复杂性文摘 NO：2003.49

Complexity Digest 2003.49 Dec. 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

_________________________________________________________________


Content:

01. Kinship Systems: A Culturally Constructed Reality, Complexity
02. Hospitals Say They're Penalized for Improving Care, NYTimes
03. Evolutionary Policies For Sustainable Development: Adaptive Flexibility
And Risk Minimising,
Ecol. Econ.
03.01. Rickshaws Connect India's Poor, BBC News
04. Grasping at the Statistics on the Self-Employed, NYTimes
04.01. The Productivity Paradox, NYTimes
04.02. Gains in Houston Schools: How Real Are They?, NYTimes
04.03. Backing Down on Steel Tariffs, U.S. Strengthens Trade Group, NYTimes
05. Why Tech Is Still the Future, Fortune
05.01. The Long Memory of the Efficient Market, SFI Working Papers
06. Will December Make Or Break The Internet?, The Register
06.01. The Redefinition of Memes, Emergence
07. Games Made for Remaking, NYTimes
07.01. For Little Fingers, an Array of Digital Tutors, NYTimes
07.02. The Love Machine, Building Computers That Care, Wired
07.03. Intel's Tiny Hope for the Future, Wired
08. Information Theory of Complex Networks: On Evolution and Architectural
Constraints, SFI Working
Papers
08.01. The Connectivity of Large Genetic Networks: Design, History, or Mere
Chemistry?, SFI Working
Papers
09. Dusty Disc May Mean Other Earths, BBC News
09.01. Sea Creature Turns Up as Oldest Male Fossil, NPR
09.02. Contributions Of Microbial Biofilms To Ecosystem Processes, Nature
10. Embryos And Cancer, The Scientist
10.01. Age Related Alterations In The Complexity Of Respiratory Patterns,
J. Integrative Neurosc.
11. Discovery of 'Heart Attack Gene' Offers Treatment Options, The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution
12. An Optimal Treatment Strategy for Diabetes, J. Biol. Systems
13. Meaning In Perception Part III: Multiple Cortical Areas Synchronize,
Int. Bifur. & Chaos
13.01. Meaning In Perception Part IV: Multicortical Patterns Of Amplitude
Modulation, Int. Bifur. &
Chaos
13.02. Spike Timing In Auditory Cortex, Nature
13.03. Cell Biology: Thanks For The Memory, Nature
14. EU Researches Superbugs, The Scientist
14.01. Defensive Behavior Of Honey Bees, Ann Rev Entomology
14.02. Insect Walking And Robotics, Annual Review of Entomology
15. New Research Finds Some Animals Know Their Cognitive Limits, ScienceDaily
16. Largest Known Prime Number on World-Wide Volunteer Computer Grid,
Mersenne.org
17. Shifts in States May Give Bush Electoral Edge, NYTimes
17.01. Hack the Vote, NYTimes
18. Pentagon and Bogus News: All Is Denied, NYTimes
18.01. U.S. Sees Lesson for Insurgents in an Iraq Battle, NYTimes
18.02. U.S. Considers Turning Scooters Into War Robots, ctv.ca/Associated Press
19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
19.01. Fresh Legal Row Over Guantanamo, BBC News
20. Links & Snippets
20.01. Other Publications
20.02. Webcast Announcements
20.03. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements
20.04. ComDig Announcement: New ComDig Archive in Beta Test

_________________________________________________________________

01. Kinship Systems: A Culturally Constructed Reality , Complexity

Excerpts: The complexity of human societies is due, I argue, not just to
the number and variety of
the constituent elements of human societies, but to this multilayered
interrelationship (...). But
even macro forms of cultural change take place (...) over a time scale of
100s of years, with more
microcultural changes within a society taking place on a time scale of 10s
of years. The complexity
of an organism, for example, is not specified through merely listing the
alleles encoded in its
DNA. The famous 2.5% difference in DNA between Homo sapiens and the species
included within the
genus Pan (...).

* From Behavior To Culture: An Assessment Of Cultural Evolution And A New
Synthesis; Kinship
Systems: A Culturally Constructed Reality, D. Read dread@anthro.ucla.edu ,
online 2003/12/01, DOI:
10.1002/cplx.10109, Complexity
* Contributed by Atin Das


_________________________________________________________________

02. Hospitals Say They're Penalized for Improving Care , NYTimes

Excerpts: By better educating doctors about the most effective pneumonia
treatments, Intermountain
Health Care, a network of 21 hospitals in Utah and Idaho, says it saves at
least 70 lives a year.
By giving the right drugs at discharge time to more people with congestive
heart failure,
Intermountain saves another 300 lives annually and prevents almost 600
additional hospital stays.

But under Medicare, none of these good deeds go unpunished.

Intermountain says its initiatives have cost it millions of dollars in lost
hospital admissions and
lower Medicare reimbursements.

* 2. Hospitals Say They're Penalized for Improving Care, Reed Abelson  ,
03/12/05, NYTimes


_________________________________________________________________

03. Evolutionary Policies For Sustainable Development: Adaptive Flexibility
And Risk Minimising ,
Ecol. Econ.

Abstract: An evolutionary perspective on policies to foster sustainable
development is presented.
It is argued that policies suggested by the traditional economic theory of
environmental policy can
stimulate unsustainable socio-economic structures and patterns. In
addition, they are unable to
remove undesired locked-in systems and technologies. Drawing on
evolutionary thinking,
characterised by diversity, selection, innovation, path-dependence and
bounded rationality, an
alternative, partly complementary theory of environmental policy is
suggested. Specific attention
is given to the role of strategies that are aimed at increasing diversity
and adaptive flexibility,
and at reducing risk.

* Evolutionary Policies For Sustainable Development: Adaptive Flexibility
And Risk Minimising, C.
Rammel rammel@pflaphy.pph.univie.ac.at , J. C. J. M. van den Bergh , Dec.
2003, DOI:
10.1016/S0921-8009(03)00193-9, Ecological Economics
* Contributed by Pritha Das


_________________________________________________________________

03.01. Rickshaws Connect India's Poor , BBC News

Excerpts:



  The rickshaw drivers are free to go anywhere in the state



The company came up with the idea of its mobile public calling office,
dubbed Chalta Flirta PCO, as
a solution. The hand-pedalled rickshaws are equipped with a battery, a
billing machine and a
printer.
Through these mobile payphones, some drivers are now able to support a
family of five people, says
the company.
Of the women drivers, Mr Vohra said: "We want them to be self sufficient,
we want them to take
pride in themselves and we want them to revel in the glory of being
financially independent."

* Rickshaws Connect India's Poor, Elizabeth Biddlecombe , 03/12/02, BBC News


_________________________________________________________________

04. Grasping at the Statistics on the Self-Employed , NYTimes

Excerpts: The self-employed came to the rescue last month, and the result
was that the unemployment
rate came down even as companies were hiring fewer people than most
economists had expected.
The self-employed are a group that statisticians have a hard time dealing
with, and the apparent
growth in that group may or may not be a good sign for the economy. Some
people who say they are
self-employed may really be out of work and trying to bring in money as
consultants or freelance
workers.

* Grasping at the Statistics on the Self-Employed, Floyd Norris , 03/12/06,
NY Times


_________________________________________________________________

04.01. The Productivity Paradox , NYTimes

Excerpts: For example, in financial services, the Labor Department tells us
that the average
workweek has been unchanged, at 35.5 hours, since 1988. That's patently
absurd. Courtesy of a
profusion of portable information appliances (laptops, cell phones,
personal digital assistants,
etc.), along with near ubiquitous connectivity (hard-wired and now
increasingly wireless), most
information workers can toil around the clock. The official data don't come
close to capturing this
cultural shift.
As a result, we are woefully underestimating the time actually spent on the
job.

* The Productivity Paradox, Stephen S. Roach  , 03/11/30, NYTimes


_________________________________________________________________

04.02. Gains in Houston Schools: How Real Are They? , NYTimes

Excerpts: Texas has trumpeted the achievements of millions of its students,
but an examination of
student performance in Houston raises serious doubts about those gains.
(…)
The improvements in middle and elementary school were a fraction of those
depicted by the Texas
test and were similar to those posted on the Stanford test by students in
Los Angeles.
Over all, a comparison of the performance of Houston students who took the
Stanford exam in 2002
and in 1999 showed most did not advance in relation to their counterparts
across the nation.

* Gains in Houston Schools: How Real Are They?, Diana Jean Schemo  , Ford
Fessenden  , 03/12/03,
NYTimes


_________________________________________________________________

04.03. Backing Down on Steel Tariffs, U.S. Strengthens Trade Group , NYTimes

Excerpts: In fact, what the W.T.O. accomplished when it forced the Bush
White House into a rare
180-degree turn was exactly what its American champions envisioned and its
opponents warned about
during the first big globalization debates of the 1990's. Acting as the
final arbiter of the
world's trade rules, it reversed the politics of protectionism, making sure
that nations that
protect their markets - in the name of saving jobs - are forced to pay a
steep price. (…)
It was left to the Europeans to design the penalties, (…)

* Backing Down on Steel Tariffs, U.S. Strengthens Trade Group, David E.
Sanger  , 03/12/05, NYTimes


_________________________________________________________________

05. Why Tech Is Still the Future , Fortune

Excerpts: The strength of the American economy over the next 20 years
depends largely on our
ability to keep our productivity growing. And productivity grows when a
large set of novel
technologies changes business practices and creates new industries.
Interest rates, deficits,
Federal Reserve policies-those will all make a difference, of course, but
they won't be the driving
force. That force will be technology and its ability to transform the
economy. It's too early for
biotech and nanotech to transform anything-their time has not yet arrived.
So the main hope for
future economic golden eras remains that tarnished cluster of technologies
we call information
technology.

* Why Tech Is Still the Future, W. Brian Arthur  , 03/11/10, Fortune


_________________________________________________________________

05.01. The Long Memory of the Efficient Market , SFI Working Papers

Abstract: Using data from the London Stock Exchange we demonstrate that the
signs of orders obey a
long-memory process. The autocorrelation function decays roughly as
$tau^{-alpha}$ with $alpha
approx 0.6$, corresponding to a Hurst exponent $H approx 0.7$. The time
$tau$ is measured in terms
of the number of intervening events. This is true for market orders, limit
orders, and
cancellations. Although the values for $alpha$ vary from stock to stock, in
the range 0.36 - 0.77,
in most cases the exponents for different stocks are quite similar, and
they are always less than
one. This implies that the signs of future orders are quite predictable
from the signs of past
orders; all else being equal, this would suggest a very strong market
inefficiency. We demonstrate,
however, that fluctuations in signs are compensated for by anti-correlated
fluctuations in
transaction size and liquidity. For example, when buy orders become more
likely, buy orders tend to
be smaller than sell orders and buy liquidity tends to be higher than sell
liquidity. By breaking
down the data by institutional codes we show that some institutions display
long-range memory and
others don't.

* The Long Memory of the Efficient Market, Fabrizio Lillo , J. Doyne Farmer
, DOI: SFI-WP
03-12-066, SFI Working Papers
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson


_________________________________________________________________

06. Will December Make Or Break The Internet? , The Register

Excerpts: The World Summit on the Information Society, organised by the
International
Telecommunications Union, will see the heads of over 60 governments get
together, discuss and
hopefully agree on where we go from here.

It's been a very long time coming. In fact, it is a year or two late, with
the result that the
topics to be covered have outgrown the meeting. It doesn't help that there
are several topics of
great import but huge controversy. The chief among these is Internet
governance. In short: who gets
to run the Internet?

* Will December Make Or Break The Internet?, Kieren McCarthy  , 03/11/24,
The Register


_________________________________________________________________

06.01. The Redefinition of Memes , Emergence

Excerpts: Memetics has reached a crunch point. If, in the near future, it
does not demonstrate that
it can be more than merely a conceptual framework, it will be selected out.
While it is true that
many successful paradigms started out as such a framework and later moved
on to become pivotal
theories, it also true that many more have simply faded away. A framework
for thinking about
phenomena can be useful if it delivers new insights but, ultimately, if
there are no usable results
academics will look elsewhere. Such frameworks have considerable power over
those that hold them
for these people will see the world through these _theoretical spectacles_
(Kuhn, 1969)_to the
converted the framework appears necessary. The converted are ambitious to
demonstrate the
universality of their way of seeing things; more mundane but demonstrable
examples seem to them as
simply obvious. However such frameworks will not continue to persuade new
academics if it does not
provide them with any substantial explanatory or predictive _leverage._
Memetics is no exception to
this pattern.

* The Redefinition of Memes, Emergence, 5(3), 48_65


_________________________________________________________________

07. Games Made for Remaking , NYTimes

Excerpts:



  Creative Allan Norico, left, assessing an image he created last week at a
multimedia training
center in Florida.




Imagine buying the latest "Lord of the Rings" DVD and discovering that the
cameras, lights, special
effects and editing tools used in its making had been included at no extra
charge. Or finding your
favorite CD's crammed with virtual recording studios, along with implicit
encouragement from the
producer to remix the music, record your own material and post it all on
the Internet.

It might seem far-fetched - except to computer game developers.

* Games Made for Remaking, Michel Marriott  , 03/12/04, NYTimes


_________________________________________________________________

07.01. For Little Fingers, an Array of Digital Tutors , NYTimes

Excerpts: The talking book called LeapPad has some new competitors and a
few new tricks of its own.
(…)

Educational technology has taken some interesting twists since Patrick
Suppes, a Stanford
professor, predicted in 1966, "In a few more years, millions of
schoolchildren will have access to
what Philip of Macedon's son Alexander enjoyed as a royal prerogative: the
personal services of a
tutor as well informed and as responsive as Aristotle." It's fun to imagine
that such access might
be as close as your local toy store.

* For Little Fingers, an Array of Digital Tutors, Warren Buckleitner  ,
03/12/04, NYTimes


_________________________________________________________________

07.02. The Love Machine, Building Computers That Care , Wired

Excerpts:



  Robyn Twomey




What kinds of bonds can people form with their machines, Bickmore wants to
know. To find out, he'll
test 100 participants to gauge the impact of a month of daily sessions with
a computerized exercise
coach named Laura. Laura, an animated software agent with bobbed chestnut
hair and a flinty voice,
has been designed to remember what we talk about, then use that information
in subsequent
conversations. "I was interested not just in establishing a relationship
with a computer buddy for
the bond itself but as a way of somehow benefiting the user, like getting
them to exercise more,"
(…).

* The Love Machine, Building Computers That Care, David Diamond  , 03/12,
Wired, 11.12


_________________________________________________________________

07.03. Intel's Tiny Hope for the Future , Wired

Excerpts: Sensors can't become the next big thing until a host of mundane
technical issues are
resolved: How to get the chipset radios off the crowded 900-MHz spectrum?
How to program the
networks to not just spew reams of information but be intelligent enough to
figure out which
measurements are vital and which are junk? "The challenge in tiny sensors
is doing some computation
at the level of the motes," says Hellerstein. "It's just too expensive to
ship out all the data."
Then there's the power issue.

* Intel's Tiny Hope for the Future, Brendan I. Koerner , 03/12, Wired


_________________________________________________________________

08. Information Theory of Complex Networks: On Evolution and Architectural
Constraints , SFI
Working Papers

Abstract: Complex networks are characterized by highly heterogeneous
distributions of links, often
pervading the presence of key properties such as robustness under node
removal. Several correlation
measures have been defined in order to characterize the structure of these
nets. Here we show that
mutual information, noise and joint entropies can be properly defined on a
static graph. These
measures are computed for a number of real networks and analytically
estimated for some simple
standard models. It is shown that real networks are clustered in a
well-defined domain of the
entropy-noise space. By using simulated annealing optimization, it is shown
that optimally
heterogeneous nets actually cluster around the same narrow domain,
suggesting that strong
constraints actually operate on the possible universe of complex networks.
The evolutionary
implications are discussed.

* Information Theory of Complex Networks: On Evolution and Architectural
Constraints, Ricard V.
Sol?, Sergi Valverde , DOI: SFI-WP 03-11-061, SFI Working Papers
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson


_________________________________________________________________

08.01. The Connectivity of Large Genetic Networks: Design, History, or Mere
Chemistry? , SFI
Working Papers

Abstract: I review evolutionary explanations of broad-tailed connectivity
or degree distributions
observed in metabolic networks and protein interaction networks.
Self-assembled chemical reaction
networks show degree distributions similar to those observed for metabolic
networks, which argues
against the postulated role of natural selection in maintaining this degree
distribution. In
addition, metabolic networks contain traces of their ancient history in the
form of highly
connected metabolites. Similarly to the degree distribution of metabolic
networks, that of protein
interaction networks can be explained without resorting to natural
selection on the network level.
I present data suggesting that highly connected proteins are not
distinguishably older than other
proteins, and explain this finding with a simple model of how a protein's
degree changes in
evolutionary time.

* The Connectivity of Large Genetic Networks: Design, History, or Mere
Chemistry?, Andreas Wagner ,
DOI: SFI-WP 03-11-062, SFI Working Papers
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson


_________________________________________________________________

09. Dusty Disc May Mean Other Earths , BBC News

Excerpts:



  The clumps rotate around the star approximately once every 300 years



Astronomers say they have evidence for Earth-like planets orbiting a nearby
star, making it more
like our own Solar System than any yet discovered.

The clumps rotate around the star approximately once every 300 years
The star, Vega, is one of the brightest in the sky, only 25 light-years away.

It is three times larger than our Sun and, at 350 million years old, much
younger as well.

Vega has a disc of dust circling it, and at least one large planet which
could sweep debris aside
allowing smaller worlds like Earth to exist.

* Dusty Disc May Mean Other Earths, BBC News


_________________________________________________________________

09.01. Sea Creature Turns Up as Oldest Male Fossil , NPR

Excerpts:



  A computer recreation of a 425-million-year-old ostracode fossil.




Scientists in England have come across an astonishingly well-preserved
fossil of a shrimp-like
animal. They say what's amazing about it is that even its soft body parts
have been imprinted in
rock for 425 million years. That makes it far older than the dinosaurs.
In fact, its discoverers say it's so well preserved, they can even
determine the creature's gender
-- it's a male. (…)
Ostracodes are among the most successful animals on Earth, with 30,000
known species of the
crustacean, living and extinct.

* Sea Creature Turns Up as Oldest Male Fossil, 03/12/04, NPR (Audio)


_________________________________________________________________

09.02. Contributions Of Microbial Biofilms To Ecosystem Processes , Nature

Excerpts: In many aquatic ecosystems, most microbes live in matrix-enclosed
biofilms and contribute
substantially to energy flow and nutrient cycling. Little is known,
however, about the coupling of
structure and dynamics of these biofilms to ecosystem function. Here we
show that microbial
biofilms changed the physical and chemical microhabitat and contributed to
ecosystem processes in
30-m-long stream mesocosms. Biofilm growth increased hydrodynamic transient
storage-streamwater
detained in quiescent zones, which is a major physical template for
ecological processes in
streams, -by 300% and the retention of suspended particles by 120%.

* Contributions Of Microbial Biofilms To Ecosystem Processes, Tom J. Battin
, Louis A. Kaplan , J.
Denis Newbold , Claude M. E. Hansen , 03/11/27, DOI: 10.1038/nature02152,
Nature, 426, 439 - 442


_________________________________________________________________

10. Embryos And Cancer , The Scientist

Excerpts: The POU transcription factor Oct3/4 maintains the pluripotent
state of inner cell mass
cells-at the blastocyst stage of preimplantation development-that develop
into the fetus after
implantation.(…)

Germ cell tumors (GCTs) account for a high proportion of malignancy in
young men, and (…)
report not only that Oct3/4 expression is found almost exclusively in GCTs,
but also that the level
of expression is related to the immaturity-and hence the malignancy-of the
tumor.

* Embryos And Cancer, Cathy Holding , 03/12/03, The Scientist


_________________________________________________________________

10.01. Age Related Alterations In The Complexity Of Respiratory Patterns ,
J. Integrative Neurosc.

Abstract: The objective of this study is to investigate the relative
contributions of maturation to
the dynamic behavior of respiration during ontogeny in the neonate. The
inter-breath interval (IBI)
time series were reconstructed (...). Therefore, these findings suggest
that a decrease in the
complexity values is unique to the 12-19 days age groups. This could be due
to a reduction in the
number of dendritic terminals per cell for the 12-19 days age groups. The
results of these
preliminary experiments also indicate that the behavior of the respiratory
pattern generator in the
neonate fluctuates during the early maturation period.

* Age Related Alterations In The Complexity Of Respiratory Patterns, M. Akay
Metin.Akay@Dartmouth.EDU , K. L. Moodie  , P. J. Hoopes , Dec. 2003, DOI:
10.1142/S021963520300024X, Journal of Integrative Neuroscience
* Contributed by Atin Das


_________________________________________________________________

11. Discovery of 'Heart Attack Gene' Offers Treatment Options , The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution

Excerpts: Now that scientists say they've identified the first gene
mutation responsible for heart
attacks, doctors have to decide how best to use this information. Although
the mutation has only
been isolated in one family with roots in Iowa, the finding may shed light
on the genetic pathways
involved in early coronary artery disease and heart attacks, researchers
say. It also offers a new
risk factor to consider, and a way to decide who needs to be extra vigilant
about heart health.
"Until we have gene therapy, we are left with getting more aggressive with
risk factors, isolating
who's at higher risk and trying to change the course of the disease," says
Dr. Daniel Fisher, a
clinical assistant professor of medicine at New York University School of
Medicine. "This is just
something else that we're going to say let's get more aggressive." (...)
When the researchers did a
genetic analysis of 13 family members (nine of whom had had a heart
attack), they identified a
region on chromosome 15 that includes a gene thought to be involved in
blood vessel development.
They hit pay dirt when they discovered that family members with heart
disease all carried a mutated
version of the gene MEF2A. Those without the disease didn't have the
mutation. The mutated version
of the gene MEF2A "at birth sets up an artery wall that is not intact and
then predisposes the
person to a heart attack," Topol explains.

* Discovery of 'Heart Attack Gene' Offers Treatment Options, 2003-12-03,
The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution
* Contributed by Nadia Gershenson


_________________________________________________________________

12. An Optimal Treatment Strategy for Diabetes , J. Biol. Systems

Abstract: Consider a system on n variables involved in the regulation of
glucose in the body, whose
concentrations are given by stochastic differential equations driven by
m-dimensional Brownian
motion. We formulate a stochastic control problem and give sufficient
conditions for the existence
of an optimal treatment strategy. We study the following problem: what
treatment strategy for the n
variables, maximizes the expected benefit from treatment.

* An Optimal Treatment Strategy for Diabetes, F. Nyabadza  , E. M. Lungu ,
Dec. 2003, Journal of
Biological Systems
* Contributed by Pritha Das


_________________________________________________________________

13. Meaning In Perception Part III: Multiple Cortical Areas Synchronize ,
Int. Bifur. & Chaos

Abstract: Information transfer and integration among functionally distinct
areas of cerebral cortex
of oscillatory activity require some degree of phase synchrony of the
trains of action potentials
that carry the information prior to the integration. In order to determine
how synchrony is
achieved despite dispersion, we recorded EEG signals from multiple
electrode arrays on five
cortical areas in cats and rabbits, that had been trained to discriminate
visual or auditory
conditioned stimuli. Three operations were identified to account for the
sustained correlation
(...) enable continuous linkage of multiple cortical areas by activity in
the gamma range (...).

* A Neurobiological Theory Of Meaning In Perception Part III: Multiple
Cortical Areas Synchronize
Without Loss Of Local Autonomy, W. J. Freeman
wfreeman@socrates.berkeley.edu , G. GAÁL  , R.
Jorsten , Oct. 2003, DOI: 10.1142/S0218127403008260, International Journal
of Bifurcation and Chaos
* Contributed by Atin Das


_________________________________________________________________

13.01. Meaning In Perception Part IV: Multicortical Patterns Of Amplitude
Modulation , Int. Bifur.
& Chaos

Abstract: The aim of this study is to find spatial patterns of EEG
amplitude in the gamma range of
the EEGs from multiple sensory and limbic areas that demonstrate
multisensory convergence and
integration. 64 electrodes spread in small arrays were fixed on or in the
olfactory, visual,
auditory, somatomotor and entorhinal areas of cats and rabbits. The results
showed that the gamma
activity in all five areas formed global patterns of amplitude modulation
(AM) in time windows
lasting ~100-200 ms (...). In conclusion, multisensory integration took
place over the greater part
of the hemisphere (...).

* A Neurobiological Theory Of Meaning In Perception Part IV: Multicortical
Patterns Of Amplitude
Modulation In Gamma EEG, W. J. Freeman wfreeman@socrates.berkeley.edu , B.
C. Burke , Oct. 2003,
DOI: 10.1142/S0218127403008302, International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos
* Contributed by Atin Das


_________________________________________________________________

13.02. Spike Timing In Auditory Cortex , Nature

Excerpts: Neurons in the primary auditory cortex are tuned to the intensity
and specific
frequencies of sounds, but the synaptic mechanisms underlying this tuning
remain uncertain.
Inhibition seems to have a functional role in the formation of cortical
receptive fields, because
stimuli often suppress similar or neighbouring responses, and
pharmacological blockade of
inhibition broadens tuning curves. Here we use whole-cell recordings in
vivo to disentangle the
roles of excitatory and inhibitory activity in the tone-evoked responses of
single neurons in the
auditory cortex.

* Spike Timing In Auditory Cortex, Michael Wehr , Anthony M. Zador ,
03/11/27, DOI:
doi:10.1038/nature02116, Nature, 426, 442 - 446


_________________________________________________________________

13.03. Cell Biology: Thanks For The Memory , Nature

Excerpts: In response to a transient hormonal cue, a developing egg commits
irreversibly to a
mature state. Surprisingly, this irreversible switch is composed of
intrinsically reversible
components. (…)

Yet there are times when it's crucial not to turn back ?during the
development of multicellular
organisms, (…). This process, called differentiation, is well known,
but it's not really clear
how a cell 'remembers' its commitment long after the signal, frequently a
hormone, has disappeared.
(…) brief exposure to the hormone progesterone triggers an
irreversible switch in cell fate in
developing frog eggs.

* Cell Biology: Thanks For The Memory, Jill C. Sible , 03/11/27, DOI:
10.1038/426392a, Nature426,
392 - 393


_________________________________________________________________

14. EU Researches Superbugs , The Scientist

Excerpts: "People trust antibiotics to cure almost any kind of disease.
Unfortunately, as recent
outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome show, this is not the
case,?European Research
Commissioner Philippe Busquin said in a statement. "More research for the
benefit of patients is
needed to make use of the wealth of information provided by more than 140
bacterial genomes known
today. We must also make sure that the pharmaceutical industry continues
its research into the
development of new antibiotics.?
* EU Researches Superbugs, Rossella Lorenzi , 03/12/02, The Scientist


_________________________________________________________________

14.01. Defensive Behavior Of Honey Bees , Ann Rev Entomology

Abstract: One key advantage of eusociality is shared defense of the nest,
brood, and stored food;
nest defense plays an important role in the biology of eusocial bees.
Recent studies on honey bees,
Apis mellifera, have focused on the placement of defensive activity in the
overall scheme of
division of labor, showing that guard bees play a unique and important role
in colony defense.
Alarm pheromones function in integrating defensive responses; honey bee
alarm pheromone is an
excellent example of a multicomponent pheromonal blend. The genetic
regulation of defensive
behavior is now better understood from the mapping of quantitative trait
loci (QTLs) associated
with variation in defensiveness. Colony defense in other eusocial bees is
less well understood, but
enough information is available to provide interesting comparisons between
A. mellifera and other
species of Apis, as well as with allodapine, halictine, bombine, and
meliponine bees. These
comparative studies illustrate the wide variety of evolutionary solutions
to problems in colony
defense in the Apoidea.

* Defensive Behavior Of Honey Bees, Michael D. Breed , Ernesto Guzman-Novoa
, Greg J.3 Hunt  ,
Annual Review of Entomology; Volume 49, Page 271 - 298


_________________________________________________________________

14.02. Insect Walking And Robotics , Annual Review of Entomology

Abstract: With the advent of significant collaborations between researchers
who study insect
walking and robotics engineers interested in constructing adaptive legged
robots, insect walking is
once again poised to make a more significant scientific contribution than
the numbers of
participants in the field might suggest. This review outlines current
knowledge of the
physiological basis of insect walking with an emphasis on recent new
developments in biomechanics
and genetic dissection of behavior, and the impact this knowledge is having
on robotics. Engineers
have begun to team with neurobiologists to build walking robots whose
physical design and
functional control are based on insect biology. Such an approach may have
benefits for engineering,
by leading to the construction of better-performing robots, and for
biology, by allowing real-time
and real-world tests of critical hypotheses about how locomotor control is
effected. It is argued
that in order for the new field of biorobotics to have significant
influence it must adopt criteria
for performance and an experimental approach to the development of walking
robots.

* Insect Walking And Robotics, Fred Delcomyn  , Annual Review of
Entomology; Volume 49, Page 51 -
70


_________________________________________________________________

15. New Research Finds Some Animals Know Their Cognitive Limits , ScienceDaily

Excerpts: One of the important questions in the field of animal and human
psychology is whether
this metacognitive capacity is uniquely human, or whether nonverbal,
nonhuman animal species have a
level of metacognition that approaches that of humans. "The key innovation
in this research also
was to grant animals an 'uncertain' response so that they could decline to
complete any trials of
their choosing. Given this option, animals might choose to complete trials
when they are confident
they know, but decline them when they feel something like uncertainty. To
show this behavioral
pattern, though, animals would have to monitor some psychological signal
(...)."

* New Research Finds Some Animals Know Their Cognitive Limits, 2003/12/02,
ScienceDaily & Univ. At
Buffalo
* Contributed by Atin Das


_________________________________________________________________

16. Largest Known Prime Number on World-Wide Volunteer Computer Grid ,
Mersenne.org

Excerpt: Michael Shafer, a 26 year-old volunteer in the Mersenne.org
research project called the
Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS), has discovered the largest
known prime number. Shafer
used a Michigan State University lab PC and free software by George Woltman
and Scott Kurowski as
part of an international grid of 211,000 networked computers in virtually
every time zone of the
world.

The new number, expressed as 2 to the 20,996,011th power minus 1, has
6,320,430 decimal digits and
was discovered November 17th.

* Mersenne Project Discovers Largest Known Prime Number on World-Wide
Volunteer Computer Grid
220,996,011-1 is Found with 25,000 Years of Computer Time, 03/12/02,
Mersenne.org


_________________________________________________________________

17. Shifts in States May Give Bush Electoral Edge , NYTimes

Excerpts: In 2000, after Florida's 25 electoral votes were awarded to Mr.
Bush, he won the
presidency with 271 - 5 more than Al Gore's 266.

"In a race that's very close, those small readjustments in the electoral
map will have
significance."
(…)
"The map is destiny for both campaigns."
The Republican electoral cushion by no means guarantees Mr. Bush a victory.
After all, Mr. Gore
outpolled him by nearly 550,000 votes in 2000. More important, voting
patterns may not repeat
themselves. And notable demographic shifts are occurring within the states.

* Shifts in States May Give Bush Electoral Edge, Katharine Q. Seelye  ,
03/12/02, NYTimes


_________________________________________________________________

17.01. Hack the Vote , NYTimes

Excerpts: (...) investigative report on U.S. touch-screen voting. But while
the mainstream press
has reported the basics, the Diebold affair has been treated as a
technology or business story -
not as a potential political scandal.


The point is that you don't have to believe in a central conspiracy to
worry that partisans will
take advantage of an insecure, unverifiable voting system to manipulate
election results. (...)

I'll discuss what to do in a future column. But let's be clear: the
credibility of U.S. democracy
may be at stake.

* Hack the Vote, Paul Krugman  , 03/12/02, NYTimes


_________________________________________________________________

18. Pentagon and Bogus News: All Is Denied , NYTimes

Excerpt: Early last year Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld disbanded the
Pentagon's Office of
Strategic Influence after it became known that the office was considering
plans to provide false
news items to unwitting foreign journalists to influence policymakers and
public sentiment abroad.

But a couple of months ago, the Pentagon quietly awarded a $300,000
contract to SAIC, a major
defense consultant, to study how the Defense Department could design an
"effective strategic
influence" campaign to combat global terror, according to an internal
Pentagon document.
Editor's Note: What would be the first news item released by such an agency
-if it ever existed?
Most likely the announcement that all rumors about its existence are
completely unfounded.

* Pentagon and Bogus News: All Is Denied, Eric Schmitt  , 03/12/05, NYTimes


_________________________________________________________________

18.01. U.S. Sees Lesson for Insurgents in an Iraq Battle , NYTimes

Excerpts: But on the streets of Samarra, (?, the lessons of the battle, and
even its precise
nature, seemed far from clear. (?
As it steps up the pressure on the insurgents who are killing Americans and
Iraqis in growing
numbers, the very Iraqis they are trying to win over may be alienated.

"If I had a gun, I would have attacked the Americans myself," said Satar
Nasiaf, 47, a shopkeeper
who said he had watched two Iraqi civilians fall to American fire. "The
Americans were shooting in
every direction."

* U.S. Sees Lesson for Insurgents in an Iraq Battle, Dexter Filkins , Ian
Fisher  , 03/12/02,
NYTimes


_________________________________________________________________

18.02. U.S. Considers Turning Scooters Into War Robots , ctv.ca/Associated
Press

Excerpts: It's called the Segway Human Transporter, but the Pentagon is
drafting the two-wheeled
scooter as part of a plan to develop battlefield robots that think on their
own and communicate
with troops.(...)
So far, university researchers armed with Pentagon funding have programmed
Segway robots that can
open doors, avoid obstacles, and chase soccer balls -- all without human
control.

Researchers say potential applications for the robots include performing
search missions on the
battlefield, transporting injured soldiers to safety, or following humans
around while hauling
their gear.

* U.S. Considers Turning Scooters Into War Robots, 03/11/28,
ctv.ca/Associated Press


_________________________________________________________________

19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks





_________________________________________________________________

19.01. Fresh Legal Row Over Guantanamo , BBC News

Excerpts:           None of the detainees have yet been charged

The UK's Guardian newspaper says that a team of lawyers was dismissed after
complaining that the
rules for forthcoming trials were unfair. New York's Vanity Fair magazine
reports that some of the
lawyers say their ethical obligations are being violated. The Pentagon has
strongly denied the
media reports. About 660 prisoners are being held at the US military base
in Cuba, including nine
Britons. They have not been charged or allowed access to lawyers, and their
detention has been
condemned both by human rights groups and allies of the US. Most were
picked up two years ago
following the fall of the Taleban regime in Afghanistan.

* Fresh Legal Row Over Guantanamo, 03/12/03, BBC News


_________________________________________________________________

20. Links & Snippets





_________________________________________________________________

20.01. Other Publications



- Introduction to Statistical Physics outside Physics, Dietrich Stauffer ,
2003-10-2, arXiv, DOI:
cond-mat/0310037
- Competition between Diffusion and Fragmentation: An Important
Evolutionary Process of Nature,
Jesper Ferkinghoff-Borg , Mogens H. Jensen , Joachim Mathiesen , Poul
Olesen , Kim Sneppen ,
2003-10-17, arXiv, DOI: cond-mat/0310419
- Power-Law Species-Area Relationships and Self-Similar Species
Distributions Within Finite Areas,
Arnost Sizling , David Storch , SFI Working Papers, DOI: SFI-WP 03-11-065
- Multi-information in the Thermodynamic Limit, Ionas Erb and Nihat Ay ,
SFI Working Papers, DOI:
SFI-WP 03-11-064
- A Statistical Framework for Combining and Interpreting Proteomic
Datasets, Michael Gilchrist ,
Laura Salter , Andreas Wagner , SFI Working Papers, DOI: SFI-WP 03-11-063
- FFTs on the Rotation Group, Peter Kostelec , Daniel N. Rockmore , SFI
Working Papers, DOI: SFI-WP
03-11-060
- A Study Of Prebiotic Evolution, A. Corbet , online 2003/12/01,
Complexity, DOI:
10.1002/cplx.10105
- Biological Ageing Simulations And Your Retirement Funding, D. Stauffer ,
Dec. 2003, Fractal 2004:
Complexity and Fractals in Nature, 8th Int. Multidisc. Conf., Canada
- The Fractal Properties Of Active Regions On The Sun And Their Association
With Solar Activity, I.
I. Salakhutdinova  , A. A. Golovko , Dec. 2003, Fractal 2004: Complexity
and Fractals in Nature,
8th Int. Multidisc. Conf., Canada
- A Four-Wing Butterfly Attractor From A Fully Autonomous System, A. S.
Elwakil  , S. ? Uz  , M.
P. Kennedy , Oct. 2003, International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos, DOI:
10.1142/S0218127403008405
- Arnold Tongues In Human Cardiorespiratory Systems, M. McGuinness  , Y.
Hong  , D. Galletly  , P.
Larsen , 2003/10/23, Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science
- Daily Energy Expenditure Of Male Barn Swallows Correlates With
Tail-Streamer Length:
Handicap-Mediated Foraging Strategies, R. L. Nudds  , K. A. Spencer ,
2003/12/01, Alphagalileo &
Biology Letters
- North Atlantic Right Whales (Eubalaena Glacialis) Ignore Ships But
Respond To Alerting Stimuli,
D. P. Nowacek  , M. P. Johnson  , P. L. Tyack , 2003/12/01, Alphagalileo &
Proceedings Biological
Sciences
- Realized Heritability And Repeatability Of Risk-Taking Behaviour In
Relation To Avian
Personalities, K. van Oers  , P. J. Drent  , P. De Goede  , A. J. Van
Noordwijk , 2003/12/01,
Alphagalileo & Proceedings Biological Sciences
- Artificial Tissue From The Test Tube, J. Ehrlenspiel
joh.ehr@zv.fraunhofer.de , 2003/12/01,
Alphagalileo
- Brain Study Shows Some Animals Crave Exercise, 2003/12/01, ScienceDaily &
Univ. Of
Wisconsin-Madison
- "Chickens Are Us" And Other Observations Of Robotic Art, 2003/12/03,
ScienceDaily & Univ. At
Buffalo
- A Study On Research Performance In Japanese Universities: Which Is More
Efficient - A Professor
Who Is Leading His Research Group Or One Who Is Working Alone? The
Multi-Agent Simulation Knows, J.
Tanimoto tanimoto@cm.kyushu-u.ac.jp , H. Fujii , Spl. Issue, Sep. 2003,
Advances in Complex System,
DOI: 10.1142/S0219525903000943
- Complex Dynamics And Financial Fragility In An Agent-Based Model, M.
Gallegati
gallegati@dea.unian.it , G. Giulioni  , N. Kichiji , Spl. Issue, Sep. 2003,
Advances in Complex
System, DOI: 10.1142/S0219525903000888
- Uncertainty As Wealth, G. Ainslie George.Ainslie@med.va.gov , 2003/10/31,
Behavioural Processes,
DOI: 10.1016/S0376-6357(03)00138-4
- Testosterone Decreases The Potential For Song Plasticity In Adult Male
Zebra Finches, H. Williams
hwilliams@williams.edu , D. M. Connor  , J. W. Hill , 2003/11/06, Hormones
and Behavior, DOI:
10.1016/j.yhbeh.2003.06.005
- Genetic and Cultural Evolution of Cooperation, edited by Peter
Hammerstein , 03/11, MIT Press,
Current thinking in evolutionary biology holds that competition among
individuals is the key to
understanding natural selection.
- God and Man in Baghdad, Thomas L. Friedman  , The essential debate for
the first post-Saddam
democratic government in Iraq will be how far to extend religious authority.
- Rolling Thunder: Truckers Go Online , 03/12/05, NYTimes, A growing number
of truckers enjoy Wi-Fi
connections, or hot spots, spreading to truck stops across the United
States and Canada.
- Guantanamo Chaplain and His Wife Speak Out, Sarah Kershaw,  , 03/12/05,
NYTimes, Capt. James J.
Yee, a Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who was arrested in
September on suspicion of
spying, spoke publicly for the first time.
- Looting the Future, Paul Krugman , 03/12/05, NYtimes, With a long-term
budget gap of at least 25
percent of federal spending, the Bush administration governs like there's
no tomorrow.
- Returned to Life, Bob Herbert , 03/12/05, NYTimes, Using the techniques
of investigative
journalism, David Protess and his students have addressed the enormous and
insufficiently
recognized problem of wrongful convictions.
- Exploding Black Holes Rain Down On Earth, 03/12, New Scientist, Mini
black holes could explain
mysterious observations from mountain-top experiments, and unveil hidden
dimensions
- Nanotubes are Best Semiconductors, 03/12/03, Researchers have fabricated
a semiconducting
nanotube transistor that shows a mobility (and thus conductivity) more than
70... KurzweilAI.net,
- Microbeams Have Big Impact On Cancer Cells, 03/12/02, Scientists
microbeams have discovered that
targeting just a few cells with a "microbeam," which launches streams of
helium... KurzweilAI.net,
- Software Paraphrases Sentences, December 3/10, 2003, Technology Research
News, Researchers at
Cornell University have combined on-line journalism and computational
biology to make it possible
to automatically paraphrase whole sentences. The method could eventually
allow computers to more
easily process natural language, produce paraphrases that could be used in
machine...
- Sudden Shift on Detainee, NEIL A. LEWIS The Pentagon's decision to let a
detainee meet a lawyer
may be a calculated gesture to help the administration shield its policies
from reversal by the
courts.
- Wasp Parasitoid Disruption Of Host Development, Nancy E. Beckage , Dale
B. Gelman  , Annual
Review of Entomology; Volume 49, Page 299 - 330
- A Ruling for Democratic Principles, The Colorado Supreme Court decision
striking down Republican
gerrymandering in the state is an affirmation of respect for democracy.
- Comin' In on a Wheel and a Prayer, Kari L. Dean  , 03/11/29, Wired



_________________________________________________________________

20.02. Webcast Announcements


   Presentation Webcasts from Scientific Sessions 2003,
   American Heart Association
   EVOLVABILITY & INTERACTION: Evolutionary Substrates of
   Communication, Signaling, and Perception in the Dynamics of Social
   Complexity, London, UK, 03/10/08-10
   The Semantic Web
   and Language Technology - Its Potential and Practicalities,
   Bucharest, Romania, 03/07/28-08/08
   ECAL 2003, 7th
   European Conference on Artificial Life, Dortmund, Germany,
   03/09/14-17
   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)
   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
   13th Ann Intl Conf,
   Soc f Chaos Theory in Psych & Life Sciences, Boston, MA, USA,
   2003/08/08-10
   CERN
   Webcast Service, Streamed videos of Archived Lectures and
   Live Events
   Dean
   LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing Since
   February 1998
   Edge Videos





_________________________________________________________________

20.03. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements



   Intl Wkshp Networks
   of Interacting Machines: Industrial Production Systems and
   Biological Cells, Berlin, Germany, 03/12/11-13

   2nd
   International Workshop on the Mathematics and Algorithms of
   Social Insects, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Georgia, USA;
   03/12/15-17

   2nd
   WSEAS Intl Conf on Non-linear Analysis, Non-linear
   Systems and Chaos, Athens, Greece, 03/12/29-31

   Complex
   Physical, Biological and Social Systems, MIT,
   Cambridge, MA, 04/01/05-09

   2nd
   Biennial Seminar on the Philosophical, Epistemological, and
   Methodological Implications of Complexity Theory,
   Havana, Cuba, 04/01/07-10

   2004
   Western Simulation MultiConference (WMC'04), San Diego,
   CA., USA, 04/01/18-24)

   1st
   International Workshop on Biologically Inspired Approaches to
   Advanced Information Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland,
   04/01/29-30

   Physics
   of Socio-Economic Systems, 1st Intl Winter School
   2004, Konstanz, Germany, 04/02/16-20

   Advances in Molecular Electronics: From molecular materials to single
molecule devices, Dresden,
Germany, 04/02/23


   Leadership in
   Rapidly Changing Business Environments -Learning and Adapting
   in Time, Cambridge, MA, 04/02/26-27

   4th
   Intl ICSC Symposium Engineering Of Intelligent Systems (EIS
   2004), Island of Madeira, Portugal, 04/02/29-03/02

    Conference on Longevity , Sydney, Australia, 04/03/05-07

   Arbeitskreis
   Physik sozio-ökonomischer Systeme Jahrestagung
   (AKSOE), Regensburg, Germany, 04/03/08-12

   Capital
   Science 2004, Washington, 04/03/20-21

   Fractal
   2004, "Complexity and Fractals in Nature", 8th Intl
   Multidisciplinary Conf, Vancouver, Canada, 04/04/04-07

   The
   9th IEEE Intl Conf on Engineering of Complex
   Computer Systems, Florence, Italy, 04/04/14-16

   2004
   Advanced Simulation Technologies Conference (ASTC'04),
   Arlington, VA., USA, 04/04/18-22

   Urban
   Vulnerability and Network Failure: Constructions and
   Experiences of Emergencies, Crises and Collapse,
   Manchester, UK, 04/04/29-30

   5th
   International Conference on Complex Systems (ICCS2004),
   Boston, MA, USA, 04/05/16-21

   3rd Intl Conf
   on Systems Thinking in Management (ICSTM 2004) "Transforming
   Organizations to Achieve Sustainable Success",
   Philadelphia, Pa, USA, 04/05/19-21

   9th
   Annual Workshop on Economics and Heterogeneous Interaction
   Agents (WEHIA04),, Kyoto, Japan, 2004/05/27-29

   13th
   International Symposium on HIV & Emerging Infectious
   Diseases, Toulon, France, 04/06/03-05

   From Animals To
   Animats 8, 8th Intl Conf On The Simulation Of
   Adaptive Behavior (SAB'04), Los Angeles, USA,
   04/07/13-17

   8th
   World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and
   Informatics, Orlando, Florida, USA, 04/07/18-21

   2004
   Summer Simulation MultiConference (SummerSim'04), San
   Jose Hyatt, San Jose, California, 04/07/25-29

   ANTS
   2004, 4th International Workshop on Ant Colony
   Optimization and Swarm Intelligence, Brussels, Belgium,
   04/09/05-08

   Dynamic
   Ontology, An Inquiry into Systems, Emergence, Levels of
   Reality, and Forms of Causality, Trento, Italy,
   04/09/08-11

   9th
   Intl Conf on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems
   (ALIFE9), Boston, Massachusetts, 04/09/12-15

   The
   8th Intl Conf on Parallel Problem Solving from
   Nature (PPSN VIII), Birmingham, UK, 04/09/18-22

   XVII
   Brazilian Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Sao
   Luis, Maranhao - Brazil, 04/09/22-24





_________________________________________________________________

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.





_________________________________________________________________
Complexity Digest is an independent publication available to organizations
that may wish to repost
ComDig (http://www.comdig.org/) to their own mailing lists. ComDig
(http://www.comdig.org/) is
published by Dean LeBaron (http://www.deanlebaron.com/index.html) and
edited by Gottfried J. Mayer
(http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/g/x/gxm21/). To unsubscribe from this
list, please send a note
to subscriptions@comdig.org.