Complexity Digest 2003.12

24-Mar-2003

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Content

  1. Toward a Molecular Architecture of Personality, Behavioural Brain Research
  2. Detrimental Effects Of Sanctions On Human Altruism, Nature
    1. Behavioural Science: Fair's Fair, Nature
    2. Dyadic Processes Of Disclosure And Reciprocity In Bargaining With Communication, J. Behav. Decision Making
    3. Open Economy And Financial Burden Of Corruption: Theory And Application To Asia, J. of Asian Econ.
  3. Cosmology Gets Real, Nature
  4. Making Deforestation Pay Under the Kyoto Protocol?, Science
    1. Climate and the Collapse of Maya Civilization, Science
  5. Dressing The Mind Properly For The Game, Phil. Tran. Biol. Sc.
  6. Smell, Emotion Processor In Brain May Be Altered In Depressed Patients, ScienceDaily
  7. A Unifying Computational Framework For Motor Control And Social Interaction, Phil. Tran. Biol. Sc.
    1. What Imitation Tells Us About Social Cognition, Phil. Tran. Biol. Sc.
    2. Computational Approaches To Motor Learning By Imitation, Phil. Tran. Biol. Sc.
    3. Detecting Agents, Phil. Tran. Biol. Sc.
  8. Email As Spectroscopy: Automated Discovery Of Community Structure Within Organizations, arXiv
    1. E-Mail Reveals Real Leaders, Network Analysis Maps Companies' Informal Structure, Nature Science update
    2. Who Loves Ya, Baby?,Pass Your E-Mail Through Some New Software And The Answer Will Become Obvious, Discover
  9. Reversed Echoes May Fight Disease And Foster Communication, Science News
  10. The Challenge Of Molecular Medicine: Complexity Versus Occam's Razor, J. Clin. Invest.
  11. Linguistic Analysis of the Human Heartbeat Using Frequency and Rank Order Statistics, Phys. Rev. Lett.
  12. Simple Networks For Spike-Timing-Based Computation, With Application To Olfactory Processing, Neuron
  13. Taming Winfree Turbulence of Scroll Waves in Excitable Media, Science
  14. How You Evaluate An Experience Depends On When You Evaluate It, J. Behav. Decision Making
  15. Constellations In A Cellular Universe, Nature
  16. To Test Evolution, Press the 'Undo' Button, NYTimes
  17. Undercover Genes Slip Into the Brain, New Scientist
    1. Genes Govern Overeating, Health 24
  18. The Grid: Computing without Bounds, Scientific American
    1. Video Game Experiences To Be Expanded By Grids, Grid today
    2. IBM: Software Can Regulate Grid, Grid today
    3. Ecology-Grid Contributes To Taiwan's Outdoors, Grid today
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
    1. Anger on Iraq Seen as New Qaeda Recruiting Tool, NYTimes
    2. The Effects of Nuclear Terrorism: Fizzles, arXiv
    3. First Step Towards Detecting Exposure To Biowarfare Agents, ScienceDaily
  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. Toward a Molecular Architecture of Personality, Behavioural Brain Research Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Epidemiological studies provided a large body of evidence that personality dimensions are influenced by genetic factors and that the genetic component is highly complex, polygenic, and epistatic. However, consistent findings on the genetic basis of personality have yet remained sparse. In recent years, molecular genetics has begun to identify specific genes coding in particular for components of the serotonergic and dopaminergic neurotransmitter systems representing quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for behavioral traits. The QTL concept suggests that complex traits are not attributable to single genes. According to this polygenic model, the genetic basis of personality and behavior and its pathological variations thus results from additive or nonadditive interactions of various genes. As the number of suitable candidate genes constantly increases, the QTL model provides a reasonable explanation for the genetic basis of personality and its disorders. In this review, the current knowledge on the impact of a large number of candidate gene polymorphisms (e.g. variations in serotonin and dopamine receptor and serotonin transporter genes) on personality and temperament is summarized. Additionally, investigations of gene-gene and gene-environment interactions in humans and animals, which currently intensify the identification of genes that underlie behavioral variations, are examined. The findings converge on the notion that a probabilistic rather than deterministic impact of genes on the expression of behavior will contribute to the demystification of behavioral disorders.

  2. Detrimental Effects Of Sanctions On Human Altruism, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The existence of cooperation and social order among genetically unrelated individuals is a fundamental problem in the behavioural sciences. (...) Whether economic incentives are perceived as just or legitimate does not matter in these theories. Fairness-based altruism is, however, a powerful source of human cooperation. Here we show experimentally that the prevailing self-interest approach has serious shortcomings because it overlooks negative effects of sanctions on human altruism. Sanctions revealing selfish or greedy intentions destroy altruistic cooperation almost completely, whereas sanctions perceived as fair leave altruism intact.

    1. Behavioural Science: Fair's Fair, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: (...) people are willing to make sacrifices to reciprocate favours or to take revenge. People tip waiters even though they will never see them again, and insults can lead to dangerous fights. Experimental evidence that supports these common-sense observations is accumulating. A basic theory of behaviour holds that people act only in their own best interests. But more complex motives are apparent in an experimental study that shows that generosity is diminished by the unfairness of others.

    2. Dyadic Processes Of Disclosure And Reciprocity In Bargaining With Communication, J. Behav. Decision Making Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: We offer a study revealing the mechanisms through which communication helps actual bargaining behavior outperform economic predictions. The possibility of individually strategic behavior in the presence of private information leads to game-theoretic predictions of less than full efficiency. We present a one-stage, simultaneous offers bargaining game in which buyers and sellers have independent, privately held valuations for the item being. In three communication treatments, parties are: (a) allowed face-to-face communication prior to submitting offers; (b) allowed written communication prior to submitting offers; or (c) allowed no-communication prior to submitting offers. When parties are allowed pre-play communication, we find nearly full efficiency (98%).

    3. Open Economy And Financial Burden Of Corruption: Theory And Application To Asia, J. of Asian Econ. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: We discuss why corruption remains high and show that corruption contributes to the Banking distress and to the rapid transmission across international stock and currency markets. Undeveloped `derivative securities' markets make the risk from stress-induced volatility difficult to manage. Our theory predicts that capital flight controls will be many, foreign direct investment (FDI) will be low and cost of capital will be high in corrupt developing countries, which is supported by Asian data. We include some policy recommendations regarding financial institutions and markets.

  3. Cosmology Gets Real, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: With the addition of the latest data (...), our picture of the Universe is now clearer than ever. Combined, the various CMB studies have confirmed that the Universe is indeed flat. (...) composition of the cosmos: 23% dark matter and 73% dark energy, leaving only 4% for galaxies, stars and people. The Universe's age has also been nailed to within 1% of 13.7 billion years. And the total mass density matches that predicted by inflation to within a 2% margin of error.

  4. Making Deforestation Pay Under the Kyoto Protocol?, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: In a climate of changing rules, particularly relating to the reforestation time limit, one of the underlying principles of the Kyoto Protocol--that of preserving pristine forests--would be severely compromised. Prevention of deforestation should be clearly established within the context of the Kyoto Protocol implementation. It would be paradoxical for climate change mitigation if the Kyoto Protocol mechanisms had the effect of paying for the destruction of pristine forests, which are one of the few genuine actors in climate change mitigation

    1. Climate and the Collapse of Maya Civilization, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: A seasonally resolved record of titanium shows that the collapse of Maya civilization in the Terminal Classic Period occurred during an extended regional dry period, punctuated by more intense multiyear droughts centered at approximately 810, 860, and 910 A.D. These new data suggest that a century-scale decline in rainfall put a general strain on resources in the region, which was then exacerbated by abrupt drought events, contributing to the social stresses that led to the Maya demise.

  5. Dressing The Mind Properly For The Game, Phil. Tran. Biol. Sc. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Game theory as a theoretical and empirical approach to interaction has spread from economics to psychology, political science, sociology and biology. Numerous social interactions - foraging, talking, trusting, coordinating, competing - can be formally represented in a game with specific rules and strategies. Recent analyses of this variable response have yielded a No. of insights into the mental approach of human players: we often mentalize, but not always; we are endowed with social preferences; we distinguish among various types of opponents; we manifest different personalities; we are often guided by security concerns; and our strategic sophistication is usually modest.

  6. Smell, Emotion Processor In Brain May Be Altered In Depressed Patients, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: A portion of the brain that helps us respond to odors and process emotions may be malfunctioning in severely depressed individuals, say researchers who measured the brain activity of individuals presented with smells like roses and rotten butter. Because odors and emotions are processed in similar brain structures, study of the olfactory system may increase our understanding of the physiological underpinnings of depression, according to the study. "The presentation of odors as emotional stimuli, by contrast, is powerfully direct, and odors seem to be powerful emotional stimuli." The brains of the depressed patients were less responsive to the smells and the visual stimuli (...).

  7. A Unifying Computational Framework For Motor Control And Social Interaction, Phil. Tran. Biol. Sc. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Recent empirical studies have implicated the use of the motor system during action observation, imitation and social interaction. In this paper, we explore the computational parallels between the processes that occur in motor control and in action observation, imitation, social interaction and theory of mind. In particular, we examine the extent to which motor commands acting on the body can be equated with communicative signals acting on other people and suggest that computational solutions for motor control may have been extended to the domain of social interaction.

    1. What Imitation Tells Us About Social Cognition, Phil. Tran. Biol. Sc. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: (...) suggest a common coding between perceived and generated actions. This shared representational network is innately wired in humans. We suggest that the mechanisms involved in infant imitation provide the foundation for understanding that others are 'like me' and underlie the development of theory of mind and empathy for others. We marshal evidence that imitation recruits not only shared neural representations between the self and the other but also cortical regions in the parietal cortex (...). Imitation is doubly revealing: it is used by infants to learn about adults, and by scientists to understand the organization and functioning of the brain.

    2. Computational Approaches To Motor Learning By Imitation, Phil. Tran. Biol. Sc. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: Movement imitation requires a complex set of mechanisms that map an observed movement of a teacher onto one's own movement apparatus. Relevant problems include movement recognition, pose estimation, pose tracking, body correspondence, coordinate transformation from external to egocentric space, matching of observed against previously learned movement, (...) modularization of motor control, etc. As a strategy to untangle the complexity of imitation, this paper will examine imitation purely from a computational point of view, i.e. we will review statistical and mathematical approaches that have been suggested for tackling parts of the imitation problem, and discuss their merits, disadvantages and underlying principles.

    3. Detecting Agents, Phil. Tran. Biol. Sc. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: This paper reviews a recent set of behavioural studies that examine the scope and nature of the representational system underlying theory-of-mind development. Studies with typically developing infants, adults and children with autism all converge on the claim that there is a specialized input system that uses not only morphological cues, but also behavioural cues to categorize novel objects as agents. Evidence is reviewed in which 12- to 15-month-old infants treat certain non-human objects as if they have perceptual/attentional abilities, communicative abilities and goal-directed behaviour. They also seem to use a novel object's environmentally directed behaviour to determine its perceptual/attentional orientation (...).
      • Source: Detecting Agents, S. C. Johnson, DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2002.1237, Mar. 2003
      • Contributed by Atin Das - dasatinayahoo.co.in

  8. Email As Spectroscopy: Automated Discovery Of Community Structure Within Organizations, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: We describe a methodology for the automatic identification of communities of practice from email logs within an organization. We use a betweeness centrality algorithm that can rapidly find communities within a graph representing information flows. We apply this algorithm to an email corpus of nearly one million messages collected over a two-month span, and show that the method is effective at identifying true communities, both formal and informal, within these scale-free graphs. This approach also enables the identification of leadership roles within the communities. These studies are complemented by a qualitative evaluation of the results in the field.

    1. E-Mail Reveals Real Leaders, Network Analysis Maps Companies' Informal Structure, Nature Science update Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: It has long been recognized that big institutions tend to divide organically into informal collaborative networks, called communities of practice. (...) communications graph in which lines - each denoting a direct e-mail exchange - link nodes that correspond to individuals. Next the researchers use a computer to search for links with high 'betweenness'. These are the few connections between groups of highly connected nodes. Removing them decomposes the graph into a collection of isolated clusters of nodes, which correspond to the communities.

    2. Who Loves Ya, Baby?,Pass Your E-Mail Through Some New Software And The Answer Will Become Obvious, Discover Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: "The maps show how ideas happen, how decision making happens, who the real experts are that everybody goes to," Krebs says. They show the karass buried inside the granfalloon.(...) Assuming you have a significant amount of e-mail traffic, the software will create a remarkably sophisticated assessment of your various social groups, showing you not only their relative size but also the interactions between different groups. If your college buddies have grown close to members of your family, you'll see those two groups overlap on the screen, like two crowds huddled next to each other. Editor's Note: Of course no career conscious granfalloons will make sure to send lots of e-mail messages to the most recognized karass to make sure they will be counted to belong to their network.

  9. Reversed Echoes May Fight Disease And Foster Communication, Science News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Acoustics specialists build a time-reversal mirror using an array of piezoelectric transducers. Those devices can act both as microphones, which convert sounds' pressure fluctuations into electric signals, and as loudspeakers, which convert electric signals into vibrations that people hear as sounds. Time-reversing sound requires yet more from these transducers-they also must be able to capture, process, and store sounds. Some of the gridlike arrays used for medical applications are the size of dinner plates; some underwater versions can be taller than a 20-story building.

  10. The Challenge Of Molecular Medicine: Complexity Versus Occam's Razor, J. Clin. Invest. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: In the spirit of the recent elucidation of the human genome and the current scientific epoch of bioinformatics, a brute-force therapeutic strategy would theoretically be a perfect remedy for any disease. The essential idea is both comprehensive and unsubtle; the strategy only requires that the therapy fix what was broken. While that sounds simple and possible in this era of rapidly advancing medicine, proteomics, genomics, and targeted pharmacology, it is not. The problem is that the level of complexity of most diseases is great (...).

  11. Linguistic Analysis of the Human Heartbeat Using Frequency and Rank Order Statistics, Phys. Rev. Lett. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Complex physiologic signals may carry unique dynamical signatures that are related to their underlying mechanisms. We present a method based on rank order statistics of symbolic sequences to investigate the profile of different types of physiologic dynamics.We apply this method to heart rate fluctuations, the output of a central physiologic control system. The method robustly discriminates patterns generated from healthy and pathologic states, as well as aging. Furthermore, we observe increased randomness in the heartbeat time series with physiologic aging and pathologic states and also uncover nonrandom patterns in the ventricular response to atrial fibrillation.

  12. Simple Networks For Spike-Timing-Based Computation, With Application To Olfactory Processing, Neuron Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Spike synchronization across neurons can be selective for the situation where neurons are driven at similar firing rates, a "many are equal" computation. This can be achieved in the absence of synaptic interactions between neurons, through phase locking to a common underlying oscillatory potential. Based on this principle, we instantiate an algorithm for robust odor recognition into a model network of spiking neurons whose main features are taken from known properties of biological olfactory systems. Here, recognition of odors is signaled by spike synchronization of specific subsets of "mitral cells." This synchronization is highly odor selective (...).

  13. Taming Winfree Turbulence of Scroll Waves in Excitable Media, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Winfree turbulence of scroll waves is a special kind of spatiotemporal chaos that exists exclusively in three-dimensional excitable media and is currently considered one of the principal mechanisms of cardiac fibrillation. A chaotic wave pattern develops through the negative-tension instability of vortex filaments, which tend to spontaneously stretch, bend, loop, and produce an expanding tangle that fills up the volume. (...) such turbulence can readily be controlled by weak nonresonant modulation of the medium excitability. Depending on the forcing frequency, either suppression or induction of turbulence can be achieved.

  14. How You Evaluate An Experience Depends On When You Evaluate It, J. Behav. Decision Making Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: In this paper, a nonlinear mathematical model to study the dynamics of an inshore-offshore fishery under variable harvesting is proposed and analyzed. Criteria for local stability, instability and global stability of the system are derived. The optimal harvesting policy is discussed by considering taxation as a control instrument. It is shown that the fishery resources can be protected from overexploitation by increasing the tax and discount rates.

  15. Constellations In A Cellular Universe, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: First, even the most complex biological phenomena such as development, differentiation, metabolism and memory will be explained using known genes, their products and their interplay with the external conditions that the organism encounters. Second, projects to discover genes and their products in a species have defined end points. (...) Third, (...), biological experimentation will be transformed from a discovery mode of identifying and describing molecules, to a 'browsing' mode, in which the universe of possible events is searched to find constellations that correlate with a particular state or function.

  16. To Test Evolution, Press the 'Undo' Button, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Scientists working with yeast have in effect reversed the process of evolution in the laboratory and, in so doing, found support for a long-debated theory on the way new species can evolve. (...) changes in the DNA sequences of genes can cause a population to evolve into a new and separate species. (...) new species could evolve without any such changes, but instead simply as a result of large DNA strands' moving from one chromosome to another within a genome, a change known as a chromosomal rearrangement.

  17. Undercover Genes Slip Into the Brain, New Scientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: A molecular Trojan horse that can slip past the brain's defences has proved to be very effective at delivering genes to the brains of primates. It could be used to treat a host of brain disorders, from Parkinson's to epilepsy. Treating the brain is very difficult because of the "blood-brain barrier" created by the tight junctions between the cells lining the capillaries. Only molecules recognised by the cell receptors can get in, unless they are very small. (...)"Quite frankly, the existing delivery systems have been woeful failures," says William Pardridge of the University of California, Los Angeles. Instead, his team has been perfecting a way to get genes into the brain hidden inside fatty spheres called liposomes. First the team coats the liposomes with a polymer called polyethylene glycol (PEG), without which they would be purged from the blood within minutes. Next, antibodies that latch on to some of the brain-capillary receptors are tethered to a few of the PEG strands. The antibodies trick the receptors into letting the liposomes pass, where they can deliver their cargo to brain cells.

    1. Genes Govern Overeating, Health 24 Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Researchers have found genetic mutations that contribute to obesity by influencing how people eat, and they think these changes may be much more common than once thought. Specifically, two articles in the March 20 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine show that mutations in the melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) lead to uncontrolled overeating and to binge eating. (...)"This gene influences behaviour. We tend to think in terms of how biology [and] your metabolism are influenced by genes, but behaviour doesn't seem like it should be. This seems to be a clear example", says Dr Michael Devlin, clinical co-director of the Eating Disorders Research Unit at the New York State Psychiatric Institute in New York City.

  18. The Grid: Computing without Bounds, Scientific American Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The ready availability of these resources exemplifies the concept of virtualization, which (to computer scientists) refers to hiding useful functions behind an interface that conceals the details of how they are implemented. When the cafe's barista, for example, turns on a water spigot, it is as if he taps a bottomless barrel. The same phenomenon occurs when I plug my laptop into a wall socket. Given the huge unseen electric grid beyond the plug, who knows how and where that power was generated?

    1. Video Game Experiences To Be Expanded By Grids, Grid today Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The achievement allows much larger worlds with many more players. Game developers who host their games on the Butterfly.net grid can use the system like a utility, using more or less of the grid's power based on the number of players online. In another change for the industry, the distinction between PC games and console games was blurred. Several PlayStation 2 consoles in a back room inserted into the game characters who could interact with characters from the personal computers in the booth.

    2. IBM: Software Can Regulate Grid, Grid today Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Computer software has been used to predict hurricanes and financial markets, and now IBM says it has come up with a way to predict what is about to happen next with the computers themselves. (...) computing technology that allows systems to automatically react to unexpected surges in demand and turn on additional computers on the network. The technology is part of IBM's efforts to develop computers that adapt themselves to changing conditions and can fix themselves in the event of failure, what is known as autonomic computing.

    3. Ecology-Grid Contributes To Taiwan's Outdoors, Grid today Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Taiwan's great outdoors is getting some preservation help from the international community with a research project in Fushan. This project allows ecologists to link their information and ideas with others. The recent completion of the first ecology-grid system at the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute's (IFRI) Fushan Research Station in Ilan County, makes it possible for Taiwan to contribute its ecological data to the international community. (...), Taiwan can help ensure the future of its biodiversity and at the same time contribute to the increasing global debate on ecological issues.

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

    1. Anger on Iraq Seen as New Qaeda Recruiting Tool, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: On three continents, Al Qaeda and other terror organizations have intensified their efforts to recruit young Muslim men, tapping into rising anger about the American campaign for war in Iraq, according to intelligence and law enforcement officials. (...) evidence that militants within Muslim communities are seeking to identify and groom a new generation of terrorist operatives. An invasion of Iraq, the officials worry, is almost certain to produce a groundswell of recruitment for groups committed to attacks in the United States, Europe and Israel.

    2. The Effects of Nuclear Terrorism: Fizzles, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: The September 11 terrorist attack against [United States of] America has caused a lot of concern to the American public and the entire world, which is suspecting a new attack sooner or later. The most frightening scenario is the one involving the detonation of a nuclear device at the heart of a large metropolitan city. Unless the terrorists are in possession of a fully assembled modern nuclear weapons it is very likely that they will possess a crude nuclear device which has been assembled in a terrorist camp by people with relatively limited technological resources. It well known that the Oppenheimer team, which designed and tested the first nuclear weapon (the gadget), had a lot of reservations as to whether the first test at Alamogordo would produce any yield at all. Therefore, the most likely scenario is that the terrorists will achieve either a nominal yield or no yield at all (Fizzle). In this study we will investigate all those parameters that play a decisive role in the number of casualties after such an attack so that we can propose effective means of avoiding mass destruction.
      • Source: http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0212002, Theodore Liolios, 2003-03-13, DOI: physics/0212002, arXiv

    3. First Step Towards Detecting Exposure To Biowarfare Agents, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Army researchers are laying the groundwork for what one day could be a test to identify individuals who have been exposed to biological agents. After exposure to a biological agent an individual's cells begin to react almost immediately. This reaction is characterized by a unique combination of genes activated or expressed in response to the organism. (...) have identified the unique gene expression patterns from human cells induced in response to 8 different biothreat agents. "The overall objective has been to create a library of host gene expression responses typical of various biological threat and infectious agents and to begin to correlate gene patterns (...)."

  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. The European Network, devoted to 'the Intelligence of Complexity" , (Modeling and Thinking Complexity, mainly French speaking for the time being ), will be glad to get and to dissseminate the informations dispatched by ComDig
      2. Move To The Rhythm, J. J. Collins reviews Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order by Steven Strogatz, Many systems, from pendulums to fireflies, work in synchrony, Nature 422, 117 - 118 (2003); doi:10.1038/422117a
      3. All In The Mind?, Walter A. Brown reviews Placebo: The Belief Effect by Dylan Evans, Nature 422, 118 - 119 (2003); doi:10.1038/422118a
      4. Hormone Evolution: The Key To Signalling, Tetsuo Kushiro, Eiji Nambara & Peter Mccourt, Nature 422, 122 (2003); doi:10.1038/422122a, The similarity of hydrophobic hormones in plants and animals suggests that once you make a good key, with occasional filing it can be used in many different developmental locks.
      5. Gigantic Cannibals Driving A Whole-Lake Trophic Cascade Lennart Persson, Andre M. De Roos, David Claessen, Par Bystrom, Johan Lovgren, Stefan Sjogren, Richard Svanback, Eva Wahlstrom, Erika Westman, PNAS published 19 March 2003, 10.1073/pnas.0636404100
      6. Convergent Evolution of Perenniality in Rice and Sorghum, F.Y.Hu, D.Y.Tao, E.Sacks, B.Y.Fu, P.Xu, J.Li,Y. Yang, K.McNally, G. S. Khush, A. H. Paterson, and Z.-K.Li, PNAS published 17 March 2003, 10.1073/pnas.0630531100
      7. Genetic Architecture and Evolutionary Constraint When the Environment Contains Genes, Jason B. Wolf, PNAS published 14 March 2003, 10.1073/pnas.0635741100
      8. Motion Generation by Drosophila Mechanosensory Neurons, M. C. Gopfert, D. Robert, PNAS published 17 March 2003, 10.1073/pnas.0737564100
      9. Pressurized Pregnancies: Schizophrenia Linked to Fetal Diuretic Exposure, A Danish study has found that pregnant women who take diuretic medication for high blood pressure during the third trimester substantially raise the chances that their unborn children will develop schizophrenia by age 35.
      10. Further Proof Of The Plasticity Of Adult Stem Cells And Their Role In Tissue Repair, Darwin J. Prockop, J. Cell Biol. 2003 March 17; 160(6): p. 807-809
      11. Tuning The Free-Energy Landscape Of A WW Domain By Temperature, Mutation, And Truncation, Houbi Nguyen, Marcus Jager, Alessandro Moretto, Martin Gruebele, Jeffery W. Kelly, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA published 21 March 2003, 10.1073/pnas.0538054100
      12. Interface Between Neurology And Psychiatry In Childhood, Gillian Baird and Paramala J Santosh, J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 2003 March 1; 74(90001): p. 17i-22i
      13. Digital Divide: Determinants And Policies With Special Reference To Asia, M. G. Quibri, S. N. Ahmed, T. Tschang & M. L. Reyes-Macasaquite, J. of Asian Econ., Vol. 13, Issue 6 , pp:811-825, Jan. 2003, doi:10.1016/S1049-0078(02)00186-0
      14. Can East Asia Rise Again?, T. S. Yu, J. of Asian Econ., Vol. 13, Issue 6, pp: 715-729, Jan. 2003, doi:10.1016/S1049-0078(02)00182-3
      15. A First Approach for a Possible Cellular Automaton Model of Fluids dynamics, Gianluca Argentini, 2003-03-06, arXiv
      16. Flicker Noise in a Model of Coevolving Biological Populations, Per Arne Rikvold, R.K.P. Zia, 2003-03-06, arXiv
      17. Detectability of Non-differentiable Generalized Synchrony, Nikolai F. Rulkov, Valentin S. Afraimovich, 2003-03-11, arXiv
      18. Correlations in Scale-Free Networks: Tomography and Percolation, R. Xulvi-Brunet, W. Pietsch, I. M. Sokolov, 2003-03-16, arXiv
      19. Multiplicative Point Process as a Model of Financial Markets, Vygintas Gontis, Bronislovas Kaulakys, 2003-03-05, arXiv
      20. Interwoven basin structures of double logistic map at the edge of chaos, Gyu-Seung Shin, 2003-03-15, arXiv
      21. Techniques and Applications of Computation Slicing, Neeraj Mittal, Vijay K. Garg, 2003-03-15, arXiv
      22. Bose-Einstein Condensation in Financial Systems, Kestutis Staliunas, 2003-03-14, arXiv
      23. Sex and recombination in the Hötzel aging model, A. O. Sousa, 2003-03-14, arXiv
      24. Paint Instead Of A Thermometer, O. Maksimenko, Alphagalileo, 2003/03/14
      25. US Looks To Nazi Germany As Model For Regime Change In Iraq, P. Dunn, Alphagalileo, 2003/03/19
      26. Baboon Behavior Offers Clues In The All-too-human Battle Of The Bulge; Don't Be Too Quick To Blame Your Diet, New Research Suggests, ScienceDaily, 2003/03/13
      27. Chimpanzees With Little Or No Human Contact Found In Remote African Rainforest, ScienceDaily, 2003/03/14
      28. Study Of Monkey Species That Fights Off AIDS May Lead To New Treatments For Humans, ScienceDaily, 2003/03/18
      29. Women Smile More Than Men, Except When They Are In Similar Roles, ScienceDaily, 2003/03/19
      30. Neural Mechanisms And Behaviors For Acoustic Communication In Teleost Fish, A. H. Bass & J. R. McKibben, Progress in Neurobiol., Vol. 69, Issue 1, pp:1-26, 2003/02/28, doi:10.1016/S0301-0082(03)00004-2
      31. Static And Dynamic Properties Of Small-World Connection Topologies Based On Transit-Stub Networks, C. Aguirre, F. Corbacho & R. Huerta,Complex System, Vol 14, No 1, 2003
      32. Speeding Chemistry Along, Robert Coontz, Julia Fahrenkamp-Uppenbrink, and Phil Szuromi, Science 2003 299: 1683

       


    2. Coming and Ongoing Webcasts Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. New:  Autonomous Agents, Stuart Kauffman, FRIAM Group sponsored Applied Complexity Lecture Series at the Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, 03/03/13
      2. New Trends In Industrial Partnership And Innovation Management At European Research Laboratories, CERN, Geneva, 03/03/19 (with webcast)
        1. CERN Webcast Service, Streamed videos of Archived Lectures and Live Events
      3. "New Frontiers of Neuroscience" Symposium, Taipei, Taiwan, 03/03/07
      4. Television & Children's Media Policy: Where Do We Go From Here?, Washinghton, DC, 03/02/28, c-span, (clip12657), 1:35
      5. INSC 2003, International Nonlinear Sciences Conference, Vienna, Austria, 03/02/07-09
      6. World Economic Forum Meeting "Building Trust", Davos, Switzerland, 03/01/23-28
      7. 2002 Financial Management Conference, 02/10/16-19
      8. Artificial Life Conference (A-Life 8), Sydney, Australia, 02/12/09-13
      9. Dean LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing Since February 1998

       


    3. Conference Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. 3rd World Water Forum and Ministerial Conference, Kyoto/Osaka/Shiga, 03/03/16-23
      2. Fourth International Conference on Intelligent Data Engineering and Automated Learning (IDEAL'03), Hong Kong, 03/03/21-23
      3. 2003 AAAI Spring Symposium Series, Computational Synthesis: From Basic Building Blocks To High Level Functionality, Stanford, 03/03/24-27
      4. Jahrestagung 2003 des AKSOE (Physics of Socio-Economical Systems), Dresden, Germany, 03/03/24-28
      5. Design and Product Complexity Meeting, Open Univ, Milton Keynes, UK, 03/04/07
      6. Explorations of Complexity - A Science of Qualities: A Conversation with Brian Goodwin, Open Univ, Milton Keynes, UK, 03/04/07
      7. Uncertainty and Surprise: Questions on Working with the Unexpected, U. of Texas at Austin, Texas, 03/04/10-12
      8. 7th Annual Swarm Researchers and Users Meeting (SwarmFest2003), Notre Dame, IN, 03/04/13-14
      9. Agent-Based Simulation 4, Montpellier, France, 03/04/28-30
      10. 2003 O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, Santa Clara, CA, 03/04/22-25
      11. NAS Sackler Colloquium on Mapping Knowledge Domains, The Beckman Center, Irvine, CA, 03/05/09-11
      12. The Opening of Systems Theory, Copenhagen Business School, Copenhagen, DK, 02/05/23-25
      13. SPIE's 1st Intl Symp on Fluctuations and Noise, Santa Fe, NM, 03/06/01-04
      14. 21st ICDE World Conf on Open Learning and Distance Education, Hong Kong, 03/06/01-05
      15. 17th Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Simulation (PADS 2003), San Diego, California, 03/06/10-13
      16. 2003 Summer Computer Simulation Conference (SCSC '03), Montreal, Canada, 03/06/20-24
      17. 5th Intl Conf "Symmetry in Nonlinear Mathematical Physics", Kiev, Ukraine, 03/06/23-29, Mirror
      18. 47th Meeting of the Intl Soc for the System Sciences: Conscious Evolution Of Humanity: Using Systems Thinking To Construct Agoras Of The Global Village, Iraklion, Crete, Greec, 03/07/07-11
      19. 9th International Conference on Auditory Display, Boston, MA, 03/07/07-09, Wkshp on Assistive Technologies for the Blind, 03/07/06
      20. 2003 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2003), Chicago, IL,03/07/12-16
      21. 2nd Intl Joint Conf on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS-2003), Melbourne, Australia, 03/07/14-18
      22. 7th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (SCI 2003), Orlando, Florida, 03/07/27-30
      23. Intl Conf on Socio Political Informatics and Cybernetics: SPIC '03, Orlando, Fl, USA, 03/07/31-08/02
      24. 13th Annual International Conference, Soc f Chaos Theory in Psych & Life Sciences,Boston, MA, USA, 03/08/08-10
      25. 1st German Conference on Multiagent System Technologies (MATES'03), Erfurt, Germany, 03/09/22-25
      26. 7th European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL-2003), Dortmund, Germany, 03/09/14-17
      27. 2003 IEEE/WIC Intl Joint Conf. Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology, Beijing, China, 03/10/13-17
      28. ICDM '03: The Third IEEE International Conference on Data Mining, Melbourne, Florida, USA, 03/11/19-22
      29. 3rd International Workshop on Meta-Synthesis and Complex System, Guangzhou, China, 03/11/29-30
      30. 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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