Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 6
. Systems Methodology. The associated steps involved in constructing a systems
theoretical model (e.g., visual, verbal, mathematical, computational simulation). The envi-
ronment acting through its operational agents (information, material flow, energy flow) alters
the system's program and thereby the identifiable variables. Thereafter, the observer's speci-
fied program and the inherent limitations (e.g., cognitive, conceptual, and inferential) dictate
the resultant (emergent) model. (Artwork by M. Clemens.)
diminished, interrupted) between the subsystems (see chapters 6.1 [by Pienta]
and 6.2 [by Solé, Gonzáles García, and Costa], Part III, this volume) on the
same level or across a heterarchical (9) network. Life is an emergent property of
complex systems. Disorganization and disorder in biological systems are mani-
festations of general system failure (see chapter 7.2 by Buchman, Part III) and
lie at the root of acute trauma, diseases, and senescence (see chapter 7.3 by Lip-
sitz, Part III). This observation must be considered in a context that recognizes
the truism that biological disorder is functional disorder order (and the con-
verse). It remains unclear whether senescence is a passive process, brought
about by loss in structural and metabolic integrity, or a direct consequence of
changes in the epigenetic driving programs (reinforcement, reinitializa-
tion/rebooting) that ordinarily perpetuate the dynamic equilibrium (homeody-
