复杂性文摘 NO:2003.05

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Complexity Digest 2003.05 February-02-2003

  Archive:  http://www.comdig.org, European Mirror:  http://www.comdig.de

Asian Mirror:  http://www.phil.pku.edu.cn/resguide/comdig/ (Chinese GB-Code)

"I think the next century will be the century of complexity." Stephen
Hawking, 2000

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


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1.Swarming and Network Enabled Command, Control, Communications, Computers,
Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance, Conference Presentations

Opening Remarks, Dr. Linton Wells III
The Objective Force, Video (mpg 32MB), LTG John M. Riggs
Future Combat System, Col William Johnson
Military History of Swarming, Sean Edwards
Swarming Intelligence: From Natural to Artificial Systems, Eric Bonabeau
Unmanned Undersea Vehicles (UUV) Program and Potential Swarming
Applications, CAPT John D. Lambert
Making Swarming Happen: Generating, Measuring, and Controlling Swarming
Autonomy, Dr. Van Parunak
Swarming and the Law of Armed Conflict, Maj G. W. Riggs
SPLINTER GROUP A: Question 1 (e.g. How do swarming concepts support or
enable new warfighting concepts?), Bill Thoet
SPLINTER GROUP B: Question 2 (e.g. Are Technologies in the other Mission
Areas capable of supporting a robust C4ISR capability?), Jimmy Walters
SPLINTER GROUP C: Question 3 (e.g. Should swarming become a Tenet for
Transformation?), Robb Kurz
ISR Swarm: Countering the Urban Swarm, Dave Dillegge
Riding the Whirlwind: Command and Control of Swarms Using the Public Safety
Model, Joseph Honan
The Impact of Sensor Acuity on Reconnaissance Team Performance, Alan
Christiansen
Fundamentals of Distributed Networked Military Forces and the Engineering
of Distributed Systems, John Dickmann
C4ISR Support to Global Strike Task Force, MajGen Charles Croom
Swarming Historical Observations And ConclusionsCAPT, Donald Inbody
Network Disruption, Frank Mahncke
Coordinated Control of Unmanned Vehicle Operations, Karl Hedrick
C2 in Operational Analysis, Dr. Susan Witty
Emergent Behavior (Swarming): Tool Kit for Building UAV Autonomy, Bruce Clough
Use of a Knowledge-Centered Computing (KC2) Paradigm to Enhance
Multi-Source Intelligence Fusion and Network Centric Warfare, Bill O'Brien
Foundations of Swarm Intelligence From Principles to Practice, Mark
Fleischer, Ph.D.
Swarming and Joint Experimentation, MGEN James Dubik
Learning Tactics for Swarming Entities, Dr. Lashon Booker
Swarm Communications in the ONR-Minuteman Project, Mario Gerla
Conference on Swarming and Network Enabled Command, Control,
Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance
(C4ISR), McLean, VA, 03/01/13-14
Contributed by Jeff Cares, President, Alidade Incorporated


2. Connect, They Say, Only Connect, NYTimes

Excerpt: Mr. Watts, an associate professor of sociology, had just begun a
passionate disquisition on the virtues and liabilities of scale-free
networks when the telephone rang. It was Alfred Berkeley, the vice chairman
of Nasdaq, hoping to chat about the exchange's design.
(¡K) Wall Street moguls and government officials eager to tap into a
nascent academic science that few understand but that many think may hold
the key to everything from predicting fashion trends to preventing
terrorism, stock market meltdowns and the spread of HIV. (...)

Contributing editor's note: His doctorate was awarded by Cornell
University's department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics under the
direction of applied

mathematician Steve Strogatz. The notions of "small-world" and "scale-free"
networks have wrought a cottage industry of researchers in the past several
years. Although there is a great deal of interesting and important work in
this area, there are also a lot of frivolous papers that have resulted from
the extensive hype network theory has received.

Connect, They Say, Only Connect, Emily Eakin, The New York Times, 03/01/27
Contributed by Mason A. Porter


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

An Agent-Based Model of Ethnic Mobilisation, Armano Srbljinovic, Drazen
Penzar, Petra Rodik , Kruno Kardov, 2003-01-31, JASSS vol. 6, no. 1
Contributed by Carlos Gershenson


3. Critical Market Crashes, arXiv

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

Critical Market Crashes, D. Sornette, arXiv, 03/01/28


4. Evolutionary Development and Learning: Two Facets of Strategy
Generation, JASSS

Abstract: The study examines two approaches to the development of
behavioral strategies: i) the evolutionary approach manifested in a Genetic
Algorithm, which accounts for gradual development and simultaneous
refinement of an entire population; and ii) the behavioral learning
approach, which focuses on reinforcements at the individual's level. The
current work is part from an ongoing project dealing with the development
of strategic behavior. The reported study evaluates the potential of
differential reinforcements to provide probabilistic noisy Tit-For-Tat
strategies with the motivation to adopt a pure Tit-For-Tat strategy.
Results show that provocability and forgiveness, the traits that account
for Tit-For-Tat's successes, also prevent it from gaining relative fitness
and become an attractor for noisy (non-perfect) Tit-For-Tat strategies.
Evolutionary Development and Learning: Two Facets of Strategy Generation,
Ilan Fischer, 2003-01-31, JASSS vol. 6, no. 1
Contributed by Carlos Gershenson

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

Monkeys Show Sophisticated Learning Abilities, ScienceDaily, 2003/01/23
Contributed by Atin Das

Excerpts: An important place to start might be in working to apply a
scientific mindset to education itself - that is, to determine as best we
can whether various beliefs practice is often guided by romantic theories,
slick packages and political crusades. Few practices have been evaluated
using the paraphernalia of social science, such as data collection and
control groups. We already know that some methods of reading instruction
work better than others, yet many schools still use methods proved
ineffective like "whole language" techniques.

Editor's Note: The late Richard P. Feynman expressed a very similar
position many years ago. It might be interesting to find out why no little
has changed.

How to Get Inside a Student's Head, Steven Pinker, NYTimes, 03/01/31


5. On Evolution of God-Seeking Mind, CogPrints

Abstract: The earliest known products of human imagination appear to
express a primordial concern and struggle with thoughts of dying and of
death and mortality. I argue that the structures and processes of
imagination evolved in that struggle, in response to debilitating anxieties
and fearful states that would accompany an incipient awareness of
mortality. Imagination evolved to find that which would make the nascent
apprehension of death more bearable, to engage in a search for alternative
perceptions of death: a search that was beyond the capability of the
external senses. I argue that imagination evolved as flight and fight
adaptations in response to debilitating fears that paralleled an emerging
foreknowledge of death. Imagination, and symbolic language to express its
perceptions, would eventually lead to religious behavior and the
development of cultural supports. Although highly speculative, my argument
draws on recent brain studies, and on anthropology, psychology, and
linguistics.
On Evolution of God-Seeking Mind: An Inquiry Into Why Natural Selection
Would Favor Imagination and Distortion of Sensory Experience, Montell,
Conrad, 2003-01-27, DOI: 2726, CogPrints [Evolution and Cognition 8(1):89-107]
Contributed by Carlos Gershenson

Excerpts: In a basic 'dyadic' setting, two agents build up expectations
during their interaction process. First, we include only two factors into
the decision process of an agent, namely, its expectation about the future
and its expectation about the other agent's expectation (called
'expectation-expectation' by Luhmann). Simulation experiments of the model
reveal that 'social' order appears in the dyadic situation for a wide range
of parameter settings, in accordance with Luhmann. If we move from the
dyadic situation of two agents to a population of many interacting agents,
we observe that the order usually disappears. In our simulation
experiments, scalable order appears only for very specific cases, namely,
if agents generate expectation- expectations based on the activity of other
agents and if there is a mechanism of 'information proliferation', in our
case created by observation of others.

On the Scalability of Social Order: Modeling the Problem of Double and
Multi Contingency Following Luhmann, Peter Dittrich, Thomas Kron, Wolfgang
Banzhaf, 2003-01-31, JASSS vol. 6, no. 1
Contributed by Carlos Gershenson


6. "Forest¡VGrass" Global Vegetation Model With Forest Age Structure, Eco.
Modelling

Abstract: (¡K) a set of "simplest" models of the global vegetation pattern
(GVP) was suggested.All these models are based on the simple probabilistic
"urn" schemes and their dynamics were sufficiently complex to present
nonlinear phenomena such as multiple equilibriums and hysteresis. (¡K) the
GVP dynamics is described by the same dynamical system with different
parameters; then this difference is defined by the change in annual
temperature and precipitation. It is also shown that a "relaxation" time
(time to reach equilibrium) for a transition zone is more than one order
greater than the time for "pure" grass and forests equilibriums.
"Forest¡VGrass" Global Vegetation Model With Forest Age Structure, Y.
Svirezhev & N. Zavalishin, Eco. Modelling, Vol. 160, Issues 1-2, pp:1-12,
2003/02/01, DOI: 10.1016/S0304-3800(02)00212-0
Contributed by Pritha Das


7. Ants, Musroom And Mold: An Evolutionary Arms Race, NYTimes

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



Ants, Musroom And Mold: An Evolutionary Arms Race, Nicholas Wade, The New
York Times, 1/28/03
Contributed by Mason A. Porter


Excerpts: Some European species of crab-spider match the colour of the
flower on which they lie in wait to ambush insect pollinators,(...). Here
we show that the coloration of an Australian species of crab-spider, (...),
which is cryptic on the white daisy Chrysanthemum frutescens to the human
eye, is highly conspicuous to ultraviolet-sensitive insect prey - but that,
instead of repelling foraging honeybees (...), the contrast of the spider
against the petals makes the flowers more attractive. The spider is
apparently exploiting the bee's pre-existing preference for flowers with
colour patterning.
Pollinator Attraction: Crab-Spiders Manipulate Flower Signals, Astrid M.
Heiling, Marie E. Herberstein & Lars Chittka, Nature 421, 03/01/23;
doi:10.1038/421334a


8. The Impact Of Energy Conservation On Technology And Economic Growth,
Resource & Energy Econ.

Abstract: We present a model of growth driven by energy use and endogenous
factor-augmenting technological change. Both the rate and direction of
technological progress are endogenous. The model captures four main
stylised facts: total energy use has increased; energy use per hour worked
increased slightly; energy efficiency has improved; and the value share of
energy in GDP has steadily fallen. We study how energy conservation
policies affect growth over time (¡K). Policies that reduce the level of
energy use are distinguished from those that reduce the growth rate of
energy inputs. Although these policies may stimulate innovation, they
unambiguously depress output levels.
The Impact Of Energy Conservation On Technology And Economic Growth, S.
Smulders & M. de Nooijb, Resource & Energy Econ., Vol. 25, Issue 1,
pp:59-79, Feb. 2003, DOI: 10.1016/S0928-7655(02)00017-9
Contributed by Pritha Das


9. Caribbean Comparisons: The Benefit Of Currency Stability For Economic
Development, Alphagalileo

Excerpts: A new (¡K) study of monetary policy in 12 Caribbean countries
confirms the benefits of a stable exchange rate for good economic
performance. The research (¡K) reveals that in Barbados and the Eastern
Caribbean currency union, whose currencies have been remarkably stable,
inflation has been low and growth positive. In contrast, Guyana, Jamaica
and Trinidad and Tobago, countries with vastly superior physical resource
endowments but highly unstable and devalued exchange rates, have
experienced high inflation and low and negative growth. Institutional
arrangements based on a currency board framework evolving from the colonial
experience provided the basis for the Eastern Caribbean success;
Caribbean Comparisons: The Benefit Of Currency Stability For Economic
Development, I. Stewart, Alphagalileo, 2003/01/29
Contributed by Pritha Das


10. The Double Helix - 50 Years, The Eternal Molecule, Nature

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

The Double Helix - 50 Years: The Eternal Molecule, Carina Dennis, Philip
Campbell, Nature 421, 03/01/23; doi:10.1038/nature01396


11. Starvation Study Could Influence MS Drugs, health-news.co.uk

Contributing Editor's note: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is chronic neurologic
disease of the Central Nervous System (CNS). Although it is used to think
of MS as an autoimmune disease, no single antigen or immune system
dysfunction has been identified and the cause of MS remains unknown. In
people affected by this disease lesions are appearing randomly, therefore
the individual development of MS is very unique, with common processes of
degeneration of CNS. In this article a group of researchers is claiming
that starvation can affect a production of a certain protein called leptin,
which in turn has an effect on specialized type of lymphocytes "T-helper 1"
which role is crucial in development of disease. All this could influence
the action of medication used for MS.
Recently a group of researchers has claimed that, contrary to a century of
medical understanding, MS is not an autoimmune disease, which, of course
caused diversed oppinions in other scientists.

Excerpt: Using an experiment model of MS, researchers from Italy, the US
and the UK found that mice deprived of food for two days had fewer brain
lesions and performed better on tests of walking, balance, weakness and
paralysis. The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical
Investigation, could lead to the development of new treatments for the
disease in humans.

Starvation Study Could Influence MS Drugs, 2003-01-30, health-news.co.uk
Contributed by Nadia Gershenson


12. Parasite's Plant Genes Could Be Achilles' Heel, Scientific American

Excerpts: The sleeping sickness parasite kills nearly 66,000 people
annually and silently infects almost 450,000 more, mostly in sub-Saharan
Africa. (...) The study results suggest that the parasite contains algae
genes, and thus could succumb to drugs based on herbicides.
Parasite's Plant Genes Could Be Achilles' Heel, 2003-01-27, Scientific
American
Contributed by Nadia Gershenson


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

Plant-like Traits Associated with Metabolism of Trypanosoma Parasites,
Veronique Hannaert, Emma Saavedra, Francis Duffieux, Jean-Pierre Szikora,
Daniel J. Rigden, Paul A. M. Michels, Fred R. Opperdoes, 2003-01-27, PNAS
Contributed by Nadia Gershenson


13.Tapping the Mind, Science

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

Tapping the Mind, Ingrid Wickelgren, Science Jan 24 2003: 496-499

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

Power to the Paralyzed, Ingrid Wickelgren, Science Jan 24 2003: 497


14. New Door To Study Of Mood Disorders In Humans, ScienceDaily

Excerpts: Researchers report finding a gene that is essential for normal
levels of anxiety and aggression. Calling it the Pet-1 gene, researchers
(¡K) say that when this gene is removed or "knocked out" in a mouse,
aggression and anxiety in adults are greatly elevated compared to a control
(also called wild type) mouse. (Videos displaying aggressive behavior of
Pet-1 knockout mice )
Other neurologic functions, such as motor coordination, feeding, and
locomotor activity, do not appear altered in the knockout mouse.
"The behavior of Pet-1 knockout mice is strikingly reminiscent of some
human psychiatric disorders that are characterized by heightened anxiety
and violence"
Researchers Discover Anxiety And Aggression Gene In Mice; Opens New Door To
Study Of Mood Disorders In Humans, ScienceDaily, 2003/01/23
Contributed by Atin Das


15. The Enactive Mind, Or From Actions To Cognition, Phil. Trans. Biol. Sc.

Abstract: This paper offers an approach to social cognitive development
intended to address the above discrepancy, which is considered a key
element for any understanding of the pathophysiology of autism. This
approach, called the enactive mind (EM) (¡K) that views cognition as bodily
experiences accrued as a result of an organism's adaptive actions upon
salient aspects of the surrounding environment. The EM approach offers a
developmental hypothesis of autism in which the process of acquisition of
embodied social cognition is derailed early on, as a result of reduced
salience of social stimuli and concomitant enactment of socially irrelevant
aspects of the environment.
The Enactive Mind, Or From Actions To Cognition: Lessons From Autism, Klin
et al., Phil. Trans. Biol. Sc., 2003/01/20, DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2002.1202
Contributed by Atin Das

Excerpts: Motorists are more accident-prone and slower to react when they
talk on cellular telephones - even hands-free models - because "inattention
blindness" makes the drivers less able to process visual information (¡K)
used a joystick-equipped computer display to show that people talking on
cell phones were more likely to miss or react slowly to simulated traffic
signals than people who were not conversing on cell phones. Driving
impairment was just as bad regardless of whether participants used
hands-free or hand-held cell phones. That suggested the phone conversation
itself was a distraction for motorists in addition to the distraction of
handling the phone.

Cell Phone Users Drive 'Blind'; Study Explains Why Hands-Free Phones Just
As Bad As Hand-held, ScienceDaily, 2003/01/29
Contributed by Atin Das


16. Science and the Semantic Web, Science

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

Science and the Semantic Web, James Hendler, Science 2003 299: 520-521


17. Experimental Extraction Of An Entangled Photon Pair From Two
Identically Decohered Pairs, Nature

Excerpts: Entanglement is considered to be one of the most important
resources in quantum information processing (...). Because entanglement
cannot be generated by classical communication between distant parties,
distribution of entangled particles between them is necessary. During the
distribution process, entanglement between the particles is degraded by the
decoherence and dissipation processes that result from unavoidable coupling
with the environment. Entanglement distillation and concentration schemes
are therefore needed to extract pairs with a higher degree of entanglement
from these less-entangled pairs; this is accomplished using local
operations and classical communication.
Experimental Extraction Of An Entangled Photon Pair From Two Identically
Decohered Pairs, Takashi Yamamoto, Masato Koashi, Sahin Kaya Ozdemir &
Nobuyuki Imoto, Nature 421, 03/01/23; doi:10.1038/nature01358


18. Shaped Laser Pulses as Reagents, Science

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

Shaped Laser Pulses as Reagents, Herschel Rabitz , Science 2003 299: 525-527

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

Deciphering the Reaction Dynamics Underlying Optimal Control Laser Fields,
Chantal Daniel, Jurgen Full, Leticia Gonzalez, Cosmin Lupulescu, Jorn Manz,
Andrea Merli, tefan Vajda, Ludger Woste, Science 2003 299: 536-539


19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks

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

The News Media Could Be Our Weakest Link, Randy Atkins, The Washington
Post, 1/26/03
Contributed by Mason A. Porter


20. Links & Snippets

20.1 Other Publications

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


20.2 Coming and Ongoing Webcasts

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


20.3 Conference Announcements

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


20.3.1 Public Conference  Calls

Complexity And Medical Practice, Pat Rush & Bob Lindberg, PlexusCalls,
03/01/10, Audio File Available Now, mp3
John Holland in Conversation, PlexusCalls, - Audio File Available Now, mp3
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
Brenda Zimmerman in Conversation, PlexusCalls, Audio File Available Now, mp3
The Complexity of Entrepreneurship: A Launchcyte Story, Tom Petzinger,
PlexusCalls, 02/11/22, Audio File Available Now, mp3
A Practical and Appreciative Approach to Complex and Chronic Challenges,
Keith McCandless, PlexusCalls, Jan 2003, Audio File Available Now, mp3


20.4 ComDig Announcement: New ComDig Archive in Beta Test

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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