Complexity Digest 2003.27 Archive: http://comdig.unam.mx "I think the next century will be the century of complexity." Stephen Hawking, 2000 _________________________________________________________________ 01. Agent-Based Approach to Investors' Behavior and Asset Price Fluctuation in Financial Markets 02. Who's in Charge?, American Scientist 02.01. The Value of Positive Emotions, American Scientist 03. Author Sees Molecular Future In Corporate World, Boston Globe 03.01. Dynamics Between Order And Chaos In A Simple Reentrant Model Of Production Dynamics, Int. J. Bifur. & Chaos 04. Medicare Cures Prove Easy To Presribe, Tricky to Predict, Wall Street Journal 04.01. Find-A-Drug Attacks Aids With Grid Technology, Grid Today 05. Alzheimer's Disease, The Molecular Origins Of The Disease Are Coming To Light, American Scientist 05.01. Neurobiology: Synapses Unplugged, Nature 06. Myosin Motors Walk the Walk, Science 06.01. Myosin V Walks Hand-Over-Hand: Single Fluorophore Imaging with 1.5-nm Localization, Science 06.02. Telomeres Shorten More Slowly In Long-Lived Birds And Mammals, Proc. Biol. Sc. 07. Plant Hydraulics: The Ascent Of Water, Nature 08. Opposites Do Not Attract In Mating Game, New Scientist 08.01. Nature's Magic: Synergy in Evolution and the Fate of Humankind, Cambridge University Press 08.02. The Emergent Properties Of A Dolphin Social Network, Alphagalileo & Biol. Lett. 09. What Does It Take To Evolve Behaviorally Complex Organisms?, Biosystems 09.01. The Small-World Dynamics Of Tree Networks And Data Mining In Phyloinformatics, Bioinformatics 10. Form And Function: A Neuronal Dialog, Brain and Mind 11. Beyond Input-Output Computings: Error-driven Emergence with Parallel Non-distributed Slime Mold Computer, Biosystems 11.01. Quantum Information With Neutral Atoms As Qubits, Phil. Tran. A 12. Sensors of the World, Unite!, Technology Review 12.01. Spam May Sprout Viruses In Home PCs, CNET News.com 12.02. Website Turns Tables On Government Officials, Boston Globe 12.03. Computer Science: Scientists Launch Global Internet Research Lab, Science 13. Scientists Announce First 3-D Assembly of Magnetic and Semiconducting Nanoparticles, NSF Press Release 13.01. Sorting Technique May Boost Nanotube Research, Science 13.02. Ultracold Molecules Pave Way for Quantum "Super Molecule", NIST News Release 14. Accelerating Universe Theory Dispels Dark Energy, Nature Science Update 14.01. Is Cosmic Speed-Up Due To New Gravitational Physics?, arXiv 15. Atmospheric Physics: Electric Jets, Nature 15.01. Gigantic Jets Between A Thundercloud And The Ionosphere, Nature 16. Microbe-Processors:Researchers Attempt To Turn Living Cells Into Computers, Boston Globe 16.01. Microbe Fuel Cell Packs More Power, Nature Science Update 17. Why Tax Cuts Will Not Pay Off, Do Workers Really Make Hay While The Sun Shines, NYTimes 18. How Many Candidates Are Needed to Make Elections Hard to Manipulate?, arXiv 18.01. Internet Helps Make Candidate a Contender, NYTimes 19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks 19.01. Two Britons May Face U.S. Tribunal, AP/Newsday 19.02. Cyberterroism in Today's World, Electronic News 20. Links & Snippets 20.01. Other Papers 20.02. Coming and Ongoing Webcasts 20.03. Conference Announcements & Call for Papers 20.04. ComDig Announcement: New ComDig Archive in Beta Test _________________________________________________________________ 01. Agent-Based Approach to Investors' Behavior and Asset Price Fluctuation in Financial Markets Abstract: In this paper, we use Agent-Based Approach to analyze how asset prices are affected by investors and investment systems that are based on Behavioral Finance. We build a virtual financial market that contains two types of investors: fundamentalists and non-fundamentalists. As a result of intensive experiments in the market, we find that (1) the traded price agrees with the fundamental value and the fundamentalists survive according to the principle of natural selection in the case that the market contains the same number of fundamentalists and trend predictors (investors who make trend prediction), (2) the traded price largely deviates from the fundamental value and the non-fundamentalists frequently obtain excess returns and therefore the fundamentalists are eliminated according to the principle of natural selection in the case that the proportion of trend predictors is extremely high or in the case that the investment ratio of the risk asset is restricted, and (3) the traded price largely deviates from the fundamental value in the case that the non-fundamentalists estimate the losses excessively, as pointed in Prospect Theory. These results indicate that the non-fundamentalists affect the traded prices and obtain excess returns also in real markets. * [1] Agent-Based Approach to Investors' Behavior and Asset Price Fluctuation in Financial Markets #source1 JASSS, Hiroshi Takahashi and Takao Terano, 2003-06-30, JASSS vol. 6, no. 3 [1] http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/6/3/3.html _________________________________________________________________ 02. Who's in Charge? , American Scientist Excerpts: (...) neural activity that begins an action starts up around a third of a second before the agent's conscious decision to act. Neuroscientists have frequently interpreted this as showing that decisions are somehow illusions: (...)." They maintain that the action is originally precipitated in some part of the brain, and off fly the signals to muscles, pausing en route to tell you, the conscious agent, what is going on (but like all good officials letting you, the bumbling president, maintain the illusion that you started it all). * [2] Who's in Charge?, Simon Blackburn, Freedom Evolves, Daniel C. Dennett, xvi + 347 pp. Viking, 2003. , 24.95., American Scientist 03/07-08 [2] http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/21922 _________________________________________________________________ 02.01. The Value of Positive Emotions , American Scientist Excerpts: Positive emotions-joy, interest and contentment-are a puzzle to scientists. From an evolutionary point of view they don't seem to have the same survival value as negative emotions such as fear or anger. The negative emotions elicit specific actions to run or attack, which must surely have helped our ancestors survive the dangers of life on the savannah. But what's the survival value of feeling joy or contentment? Psychologist Fredrickson argues that positive emotions allowed our ancestors to broaden their minds and build resources-intellectual, physical and social-that served them in good stead during hard times. * [3] The Value of Positive Emotions, The emerging science of positive psychology is coming to understand why it's good to feel good, Barbara L. Fredrickson, American Scientist, 03/07-08 [3] http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/21534 _________________________________________________________________ 03. Author Sees Molecular Future In Corporate World , Boston Globe Excerpt: "The book, just published, charts out a new approach to corporate growth and innovation. ''It's Alive,'' by Christopher Meyer and Stan Davis, contends that the future of business is molecular, that biology and evolution are the new models for the next exciting leaps in the world of business. And we're not just talking about scientific advances. ''It's Alive,'' subtitled ''The Coming Convergence of Information, Biology and Business,'' is full of biological metaphors to explain the way business in general works, the way it will work. The future of management and product development is explained in terms of concepts like adaptation, recombination, coevolution, and emergence." * [4] Author Sees Molecular Future In Corporate World, D.C. Denison, 6/29/2003, Boston Globe [4] http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/180/business/Author_sees_molecular_future_in_corporate_world+.shtml _________________________________________________________________ 03.01. Dynamics Between Order And Chaos In A Simple Reentrant Model Of Production Dynamics , Int. J. Bifur. & Chaos Abstract: We consider a simple reentrant model of a manufacturing process, consisting of one machine at which two different types of items have to be processed. The model is completely deterministic: all delivery and processing times are fixed, and are generally incommensurate. Dependent on the arrival and processing times, a queue of waiting items grows, remains constant or disappears. We demonstrate that the dynamics of the system crucially depends on the queue type. Complexity is most observed for the case of growing queue. * [5] Dynamics Between Order And Chaos In A Simple Reentrant Model Of Production Dynamics, I. Katzorke & A. Pikovsky, May 2003, DOI: 10.1142/S021812740300728X * Contributed by [6] Pritha Das [5] http://ejournals.worldscientific.com.sg/ijbc/13/1305/S021812740300728X.html [6] mailto:prithadas01@yahoo.com _________________________________________________________________ 04. Medicare Cures Prove Easy To Presribe, Tricky to Predict , Wall Street Journal Excerpts: (...) Medicare has surprised those who created, changed and managed it. Predicting the speed and direction of medical progress has proved impossible, and it hasn't been much easier to predict how patients and the health-care industry will react to governmental fine-tuning. (...) But Medicare is a leading example of the law of unintended consequences. It's a living laboratory in which science moves in unpredictable spurts, government-created incentives often do much more or much less than expected, profit-minded entrepreneurs exploit unintended loopholes and costs squeezed out of one place pop up elsewhere. * [7] Medicare Cures Prove Easy To Presribe, Tricky to Predict, David Wessel, 03/06/30, Wall Street Journal [7] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105692277753253400,00.html _________________________________________________________________ 04.01. Find-A-Drug Attacks Aids With Grid Technology , Grid Today Excerpts: Find-a-Drug is pleased to announce the start of its HIV project. (...) PC owners may participate in the project by downloading the THINK software and molecules from http://www.find-a-drug.org. The information about protein and molecule data as well are encrypted to ensure that it is securely transmitted between the PCs and Find-a-Drug Internet servers. This is a necessary and valuable precaution in order to prevent the introduction of a harmful agent such as a virus on to the computers. Once installed, the software does not require any interaction by the owner (...). * [8] Find-A-Drug Attacks Aids With Grid Technology, 03/07/01, Grid Today [8] http://www.gridtoday.com/breaking/742.html _________________________________________________________________ 05. Alzheimer's Disease, The Molecular Origins Of The Disease Are Coming To Light , American Scientist Excerpts: Alzheimer's disease follows the same course whether you get it at 50 or 85. By uncovering the genetics and molecular biology of Alzheimer's, scientists can now explain this observation and many other aspects of the disease at a mechanistic level. In this article, the author explains the state-of-the-art understanding of how the disease works, and shows how recent findings have helped identify new possibilities for interrupting the process. Several next-generation strategies for treating the disease are discussed, including the author's own development of decoy peptides that bind and inactivate the main Alzheimer's culprit. * [9] Alzheimer's Disease, The Molecular Origins Of The Disease Are Coming To Light, Vernon M. Ingram, American Scientist, 03/07-08 [9] http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/21886 _________________________________________________________________ 05.01. Neurobiology: Synapses Unplugged , Nature Excerpts: At the junctions between two neurons, the machinery that releases neurotransmitter from one cell must lie near calcium channels and align with detectors in the receiving cell. (...) The computational power of the brain depends on the precise connections, or synapses, that link together the many billions of nerve cells. (...) The rapidity with which calcium influx leads to neurotransmitter release (within 200 microseconds) means that the voltage-gated calcium channels must be very close to - perhaps even physically associated with - the molecular * [10] Neurobiology: Synapses Unplugged, J. Troy Littleton, Morgan Sheng, 26 June 2003, DOI: 10.1038/423931a, Nature 423, 931 - 932 [10] http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v423/n6943/full/423931a_fs.html _________________________________________________________________ 06. Myosin Motors Walk the Walk , Science Excerpts: (...) myosin V is a molecular motor that moves along actin filaments powered by the hydrolysis of ATP. However, unlike muscle myosin, which depends on teamwork for movement, myosin V works alone to move intracellular vesicles around cells. A hotly debated question is whether the two heads of the myosin V motor move along an actin filament in a hand-over-hand manner (akin to human walking), or whether they shuffle along one behind the other like "inchworms." (...) data that are consistent with the "hand-over-hand" model. * [11] Myosin Motors Walk the Walk, Justin E. Molloy, Claudia Veigel, Science 2003 300: 2045-2046. [11] http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/300/5628/2045 _________________________________________________________________ 06.01. Myosin V Walks Hand-Over-Hand: Single Fluorophore Imaging with 1.5-nm Localization , Science Excerpts: Myosin V is a dimeric molecular motor that moves processively on actin, with the center of mass moving 37 nanometers for each adenosine triphosphate hydrolyzed. We have (...) measured the step size with a standard deviation of