Complexity Digest 2003.24

16-Jun-2003

For individual e-mail subscriptions go to Subscriptions.
Previous issue 2003.23 | Next issue 2003.25

Content

  1. Theories Of Complexity, Complexity
    1. Investigating A General Biology, Complexity
    2. When Can we Call a System Self-organizing?, arXiv
  2. Self-Replicating Machines In Continuous Space With Virtual Physics, Artificial Life
  3. A Model For Housing Allocation Of A Homeless Population, Nonlin. Analysis: Real World Appl.
  4. In Ancient Skulls From Ethiopia, Familiar Faces, NYTimes
  5. 'Dual Source' Caused Aids-like Virus, BBC News
  6. Sweet Revenge [Vaccines Based On Sugars], Nature
  7. The Ulcer Bug: Gut Reaction, Nature
  8. The Double Puzzle Of Diabetes, Nature
  9. Cancer: Out Of Air Is Not Out Of Action, Nature
  10. Neurobiology: All Change At The Synapse, Nature
    1. Single Neurons in the Monkey Hippocampus and Learning of New Associations, Science
  11. The "What" And "Where" Of Object Representations In Infancy, Cognition
    1. Learning Innate Face Preferences, Neural Computation
  12. Watch How To Do It! New Advances In Learning By Observation, Brain Res. Rev.
  13. Development Of Interception Of Moving Targets By Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes) In An Automated Task, Animal Cognition
  14. Background Synaptic Activity As A Switch Between Dynamical States In A Network, Neural Computation
  15. Regulation Of Ants' Foraging To Resource Productivity, Alphagalileo & Biol. Lett.
  16. Insect Behaviour: Motion Camouflage In Dragonflies, Nature
    1. What Really Happens When Fruit Flies Fly?, NYTimes
  17. Scaling Metabolism From Organisms To Ecosystems, Nature
    1. Catastrophic Desert Formation, J. Theor. Biol.
  18. Does the Trigger for Abrupt Climate Change Reside in the Ocean or in the Atmosphere?, Science
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
    1. War Poll Uncovers Fact Gap, The Philadelphia Inquirer
    2. U.S. Will Tighten Rules on Holding Terror Suspects, NYTimes
    3. FBI Does Some Heavy-Duty Digging in Md, Washington Post
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Coming and Ongoing Webcasts
    3. Conference Announcements & Call for Papers
    4. ComDig Announcement: New ComDig Archive in Beta Test
  1. Theories Of Complexity, Complexity Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: (...) many intuitively complex systems share deep commonalities although they seem very different from each other to a superficial observer; examples of such systems are national economies, stock markets, immune systems or social systems. In our view, the prospects of an explanatory TOC are better than those of a universal predictive TOC. The question is, what exactly it should explain. Rather than trying (in vain) to offer a unified framework applicable to any specific case to explain the particular features of the system, one could aim at identifying general mechanisms common to all complex systems.
    Contributing Editor's Note: The following article aims at contributing to the further development of the theoretical foundation of the science of complexity by addressing the much-discussed issue of the possible future formulation of a unified theory of complexity and/or complex systems (TOC) - though the authors admit that the search for universal and unifying theories is something of an ideal in most scientific disciplines. Making an extensive literature review (51 references), they discuss the possibility of a TOC, by trying to clarify what exactly a TOC could and should offer and what specific form it could take.
    • Source: Theories Of Complexity, D. Chu - mailto:hsvdgauib.no, r. strand, r. fjelland, DOI: 10.1002/cplx.10059, 2003/05/23
    • Contributed by Atin Das - dasatinayahoo.co.in
    1. Investigating A General Biology, Complexity Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: (...) perhaps the most important concept for complex systems is information. And the challenge is not to explain how those systems arose, but rather to explain the origin of the information that flows, ramifies, and ever organizes our world into a marvel of beauty and complexity. (...) our universe as an information-processing system, able to somehow understand and react to information in physical ways and build complex, ordered structures. (...) there is a new science waiting to be explored, a general biology of information and autonomous agents that incorporates concepts we have only begun to grasp (...).
    2. When Can we Call a System Self-organizing?, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: We do not attempt to provide yet another definition of selforganization, but explore the conditions under which we can model a system as self-organizing. These involve the dynamics of entropy, and the purpose, aspects, and description level chosen by an observer. We show how, changing the level or "graining" of description, the same system can appear selforganizing or self-disorganizing. We discuss ontological issues we face when studying self-organizing systems, and analyse when designing and controlling artificial self-organizing systems is useful. We conclude that self-organization is a way of observing systems, not an absolute class of systems.
  2. Self-Replicating Machines In Continuous Space With Virtual Physics, Artificial Life Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: JohnnyVon is an implementation of self-replicating machines in continuous two-dimensional space. The particles are automata with discrete internal states but continuous external relationships. Their internal states are governed by finite state machines, but their external relationships are governed by a simulated physics that includes Brownian motion, viscosity, and springlike attractive and repulsive forces. The particles can be assembled into patterns that can encode arbitrary strings of bits. We demonstrate that, if an arbitrary seed pattern is put in a soup of separate individual particles, the pattern will replicate by assembling the individual particles into copies of itself.
  3. A Model For Housing Allocation Of A Homeless Population, Nonlin. Analysis: Real World Appl. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: In the present work we derive and analyze a model considering housing allocation of homeless families due to a natural disaster; we use data from the earthquake of September 1999, in Athens, Greece. We derive a non-linear system of ordinary differential equations and analyze the stability of this system. Also we find an approximate solution of the model for a case study as well as and a numerical solution. Finally we consider possible extensions and improvements of the model making it more realistic.
  4. In Ancient Skulls From Ethiopia, Familiar Faces, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: In the 160,000-year-old fossilized skulls of two adults and a child found in Ethiopia, scientists think they see for the first time the faces of the immediate ancestors of modern humans. Except for a few archaic characteristics, the skulls are readily recognizable. They are longer than their Neanderthal contemporaries (...). Their midfaces are broad, but the nasal bones are tall and narrow. The brow ridges are less prominent than those displayed in skulls from earlier branches of the family tree. And the cranial vaults are higher and within modern dimensions.
  5. 'Dual Source' Caused Aids-like Virus, BBC News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: A genetic study of SIV - the Aids-like virus that infects monkeys - suggests that HIV - the virus that causes Aids in humans - came about through the combination of two viruses in chimpanzees. (...) Genetic studies have shown conclusively that HIV is a variant of the Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) that is found in wild African monkeys and apes. At some time in the recent past, SIV entered humans and mutated to become HIV. From this incident sprang the epidemic which has killed 20 million people and infected 15 million more. (...) The team suggests two viruses from different monkey species recombined in the chimpanzee to form the SIV strain that causes Aids in humans.
  6. Sweet Revenge [Vaccines Based On Sugars], Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Part of the problem is that many parasites are able to shuffle their surface proteins rapidly, thereby escaping recognition by the immune system. (...) Given such constantly shifting targets, it is perhaps unsurprising that conventional approaches to immunization - involving whole, killed organisms or purified surface proteins - have yielded little success. So some researchers are now plotting an alternative line of attack: they are trying to get the immune system to respond not to proteins, but to the complex sugars that parasites carry on their surfaces.
  7. The Ulcer Bug: Gut Reaction, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: H. pylori's fate has been easy to track, because it is by far the most dominant bacterium in the stomach. But many of the other 500 or so species of bacteria in our gut might be experiencing population changes without our knowledge. (...) For instance, could shifts in our gut flora have anything to do with the Western world's epidemic of chronic conditions such as allergies and asthma? "Our indigenous organisms are part of our own physiology," (...). "Their extinction may play a role in some of our post-modern diseases."
  8. The Double Puzzle Of Diabetes, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The leading evolutionary theory for the possible benefits of genes predisposing to type 2 diabetes is James Neel's 'thrifty gene' hypothesis. (...) existence of metabolically thrifty genes: these permit more efficient food utilization, fat deposition and rapid weight gain at occasional times of food abundance, thereby making the gene-bearer better able to survive a subsequent famine. (...) Such genes would be advantageous under the conditions of unpredictably alternating feast and famine that characterized the traditional human lifestyle, but they would lead to obesity and diabetes in the modern world (...).
  9. Cancer: Out Of Air Is Not Out Of Action, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Starving cancers of oxygen would seem to be a good way of killing them, but the presence of oxygen-deprived areas in tumours appears to correlate with poor prognosis. A molecular explanation for this has now been found. When cells are starved of oxygen, they usually die. This is why numerous anti-cancer treatments aim to prevent the growth of blood vessels in tumours, thereby cutting off their oxygen supply. (...) it seems that tumours may in fact turn a lack of oxygen to their advantage.
  10. Neurobiology: All Change At The Synapse, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Two groups, (...), have provided the first quantitative evidence that neurotransmitter release in the brain often occurs by a long-sought 'kiss-and-run' process. In one mode, the vesicles remained open for only a few hundred milliseconds. The authors found that this mode involved a kiss-and-run mechanism - that is, the formation of a small fusion pore rather than full vesicle collapse. They discovered this by using two different proton buffers, one that could enter the open vesicle through the narrow neck of the fusion pore, and one that could not.
    1. Single Neurons in the Monkey Hippocampus and Learning of New Associations, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The medial temporal lobe is crucial for the ability to learn and retain new declarative memories. This form of memory includes the ability to quickly establish novel associations between unrelated items. (...) we recorded the activity of hippocampal neurons of macaque monkeys as they learned new associations. Hippocampal neurons signaled learning by changing their stimulus-selective response properties. This change in the pattern of selective neural activity occurred before, at the same time as, or after learning, which suggests that these neurons are involved in the initial formation of new associative memories.
  11. The "What" And "Where" Of Object Representations In Infancy, Cognition Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Four-month-olds' memory for surface feature and location information was tested following brief occlusions. When the target objects were images of female faces or monochromatic asterisks infants showed increased looking times following a change in identity or color but not following a change in location or combinations of feature and location information. When the target objects were images of manipulable toys, the infants showed increased looking times following a change in location (...). This evidence is consistent with the idea that young infants are unable to maintain the information processed separately in both the dorsal and ventral visual streams (...).
    1. Learning Innate Face Preferences, Neural Computation Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: Newborn humans preferentially orient to facelike patterns at birth, but months of experience with faces are required for full face processing abilities to develop. We propose a general mechanism by which genetically specified and environment-driven preferences can coexist in the same visual areas. In particular, newborn face orienting may be the result of prenatal exposure of a learning system to internally generated input patterns (...) combination of learning and internal patterns is an efficient way to specify and develop circuitry for face perception. This prenatal learning can account for (...) how genetic influences interact with experience to construct a complex adaptive system.
  12. Watch How To Do It! New Advances In Learning By Observation, Brain Res. Rev. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Recent data demonstrate that the cerebellum contributes to the internal representation of action. This representation is used not only to generate motor actions, but also to understand and learn the actions and skills of others by imitation. The finding that the cerebellum is involved in procedural acquisition and in observational learning allowed us to dissect a complex behavior into single behavioral units forming a complete procedural sequence, demonstrating that such behavioral units do exist and can be independently acquired.
  13. Development Of Interception Of Moving Targets By Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes) In An Automated Task, Animal Cognition Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The experiments investigated how two adult captive chimpanzees learned to navigate in an automated interception task. They had to capture a visual target that moved predictably on a touch monitor. The aim of the study was to determine the learning stages that led to an efficient strategy of intercepting the target. The chimpanzees had prior training in moving a finger on a touch monitor and were exposed to the interception task without any explicit training. With a finger the subject could move a small "ball" at any speed on the screen toward a visual target that moved at a fixed speed either back and forth in a linear path or around the edge of the screen in a rectangular pattern. Initial ball and target locations varied from trial to trial. The subjects received a small fruit reinforcement when they hit the target with the ball. The speed of target movement was increased across training stages up to 38 cm/s. Learning progressed from merely chasing the target to intercepting the target by moving the ball to a point on the screen that coincided with arrival of the target at that point. Performance improvement consisted of reduction in redundancy of the movement path and reduction in the time to target interception.
  14. Background Synaptic Activity As A Switch Between Dynamical States In A Network, Neural Computation Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: A bright red light may trigger a sudden motor action in a driver crossing an intersection: stepping at once on the brakes. The same (...) may be entirely inconsequential if it appears, say, inside a movie theater. How does the nervous system enable or disable whole networks so that they are responsive or not to a given sensory signal? (...) networks of neurons have a built-in capacity to switch between two types of dynamic state: one in which activity is low and approximately equal for all units, and another in which different activity distributions are possible and may even change dynamically.
  15. Regulation Of Ants' Foraging To Resource Productivity, Alphagalileo & Biol. Lett. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: The black garden ants adjust the number of foragers collecting honeydew to the aphid colonies productivity. The ant's decision to recruit nestmates is governed by a rule of thumb in which the ant must meet enough aphids to reach its own desired volume. As the searching time increases (due to a low honeydew production or a large number of searching foragers), more ants will stop the search and will not recruit. This rule based on local information, without any counting, optimises the recruitment and adjusts the collective foraging response to the honeydew production.
  16. Insect Behaviour: Motion Camouflage In Dragonflies, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Optic flow - the apparent movement of objects as perceived using the retina - is a primary cue for detecting predators and prey.(...) Motion camouflage can be achieved if one animal (the shadower) moves in such a way as to produce the same image motion on the retina of another animal (the shadowee) as would a stationary object in the environment. We reconstructed 15 three-dimensional flight trajectories of interactions between conspecific dragonflies, of which six showed clear evidence of active motion camouflage.
    1. What Really Happens When Fruit Flies Fly?, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: "We're really interested in how flies' brains work,".(...), he started out as a neurobiologist and was drawn to flight behavior because of the complexity of the action and the relatively small number of neurons involved. "Brains evolved integrally related to bodies, and bodies evolved in the physical world," (...). Part of the goal of the research is to build better robots, and insects are fascinating neurological machines. The insects themselves are not important to war or transportation. (...). But as robotic models, they may have great significance.
  17. Scaling Metabolism From Organisms To Ecosystems, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Understanding energy and material fluxes through ecosystems is central (...) critical component of the carbon cycle and might be important in regulating biosphere response to global climate change. Here we derive a general model of ecosystem respiration based on the kinetics of metabolic reactions and the scaling of resource use by individual organisms. The model predicts that fluxes of CO2 and energy are invariant of ecosystem biomass, but are strongly influenced by temperature, variation in cellular metabolism and rates of supply of limiting resources (water and/or nutrients).
    1. Catastrophic Desert Formation, J. Theor. Biol. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: Feedback between life and its environment is ubiquitous but the strength of coupling and its global implications remain hotly debated. Abrupt changes in the abundance of life for small changes in forcing provide one indicator of regulation, for example, when vegetation-climate feedback collapses in the formation of a desert. Here we (...) show that catastrophic collapse of life under gradual forcing provides a testable indicator of environmental feedback. When solar luminosity increases to a critical value, a desert forms across a wide band of the planet. The scale of collapse depends on the strength of feedback.
  18. Does the Trigger for Abrupt Climate Change Reside in the Ocean or in the Atmosphere?, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Two hypotheses have been put forward to explain the large and abrupt climate changes that punctuated glacial time. One attributes such changes to reorganizations of the ocean's thermohaline circulation and the other to changes in tropical atmosphere-ocean dynamics. (...) The first involves the timing of the freshwater injections to the northern Atlantic that have been suggested as triggers for the global impacts associated with the Younger Dryas and Heinrich events. The second has to do with evidence for precursory events associated with the Heinrich ice-rafted debris layers (...).
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. War Poll Uncovers Fact Gap, The Philadelphia Inquirer Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Before the war, half of those polled in a survey said Iraqis were among the 19 hijackers on Sept. 11, 2001. But most of the Sept. 11 terrorists were Saudis; none was an Iraqi. (...) How could so many people be so wrong about information that has dominated news coverage for almost two years? (...) He added: "Given the intensive news coverage and high levels of public attention, this level of misinformation suggests some Americans may be avoiding having an experience of cognitive dissonance."
    2. U.S. Will Tighten Rules on Holding Terror Suspects, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: In one important change, immigration officials said they were no longer waiting for the F.B.I. to let them know if they could release or deport an illegal immigrant "of interest" in a terrorism investigation. (...) Illegal immigrants taken into custody "will no longer automatically be considered a special interest case just because they happen to go to the same flight school or register at the same Department of Motor Vehicles office as one of the hijackers," a senior immigration official said.
    3. FBI Does Some Heavy-Duty Digging in Md, Washington Post Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The FBI has been unable to solve the baffling "Amerithrax" case, one of its highest priorities, after 18 months of rigorous investigation, using virtually every known modern law enforcement technique. Searches were mounted of homes, outbuildings and rented storage sheds. In military research labs, considered the most likely source of the anthrax bacteria used in the mailings, FBI polygraphs became commonplace. Hundreds were interviewed, and thousands more were asked for leads. (...) top FBI officials would head to Capitol Hill to report their progress, offering little hope of an imminent arrest.
  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. New Theory On Human Hairlessness, E. Calvert, Alphagalileo & Biol. Letters, 2003/06/06
      2. Drift As A Mechanism For Cultural Change: An Example From Baby Names, M. Hahn & R. Bentley, Alphagalileo & Biol. Lett., 2003/06/09
      3. Male-Female Synchrony And The Regulation Of Mating In Flowering Plants, M. Herrero, Phil. Tran: Biol. Sc. 2003/04/15, DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2003.1285
      4. Abstraction And Reformulation In Artificial Intelligence, Holte & Choueiry, Phil. Tran: Biol. Sc., 2003/06/10, DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2003.1317
      5. Researchers Use Numerical Models To Examine Blood Flow In Artificial Heart Valves, ScienceDaily & Georgia Inst. Of Tech., 2003/06/09
      6. Neural Stem Cells Take A Step Closer To The Clinic, ScienceDaily & Univ. Of Wisconsin-Madison, 2003/06/10
      7. Who's In The Loop? USC Tool Maps The Email Labyrinth, ScienceDaily & Univ. Of Southern California, 2003/06/11
      8. Researchers Combine Electronics With Living Cell To Create Potential Toxicity Sensor, ScienceDaily & Univ. Of California-Berkeley, 2003/06/11
      9. A Molecular Perspective Of Human Circadian Rhythm Disorders, N. Cermakian & D. B. Boivin, Brain Res. Rev., Vol. 42, Issue 3, pp: 204-220, Jun. 2003, doi:10.1016/S0165-0173(03)00171-1
      10. Is Synchronized Neuronal Gamma Activity Relevant For Selective Attention?, J. Fell, G. Fernández, P. Klaver, C. E. Elger & P. Fries, Brain Res. Rev., Vol. 42, Issue 3, pp: 265-272, Jun.2003, doi:10.1016/S0165-0173(03)00178-4
      11. A Real-World Rational Agent: Unifying Old and New AI, Paul F. M. J. Verschure, Philipp Althaus, 2003/06/07, DOI: 10.1016/S0364-0213(03)00034-X, Cognitive Science, Article in Press, Corrected Proof
      12. Bayesian Information Extraction Network, Leonid Peshkin, Avi Pfeffer, 2003/06/10, DOI: cs.CL/0306039, arXiv, IJCAI 2003
      13. The Open Language Archives Community: An Infrastructure for Distributed Archiving of Language Resources, Gary Simons and Steven Bird, 2003/06/10, arXiv
      14. Learning a World Model and Olanning with a Self-organizing, Dynamic Neural System, Marc Toussaint, 2003/06/11, arXiv
      15. Structured Psychosocial Stress and Therapeutic Intervention: Toward a Realistic Biological Medicine., Wallace, Rodrick, 2003/06/06, CogPrints
      16. Toward an Ecological Aesthetics: Music as Emergence, Oliveira, A. L. G., Oliveira, L. F., 2003/06/02, CogPrints
      17. Goodness Through Optimal Dynamics Of The Wealth Of Nations, E. N. Chukwu, Nonlin. Analysis: Real World Appl., Vol. 4, Issue 5, pp: 653-666, Dec. 2003, doi:10.1016/S1468-1218(02)00055-X
      18. Interpreting Time-Series Analyses For Continuous-Time Biological Models––Measles As A Case Study, K. Glass, Y. Xia & B. T. Grenfell, J. Theor. Biol., Vol. 223, Issue 1, pp: 19-25, 2003/07/07, doi:10.1016/S0022-5193(03)00031-6
      19. 19 Monkeypox Cases Detected in 3 Midwest States Over Weekend, Lawrence K. Altman, Jodi Wilgoren, NYTimes, 03/06/08, A viral disease related to smallpox but less infectious and deadly has been detected for the first time in the Western Hemisphere.
      20. Barrels Looted at Nuclear Site Raise Fears for Iraqi Villagers, Patrick E. Tyler, NYTimes, 03/06/08, International inspectors are looking into the loss of control of a nuclear plant that allied forces bypassed on the way to Baghdad.
      21. Widespread Looting Leaves Iraq's Oil Industry in Ruins, Neela Banerjee, NYTimes, 03/06/10, Iraq's oil industry, once among the best-run and most smartly equipped in the world, is in tatters.
      22. Determine Takes Complexity Out Of Document Modeling, Information Week, 13 Jun 2003, Beth Bacheldor. Determine Software Inc. has released a new version of its contract-management software designed to make it easier ...
      23. Britain Underscores Complexity of Euro, Times Daily, AL, 10 Jun 2003, David McHugh. Sputtering growth and Britain's decision to hold off joining the euro underscore the difficulty of making Europe's ...
      24. Purple Patch: Socratic Search for Absolute Definitions, Daily Times, Pakistan, 13 Jun 2003, Find ourselves - as if trapped in a metaphysical maze - coming back century after century, though in a spiral of increasing sophistication and complexity
      25. TEA Proposes To Lower Houston School District's Rating, Austin American Statesman, TX - 7 hours ago... to review. Superintendent Kaye Stripling on Friday partially blamed the TEA's complex system of counting dropouts. "The district ...
      26. Monsoon Makes No Progress, Times of India, India, 12 Jun 2003, Subramanian. The monsoon is a complex system, just about any kind of variability is possible. And, it's just a few days-old ``baby''. ...
      27. Brides And Prejudice, Hindustan Times, India - 13 Jun 2003, Centred institutions in an overwhelmingly patriarchal and agrarian society", put together by women over numerous years, and paid for through a complex system ...
      28. Convention Agrees On Draft Constitution - - For Now, TruthNews.com - 13 hours ago, Under the chairman, a complex system of rotating national or team presidencies will be instituted, one for each of the EU's spheres of activity. ...
      29. 'Isaac Newton': Do Sit Under the Apple Tree, New York Times - 22 hours ago, The comparative lack of personal detail and the complexity of his thought have thwarted potential biographers: Richard Westfall, who in 1982 produced what ...
      30. Elementary Schools Improve Test Scores, Staten Island Advance, NY - 13 hours ago, Adding to the complexity is a new law that mandates all students in the school system for three years must take the state test. ...
      31. Delays Due to 'Complexity' of Electoral Laws, AllAfrica.com, Africa - 10 Jun 2003, ... Commission (CNE), Rev Arao Litsuri, on Tuesday said the delays experienced in organising this year's local elections are largely due to the complexity of the ...
      32. Put the Blame on Methylation, This gene-silencing mechanism, not necessarily mutation, is often found culpable in creating cancerous cells, Jim Kling, The Scientist, 2003/06/16
      33. Patterns - Newsletter of the HSD Institute, Volume 1, No. 6, June 6, 2003
      34. Equatorial Retention of the Contractile Actin Ring by Microtubules During Cytokinesis, Mercedes Pardo, Paul Nurse, Science 2003 300: 1569-1574
      35. Effects of Gaze on Amygdala Sensitivity to Anger and Fear Faces, Reginald B. Adams Jr., Heather L. Gordon, Abigail A. Baird, Nalini Ambady, Robert E. Kleck, Science Jun 6 2003: 1536
      36. Some Say 2 Staffers In 'Exile' Because Banned Weapons Not Found, San Francisco Chronicle, 2003/06/14

       


    2. Coming and Ongoing Webcasts Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. SPIE's 1st Intl Symp on Fluctuations and Noise, Santa Fe, NM, 2003/06/01-04
      2. NAS Sackler Colloquium on Mapping Knowledge Domains, Video/Audio Report, 03/05/11
      3. Uncertainty and Surprise: Questions on Working with the Unexpected and Unknowable, The University of Texas Austin, Texas USA, 2003/04/10-12
      4. New Trends In Industrial Partnership And Innovation Management At European Research Laboratories, CERN, Geneva, 2003/03/19 (with webcast)
        1. CERN Webcast Service, Streamed videos of Archived Lectures and Live Events
      5. Dean LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing Since February 1998

       


    3. Conference Announcements & Call for Papers Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1.  
      2. One-Week Intensive Course: Complex Physical, Biological and Social Systems, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 2003/06/16-20
      3. 2003 Summer Computer Simulation Conference (SCSC '03), Montreal, Canada, 2003/06/20-24
      4. 5th Intl Conf "Symmetry in Nonlinear Mathematical Physics", Kiev, Ukraine, 2003/06/23-29, Mirror
      5. The 2003 World Technology Summit & World Technology Awards, San Francisco, 03/06/24-25
      6. Workshops of Dynamical Systems with Applications to Biology, Hsinchu, Taiwan, 2003/06/24-28 (Postponed!)
      7. NKS 2003 Conference & Minicourse, Boston, MA, 03/06/27-29
      8. The 2003 World Technology Summit & World Technology Awards, San Francisco, CA
      9. UQÀM Summer Institute in Cognitive Sciences 2003: Categorization In Cognitive Sciences, Montreal, 2003/06/30-07/11
      10. 9th International Conference on Auditory Display, Boston, MA, 2003/07/07-09, Wkshp on Assistive Technologies for the Blind, 2003/07/07-09
      11. 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, 2003/07/07-11
      12. 2nd International School Topics In Nonlinear Dynamics, Siena (Italy), 2003/07/09-11
      13. 2003 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2003), Chicago, IL,2003/07/12-16
      14. 2nd Intl Joint Conf on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS-2003), Melbourne, Australia, 2003/07/14-18
      15. 7th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (SCI 2003), Orlando, Florida, 2003/07/27-30
      16. BIFURCATIONS 2003, Southampton, UK, 03/07/28-30
      17. Intl Conf on Socio Political Informatics and Cybernetics: SPIC '03, Orlando, Fl, USA, 2003/07/31-08/02
      18. 13th Annual International Conference, Soc f Chaos Theory in Psych & Life Sciences,Boston, MA, USA, 2003/08/08-10
      19. Call for Papers on Dynamical Hierarchies, Special Issue of Artificial Life, Deadline: 2003/09/05
      20. 7th European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL-2003), Dortmund, Germany, 2003/09/14-17
      21. A Dual International Conference on Ethics, Complexity & Organisations & Creativity, London WC2, UK, 2003/09/16-18
      22. 1st German Conference on Multiagent System Technologies (MATES'03), Erfurt, Germany, 2003/09/22-25
      23. Dynamics Days 2003, XXIII Annual Conference, 4 Decades of Chaos 1963-2003, Palma de Mallorca, Spain, 03/09/24-27
      24. Improving The NHS Through The Lens Of Complexity, U Exeter, UK, 03/09/24-26
      25. Emerging Technologies Conference at MIT, Cambridge, MA, 2003/09/24-25
      26. Intl School Mathematical Aspects of Quantum Chaos II Quantum Chaos on Hyperbolic Manifolds, Schloss Reisensburg (Günzburg, Germany), 03/10/04-11
      27. 2003 IEEE/WIC Intl Joint Conf. Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology, Beijing, China, 2003/10/13-17
      28. American Society for Cybernetics (ASC) 2003 Conference (H.v.Foerster), Vienna, Austria , 2003/11/10-15
      29. Trends And Perspectives In Extensive And Non-Extensive Statistical Mechanics, In Honour Of The 60th Birthday Of Constantino Tsallis, Angra Dos Reis, Brazil, 2003/11/19-21
      30. ICDM '03: The Third IEEE International Conference on Data Mining, Melbourne, Florida, USA, 2003/11/19-22
      31. 3rd International Workshop on Meta-Synthesis and Complex System, Guangzhou, China, 2003/11/29-30
      32. 2nd International Workshop on the Mathematics and Algorithms of Social Insects, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; 2003/12/15-17
      33. 4th Intl ICSC Symposium Engineering Of Intelligent Systems (EIS 2004), Island of Madeira, Portugal, 04/02/29-03/02
      34. Fractal 2004, "Complexity and Fractals in Nature", 8th Intl Multidisciplinary Conf , Vancouver, Canada, 2004/04/04-07
      35. Fifth International Conference on Complex Systems (ICCS2004), Boston, MA, USA, 2004/05/16-21
      36. International Symposium on HIV & Emerging Infectious Diseases, Toulon, France, 04/06/03-05

       


    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.



Also available in: Simple HTML format | TXT format | TXT format with links | Print