ABSTRACT:
Cognitive function of music, its origin, and evolution has been a mystery until recently. Here we discuss a theory of a fundamental function of music in cognition and culture. Music evolved in parallel with language. The evolution of language toward a semantically powerful tool required freeing from uncontrolled emotions. Knowledge evolved fast along with language. This created cognitive dissonances, contradictions among knowledge and instincts, which differentiated consciousness. To sustain evolution of language and culture, these contradictions had to be unified. Music was the mechanism of unification. Differentiated emotions are needed for resolving cognitive dissonances. As knowledge has been accumulated, contradictions multiplied and correspondingly more varied emotions had to evolve. While language differentiated psyche, music unified it. Thus the need for refined musical emotions in the process of cultural evolution is grounded in fundamental mechanisms of cognition. This is why today’s human mind and cultures cannot exist without today’s music.

ABSTRACT:
Inspired by the intersection of teaching for passion, learning as the goal, and culture as the final barrier, this paper explores the scholarship of teaching in the milieu of disciplinary and cultural diversity, i.e. the globe. We are students of the world, yet scholars in our own area of expertise. This distinction underscores the difference between good teaching and scholarly teaching.

Good teaching promotes student learning as reflected in student satisfaction surveys and learning outcomes [3], [8] & [22], while scholarship of teaching integrates the teaching and learning literature reflecting on the theory and practice of teaching, resulting in new paradigms shared through publications [6], [23] & [7]. Just as teaching and research complement one another so do good teaching and scholarly teaching.

ABSTRACT:
Misunderstanding often occurs in a multidisciplinary field of study, because each field has its own background of thinking. Communication training is important for students, who have a potential to develop the multidisciplinary field of study. Because each nation has its own cultural background, communication in an international seminar is not easy, either. A cross-cultural student seminar has been designed for communication training in the multidisciplinary field of study. Students from a variety of back grounds have joined in the seminar. Both equations and figures are effective tools for communication in the field of science. The seminar works well for communication training in the multidisciplinary field of study of biomedical engineering. An interdisciplinary area of research offers the tool of cross-cultural understanding. The present study refers to author’s several experiences: the student internship abroad, the cross-cultural student camp, multi PhD theses, various affiliations, and the creation of the interdisciplinary department.

ABSTRACT:
Communication is fundamental in scientific practice and an integral part of academic work. The practice of communication cannot be neglected by those who are trying to advance scientific research. Effective means should continuously be identified in order to open channels of communication within and among disciplines, among scientists and between scientists and the general public.[1]The increasing importance of interdisciplinary communication has been pointed out by an increasing number of researchers and scholars, as well as in conferences and roundtables on the subject. Some authors even estimate that “interdisciplinary study represents the future of the university.”[2] Since interdisciplinary study is “the most underthought critical, pedagogical and institutional concept in modern academy”[3] it is important to think and reflect, and even do some research, on this concept or notion. Research and practice based reflections with regards to this issue are important especially because the increasing complexity and proliferation of scientific research is generating countless specialties, sub-specialties and sub-sub-specialties, with their respective special languages; which were “created for discrete local areas of research based upon the disconnected branches of science.”[4] On the other hand, scientific, technical and societal problems are requiring multi- or inter-disciplinary consideration. Consequently, interdisciplinary communication channels are being needed with urgency, and scientific research should be integrated, not just in the context of its discipline, but also in the context of related disciplines. Much more reflection and research should be done on this issue. Research on adequate research integration and communication is urgently required, i.e. meta-research efforts should be done in order to relate research results in an adequate and more useful way. This meta-research effort might be done in the context of each particular research, and/or in the more general context of research methodology or philosophy. The purpose of this initial draft is 1) to foster informal conversations and possibly formal research, and 2) to give a very modest first step in this general context, making some reflections on the subject, reviewing some related literature and providing a very initial framework for the generation of more reflections and research on this important subject. We will try to achieve this purpose by means of presenting the most important characteristics of inter-disciplinary communication and contrasting them with intra-disciplinary communication. This essay is a short version of a larger one which will be completed in the future. Consequently, we will present a scheme summarizing the characteristics and the contrasts identified in this version of the essay and those which details are being worked out for an expanded version of this essay to be released in the near future. Our purpose in this first short version is to give a modest step in the direction of exploring the importance and the ways of inter-disciplinary communication, in order to foster more similar steps by other researchers, scholars or practitioners. This is an evolving working essay, where the process of writing it is as much a part of the object as the object, itself.

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[1] Kolenda, N., 1997, “Introduction” in Flower, R.G., Gordon T.F., Kolenda, N. and Souder, L. (Eds.), Overcoming the Language Barrier: Problems of Interdisciplinary Dialogue; Proceedings of an International Roundtable Meeting; May 14-17, 1997; Philadelphia: The Center for Frontier Sciences, Temple University; pp.1-4.
[2] Moran, J, 2002, Interdisciplinarity; London and New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, p.184. (Emphasis added)
[3] Liu, A., 1989, “The Power of Formalism: The New Historicism”, English Library History 56, 4 (Winter): pp. 721-71. (Quoted by Moran, 2002)
[4] Dardick, I., 1997, “Monologues” in Flower, R.G., Gordon T.F., Kolenda, N. and Souder, L. (Eds.), Overcoming the Language Barrier: Problems of Interdisciplinary Dialogue; Proceedings of an International Roundtable Meeting; May 14-17, 1997; Philadelphia: The Center for Frontier Sciences, Temple University; p. 5.

ABSTRACT:
Four years after the publication of the first volume on the new science of cybernetics (NSC) (Müller, 2009) and after two more books on NSC (Müller, 2011, 2012) it is time to present and to summarize the main features and characteristics of the new science of cybernetics within a single article.

- Historically, the new science of cybernetics can be viewed as a potential outline of Heinz von Foerster’s vision of second-order cybernetics as the science of observing systems or, alternatively, of living systems by living systems for living systems. Heinz von Foerster introduced the concept of second-order cybernetics on several occasions, without specifying, however, its content and cognitive organization (Foerster, 1974, 2003)

- Systematically, the new science of cybernetics operates on a new level which, not quite unexpectedly and surprisingly, can be characterized as second-order level. This second-order level is self-reflexive by nature and by design, because this level comes into play whenever a concept, a model or an academic field turns onto itself, like in understanding or in cybernetics of cybernetics.

- Functionally, the new science of cybernetics can be viewed as a trans- or post-disciplinary second-order field for navigating through an ocean of first-order level science. NSC operates primarily with objects or with operations from first-order science and transforms them into new components which exhibit strong comparative advantages in terms of novelty and robustness.

This list of historic, systemic and functional features of the new science of cybernetics(NSC) may look strange or incomprehensible at first sight. It will become, thus, the main purpose of this article to transform these seemingly vague and unclear descriptions into concise ones which readers with only a weak familiarity with the old science of cybernetics can understand. Eventually, even the short set above of critical characteristics of the new science of cybernetics should change into a clear overall summary of NSC, once a reader has finished this article and turns, once more, to its beginnings.

ABSTRACT:
This paper contains a discussion of curricular implications of interdisciplinary education and pedagogical strategies. The focus of the literature cited in this work is on application activities aimed at developing critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication to prepare students to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The Know/Do/Be conceptual model for interdisciplinary education, the pros and cons of interdisciplinary education, and pedagogies that lend themselves well to interdisciplinary strategies, such as Inquiry-Based Learning and Team-based Learning, and instructor competencies are examined.

ABSTRACT:
Our decision-making and task environments are driven by three forms of complexity: complexity as we experience it internally (e.g., difficulty, uncertainty, ambiguity), complexity as it relates to our symbolic representation of tasks and plans (e.g., number of paths, program size), and complexity as a description of the decision environment and its behavior (e.g., ruggedness, turbulence). When experiencing high levels of complexity, we respond by constructing informing systems that better connect us together and offer increasingly rapid access to more information sources. In doing so, however, we inadvertently feed a cybernetic loop that leads to ever-expanding complexity (in all three forms). Left unchecked, this loop has the potential to alter both the way we think and the environments we face in ways that we may not desire.

Building a better mousetrap requires us to rethink both our approach to education and to designing systems. On the education side, we need to spend less time emphasizing specific content and more on building the student’s the ability to react to complexity in ways that do not rely on making the world more complicated. On the design side, systems must increasingly emphasize adaptability as opposed to efficiency.

ABSTRACT:
The increasing bandwidth demand of the end-users makes the need for efficient resource management more compelling in next generation communication networks. Nowadays, the mobile communications scenery is characterized by the continuous growth of new services, the provision of which poses the need for higher data rates to guarantee satisfactory quality of experience for the end-users. The advent of evolved mobile communication networks (such as LTE - Long Term Evolution) promises to encounter this demand by offering increased capacity, high data rates, seamless mobility and low latency. Nonetheless, during this evolutionary process, the backhaul part of mobile networks has received less attention. This paper discusses on ways for further evolution of mobile networks by rendering backhaul connectivity more flexible, robust and self-aware.

ABSTRACT:
This Invited Paper pertains to subject of my Plenary Keynote Speech at the 17th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (WMSCI 2013) held in Orlando, Florida on July 9-12, 2013. The title of my Plenary Keynote Speech was: “Dimensionalities of Computation: from Global Supercomputing to Data, Text and Web Mining” but this Invited Paper will focus only on the “Computational Dimensionalities of Global Supercomputing” and is based upon a summary of the contents of several individual articles that have been previously written with myself as lead author and published in [75], [76], [77], [78], [79], [80] and [11]. The topics of these of the Plenary Speech included Overview of Current Research in Global Supercomputing [75], Open-Source Software Tools for Data Mining Analysis of Genomic and Spatial Images using High Performance Computing [76], Data Mining Supercomputing with SAS™ JMP® Genomics ([77], [79], [80]), and Visualization by Supercomputing Data Mining [81].

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[11.] Committee on the Future of Supercomputing, National Research Council (2003), The Future of Supercomputing: An Interim Report, ISBN-13: 978-0-309-09016- 2, http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10784.html
[75.] Segall, Richard S.; Zhang, Qingyu and Cook, Jeffrey S.(2013), “Overview of Current Research in Global Supercomputing”, Proceedings of Forty- Fourth Meeting of Southwest Decision Sciences Institute (SWDSI), Albuquerque, NM, March 12-16, 2013.
[76.] Segall, Richard S. and Zhang, Qingyu (2010), “Open-Source Software Tools for Data Mining Analysis of Genomic and Spatial Images using High Performance Computing”, Proceedings of 5th INFORMS Workshop on Data Mining and Health Informatics, Austin, TX, November 6, 2010.
[77.] Segall, Richard S., Zhang, Qingyu and Pierce, Ryan M.(2010), “Data Mining Supercomputing with SAS JMP® Genomics: Research-in-Progress, Proceedings of 2010 Conference on Applied Research in Information Technology, sponsored by Acxiom Laboratory of Applied Research (ALAR), University of Central Arkansas (UCA), Conway, AR, April 9, 2010.
[78.] Segall, Richard S., Zhang, Qingyu and Pierce, Ryan M.(2009), “Visualization by Supercomputing Data Mining”, Proceedings of the 4th INFORMS Workshop on Data Mining and System Informatics, San Diego, CA, October 10, 2009.
[79.] Segall, Richard S., Zhang, Qingyu, and Pierce, Ryan (2010), “Data Mining Supercomputing with SAS JMP® Genomics”, Proceedings of 14th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics: WMSCI 2010, Orlando, FL, June 29-July 2, 2010
[80.] Segall, Richard S., Zhang, Qingyu, and Pierce, Ryan (2010), “Data Mining Supercomputing with SAS JMP® Genomics”, Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (JSCI), Vol. 9, No. 1, 2011, pp.28-33.
[81.] Segall, RS, Zhang, Q., and Pierce, RM (2009), Visualization by supercomputing data mining, Proceedings of the 4 th INFORMS Workshop on Data Mining and System Informatics, San Diego, CA, October 10, 2009

ABSTRACT:
This paper is constructed on the premise that human belief dependent emotions can be triggered by story-telling or narratives. With recent technological advancements to measure neurobiological measurements of the brain, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and non-invasive brain computing interface (BCI) equipment, these technologies can allow for visualization and data collection of brain activation patterns showing unconsciously controlled responses to narratives or stories. Current game theory application to belief networks has been modeled to help explain observed behavior when material payoffs of others matters to the individual. We discuss a method of how game theory, utilizing communication packet theory, can now be modeled to belief dependent emotions and intentions measured through a new biometric tool correlating neurobiological emotional states and responses.

ABSTRACT:
The systemic view of second-order science emphasizes the interaction of observer and observed, but tacitly assumes a single observer, or at least a unity of observer perspective. But experience in multiple domains, including software engineering, decision science, health sciences, co-creation and Living Labs, knowledge management, community development and government policy has emphasized the multiplicity of goals and perspectives across stakeholders. We look at the issues that arise when multiple views are incorporated, and propose a toolkit for addressing those issues.

ABSTRACT:
The Business School at the Bern University of Applied Sciences is offering a new MScBA degree program in business development. The paper presents a practical report about the action learning approach in the course ’Business Analysis & Design’. Our problem-based approach is more than simply ‘learning by doing’. In a world of increasing complexity, taking action alone will not result in a learning effect per se. What is imperative is to structure and facilitate the learning process on different levels: individual construction of mental models; understanding needs and developing adequate solutions; critical reflection of methods and processes. Reflective practice, where individuals are learning from their own professional experiences rather than from formal teaching or knowledge transfer, may be the most important source for lifelong learning.

ABSTRACT:
As institutions of higher learning make growing numbers of interdisciplinary faculty hires, establish ever more interdisciplinary units, develop interdisciplinary curricula, and pursue growth sectors such as global and online education, the ability to write effectively across disciplinary boundaries is becoming ever more vital, and ever more complex. The rapidly changing and expanding academic climate lends urgency for all students, faculty, staff, and administrators not only to learn how to communicate across disciplines, but also to reflect meaningfully on why they might want to do so. Drawing on David Russell’s activity theory and other scholarship on writing transfer, this paper argues that scholars bear a responsibility to honor and propagate their own discipline’s discourse conventions even as they also must develop strategies for effective interdisciplinary communication through writing.

ABSTRACT:
This presentation presents a study of approaches to foster open innovation, including the use of crowds and social media to leverage and utilize interdisciplinary sources. Crowds are inherently interdisciplinary, and they contain experts. Wisdom can be extracted from these sources. However, the peril of bias and "group think" could be detrimental if not carefully exposed. The process of innovation benefits from a diversity of skills and perspectives. There are technology and communication trends that enable unprecedented access to information, people and even group sentiment, offering new ways to collaborate, connect producers to consumers to investors, and ultimately to innovate. As an example, we will highlight the potential value of applying crowd-sourcing models to commercial and government environments