Systems Thinking for Knowledge

The capacity to engage in systems thinking is often viewed as being a product of being able to understand complex systems due to one's facility in mastering systems theories, methods, and being able to adeptly reason. Relatively little attention is paid in the systems literature to the processes of learning from experience and creating knowledge as a direct consequence of individuals engaging systems thinking itself over time. In fact, the potential efficacy of systems thinking to improve performance normally seen as only contingent on a priori knowledge, rather than knowledge created via learning from experience. Such newly create knowledge often results from engaging in modeling efforts and systemic forms of inquiry. This article proposes a model for creating new knowledge by coupling systems modeling with a pragmatic approach to knowledge-creation. This approach is based on a foundation of the pragmatic concepts first proposed by the American philosopher/scientist Charles Sanders Peirce over a century ago. This model offers systems practitioners a framework to engage in knowledge-intensive systems thinking (KIST) for addressing complex problematic issues.     

Cultural grounding of regret: Regret in self and interpersonal contexts

The purpose of this study was to explore cultural similarities and differences in regret, focusing on distinctions between interpersonal and self-situations, and between action and inaction regrets. Japanese and American undergraduates were asked to describe regrets experienced in interpersonal and self-situations. We found that both situational and cultural contexts influenced the likelihood of regretting inactions over actions. Participants were more likely to recall inaction regrets in self-situations than in interpersonal situations, and that the likelihood of recalling inaction regrets was more pronounced for Americans than for Japanese. Furthermore, we examined the intensity of the regret. Whereas American students experienced regret as intense as that of Japanese students in self-situations, Japanese students experienced regret more strongly than American students in interpersonal situations. Detailed content analysis also showed that individuals experienced regret in ways consistent with cultural values. The situational and cultural grounding of regret is discussed.     

How equivalent are the action execution,imagery, and observation of intransitive movements? Revisiting the concept of somatotopy during action simulation

Jeannerod (2001) hypothesized that action execution, imagery, and observation are functionally equivalent. This led to the major prediction that these motor states are based on the same action-specific and even effector-specific motor representations. The present study examined whether hand and foot movements are represented in a somatotopic manner during action execution, imagery, and action observation.     

Sensorimotor intentionality: The origins of intentionality in prospective agent action

Efficient prospective motor control, evident in human activity from birth, reveals an adaptive intentionality of a primary, pre-reflective, and pre-conceptual nature that we identify here as sensorimotor intentionality. We identify a structural continuity between the emergence of this earliest form of prospective movement and the structure of mental states as intentional or content-directed in more advanced forms. We base our proposal on motor control studies, from foetal observations through infancy. These studies reveal movements are guided by anticipations of future effects, even from before birth. This implies that these movements, even if they are simple and discrete, are the actions of an intentional agent. We develop this notion to present a theory of the developing organisation of a core feature of cognition as embodied agent action, from early single actions with proximal prospectivity to the complex serial ordering of actions into projects to reach distal goals. We claim the prospective structural continuity from early and simple actions to later complex projects of serially-ordered actions confirms the existence of an ontogenetically primary form of content–directedness that is a driver for learning and development. Its implications for understanding autism are discussed.     

Action simulation in the human brain: Twelve questions

Although the idea of action simulation is nowadays popular in cognitive science, neuroscience and robotics, many aspects of the simulative processes remain unclear from empirical, computational, and neural perspectives. In the first part of the article, we provide a critical review and assessment of action simulation theories advanced so far in the wider literature of embodied and motor cognition. We focus our analysis on twelve key questions, and discuss them in the context of human and (occasionally) primate studies. In the second part of the article, we describe an integrative neuro-computational account of action simulation, which links the neural substrate (as revealed in neuroimaging studies of action simulation) to the components of a computational architecture that includes internal modeling, action monitoring and inhibition mechanisms.     

High-resolution characterization of the precipitation behavior of an Al–Zn–Mg–Cu alloy

The metastable particles in an Al–Zn–Mg–Cu alloy have been examined at atomic-resolution using high-angle annular dark field (HAADF) imaging. In under-aged conditions, thin η′ plates were formed with a thickness of seven atomic planes parallel to the {111}_Al planes. The five inner planes of the η′ phase appear to be alternatively enriched in Mg and Zn, with two outer planes forming distinct Zn-rich interfacial planes. Similar Zn-rich interfacial enrichment has also been identified for the η phase, which is a minimum 11-plane thick structure. In rare instances, particles less than seven planes were found indicating a very early preference for seven-layer particle formation. Throughout the aging, the plate thickness appears constant, while the plate radius increases and no particles between 7 and 11 planes were observed. Based on the HAADF contrast, our observations do not support the η′ models previously set forth by other authors. Clear structural similarities between η′ and η were observed, suggesting that drawing distinctions between η′ and η phases may not be necessary or useful.     

Fluctuation-driven first-order crystal to rotator phase transition

This article develops renormalization-group techniques to analyze the phase transition between the crystal and the rotator-V (Rv), phase in n-alkanes. An explicit free energy is constructed and it is verified that the unstable fixed point corresponds to a fluctuation-driven first-order crystal to Rv phase transition. Available experimental data are consistent with our model.     

Recent advances in electron-beam-induced damage models in yttria fully stabilized zirconia single crystals

Dislocation loop formation in yttria fully stabilized zirconia single crystals observed in a transmission electron microscope has been reported in the literature. To account for the loop formation, two different explanations have been proposed. Here we present original experiments focusing on a comparison of the two models. We conclude that the origin of the loops is precipitation of a second phase, enhanced by heating in the electron beam.     

Effect of crystallization on the surface area of porous Ni-based metallic glass foams

The change of the specific surface area in porous Ni₅₉Zr₂₀Ti₁₆Si₂Sn₃ metallic glass (MG) upon partial crystallization was investigated. The observed increase in the surface area of the annealed Ni-based MG foams is due to the formation of homogeneously distributed Ni₁₀(Zr,Ti)₇ rod-shape intermetallic phases with nominal diameters around 250?nm and ～800?nm length on the surface of MG struts during the crystallization. For longer annealing, the specific surface area decreases again due to a change of the morphology of the crystals from rod-like to disc-like appearance, thus suggesting an optimum regime for increasing the specific surface area upon isothermal annealing at a given temperature.     

The Effects of Object Weight on the Kinematics of Prehension

The purpose of these experiments was to determine the effects of object weight and condition of weight presentation on the kinematics of human prehension. Subjects performed reaching and grasping movements to metal dowels whose visible characteristics were similar but whose weight varied (20, 55, 150, 410 g). Movements were performed under two conditions of weight presentation, random (weight unknown) and blocked (weight known). Three-dimensional movements of the thumb, index finger, and wrist were recorded, using a WATSMART system to obtain information regarding the grasp and transport components. The results of the first experiment indicated that object weight and condition of presentation affected the temporal and kinematic measures for both the grasp and transport components. In conjunction with the results of a second experiment, in which time in contact with the dowel was measured, it was shown that the free-motion phase of prehension (i.e., up to object contact) was invariant over the different conditions, however. The changes were observed in the finger-object interaction phase (when subjects applied forces after contact with the dowel), prior to lift-off. These results were interpreted as indicating (a) object weight does not influence the planning and execution of the free-motion phase of prehension and (b) there are at least two motor control phases involved in prehension, one for making contact with the object and the other for finger-object interaction. The changing contributions of visual, kinesthetic, and haptic information during these two phases is discussed.