IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/syseng/v19y2016i3p179-192.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring Structural Patterns Across Evolved and Designed Systems: A Network Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Christos Ellinas
  • Neil Allan
  • Anders Johansson

Abstract

Our desire to deliver increased functionality while setting tighter operational and regulative boundaries has fueled a recent influx of highly coupled systems. Nonetheless, our current capacity to successfully deliver them is still in its infancy. Understanding how such Designed systems are structured, along with how they compare to their naturally Evolved counterparts, can play an important role in bettering our capacity to do so. Based on this premise, the structural patterns underlying a wide range of seemingly unrelated systems are uncovered using tools from network science. By doing so, structural patterns emerge and are subsequently used to highlight both similarities and differences between the two classes of systems. With a focus on the Designed class, and assuming that increased structural variety fuels design uncertainty, it is shown that their adherence to statistical normality (i.e., expected vs. encountered patterns and statistical correlations between combinations of such patterns) is rather limited. Insight of this sort has both theoretical (context agnostic approaches are increasingly relevant within the domain of Systems Engineering, yet are rarely used) and practical (transferability of knowledge) implications.

Suggested Citation

  • Christos Ellinas & Neil Allan & Anders Johansson, 2016. "Exploring Structural Patterns Across Evolved and Designed Systems: A Network Perspective," Systems Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(3), pages 179-192, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:syseng:v:19:y:2016:i:3:p:179-192
    DOI: 10.1002/sys.21350
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/sys.21350
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/sys.21350?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. J. Lorenz & S. Battiston & F. Schweitzer, 2009. "Systemic risk in a unifying framework for cascading processes on networks," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 71(4), pages 441-460, October.
    2. Guimera, R. & Danon, L. & Diaz-Guilera, A. & Giralt, F. & Arenas, A., 2006. "The real communication network behind the formal chart: Community structure in organizations," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 61(4), pages 653-667, December.
    3. Centola, Damon & Eguíluz, Víctor M. & Macy, Michael W., 2007. "Cascade dynamics of complex propagation," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 374(1), pages 449-456.
    4. J. M. Ottino, 2004. "Engineering complex systems," Nature, Nature, vol. 427(6973), pages 399-399, January.
    5. H. Jeong & S. P. Mason & A.-L. Barabási & Z. N. Oltvai, 2001. "Lethality and centrality in protein networks," Nature, Nature, vol. 411(6833), pages 41-42, May.
    6. Dirk Helbing, 2013. "Globally networked risks and how to respond," Nature, Nature, vol. 497(7447), pages 51-59, May.
    7. Sarah A Sheard & Ali Mostashari, 2009. "Principles of complex systems for systems engineering," Systems Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(4), pages 295-311, December.
    8. George A. Polacek & David A. Gianetto & Khaldoun Khashanah & Dinesh Verma, 2012. "On principles and rules in complex adaptive systems: A financial system case study," Systems Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(4), pages 433-447, December.
    9. Chan, Lai-Kow & Wu, Ming-Lu, 2002. "Quality function deployment: A literature review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 143(3), pages 463-497, December.
    10. Andrew G. Haldane & Robert M. May, 2011. "Systemic risk in banking ecosystems," Nature, Nature, vol. 469(7330), pages 351-355, January.
    11. Frank Schweitzer & Giorgio Fagiolo & Didier Sornette & Fernando Vega-Redondo & Douglas R. White, 2009. "Economic Networks: What Do We Know And What Do We Need To Know?," Advances in Complex Systems (ACS), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 12(04n05), pages 407-422.
    12. Robert M. May & Simon A. Levin & George Sugihara, 2008. "Ecology for bankers," Nature, Nature, vol. 451(7181), pages 893-894, February.
    13. Steven H. Strogatz, 2001. "Exploring complex networks," Nature, Nature, vol. 410(6825), pages 268-276, March.
    14. Vicente Valls & Pilar Lino, 2001. "Criticality Analysis in Activity-on-Node Networks with Minimal Time Lags," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 102(1), pages 17-37, February.
    15. Yang-Yu Liu & Jean-Jacques Slotine & Albert-László Barabási, 2011. "Controllability of complex networks," Nature, Nature, vol. 473(7346), pages 167-173, May.
    16. Alessandro Vespignani, 2010. "The fragility of interdependency," Nature, Nature, vol. 464(7291), pages 984-985, April.
    17. Olaf Sporns & Rolf Kötter, 2004. "Motifs in Brain Networks," PLOS Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 2(11), pages 1-1, October.
    18. Aaron J. Shenhar, 2001. "One Size Does Not Fit All Projects: Exploring Classical Contingency Domains," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(3), pages 394-414, March.
    19. Marcus A. Bellamy & Rahul C. Basole, 2013. "Network analysis of supply chain systems: A systematic review and future research," Systems Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(2), pages 235-249, June.
    20. Amira Sharon & Olivier L. de Weck & Dov Dori, 2011. "Project management vs. systems engineering management: A practitioners' view on integrating the project and product domains," Systems Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(4), pages 427-440, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ellinas, Christos & Allan, Neil & Johansson, Anders, 2016. "Project systemic risk: Application examples of a network model," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 50-62.
    2. Didier Wernli & Lucas Böttcher & Flore Vanackere & Yuliya Kaspiarovich & Maria Masood & Nicolas Levrat, 2023. "Understanding and governing global systemic crises in the 21st century: A complexity perspective," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 14(2), pages 207-228, May.
    3. José Balsa-Barreiro & Aymeric Vié & Alfredo J. Morales & Manuel Cebrián, 2020. "Deglobalization in a hyper-connected world," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 6(1), pages 1-4, December.
    4. V. Sasidevan & Nils Bertschinger, 2019. "Systemic Risk: Fire-Walling Financial Systems Using Network-Based Approaches," Papers 1912.05273, arXiv.org.
    5. Andrey Sokolov & Rachel Webster & Andrew Melatos & Tien Kieu, 2012. "Loan and nonloan flows in the Australian interbank network," Papers 1202.3182, arXiv.org.
    6. Christos Ellinas & Christos Nicolaides & Naoki Masuda, 2022. "Mitigation strategies against cascading failures within a project activity network," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 383-400, May.
    7. Chao, Xiangrui & Ran, Qin & Chen, Jia & Li, Tie & Qian, Qian & Ergu, Daji, 2022. "Regulatory technology (Reg-Tech) in financial stability supervision: Taxonomy, key methods, applications and future directions," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    8. Sokolov, Andrey & Webster, Rachel & Melatos, Andrew & Kieu, Tien, 2012. "Loan and nonloan flows in the Australian interbank network," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 391(9), pages 2867-2882.
    9. Pawe{l} Smaga & Mateusz Wili'nski & Piotr Ochnicki & Piotr Arendarski & Tomasz Gubiec, 2016. "Can banks default overnight? Modeling endogenous contagion on O/N interbank market," Papers 1603.05142, arXiv.org.
    10. Sellevåg, Stig Rune, 2021. "Changes in inoperability for interdependent industry sectors in Norway from 2012 to 2017," International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection, Elsevier, vol. 32(C).
    11. Cetina, Jill & Paddrik, Mark & Rajan, Sriram, 2018. "Stressed to the core: Counterparty concentrations and systemic losses in CDS markets," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 38-52.
    12. Xiao‐Bing Hu & Hang Li & XiaoMei Guo & Pieter H. A. J. M. van Gelder & Peijun Shi, 2019. "Spatial Vulnerability of Network Systems under Spatially Local Hazards," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 39(1), pages 162-179, January.
    13. Paulo Ferreira & Éder J.A.L. Pereira & Hernane B.B. Pereira, 2020. "From Big Data to Econophysics and Its Use to Explain Complex Phenomena," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-10, July.
    14. Andreas Koulouris & Ioannis Katerelos & Theodore Tsekeris, 2013. "Multi-Equilibria Regulation Agent-Based Model of Opinion Dynamics in Social Networks," Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems - scientific journal, Croatian Interdisciplinary Society Provider Homepage: http://indecs.eu, vol. 11(1), pages 51-70.
    15. Annika Westphal, 2015. "Systemic Risk in the European Union: A Network Approach to Banks’ Sovereign Debt Exposures," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 3(3), pages 1-36, July.
    16. He, He & Yang, Bo & Hu, Xiaoming, 2016. "Exploring community structure in networks by consensus dynamics," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 450(C), pages 342-353.
    17. Yoshiharu Maeno & Kenji Nishiguchi & Satoshi Morinaga & Hirokazu Matsushima, 2014. "Impact of credit default swaps on financial contagion," Papers 1411.1356, arXiv.org.
    18. Yang, Hyeonchae & Jung, Woo-Sung, 2016. "Structural efficiency to manipulate public research institution networks," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 21-32.
    19. Fushing, Hsieh & Jordà, Òscar & Beisner, Brianne & McCowan, Brenda, 2014. "Computing systemic risk using multiple behavioral and keystone networks: The emergence of a crisis in primate societies and banks," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 797-806.
    20. John Rutledge, 2015. "Economics as energy framework: Complexity, turbulence, financial crises, and protectionism," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(1), pages 10-18, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:syseng:v:19:y:2016:i:3:p:179-192. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)1520-6858 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.