Complexity Digest 2003.05

03-Feb-2003

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Content

  1. Swarming and Network Enabled Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance
  2. Connect, They Say, Only Connect, NYTimes
    1. An Agent-Based Model of Ethnic Mobilisation, JASSS
  3. Critical Market Crashes, arXiv
  4. Evolutionary Development and Learning: Two Facets of Strategy Generation, JASSS
    1. Monkeys Show Sophisticated Learning Abilities, ScienceDaily
    2. How to Get Inside a Student's Head, NYTimes
  5. On Evolution of God-Seeking Mind, CogPrints
    1. On the Scalability of Social Order, JASSS
  6. "Forest-Grass" Global Vegetation Model With Forest Age Structure, Eco. Modelling
  7. Ants, Musroom And Mold: An Evolutionary Arms Race, NYTimes
    1. Pollinator Attraction: Crab-Spiders Manipulate Flower Signals, Nature
  8. The Impact Of Energy Conservation On Technology And Economic Growth, Resource & Energy Econ.
  9. Caribbean Comparisons: The Benefit Of Currency Stability For Economic Development, Alphagalileo
  10. The Double Helix - 50 Years, The Eternal Molecule, Nature
  11. Starvation Study Could Influence MS Drugs, health-news.co.uk
  12. Parasite's Plant Genes Could Be Achilles' Heel, Scientific American
    1. Plant-like Traits Associated with Metabolism of Trypanosoma Parasites, PNAS
  13. Tapping the Mind, Science
    1. Power to the Paralyzed, Science
  14. New Door To Study Of Mood Disorders In Humans, ScienceDaily
  15. The Enactive Mind, Or From Actions To Cognition, Phil. Trans. Biol. Sc.
  16. Science and the Semantic Web, Science
  17. Experimental Extraction Of An Entangled Photon Pair From Two Identically Decohered Pairs, Nature
  18. Shaped Laser Pulses as Reagents, Science
    1. Deciphering the Reaction Dynamics Underlying Optimal Control Laser Fields, Science
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
    1. The News Media Could Be Our Weakest Link, Washington Post
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Coming and Ongoing Webcasts
    3. Conference Announcements
      1. Public Conference Calls
    4. ComDig Announcement: New ComDig Archive in Beta Test

  1. Swarming and Network Enabled Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Next Article Bookmark and Share


  2. Connect, They Say, Only Connect, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Mr. Watts, an associate professor of sociology, had just begun a passionate disquisition on the virtues and liabilities of scale-free networks when the telephone rang. It was Alfred Berkeley, the vice chairman of Nasdaq, hoping to chat about the exchange's design. (...) Wall Street moguls and government officials eager to tap into a nascent academic science that few understand but that many think may hold the key to everything from predicting fashion trends to preventing terrorism, stock market meltdowns and the spread of HIV. (...) Contributing editor's note: His doctorate was awarded by Cornell University's department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics under the direction of applied mathematician Steve Strogatz. The notions of "small-world" and "scale-free" networks have wrought a cottage industry of researchers in the past several years. Although there is a great deal of interesting and important work in this area, there are also a lot of frivolous papers that have resulted from the extensive hype network theory has received.

    1. An Agent-Based Model of Ethnic Mobilisation, JASSS Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: In this paper we used the methodology of agent-based modelling to help explaining why populations with very similar socio-demographic characteristics sometimes exhibit great differences in ethnic mobilisation levels during mobilisation processes. This agent-based model of ethnic mobilisation was inspired and developed by combining and extending several theories, ideas and modelling constructs that were already used in agent-based modelling of social processes. The model has been specifically adapted to account for some of the most important characteristics of ethnic mobilisation processes that took place in the former Yugoslavia. Results obtained by experimenting with the model indicate that the observed differences in mobilisation levels across populations may sometimes not be related to the variations within any particular socio-demographic factor, but merely to random differences in the initial states of the individuals. In this model these random differences primarily relate to the degrees of importance that individuals attach to their ethnic identity, as well as to the layout of social networks.

  3. Critical Market Crashes, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: This review is a partial synthesis of the book ``Why stock market crash'' (Princeton University Press, January 2003), which presents a general theory of financial crashes and of stock market instabilities that his co-workers and the author have developed over the past seven years. (...)In addition, their special properties may perhaps be used for their prediction. The main mechanisms leading to positive feedbacks, i.e., self-reinforcement, such as imitative behavior and herding between investors are reviewed with many references provided to the relevant literature outside the confine of Physics. Positive feedbacks provide the fuel for the development of speculative bubbles, preparing the instability for a major crash. (...) The most important message is the discovery of robust and universal signatures of the approach to crashes. These precursory patterns have been documented for essentially all crashes on developed as well as emergent stock markets, on currency markets, on company stocks, and so on. The concept of an ``anti-bubble'' is also summarized, with two forward predictions on the Japanese stock market starting in 1999 and on the USA stock market still running.

  4. Evolutionary Development and Learning: Two Facets of Strategy Generation, JASSS Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: The study examines two approaches to the development of behavioral strategies: i) the evolutionary approach manifested in a Genetic Algorithm, which accounts for gradual development and simultaneous refinement of an entire population; and ii) the behavioral learning approach, which focuses on reinforcements at the individual's level. The current work is part from an ongoing project dealing with the development of strategic behavior. The reported study evaluates the potential of differential reinforcements to provide probabilistic noisy Tit-For-Tat strategies with the motivation to adopt a pure Tit-For-Tat strategy. Results show that provocability and forgiveness, the traits that account for Tit-For-Tat's successes, also prevent it from gaining relative fitness and become an attractor for noisy (non-perfect) Tit-For-Tat strategies.

    1. Monkeys Show Sophisticated Learning Abilities, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Psychologists have found evidence that monkeys have sophisticated abilities to acquire and apply knowledge using some of the same strategies as do humans. Specifically, the researchers have discovered that rhesus monkeys can learn the correct order of arbitrary sets of images and can apply that knowledge to answer new questions about that order. Not only can the monkeys choose which image came first in the same list, but they can also compare the order of pictures that came from different lists, found the researchers. The scientists said they have not yet found the limits of the monkeys' learning capacity.

    2. How to Get Inside a Student's Head, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: An important place to start might be in working to apply a scientific mindset to education itself - that is, to determine as best we can whether various beliefs practice is often guided by romantic theories, slick packages and political crusades. Few practices have been evaluated using the paraphernalia of social science, such as data collection and control groups. We already know that some methods of reading instruction work better than others, yet many schools still use methods proved ineffective like "whole language" techniques. Editor's Note: The late Richard P. Feynman expressed a very similar position many years ago. It might be interesting to find out why no little has changed.

  5. On Evolution of God-Seeking Mind, CogPrints Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: The earliest known products of human imagination appear to express a primordial concern and struggle with thoughts of dying and of death and mortality. I argue that the structures and processes of imagination evolved in that struggle, in response to debilitating anxieties and fearful states that would accompany an incipient awareness of mortality. Imagination evolved to find that which would make the nascent apprehension of death more bearable, to engage in a search for alternative perceptions of death: a search that was beyond the capability of the external senses. I argue that imagination evolved as flight and fight adaptations in response to debilitating fears that paralleled an emerging foreknowledge of death. Imagination, and symbolic language to express its perceptions, would eventually lead to religious behavior and the development of cultural supports. Although highly speculative, my argument draws on recent brain studies, and on anthropology, psychology, and linguistics.

    1. On the Scalability of Social Order, JASSS Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: We investigate an algorithmic model based first of all on Luhmann's description of how social order may originate [N. Luhmann, Soziale Systeme, Frankfurt/Main, Suhrkamp, 1984, pp. 148-179]. In a basic 'dyadic' setting, two agents build up expectations during their interaction process. First, we include only two factors into the decision process of an agent, namely, its expectation about the future and its expectation about the other agent's expectation (called 'expectation-expectation' by Luhmann). Simulation experiments of the model reveal that 'social' order appears in the dyadic situation for a wide range of parameter settings, in accordance with Luhmann. If we move from the dyadic situation of two agents to a population of many interacting agents, we observe that the order usually disappears. In our simulation experiments, scalable order appears only for very specific cases, namely, if agents generate expectation- expectations based on the activity of other agents and if there is a mechanism of 'information proliferation', in our case created by observation of others. In a final demonstration we show that our model allows the transition from a more actor oriented perspective of social interaction to a systems-level perspective. This is achieved by deriving an 'activity system' from the microscopic interactions of the agents. Activity systems allow to describe situations (states) on a macroscopic level independent from the underlying population of agents. They also allow to draw conclusions on the scalability of social order.

  6. "Forest-Grass" Global Vegetation Model With Forest Age Structure, Eco. Modelling Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: (...) a set of "simplest" models of the global vegetation pattern (GVP) was suggested.All these models are based on the simple probabilistic "urn" schemes and their dynamics were sufficiently complex to present nonlinear phenomena such as multiple equilibriums and hysteresis. (...) the GVP dynamics is described by the same dynamical system with different parameters; then this difference is defined by the change in annual temperature and precipitation. It is also shown that a "relaxation" time (time to reach equilibrium) for a transition zone is more than one order greater than the time for "pure" grass and forests equilibriums.

  7. Ants, Musroom And Mold: An Evolutionary Arms Race, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: One of the most remarkable examples of symbiosis, the interdependence of different species, involves a tropical ant called the attine, or leaf-cutter. The ants grow a mushroomlike fungus in vast underground gardens, and they protect the fungus against a devastating mold with antibiotics produced by a bacterium that lives in a patch on their skin. This menage a quatre - the ant, the mushroom, the bacterium and the mold - form a stable association that has evolutionary biologists scratching their heads. The interplay of the four species seems to be the most complex symbiosis known. Now the puzzle has grown more challenging with a report in the journal Science that suggests that the mold has been part of the system for a long time and, perhaps, accompanied the mushroom fungus that the ants first domesticated some 50 million years ago. (...)

    1. Pollinator Attraction: Crab-Spiders Manipulate Flower Signals, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Some European species of crab-spider match the colour of the flower on which they lie in wait to ambush insect pollinators,(...). Here we show that the coloration of an Australian species of crab-spider, (...), which is cryptic on the white daisy Chrysanthemum frutescens to the human eye, is highly conspicuous to ultraviolet-sensitive insect prey - but that, instead of repelling foraging honeybees (...), the contrast of the spider against the petals makes the flowers more attractive. The spider is apparently exploiting the bee's pre-existing preference for flowers with colour patterning.

  8. The Impact Of Energy Conservation On Technology And Economic Growth, Resource & Energy Econ. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: We present a model of growth driven by energy use and endogenous factor-augmenting technological change. Both the rate and direction of technological progress are endogenous. The model captures four main stylised facts: total energy use has increased; energy use per hour worked increased slightly; energy efficiency has improved; and the value share of energy in GDP has steadily fallen. We study how energy conservation policies affect growth over time (...). Policies that reduce the level of energy use are distinguished from those that reduce the growth rate of energy inputs. Although these policies may stimulate innovation, they unambiguously depress output levels.

  9. Caribbean Comparisons: The Benefit Of Currency Stability For Economic Development, Alphagalileo Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: A new (...) study of monetary policy in 12 Caribbean countries confirms the benefits of a stable exchange rate for good economic performance. The research (...) reveals that in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean currency union, whose currencies have been remarkably stable, inflation has been low and growth positive. In contrast, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, countries with vastly superior physical resource endowments but highly unstable and devalued exchange rates, have experienced high inflation and low and negative growth. Institutional arrangements based on a currency board framework evolving from the colonial experience provided the basis for the Eastern Caribbean success;

  10. The Double Helix - 50 Years, The Eternal Molecule, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excertps: Few molecules captivate like DNA. (...) In doing so, they provided the foundation for understanding molecular damage and repair, replication and inheritance of genetic material, and the diversity and evolution of species. The broad influence of the double helix is reflected in this collection of articles. Experts from a diverse range of disciplines discuss the impact of the discovery on biology, culture, and applications ranging from medicine to nanotechnology. (...) also to recognize what is still to be learnt about the physiological states in which DNA exists, (...)

  11. Starvation Study Could Influence MS Drugs, health-news.co.uk Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Contributing Editor's note: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is chronic neurologic disease of the Central Nervous System (CNS). Although it is used to think of MS as an autoimmune disease, no single antigen or immune system dysfunction has been identified and the cause of MS remains unknown. In people affected by this disease lesions are appearing randomly, therefore the individual development of MS is very unique, with common processes of degeneration of CNS. In this article a group of researchers is claiming that starvation can affect a production of a certain protein called leptin, which in turn has an effect on specialized type of lymphocytes "T-helper 1" which role is crucial in development of disease. All this could influence the action of medication used for MS.
    Recently a group of researchers has claimed that, contrary to a century of medical understanding, MS is not an autoimmune disease, which, of course caused diversed oppinions in other scientists.
    Excerpts: Using an experiment model of MS, researchers from Italy, the US and the UK found that mice deprived of food for two days had fewer brain lesions and performed better on tests of walking, balance, weakness and paralysis. The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, could lead to the development of new treatments for the disease in humans.

  12. Parasite's Plant Genes Could Be Achilles' Heel, Scientific American Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The sleeping sickness parasite kills nearly 66,000 people annually and silently infects almost 450,000 more, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. (...) The study results suggest that the parasite contains algae genes, and thus could succumb to drugs based on herbicides.

    1. Plant-like Traits Associated with Metabolism of Trypanosoma Parasites, PNAS Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Here we present molecular evidence that trypanosomatids possessed a plastid at some point in their evolutionary history. Extant trypanosomatid parasites, such as Trypanosoma and Leishmania, contain several "plant-like" genes encoding homologs of proteins found in either chloroplasts or the cytosol of plants and algae.

  13. Tapping the Mind, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) can trap the mind inside an immobile body. It destroys the nerves that control muscles, eventually leaving patients without the ability to speak or even flick their eyes to one side. (...), researchers have started to equip a few such "locked-in" patients, including those paralyzed by stroke or other diseases, with communication devices that unlock their minds. For decades, science-fiction writers have envisioned computers that communicate directly with the brain. Now a rapidly expanding clique of researchers is making it a reality.

    1. Power to the Paralyzed, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: (...) widespread misperception that life with ALS is not worth living. (...) Birbaumer dreams of getting BCI [Brain Computer Interface, Ed.] technology to tens of thousands of other patients scattered around the world. (...) The Internet may help spread BCI technology. (...) The next step, says Birbaumer, is to develop a BCI system that can be operated by a caregiver without ongoing assistance. (...) He hopes BCI2000, a software system that allows users to develop their own BCI or find the most effective current model, will be the answer.

  14. New Door To Study Of Mood Disorders In Humans, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Researchers report finding a gene that is essential for normal levels of anxiety and aggression. Calling it the Pet-1 gene, researchers (...) say that when this gene is removed or "knocked out" in a mouse, aggression and anxiety in adults are greatly elevated compared to a control (also called wild type) mouse. Other neurologic functions, such as motor coordination, feeding, and locomotor activity, do not appear altered in the knockout mouse. "The behavior of Pet-1 knockout mice is strikingly reminiscent of some human psychiatric disorders that are characterized by heightened anxiety and violence,"

  15. The Enactive Mind, Or From Actions To Cognition, Phil. Trans. Biol. Sc. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: This paper offers an approach to social cognitive development intended to address the above discrepancy, which is considered a key element for any understanding of the pathophysiology of autism. This approach, called the enactive mind (EM) (...) that views cognition as bodily experiences accrued as a result of an organism's adaptive actions upon salient aspects of the surrounding environment. The EM approach offers a developmental hypothesis of autism in which the process of acquisition of embodied social cognition is derailed early on, as a result of reduced salience of social stimuli and concomitant enactment of socially irrelevant aspects of the environment.

  16. Science and the Semantic Web, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: A new generation of Web technology, called the Semantic Web is designed to improve communications between people using differing terminologies, to extend the interoperability of databases, to provide tools for interacting with multimedia collections, and to provide new mechanisms for the support of "agent-based" computing in which people and machines work more interactively. Whereas the current Web provides links between pages that are designed for human consumption, the Semantic Web augments this with pages designed to contain machine-readable descriptions of Web pages and other Web resources.

  17. Experimental Extraction Of An Entangled Photon Pair From Two Identically Decohered Pairs, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Entanglement is considered to be one of the most important resources in quantum information processing (...). Because entanglement cannot be generated by classical communication between distant parties, distribution of entangled particles between them is necessary. During the distribution process, entanglement between the particles is degraded by the decoherence and dissipation processes that result from unavoidable coupling with the environment. Entanglement distillation and concentration schemes are therefore needed to extract pairs with a higher degree of entanglement from these less-entangled pairs; this is accomplished using local operations and classical communication.

  18. Shaped Laser Pulses as Reagents, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Polyatomic molecules are capable of complex internal motions and hence many possible molecular rearrangements. (...) The complex quantum mechanical molecular motions of even relatively small molecules generally defy efforts to design laser pulse shapes by computational techniques. (...) trial laser pulses and using signals from the molecule to direct a laser pulse shaper. In a closed-loop experiment, the molecule and trial shaped laser pulses act as a relay team, while pattern recognition software seeks the laser pulse shape that directs the molecule toward selective chemical transformations.

    1. Deciphering the Reaction Dynamics Underlying Optimal Control Laser Fields, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: With the advent of lasers in the 1960s, great hopes arose for achieving mode selectivity in chemical reactions. However, the rapid internal vibrational redistribution (IVR) makes it difficult to use this approach by trying to excite the bond of interest directly. (...) In the quest to steer more complex systems, an especially attractive control scheme is adaptive optimal laser pulse control, (...). An algorithm "teaches" a light field to prepare specific products on the basis of fitness information, such as product yields.

  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. The News Media Could Be Our Weakest Link, Washington Post Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: This country isn't ready to deal with a catastrophic terrorist attack, and government preparedness may not be the biggest problem. Indeed, one of the most critical parts of our infrastructure -- the nation's news media -- doesn't appear near the top of anyone's list of concerns. They should be of utmost concern to those responsible for homeland security.(...) When we think of infrastructure, we usually think of tangible things that bind us together: our water supply, transportation networks, energy pipelines . The media, too, belong in this category.

  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. SFI Working Papers
        1. The Epidemiology of Macroeconomic Expectations, Christopher D. Carroll, SFI WP 02-12-070
        2. Stable or Robust? What’s the Difference?, Erica Jen, SFI WP 02-12-069
        3. Risk Trading, Network Topology, and Banking Regulation, Stefan Thurner, Rudolf Hanel, and Stefan Pichler, SFI WP 02-12-068
        4. The Evolution of Social Behavior in the Prehistoric American Southwest, George J. Gumerman, Alan C. Swedlund, Jeffery S. Dean, and Joshua M. Epstein, SFI WP 02-12-067
        5. Play Locally, Learn Globally: The Structural Basis of Cooperation, Jung-Kyoo Choi, SFI WP 02-12-066
        6. Structural Information in Two-Dimensional Patterns: Entropy Convergence and Excess Entropy, David P. Feldman and James P. Crutchfield, SFI WP 02-12-065
        7. Evolution of Dominance through Incidental Selection, Homayoun Bagheri-Chaichian and Günter P. Wagner, SFI WP 02-11-064
      2. Science: Ants, Mushroom and Mold: an Evolutionary Arms Race, Nicholas Wade, NYTimes, 03/01/28, The puzzle of a remarkable symbiosis between a species of gardening ants and the fungus they raise has grown still more challenging.
      3. Verdict Unclear; U.N. Divide Is Not, Diplomats Find Justifications for and Against Iraq Invasion, Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, 03/01/28
      4. Over A Barrel?, Fred Pearce,New Scientist Online News, 03/01/29
      5. Counting The Cost Of War, Fred Pearce, New Scientist Online News, 03/01/29
      6. Automobiles: Carmakers and Environmentalists Differ Over Fuel Cell Proposal, Danny Hakim, NYTimes, 03/01/30, President Bush's proposal to double federal spending on fuel cell research drew praise from automakers and skepticism from environmentalists.
      7. Opinion: The Race to War, NYTimes, 03/01/26, Saddam Hussein obviously deserves toppling, but to go it alone is to court disaster.
      8. Size and Reversal Learning in the Beagle Dog as a Measure of Executive Function and Inhibitory Control in Aging, P. Dwight Tapp, Christina T. Siwak, Jimena Estrada, Elizabeth Head, Bruce A. Muggenburg, Carl W. Cotman, and Norton W. Milgram, Learn. Mem. 2003 January 1; 10(1): p. 64-73
      9. Fetal Tissue Transplants Improve Adult Sight, Duncan Graham-Rowe, New Scientist, 03/01/31
      10. Dynamics of the Hippocampus During Encoding and Retrieval of Face-Name Pairs, Michael M. Zeineh, Stephen A. Engel, Paul M. Thompson, and Susan Y. Bookheimer, p. 577
      11. The Bills of Qucks and Duails, Paul Trainor, Science 2003 299: 523-524,
      12. The Cellular and Molecular Origins of Beak Morphology, R. A. Schneider, J. A. Helms, Science 2003 299: 565-568
      13. Functional Mapping of the Primate Auditory System, Poremba, Amy, Saunders, Richard C., Crane, Alison M., Cook, Michelle, Sokoloff, Louis, Mishkin, Mortimer, Science 2003 299: 568-572
      14. Long-Range Correlations in the Diffuse Seismic Coda, Michel Campillo, Anne Paul, p. 547,This seismological example shows that diffuse waves produced by distant sources are sufficient to retrieve direct waves between two perfectly located points of observation.
      15. Seeing the Invisible, Elizabeth Pennisi, Science Jan 24 2003: 504-505
      16. Random Chat Solves Distributed Problem, Kurzweilai.net, 03/01/30,Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute researchers have developed a scheme to solve a fundamental difficulty with distributed grid computing: coordinating the efforts of all computers. The simple solution avoids the need to have a global supervisor, which would introduce scaling problems.
      17. International: U.N. Estimates Rebuilding Iraq Will Cost $30 Billion, Julia Preston, NYTimes, 03/01/31, Despite Iraq's oil wealth, United Nations planners calculate that it will be a far more expensive and complex task to rebuild than Afghanistan.
      18. National: A Revolutionary Program Troubled From the Start, Robert D. Mcfadden, NYTimes, 03/02/02, Almost from the start, the space shuttle program was plagued by design failures, cost overruns, delays and mismanagement.
      19. Implications of Childhood Sexual Abuse for Adult Borderline Personality, Disorder and Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Linda M. McLean and Ruth Gallop, Am. J. Psychiatry 2003 February 1; 160(2): p. 369-371
      20. Origins And Consequences Of Mitochondrial Variation In Vertebrate Muscle, Christopher D. Moyes, David A. Hood, Annu. Rev. Physiol. 2003 January 1; 65(1): p. 177-201
      21. Inflammation: A Nervous Connection, Claude Libert Nature, Nature 421, 03/01/23; doi:10.1038/421328a, The molecular details of a connection between the nervous system and the inflammatory response to disease have been uncovered. This suggests new avenues of research into controlling excessive inflammation.
      22. Comparative Power Curves In Bird Flight, B. W. Tobalske, T. L. Hedrick, K. P. Dial, A. A. Biewener, Nature 421, 03/01/23; doi:10.1038/nature01284
      23. Flight Performance: Frigatebirds Ride High On Thermals, Henri Weimerskirch, Olivier Chastel, Christophe Barbraud, Olivier Tostain, This bird's bizarre physique and sparse hunting grounds account for its languid lifestyle, Nature 421, 03/01/23; doi:10.1038/421333a
      24. Neuronal Synchrony Does Not Correlate With Motion Coherence In Cortical Area MT, Alexander Thiele, Gene Stoner, Nature 421, 03/01/23; doi:10.1038/nature01285
      25. GRASP: Generalized Regression Analysis And Spatial Prediction, A. Lehmann, J. McC. Overton & J. R. Leathwick, Eco. Modelling, Vol. 160, Issues 1-2, pp:165-183, 2003/02/01, DOI: 10.1016/S0304-3800(02)00354-X
      26. Stability And Hopf Bifurcation Of A Nonlinear Model For A Four-Wheel-Steering Vehicle System, L. Dai & Q. Han, Comm. Nonlin. Sc. & Numeri. Simul., Online 2002/12/12, DOI: 10.1016/S1007-5704(02)00084-9
      27. Energy Consumption And GDP: Causality Relationship In G-7 Countries And Emerging Markets, U. Soytas & R. Sarib, Energy Economics, Vol. 25, Issue 1, Jan. 2003, pp:33-37, DOI: 10.1016/S0140-9883(02)00009-9
      28. Adaptive Detection Of Instabilities: An Experimental Feasibility Study, R. R. Martínez, K. Krischerb, G. Flätgenb, J. S. Andersonc &  I. G. Kevrekidisb, Physica D, Vol. 176, Issues 1-2, pp:1-18, 2003/02/15, DOI: 10.1016/S0167-2789(02)00738-8
      29. Diversity Within A Birdsong, R. Laje & G. B. Mindlin, Phys. Rev. Lett., 89, 288102, 2002/12/31, doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.288102
      30. Echolocation Signals Of Wild Atlantic Spotted Dolphin (Stenella Frontalis), W. W. L. Au & D. L. Herzing, J. Acoustical Soc. of America, Vol. 113, Issue 1, pp:598-604, Jan. 2003, doi:10.1121/1.1518980
      31. On The Dynamics Of Competition In A Simple Artificial Chemistry, Wolfgang B., Nonlin. Phen. In Complex Sys., Vol.5, No. 4, pp. 318-324, Dec. 2002
      32. Investigating Individual Differences In Brain Abnormalities In Autism, Salmond et al., Phil. Trans. Biol. Sc., 2003/01/13, DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2002.1210
      33. Oxford Research Traces Early Human Migration From Africa To Asia, B. Hott,  Alphagalileo, 2003/01/28
      34. World Wide Web Consortium Issues VoiceXML 2.0 As A W3C Candidate Recommendation, M. C. Forgue, Alphagalileo, 2003/01/28
      35. Distant Attraction, E. Davis, Alphagalileo, 2003/01/29, (…) a chemical stimulus from a galling insect changes the morphology and physiology of its host to benefit these specialized plant feeders.
      36. Ants Hold The Key To Traffic Chaos, H. Johnson, Alphagalileo, 2003/01/29
      37. Study Is First To Confirm Link Between Exercise And Changes In Brain, ScienceDaily, 2003/01/28
      38. Device Acts As Heart's Security System, ScienceDaily, 2003/01/29
      39. Investigating Social Interaction Strategies for Bootstrapping Lexicon Development, Paul Vogt, Hans Coumans, 2003-01-31, JASSS vol. 6, no. 1
      40. Physics Update [Icicle ripples], Physics Today, 03/01, (...) model that explains the surprisingly universal structure of icicles
      41. Reference Frame, Jerry Gollub, Physics Today, 03/01, Physicists often describe nature in two opposing ways, which I characterize as particle and continuum approaches.
      42. From Hearts to Power Grids, Spontaneous Order Even Amid Chaos (book review of Synchronization: A Universal Concept in Nonlinear Sciences by Arkady Pikovsky, Michael Rosenblum, and J\"urgen Kurths), Steven Strogatz, Physics Today, 03/01
      43. New Test Urged For Heart Disease, Rob Stein, The Washington Post, 03/01/28
      44. Corn-Burning Benefits Hinge On How It's Grown, Rick Weiss, The Washington Post, 1/27/03, "Corn is the number one cause of erosion or total soil loss in the United States,"
      45. Cloned Cows Are Engineered For Faster Cheese Production, Andrew Pollack, The New York Times, 1/27/03

       


    2. Coming and Ongoing Webcasts Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. World Economic Forum Meeting "Building Trust", Davos, Switzerland, 03/01/23-28
      2. 2002 Financial Management Conference, 02/10/16-19
      3. The Center for Business Innovation Bi-Monthly Web Cast, 03/01/15, TOPIC: CBI Future Scan Version 6.0, WHO: David McIntosh, Director of the CBI Network
      4. Artificial Life Conference (A-Life 8), Sydney, Australia, 02/12/09-13
      5. Universes, Edge Video, 02/11
      6. Novel Properties of Nano-Materials Symposium, Natl Taiwan Normal Univ, 02/12/13-14
      7. Dean LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing Since February 1998

       


    3. Conference Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. INSC 2003, International Nonlinear Sciences Conference Research and Applications in the Life Sciences,Vienna, Austria, 03/02/07-09
      2. 2003 AAAS Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado, 03/02/13-18
      3. Globalisation, Terrorism and Complexity, Liverpool, UK, 03/02/19
      4. Complexity Science In Practice: Understanding & Acting To Improve Health and Health Care, Mayo Clinic Rochester, Minnesota USA, 03/03/21-22
      5. Fourth International Conference on Intelligent Data Engineering and Automated Learning (IDEAL'03), Hong Kong, 03/03/21-23
      6. 2003 AAAI Spring Symposium Series, Computational Synthesis: From Basic Building Blocks To High Level Functionality, Stanford, 03/03/24-27
      7. Jahrestagung 2003 des AKSOE (Physics of Socio-Economical Systems), Dresden, Germany, 03/03/24-28
      8. Uncertainty and Surprise: Questions on Working with the Unexpected, U. of Texas at Austin, Texas, 03/04/10-12
      9. 7th Annual Swarm Researchers and Users Meeting (SwarmFest2003), Notre Dame, IN, 03/04/13-14
      10. Agent-Based Simulation 4, Montpellier, France, 03/04/28-30
      11. SPIE's 1st Intl Symp on Fluctuations and Noise, Santa Fe, NM, 03/06/01-04
      12. 21st ICDE World Conf on Open Learning and Distance Education, Hong Kong, 03/06/01-05
      13. 17th Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Simulation (PADS 2003), San Diego, California, 03/06/10-13
      14. 2003 Summer Computer Simulation Conference (SCSC '03), Montreal, Canada, 03/06/20-24
      15. 5th Intl Conf "Symmetry in Nonlinear Mathematical Physics", Kiev, Ukraine, 03/06/23-29, Mirror
      16. 9th International Conference on Auditory Display, Boston, MA, 03/07/07-09, Wkshp on Assistive Technologies for the Blind, 03/07/06
      17. 2003 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2003), Chicago, IL,03/07/12-16
      18. 2nd Intl Joint Conf on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS-2003), Melbourne, Australia, 03/07/14-18
      19. 7th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (SCI 2003), Orlando, Florida, 03/07/27-30
      20. 13th Annual International Conference, Soc f Chaos Theory in Psych & Life Sciences,Boston, MA, USA, 03/08/08-10
      21. 1st German Conference on Multiagent System Technologies (MATES'03), Erfurt, Germany, 03/09/22-25
      22. 7th European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL-2003), Dortmund, Germany, 03/09/14-17
      23. 2003 IEEE/WIC Intl Joint Conf. Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology, Beijing, China, 03/10/13-17
      24. ICDM '03: The Third IEEE International Conference on Data Mining, Melbourne, Florida, USA, 03/11/19-22
      25. 3rd International Workshop on Meta-Synthesis and Complex System, Guangzhou, China, 03/11/29-30
      26. 2nd International Workshop on the Mathematics and Algorithms of Social Insects, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; 03/12/15-17

      1. Public Conference Calls Next Article Bookmark and Share

        1. Complexity And Medical Practice, Pat Rush & Bob Lindberg, PlexusCalls, 03/01/10, Audio File Available Now, mp3
        2. John Holland in Conversation, PlexusCalls, - Audio File Available Now, mp3
        3. Are Disease and Aging Information/Complexity Loss Syndromes?, PlexusCalls, 02/11/08, 1 - 2 pm EST (To learn more about Ary Goldberger’s work and HeartSongs, Music of the Heart.) Audio File Available Now, mp3
        4. Brenda Zimmerman in Conversation, PlexusCalls, Audio File Available Now, mp3
        5. The Complexity of Entrepreneurship: A Launchcyte Story, Tom Petzinger, PlexusCalls, 02/11/22, Audio File Available Now, mp3
        6. A Practical and Appreciative Approach to Complex and Chronic Challenges, Keith McCandless, PlexusCalls, Jan 2003, Audio File Available Now, mp3

    4. ComDig Announcement: New ComDig Archive in Beta Test Bookmark and Share

      We are in the process of upgrading the Complexity Digest archives to a format with improved search capabilities. Also, we will finally be able to adequately publish the valuable feedback and comments from our knowledgable readers. You are cordially invited to become a beta tester of our new ComDig2 archive.

       


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