This paper reports on an innovative combination of hard and soft methods—soft systems methodology (SSM) with data envelopment analysis (DEA). Problems in defining and agreeing appropriate inputs and outputs for DEA led to the use of SSM as a way or producing a comprehensive and systemic database of performance indicators. The contributions of the paper are: the use of SSM to improve DEA specifi...

This paper discusses the application of soft systems methodologies to the analysis of conflicts with a view to increasing understanding and making suggestions for their resolution. The paper presents a particular soft systems methodology in seven stages and discusses in detail the application of this methodology to conflict analysis. Copyright © 2002 IFAC.

Simple and coincidence spectra of the NM weak decay of light hypernuclei have been evaluated in a systematic way for the first time. We have only considered 1N induced processes, neglecting entirely the events induced by 2N emission, as well as the effects of the FSIt’s. As the theoretical frameworkwe have used the IPSMwith three different parametrizations for the transition potential. The comp...

Problem solving and research methods apparently sit within different traditions of development evidenced by disparate sources of literature. However, in the graduate education of engineers taking an Engineering Doctorate (EngD) Program in Systems there is a need for their integration in such a way as to make their relationship clear. We argue from experience of course delivery and project super...

The population pressure over municipal administrations has increase in most cities in the world stimulated by citizen’s wishes for better quality of life. People seem to have improved their standards and demands with respect to quality of life when compared to the past. Citizens begin to understand the economic and social benefits of preserving their cultural heritage and, consequently, try to ...

A methodology was developed to analyze components of all positions in the library system at the University of Iowa in order to identify staffing needs. Current job activities and levels were examined, and staff were asked to indicate how the activities making up their positions might change over the next three to five years-the time period for the full implementation of OASIS, the automated lib...

Presupposition triggers can be divided in two groups, ‘soft’ and ‘hard,’ based on whether the presuppositions they give rise to are easily defeasible and whether they project uniformly in quantificational sentences (Abusch 2002, 2010, Charlow 2009). Recently, two ideas have been put forward in the literature in connection to this problem. First, soft triggers should be thought of as non-presupp...

The National Health Service is being re-engineered. One of the components is that public health medicine needs to be delivered differently but effectively. It has been proposed that this should be done via managed public health networks (MPHNs). Underpinning this re-engineering there is an increasing role for ICT (information and communication technologies) and previous work suggests that most ...

Challenge and conflict are elements that all game designers strive to engineer into their games. Research shows that challenge is what drives a high proportion of games players yet there are few published tools that can be used to assist the game designer in constructing useful challenges and conflict leading many new game designers to resort to the ‘tried and trusted’ techniques used in previo...