44,363 research outputs found
Models of everywhere revisited: a technological perspective
The concept ‘models of everywhere’ was first introduced in the mid 2000s as a means of reasoning about the
environmental science of a place, changing the nature of the underlying modelling process, from one in which
general model structures are used to one in which modelling becomes a learning process about specific places, in
particular capturing the idiosyncrasies of that place. At one level, this is a straightforward concept, but at another
it is a rich multi-dimensional conceptual framework involving the following key dimensions: models of everywhere,
models of everything and models at all times, being constantly re-evaluated against the most current
evidence. This is a compelling approach with the potential to deal with epistemic uncertainties and nonlinearities.
However, the approach has, as yet, not been fully utilised or explored. This paper examines the
concept of models of everywhere in the light of recent advances in technology. The paper argues that, when first
proposed, technology was a limiting factor but now, with advances in areas such as Internet of Things, cloud
computing and data analytics, many of the barriers have been alleviated. Consequently, it is timely to look again
at the concept of models of everywhere in practical conditions as part of a trans-disciplinary effort to tackle the
remaining research questions. The paper concludes by identifying the key elements of a research agenda that
should underpin such experimentation and deployment
From Social Simulation to Integrative System Design
As the recent financial crisis showed, today there is a strong need to gain
"ecological perspective" of all relevant interactions in
socio-economic-techno-environmental systems. For this, we suggested to set-up a
network of Centers for integrative systems design, which shall be able to run
all potentially relevant scenarios, identify causality chains, explore feedback
and cascading effects for a number of model variants, and determine the
reliability of their implications (given the validity of the underlying
models). They will be able to detect possible negative side effect of policy
decisions, before they occur. The Centers belonging to this network of
Integrative Systems Design Centers would be focused on a particular field, but
they would be part of an attempt to eventually cover all relevant areas of
society and economy and integrate them within a "Living Earth Simulator". The
results of all research activities of such Centers would be turned into
informative input for political Decision Arenas. For example, Crisis
Observatories (for financial instabilities, shortages of resources,
environmental change, conflict, spreading of diseases, etc.) would be connected
with such Decision Arenas for the purpose of visualization, in order to make
complex interdependencies understandable to scientists, decision-makers, and
the general public.Comment: 34 pages, Visioneer White Paper, see http://www.visioneer.ethz.c
Biologists meet statisticians: A workshop for young scientists to foster interdisciplinary team work
Life science and statistics have necessarily become essential partners. The
need to plan complex, structured experiments, involving elaborated designs, and
the need to analyse datasets in the era of systems biology and high throughput
technologies has to build upon professional statistical expertise. On the other
hand, conducting such analyses and also developing improved or new methods,
also for novel kinds of data, has to build upon solid biological understanding
and practise. However, the meeting of scientists of both fields is often
hampered by a variety of communicative hurdles - which are based on
field-specific working languages and cultural differences.
As a step towards a better mutual understanding, we developed a workshop
concept bringing together young experimental biologists and statisticians, to
work as pairs and learn to value each others competences and practise
interdisciplinary communication in a casual atmosphere. The first
implementation of our concept was a cooperation of the German Region of the
International Biometrical Society and the Leibnitz Institute DSMZ-German
Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures (short: DSMZ), Braunschweig,
Germany. We collected feedback in form of three questionnaires, oral comments,
and gathered experiences for the improvement of this concept. The long-term
challenge for both disciplines is the establishment of systematic schedules and
strategic partnerships which use the proposed workshop concept to foster mutual
understanding, to seed the necessary interdisciplinary cooperation network, and
to start training the indispensable communication skills at the earliest
possible phase of education
How integrative modelling can break down disciplinary silos
This paper has been published in a peer-reviewed journal as: Kragt, M.E., Robson, B.J. & Macleod, C.J.A. (2013) Modellers’ roles in structuring integrative research projects. Environmental Modelling & Software, 39(1): 322-330. DOI: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2012.06.015Environmental modelling, Interdisciplinary research, Transdisciplinarity, Integration, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Q57, Y80, Z19,
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