by 2030, respectively. Originality/value – Investigations that study obesity using a systemic approach in LMICs are limited. A SD model was proposed to examine changes in the population’s nutritional stages using population accumulation structures by BMI categories. The authors propose a heuristic to estimate the TRs of individuals between BMI categories. The proposed model can be used to study the effects of policy interventions to prevent overweight and obesity. The authors analyze a few policy intervention strategies.

Over the last twenty years, access to higher education has grown extraordinarily in Latin America. Higher education systems have been challenged to improve their efficiency while strengthening quality assurance processes. In Colombia, the government and the researchers developed models to assess the performance of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Nevertheless, the current scholarship does not have a model that allows the system to measure multiple efficiencies in a diverse environment. In this study, we address the challenge of evaluating the efficiency of HEIs taking into account different goals of the Colombian education system. To this aim, we extend a cross-efficiency data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach to evaluate the efficiency of Colombian HEIs in the presence of flexible measures. While some HEIs are efficient in terms of teaching or employment, others are efficient in terms of research. Therefore, the model suggests broader policies to achieve the efficiency of the institutions under multiple goals.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on the underpinning dynamics that explain collective intelligence. Design/methodology/approach – Collective intelligence can be understood as the capacity of a collective system to evolve toward higher order complexity through networks of individual capacities. The authors observed two collective systems as examples of the dynamic processes of complex networks – the wiki course PeSO at the Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia, and an agent-based model inspired by wiki systems. Findings – The results of the wiki course PeSO and the model are contrasted with a random network baseline model. Both the wiki course and the model show dynamics of accumulation, in which statistical properties of non-equilibrium networks appear. Research limitations/implications – The work is based on network science. The authors analyzed data from two kinds of networks: the wiki course PeSO and an agent-based model. Limitations due to the number of computations and complexity appeared when there was a high order of magnitude of agents. Practical implications – Better understanding can allow for the measurement and design of systems based on collective intelligence. Originality/value – The results show how collective intelligence emerges from cumulative dynamics.

We characterize the behavior and the social structures appearing from a model of general social interaction proposed by Sakoda. The model consists of two interacting populations in a two-dimensional periodic lattice with empty sites. It contemplates a set of simple rules that combine attitudes, ranges of interactions, and movement decisions. We analyze the evolution of the 45 different interaction rules via a Potts-like energy function which drives the system irreversibly to an equilibrium or a steady state. We discuss the robustness of the social structures, dynamical behaviors, and the existence of spatial long range order in terms of the social interactions and the equilibrium energy.

We simulate traffic in a city by means of the evolution of a row of interacting cars, using a cellular automaton model, in a sequence of traffic lights synchronized by a “green wave”. When our initial condition is a small density jammed state, its evolution shows the expected scaling laws close to the synchronization resonance, with a uniform car density along the street. However, for an initial large density jammed state, we observe density variations along the streets, which results in the breakdown of the scaling laws. This spatial disorder corresponds to a different attractor of the system. As we include velocity perturbations in the dynamics of the cars, all these attractors converge to a statistically equivalent system for all initial jammed densities. However, this emergent state shows a stochastic resonance-like behavior in which the average traffic velocity increases with respect to that of the system without noise, for several initial jammed densities. This result may help in the understanding of dynamics of traffic jams in cities.

Purpose. Conduct a social network analysis of the health and non–health related organizations that participate in Bogotá's Ciclovía Recreativa (Ciclovía). Design. Cross-sectional study. Setting. Ciclovía is a multisectoral community-based mass program in which streets are temporarily closed to motorized transport, allowing exclusive access to individuals for leisure activities and physical activity. Subjects. Twenty-five organizations that participate in the Ciclovía. Measures. Seven variables were examined by using network analytic methods: relationship, link attributes (integration, contact, and importance), and node attributes (leadership, years in the program, and the sector of the organization). Analysis. The network analytic methods were based on a visual descriptive analysis and an exponential random graph model. Results. Analysis shows that the most central organizations in the network were outside of the Health sector and include Sports and Recreation, Government, and Security sectors. The organizations work in clusters formed by organizations of different sectors. Organization importance and structural predictors were positively related to integration, while the number of years working with Ciclovía was negatively associated with integration. Conclusion. Ciclovía is a network whose structure emerged as a self-organized complex system. Ciclovía of Bogotá is an example of a program with public health potential formed by organizations of multiple sectors with Sports and Recreation as the most central.

Objectives. We compared participants from the Ciclovia (streets temporarily closed to motorized vehicles and open for pedestrians) and Cicloruta (bicycle paths) programs in Bogotá, Colombia, to assess associations of program participation with physical activity, safety, social capital, and equity. Methods. We conducted 2 cross-sectional studies in October 2009 with intercept surveys: one among 1000 Ciclovia participants and the other among 1000 Cicloruta participants. Results. Most Ciclovia participants met the physical activity recommendation in leisure time (59.5%), and most Cicloruta participants met it by cycling for transportation (70.5%). Ciclovia participants reported a higher perception of safety (51.2% regarding traffic and 42.4% about crime) and social capital (odds ratio = 2.0; 95% confidence interval = 1.4, 2.8) than did Cicloruta users. Most Cicloruta users reported living in low socioeconomic status categories (53.1%), had lower educational attainment (27%), and did not own cars (82.9%). Most Ciclovia participants reported living in middle socioeconomic status categories (64%), had low-to-middle educational attainment (51.1%), and did not own cars (66.1%). Conclusions. The Ciclovia and Cicloruta programs have the potential to equitably promote physical activity and provide a mobility alternative in complex urban settings such as Bogotá.

Transport systems can play an important role in increasing physical activity (PA). Bogota has been recognized for its bus rapid transit (BRT) system, TransMilenio (TM). To date, BRTs have been implemented in over 160 cities worldwide. The aim of this study was to assess the association between PA and the use of TM among adults in Bogota. The study consists of a cross-sectional study conducted from 2010 to 2011 with 1000 adults. PA was measured using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. In a subsample of 250 adults, PA was objectively measured using ActiGraph accelerometers. Analyses were conducted using multilevel logistic regression models. The use of TM was associated with meeting moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA). TM users were more likely to complete an average of >22 min a day of MVPA (odds ratio [OR] = 3.1, confidence interval [CI] = 95 % 1.4–7.1) and to walk for transportation for ≥150 min per week (OR = 1.5; CI = 95 % 1.1–2.0). The use of TM was associated with 12 or more minutes of MVPA (95 % CI 4.5–19.4, p

The aim of this paper is to study the knowledge production of Colombian universities in terms of their accumulation of intellectual capital (IC). We observe Colombian universities' publications between 1958 and 2008, categorizing each university according to growth trends in its scientific publications: early exponential growth, late exponential growth, and linear and irregular growth. This work describes the relationships between these growth trends and IC accumulation. It presents an historical description of some institutional changes in Colombian universities that improved the research activity. In addition, we present an empirical study of IC accumulation in universities from the three growth trend categories between 2003 and 2009. We suggest that the adapting capacity, the accumulation time, and the strategies of IC accumulation related to feedback structures are key factors in explaining the differences in knowledge production between growth categories of Colombian universities. The results show critical differences--on orders of magnitude--in IC accumulation across the three categories. Therefore, it would be possible to define a roadmap to improve the knowledge production in Colombian universities.

One promising public health intervention for promoting physical activity is the Ciclovía program. The Ciclovía is a regular multisectorial community-based program in which streets are temporarily closed for motorized transport, allowing exclusive access to individuals for recreational activities and physical activity. The objective of this study was to conduct an analysis of the cost-benefit ratios of physical activity of the Ciclovía programs of Bogotá and Medellín in Colombia, Guadalajara in México, and San Francisco in the U.S.A. The data of the four programs were obtained from program directors and local surveys. The annual cost per capita of the programs was: U.S. $6.0 for Bogotá, U.S. $23.4 for Medellín, U.S. $6.5 for Guadalajara, and U.S. $70.5 for San Francisco. The cost-benefit ratio for health benefit from physical activity was 3.23-4.26 for Bogotá, 1.83 for Medellín, 1.02-1.23 for Guadalajara, and 2.32 for San Francisco. For the program of Bogotá, the cost-benefit ratio was more sensitive to the prevalence of physically active bicyclists; for Guadalajara, the cost-benefit ratio was more sensitive to user costs; and for the programs of Medellín and San Francisco, the cost-benefit ratios were more sensitive to operational costs. From a public health perspective for promoting physical activity, these Ciclovía programs are cost beneficial.

Este documento es un tributo a 20 años de ediciones ininterrumpidas de la Revista de Ingeniería de la Universidad de los Andes. En estas dos décadas la revista ha guiado la construcción de capital social de la Facultad de Ingeniería de la Universidad de los Andes. En este artículo se presentan algunas características del capital social de la facultad. Se estudian las relaciones de coautoría en libros, artículos en conferencias, artículos publicados en libros y artículos publicados en revistas indexadas en ISI Web of Knowledge durante los últimos 10 años. El propósito es estudiar la relación entre la producción científica de la Facultad de Ingeniería de la Universidad de los Andes y su acumulación de capital social. Se propone que las relaciones de coautoría representen una red dinámica donde grupos de actores trabajan colectivamente en la producción de conocimiento. Las características estructurales (tamaño y conectividad) de la red de coautorías proporcionan una representación del capital social. El estudio de la dinámica de la red da indicios de la acumulación de capital social y de las estrategias colectivas de producción de conocimiento. Los resultados muestran que existe una relación de dosis-respuesta entre la producción científica y las características estructurales de la red de coautorías. La conectividad de los autores y el tamaño de la red (números de nodos y número de arcos) están relacionados positivamente con las dinámicas de producción de conocimiento.//This work is a tribute to the 20th anniversary of the Revista de Ingeniería de la Universidad de los Andes. In these two decades this journal has guided the construction of social capital of this School of Engineering. This work presents the relationship between the scientific production of the School of Engineering and its accumulation of social capital. Social capital is represented by coauthorships. These relations represent a dynamic network where groups of actors work together in the production of knowledge. The proposal is that structural characteristics (size and connectivity) of the network represent a measure of social capital. Therefore, the study of the dynamics of the network gives hints of the accumulation of social capital and the collective strategies of knowledge production. The results show a dose-response relation between scientific production and the structural characteristics of the network. The connectivity between coauthors and the size of the network (number of nodes and number of arcs) are positively related with the dynamics of knowledge production.

Purpose – The paper considers model‐based management and, based on it, proposes a heuristic‐based management. This paper aims to assert that heuristic‐based management, for complex systems, a process of free variation, of pairs of models and actions – called organisational strategies, maximizes the chances of improving the system's performance in open environments.Design/methodology/approach – A conception of complex systems are introduced and characterized as open and self‐organising systems. Then, the proposal to heuristically use pairs of models and actions, called organisational strategies, to manage social systems based on evolutionary thought is supported. Subsequently, a computational experiment is proposed to show that, even in a simple framework, variation processes are required.Findings – The paper shows that two processes may be required to preserve self‐organising systems. This finding indicates that variation and selection processes, related to evolutionary thought, are necessary for managers...

El artículo presenta una propuesta multidisciplinar de enseñanza que integra herramientas de la teoría de juegos y la economía experimental para que los estudiantes amplíen sus conocimientos de cibernética organizacional e ingeniería de variedad en los dominios informacional y operacional. La propuesta se fundamenta en la posibilidad de observar sistemas sociales como juegos. En el artículo se presenta la preparación del contexto para el aprendizaje de los estudiantes y la forma como las diversas disciplinas son integradas como herramienta explicativa del manejo de variedad en las organizaciones.

Este artículo propone una respuesta a la pregunta sobre cómo observar sistemas sociales. La propuesta parte por aceptar que para observar sistemas sociales se requiere trazar un borde que los diferencie de su entorno. Y, a la vez, devela que el borde que separa a los sistemas sociales de su entorno es la articulación de reglas y recursos. De esta manera, la pregunta se transforma a cómo observar el borde de los sistemas sociales, es decir, su propia articulación de reglas y recursos que lo produce y reproduce. Para ello, se emplea una función que integra los aspectos constitutivos y regulativos de las reglas que producen y constituyen a los sistemas sociales. Dicha función es nombrada como autoethospoiesis. El proceso por medio del cual la función es construida permite observar, no sólo la diferencia entre el sistema y su entorno, sino también la estrategia particular como el sistema interactúa, a través de la organización de su medio interno, con su medio externo. Dicha estrategia no es más que la manera particular como el sistema social maneja la complejidad del entorno a través de la organización de sus propias reglas y recursos.

A simplified trac model is studied, consisting of two vehicles traveling through a sequence of crossroads regulated by yield signs. A car approaching a yield sign stops if, in the other street, there is a car closer than a certain distance xtol from the intersection. It is shown that the function which maps the state of the vehicles displays a period doubling transition to chaos. An interesting feature of the dynamics is that for extremely cautious drivers (xtol too large), the map turns chaotic, thus becoming a potential source of emergent jams. Complex behavior such as the one observed in this simple system seems to be an essential ingredient in trac patterns, and could be of relevance in studying actual crossroads situations.

A universal scaling of subgrain size evolution in face-centered cubic (fcc) metals with moderate to high stacking fault energy is proposed for a class of deformation processing applications based on severe plastic deformation inherent to chip formation in Plane Strain Machining (PSM). The complex trajectories of grain refinement followed by PSM are captured using two parameters — the effective strain and the parameter “R” that is a function of the strain-rate, temperature and material dependent constants. Proposed parameterization entails a weak contribution of strain and “R” interaction which enables examining the athermal evolution of subgrain size. This approach yields that the subgrain size behavior, under the PSM thermomechanical conditions, obeys a universal scaling law while scanning along the strain levels.

INTRODUCTION: Contributory factors to motorcycle crashes vary among populations depending on several aspects such as the users' profiles, the composition and density of traffic, and the infrastructure features. A better understanding of local motorcycle crashes can be reached in those places where a comprehensive analysis is performed. This paper presents the results obtained from a case study analysis of 400 police records of accidents involving motorcycles in Bogota. METHOD: To achieve a deeper level of understanding of how these accidents occur, we propose a systemic approach that uses available crash data. The methodology is inspired by accident prototypical scenarios, a tool for analysis developed in France. RESULTS: When grouping cases we identified three categories: solo motorcycle accidents, motorcyclist and pedestrian accidents, and accidents involving a motorcycle and another vehicle. Within these categories we undertook in-depth analyses of 32 groups of accidents obtaining valuable information to better comprehend motorcyclists' road crashes in a local context. Recurrent contributory factors in the groups of accidents include: inexperienced motorcyclists, wide urban roads that incite speeding and risky overtaking maneuvers, flowing urban roads that encourage high speed and increased interaction between vehicles, and lack of infrastructure maintenance. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: The results obtained are a valuable asset to define measures that will be conveniently adapted to the group of accident on which we want to act. The methodology exposed in this paper is applicable to the study of road crashes that involve all types of actors, not only the motorcyclists, and in contexts different than those presented in Bogota. Language: en

Statistical properties, fluctuations and probabilistic arguments are shown to explain the robust dynamics of the Schelling’s social segregation model. With the aid of probability density functions we characterize the attractors for multiple external parameters and conditions. We discuss the role of the initial states and we show that, indeed, the system evolves towards well defined attractors. Finally, we provide probabilistic arguments to explain quantitatively the observed behavior.

Experiments show that humans cooperate with non-kin, including people they will never meet again, and punish non-cooperators at personal cost. This is called strong reciprocity. It has recently been sug gested, based on evolutionary simulations of an agent-based model inspired by the ultimatum game, that strong reciprocity may arise from individual selection. Ontogenic adaptations were introduced to the model to see how phenotypic plasticity affects the evolution of strong reciprocity. The influence of plasticity is explored by varying the way in which agents adapt. Simulations show that plasticity during an agent's lifetime changes the path of evolution toward interesting behaviors that better approach those observed in humans. As plasticity is increased, the average offers and acceptance threshold also increase.

This tribute to Stafford Beer is written from the particular situation of a Latin American country. Within this context, we believe that it could be convenient to dissolve the systems movement to assume an ethical‐political position that transforms the relations of dependence in the world‐system from the point of view of economic development. A contribution to this task is the formation of amplifiers of regulatory capacity that has been developed in Colombia. In this paper, we present some preliminary advances of autoethospoiesis and some of its future perspectives of research and action. One of our main objectives is to apply this functor with recurrent, recursive, and incursive operators to the world‐system model.

This paper is focused on reflecting upon a learning process that was developed in the Colombian National Audit Office as part of a project for its institutional change and strengthening. The paper offers a description of the training program carried out for the construction of new practices for auditing and a model for the construction of learning in which it was based. Finally, some general thoughts are presented about how deliberate interventions in a system work in order to increase the capability of the system to construct knowledge.

This paper develops a new discourse of control. The new discourse rejects the view that control is achieved through inspections and information alone, and supports the view that effective control means self-control and effective communications, both being necessary conditions to enable organizations to perform well. In this discourse, corruption is taken to be, among other things, the outcome of fragmentation in communications. Therefore, a movement toward a recursive organization of the State is offered as a way to countering corruption. This discourse was developed during a project for Institutional Change and Strengthening implemented at the Contraloria General de la Republica (CGR), in Colombia from 1995 to 1998. As part of the discourse we offer a distinction among traditional auditing practices, second-order auditing, and integrated systemic auditing practices.

Many high-profile societal problems involve an individual or group repeatedly attacking another – from child-parent disputes, sexual violence against women, civil unrest, violent conflicts and acts of terror, to current cyber-attacks on national infrastructure and ultrafast cyber-trades attacking stockholders. There is an urgent need to quantify the likely severity and timing of such future acts, shed light on likely perpetrators, and identify intervention strategies. Here we present a combined analysis of multiple datasets across all these domains which account for >100,000 events, and show that a simple mathematical law can benchmark them all. We derive this benchmark and interpret it, using a minimal mechanistic model grounded by state-of-the-art fieldwork. Our findings provide quantitative predictions concerning future attacks; a tool to help detect common perpetrators and abnormal behaviors; insight into the trajectory of a ‘lone wolf'; identification of a critical threshold for spreading a message or idea among perpetrators; an intervention strategy to erode the most lethal clusters; and more broadly, a quantitative starting point for cross-disciplinary theorizing about human aggression at the individual and group level, in both real and online worlds.

In the hope of making passenger travel times shorter and more reliable, many cities are introducing dedicated bus lanes (e.g., Bogota, London, Miami). Here we show that chaotic travel times are actually a natural consequence of individual bus function, and hence of public transport systems more generally, i.e., chaotic dynamics emerge even when the route is empty and straight, stops and lights are equidistant and regular, and loading times are negligible. More generally, our findings provide a novel example of chaotic dynamics emerging from a single object following Newton's laws of motion in a regularized one-dimensional system.

This work presents a new model for studying water demand or use under an alternative pricing structure. The model takes into account the inequality shown by the distribution function of water usage: a large amount of water used by a small number of households. Rather than discard these extreme events (outliers), the model permits the description of the whole distribution function. The model builds on information by using extreme physical information theory, which provides a methodology to construct a dynamic equation describing water-use behavior. The solution to the dynamic equation gives the distribution function of water use, allowing calculations to be carried out in different scenarios for indicators such as the price elasticity of demand. The model is used to examine a case study of water use in Bogota, Colombia.

The effect of green/red asymmetry is studied for the single-car traffic model proposed in [B.A. Toledo, V. Munoz, J. Rogan, C. Tenreiro, J.A. Valdivia, Modeling traffic through a sequence of traffic lights, Phys. Rev. E 70 (1) (2004) 016107], on two different signal synchronization strategies, namely, all signals in phase, and a green wave. The asymmetry is characterized by the parameter g = t gr / T , where t gr is the green time and T the signal period. Although the car dynamics turns simpler or more complex, as compared with the equivalent situation for the symmetric case g = 0.5 , critical behavior around resonance is shown to be preserved. However, unlike the case g = 0.5 , critical exponents at both sides of the resonance are not equal and depend on g . Analytical expressions for them are found, and shown to be both consistent with simulation results and independent of the distribution of distances between signals for the green wave case. Also, it is found that the green wave strategy is more robust to changes in g , with respect to the synchronized lights strategy, in the sense that larger departures from g = 0.5 are needed to have noticeable effects on the car dynamics.

We explore in detail the nontrivial and chaotic behavior of the traffic model proposed by Toledo et al. [Phys. Rev. E 70, 016107 (2004)] due to the richness of behavior present in the model, in spite of the fact that it is a minimalistic representation of basic city traffic dynamics. The chaotic behavior, previously shown for a given lower bound in acceleration/brake ratio, is examined more carefully and the region in parameter space for which we observe this nontrivial behavior is found. This parameter region may be related to the high sensitivity of traffic flow that eventually leads to traffic jams. Approximate scaling laws are proposed.

The complex behavior that occurs when traffic lights are synchronized is studied for a row of interacting cars. The system is modeled through a cellular automaton. Two strategies are considered: all lights in phase and a "green wave" with a propagating green signal. It is found that the mean velocity near the resonant condition follows a critical scaling law. For the green wave, it is shown that the mean velocity scaling law holds even for random separation between traffic lights and is not dependent on the density. This independence on car density is broken when random perturbations are considered in the car velocity. Random velocity perturbations also have the effect of leading the system to an emergent state, where cars move in clusters, but with an average velocity which is independent of traffic light switching for large injection rates.

The selection of export markets is a complex and important decision for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of developing countries interested in exporting for the first time. Given this issue, SMEs enroll export programs to receive consultancy for their internationalization process. One of these export programs is managed by the Colombian trade bureau, a Trade Promotion Organization (TPO). This TPO developed a market selection model that lacks a process to validate the weights selected. Therefore, the results of the TPO model are deficient in generating enough confidence to motivate the company’s owners to export. On the other hand, we identified that some of the criteria used in the TPO model were related to each other, but this model assumes criteria as independent. Due to the fact that the selection of export markets is a multi-criteria decision that involves feedback, we proposed an ANP model for selecting countries to export software services for Colombian SMEs. Upon comparing the market TPO selecting model to the ANP model, we identified that the results of both models are similar in ranking the countries. However, we concluded that the proposed model is better because it has a structured methodology to assign weights that allows evaluating the consistency of the weights allocated to the selected criteria. Besides, we also preferredit because allows analyzing sensitivity to changes in the priority’s weights. The categories of variables that we used in both models are: market, economy and logistics, among other.

Data on wealth distributions in trading markets show a power law behavior x(-)(1+alpha) at the high end, where, in general, alpha is greater than 1 (Pareto's law). Models based on kinetic theory, where a set of interacting agents trade money, yield power law tails if agents are assigned a saving propensity. In this paper we are solving the inverse problem, that is, in finding the saving propensity distribution which yields a given wealth distribution for all wealth ranges. This is done explicitly for two recently published and comprehensive wealth datasets.

The complex behavior that occurs when traffic lights are synchronized is studied. Two strategies are considered: all lights in phase, and a ``green wave'' with a propagating green signal. It is found that traffic variables such as traveling time, velocity, and fuel consumption, near resonance, follow critical scaling laws. For the green wave, it is shown that time and velocity scaling laws hold even for random separation between traffic lights. These results suggest the concept of transient resonances, which can be induced by adaptively changing the phase of traffic lights. This may be important to consider when designing strategies for traffic control in cities, where short trajectories, and thus transient solutions, are likely to be relevant.

We propose a model of a bus traveling through a sequence of traffic lights, which is required to stop between the traffic signals to pick up passengers. A two dimensional model, of velocity and traveled time at each traffic light, is constructed, which shows non-trivial and chaotic behaviors for realistic city traffic parameters. We restrict the parameter values where these non-trivial and chaotic behaviors occur, by following analytically and numerically the fixed points and period 2 orbits. We define conditions where chaos may arise by determining regions in parameter space where the maximum Lyapunov exponent is positive. Chaos seems to occur as long as the ratio of the braking and accelerating capacities are greater than about ∼3.

This paper explains the design of the course: "Introduction to Systems Thinking". This design uses Complexity Management tools from Organisational Cybernetics in order to teach Systems Thinking in general, and Organisational Cybernetics to Manage Complexity in particular. This design attempts to articulate theories, tools, and practices of systems thinking in a context in which students can develop their autonomy. The implementation of this design is a game, which models a social system. In this way, students learn how to make decisions by themselves in a complex environment.