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The 49th Annual Meeting of the International Society for the Systems Sciences had, as its theme, ‘the potential impacts of systemics on society’. As my contribution to this, I want to discuss why I think a critical systems approach called ‘creative holism’ can help managers address complex problem situations. As is frequently stated, managers today face increasing complexity, change and diversity. Furthermore, the solutions they are offered to help them cope in this situation rarely seem to work. In this paper, it is argued that those solutions fail because they are not holistic or creative enough. The benefits to be gained from holism and creativity (in a systemic sense) are outlined, and a practical approach, ‘creative holism’, is specified which aims to better equip managers to deal with complex problem situations. If the argument is right then systemics has the potential to have both a significant and a beneficial impact upon society in the years to come. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The sulfur contents and sulfur isotopic compositions of 24 glassy submarine volcanics from the Mariana Island Arc and back-arc Mariana Trough were determined in order to investigate the hypothesis that subducted seawater sulfur (t~345 = 21%o) is recycled through arc volcanism. Our results for sulfur are similar to those for subaerial arc volcanics: Mariana Arc glasses are enriched in 345 (t~345 = up to 10.3%o, mean = 3.8%o) and depleted in S (20-290 ppm, mean = 100 ppm) relative to MORB (850 ppm S, t~345 = 0.1 "}" 0.5%o). The back-arc trough basalts contain 200-930 ppm S and have 634S values of 1.1 + 0.5%0, which overlap those for the arc and MORB. The low sulfur contents of the arc and some of the trough glasses are attributed to (1) early loss of small amounts of sulfur through separation of immiscible sulfide and (2) later vapor-melt equilibrium control of sulfur contents and loss of sulfur in a vapor phase from sulfide-undersaturated melts near the minimum in sulfur solubility at fO 2-NNO (nickel-nickel oxide). Although these processes removed sulfur from the melts their effects on the sulfur isotopic compositions of the melts were minimal. Positive trends of 6 348 with S7Sr/86Sr, LILE and LREE contents of the arc volcanics are consistent with a metasomatic seawater sulfur component in the depleted sub-arc mantle source. The lack of a 34S-rich slab signature in the trough lavas may be attributed to equilibration of metasomatic fluid with mantle material along the longer pathway from the slab to the source of the trough volcanics. Sulfur is likely to have been transported into the mantle wedge by metasomatic fluid derived from subducted sediments and pore fluids. Gases extracted from vesicles in arc and back-arc samples are predominantly H20 , with minor CO 2 and traces of H2S and SO 2. CO 2 in the arc and back-arc rocks has 613C values of-2.1 to-13.1%o, similar to MORB. These data suggest that degassing of CO 2 could explain the .slightly lower t513C values for some Mariana Trough volcanic glasses, and that incorporation of subduction-derived organic carbon into the Mariana Trough mantle source may not be necessary. More analyses are required to resolve this question, however.

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Although auditory verbal hallucinations are often thought to denote mental illness, the majority of voice hearers do not satisfy the criteria for a psychiatric disorder. Here, we report the first functional imaging study of such nonclinical hallucinations in 7 healthy voice hearers comparing them with auditory imagery. The human voice area in the superior temporal sulcus was activated during both hallucinations and imagery. Other brain areas supporting both hallucinations and imagery included fronto temporal language areas in the left hemisphere and their contralateral homologues and the supplementary motor area (SMA). Hallucinations are critically distinguished from imagery by lack of voluntary control. We expected this difference to be reflected in the relative timing of prefrontal and sensory areas. Activity of the SMA indeed preceded that of auditory areas during imagery, whereas during hallucinations, the 2 processes occurred instantaneously. Voluntary control was thus represented in the relative timing of prefrontal and sensory activation, whereas the sense of reality of the sensory experience may be a product of the voice area activation. Our results reveal mechanisms of the generation of sensory experience in the absence of external stimulation and suggest new approaches to the investigation of the neurobiology of psychopathology.