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In this paper, the organism model for knowledge‐based enterprise is proposed. A dynamic capacity grey set is defined and analyzed based on the definition of the growth and development for knowledge‐based enterprise organism. The structure of the capacity whiten core, a subset of the capacity grey set, is optimized for different periods of the organism's life cycle. The organism grey topological structure model of knowledge‐based enterprise is described to possess the essential capacity grey set.

All organisms carry their hereditary and evolutionary properties in the genetic code of their genotype. Changes arise in this genotype in unlimited variety and every change has effects at four levels: (i) the properties of the whole organism; (ii) its reactions with its environment; (iii) the differential or competitive survival of the organism in present or future environments; and (iv) by feedback, the survival of any other changes that may occur in the genotype. These are the principles of natural selection but they can operate efficiently only with regular means of propagation of the genotype. The necessary means have been provided during the last 1200 m. years by the chromosomes in two ways: (i) by mitosis giving the maximum certainty of propagation within each organism; (ii) by meiosis giving a controlled uncertainty of propagation through recombination of differences in the sexual reproduction of organisms. This recombination makes it possible for all changes which are not disfavoured to feedback through selection so as to favour other changes. If these arise or take effect at the same site they result in the well‐known evolutionary trends which are recognised either in the chromosomes or in the whole organism. In human evolution such trends seem to have arisen in the structure and behaviour of the organism as a result of genetic feedback from an increasing, and acceleratingly increasing, ability of man both to create and to destroy his environment.

Seeks to answer the question “whose interests are being served by the laws of purporting to regulate genetically modified organisms?“ Considers the interests of the seed/chemical multinational companies, trade and investment for the countries in which these companies operate and the innovation of science and technology. Covers the European interests with regards to the single internal market and the conflict this can cause between economic and environmental/health interests. Looks at the issues from the US perspective and world trade. Continues by covering nature and the environment followed by health and safety and the rights of consumers. Assesses the regulations of the European community in order to find what protection is available.

To investigate numerically the settling of small solid particles in a suspension of motile gyrotactic micro‐organisms in order to evaluate the possibility of using bioconvection to slow down settling and enhance mixing between particles.

Numerical computations are performed at the North Carolina Supercomputing Center utilizing an Origin 2400 workstation. A conservative finite‐difference scheme is used to discretize the governing equations. A staggered uniform grid with the stream function and vorticity stored in one set of nodes and the number densities of micro‐organisms and solid particles stored in another set of nodes is utilized. CPU time required to investigate plume development until it attains steady‐state for 36 × 36 uniform mesh is about 50 h.

It is established that small solid particles that are heavier than water slow down bioconvection. Extremely small particles (nanoparticles) that have negligible settling velocity do not have any noticeable impact on bioconvection, very large particles (that have negligible diffusivity), or very heavy particles (that have very large settling velocity) also do not have any impact on bioconvection because they simply settle at the bottom. However, if the particles are of the optimal size and density (gravitational settling must compete with Brownian diffusion to create an exponential number density distribution of solid particles with the maximum at the bottom of the chamber), these particles can effectively slow down bioconvection.

The question how solid particles may affect the wavelengths of bioconvection patterns requires further investigation.

The finding that solid particles slow down bioconvection may be important in using bioconvection to enhance mixing in fluid microvolumes.

The paper provides a model and numerical data about the effect of bioconvection on mixing of small solid particles. These data are valuable for researches working in fundamental fluid mechanics, multiphase flow, and applications of bioconvection.

Describes a study to measure the quality of service provided by food‐poisoning surveillance agencies in England and Wales in terms of the requirements of a representative consumer ‐ the egg producing industry ‐ adopting “egg associated” outbreak investigation reports as the reference output. Defines and makes use of four primary performance indicators: accessibility of information; completeness of evidence supplied in food‐poisoning outbreak investigation reports as to the sources of infection in “egg‐associated” outbreaks; timeliness of information published; and utility of information and advice aimed at preventing or controlling food poisoning. Finds that quality expectations in each parameter measured are not met. Examines reasons why surveillance agencies have not delivered the quality demanded. Makes use of detailed case studies to illustrate inadequacies of current practice. Attributes failure to deliver “accessibility” to a lack of recognition on the status or nature of “consumers”, combined with a self‐maintenance motivation of the part of the surveillance agencies. Finds that failures to deliver “completeness” and “utility” may result from the same defects which give rise to the lack of “accessibility” in that, failing to recognize the consumers of a public service for what they are, the agencies feel no need to provide them with the data they require. The research indicates that self‐maintenance by scientific epidemiologists may introduce biases which when combined with a politically inspired need to transfer responsibility for food‐poisoning outbreaks, skew the conduct of investigations and their conclusions. Contends that this is compounded by serious and multiple inadequacies in the conduct of investigations, arising at least in part from the lack of training and relative inexperience of investigators, the whole conditioned by interdisciplinary rivalry between the professional groups staffing the different agencies. Finds that in addition failures to exploit or develop epidemiological technologies has affected the ability of investigators to resolve the uncertainties identified. Makes recommendations directed at improving the performance of the surveillance agencies which, if adopted will substantially enhance food poisoning control efforts.

This paper aims to review organizational studies literature and related fields to explore the parallel between organizations and organisms in dealing with change.

The authors reviewed the literature to explore organizational change theories. Additionally, they referred to biological studies to explore the connection between organizations and organisms.

To cope successfully with change, organizations need to be aware of the critical, vulnerable points that may endanger their survival. These vulnerabilities can arise from external or internal factors or both. Organizational leaders, being aware of these criticalities, can act swiftly to deal with threats while keeping an eye on available opportunities.

Future research could be conducted on understanding the elements of biological transformations through an in-depth study focused on species that have undergone frequent mutations and adaptations. It is hoped that HRD researchers, especially organization development (OD) theorists and practitioners, can build upon the ideas presented in this article.

The review and analysis can open doors for HRD practitioners to seek a better understanding of biological transformations, while enabling them to borrow ideas to be used in leading organizational change and design successful organizational change.

In this paper, the authors selected organizational theories to outline parallels between organizations and organisms to emphasize what organizations can learn from the success of organisms changing over billions of years. Thus, this paper uniquely contributes to HRD literature by encouraging OD researchers to conduct more interdisciplinary research. Most importantly, this paper contributes to understanding the underlying theories in HRD/OD.

Evolutionary developmental biology is a highly variable scientific innovation because researchers can adapt their involvement in the innovation to the opportunities provided by their environment. On the basis of comparative case studies in four countries, we link epistemic properties of research tasks to three types of necessary protected space, and identify the necessary and facilitating conditions for building them. We found that the variability of research tasks made contributing to evolutionary developmental biology possible under most sets of authority relations. However, even the least demanding research depends on its acceptance as legitimate innovation by the scientific community and of purely basic research by state policy and research organisations. The latter condition is shown to become precarious.

The target of this research is to develop a mathematical model which combines the Resource-Constrained Multi-Project Scheduling Problem (RCMPSP) and the Multi-Skilled Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (MSRCPSP). Due to the importance of resource management, the proposed formulation comprises resource leveling considerations as well. The model aims to simultaneously optimize: (1) the total time to accomplish all projects and (2) the total deviation of resource consumptions from the uniform utilization levels.

The K-Means (KM) and Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) clustering methods have been separately applied to discover the clusters of activities which have the most similar resource demands. The discovered clusters are given to the scheduling process as priori knowledge. Consequently, the execution times of the activities with the most common resource requests will not overlap. The intricacy of the problem led us to incorporate the KM and FCM techniques into a meta-heuristic called the Bi-objective Symbiosis Organisms Search (BSOS) algorithm so that the real-life samples of this problem could be solved. Therefore, two clustering-based algorithms, namely, the BSOS-KM and BSOS-FCM have been developed.

Comparisons between the BSOS-KM, BSOS-FCM and the BSOS method without any clustering approach show that the clustering techniques could enhance the optimization process. Another hybrid clustering-based methodology called the NSGA-II-SPE has been added to the comparisons to evaluate the developed resource leveling framework.

The practical importance of the model and the clustering-based algorithms have been demonstrated in planning several construction projects, where multiple water supply systems are concurrently constructed.

Reviewing the literature revealed that there was a need for a hybrid formulation that embraces the characteristics of the RCMPSP and MSRCPSP with resource leveling considerations. Moreover, the application of clustering algorithms as resource leveling techniques was not studied sufficiently in the literature.

A new approach to living organisms with irreversibly perturbed homeostatis, based on the integrated moving average IMA (0,1,1) and autoregressive‐integrated moving average ARIMA (1,2,1) linear stochastic models of non‐stationary photon emission processes, is proposed. The approach consists of introducing a stochastic formulation of the transfer function and memory functional into a general description of non‐equilibrium states of perturbed organisms. A memory function‐based quantitative measure of perturbed biohomeostasis has also been proposed and discussed.

To reflect on the matter of self‐consciousness.

The purpose is achieved through the process of answering four questions presented to me by Heinz von Foerster in the course of our many conversations.

It is not possible to understand the nature of self‐consciousness without understanding the operation of human beings as living systems that exist as emotional languaging living systems: self‐consciousness is a manner of living.

We human beings can become more aware of our responsibility in the design of robots that imitate us.

Reflects on what makes us humans special, on subjective experience, and on the world we bring forth.