¸´ÔÓÐÔÎÄÕª NO£º2003.32
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Complexity Digest 2003.32 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
_________________________________________________________________
Content:
01. Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences , Webcast
02. Acquiring an Understanding of Design: Evidence from Children's Insight
Problem Solving ,
Cognition
03. Organization of cell assemblies in the hippocampus , Nature
04. Punctuated Equilibrium in Software Evolution , arXiv
04.01. Signatures of Small-world and Scale-free Properties in Large
Computer Programs , arXiv
05. Toward a Complexity Science of Entrepreneurship , Journal of Business
Venturing
06. Optimality Of Collective Choices: A Stochastic Approach , Bull. Math. Biol.
06.01. Special Sales With Guaranteed Minimum Duration But Uncertain
Termination Date , Appl. Math.
Modelling
07. Getting a Grip on Turbulence , Science
07.01. Extended Boltzmann Kinetic Equation for Turbulent Flows , Science
07.02. Stratospheric Memory and Skill of Extended-Range Weather Forecasts ,
Science
08. Satellites aim to shake up quake predictions , Nature
08.01. On The Effective Dimension And Dynamic Complexity Of Earthquake
Faults , Chaos, Solitons &
Fractals
09. Much ado about data , The Globe Online
10. Reading a Score, and Beethoven's Mind , NYTimes
11. Email experiment confirms six degrees of separation , NewScientist.com
news service
11.01. Supercomputing's New Idea Is Old One , NYTimes
12. Discoveries Made About Cellular Reaction Processes From Ancient Life ,
ScienceDaily
13. Evolutionary Capacitance As A General Feature Of Complex Gene Networks
, Nature
13.01. Genetic Distance In Sequence Space Of Evolving Populations , Complexity
14. Self-Organizing Genetic Codes And The Emergence Of Digital Life ,
Complexity
15. Complex Dynamics Is Abolished In Delayed Recurrent Systems With
Distributed Feedback Times ,
Complexity
16. Motor proteins branch out , Nature
16.01. Positive Force Feedback In Bouncing Gaits? , Alphagalileo & Proc. B
16.02. Mathematical Twist Reveals The Agony Of Back Pain , New Scientist
17. Biggest not always the daddy in mating game , New Scientist
18. Breaching the Barrier , Science
19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
19.01. A Fresh Start Against Terror , NYTimes
19.02. 'Soft Walls' Will Keep Hijacked Planes At Bay , New Scientist
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. Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences , Webcast
Universality
And Scale Invariance: Organizing Principles That Transcend
Disciplines,
H. Eugene Stanley, (video excerpt, complete video
on request)
Where
Can Chaos Theory Take Us? Where Do We Want To Go?,
Walter J. Freeman (mp3 audio)
Scalp
Eegs Reveal Large Spatial Patterns With The Texture Of Gyri In
Frames Flickering At The Speed Of Thought, Walter
J. Freeman (mp3 audio)
Time-Scales
of Virtual and Real Conferences as Binding Events in a Global
Brain, Gottfried Mayer-Kress, Holly Arrow
(mp3 audio)
Dynamics
and Patterns in the Rise and Fall of States: Problems and
Data, Clifford T. Brown (mp3 audio)
A
Time Series Analysis Of Texts, Kevin Dooley &
Steven Corman (mp3 audio)
Developing
A Science Of Creative Processes, Hector Sabelli,
Arthur Sugerman (mp3 audio)
Recurring
Symbols And Patterns In Gift Exchange, George R.
Williams (mp3 audio)
Complexity
in the Mesoamerican Myth of Quetzalcoatl, Gerardo
Burkle-Elizondo (mp3 audio)
A
Non-Linear Quantum Model Of Organizations, Decision-Making And
Brain Waves, W. F. Lawless (mp3
audio)
Investigating
How A Wearable Computer Technology (Thinking Tags) Influences
Opinion Dynamics, Susan Yoon, Eric Klopfer, Earl
Woodruff, Latika Nirula, & Hal Scheintaub (mp3
audio)
* 13th Annual International Conference, Soc f Chaos Theory in Psych & Life
Sciences, 2003/08/08-10,
Boston, MA, USA
_________________________________________________________________
02. Acquiring an Understanding of Design: Evidence from Children's Insight
Problem Solving ,
Cognition
Abstract: The human ability to make tools and use them to solve problems
may not be zoologically
unique, but it is certainly extraordinary. Yet little is known about the
conceptual machinery that
makes humans so competent at making and using tools. Do adults and children
have concepts
specialized for understanding human-made artifacts? If so, are these
concepts deployed in attempts
to solve novel problems? Here we present new data, derived from
problem-solving experiments, which
support the following. (i) The structure of the child's concept of artifact
function changes
profoundly between ages 5 and 7. At age 5, the child's conceptual machinery
defines the function of
an artifact as any goal a user might have; by age 7, its function is
defined by the artifact's
typical or intended use. (ii) This conceptual shift has a striking effect
on problem-solving
performance, i.e. the child's concept of artifact function appears to be
deployed in problem
solving. (iii) This effect on problem solving is not caused by differences
in the amount of
knowledge that children have about the typical use of a particular tool; it
is mediated by the
structure of the child's artifact concept (which organizes and deploys the
child's knowledge). In
two studies, children between 5 and 7 years of age were matched for their
knowledge of what a
particular artifact "is for", and then given a problem that can only
be
solved if that tool is used
for an atypical purpose. All children performed well in a baseline
condition. But when they were
primed by a demonstration of the artifact's typical function, 5-year-old
children solved the
problem much faster than 6?-year-old children. Because all children knew
what the tools were for,
differences in knowledge alone cannot explain the results. We argue that
the older children were
slower to solve the problem when the typical function was primed because
(i) their artifact concept
plays a role in problem solving, and (ii) intended purpose is central to
their concept of artifact
function, but not to that of the younger children.
* Acquiring an Understanding of Design: Evidence from Children's Insight
Problem Solving, Margaret
Anne Defeyter, Tim P. German, 2003-09, DOI: 10.1016/S0010-0277(03)00098-2,
Cognition 89(2):133-155
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson
_________________________________________________________________
03. Organization of cell assemblies in the hippocampus , Nature
Excerpts: Neurons can produce action potentials with high temporal
precision1. A fundamental issue
is whether, and how, this capability is used in information processing.
According to the 'cell
assembly' hypothesis, transient synchrony of anatomically distributed
groups of neurons underlies
processing of both external sensory input and internal cognitive mechanisms
(? Here we find that
the spike times of hippocampal pyramidal cells can be predicted more
accurately by using the spike
times of simultaneously recorded neurons in addition to the animals
location in space.
* Organization of cell assemblies in the hippocampus , KENNETH D. HARRIS,
JOZSEF CSICSVARI, HAJIME
HIRASE, GEORGE DRAGOI, GY...RGY BUZS&, 31 July 2003, DOI:
10.1038/nature01834, Nature 424, 552 -
556
_________________________________________________________________
04. Punctuated Equilibrium in Software Evolution , arXiv
Abstract: The approach based on paradigm of self-organized criticality
proposed for experimental
investigation and theoretical modelling of software evolution. The dynamics
of modifications
studied for three free, open source programs Mozilla, Free-BSD and Emacs
using the data from
version control systems. Scaling laws typical for the self-organization
criticality found. The
model of software evolution presenting the natural selection principle is
proposed. The results of
numerical and analytical investigation of the model are presented. They are
in a good agreement
with the data collected for the real-world software.
* Punctuated Equilibrium in Software Evolution, A. A. Gorshenev, Yu. M.
Pis'mak, 2003-07-09, DOI:
cond-mat/0307201, arXiv
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson
_________________________________________________________________
04.01. Signatures of Small-world and Scale-free Properties in Large
Computer Programs , arXiv
Abstract: A large computer program is typically divided into many hundreds
or even thousands of
smaller units, whose logical connections define a network in a natural way.
This network reflects
the internal structure of the program, and defines the ``information flow''
within the program. We
show that, (1) due to its growth in time this network displays a scale-free
feature in that the
probability of the number of links at a node obeys a power-law
distribution, and (2) as a result of
performance optimization of the program the network has a small-world
structure. We believe that
these features are generic for large computer programs. Our work extends
the previous studies on
growing networks, which have mostly been for physical networks, to the
domain of computer software.
* Signatures of Small-world and Scale-free Properties in Large Computer
Programs, Alessandro P. S.
de Moura, Ying-Cheng Lai, Adilson E. Motter, 2003-06-24, DOI:
cond-mat/0306609, arXiv
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson
_________________________________________________________________
05. Toward a Complexity Science of Entrepreneurship , Journal of Business
Venturing
Abstract: Darwinian selectionist theory is characterized as equilibrium
bound. Complexity science
focuses on order creation, hence is a better platform for a science of
entrepreneurship.
"Self-organization biologists" study order creation in the context of
all
four Aristotelian causes:
material, formal, final, and efficient, whereas normal science rests only
on efficient cause.
Mohr's process theory and Siggelkow's narrative about entrepreneurship rest
on all four, standing
as good representations of postmodernist ontology. Since modern
epistemology still calls for
model-centered science, agent models are proposed as an alternative to
mathematics as a means of
applying modern normal science standards to research on
entrepreneurship?all without downgrading
thick, postmodernist descriptions of complex causality.
* Toward a Complexity Science of Entrepreneurship, Bill McKelvey,
2003-08-01, DOI:
10.1016/S0883-9026(03)00034-X, Journal of Business Venturing, Article in
Press, Corrected Proof
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson
_________________________________________________________________
06. Optimality Of Collective Choices: A Stochastic Approach , Bull. Math. Biol.
Abstract: Amplifying communication is a characteristic of group-living
animals. This study is
concerned with food recruitment by chemical means, known to be associated
with foraging in most ant
colonies but also with defence or nest moving. A stochastic approach of
collective choices made by
ants faced with different sources is developed (...). Our results not only
confirm that selection
is the result of a trail modulation according to food quality but also show
the existence of an
optimal quantity of laid pheromone for which the selection of a source is
at the maximum, whatever
the difference between the two sources might be.
* Optimality Of Collective Choices: A Stochastic Approach, S. C. Nicolis,
C. Detrain, D. Demolin &
J. L. Deneubourg, Sep. 2003, DOI: 10.1016/S0092-8240(03)00040-5
* Contributed by Pritha Das
_________________________________________________________________
06.01. Special Sales With Guaranteed Minimum Duration But Uncertain
Termination Date , Appl. Math.
Modelling
Abstract: This paper examines a retailer's response to a vendor's trade
promotion, which is
guaranteed to last some fixed length of time, followed by an additional
(uncertain) period of time,
"while supplies last". At issue is the development of a
general-special-sales model under
uncertainty, which produces profit-maximizing policies for a retailer
during both the deterministic
and the stochastic portions of the special sale period. The search for the
optimal policies is
substantially simplified by showing that (i) the total profit for the
retailer's response problem
may be written as a function only of the ending inventory of the
deterministic period; (...).
* Special Sales With Guaranteed Minimum Duration But Uncertain Termination
Date, F. J. Arcelus, T.
P. M. Pakkala & G. Srinivasan, Sep. 2003, DOI: 10.1016/S0307-904X(03)00069-6
* Contributed by Pritha Das
_________________________________________________________________
07. Getting a Grip on Turbulence , Science
Excerpts: Turbulence--the chaotic behavior of fluid flows--occurs in a wide
variety of flows, from
the dispersal of pollutants in the atmosphere to the flow of air around
automobiles and airplanes.
On page 633 of this issue, Chen et al. (1) introduce a new approach that
facilitates numerical
simulations of these complex processes.
All turbulent flows can be described by a set of nonlinear partial
differential equations, which
were first introduced almost 200 years ago by Navier and Stokes.
* Getting a Grip on Turbulence, Roberto Benzi , Science 2003 301: 605-606
_________________________________________________________________
07.01. Extended Boltzmann Kinetic Equation for Turbulent Flows , Science
Abstract: Complex fluid physics can be modeled using an extended kinetic
(Boltzmann) equation in a
more efficient way than using the continuum Navier-Stokes equations. Here,
we explain this method
for modeling fluid turbulence and show its effectiveness with the use of a
computationally
efficient implementation in terms of a discrete or "lattice" Boltzmann
equation.
* Extended Boltzmann Kinetic Equation for Turbulent Flows, Hudong Chen,
Satheesh Kandasamy, Steven
Orszag, Rick Shock, Sauro Succi, Victor Yakhot , Science 2003 301: 633-636
_________________________________________________________________
07.02. Stratospheric Memory and Skill of Extended-Range Weather Forecasts ,
Science
Excerpts: Accurate weather forecasts are difficult to make more than a few
days in advance because
tropospheric dynamics are complicated and chaotic. Stratospheric
circulation data may provide a
better handle on long-term trends. Baldwin et al. (p. 636) report that the
time scale of the Arctic
Oscillation (AO), which is associated with variations in wintertime high-
to mid-northern latitude
weather, appears to be related to stratospheric circulation anomalies that
affect surface weather
by modulating waves along the top of the troposphere (the tropopause
region). The predictability of
the AO can be improved by using the lowermost stratospheric circulation
instead of that of the
troposphere, as is done now.
* Stratospheric Memory and Skill of Extended-Range Weather Forecasts, Mark
P. Baldwin, David B.
Stephenson, David W. J. Thompson, Timothy J. Dunkerton, Andrew J. Charlton,
Alan O'Neill, Science
Aug 1 2003: 636-640
_________________________________________________________________
08. Satellites aim to shake up quake predictions , Nature
Excerpts: The controversial idea that earthquakes can be predicted by
monitoring tiny fluctuations
in Earth's magnetic field is to be tested by two new satellites. Although
many seismologists see
little merit in the idea, NASA and the US Air Force are together
contributing about $1 million to
provide data analysis and ground instrumentation to support experiments
with the first satellite,
(?, the craft is now returning data from orbit after its 30 June launch. A
second more expensive
and ambitious satellite, funded by the CNES, (?, will follow next April.
* Satellites aim to shake up quake predictions , TONY REICHHARDT, 31 July
2003, DOI:
10.1038/424478a, Nature 424, 478
_________________________________________________________________
08.01. On The Effective Dimension And Dynamic Complexity Of Earthquake
Faults , Chaos, Solitons &
Fractals
Abstract: We measure the effective dimensionality of a driven, dissipative
fault model as its
dynamics explore a wide parameter range from a crack like model to a
dislocation model. The
dynamics of each fault model are probed by recording (a) the first and
second order moments of the
stresses and slips defined in the fault plane, and (b) the surface
deformations that indirectly
reflect the brittle processes of the fault (...) we identify the coherent
structures (dominant
modes) present in the surface deformation fields and project the model
dynamics onto the principal
directions defined by these coherent structures.
* On The Effective Dimension And Dynamic Complexity Of Earthquake Faults,
M. Anghel, Jan. 2004,
DOI: 10.1016/S0960-0779(03)00052-3
* Contributed by Pritha Das
_________________________________________________________________
09. Much ado about data , The Globe Online
Excerpts: " or years, Shakespeare scholars have debated whether a
strange
16th-century play known as ''Edward III'' actually was written by the
bard of Avon himself. Some see Shakespeare's brilliant wit in the scene
where a clown helps the anxious king compose a love letter. And a few
suggest the entire work is genuine Shakespeare, produced early in his
career, and deserves a place in the canon."
* Much ado about data, 03/08/05, The Globe Online
Contributed by Dean LeBaron
_________________________________________________________________
10. Reading a Score, and Beethoven's Mind , NYTimes
Excerpts: It has been 20 years since Roger Norrington began researching the
way Beethoven's
symphonies were performed in the composer's time and how that style might
be revived. Sir Roger was
not the first to raise those questions, but the startling set of Beethoven
symphonies he recorded
in the 1980's with his period instrument band, the London Classical
Players, lighted a fire in the
world of Beethoven interpretation. At the time most of the early-music
world was focused on Baroque
and Classical music,(?.
* Reading a Score, and Beethoven's Mind, ALLAN KOZINN, August 6, 2003, NYTimes
_________________________________________________________________
11. Email experiment confirms six degrees of separation , NewScientist.com
news service
Excerpts: They were asked to contact that person by sending email to people
they already knew and
considered potentially "closer" to the target. The targets were chosen
at
random and included a
professor from America, an Australian policeman and a veterinarian from
Norway. The researchers
found that it in most cases it took between five and seven emails to
contact the target. Watts says
this shows that email has not fundamentally changed the way social ties are
created.
* Email experiment confirms six degrees of separation , 07 August 03,
NewScientist.com news service
_________________________________________________________________
11.01. Supercomputing's New Idea Is Old One , NYTimes
Excerpts: After a period of neglect, the intellectual legacy of Seymour
Cray, the father of the
modern supercomputer, is being revived.
The scientists in government, industry and academia who are engaged in the
race to build the
world's fastest computing machines are now turning their attention once
again to Mr. Cray's elegant
approach to building ultra-fast computers.
When Mr. Cray died (?, the one-of-a-kind machines that embodied his
computing philosophy had gone
out of fashion, largely replaced by designs based on thousands of connected
microprocessors that
are inexpensive and mass produced.
* Supercomputing's New Idea Is Old One, JOHN MARKOFF, August 4, 2003, NYTimes
_________________________________________________________________
12. Discoveries Made About Cellular Reaction Processes From Ancient Life ,
ScienceDaily
Excerpts: How did life begin? What chemical combination launched the first
organism with
self-contained metabolism? And then what happened? Researchers (...) are
tracing the family tree of
life on earth by tracing the biochemical mechanisms within the cell -
specifically those that are
used in the formation of peptide bonds. The building blocks of enzymatic
and functional structures
in living organisms are proteins created by linking amino acids into
peptides (sub units of
proteins). "Enzymes that mechanistically do the same thing are included
into a family, and we
believe that there is an ancestral enzyme for this family." .
* Discoveries Made About Cellular Reaction Processes From Ancient Life,
2003/08/05, ScienceDaily &
Virginia Tech
* Contributed by Atin Das
_________________________________________________________________
13. Evolutionary Capacitance As A General Feature Of Complex Gene Networks
, Nature
Excerpts: An evolutionary capacitor buffers genotypic variation under
normal conditions, thereby
promoting the accumulation of hidden polymorphism. But it occasionally
fails, thereby revealing
this variation phenotypically. (? Here we use numerical simulations of
complex gene networks, as
well as genome-scale expression data from yeast single-gene deletion
strains, to present a
mechanism that extends the scope of evolutionary capacitance (?. We
illustrate that most, and
perhaps all, genes reveal phenotypic variation when functionally
compromised, and that the
availability of loss-of-function mutations accelerates adaptation to a new
optimum phenotype.
* Evolutionary Capacitance As A General Feature Of Complex Gene Networks,
AVIV BERGMAN1, 2 AND MARK
L. SIEGA, 31 July 2003, DOI: 10.1038/nature01765, Nature 424, 549 - 552
_________________________________________________________________
13.01. Genetic Distance In Sequence Space Of Evolving Populations , Complexity
Abstract: A genome-based measure for the distance between two populations
is introduced. It
fulfills the triangular inequality and can be easily computed, when the
genetic sequences of a
large number of individuals in two different populations are given. We use
this distance for a
study of mutating populations evolving under selective pressure, which are
living on a computer. As
a particular result, we find that evolution is diffusive. We include a
comparison of our novel
concept and the notion of genomic complexity of populations (...)
* Genetic Distance In Sequence Space Of Evolving Populations, E. F.
Manffra, H. Kantz, 2003/07/31,
DOI: 10.1002/cplx.10088
* Contributed by Atin Das
_________________________________________________________________
14. Self-Organizing Genetic Codes And The Emergence Of Digital Life ,
Complexity
Abstract: The emergence of self-replicating programs from an initially
disordered prebiotic phase
consisting of randomly generated opcodes (virtual machine instructions) is
a challenging problem.
The computer world, Amoeba, has many virtual CPUs acting upon sequences of
randomly generated
codons (opcode templates). An assignment matrix degenerately maps these
codons to a genetic basis
set of opcodes, analogous to the translation of nucleotides to amino acids.
Amoeba self-organizes
by increasing assignment probabilities for those codon-opcode pairs in
successfully generated
children. This halves the effective size of the opcode basis set, doubling
the rate of emergence
over the control case (random assignments).
* Self-Organizing Genetic Codes And The Emergence Of Digital Life, A.
Pargellis, 2003/07/31, DOI:
10.1002/cplx.10095
* Contributed by Atin Das
_________________________________________________________________
15. Complex Dynamics Is Abolished In Delayed Recurrent Systems With
Distributed Feedback Times ,
Complexity
Abstract: Feedback systems with a single delay time (...) are known to
exhibit various dynamical
behaviors including complex oscillations and chaos. Here we show that the
consideration of a broad
distribution of delay times instead of a single delay results in a shift of
the dynamical
bifurcations toward higher parameter values, yielding a larger set of
parameters with fixed point
behavior or simple oscillatory behavior. Our results suggest that the
observed simplification of
the dynamics is independent of the shape of the delay distribution and the
precise nature of the
feedback.
* Complex Dynamics Is Abolished In Delayed Recurrent Systems With
Distributed Feedback Times, A.
Thiel, 2003/07/31, DOI: 10.1002/cplx.10087
* Contributed by Atin Das
_________________________________________________________________
16. Motor proteins branch out , Nature
Excerpts: Molecular motors are perhaps best known for their ability to
transport cargo around
inside cells. To do so, these tiny vehicles move along defined
intracellular 'tracks'; (?. But
some kinesins have a quite separate function, at least in cultured cells:
they can break down
microtubules into their constituent parts. (? propose that this function is
essential in vivo for
the brain to develop normally. (?Video analysis showed that, in wild-type
neurons, any collateral
branches that formed actively shrank back. But in the mutant cells the
branches continued growing.
* Motor proteins branch out , AMANDA TROMANS, DOI: 10.1038/424503a, Nature
424, 503
_________________________________________________________________
16.01. Positive Force Feedback In Bouncing Gaits? , Alphagalileo & Proc. B
Abstract: In daily routine, many stereotypic movements are required. For
instance, during
childhood, we acquire the skills to walk or run by interacting with our
environment. Following this
process, uniform, rhythmic muscle activations emerge. What mechanism could
evoke the appropriate
activations? We investigated whether the control effort of bouncing tasks
(hopping or running)
could be relaxed by incorporating muscle specific sensory information. We
found that a simple,
force dependent modulation of the muscle activation (positive force
feedback) is most appropriate.
Hence, it seems that locomotor tasks could profit from the mechanical
interaction of the
neuromuscular system with its environment.
* Positive Force Feedback In Bouncing Gaits?, H. Geyer, A. Seyfarth & R.
Blickhan, 2003/08/04
* Contributed by Atin Das
_________________________________________________________________
16.02. Mathematical Twist Reveals The Agony Of Back Pain , New Scientist
Excerpts: The first comprehensive model of the human spine is challenging
our assumptions about the
causes of back pain. Contrary to the idea that spinal injuries are caused
by a combination of
compression, bending, tension and shear forces, the 3D animated mode,. (?
In contrast, the FSS is
at least 10 times as complex as any other model, (?. To evaluate the risk
of spinal injury, it can
be varied to account for body size and strength, as well as the nature of
an impact, such as a car
crash.
* Mathematical Twist Reveals The Agony Of Back Pain , 08 August 03, New
Scientist
_________________________________________________________________
17. Biggest not always the daddy in mating game , New Scientist
Excerpts: Being a big, macho male does not always impress the fairer sex.
Contrary to commonly
accepted theory, the females of some species are partial to weedier partners.
Animal behaviourists usually expect males to compete with each other for
mates, with females
preferring the larger, more aggressive or better-endowed winners. But this
is not so for certain
salmon and quail.Some male coho salmon, known as jacks, stop growing
earlier in their lives and
remain smaller than their larger cousins, known as hooknoses, (?.
* Biggest not always the daddy in mating game , Betsy Mason, 03/08/02, New
Scientist
_________________________________________________________________
18. Breaching the Barrier , Science
Excerpts: Transporter proteins are integral membrane proteins that
selectively mediate the passage
of molecules across the otherwise impermeable barrier (? that surrounds all
cells and organelles.
(? Among the most fascinating transporters are those that act as molecular
pumps, translocating
their substrates across membranes against a concentration gradient; this
thermodynamically
unfavorable process is powered by coupling to a second, energetically
favorable process such as ATP
hydrolysis or the movement of a second solute down a transmembrane
concentration gradient. (? a
new era in defining transport mechanisms in molecular detail.
* Breaching the Barrier, Kaspar P. Locher, Randal B. Bass, Douglas C. Rees
, Science 2003 301:
603-604.
_________________________________________________________________
19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
_________________________________________________________________
19.01. A Fresh Start Against Terror , NYTimes
Excerpts: At the C.I.A., (?, the "business model" goes something like
this:
"Collect information
other countries don't want us to have. (?. And keep all of this a tightly
guarded secret so we can
keep doing it as long as possible."
Homeland security, however, requires a totally different business model:
"Collect information from
as many sources as possible. Get the product out quickly to thousands of
local officials and
emergency workers so they can anticipate threats and respond effectively.
And do all of this while
respecting the civil liberties of Americans."
* A Fresh Start Against Terror, NYTimes
_________________________________________________________________
19.02. 'Soft Walls' Will Keep Hijacked Planes At Bay , New Scientist
Excerpts: Lee's system, called "soft walls", would first gently resist
the
pilot, and then become
increasingly forceful until it prevailed. To the pilot, it would feel like
fighting an external
force, such as a strong wind. (?
The system would include an on-board database of the GPS coordinates of the
no-fly zones. If it
sensed an attempt to jam GPS signals it would switch to other navigation
aids such as airport
beacons. Being independent of ground control means soft walls would be
immune to hacking.
Editor's Note: "Immune to hacking." sounds like "once-and-for-all
pest
control" or "final
anti-biotic" or ... suggesting a profound ignorance of the adaptibility of
complex adaptive
systems.
* 'Soft Walls' Will Keep Hijacked Planes At Bay , 02 July 03, Anil Ananthaswamy
_________________________________________________________________
20. Links & Snippets
_________________________________________________________________
20.01. Other Papers
_________________________________________________________________
20.02. Coming and Ongoing Webcasts
13th
Ann Intl Conf, Soc f Chaos Theory in Psych &
Life
Sciences, Boston, MA, USA, 2003/08/08-10
IMA
International Conference Bifurcation 2003, Univ.
Southampton, UK, 27-30 July, 2003
New
Santa Fe Institute President About His Vision for SFI's
Future Role, (Video, Santa Fe, NM, 03/06/04)
Edge
Videos
World
Economic Forum Extraordinary Annual Meeting, Jordan,
03/06/21-23
SPIE's
1st Intl Symp on Fluctuations and Noise,
Santa Fe, NM, 2003/06/01-04
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
_________________________________________________________________
20.03. Conference Announcements & Call for Papers
Exystence
Thematic Institute - Algorithms And Challenges In Hard
Combinatorial Problems - Trieste, Italy, 03/07/01-31,
Turin, Italy, 03/10/01-30
Thematic
Institute "Networks and Risks", Budapest, Hungary,
03/08/25 - 09/27
Conference
on Growing Networks and Graphs in Statistical Physics, Finance,
Biology and Social Systems, Rome, 03/09/01-05
Call for
Papers on Dynamical Hierarchies, Special Issue of Artificial
Life, Deadline: 2003/09/05
7th
European Conference on Artificial Life
(ECAL-2003), Dortmund, Germany, 2003/09/14-17
A
Dual International Conference on Ethics, Complexity &
Organisations & Creativity, London, UK,
2003/09/17-18
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
Improving
The NHS Through The Lens Of Complexity, U Exeter, UK,
03/09/24-26
Emerging
Technologies Conference at MIT, Cambridge, MA,
2003/09/24-25
Intl
School Mathematical Aspects of Quantum Chaos II Quantum Chaos
on Hyperbolic Manifolds, Schloss Reisensburg
(Günzburg, Germany), 03/10/04-11
European
Workshop on The Analysis of Microfabrics in
Geomaterials, München, Germany, 03/10/06-11
2003
IEEE/WIC Intl Joint Conf. Web Intelligence and Intelligent
Agent Technology, Halifax, Canada, 2003/10/13-17
Workshop on Collaboration
Agents: Autonomous Agents for Collaborative
Environments, Halifax, Canada, 03/10/13
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
4th
Intl Conf on Systems Science and Systems Engineering,
Hong Kong, 03/11/25-28
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
2nd
Biennial
Seminar on the Philosophical, Epistemological, and
Methodological Implications of Complexity Theory,
Havana, Cuba, 04/01/07-10
1st
International Workshop on Biologically Inspired
Approaches to Advanced Information Technology,
Lausanne, Switzerland, 04/01/29-30
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
Urban
Vulnerability and Network Failure: Constructions and
Experiences of Emergencies, Crises and Collapse,
Manchester, UK, 04/04/29-30
Fifth
International Conference on Complex Systems (ICCS2004),
Boston, MA, USA, 2004/05/16-21
13th
International Symposium on HIV & Emerging Infectious
Diseases, Toulon, France, 04/06/03-05
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20.04. 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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