Planning for post-industrial society : a theoretical framework

Bibliography: leaf 395-409.This research stems from the proposition that important qualitative changes are occurring within Western Society, and that these changes call for new forms of individual and organisational adaptation. Planning is a pre-eminently suitable way of adapting in an appropriate fashion to the complexities of change, rather than through ad hoc responses. Four tendencies appear to be prevalent and to persist within what may be termed these technologically advanced societies; these are: high and accelerating rates of technological and social change; an unevenness in these rates of change, especially among different parts of the environment in which organisations operate; an increasing interconnectedness and interdependence among these environmental parts; and an increasing overall size and complexity of the environment and its consistuent organisations. System's theory, it is felt, will provide a particularly apt conceptual framework for the consideration of these problems, which will be made explicit and amplified primarily through an exploration of these concepts which are central to a theory of behavioural systems. It is argued that the conditions in which social activity occurs are, in many parts of the world, becoming subject to important qualitative changes which demand new responses and modes of adaptation of behaviour, which look to what may be termed a new 'appreciative' outlook, in which a central element will be a recognition that units within ecological consideration must become the basis for achieving equitable outcomes. Chapters 7 and 8 discuss planning, the method which all social units at all levels use when attempting to regulate relations with others in order to continue functioning effectively. Here, the conceptual framework will be used to examine this problem of planning. Further, to refine the notion of planning, technical, natural, institutional, economic, conflict and social systems will be examined. In particular, urban planning will be looked at as of increasingly critical concern as the result of the world urbanisation process. A new paradigm for planning will be suggested which draws together the main elements of the thesis, in which the aims and techniques of enquiry will be from the making of explanations which derive from single purpose approaches to the furtherance of understanding desired from a more inclusive and comprehensive standpoint

Performance Modelling, and Adaptive Control for Linked Sequential Systems

This thesis investigates the dynamics of linked sequential systems of machines in industrial laundries. Two aspects are considered: firstly the control of such systems and in particular the decision making point when a batch to be processed can be sent to one of many identical machines, and secondly the modelling of the whole system of linked machines. The decision making point in the control of these systems is frequently implemented in a sub-optimal manner, or a manner which becomes sub-optimal as conditions change. An adaptive system is preferable and an Evolutionary Artificial Neural Network approach (EANN) is proposed. The EANN is tested on simulations of real laundry systems and shown to be effective. Then it is applied to two abstract game playing problems in order to better understand its limitations. Limitations are found to include the fact that if learning does not appear to take place, it is not possible to determine if this is a failure of the Evolutionary approach or the Artificial Neural Network parameters. The dynamics and performance of Linked Sequential Systems in Industrial Laundries are not well understood or covered by theory in the literature. The theory of the performance of these systems is outlined, and an Agent Based Model (ABM) simulation presented. The ABM simulation is explained and then the simulation is compared to a real world system in an existing laundry. The performance of the existing system is measured and compared to the prediction of the ABM simulation. The ABM simulation is shown to offer a better understanding of the system than the previous static calculation. Finally the ABM is used in a design exercise to show how it could be used to specify a system more accurately than the static calculation at design stage

First International Conference on Ada (R) Programming Language Applications for the NASA Space Station, volume 1

Topics discussed include: test and verification; environment issues; distributed Ada issues; life cycle issues; Ada in Europe; management/training issues; common Ada interface set; and run time issues