Life Sciences Commons^™

An Overview Of Elements And Relations: Aspects Of A Scientific Metaphysics, Martin Zwick

Systems Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

A talk on my book, Elements and Relations: Aspects of a Scientific Metaphysics. Book description:

This book develops the core proposition that systems theory is an attempt to construct an “exact and scientific metaphysics,” a system of general ideas central to science that can be expressed mathematically. Collectively, these ideas would constitute a non-reductionist “theory of everything” unlike what is being sought in physics. Inherently transdisciplinary, systems theory offers ideas and methods that are relevant to all of the sciences and also to professional fields such as systems engineering, public policy, business, and social work. To demonstrate the generality …

Reconstructability Analysis: Discrete Multivariate Modeling, Martin Zwick

Systems Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

An introduction to Reconstructability Analysis for the Discrete Multivariate Modeling course and for other purposes.

Graphical Models In Reconstructability Analysis And Bayesian Networks, Marcus Harris, Martin Zwick

Systems Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reconstructability Analysis (RA) and Bayesian Networks (BN) are both probabilistic graphical modeling methodologies used in machine learning and artificial intelligence. There are RA models that are statistically equivalent to BN models and there are also models unique to RA and models unique to BN. The primary goal of this paper is to unify these two methodologies via a lattice of structures that offers an expanded set of models to represent complex systems more accurately or more simply. The conceptualization of this lattice also offers a framework for additional innovations beyond what is presented here. Specifically, this paper integrates RA and …

Using Information Theory To Extract Patterns From Categorical Raster Data, David Percy

Systems Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Information theory -- Reconstructability Analysis (RA) implemented in the Occam software -- was used to extract patterns from National Land Cover Data. The aim was to predict temporal change in evergreen forests from time-lagged and spatially adjacent states. The NLCD satellite data were preprocessed with Python and submitted to Occam for analysis, and Occam output was also explored with R-studio. The effectiveness of RA methodology for the analysis of this type of categorical space-time grid data was demonstrated.

Sensitivity Analysis Of An Agent-Based Simulation Model Using Reconstructability Analysis, Andey M. Nunes, Martin Zwick, Wayne Wakeland

Systems Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reconstructability analysis, a methodology based on information theory and graph theory, was used to perform a sensitivity analysis of an agent-based model. The NetLogo BehaviorSpace tool was employed to do a full 2^k factorial parameter sweep on Uri Wilensky’s Wealth Distribution NetLogo model, to which a Gini-coefficient convergence condition was added. The analysis identified the most influential predictors (parameters and their interactions) of the Gini coefficient wealth inequality outcome. Implications of this type of analysis for building and testing agent-based simulation models are discussed.

Hypergraph Analysis Of Structure Models, Cliff A. Joslyn, Teresa D. Schmidt, Martin Zwick

Systems Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Theoretical discussion on the analysis of hypergraph networks; application of analysis methods to hypergraph networks derived by applying Reconstructability Analysis to health care data (the PhD dissertation work of Teresa Schmidt).

Ordering Genetic Algorithm Genomes With Reconstructability Analysis, Stephen Shervais, Martin Zwick

Systems Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

The building block hypothesis implies that genetic algorithm effectiveness is influenced by the relative location of epistatic genes on the chromosome. We find that this influence exists, but depends on the generation in which it is measured. Early in the search process it may be more effective to have epistatic genes widely separated. Late in the search process, effectiveness is improved when they are close together. The early search effect is weak but still statistically significant; the late search effect is much stronger and plainly visible. We demonstrate both effects with a set of simple problems, and show that infonnation-theoretic …