Complexity Digest 2003

复杂性文摘 NO：2003.23

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Complexity Digest 2003.23 June-08-2003

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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Complexity News Event:

New Santa Fe Institute President About His Vision for SFI's Future Role,
(Video, Santa Fe, NM, 03/06/04)

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1. SPIE's 1st International Symposium on Fluctuations and Noise, Webcast
2. On Video Games, the Jury Is Out and Confused, NYTimes
     2.1 Models Come Alive, release 1.0/PC Forum
     2.2 'Sims' Creator Inks TV Deal With Fox, Reuters
     2.3 Action Video Game Modifies Visual Selective Attention, Nature
3. Violence Viewed By Psychopathic Murderers, Nature
4. Is Democracy More Expropriative Than Dictatorship?, J. Development Econ.
5. Farmer Education And The Weather: Evidence From Taiwan, J. Development
Econ.
     5.1 Farm Salmon Threaten Native Species, Alphagalileo
6. Quantifying The Complexity Of Flow Networks, Complexity
     6.1 The Third Era Starts Here, The Guardian
     6.2 Competitive Dynamics Of Web Sites, J. Econ. Dyn. & Control
7. Cell Division: Genome Maintenance, Nature
8. Home-Grown Arteries a Step Closer, BBC News
     8.1 Shocking Cells Into Submission, Wired News
9. Modulating Mutation Rates in the Wild, Science
10. Evolutionary Foundations Of Number, Alphagalileo & Proc. B
11. Similarities Between Infants Learning To Talk, Birds Learning To Sing,
ScienceDaily
12. The Mechanism of Self-Recognition in Humans, Behavioural Brain Research
       12.1 Brain Activations During Facial Emotion Recognition, Neurosc.
Lett.
       12.2 New Research Shows We Are Not What We Think, Alphagalileo
       12.3 Embodied Cognition: A Field Guide, Artificial Intelligence
13. Imagine Machines That Can See, Wired News
14. Disrupted Timing of Discontinuous But Not Continuous Movements by
Cerebellar Lesions,
       Science
      14.1 Power Output Of A Muscle-Tendon Complex, Alphagalileo & Proc. B
      14.2 Spiderman Becomes A Reality, Alphagalileo
15. Scientists Starve Malaria Parasite, BBC News
16. Special Section On Martian Exploration: Mars Attracts!, Nature
17. Water-Soluble Quantum Dots for Multiphoton Fluorescence Imaging in
Vivo, Science
18. Broken Cooper Pairs Caught Bouncing Around, Science
19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
       19.1 Ashcroft Seeks More Power to Pursue Terror Suspects, NYTimes
       19.2 Atty. Gen. Ashcroft Testimony on Patriot Act Implementation,
s-span video
       19.3 Excerpt From Analysis of Detention of Foreigners After 9/11
Attacks, NYTimes
       19.4 Smartcams Take Aim at Terrorists, Wired News
       19.5 Dear Darpa Diary, NYTimes
20. Links & Snippets
       20.1 Other Publications
       20.2 Webcast Announcements
       20.3 Conference & Call for Papers Announcements
              20.3.1 Public Conference Calls
       20.4 ComDig Announcement: New ComDig Archive in Beta Test

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1. SPIE's 1st International Symposium on Fluctuations and Noise, Webcast

Marlan Scully, Quantum Fluctuations and Noise, (mp3 audio)
H. Eugene Stanley, Understanding Large Fluctuations in Stock Market
Activity, (mp3 audio), (video summary)
H. Frauenfelder, Slaving: Solvent Fluctuations Dominate Protein Dynamics
And Functions, (mp3 audio)
Joseph Nagyvary, The Stradivarius Violin and Parrondo¡¦s Paradox, (mp3 audio)
P. K. Lam, Quantum Information Experiments With Continuous Variable
Systems, (mp3 audio), (video summary)
P. Hanggi, "Throwing Ropes In The Dark: The Case Of Oscillating Barriers"
and "Ion Channel Gating Based On Kramers Theory", (video summary)
Cosma Shalizi, Quantification of Complexity in Spatio-Temporal Systems,
(video summary)
Plamen Ch. Ivanov, Heart Rate Dynamics, (video summary)
Martin B. Plenio, The Benefit Of Doing Things Slowly: Employing Dissipation
For The Robust Creation Of Entaglement Between Ions In Spatially Separate
Cavities Dreams Versus Reality, (video summary)
J. S. Eisert, How To Fight Decoherence In The Preparation Of Entangled
Gaussian States Over Large Distances, (video summary)
A. Longtin, Effect of Internal and External Noise on Correlation-Induced
Oscillations in Spatio-Temporal Excitable Systems, (mp3 audio)
G. J. Mayer-Kress, Noise and Chaos in Motor Behavior Models, (mp3 audio)
Dreams versus Reality: Plenary Debate Session on Quantum Computing, (mp3
audio)
SPIE's 1st Intl Symp on Fluctuations and Noise, Santa Fe, NM, 2003/06/01-04

2. On Video Games, the Jury Is Out and Confused, NYTimes

Excerpts: Sorting out the debate about the effects of electronic games on
children and deciding on a set of guidelines can be an endless, and
thankless, task.
Even experts disagree. One prominent group consisting mainly of censorship
opponents has said that much of the research that links video games to
violent behavior is flawed; it joined a court fight against a St. Louis law
that barred minors from buying or renting violent games. The law was
overturned by a federal appeals court on Tuesday.

On Video Games, the Jury Is Out and Confused, Katie Hafner, NYTimes, 03/06/05

Excerpts: As video-game playing has become a ubiquitous activity in today's
society, it is worth considering its potential consequences on perceptual
and motor skills. It is well known that exposing an organism to an altered
visual environment often results in modification of the visual system of
the organism. (¡K) But perceptual learning, when it occurs, tends to be
specific to the trained task; that is, generalization to new tasks is
rarely found. Here we show, by contrast, that action-video-game playing is
capable of altering a range of visual skills.

Action Video Game Modifies Visual Selective Attention, C. Shawn Green,
Daphne Bavelier, Nature 423, 534 - 537 (2003); doi:10.1038/nature01647

Excerpts: Social networks are the most interesting of all. They explain a
lot and have a lot of applicability. This slide shows a map of the
terrorist network from 9/11. (¡K) So you can look at this map of the
terrorists that participated in that attack, and you can quickly identify
the hubs. (¡K)

Next I want to show you a demo of how we use some of this stuff. Here is a
simulation of The Sims Online, itself a simulation. (¡K) When they come
into the game, they start emitting these little interaction particles.

Models Come Alive, Will Wright, release 1.0, PC Forum, 03/03

Excerpts: "I'd like to fast-forward into the future a bit and explore how
machines and artificial intelligence will impact human beings and how
robots will help us define ourselves," Wright said (¡K)

"I think there are ways to get a deeper level of creative input from an
audience of a TV show," Wright said. "I'd like to explore ways to connect
the loop between a show and its audience, going beyond the current methods
of phoning in a vote."

'Sims' Creator Inks TV Deal With Fox, John Gaudiosi, Reuters, 03/06/03

3. Violence Viewed By Psychopathic Murderers, Nature

Excerpts: Adapting a revealing test may expose those psychopaths who are
most likely to kill.
Psychopathic murderers are often portrayed as cold-blooded, emotionless and
lacking in remorse, but they are also adept at lying and at feigning the
emotions in which they are deficient. Here we adapt a test known as the
Implicit Association Test (IAT), which was previously used to assess
concealed prejudices, to show that psychopathic murderers have abnormal
cognitive associations regarding violence, which may underpin their
actions. Such implicit measures may provide us with an important insight (¡K)

Violence Viewed By Psychopathic Murderers, Nicola S. Gray, Malcolm J.
Macculloch, Jennifer Smith, Mark Morris, Robert J. Snowden, Nature 423, 497
- 498 (2003); doi:10.1038/423497a

4. Is Democracy More Expropriative Than Dictatorship?, J. Development Econ.

Abstract: We reexamine the incentive effect of political democracy on the
tax rate by defining a political regime over two dimensions: the extent of
the franchise and the extent that the redistribution of tax revenues is
biased towards the rich. Standard Tocquevillian models assume that, even if
there is limited franchise, there is no redistribution bias; from this, it
follows that democracy is more expropriative than oligarchy because a
poorer median voter opts for higher taxes. (¡K) we find a countervailing
effect: democratization decreases exploitation by the rich on the
disenfranchised poor; since tax revenues are redistributed over a larger
base (¡K).
Is Democracy More Expropriative Than Dictatorship? Tocquevillian Wisdom
Revisited, W. Lee, J. Development Econ., Vol. 71, Issue 1, pp:155-198, Jun.
2003, doi:10.1016/S0304-3878(02)00137-2
Contributed by Pritha Das

5. Farmer Education And The Weather: Evidence >From Taiwan, J. Development
Econ.

Abstract: This paper uses farm household and weather data from 1976 to 1992
in Taiwan to measure the role of unusual weather conditions in explaining
time and geographical variation of the return to education in farming. For
a set of schooling variables, this effect is found to increase with adverse
weather. It implies that education provides a higher relative
advantage¡V¡Vand therefore has a higher economic value¡V¡Vwhen the
environment is more unstable and more difficult to deal with. This gives
empirical support to the notion that education improves the capacity to
adapt to change (¡K).
Farmer Education And The Weather: Evidence From Taiwan (1976¡V1992), M.
Gurgand, J. Development Econ., Vol. 71, Issue 1, pp:51-70, Jun. 2003,
doi:10.1016/S0304-3878(02)00133-5
Contributed by Pritha Das

Excerpts: Young male salmon raised in fish farms mate more aggressively
than their counterparts in the wild. This means that fish escaping from
farms are likely to pose a greater threat to native species than previously
thought, by depleting wild fish populations and reducing their genetic
diversity. Farmed salmon are bred to grow rapidly in crowded conditions,
and this makes them more aggressive than wild fish. Environmentalists have
been concerned that fish escaping from farms are displacing wild salmon
from their natural habitats, but (¡K) adult escapees are less successful
than native fish at reproducing in the wild.

Farm Salmon Threaten Native Species, C. Bowles, Alphagalileo, 2003/06/03
Contributed by Atin Das

6. Quantifying The Complexity Of Flow Networks, Complexity

Abstract: Weighted flow networks are structures that arise naturally when
analyzing complex systems. The countable properties of unweighted networks
are not easily generalized to weighted networks. One candidate measure of
complexity is the number of roles, or specialized functions in a network.
There is only one logically consistent way to generalize the measures of
nodes, flows, connectivity, and roles into weighted networks, and these
generalizations are equivalent to indices derived from information theory
and used by ecologists since the late seventies. Data from ecosystem
networks suggests that ecosystems inhabit a narrow window of the parameter
space defined by these measures.
Quantifying The Complexity Of Flow Networks: How Many Roles Are There?, A.
C. Zorach, R. E. Ulanowicz, Complexity, Vol. 8, Issue 3, 2003. pp:68-76,
2003/05/23
Contributed by Atin Das

Excerpts: The programmable web is different for two main reasons. First,
instead of going to look at a web page, you can get a computer to extract
the information for you. Second, you don't have to view that information in
a browser: you could use it in a different application, or on a different
device, such as a mobile phone. When websites make information available in
this way, they are called web services. (¡K)

The major problem with web services is that everybody has to agree on
standards to make them work.

The Third Era Starts Here, Thursday May 29, 2003, The Guardian, 03/05/23

Abstract: We present a dynamical model of web site growth in order to
explore the effects of competition among web sites and to determine how
they affect the nature of markets. We show that under general conditions,
as the competition between sites increases, the model exhibits a sudden
transition from a regime in which many sites thrive simultaneously, to a
"winner-take-all market" in which a few sites grab almost all the users,
while most other sites go nearly extinct. This is in agreement with recent
measurements on the nature of electronic markets.

Competitive Dynamics Of Web Sites, S. M. Maurer, B. A. Huberman, J. Econ.
Dyn. & Control, Vol. 27, Issues 11-12, pp:2195-2206, Sep. 2003,
doi:10.1016/S0165-1889(02)00121-5
Contributed by Pritha Das

7. Cell Division: Genome Maintenance, Nature

Excerpt: Early fruitfly embryos have an unusual means of halting the
division of any nuclei containing damaged DNA. A key component of this
mechanism has now been identified, and might have implications for cancer.
Maintaining the integrity of the genome is a crucial task for any cell. Two
proteins, called checkpoint kinases 1 (Chk1) and 2 (Chk2), help to achieve
this in many species, and mutations in the genes encoding these proteins
have been linked to the generation of cancer in humans.

Cell Division: Genome Maintenance, Jordan W. Raff, Nature 423, 493 - 495
(2003); doi:10.1038/423493a

8. Home-Grown Arteries a Step Closer, BBC News

Excerpts: The arteries could be used in many operations which currently
require mean surgeons have to insert plastic tubing to form new
vessels.(...) The normal formation of new blood vessels in the body is also
complicated, with "smooth muscle cells" migrating to surround a lining of
epithelial cells.(...) A human cell can only divide a finite number of
times, and the muscle cells being used by the researchers simply ran out of
time.(...) Researchers from Duke University Medical Center in the US
believe they have found a way around this, with a secret taken from
cancerous cells. Some tumours manage to cheat this limit because they have
the genetic ability to perform many more divisions.(...) One of the genes
responsible for this "immortality" is called hTERT. The Duke researchers
introduced hTERT into smooth muscle cells, and found that this time, they
could grow fully functional arteries.
Home-grown Arteries a Step Closer, 2003-06-05, BBC News
Contributed by Nadia Gershenson

Excerpts: Viruses are good at getting inside cells, so researchers have
tried to piggyback genes on them while altering the virus to remove its
harmful qualities. But that method resulted in the death of 18-year-old
Jesse (¡K).

Electroporation, on the other hand, doesn't require a viral vector, since
it uses a transient electric current to open up the cell wall. Researchers
at Genetronics have made progress recently using this method to deliver an
HIV vaccine, as well as to grow new blood vessels in animals.

Shocking Cells Into Submission, Kristen Philipkoski, Wired News, 03/06/05

9. Modulating Mutation Rates in the Wild, Science

Excerpt: In evolution, the environment selects the fittest genetic
variants, but does it also provoke the generation of genetic variants? And
if it does, can this speed up the rate of evolution? Both of these ideas
have been supported by work on laboratory strains of bacteria and yeast
over the past 15 years. Bacterial cultures exposed to growth-limiting
stress, such as starvation, sometimes produce mutants, apparently in
response to stress. This process has been variously termed adaptive,
stationary-phase, or stress-inducible mutation.
Modulating Mutation Rates in the Wild, Susan M. Rosenberg and P. J.
Hastings, Science 2003 300: 1382-1383

10. Evolutionary Foundations Of Number, Alphagalileo & Proc. B

Abstract: Most of the evidence for numerosity discrimination in animals
comes from experiments involving laboratory training, with discrimination
limited by the ratio between numbers as opposed to their absolute value.
Here we provide the first evidence that this number system is also
spontaneously available to animals, and is similarly limited to ratios. We
show that when cotton-top tamarin monkeys are presented with auditory
stimuli (speech syllables) that differ in number, but no other continuous
dimension, they spontaneously discriminate sequences of 4 vs 8, 4 vs 6, and
8 vs 12, but not 4 vs 5 and 8 vs 10 syllables.
Evolutionary Foundations Of Number: Spontaneous Representation Of Numerical
Magnitudes By Cotton-Top Tamarins, M. D. Hauser, F. Tsao, P. Garcia, E.
Spelke, Alphagalileo & Proc. B, 2003/06/02
Contributed by Atin Das

11. Similarities Between Infants Learning To Talk, Birds Learning To Sing,
ScienceDaily

Excerpts: "The main point of our research is how the reaction of the babies
to their mother's touches and smiles changes how they talk, and this
corresponds to what birds do when learning to sing. This research takes
advantage of infants' sociality to understand development as it is
constructed by interactions with caregivers and it shows that social
learning is a crucial part of vocal development. (¡K) babies change how
they vocalize in response to social responses - not sounds, but sights - by
using more mature sounds."
Research Shows Similarities Between Infants Learning To Talk, Birds
Learning To Sing, ScienceDaily, 2003/06/03
Contributed by Atin Das

12. The Mechanism of Self-Recognition in Humans, Behavioural Brain Research

Abstract: Recognizing oneself as the owner of a body and the agent of
actions requires specific mechanisms which have been elucidated only
recently. One of these mechanisms is the monitoring of signals arising from
bodily movements, i.e. the central signals which contribute to the
generation of the movements and the sensory signals which arise from their
execution. The congruence between these two sets of signals is a strong
index for determining the experiences of ownership and agency, which are
the main constituents of the experience of being an independent self. This
mechanism, however, does not account from the frequent cases where an
intention is generated but the corresponding action is not executed. In
this paper, it is postulated that such covert actions are internally
simulated by activating specific cortical networks or representations of
the intended actions. This process of action simulation is also extended to
the observation and the recognition of actions performed or intended by
other agents. The problem of disentangling representations that pertain to
self-intended actions from those that pertain to actions executed or
intended by others, is a critical one for attributing actions to their
respective agents. Failure to recognize one's own actions and
misattribution of actions may result from pathological conditions which
alter the readability of these representations.
The Mechanism of Self-recognition in Humans, Marc Jeannerod, 2003-06-16,
DOI: 10.1016/S0166-4328(02)00384-4, Behavioural Brain Research 142(1-2):1-15
Contributed by Carlos Gershenson

Abstract: Recognition of facial expressions of emotions is very important
for communication and social cognition. Neuroimaging studies showed that
numerous brain regions participate in this complex function. Source
reconstructions revealed that several cortical and subcortical brain
regions produced strong neural activity in response to emotional faces at
latencies between 100 and 360 ms that were much stronger than those to
neutral as well as to blurred faces. Orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala
showed affect-related activity at short latencies already within 180 ms
after stimulus onset. Some of the emotion-responsive regions were
repeatedly activated during the stimulus presentation period (¡K).

Brain Activations During Facial Emotion Recognition In Humans, M. Streit,
J. Dammers, S. Simsek-Kraues, J. Brinkmeyer, W. Wolwer & A. Ioannides,
Neurosc. Lett., Vol. 342, Issues 1-2, pp: 101-104, 2003/05/15,
doi:10.1016/S0304-3940(03)00274-X
Contributed by Pritha Das

Excerpts: (¡K) rather than body image being ''hard-wired'', it is in fact
very malleable and that we continually update our body image based on
information from vision and touch.
"We used hand illusion experiments - where people can't see their own hand
but can see a fake rubber hand. When both are tapped and stroked, people
experience the illusion that the touch sensation came from the dummy hand.
(¡K) injure the fake hand and also record skin conductance response. This
showed whether people were affected when the fake hand was injured, as they
would have been if it was their own."

New Research Shows We Are Not What We Think, E. Calvert , Alphagalileo,
2003/06/02
Contributed by Atin Das

Abstract: The nature of cognition is being re-considered. Instead of
emphasizing formal operations on abstract symbols, the new approach
foregrounds the fact that cognition is, rather, a situated activity, and
suggests that thinking beings ought therefore be considered first and
foremost as acting beings. The essay reviews recent work in Embodied
Cognition, provides a concise guide to its principles, attitudes and goals,
and identifies the physical grounding project as its central research focus.

Embodied Cognition: A Field Guide, Michael L. Anderson, 2003-05-30, DOI:
10.1016/S0004-3702(03)00054-7, Artificial Intelligence, Article in Press,
Corrected Proof
Contributed by Carlos Gershenson

13. Imagine Machines That Can See, Wired News

Excerpts: The system imitates small eye movements that humans use to gather
information about objects in their visual fields. (¡K)
Rucci and Desbordes used computers and an eye-tracking device to confirm
that the slight jittering of the eyes contributes not only to the gathering
of three-dimensional information in the human brain, but to overall visual
sensitivity as well. By stabilizing an on-screen image within 1 millisecond
of each eye jitter, Rucci and Desbordes found that visual sensitivity
declined by as much as 20 percent in the absence of small eye movements.

Imagine Machines That Can See, Mark Baard, Wired News, 03/06/04

14. Disrupted Timing of Discontinuous But Not Continuous Movements by
Cerebellar Lesions, Science

Abstract: Patients with cerebellar damage are known to exhibit deficits in
the temporal control of movements. We report that these deficits are
restricted to discontinuous movements. Cerebellar patients exhibited no
deficit in temporal variability when producing continuous, rhythmic
movements. We hypothesize that the temporal properties of continuous
movements are emergent and reflect the operation of other control
parameters not associated with the cerebellum. In contrast, discontinuous
movements require an explicit representation of the temporal goal, a
function of the cerebellum. The requirement for explicit temporal
representation provides a parsimonious account of cerebellar involvement in
a range of tasks.
Disrupted Timing of Discontinuous But Not Continuous Movements by
Cerebellar Lesions, Spencer, Rebecca M. C., Zelaznik, Howard N.,
Diedrichsen, Jorn, Ivry, Richard B., Science 2003 300: 1437-1439

Abstract: When animals jump the power they can put into accelerating their
body can be surprisingly high. This is thought to be because energy stored
in springy tendons contributes power for brief periods. Is it necessary to
have a catch mechanism to release the spring? Perhaps not because an
inertial load can act as a restraint while energy is stored by a muscle in
a tendon. However, this paper shows by mathematical analysis that there is
a quite low limit to how much this catch-less mechanism can contribute. The
conclusion is that catches must be used.

Power Output Of A Muscle-Tendon Complex, A. Galantis & R. C. Woledge,
Alphagalileo & Proc. B, 2003/06/02
Contributed by Atin Das

Excerpts: Scientists at The University of Manchester have developed a new
type of adhesive, which mimics the mechanism employed by geckos (a type of
lizard) to climb surfaces, including glass ceilings. Now they have been
able to manufacture self-cleaning, re-attachable dry adhesives, and the
research team believes it won¡¦t be long before ¡¥Spiderman¡¦ gloves become
a reality ¡V particularly useful for rock climbers and window cleaners. The
new adhesive (¡¥gecko tape¡¦) contains billions of tiny plastic fibres,
less than a micrometer in diameter, which are similar to natural hairs
covering the soles of geckos.

Spiderman Becomes A Reality At The University Of Manchester, J. Grady,
Alphagalileo, 2003/05/30
Contributed by Atin Das

15. Scientists Starve Malaria Parasite, BBC News

Excerpts: Malaria kills 3,000 children every day and the parasite that
causes the disease is becoming harder to treat as it develops resistance to
more and more drugs.(...) A team from St George's Hospital Medical School
in London, UK, are confident they have come up with one such solution. The
malaria parasite needs sugar in the form of glucose to grow and multiply in
human red blood cells where it lives. The St George's team has effectively
starved the parasite of its supply by knocking out a specialised transport
protein that it uses to absorb glucose from its surroundings. With its
supply lines cut, even drug resistant strains of the parasite cannot survive.
Scientists Starve Malaria Parasite, 2003-06-04, BBC News
Contributed by Nadia Gershenson

16. Special Section On Martian Exploration: Mars Attracts!, Nature

Excerpts: One example is the 'mole', a bicycle-pump-shaped device that will
crawl along the planet's surface and can be directed vertically into the
soil (¡K). The device will collect samples in a cavity at its head; (¡K). A
mass spectrometer on Beagle 2 will then reveal, amongst other things, the
relative amounts of different carbon isotopes in the rock. Living
organisms, such as bacteria, take up these isotopes in different ways, so
the analysis could reveal whether life was present when the rocks formed.
Special Section On Martian Exploration: Mars Attracts!, Jim Giles, Nature
423, 473 (2003); doi:10.1038/423473a

17. Water-Soluble Quantum Dots for Multiphoton Fluorescence Imaging in
Vivo, Science

Abstract: The use of semiconductor nanocrystals (quantum dots) as
fluorescent labels for multiphoton microscopy enables multicolor imaging in
demanding biological environments such as living tissue. We characterized
water-soluble cadmium selenide-zinc sulfide quantum dots for multiphoton
imaging in live animals. These fluorescent probes have two-photon action
cross sections as high as 47,000 Goeppert-Mayer units, by far the largest
of any label used in multiphoton microscopy. We visualized quantum dots
dynamically through the skin of living mice, in capillaries hundreds of
micrometers deep. We found no evidence of blinking (fluorescence
intermittency) in solution on nanosecond to millisecond time scales.
Water-Soluble Quantum Dots for Multiphoton Fluorescence Imaging in Vivo,
Larson, Daniel R., Zipfel, Warren R., Williams, Rebecca M., Clark, Stephen
W., Bruchez, Marcel P., Wise, Frank W., Webb, Watt W., Science 2003 300:
1434-1436

18. Broken Cooper Pairs Caught Bouncing Around, Science

Excerpts: They use laser pulses to temporarily degrade the
superconductivity in a cuprate by breaking up the "Cooper pairs" of
electrons and holes that carry electrical currents without resistive
losses. They then track the erstwhile partners while they are bouncing off
the remains of other broken Cooper pairs and other obstacles in their way.
(¡K)
A nonequilibrium population of "hot" electrons is generated by an intense
"pump" beam from a pulsed laser, and the response of the material is
monitored by a weaker "probe" beam at regular time intervals (¡K).

Broken Cooper Pairs Caught Bouncing Around, Bernhard Keimer, Science 2003
300: 1381-1382

19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks

Excerpts: But Mr. Ashcroft stressed repeatedly that he believed the policy
of detaining people for as long as it took to clear them of terrorist ties
was the right one, and he said that several illegal immigrants did have
terrorist connections that are still considered suspicious. One suspect was
the roommate of one of the Sept. 11 hijackers, and another was found with
"jihad material" and more than 30 pictures of the World Trade Center, Mr.
Ashcroft said.
Ashcroft Seeks More Power to Pursue Terror Suspects, Eric Lichtblau,
NYTimes, 03/06/06

Video: In a House Judiciary Cmte. oversight hearing, Attorney General John
Ashcroft testifies on implementation of the Patriot Act.

Atty. Gen. Ashcroft Testimony on Patriot Act Implementation,, 6/5/2003:
WASHINGTON, DC, 4 hr. 45 min.

Excerpts: Even in the chaotic aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, we believe
the F.B.I. should have taken more care to distinguish between aliens who it
actually suspected of having a connection to terrorism from those aliens
who, while possibly guilty of violating federal immigration law, had no
connection to terrorism but simply were encountered in connection with a
Penttbom lead. (¡K) should have reviewed those cases and kept on the list
of Sept. 11 detainees only those for whom it had some basis to suspect a
connection to terrorism.

Excerpt From Analysis of Detention of Foreigners After 9/11 Attacks,
Following is an excerpt from the conclusion of a report by the Justice
Department's inspector general, Glenn A. Fine, on the detention of hundreds
of immigrants after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks., NYTimes, 03/06/03

Excerpts: These distributed digital video arrays, or DIVAs, are collections
of really smart cameras able to detect and identify an individual in a
crowded train station and track him wherever he goes -- out of the station,
into the parking lot, onto the freeway and so on. They also notify
authorities when they "think" the individual engages in suspicious activity
or meets with questionable cohorts. (¡K)

What's unique is the DIVA systems' ability to communicate with each other
automatically and intelligently in order to better detect and then follow
individuals (¡K).

Smartcams Take Aim at Terrorists, Kari L. Dean, Wired News, 03/06/04

Excerpts: "To build a cognitive computing system," says proto-PAL, "a user
must store, retrieve and understand data about his or her past experiences.
This entails collecting diverse data. . . . The research will determine the
types of data to collect and when to collect it." This diverse data can
include everything you ("the user") see, smell, taste, touch and hear every
day of your life. (¡K)

"The goal of the data collection is to `see what I see' rather than to `see
me.'

Dear Darpa Diary, William Safire, NYTimes, 03/06/03

20. Links & Snippets

20.1 Other Publications

Attacking the Stomach Lining, This week in Science, 03/05/30, The majority
of peptic ulcers are the result of infection by Helicobacter pylori, a
bacterium that can adhere to and weaken epithelial cells that line the
stomach. Amieva et al. (p. 1430) have determined that the corrupt behavior
of H. pylori is unlike that of other bacteria, (...).
Chain Letters and Evolutionary Histories, Charles H. Bennett, Ming Li and
Bin Ma Scientific American, 03/05/11, A study of chain letters shows how to
infer the family tree of anything that evolves over time, from biological
genomes to languages to plagiarized schoolwork
Deadly Spread Of Cancer Halted, KurzweilAI.net, 03/06/05, Metastasis of
cancers through the body could be halted by targeting a protein named
galectin-3 that helps cells latch on to each other, reveals a new study in
Clinical Cancer Research June issue....
New I.B.M. Supercomputer to Begin Its Weather Work, KurzweilAI.net,
03/06/06, The nation's most powerful supercomputer for weather forecasting
is scheduled to go online today, I.B.M. said yesterday, a machine that may
eventually rival the Japanese Earth Simulator as the world's fastest...
Building A Backyard Cruise Missile, KurzweilAI.net, 03/06/05, A New Zealand
handyman is building a cruise missile in his backyard using parts and
technology freely available over the Internet for under $5,000. He said he
would publish step-by-step instructions on his Web site to "prove the point
that nations need to be prepared for this type of...
Quantum Cryptography Stretches 100 Kilometers, KurzweilAI.net, 03/06/05, A
team from Toshiba Research Europe has developed a quantum photon detector
capable of significantly reducing the amount of random noise picked up as
cryptographic keys are generated. This boosts the fiber optic distance over
which quantum cryptography is feasible to 100...
Self-organization of Hierarchical Structures in Non-locally Coupled
Replicator Models, Hidetsugu Sakaguchi, 2003/05/20, Physics Letters A
Why Are Our Traditional Farmland Birds Disappearing?, Alphagalileo book
announcement: Birds, Scythes and Combines: A History of Birds and
Agricultural Change, M. Shrubb, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2003/07/24
Artificial Color, H. J. Caulfield, Neurocomputing, Vol. 51, pp: 463-465,
Apr. 2003, doi:10.1016/S0925-2312(02)00698-7
Privacy Through Pseudonymity In User-Adaptive Systems, A. Kobsa & J.
Schreck, ACM Tran. Internet Tech., Vol. 3, Issue 2, pp: 149-183, May 2003
The Use Of Web Structure And Content To Identify Subjectively Interesting
Web Usage Patterns, R. Cooley, ACM Tran. Internet Tech., Vol. 3, Issue 2,
pp: 93-116, May 2003
Size-Based Scheduling To Improve Web Performance, M. Harchol-Balter, B.
Schroeder, N. Bansal & M. Agrawal, ACM Tran. Comp. Sys., Vol. 21, Issue 2,
pp:207-233, May 2003
The Role Of Phenotypic Plasticity In Driving Genetic Evolution, T. D.
Price, A. Qvarnstrom & D. E. Irwin, Alphagalileo & Proc. B, 2003/06/02
9/11 Has Led To Greater Prudence In Designing Systems That Can Withstand
Extreme Events, Cornell Engineers Say, ScienceDaily, 2003/05/30
Cells Of The Ever Young: Getting Closer To The Truth, ScienceDaily, 2003/06/02
Chemical Turns Stem Cells Into Neurons Say Scientists At Scripps Research
Institute, ScienceDaily & Scripps Res. Inst., 2003/06/03
New Software Helps Teams Deal With Information Overload, ScienceDaily,
2003/06/04
Study Finds Space Shuttle Exhaust Creates Night-shining Clouds,
ScienceDaily & Naval Res. Lab., 2003/06/04
International / Middle East: Bush Tells Troops the Truth Will Emerge About
Weapons Hidden, Hussein David E. Sanger, NYTimes, 03/06/06, President Bush,
addressing American troops, insisted that evidence shows that Saddam
Hussein was capable of unleashing biological agents.
U.S. Report Faults the Roundup of Illegal Immigrants After 9/11, Eric
Lichtblau, NYTimes, 03/06/02
Excerpt From Analysis of Detention of Foreigners After 9/11 Attacks,
Following is an excerpt from the conclusion of a report by the Justice
Department's inspector general, Glenn A. Fine, on the detention of hundreds
of immigrants after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, NYTimes, 03/06/03
Ashcroft Defends Detentions as Immigrants Recount Toll, Eric Lichtblau,
NYTimes, 03/06/05, As the attorney general spoke of progress against
terrorism at one forum, at another immigrants testified on the toll they
felt the fight against terrorism had taken on them.
Pentagon Expanding Search for Weapons of Mass Destruction, David Stout,
NYTimes, 03/05/30, The Pentagon announced today a "significant expansion"
of the hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Some Analysts of Iraq Trailers Reject Germ Use, Judith Miller, William J.
Broad, NYTimes, 03/06/07, Analysts said the mobile units were more likely
intended for other purposes and charged that the evaluation process had
been damaged by a rush to judgment.
More Than 13,000 May Face Deportation, Rachel L. Swarns, NYTimes, 03/06/07,
Roughly 16 percent of the Arab and Muslim men who voluntarily registered
with federal authorities earlier this year may be deported, although few
have been linked to terrorism.
A Spiritual Journey Evokes Mysticism Informed by Complexity, Anna
Kisselgoff, NYTimes, 03/06/02, Christopher Wheeldon's wondrous new duet had
its premiere at the New York City Ballet on Saturday night.
Instead of Going Home, G.I.'s Get a New Mission, Michael R. Gordon,
NYTimes, 03/06/02, The soldiers from the Spartan Brigade, who thought their
war was all but over, are being sent to bring order to a sector west of
Baghdad.
Week In Review: There's a New Enemy in Iraq: The Nasty Surprise, Patrick E.
Tyler, NYTimes, 03/06/01, A series of attacks that killed six U.S. soldiers
has impelled military officials to re-examine assumptions about what kind
of behavior to expect from liberated Iraqis.
Bomb and Switch, Maureen Dowd, NYTimes, 03/06/04, For the first time in
history, America is searching for the reason we went to war after the war
is over.
Because We Could, Thomas L. Friedman, NYTimes, 03/06/04, The "real reason"
for the war in Iraq was that after 9/11 America needed to hit someone in
the Arab-Muslim world.
Aide Denies Shaping Data to Justify War, Eric Schmitt, NYTimes, 03/06/05,
The Pentagon's top policy adviser refuted accusations that policy makers
had politicized intelligence to justify war to topple Saddam Hussein.
France Arrests Two in 9/11 Investigation, The Associated Press, NYTimes,
03/06/06, French authorities have arrested two men, a German who is
believed to be a top recruiter for Al Qaeda and a Moroccan, in the past two
days at the Paris airport.

20.2 Coming and Ongoing Webcasts

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

20.3 Conference Announcements & Call for Papers

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

20.3.1 Public Conference Calls

PlexusCalls: "Surprise! Surprise!", McDaniel, Reuben, Audio File Available
Now, mp3
Complexity And Medical Practice, Pat Rush & Bob Lindberg, PlexusCalls,
2003/01/10, Audio File Available Now, mp3
John Holland in Conversation, PlexusCalls, - Audio File Available Now, mp3
Are Disease and Aging Information/Complexity Loss Syndromes?, PlexusCalls,
2002/11/08, 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, 2002/11/22, 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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