Editor-in-Chief:

Mian-Yun Chen

Department of Control Science and Engineering

Huazhong University of Science and Technology

Wuhan,Hubei 430074,China

Email: mychen@mail.hust.edu.cn

Fax: 86-27-87545438

Editorial Board:

Vladimir Burkov, Institute of Control Science, Russia

C.Corduneanu, University of Texas at Arlington, USA

Norman Foo, University of Sydney, Australia

Harry Furstenberg, Hebrew University, Israel

Wojciech Gasperski, Polish Academy of Science, Poland

Donald C.Gause, SUNY at Binghamton, USA

Joseph A.Goguen, Oxford University, U.K.

Zhongwei Guo, Tsinghua University, China

Juris Hartmanis, Cornell University, USA

Ivan M.Havel, Charles University, Czech

Rudolf E.Kalman, ETH Zentrum, Switzerland

Sanaullah Kirmani, George Washington University, USA

J.Yi-Lin Forrest, Slippery Rock University/IIGSS, USA

Lars Lofgren, University of Lund, Sweden

Robert N.K.Loh, Oakland University, USA

Ainai Ma, Peking University, China

Y.Carl Ma, PharmStats,Ltd. USA

Tuncer Oren, University of Ottawa, Canada

Franz Pichler, University of Linz, Austria

Dmitrii Pospelov, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia

Henri Prade, University Paul Sabatier-CNRS, France

Vadim N.Sadovsky, Institute for Systems Studies, Russia

Prem S.Satsangi, Indian Institute of Technology, India

Madan G.Singh, U.M.I.S.T., U.K.

Yasuhiko Takahara, Chiba Institute of Technology, Japan

Enric Trillas, Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain

Vladimir Tsurkov, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia

Qingyin Wang, Hebei University of Business & Economics, China

Xuemou Wu, Wuhan Digital Engineering Institute, China

Wayne A.Wymore, University of Arizona, USA

Hans Zimmermann, Technical University of Aachen, Germany

ISSN 1078-6236

Copyrighted International Institute for General Systems Studies.Inc. All rights reserved.

It is a condition of publication that manuscripts submitted to this journal have not been published and will not be simultaneously submitted or published elsewhere. By submitting a manuscript, the author(s) agree that the copyright for their article is transferred to IIGSS if and when the article is accepted for publication. All articles published in this journal are copyrighted by IIGSS. No material published in this journal may be reproduced photographically or stored in any medium, for example on microfilm, in electronic data bases, or on video discs, without first obtaining written permission from IIGSS.

Editorial Introduction

The Advances in Systems Science and Applications(ASSA),—an international journal, was established as an official journal of the International Institute for General Systems Studies(IIGSS). The journal addresses advancement of general systems theory and its applications in various disciplines as its title reflects. It is a multi-disciplinary research journal.

ASSA attempts to report effort made by systems scientists in establishing a new dimension of science and in exploring situations where the theory can be applied to solving realistic problems, which cannot be solved by traditional means. ASSA also promotes the study of mathematical foundation of general systems theory and will take a part in today’s emerging research in systems science.

ASSA was originally established as an electronic journal. In January 1997 a decision of IIGSS was reached to publish an ASSA-China Branch Edition. In June 1998 another decision of IIGSS was reached to publish an ASSA Periodical (semi-annual in the beginning), which is published and distributed worldwide. Since then, the Editorial Department of ASSA endeavors to finish all necessary preparations for the publication. Resulting from its preparatory work, ASSA (No.1-2, 2000), now in your hands, appears in the world about two years later. During 1994-1998, three special issues of ASSA edited by Professors J. Yi-Lin Forrest, Director of IIGSS, and Y. Carl Ma, Executive Director of IIGSS, were published in 1995, 1996, 1997,respectively. These special issues were dedicated to selected papers presented at the several workshops of IIGSS/IIGSS-CB, and have made a notable impact on systems science worldwide. Both of them deserve the thanks of all who are engaged in systems work for making outstanding contributions to IIGSS and ASSA. The purpose of this story of ASSA is to tell readers how ASSA evolved and evolved into its present form.

Founding ASSA Periodical is a highly important task. Publication of ASSA (No.1-2, 2000) is the result of joint efforts of many enthusiastic people. The editorial board of ASSA wishes herein to extend the heartfelt thanks to all contributors and referees, and also appreciates the diligent editing work provided by its editing staff. It is sincerely hoped that ASSA Periodical will make great contributions to the development and application of systems science in the new millennium.

Mian-Yun Chen

Editor-in-Chief, ASSA

Chairman, Executive Committee of IIGSS