What Is Life: An Informational Model of the Living Structures

Schröedinger’s question “what is life?” was a real challenge for the scientific community and this still remains as an opened question, because in spite of the important advances in various scientific branches like philosophy, biology, chemistry and physics,, each of them assesses life from its particular point of view to explain the life’ characteristic features, so not a coherent and well structured general model of life was reported. In this paper life is approached from informational perspective, starting from earlier Draganeacu's philosophic concepts, showing that actually life is structured by matter and information. Therefore, it is analyzed carbon-matter properties on the basis of which the living structures are composed, giving rise not only of a considerable number of carbon-based compounds, but serving now beside silicon, as an useful material for micro/nanostructure applications. Such specific properties refers to the high ability of carbon to associate/dissociate in chemical reactions regulated/facilitated by informational (Bit unit) YES/NO bistable mechanisms to form macro/small molecules with complementary properties, reactive info-functional pathways of transduction, relaying, amplification, integration, spreading, modulation, activation and positive/negative feedback reactions, like in the informational microelectronic/microsystems circuits. It is argued that the negentropy invoked earlier in Schrödinger's analysis is a consequence of informational-assisted structuration/organization of the cell and human organism. From the analysis of inter/intra-communication mechanisms in the cell and comparing with the outcomes described by the Informational Model of Human Body, it is deduced that, the living organisms operate on the basis of three main streaming circuits assuring the living functions: (1) the metabolic matter-related circuit; (2) the operative informational circuit; (3) the epigenetic informational circuit for the gradual integration of information in the central informational structure – DNA. It is founded on these bases the Informational Model of the Living Structures, and the Informational System of the Living Structures (ISLS), with similar functions on the entire living scale size, from unitary to multicellular living structures, composed by seven informational systems, namely [CASI (center of acquisition and storing of information), CDC (center of decision and command), IRSS (info-reactive sentient system), MIS (maintenance info-system), GTS (genetic transmission system), IGG (info-genetic generator) and IC (info-connection)]ISLS, and are identified the specific functions of each of them. The living structures operate thus like self-“polarized" bipolar info-matter informational devices by means of the stand-by metabolic matter-related circuit, and react/respond to the external/internal informational stimuli, which modulate their functionality, returning an external reaction signal (“attitude"), for adaptation and survival

Supporting Humanitarian Relief Distribution Decision-Making under Deep Uncertainty : A System Design Approach

With respect to copyright, all the papers were excluded from the dissertation.Disasters threaten society with widespread destruction of infrastructure and livelihood. For their survival, affected inhabitants depend on immediate humanitarian assistance from diverse organizations. During quick responses, humanitarian decision- makers (HDMs) act rapidly to distribute necessary relief goods, despite the deep, prevailing uncertainty that arises from scarce, conflicting, and uncertain information. To support HDMs in humanitarian relief distribution (HRD) decision-making, humanitarian logistics (HL) researchers have developed various mathematical models. These models are, however, specific to disaster scenarios, and most of them are detached from the realities of the field since end-users (mainly practitioners) have been absent in the development process. When tested, these decision-making models were found to be capable of producing good results, but they have not been implemented in practice because of operational inconsistency or complexity (i.e., lack of user-friendliness). Therefore, humanitarian responders are still in need of support systems to assist them in determining effective HRD. A computer-based decision support system (DSS) can fill this need by providing necessary recommendations and suggesting decision alternatives. Hence, developing such DSSs is always the priority in HL.publishedVersio

Aproximación al Estado de Investigación en Logística Humanitaria: Un enfoque Bibliométrico

El presente proyecto, pretende el desarrollo de un estudio bibliométrico que permita identificar las bases conceptuales y las contribuciones relevantes en una de las áreas emergentes de la logística: La logística humanitaria. El proyecto seleccionará las principales publicaciones disponibles en Academic Search Complete, Emerald, Science Direct, y en las herramientas bibliográficas Scopus e ISI Web of Science con el acceso que ofrece la licencia de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, para posteriormente, aplicar los principios de la bibliometría identificando las principales tendencias de investigación en el objeto de estudio seleccionado, utilizando indicadores y herramientas estadísticas descriptivas y mediciones de co-citación, detallando el contenido conceptual de cada artículo y estableciendo el estado de obsolescencia de la literatura disponible. Por último, la presente investigación realizará una discusión de los hallazgos de revisiones bibliográficas previas, frente a los resultados obtenidos en el desarrollo del presente estudio, de manera que se puedan identificar futuras líneas de investigación, orientadas hacia el desarrollo conceptual y solución de los retos que impone en la actualidad la logística humanitariaAbstract : The aim of this project is to develop a bibliometrics study that will be able to identify the conceptual bases and main contribution in one of the emerging areas of research in logistics known as Humanitarian logistics. This research paper will select the main publications in the databases available: Academic Search Complete, Emerald and Science Direct and other bibliographic tools as Scopus and ISI web of Science, by using the available access for the members of the National University of Colombia. Then applying the bibliometric principles, in order to bring out the main research trends of Humanitarian Logistics, using indicators and descriptive statistics tools and co-citation measurements, detailing the conceptual content of each publication and establishing the obsolescence level of the available literature. Finally, this research will propose a discussion regarding the findings of previous bibliographic reviews, compared to the results of the present study, in that manner that might help identify future research lines. These lines should be directed to the conceptual development and solution of the challenges that nowadays the humanitarian logistics facesMaestrí