Complexity Digest 2007.41

27-Oct-2007

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Content

  1. An Active, Purposeful Machine That Comes Out at Night to Play, NY Times
    1. Graph Theoretical Analysis Of Complex Networks In The Brain, Nonlin. Biomed. Phy.
    2. Mind-Dependence. The Past In The Grip Of The Present, J. Bioecon.
  2. Schools Embrace Environment and Sow Debate, NY Times
  3. The Equilibria That Allow Bacterial Persistence In Human Hosts, Nature
    1. An Ecological And Evolutionary Perspective On Human-Microbe Mutualism And Disease, Nature
  4. Turnover Of Sex Chromosomes Induced By Sexual Conflict, Nature
    1. Genetic Sex-Determination Changes Studied, EarthTimes.org
  5. So Similar, Yet So Different, Nature
    1. Spontaneous Emergence of Modularity in a Model of Evolving Individuals, arXiv
  6. Mitochondrial DNA as a Genomic Jigsaw Puzzle, Science
    1. Stem Cells From Virgin Eggs - Nonviable Embryos Could Answer Ethical Concerns, Science News
  7. Molecular Biology: Unlocking Cell Fate, Science
  8. New Mathematical Model Predicts More Virulent Microbes, PhysOrg.com
    1. Network Analysis of Oncogenic Ras Activation in Cancer, Science
  9. Micro-Robot That Can Clear Arteries, Telegraph
  10. Archaeology: Coastal Artifacts Suggest Early Beginnings For Modern Behavior, Science
  11. Probing Question: How Do Songbirds Learn To Sing?, PennState Live
  12. The Shape Of Protein Structures To Come - Modelling Effort Uses Mass Computing Power To Make Breakthrough., Nature
  13. Scientists Spy Enzyme That Makes Us Unique, ScienceDaily
  14. Earth Science: An Indian Cheetah, Nature
  15. Boffins Give Computers 'Common Sense', vnunet.com
    1. Recommendation Model Based On Opinion Diffusion, arXiv
  16. How Singing Bats Communicate, ScienceDaily
    1. How Private Information About Resource Value Changes Hermit Crab Pre-Fight Displays And Escalated Fight Behaviour, Proc. Biol. Sc.
  17. Mathematics and Complex Systems, Science
  18. Administration Diverges on Missile Defense, Washington Post
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
    1. America's War Without End, Guardian Unlimited
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Webcast Announcements
    3. Conference Announcements
    4. Other Announcements

  1. An Active, Purposeful Machine That Comes Out at Night to Play, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    Jonathan Rosen Some neuroscientists say that at least one vital function of sleep is tied to learning and memory, and new findings suggest that sleep plays a crucial role in flagging and storing important memories.
    The task looks as simple as a "Sesame Street" exercise. Study pairs of Easter eggs on a computer screen and memorize how the computer has arranged them: the aqua egg over the rainbow one, the paisley over the coral one - and there are just six eggs in all.

    Most people can study these pairs for about 20 minutes and ace a test on them, even a day later. But they're much less accurate in choosing between two eggs that have not been directly compared: Aqua trumped rainbow but does that mean it trumps paisley? It's hazy.

    1. Graph Theoretical Analysis Of Complex Networks In The Brain, Nonlin. Biomed. Phy. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Since the discovery of small-world and scale-free networks the study of complex systems from a network perspective has taken an enormous flight. In recent years many important properties of complex networks have been delineated. In particular, significant progress has been made in understanding the relationship between the structural properties of networks and the nature of dynamics taking place on these networks. For instance, the 'synchronizability' of complex networks of coupled oscillators can be determined by graph spectral analysis. These developments in the theory of complex networks have inspired new applications in the field of neuroscience. (...)

    2. Mind-Dependence. The Past In The Grip Of The Present, J. Bioecon. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Recent developments in economic literature have pointed out that path-dependence has a cognitive dimension. The paper shows how this result may be analyzed in more depth, by making explicit the links between the properties of path-dependent processes in economics and the functioning of the mind. Through the investigation of memory mechanisms, we explain why human beings might be considered as complex systems whose growth follows a stochastic and non-ergodic dynamic. Our main claim is that the concept of path-dependence, as commonly interpreted, does not take the reconstructive nature which characterizes human memory into full account. (...)

  2. Schools Embrace Environment and Sow Debate, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    Ruby Washington/The New York Times Melissa Costello, left, and Russell Greenleaf, in hat, help students garden at Scarsdale Middle School.
    The green schools movement, which grew out of earlier efforts at colleges and universities, has already changed the way some schools are built. Today, an increasing number of classrooms have ventilation systems, natural lighting and automatic light and heat sensors. (...)

    Increasingly, schools have also sought to integrate environmentalism into their curriculums - the Ethel Walker School in the Hartford suburbs features a course called Literature of the American Environment - so it becomes a way of seeing and thinking about the world.

  3. The Equilibria That Allow Bacterial Persistence In Human Hosts, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: We propose that microbes that have developed persistent relationships with human hosts have evolved cross-signalling mechanisms that permit homeostasis that conforms to Nash equilibria and, more specifically, to evolutionarily stable strategies. This implies that a group of highly diverse organisms has evolved within the changing contexts of variation in effective human population size and lifespan, shaping the equilibria achieved, and creating relationships resembling climax communities. We propose that such ecosystems contain nested communities in which equilibrium at one level contributes to homeostasis at another. The model can aid prediction of equilibrium states in the context of further change: widespread immunodeficiency, changing population densities, or extinctions.

    1. An Ecological And Evolutionary Perspective On Human-Microbe Mutualism And Disease, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The microbial communities of humans are characteristic and complex mixtures of microorganisms that have co-evolved with their human hosts. The species that make up these communities vary between hosts as a result of restricted migration of microorganisms between hosts and strong ecological interactions within hosts, as well as host variability in terms of diet, genotype and colonization history. The shared evolutionary fate of humans and their symbiotic bacteria has selected for mutualistic interactions that are essential for human health, and ecological or genetic changes that uncouple this shared fate can result in disease.

  4. Turnover Of Sex Chromosomes Induced By Sexual Conflict, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Sex-determination genes are among the most fluid features of the genome in many groups of animals1. In some taxa the master sex-determining gene moves frequently between chromosomes, whereas in other taxa different genes have been recruited to determine the sex of the zygotes. There is a well developed theory for the origin of stable and highly dimorphic sex chromosomes seen in groups such as the eutherian mammals. In contrast, the evolutionary lability of genetic sex determination in other groups remains largely unexplained.

    1. Genetic Sex-Determination Changes Studied, EarthTimes.org Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: U.S. geneticists have discovered how, in animals with separate sexes, embryos rapidly commit to becoming male or female at an early stage.

      Often that decision is made by sex determination genes on sex-related chromosomes. The genes involved in sex development have changed remarkably little during evolution, researchers said. In contrast, the sex determination genes and the sex chromosomes themselves are among the most rapidly changing features of the genome.

  5. So Similar, Yet So Different, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    All change: human genomes seem not to be as uniform as previously claimed.
    H. IBRAHIM/CORBIS
    (...) if our DNA is so similar, why do we seem different in so many ways? The answer, in part, is that the genome is not as uniform (...); nor is it nearly as sedate, stable and homogeneous (...). It's less a 'Book of Life', more a wiki; many of its ho-hum elements don't change, but some really interesting bits are constantly revised.

    1. Spontaneous Emergence of Modularity in a Model of Evolving Individuals, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: We investigate the selective forces that promote the emergence of modularity in nature. We demonstrate the spontaneous emergence of modularity in a population of individuals that evolve in a changing environment. We show that the level of modularity correlates with the rapidity and severity of environmental change. The modularity arises as a synergistic response to the noise in the environment in the presence of horizontal gene transfer. We suggest that the hierarchical structure observed in the natural world may be a broken symmetry state, which generically results from evolution in a changing environment.

  6. Mitochondrial DNA as a Genomic Jigsaw Puzzle, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: In mitochondria of the unicellular eukaryote Diplonema, genes are systematically fragmented into small pieces that are encoded on separate chromosomes, transcribed individually, and then concatenated into contiguous messenger RNA molecules (...)

    We show that the constant region of each chromosome, which is identical within each size class, covers 95% of the molecules; a short ( less than 500 bp) variable region (cassette) encloses a distinct gene piece (module) of 60 to 351 bp (...).

    1. Stem Cells From Virgin Eggs - Nonviable Embryos Could Answer Ethical Concerns, Science News Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts:
      SELF-STARTER. A woman's eggs keep a spare set of chromosomes inside a small pouch called a polar body (arrow) until a sperm delivers the paternal set. Scientists can spur the egg to reclaim these extra chromosomes and begin growing without having been fertilized. E. Polak de Fried, Fertility and Sterility/Elsevier
      Without fertilization by sperm, the animals' eggs had begun dividing. In these surprising cases, the process continued and cute little komodo dragons emerged. Viable young can also result from parthenogenesis in various species of reptiles, plants, insects, fish, and birds.

      Mammals normally can't reproduce by parthenogenesis, but that very fact is making the process interesting in a different way: It suggests a possible solution to the moral issues surrounding embryonic stem cell research. Even if an unfertilized human egg is tricked into beginning to grow, most scientists say that it will lack the capacity to produce a viable pregnancy

  7. Molecular Biology: Unlocking Cell Fate, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Control of cell fate is a complex and poorly understood process. It is largely directed by the epigenetic regulation of gene expression--changes in gene function without changing the underlying DNA sequence. Epigenetic regulation is mediated partly through altering chromatin, the DNA and protein constituents of chromosomes. Two papers in this issue, by Chang et al. on page 444 (1) and Lee et al. on page 447 (2), advance our understanding of how epigenetic changes control cell fate and organismal development through the removal of histone methylation, a chemical modification of specific chromatin-associated proteins.

  8. New Mathematical Model Predicts More Virulent Microbes, PhysOrg.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Microbes and humans interact in myriad ways, sharing a long history. Many of the most successful microbes are those that inhabit but do not kill their host. Cheaters lose. Tuberculosis settles into the lungs. Helicobacter pylori, the microbe causing ulcers, burrows into the stomach where it thrives on acids. And Salmonella typhi takes up residence in the gallbladder. All of these organisms can persist in our bodies for decades. What explains their success?

    1. Network Analysis of Oncogenic Ras Activation in Cancer, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: To investigate the unregulated Ras activation associated with cancer, we developed and validated a mathematical model of Ras signaling. The model-based predictions and associated experiments help explain why only one of two classes of activating Ras point mutations with in vitro transformation potential is commonly found in cancers. Model-based analysis of these mutants uncovered a systems-level process that contributes to total Ras activation in cells.

  9. Micro-Robot That Can Clear Arteries, Telegraph Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The robot has three short front legs and three longer back legs which are attached to a central rectangular body.

    By attaching grafted heart muscle to the legs, the scientists found the legs would bend as the muscle cells contracted. The cells get their energy from sugar in the patient's blood.

    That means the robot does not need an external power supply, which are often heavy and cumbersome, if not impractical.

    Because the robot's three front legs are shorter than the back legs, they bend inwards as the heart muscles contract, creating a difference in friction that pushes the robot forward.

  10. Archaeology: Coastal Artifacts Suggest Early Beginnings For Modern Behavior, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Modern humans first appear in the fossil record of Africa between 160,000 and 195,000 years ago, with skulls and bones that are virtually indistinguishable from ours. But looking like us doesn't necessarily mean that they acted like us. Indeed, researchers have debated intensely about when Homo sapiens began to act sapient by producing complex tools and manipulating symbols.

    Now, an international team of researchers says that some key elements of modern behavior were in place by 164,000 years ago, pushing back the appearance of some of these activities by 25,000 to 40,000 years.

  11. Probing Question: How Do Songbirds Learn To Sing?, PennState Live Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    In most songbird species, only the males sing, and they learn to do so from their fathers, explains Kozhevnikov. "If a bird doesn't hear the tutor, it will sing, but its song will be nothing like the song of an adult bird. It will be poorly structured and lack the wealth of acoustic structure."

    In a bird's world, a sloppy song can have serious consequences, Kozhevnikov says. "It means he'll have a very tough time mating," he notes. "One major reason songbirds sing is to attract females who choose their mates on the basis of song quality."

  12. The Shape Of Protein Structures To Come - Modelling Effort Uses Mass Computing Power To Make Breakthrough., Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Experts: By exploiting millions of hours of computing time donated by the users of 150,000 home computers, scientists have predicted the structure of a protein using just its sequence of amino acids. The project marks a significant advance in a field that's been flush with hope yet short on tangible results, experts say.

  13. Scientists Spy Enzyme That Makes Us Unique, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Have you ever wondered why you inherited your mother's smile but not your father's height? Researchers (...) are one step closer to unravelling how nature combines both maternal and paternal DNA to create genetically unique offspring. (...) have mapped the 3 dimensional structure of an enzyme responsible for splitting DNA strands - a process at the heart of human individuality. (...) The enzyme is derived from a bacteriophage - a naturally occurring virus-like agent that attacks bacteria - but the molecular processes are expected to be similar in other organisms, including humans. (...)

  14. Earth Science: An Indian Cheetah, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: After the supercontinent of Gondwanaland broke up, the part that became India diverged especially swiftly from the other fragments. The explanation for this might lie in the loss of India's deep roots.

  15. Boffins Give Computers 'Common Sense', vnunet.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: A little-known Google Labs widget has enabled researchers (...) to add " common sense" to computers. The computer scientists have added the ability to use context to help identify objects in photographs in an automated image labelling system. For example, if a conventional automated object identifier has scanned an image and identified 'person', 'tennis racket', 'tennis court' and 'lemon', the new post-processing context check will re-label 'lemon' as 'tennis ball'. (...) Google Sets generates lists of related items or objects from just a few examples. If a user types in 'John', 'Paul' and 'George', it will return the words 'Ringo', 'Beatles' and 'John Lennon'. (...)

    1. Recommendation Model Based On Opinion Diffusion, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: Information overload in the modern society calls for highly efficient recommendation algorithms. In this letter we present a novel diffusion based recommendation model, with users' ratings built into a transition matrix. To speed up computation we introduce Green function method. The numerical tests on a benchmark database show that our prediction is superior to the standard recommendation methods.

  16. How Singing Bats Communicate, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Bats are the most vocal mammals other than humans, and understanding how they communicate during their nocturnal outings could lead to better treatments for human speech disorders, (...) fly overhead each night singing songs of complex syllables -- but at frequencies too high for humans to hear. (...) is trying to understand how Mexican Freetail bats organize syllables into songs and how their communication is linked to the brain. "If we can identify those areas in a bat brain [responsible for communication], we can learn more about how a normal [human] brain generates and orchestrates complex communication sequences," Smotherman says. (...)

    1. How Private Information About Resource Value Changes Hermit Crab Pre-Fight Displays And Escalated Fight Behaviour, Proc. Biol. Sc. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Pre-fight displays typically provide honest, but sometimes dishonest, information about resource holding potential and may be influenced by assessment of resource value and hence motivation to acquire the resource. These assessments of potential costs and benefits are also predicted to influence escalated fight behaviour. This is examined in shell exchange contests of hermit crabs in which we establish an information asymmetry about a particularly poor quality shell. The poor shell was created by gluing sand to the interior whereas control shells lacked sand and the low value of the poor shell could not be accurately assessed by the opponent. (...)

  17. Mathematics and Complex Systems, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Contemporary researchers strive to understand complex physical phenomena that involve many constituents, may be influenced by numerous forces, and may exhibit unexpected or emergent behavior. Often such "complex systems" are macroscopic manifestations of other systems that exhibit their own complex behavior and obey more elemental laws. This article proposes that areas of mathematics, even ones based on simple axiomatic foundations, have discernible layers, entirely unexpected "macroscopic" outcomes, and both mathematical and physical ramifications profoundly beyond their historical beginnings.

  18. Administration Diverges on Missile Defense, Washington Post Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Bush Pushes for System in Europe; Gates Urges 'Definitive Proof' of Iranian Threat

    President Bush said yesterday that a missile defense system is urgently needed in Europe to guard against a possible attack on U.S. allies by Iran, while Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates suggested that the United States could delay activating such a system until there is "definitive proof" of such a threat.

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

    1. America's War Without End, Guardian Unlimited Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Planned US spending on the "global war on terror" is set to rise sharply in the coming year, despite claims from the president, George Bush, that al-Qaida is on the run in Iraq. A funding request sent to Congress this week seeks $196.4bn (?96bn) for counter-terrorism in 2007-8, $25bn up on this year. The Pentagon's separate budget request amounts to an additional $481.4bn. Justifying these whopping increases, Mr Bush repeats a favourite mantra, that "America is safer but not yet safe", implying that absolute safety is attainable at some point in the future.

  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. So Similar, Yet So Different, Erika Check Hayden, 07/10/19, Nature 449, 762-763 (2007), DOI: 10.1038/449762a
      2. Trojan Horse Strategy in Agrobacterium Transformation: Abusing MAPK Defense Signaling, Armin Djamei, Andrea Pitzschke, Hirofumi Nakagami, Iva Rajh, Heribert Hirt, 07/10/19, Science: 453-456. A bacterial plant pathogen co-opts one of the plant's own defense proteins to facilitate transfer of its infectious DNA into the nucleus.
      3. Wasp Gene Expression Supports an Evolutionary Link Between Maternal Behavior and Eusociality, Amy L. Toth, 07/10/19, Science: 441-444. Analysis of a set of genes expressed in the brain of a primitive wasp shows that the care shown by worker wasps toward siblings probably evolved from maternal care behavior., DOI: 10.1126/science.1146647
      4. Not Just Hitchhikers - Human Pathogens Make Homes On Plants, Susan Milius, 07/10/20, Science News, Salmonella and other human pathogens on vegetables aren't just riding along like casual smears of dirt; they're moving in and setting up housekeeping
      5. From Conformons To Human Brains: An Informal Overview Of Nonlinear Dynamics And Its Applications In Biomedicine, W. Klonowski, 2007, 1:3, online 2007/07/05, Nonlinear Biomedical Physics, DOI: 10.1186/1753-4631-1-5
      6. Geometry And Self-Righting Of Turtles, G. Domokos, P. L. Várkonyi, 2007/10/16, Proceedings B: Biological Sciences, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2007.1188
      7. Genetic Contributions To Human Brain Morphology And Intelligence, 2007/10/17, Innovations-report
      8. Young Toddlers Think In Terms Of The Whole Object, Not Just Parts, 2007/10/18, ScienceDaily
      9. Creating Life in the Laboratory, Rebecca Morelle, 2007/10/19, BBC News
      10. Boffins Develop Wind-Powered USB Charger: Solar Panels Add Sun Charging Capability, M. Chapman, 2007/10/19, vnunet.com
      11. Fossilized Cashew Nuts Reveal Europe Was Important Route Between Africa And South America, 2007/10/19, Innovations-report
      12. Study Questions Assumptions About Human Sensitivity To Biological Motion, 2007/10/19, Innovations-report
      13. To Maintain National Security, US Policies Should Continue To Promote Open Exchange Of Research, 2007/10/21, ScienceDaily
      14. Stress: Brain Yields Clues About Why Some Succumb While Others Prevail, 2007/10/21, ScienceDaily
      15. An Experimental Design Approach To Investigating The Relationship Between Internet Book Reviews And Purchase Intention, T. M.Y. Lin, Y. K. Huang, W. I. Yang, Sep. 2007, online 2007/08/17, Library & Information Science Research, DOI: 10.1016/j.lisr.2007.04.010

    2. Webcast Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Reseau Nationale des Systemes Complexes , (in French), 2007
      2. World Economic Forum , Davos, Switzerland, 07/01/24-28
      3. TED Talks, TED Conferences LLC , since 2006
      4. Talking Robots: The PodCast on Robotics and AI, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland, 06/11/03
      5. Potentials of Complexity Science for Business, Governments, and the Media 2006, Budapest, Hungary, 06/08/03-05
      6. 6th Intl Conf on Complex Systems (ICCS), Boston, MA, 06/06/25-30
      7. Artificial Life X, 10th Intl Conf on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems, Bloomington, IN, USA. 2006/06/03-07
      8. 6th Understanding Complex Systems Symposium, Urbana-Champaign, Il, 06/05/15-18
      9. Ralph Abraham on Complexity Digest, , Calcutta, India, 05/12/27
      10. An Afternoon with Michael Crichton, Washington, 05/11/06
      11. Illuminating the Shadow of the Future, Ann Arbor, Mi 05/09/23-25
      12. Open Network of Centres of Excellence in Complex Systems - Brainstorming Meeting, Paris, France 05/09/19-23
      13. Complexity, Science & Society Conference 2005, U. Liverpool, UK 2005/09/11-14
      14. ECAL 2005 - VIIIth European Conference on Artificial Life, Canterbury, Kent, UK 2005/09/5-9
      15. T. Irene Sanders, Executive Director and Founder, The Washington Center for Complexity & Public Policy, 05/08/27, QuickTime video (10:38 min), Podcast
      16. North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity 2005 Conference, Virtual Conference Network, St. Pete's Beach, Florida, 05/06/09-11
      17. Understanding Complex Systems - Computational Complexity and Bioinformatics, Virtual Conference Network, Urbana-Champaign, Il, UIUC, 05/05/16-19
      18. Nonlinearity, Fluctuations, and Complexity, with a celebration of the 65th birthday of Gregoire Nicolis. , Complexity Session, Universite' Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium, 05/03/16
      19. 1st European Conference on Complex Systems, Torino, Italy, 04/12/5-7
      20. From Autopoiesis to Neurophenomenology: A Tribute to Francisco Varela (1946-2001), Paris, France, 2004/06/18-20
      21. Evolutionary Epistemology, Language, and Culture, Brussels, Belgium, 04/05/26-28
      22. International Conference on Complex Systems 2004, Boston, 04/05/16-21
      23. Nonlinear Dynamics And Chaos: Lab Demonstrations, Strogatz, Steven H., Internet-First University Press, 1994
      24. CERN Webcast Service, Streamed videos of Archived Lectures and Live Events
      25. Dean LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing Since February 1998
      26. Edge Videos

    3. Conference Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Smithsonian conference, Creating a Sustainable Future in a Complex World, Washington, DC, 07/10/27
      2. Intl Conf on Complex Systems 2007, Boston, MA, USA, 07/10/28-11/02
      3. The Huntsville Simulation Conference 2007, Huntsville, Alabama, 07/10/30-11/01
      4. 2007 IEEE/WIC/ACM Intl Joint Conf on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology (WI-IAT'07), Silicon Valley, USA, 07/11/02-05
      5. Theory In Cognitive Neuroscience, Wildbad Kreuth (Bavaria), Germany, 07/11/04-07
      6. 7th Intl Conf on Epigenetic Robotics: Modeling Cognitive Development in Robotic Systems , Piscataway, NJ, 07/11/05-07
      7. KSS 2007 - 8th Intl Symposium on Knowledge and Systems Sciences, Ishikawa prefecture, Japan, 07/11/05-07
      8. NetLogo Workshop at Agent 2007 Conference, Evanston, IL, USA, 07/11/12-14
      9. Australia New Zealand Systems Conference 2007 "Systemic development: Local solutions in a global environment", Auckland, New Zealand, 07/12/02-05
      10. The 3rd Indian Intl Conf on Artificial Intelligence (IICAI-07), Pune, INDIA, 07/12/17-19
      11. The 1st Conf on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI-08), Memphis, Tennessee, USA, 08/03/01-03
      12. The 3rd International Nonlinear Sciences Conference (INSC), Tokyo, Japan, 08/03/13-15
      13. 19th European Meeting On Cybernetics And Systems Research, (EMCSR 2008), Vienna, Austria, 08/03/25-28
      14. 2nd KES Intl Symp on Agent and Multi-Agent Systems : Technologies and Applications, Incheon, Korea, 08/03/26-28
      15. 1st Intl Conf on Social Entrepreneurship & Complexity, Garden City, NY, USA, 08/04/10-12
      16. The 12th World Multi-Conf on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics: WMSCI 2008, Orlando, Florida, USA, 08/06/29-07/02
      17. From Animals To Animats 10 - The 10th Intl Conf on the Simulation Of Adaptive Behavior (SAB'08), Osaka, Japan, 08/07/07-12
      18. Stochastic Resonance 2008, Perugia, Italy, 08/08/17-21

    4. Other Announcements Bookmark and Share

      1. " Wolfram Research is Now the Official Math Brain Trust for the Hit CBS Series NUMB3RS. 07/10/05
      2. A short notice from Dean LeBaron

        Dear ComDig Readers,

        Our editor, Dr. Gottfried Mayer, is affectionately esteemed by many of you -- as readers, you know he devotes himself unselfishly to widening our knowledge of complexity science. He was recently diagnosed with advanced colon cancer and given a timetable of a very few years. Knowing Gottfried, you can imagine that, in addition to the customary processes of chemotherapy, he would explore other frontier therapies, especially those arising out of interdisciplinary applications of complexity. These are expensive ... if he can find them.

        Many of you have sent your good wishes and indicated your desire to assist. With Gottfried's permission, I am posting this note with information, below, about how to send contributions to him. Please indicate the source since Gottfried will want to express his warm gratitude.

        I know that Gottfried, the good scientist that he is, will explain from time to time what he is doing and what the results are ... and we will follow his progress with great interest and hope.

        Dean LeBaron
        Publisher, Complexity Digest

        Bank Information:

        If your contribution is made by check:
        Please mail the check, payable to "Gottfried Mayer", to:
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        (on the back of the check, please write: "For Deposit Only: Account # 983 338 3814")

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      3. Intl Master of Science in Methods For Management Of Complex Systems - Academic Year 2007-2008, Institute for Advanced Study, Pavia, Italy, 08/01/01
      4. News notes on Agent-based Computational Economics (ACE) for July 2007 are now available on-line, 07/08/04
      5. National Humanities Center Launches Humanities/Sciences Website, 07/04, As part of its ongoing "Autonomy, Singularity, Creativity: The Human & The Humanities" project (ASC), the National Humanities Center makes public a new website for the initiative which significantly expands the potential pool of humanists and scientists engaged in the exploration and examination of topics surrounding the question of human being.

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