¸´ÔÓÐÔÎÄÕª NO£º2004.04

Complexity Digest 2004.04 Jan. 27, 2004

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

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Content:

01. A Recovery Unlike Others Seems to Alter Fed Rate View, NYTimes
01.01. One Factor The Fed Ignores - We Hope, The Christian Science Monitor
01.02. Even for Experts, Analyzing the Job Market Is an Adventure, NYTimes
02. Economic Geography And International Inequality, J. Int. Economics
03. Baby Arithmetic: One Object Plus One Tone, Cognition
04. Is Language the Key to Human Intelligence?, Science
04.01. Computational Constraints on Syntactic Processing in a Nonhuman
Primate, Science
05. The Machine That Invents, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
05.01. Does Observation Influence Learning?, Games and Economic Behavior
06. Engineering Google Results to Make a Point, NYTimes
06.01. For a Fee, Wind Up Atop the Search Heap, NYTimes
06.02. A Memory Model For Internet Hits After Media Exposure, Physica A
06.03. Measuring User Perceptions Of Web Site Reputation, Info. Processing
& Manag.
06.04. A Day In The Life Of Web Searching: An Exploratory Study, Info.
Processing & Manag.
07. Mutating Software Could Predict Hacker Attacks, NewScientist
07.01. Device 'Quarantines' Infected Network Computers, NewScientist
08. Cascade Control in Complex Networks, arXiv
08.01. Internet's Critical Path Horizon, arXiv
09. Making Way for Designer Insects, Washington Post
09.01. Do Plants Act Like Computers?, Natue Science update
10. Tumour Suppression: Putting On The Brakes, Nature
11. Stem Cells React - Cell Lineages As Complex Adaptive Systems,
Experimental Hematology
11.01. Self-Assembling Scaffold For Spinal-Cord Repair, Natue Science update
12. Big Chill Killed Off The Neanderthals, NewScientist
12.01. Climate Test Sets Sail, Natue Science update
12.02. The Architecture Of The Climate Network, Physica A
13. Self-Organized Pedestrian Crowd Dynamics and Design Solutions, Traffic
Forum
14. Quantum Computing in Neural Networks, arXiv
15. Action, Illusion, and Perception, Science
15.01. Don't Imitate the Robot, Science Now
16. 'Sleeping On It' Really Can Solve Problems, NewScientist
16.01. Sleep Boosts Lateral Thinking, Natue Science update
16.02. Evidence That Memories Are Consolidated During Sleep, ScienceDaily
16.03. For A Bigger Brain, Juggle, The Age
17. Achieving Balance in Body, Soul and Trigger Finger, NY Times
18. Democracy at Risk, NY Times
18.01. Arabs Slam U.S. Over Democracy, Reuters
19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
19.01. Has U.S. War in Iraq Slowed War on Terror?, Brookings/The Baltimore Sun
19.02. Lie-Detector Glasses Offer Peek At Future Of Security, EE Times
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

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01. A Recovery Unlike Others Seems to Alter Fed Rate View , NYTimes

Excerpts: Federal Reserve officials seem determined to continue offering
remarkably cheap money,
even though the economy seems poised for its fastest growth in four years.

Though the unemployment rate drifted downward to 5.7 percent in December,
from 5.9 percent the
previous month, that was almost entirely because as many as 300,000
discouraged workers had stopped
looking for jobs.

* A Recovery Unlike Others Seems to Alter Fed Rate View, Edmund L. Andrews
, 04/01/26, NY Times


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01.01. One Factor The Fed Ignores - We Hope , The Christian Science Monitor

Excerpts: So better than two years into a recovery with output surging, is
Greenspan favoring the
reelection of President Bush by keeping short-term interest rates at their
lowest level in more
than 40 years?

"Judged purely by his actions, the answer is 'yes,'" says Mr. Schlesinger.
"In every way possible,
the Fed's monetary policy seems to be remarkably accommodative by historic
standards."
(...)Fed should open its policy deliberations to the press. Congress opened
its sessions to
television two decades or so ago. It's time for the Fed to do the same.

* One Factor The Fed Ignores - We Hope, David R. Francis  , 04/01/26, The
Christian Science Monitor


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01.02. Even for Experts, Analyzing the Job Market Is an Adventure , NYTimes

Excerpts:


Mixed Employment Picture


Since September, the number of people receiving state jobless benefits has
fallen by almost
500,000, or over 13 percent. A survey of executives suggests that companies
in the service sector
are increasing their employment at the fastest rate since 2000.
(...)
The amount of help-wanted advertising being placed across the country has
risen more than 10
percent since May, according to an index compiled by the Conference Board,
a research company in
New York. In early January, Americans reported being more confident about
the economy than they had
been (...).
Editor's Note: How do we know that these figures are not the result of
Enron-style accounting? The
economic incentive certainly is there.

* Even for Experts, Analyzing the Job Market Is an Adventure, David
Leonhardt  , 04/01/21, NYTimes


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02. Economic Geography And International Inequality , J. Int. Economics

Abstract: This paper estimates a structural model of economic geography
using cross-country data on
per capita income, bilateral trade, and the relative price of manufacturing
goods. We provide
evidence that the geography of access to markets and sources of supply is
statistically significant
and quantitatively important in explaining cross-country variation in per
capita income. This
finding is robust to controlling for a wide range of considerations,
including other economic,
geographical, social, and institutional characteristics. Geography is found
to matter through the
mechanisms emphasized by the theory, and the estimated coefficients are
consistent with plausible
values for the model's structural parameters.

* Economic Geography And International Inequality, S. Redding
s.j.redding@lse.ac.uk , A. J.
Venables a.j.venables@lse.ac.uk , 2003/11/04, DOI:
10.1016/j.jinteco.2003.07.001, Journal of
International Economics
* Contributed by Pritha Das


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03. Baby Arithmetic: One Object Plus One Tone , Cognition

Abstract: Recent studies using a violation-of-expectation task suggest that
preverbal infants are
capable of recognizing basic arithmetical operations involving visual
objects. Here we provide new
evidence that 5-month-old infants recognize basic arithmetic operations
across sensory modalities.
Using a violation-of-expectation task that eliminated the possibility of
the familiarity and
complexity preference, 5-month-old infants were presented alternatively
with two types of
arithmetical events. Results showed that subjects looked ignificantly
longer at the unexpected
events than at the expected events, suggesting that infants are able to
recognize basic arithmetic
operations across sensory modalities.

* Baby Arithmetic: One Object Plus One Tone, T. Kobayashi
tessei@darwin.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp , K. Hiraki
  , R. Mugitani  , T. Hasegawaa , 2003/11/13, DOI:
10.1016/j.cognition.2003.09.004, Cognition
* Contributed by Pritha Das


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04. Is Language the Key to Human Intelligence? , Science

Excerpts: Humans have acquired six symbol systems: two that evolved--the
genetic code and spoken
language--and four that we invented: written language, arabic numerals,
music notation, and
labanotation (a system for coding choreography). Dobzhansky's quip "All
species are unique, but
humans are uniquest" raises the question: Is it language, the symbol system
that evolved only in
humans, that makes humans the "uniquest"? Dobzhansky's quip raises a more
fundamental question:
What exactly is the nature of human uniqueness?

* Is Language the Key to Human Intelligence?, David Premack , 04/01/16,
Science: 318-320


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04.01. Computational Constraints on Syntactic Processing in a Nonhuman
Primate , Science

Abstract: The capacity to generate a limitless range of meaningful
expressions from a finite set of
elements differentiates human language from other animal communication
systems. Rule systems
capable of generating an infinite set of outputs ("grammars") vary in
generative power. The weakest
possess only local organizational principles, with regularities limited to
neighboring units. We
used a familiarization/discrimination paradigm to demonstrate that monkeys
can spontaneously master
such grammars. However, human language entails more sophisticated grammars,
incorporating
hierarchical structure. Monkeys tested with the same methods, syllables,
and sequence lengths were
unable to master a grammar at this higher, "phrase structure grammar" level.

* Computational Constraints on Syntactic Processing in a Nonhuman Primate,
W. Tecumseh Fitch  ,
Marc D. Hauser , 04/01/16, Science: 377-380.


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05. The Machine That Invents , St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Excerpts: "His first patent was for a Device for the Autonomous Generation
of Useful
Information," the official name of the Creativity Machine, Miller said. "His
second patent was for the Self-Training Neural Network Object. Patent Number
Two was invented by Patent Number One. Think about that. Patent Number Two
was invented by Patent Number One!"

Supporters say the technology is the best simulation of what goes on
in human brains, and the first truly thinking machine.

Others say it is something far more sinister - the beginning of "Terminator"
technology, in which self-aware machines could take over the world.

Thaler's technology was born from near-death experiences of dying computer
programs. Its foundation is the discovery that great ideas are the result of
noisy neurons and faulty memories.

* The Machine That Invents, Tina Hesman
  , 04/01/25, St. Louis Post-Dispatch


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05.01. Does Observation Influence Learning? , Games and Economic Behavior

Abstract: A common value auction experiment is run to compare the relative
influence of observation
and experience on learning. It is shown that the ex-post observation of
opponents' actions and
payoffs homogenizes behavior and accelerates learning toward the Nash
equilibrium. Additionally,
experiential, and observational learning are both relevant and of
comparable magnitude. A general
reinforcement model for continuous strategies, encompassing choice
reinforcement learning,
direction learning and payoff dependent imitation, performs well in
explaining the experimental
data, and it dominates competing models such as the reinforcement of best
response strategies.

* Does Observation Influence Learning?, O. Armantier
olivier.armantier@sunysb.edu , online
2003/11/21, DOI: 10.1016/S0899-8256(03)00124-6, Games & Econ. Behav.
* Contributed by Pritha Das


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06. Engineering Google Results to Make a Point , NYTimes

Excerpts: Time was - say, two months ago - when typing the phrase
"miserable failure" into the
Google search box produced an unexpected result: the White House's official
biography of President
George W. Bush.

But now the president has a fight on his hands for the top ranking - from
former President Jimmy
Carter, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and the author-filmmaker Michael Moore.

The unlikely electoral battle is being waged through "Google bombing," or
manipulating the Web's
search engines to produce, in this case, political commentary.

* Engineering Google Results to Make a Point, TOM Mcnichol  , 04/01/22, NYTimes


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06.01. For a Fee, Wind Up Atop the Search Heap , NYTimes

Excerpts: As Internet users seek to differentiate themselves from people
who share their names,
some are buying their way to prominence on Google, Yahoo and other search
engines. The added
exposure comes courtesy of keyword advertising, in which marketers - or
common folk, for that
matter - bid to have brief advertisements appear atop or beside search
results whenever Internet
users type in certain words.

Most commonly, that means users who type the phrase "airline tickets" into
a search box on Google
or Yahoo will see a prominent text ad (...).

* For a Fee, Wind Up Atop the Search Heap, Bob Tedeschi  , 04/01/22, NYTimes


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06.02. A Memory Model For Internet Hits After Media Exposure , Physica A

Abstract: We present a cognitive model (...) on download relaxation
dynamics. We collected data on
the number of daily visits at our web site after a radio interview with the
second author, in which
the name of the web site was mentioned. A model based on an exponential hit
time distribution and a
homogeneous point process for regular visitors fits our data (...) and is
superior to both the
power law and the logarithmic function. The fits suggest that hit data from
different sources share
the same cognitive mechanism, which are controlled merely by the encoding
and retrieval of the
target information memorised.

* A Memory Model For Internet Hits After Media Exposure, A. G. Chessa
achessa@fmg.uva.nl , J. M. J.
Murre , online 2003/11/07, DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2003.10.037, Physica A:
Statistical Mechanics and
its Applications
* Contributed by Atin Das


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06.03. Measuring User Perceptions Of Web Site Reputation , Info. Processing
& Manag.

Abstract: In this study, we compare a search tool, TOPIC, with three other
widely used tools that
retrieve information from the Web: AltaVista, Google, and Lycos. These
tools use different
techniques for outputting and ranking Web sites: external link structure
(TOPIC and Google) and
semantic content analysis (AltaVista and Lycos). Metrics derived from
reputation research were used
in the assessment (...) identify a key factor, which we call `repute'. The
results of this research
include insight into the factors that Web users consider in formulating
perceptions of Web site
reputation, and insight into which search tools are outputting reputable
sites for Web users.

* Measuring User Perceptions Of Web Site Reputation, E. G. Toms
toms@fis.utoronto.ca , A. R. Taves
, 2003/10/04, DOI: 10.1016/j.ipm.2003.08.007, Information Processing &
Management
* Contributed by Atin Das


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06.04. A Day In The Life Of Web Searching: An Exploratory Study , Info.
Processing & Manag.

Abstract: Understanding Web searching behavior is important in developing
more successful and
cost-efficient Web search engines. We provide results from a comparative
time-based Web study of
US-based Excite and Norwegian-based Fast Web search logs, exploring
variations in user searching
related to changes in time of the day. Findings suggest: (1) fluctuations
in Web user behavior over
the day, (2) user investigations of query results are much longer, and
submission of queries and
number of users are much higher in the mornings, and (3) some query
characteristics, including
terms per query and query reformulation, remain steady throughout the day.

* A Day In The Life Of Web Searching: An Exploratory Study, S. Ozmutlu
seda@uludag.edu.tr , A.
Spink spink@ist.psu.edu , H. C. Ozmutlu hco@uludag.edu.tr , 2003/07/08, DOI:
10.1016/S0306-4573(03)00044-X, Information Processing & Management
* Contributed by Atin Das


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07. Mutating Software Could Predict Hacker Attacks , NewScientist

Excerpts: Novel computer viruses and worms can sweep the world within
hours, (...), because
firewalls and antiviral software work by identifying the telltale
signatures of known attacks. They
are useless against anything completely new.

But now software engineers at Icosystem in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have
developed a program that
can predict what is coming next by "evolving" future hacker and virus
attacks based on information
from known ones.(...)
The idea would be to generate these novel attack strategies centrally, then
remotely update the
intrusion-detection software protecting PCs and networks around the world.

* Mutating Software Could Predict Hacker Attacks, Will Knight  , 04/01/21,
New Scientist


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07.01. Device 'Quarantines' Infected Network Computers , NewScientist

Excerpts: A new device that quarantines different portions of a computer
network could stop worms
and viruses infecting an entire company once they have breached its
perimeter defences.

The InterSpect system, unveiled by California-based network security
company Check Point on
Tuesday, monitors network traffic for signs of suspicious activity. It can
then automatically
isolate a single computer or a group of machines to prevent wider
infection. (...) once one
computer has been infected, there is normally little to prevent it from
spreading viral code to
every other machine on the network.

* Device 'Quarantines' Infected Network Computers, Will Knight  , 04/01/21,
New Scientist


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08. Cascade Control in Complex Networks , arXiv

Abstract: Complex networks with a skewed distribution of loads may undergo
a global cascade of
overload failures when key elements of the network are attacked or removed.
Since a small shock has
potential to trigger a global cascade, a fundamental question regards the
possible mechanisms of
defense. Here we show that a selective further removal of network elements
can be used to prevent
the cascade from propagating through the entire network, substantially
reducing the damage caused
by the attack or failure.

* Cascade Control in Complex Networks, Adilson E. Motter , 2003-01-07, DOI:
cond-mat/0401074, arXiv
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson


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08.01. Internet's Critical Path Horizon , arXiv

Abstract: Internet is known to display a highly heterogeneous structure and
complex fluctuations in
its traffic dynamics. Congestion seems to be an inevitable result of user's
behavior coupled to the
network dynamics and it effects should be minimized by choosing appropriate
routing strategies. But
what are the requirements of routing depth in order to optimize the traffic
flow? In this paper we
analyse the behavior of Internet traffic with a topologically realistic
spatial structure as
described in a previous study (S-H. Yook et al. ,Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA,
{bf 99} (2002) 13382).
The model involves self-regulation of packet generation and different
levels of routing depth. It
is shown that it reproduces the relevant key, statistical features of
Internet's traffic. Moreover,
we also report the existence of a critical path horizon defining a
transition from low-efficient
traffic to highly efficient flow. This transition is actually a direct
consequence of the web's
small world architecture exploited by the routing algorithm. Once routing
tables reach the network
diameter, the traffic experiences a sudden transition from a low-efficient
to a highly-efficient
behavior. It is conjectured that routing policies might have spontaneously
reached such a
compromise in a distributed manner. Internet would thus be operating close
to such critical path
horizon.

* Internet's Critical Path Horizon, Sergi Valverde , Ricard V. Sol?,
2003-01-15, DOI:
cond-mat/0401270, arXiv
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson


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09. Making Way for Designer Insects , Washington Post

Excerpts: The insect world could shortly undergo a genetic makeover in the
laboratory. Scientists
are at work developing silkworms that produce pharmaceuticals instead of
silk, honeybees resilient
enough to resist pesticides and even mosquitoes capable of delivering
vaccines, instead of disease,
with every bite.



A new report scheduled for release this morning warns that the issues posed
by gene-altered insects
are so complex that unless federal agencies begin now to design methods of
oversight, the necessary
rules may not be in place when scientists are ready to start releasing
insects into the
environment.

* Making Way for Designer Insects, Justin Gillis  , 04/01/22, Washington Post


_________________________________________________________________

09.01. Do Plants Act Like Computers? , Natue Science update

Excerpts: Plants appear to 'think', according to US researchers, who say
that green plants engage
in a form of problem-solving computation.


David Peak and co-workers at Utah State University in Logan say that plants
may regulate their
uptake and loss of gases by 'distributed computation' - a kind of
information processing that
involves communication between many interacting units1.


It's the same form of maths that is widely thought to regulate how ants
forage. The signals that
each ant sends out to other ants, by laying down chemical trails for
example, enable the ant
community as a whole to find the most abundant food sources.

http://www.nature.com/nsu/040119/images/stomata_180.jpg
Tiny holes in plant leaves open and close thanks to quick computations.
?SPL

* Do Plants Act Like Computers?, Philip Ball  , 04/01/21, Nature Science Update


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10. Tumour Suppression: Putting On The Brakes , Nature

Excerpts: The question then is not what induces cells to multiply, but what
restrains them from
doing so. Leaving aside conceptually unproblematic factors such as external
toxicity, there appears
to be only one process that represses cell multiplication under
physiological conditions, and that
is differentiation. Differentiation determines tissue specificity, and in
doing so, it may suppress
multiplication altogether, as it largely does in the central nervous
system. Alternatively, it may
permit multiplication to continue, but under severely restricted and
regulated conditions, as in
the intestine or the bone marrow. In the extreme case, it can even
encompass the elimination of the
cell nucleus or programmed cell death.

* Tumour Suppression: Putting On The Brakes, Henry Harris  , DOI:
10.1038/427201a, Nature 427, 201
(15 January 2004)


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11. Stem Cells React - Cell Lineages As Complex Adaptive Systems ,
Experimental Hematology

Abstract: It may be argued that adult stem cell processes or, more
precisely, the cell lineages
that arise from them, represent complex reactive or adaptive systems.
Approaching hematopoietic and
other stem cell lineages from this perspective has direct bearing on
current debates regarding the
plasticity of these lineage systems as well as on interpretation and
modeling of clinical data
regarding many diseases.

* Stem Cells React - Cell Lineages As Complex Adaptive Systems, Neil D.
Theise  , 04/01, DOI:
10.1016/j.exphem.2003.10.012, Experimental Hematology, Volume 32, Issue 1,
Pages 25-27


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11.01. Self-Assembling Scaffold For Spinal-Cord Repair , Natue Science update

Excerpts: When the solution is injected into a damaged rodent spinal cord,
it turns into a gel-like
solid, says Stupp. The scaffold is designed to disintegrate after four to
six weeks, hopefully
leaving healthy spinal cord behind. (...)

The liquid is made up of negatively charged molecules. Normally, they repel
one another and keep
the substance in liquid form. But when the fluid encounters positively
charged molecules - such as
the calcium or sodium ions found in living tissue - they clump together.
"The effect happens almost
instantly," (...).

* Self-Assembling Scaffold For Spinal-Cord Repair, Helen R. Pilcher  ,
04/01/23, Nature Science
update


_________________________________________________________________

12. Big Chill Killed Off The Neanderthals , NewScientist

Excerpts:


The last ice age



The Gravettians appeared in eastern Europe 29,000 to 30,000 years ago
complete with flash new
tools, such as javelin-like throwing spears and fishing nets, which allowed
them to catch a greater
range of prey.

They also had clothing to keep the cold out, such as sewn furs and woven
textiles, and possibly
more specialised social structures. Their ability to tough out the colder
climes dominating Europe
18,000 to 25,000 years ago revitalised the human population.

The Neanderthals, however, without either new blood or new technology,
found it impossible to
survive (...).

* Big Chill Killed Off The Neanderthals, Douglas Palmer  , 04/01/21,
NewScientist.com


_________________________________________________________________

12.01. Climate Test Sets Sail , Natue Science update

Excerpts: http://www.nature.com/nsu/040119/images/plankton_180.jpg
Phytoplankton suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

?P. Assmy

Researchers have embarked on a test to see whether dumping iron into the
ocean can help remove
carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, possibly alleviating global warming.


The controversial idea has been tested in small-scale projects before. But
it has never been clear
whether it would actually work, in part because it is difficult to track
exactly what happens to
the ecosystem after iron is added to the water. Now scientists intend to
watch a large patch of
ocean for a relatively long period of time in an attempt to find out.


The iron is expected to feed the growth of phytoplankton - single-celled
algae that live in the
sunlit upper layers of the sea - in areas where they are limited by little
natural iron in the
water.

* Climate Test Sets Sail, Anna Wellmann  , 04/01/26, Nature Science update


_________________________________________________________________

12.02. The Architecture Of The Climate Network , Physica A

Abstract: We consider climate as a network of many dynamical systems and
apply ideas from graph
theory to a global data set to study its collective behavior. We find that
the network has
properties of `small-world' networks. (...) reveals that the overall
dynamics emerge from the
interaction of two interweaved subnetworks. The tropical one is an almost
fully connected network,
whereas the mid-latitude one is more like a scale-free network
characterized by dominant super
nodes, and multifractal properties. This unique architecture may lead to
new insights (...) of
other spatially extended complex systems with a large number of degrees of
freedom.

* The Architecture Of The Climate Network, A. A. Tsonis aatsonis@uwm.edu ,
P. J. Roebber , online
2003/11/14, DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2003.10.045, Physica A: Statistical
Mechanics and its Applications
* Contributed by Atin Das


_________________________________________________________________

13. Self-Organized Pedestrian Crowd Dynamics and Design Solutions , Traffic
Forum

Abstract: We present empirical results of pedestrian streams in normal and
panic-like situations
gained from video recordings. It turns out that the geometric boundary
conditions are not only
relevant for the capacity of the elements of pedestrian facilities. They
also influence the time
gap distribution of pedestrians, indicating the existence of
self-organization phenomena. For
example, when two pedestrian streams intersect, the formation of moving
stripes is observed. This
findings can be used to improve design elements of pedestrian facilities
and egress routes. For
example, we propose to use ``obstacles'' to stabilize flow patterns and to
make them more fluid.
Moreover, we suggest increasing diameters of egress routes in stadia,
theaters and lecture halls to
avoid overproportional waiting times for people in the back and shock waves
due to impatience. In
addition, zick-zack-shaped geometries and columns can reduce the pressure
in panicking crowds. The
proposed design solutions are expected to increase the efficiency and
safety of train stations,
airport terminals, stadia, theaters, public buildings, passenger ships, and
mass events in the
future.

* Self-Organized Pedestrian Crowd Dynamics and Design Solutions, D. Helbing
, L. Buzna , T. Werner
, 2003-12, DOI: trafficforum/03120401, Traffic Forum
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson


_________________________________________________________________

14. Quantum Computing in Neural Networks , arXiv

Abstract: According to the statistical interpretation of quantum theory,
quantum computers form a
distinguished class of probabilistic machines (PMs) by encoding n qubits in
2n pbits. This raises
the possibility of a large-scale quantum computing using PMs, especially
with neural networks which
have the innate capability for probabilistic information processing.
Restricting ourselves to a
particular model, we construct and numerically examine the performance of
neural circuits
implementing universal quantum gates. A discussion on the physiological
plausibility of proposed
coding scheme is also provided.

* Quantum Computing in Neural Networks, Przemyslaw Gralewicz , 2003-01-21,
DOI: quant-ph/0401127,
arXiv
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson


_________________________________________________________________

15. Action, Illusion, and Perception , Science

Excerpts: These investigators set out to tease apart the neural processes
in the brain that lead to
movement versus those related to the perception of that movement. To do
this, Schwartz et al. used
the classical approach of requiring different movements in response to the
same visual stimulus--in
other words, altering the mapping between visual input and motor output
[e.g., (2, 3)]. They asked
human subjects to trace, using a hand-controlled cursor, a continuously
visible contour that was
either circular or ellipsoid. During tracing, subjects saw the cursor and
the target contour but
had no direct vision of their arm. On some trials, called illusion trials,
a mismatch was created
between the actual and visible arm trajectories by altering the gain of the
cursor along the
horizontal dimension only.

* Action, Illusion, and Perception, Jacqueline Gottlieb  , Pietro Mazzoni
, Science 2004 303: 317-318



_________________________________________________________________

15.01. Don't Imitate the Robot , Science Now

Excerpts: Being able to mimic the actions of others is an important skill,
and not just for budding
ballerinas and baseball players. It was critical for the development of
tool use in humans.
Research reported this week in Current Biology suggests that our ability to
imitate others is
hard-wired into our brains, but the use of tools isn't. (...)
So to test whether humans perceive nonbiological movement differently,
Umberto Castiello, a
neuroscientist at Royal Halloway, University of London, and colleagues used
positron emission
tomography (PET) to monitor the activity of people's mirror neurons while
watching someone either
grasp a cylinder or manipulate a robotic arm to do so. The robotic arm was
dressed and gloved to
look human, although the operator was visible to the subjects in the
experiment.

* Don't Imitate the Robot, John Bohannon  , 04/01/21, Science Now


_________________________________________________________________

16. 'Sleeping On It' Really Can Solve Problems , NewScientist

Excerpts:
* 'Sleeping On It' Really Can Solve Problems, Andy Coghlan  , 04/01/21,
NewScientist.com


_________________________________________________________________

16.01. Sleep Boosts Lateral Thinking , Natue Science update

Excerpts: (...) presented subjects with a series of numbers. They gave
participants a simple rule
with which to generate a second string of numbers from the first, and asked
them to deduce the
final digit in this sequence. However, they didn't tell them about a hidden
shortcut that allowed
the final digit to be calculated almost immediately. People who tackled the
problem in the evening
and returned refreshed after eight hours' sleep were more than twice as
likely to spot the shortcut
as those who had stayed awake.

* Sleep Boosts Lateral Thinking, Michael Hopkin  , 04/01/22, Nature Science
update


_________________________________________________________________

16.02. Evidence That Memories Are Consolidated During Sleep , ScienceDaily

Excerpts: By exposing rats to novel objects and measuring their brain
signals, Duke University
researchers have detected telltale signal reverberations in wide areas of
the brain during sleep
that reveal the process of consolidating memories. (...) findings offer
important evidence that
extensive regions of the brain are involved in processing memories during a
particular form of
sleep, called slow-wave sleep. (...) and also establishes roles for both
slow-wave sleep and rapid
eye movement (REM) sleep in memory consolidation. Slow-wave sleep is a deep
dreamless sleep, and
REM sleep is associated with dreaming.

* Evidence That Memories Are Consolidated During Sleep, 2004/01/19,
ScienceDaily & Duke University
Medical Center
* Contributed by Atin Das


_________________________________________________________________

16.03. For A Bigger Brain, Juggle , The Age

Excerpts: Juggling and probably other visual skills that take time to
master increase the size of
your brain.
(...)

University of Regensburg neurologist Arne May and colleagues asked 12
people in their early 20s,
most of them women, to learn a classic three-ball juggling trick over three
months until they could
sustain a performance for at least a minute.

Another 12 were a "control" group who did not juggle.

All the volunteers were given a brain scan with magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI) at the start of
the program, and a second after three months.

After this, the juggling group were told not to practice their skills at
all for three months, and
then a third scan was taken of all 24 volunteers.

The scans found that learning to juggle increased by about three per cent
the volume of "grey
matter" in the mid-temporal area and left posterior intra-parietal sulcus,
which are parts of the
left hemisphere of the brain that process data from visual motion.

* For A Bigger Brain, Juggle, 04/01/21, The Age


_________________________________________________________________

17. Achieving Balance in Body, Soul and Trigger Finger , NY Times

Excerpts: Most video games aim to amuse, but The Journey to the Wild
Divine: The Passage, (...),
wants to change your life and bring your mind, soul and body into alignment.

(...) a biofeedback device that measures your heart rate and perspiration.
Instead of the eye-hand
coordination central to many games, Divine asks for mind-body coordination.
To make a ball float in
the air, the player must relax; moving a boat across the water requires a
speeding pulse. In other
places you must breathe evenly while concentrating on your heartbeat.

* Achieving Balance in Body, Soul and Trigger Finger, Charles Herold  ,
04/01/22, NYTimes


_________________________________________________________________

18. Democracy at Risk , NY Times

Excerpts: The disputed election of 2000 left a lasting scar on the nation's
psyche. (...) in red
states, which voted for George W. Bush, 32 percent of the public believes
that the election was
stolen. In blue states, the fraction is 44 percent.

Now imagine this: in November the candidate trailing in the polls wins an
upset victory ?but all
of the districts where he does much better than expected use touch-screen
voting machines.
Meanwhile, leaked internal e-mail from the companies that make these
machines suggests widespread
error, and possibly fraud.

* Democracy at Risk, Paul Krugman  , 04/01/23, NYTimes


_________________________________________________________________

18.01. Arabs Slam U.S. Over Democracy , Reuters

Excerpts: At a public debate at the World Economic Forum in Davos, senior
figures from Saudi
Arabia, Egypt and Iran accused the Bush administration of ignoring Israeli
weapons of mass
destruction and human rights abuses towards Palestinians while pressuring
Arab and Muslim states to
disarm and democratise. (...)

He complained that the United States talked about promoting democracy in
the Middle East yet
refused to recognise one of the few democratically elected leaders in the
region, Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat.
(...) democracy could not be imposed by force (...)
Editor's Note: There are a growing number of indicators suggesting the
emergence of instabilities
in the democratic form of government (not only in the US and the Middle
East). That sounds similar
to what was already described in
Plato's Republic 360 B.C.E.

* Arabs Slam U.S. Over Democracy, Paul Taylor  , 04/01/23, Reuters


_________________________________________________________________

19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks





_________________________________________________________________

19.01. Has U.S. War in Iraq Slowed War on Terror? , Brookings/The Baltimore Sun

Excerpts: Has the war to overthrow Saddam Hussein distracted the United
States from more pressing
matters, most notably the global war against al-Qaida?

(...) Given that we are in a political season, people's opinions on this
question tend to follow
their partisan views. Rather than simply offering a yes/no answer, it seems
more useful to
construct a framework for evaluating this complicated question in an
analytical way.(...)

The United States has used about half of the Army and about one-third of
the Marine Corps at any
one time in the Iraq war, (...).

* Has U.S. War in Iraq Slowed War on Terror?, Michael E. O'Hanlon  ,
04/01/18, Brookings/The
Baltimore Sun


_________________________________________________________________

19.02. Lie-Detector Glasses Offer Peek At Future Of Security , EE Times

Excerpts: Nemesysco's patented Poly-Layered Voice Analysis measures 18
parameters of speech in
real-time for interrogators at police, military and secret-services
agencies. According to
Nemesysco, its accuracy as a lie detector has proven to be less important
than its ability to more
quickly pinpoint for interrogators where there are problems in a subject's
story. Officers then can
zero in much more quickly with their traditional interrogation techniques.


V Entertainment is leveraging the concept to let consumers in on the truth
telling, eyeing such
applications as a lie detector that could be used while watching, say, the
2004 presidential
debates on TV.

* Lie-Detector Glasses Offer Peek At Future Of Security, R. Colin
Johnson  , 04/01/16, EE Times


_________________________________________________________________

20. Links & Snippets





_________________________________________________________________

20.01. Other Publications



- Special Attention Network, J. O. Indekeu
joseph.indekeu@fys.kuleuven.ac.be , online 2003/11/27,
Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, DOI:
10.1016/j.physa.2003.10.081
- Financial Earthquakes, Aftershocks And Scaling In Emerging Stock Markets,
F. Selçuk
faruk@bilkent.edu.tr , online 2003/11/19, Physica A: Statistical Mechanics
and its Applications,
DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2003.10.060
- Constraints On Muscular Performance: Trade-Offs Between Power Output And
Fatigue-Resistance, R.
S. Wilson  , R. S. James , 2004/01/19, Alphagalileo & Biology Letters
- Ancient Lakes As Evolutionary Reservoirs: Evidence From The Thalassoid
Gastropods Of Lake
Tanganyika, A. B. Wilson  , M. Glaubrecht  , A. Meyer , 2004/01/19,
Alphagalileo & Proceedings
Biological Sciences
- Motor Mechanisms Of A Vocal Mimic: Implications For Birdsong Production,
S. A. Zollinger  , R. A.
Suthers , 2004/01/19, Alphagalileo & Proceedings Biological Sciences
- To Age Or Not To Age, P. D. Sozou  , R. M. Seymour , 2004/01/19,
Alphagalileo & Proceedings
Biological Sciences
- The Mathematics Of Motion Camouflage, P. A. Glendinning , 2004/01/19,
Alphagalileo & Proceedings
Biological Sciences
- Scientists Create Chip That Detects Viruses Faster, Better And Cheaper
Than Ever Before, D. Reid
david.reid@iop.org , 2004/01/20, Alphagalileo
- Primates Trade Smell For Sight, 2004/01/20, ScienceDaily & Public Library
Of Science
- Human Migration Tracked In Stanford Computer Simulation, 2004/01/22,
ScienceDaily & Stanford
University Medical Center
- UCSD Researchers Describe Cell Activity Leading To Disruption Of Neuron
Migration, 2004/01/22,
ScienceDaily & University Of California - San Diego
- A Mathematical Model Of Motorneuron Dynamics In The Heartbeat Of The
Leech, P.-L. Buono  , A.
Palacios palacios@euler.sdsu.edu , 2003/12/01, Physica D: Nonlinear
Phenomena, DOI:
10.1016/j.physd.2003.08.003
- Putting The Pieces Back Together Again: An Illustration Of The Problem Of
Interpreting
Development Indicators Using An African Case Study, S. Morse
s.morse@reading.ac.uk , online
2003/12/05, Applied Geography, DOI: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2003.10.002
- Learning With Perfect Information, P. Dubey pradeepkdubey@yahoo.com , O.
Haimanko
orih@bgumail.bgu.ac.il , online 2003/11/21, Games & Econ. Behav., DOI:
10.1016/S0899-8256(03)00127-1
- Exploration of Scale-free Networks, Thomas Petermann, Paolo De Los Rios ,
2004-01-06, arXiv, DOI:
cond-mat/0401065
- Quantitative Patterns in the Structure of Model and Empirical Food Webs,
J. Camacho , R. Guimera
, D. B. Stouffer , L. A. N. Amaral , 2004-01-16, arXiv, DOI: q-bio.PE/0401023
- Host-Parasite Co-evolution and Optimal Mutation Rates for
Semi-conservative Quasispecies, Yisroel
Brumer , Eugene I. Shakhnovich , 2003-01-20, arXiv, DOI: q-bio.PE/0401026
- Experts Demand 'Cowboy Cloners' Ban, 04/01/21, BBC News,



  Human cloning is condemned by many experts





Lord Robert May, president of the Royal Society, said "cowboy cloners"
caused great public anxiety
and should be stopped.
- U.S. Stalls U.N. Plan to Fight Obesity, Stephanie Nebehay  , 04/01/20,
Reuters
- Spirit Finds Puzzling Mix of Minerals, Leonard David  , 04/01/20, Space.com
- How Fluoride Firms Up Teeth, Mark Peplow , 04/01/22, Computer models show
that fluoride locks
calcium into your pearly whites.Nature Science update
- Audience Charmed By The Paranormal, John Whitfield  , 04/01/22, Nature
Science update
- Federal Remote Voting System Called Flawed, 04/01/22, CNN
- Announcing The Release Of Multi-Value Discrete Dynamics Lab, Tools for
researching discrete
dynamical networks -
from Cellular Automata to Random Boolean Networks and beyond.Contributed
by  Andy Wuensche
- "Structural Vulnerability of the North American Power Grid", Reka Albert
, Istvan Albert , Gary
L. Nakarado
- "Playing with sandpiles", Michael Creutz
- Evolving a Stigmergic Self-Organized Data-Mining , Vitorino Ramos , Ajith
Abraham , preprint
submitted by author
- New York City In 2050 , This hour, we'll take a look at New York City in
the year 2050, after a
century of human-induced climate change. What will a warming planet mean
for this city and its
people? Plus, can sustainable design--from green office buildings to green
roofs--ensure a better
future for the Big Apple?
- Fossil Find Is Oldest Land Animal, 04/01/21, Experts say a fossil found
on an Aberdeenshire beach
is that of the oldest creature ever to live on land.
BBC
- US Wants Changes To Obesity Plan, US officials have demanded the World
Health Organization
reconsider plans to tackle global obesity rates.
- Web Lifeline For Iraqi Academics, 04/01/21, Iraqi academics are using the
power of the web to
help rebuild their country's intellectual power.
BBC
- 'No Cosmic Ray Climate Effects', 01/04/24, Human activities rather than
cosmic rays are the main
cause of global warming, scientists say.
- Gates Forecasts Victory Over Spam, 04/01/24, The Microsoft boss says spam
e-mail will soon be a
thing of the past, and praises rival Google at the WEF in Davos.
Tim Weber
BBC
- Text Messaging Reaches New High, Last year was yet another
record-breaking year for text
messaging, and this year is set to be bigger.
- Cuba Law Tightens Internet Access, The Cuban Government introduces a new
law making it impossible
for many Cubans to access the internet.
- Pentagon E-Voting Plan 'Flawed', 04/01/22, BBC News
- Science on Stage , From Proof to Copenhagen, plays starring science have
met with critical
acclaim. But what makes for a good science drama? In this hour, we'll look
at how science is being
brought to the stage. Have we moved beyond the stereotype of the
crazy-haired professor? Plus,
we'll hear songs from two science musicals: Fermat's Last Tango
andEinstein's Dreams.
- Delays and Split on Iraqi Council Imperil U.S. Plan, Edward Wong , A
powerful cleric's demand for
quick elections could disrupt the timetable for a transfer of power to an
Iraqi government.
- More and More Autism Cases, Yet Causes Are Much Debated, Erica Goode , An
upsurge in childhood
autism cases has led to calls for more research and government spending,
but what lies behind the
increase is sharply debated.
- Cheney Calls for More Unity in Fight Against Terrorism, Eric Schmitt,
Mark Landler , Speaking on
Saturday at an international conference in Davos, Switzerland, Vice
President Dick Cheney sought to
patch up strains with European allies.
- The Tyranny of Copyright?, Robert S. Boynton , Is copyright law curbing
our freedoms and making
it harder to create anything new? This could be the first new social
movement of the century.
- Politics of the Web: Meet, Greet, Segregate, Meet Again, Amy Harmon ,
Online political discussion
has become so fragmented that some public policy scolds warn that the
Internet may be narrowing the
spectrum of debate.
- War of Ideas, Part 6, Thomas L. Friedman , It is impossible for us to
talk about winning the war
of ideas in the Arab-Muslim world without talking about jobs.
- Ten major medical advances you're likely to see in the coming year, Tara
Parker-Pope, The Wall
Street Journal
- No Foolproof Way Is Seen to Contain Altered Genes, Andrew Pollack  ,
04/01/21, NYTimes
- Fossil Find Breaks Age Record, Michael Hopkin , 04/01/27, Scottish
millipede represents earliest
known air-breathing animal.Nature Science update
- Spatiotemporal Resonances in Mixing of Open Viscous Fluids, F. Okkels ,
P. Tabeling,  , Phys.
Rev. Lett. 92, 038301 (2004)
- Why Libya Gave Up on the Bomb, Flynt Leverett , 04/01/23, NYTimes
- Realities of Labor, Nicholas D. Kristof  , 04/01/14, NYTimes Audio Slideshow
- Self-Assembly of Mesoscopic Metal-Polymer Amphiphiles, Sungho Park ,
Jung-Hyurk Lim , Sung-Wook
Chung , Chad A. Mirkin  , Science Jan 16 2004: 348-351
- As One Door Closes..., Geoff Brumfiel , David Cyranoski , Carina Dennis ,
Jim Giles , Hannah Hoag
, Quirin Schiermeier  , Nature 427, 190 - 195 (15 January 2004), DOI:
10.1038/427190a
- Bayesian Integration In Sensorimotor Learning , Konrad P. Körding ,
Daniel M. Wolpert  , Nature
427, 244 - 247 (15 January 2004), DOI: 10.1038/nature02169
- An Eye for a Nose, Science News, Vol. 165, No. 3, 04/01/17, Also
available in Audible  format.
- Marine Superglue: Mussels Get Stickiness From Iron In Seawater, Science
News, Vol. 165, No. 3,
04/01/17, Also available in Audible  format.
The secret behind the binding power of mussel glue lies in iron extracted
from seawater.
- 9/11's Fatal Road Toll: Terror Attacks Presaged Rise In U.S. Car Deaths,
Science News, Vol. 165,
No. 3, 04/01/17, Also available in Audible  format.
Federal data indicate that fear of flying after the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks caused a
second toll of lives on U.S. roads in the last three months of that year.
- Cheap Taste? Bowerbirds Go For Bargain Decor, Science News, Vol. 165, No.
3, 04/01/17, Also
available in Audible  format.
When male spotted bowerbirds collect sticks and other doodads to wow
females, they don't search for
the rare showpiece but go for the cheap trinket.
- When to Change Sex, Science News, Vol. 165, No. 3, 04/01/17, Also
available in Audible  format.
A research team contends that animals that routinely change sex, even those
prompted by mate loss
or other social cues, tend to do so when they reach 72 percent of their
maximum size.
- Fear Not, Science News, Vol. 165, No. 3, 04/01/17, Also available in
Audible  format.
- Electronic Skin Senses Touch, Science News, Vol. 165, No. 3, 04/01/17,
Also available in Audible
format.
A pressure-detecting membrane laminated onto a sheet of flexible plastic
electronics may lead to
artificial skin for robots.
- Tapping Sun's Light And Heat To Make Hydrogen, Science News, Vol. 165,
No. 3, 04/01/17, Also
available in Audible  format.
Researchers have demonstrated a highly efficient means of splitting water
molecules to generate
hydrogen fuel.
- Nanowires Grow On Viral Templates, Science News, Vol. 165, No. 3,
04/01/17, Also available in
Audible  format.
Researchers are using viruses to assemble semiconducting nanowires-the
building blocks of future
electronic circuits.



_________________________________________________________________

20.02. Webcast Announcements



Voices of Public Intellectuals Lecture Series: Democracy's Response to the
Terrorist Threat
Now in its fifth year, the Radcliffe Institute Voices of Public
Intellectuals lecture series brings
issues affecting civic life to a public forum. This year's series of three
lectures features
experts in the study of terrorism and the prosecution of terrorists to
explore the effects of
terrorism on democracy. These lectures take place in Cambridge on February
26, March 4, and March
11 at 4 p.m.

World Economic Forum 2004, Davos, Switzerland

  Riding the Next Democratic Wave,
Al-Thani, Khan, Vike-Freiberga, Wade, Soros, Zakaria, World Economic Forum,
04/01/25
  The Future of Global Interdependence, Kharrazi, Held, Owens, Shourie,
Annan, Martin, Schwab, World
Economic Forum, 04/01/25

Why Victory Against Terrorism Demands Shared Values


The Process of Curricular Review: Redefining a World-Class Education,
Benedict Gross, Thomas
Bender, Harvard@home, 04/01/21, Dean of Harvard College Benedict Gross
discusses Harvard's first
comprehensive review of the undergraduate curriculum in almost 3 decades.
This program introduces
the process of curricular review by presenting two segmented lectures. The
first, by Dean Gross,
outlines the approach and considerations in undertaking the current review.
The second lecture,
presented by NYU Professor Thomas Bender, presents a historical perspective
on academic culture.

Cancer Biology , NPR Talk of the Nation, 04/01/16, How the spread of cancer
is like wound healing
gone awry.

    Tracking Ebola , NPR Talk of the Nation, 04/01/16, A new study might
help scientists predict
where Ebola may!
strike next.

    Animal Thought and Communication, NPR Talk of the Nation, 04/01/16,
How do animals think and communicate with each other? And what can studying
animals tell us about
the evolution of language in humans? In this hour, NPR's Ira Flatow and
guests look at thought and
communication in apes, gorillas and monkeys. What can non-human primates
tell us about
communication in humans?

  CODIS 2004, International Conference On Communications, Devices And
Intelligent Systems, 2004
Calcutta, India, 04/01/09-10
   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 Po
tential and Practicalities,
   Bucharest, Romania, 03/07/28-08/08
   ECAL 2003, 7th
   European Conference on Artificial Life, Dortmund, Germany,
   03/09/14-17
   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
   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


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


The O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, San Diego, CA, 04/02/09-12

  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

  11th Annual Winter Chaos Conference Dynamical Systems Thinking in Science
and Society, Stony
Creek, CT, USA, 04/03/12-14

  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

  6th German Workshop on Artificial Life 2004 (GWAL-6), Bamberg, Germany,
04/04/14-16

  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

  NKS
  (New Kind of Science) 2004 Conference and Minicourse,
  Boston, Massachusetts, 04/04/22-25

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


What Really Matters ?The Global Forum 2004, Santa Fe, NM, 04/05/02-040

  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

4th Intl Conf on
Fractals And Dynamic Systems In Geoscience, München, Germany, 04/05/19-22

  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

  ECC8
  Experimental Chaos Conference, Florence, Italy,
  04/06/14-17

  7th
Intl Conf on Linking Systems Thinking, Innovation,Quality, Entrepreneurship
and Environment
(STIQE),
MARIBOR, SLOVENIA, 04/06/24-26


NAACSOS 2004, North American Association for Computational Social and
Organizational Science,
Pittsburgh PA, 04/06/27-29


Statphys - Kolkata V An International Conference on Complex Networks:
Structure, Function and
Processes , Kolkata, India, 04/06/27-30


3rd Intl School Topics in Nonlinear Dynamics Discrete Dynamical Systems and
Applications , Urbino
(Italy), 04/07/07-09


  `Perspectives on Nonlinear Dynamics 2004 (PNLD-2004), Chennai, India,
04/07/12-15

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

  14th Annual International Conference The Society for Chaos Theory in
Psychology & Life Sciences ,
Milwaukee, WI, USA, 04/07/15-18

  3rd
Intl Conf Autonomous Agents & Multi-Agent Systems Conference (AAMAS 2004),
New York City,
04/07/19-23

7th
Intl Workshop on: Trust in Agent Societies , New York City, 04/07/19-20

  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

  SME 2004 Symposium on Modeling
  and Control of Economic Systems , University in Redlands, CA, 04/01/28-31

  6th
  International Mathematica Symposium (IMS 2004), Banff,
  Canada, 04/08/02-06

   Fractals and Natural Hazards at
32nd Intl Geological Congress (IGC), Florence, Italy, 04/08/20-28

  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
Verhulst 200 on Chaos, Brussels, BELGIUM, 04/09/16-18

  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

   TEDMED Conference ,
Charleston SC, 04/10/12-15

  Wolfram
  Technology Conference, Champaign, Illinois,
  04/10/21-23

  6th Intl Conf on Electronic Commerce
ICEC'2004: Towards A New Services Landscape,  Delft, The Netherlands,
04/10/25-27

   Complexity and Philosophy Workshop - 2-Day Conference ,  Rio de Janeiro,
04/11






_________________________________________________________________

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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