Complexity Digest 2004.15 

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. The New Soul of a Wealth Machine, Fortune
01.01. Spotlight On Richard T. Pascale About The Relevance Of Complexity
Science To Management, Emerald Now Spotlight, Emerald Now Spotlight
02. Internet2 May Change The Way Scientists Conduct Research, ScienceDaily
02.01. Turning Search Into a Science, Wired
03. What's Stopping You?: The Sources Of Political Constraints On International
Conflict Behavior, Int. Interactions
03.01. The Determinants Of Japanese Official Development Assistance In Africa,
Int. Interactions
03.02. The Economic Basis Of Cooperation: Tradeoffs Between Selfishness And
Generosity, Behav. Ecol.
04. Out of Hollywood, Rising Fascination With Video Games, NY Times
05. Learning to Forget, Science
06. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) Speech on Domestic Policy Issues, Brookings
Institution
07. Human Origins from Afar, The Scientist
08. The Other Half of the Brain, Scientific American
09. The Tyranny of Choice, Scientific American
10. Contextually Evoked Object-Specific Responses in Human Visual Cortex,
Science
11. Study Finds Link Between Television Viewing and Attention Problems in
Children, Children  Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle
11.01. The Role Of Human Parietal Cortex In Attention Networks, Brain
12. Neuroprotection Requires A Paradigm Shift In Drug Development, Nature
13. Fruit Fly Courtship Puts Neurons to Work, Science Now
13.01. Long-Term Persistence Of Song Performance Rules In Nightingales,
Behaviour
14. Monkey Business, Science News
15. Researchers Develop Electronic Nose For Multimedia, ScienceDaily
16. The Role Of Conformity In Foraging When Personal And Social Information
Conflict, Behav. Ecol.
17. Harnessing Nonlinearity: Predicting Chaotic Systems and Saving Energy in
Wireless Communication, Science
18. Nanomechanical Quantum Limits, Science
19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks 
19.01. Germans Free Moroccan Convicted of a 9/11 Role, NY Times
19.02. When U.S. Aided Insurgents, Did It Breed Future Terrorists?, NY Times
19.03. Inquiry Into Attack on the Cole in 2000 Missed 9/11 Clues, NY Times
19.04. Connecting the Dots -- Tracking Two Identified Terrorists, Orgnet.com
20. Links & Snippets 
20.01. Other Publications 
20.02. Webcast Announcements 
20.03. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements 

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01. The New Soul of a Wealth Machine , Fortune

Excerpts: In 50 years, human ingenuity has transformed the corporation from
towering hierarchy to adaptable network. (...) 
Human ingenuity has transformed the corporation in the past 50 years from
towering hierarchy to highly adaptable network. (...)
Indeed, any major company that's an industry leader has gotten
there in large part by advancing the state of the art in managing people
and resources. That makes the corporation the latest jewel in the crown
of human endeavor.

"(...) amazing inventions in history are not technology or products;
they're social inventions,"(...).
(...) it is the bridge between market mechanisms and democracy. It is the key
to the triumph of capitalist democracy."

* The New Soul of a Wealth Machine, Brent Schlender , 04/04/01, Fortune 
Contributed by  Dean LeBaron 
 




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01.01. Spotlight On Richard T. Pascale About The Relevance Of Complexity
Science To Management, Emerald Now Spotlight , Emerald Now Spotlight

Excerpts: Orthodoxies hinder change. Likewise, if values only favour the
positive (i.e. good news), and reject the bad, they prevent an organization
from seeing what  going on around it. However, if you listen to those close to
the oal face?(i.e. closest to the assembly line or the customer), they are
pretty reliable observers of how things really are. Tap that distributed
intelligence and you crack through the orthodoxies, norms and values that
impair learning.

Obstructive orthodoxies are not restricted to big companies.

* Spotlight On Richard T. Pascale About The Relevance Of Complexity Science To
Management, Emerald Now Spotlight, Richard T. Pascale , Sarah Powell  , 04/04,
Emerald Now Spotlight


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02. Internet2 May Change The Way Scientists Conduct Research , ScienceDaily

Excerpts: With the capability of Internet2 and a high bandwidth satellite link,
scientists, for the first time, were able to work on the ocean floor from the
comfort of their university laboratories. (...) describes how Internet2 could
change the way scientists conduct deep-sea research. Internet2 is a consortium
of 205 universities working with industry and the government to develop and
deploy an advanced Internet network that operates at 10 gigabits per second.
"scientists using remotely-operated vehicles (ROVs) connected to Internet2
could spend an unlimited about of time on the bottom and share, in real-time,
their observations with colleagues around the world."

* Internet2 May Change The Way Scientists Conduct Research, 2004/04/06,
ScienceDaily & University Of Rhode Island
* Contributed by Atin Das 


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02.01. Turning Search Into a Science , Wired

Excerpts: Scirus is a search engine for scientists that allows them to dig
through not just scientific journals, but also unpublished research, university
websites, corporate Internet sites, conference agendas and minutes, discussion
groups and mailing-list archives. (...)
Scirus mines 167 million scientific Web pages to get query results. The
technology uses linguistic analysis to rank the results, with the highest
scientific value at the top. Scirus has been around since April 2001, and its
popularity has been slowly but steadily growing.

* Turning Search Into a Science, Kristen Philipkoski  , 04/04/08, Wired


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03. What's Stopping You?: The Sources Of Political Constraints On International
Conflict Behavior , Int. Interactions

Abstract: (...) we focus on the heterogeneity of established parliamentary
democracies and investigate the effects of their domestic constraints on
international conflict behavior. We emphasize leaders' vulnerability to removal
from office and how this vulnerability varies across democracies as a function
of (...) 1) its political position, that is, whether a government is "right" or
"left"; and 2) its structural complexity. We present a model of the
relationship between levels of conflict and leaders' vulnerability to removal
from office. Our evidence indicates that structural complexity is largely
unrelated to the likelihood of either involvement in or escalation of
militarized interstate disputes.

* What's Stopping You?: The Sources Of Political Constraints On International
Conflict Behavior In Parliamentary Democracies, G. Palmer  , T. R. London  , P.
M. Regan , Jan.-Mar. 2004 International Interactions
* Contributed by Pritha Das 


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03.01. The Determinants Of Japanese Official Development Assistance In Africa ,
Int. Interactions

Abstract: This study seeks to explain the variation in Japanese official
development assistance (ODA) in 35 African countries for the period of 1979 and
1998. It tests for the effects of (...) human rights, democracy, and varied
U.S. strategic and economic interests. The findings suggest that humanitarian
interests (...) figure prominently in Japanese aid decisions. In addition, we
find that Japan's trade with recipient countries and some U.S. security
interests have shaped the pattern of Japanese ODA in Africa (...) our results
suggest that humanitarian concern and certain U.S. strategic interests are also
important in understanding Japanese aid decisions in Africa.

* The Determinants Of Japanese Official Development Assistance In Africa: A
Pooled Time Series Analysis, J. P. Tuman  , A. S. Ayoub , Jan.-Mar. 2004
International Interactions
* Contributed by Pritha Das 


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03.02. The Economic Basis Of Cooperation: Tradeoffs Between Selfishness And
Generosity , Behav. Ecol.

Abstract: The current study examined the economics of cooperation in
controlled-payoff games (...). This investigation used a special feeding
apparatus to test for the stability of cooperative choice in a series of
iterated games. The jays experienced (...) distribution of food to themselves
and their opponent, depending on their decision to cooperate or defect. These
findings suggest that the jays attend to short-term consequences; they do not
cooperate in the absence of an immediate benefit (...). The opponent control
treatment suggests that cooperation can occur when an individual's benefits
depend completely on the actions of others; therefore, generosity is cheap.

* The Economic Basis Of Cooperation: Tradeoffs Between Selfishness And
Generosity, J. R. Stevens jstevens@wjh.harvard.edu , D. W. Stephens , Mar.
2004, Behavioral Ecology
* Contributed by Pritha Das 


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04. Out of Hollywood, Rising Fascination With Video Games , NY Times

Excerpts: (...) Mr. Jackson realized while making "The Lord of the Rings" that
"while a film experience for an audience is over after two or three hours, a
successful game experience, if it captures the imagination, can last for
days."

In the United States alone, sales of video games and consoles generated $10
billion in revenue last year, surpassing box-office ticket sales of $9.5
billion. Hollywood has had mixed success trying to capture some of that
popularity by making movies based on computer games.

* Out of Hollywood, Rising Fascination With Video Games, Laura M. Holson  ,
04/04/10, NYTimes


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05. Learning to Forget , Science

Excerpts: After decades of intense and fruitful research on how the brain
encodes new memories, many neurobiologists are now turning their attention to
how the brain keeps unwanted memories at bay. Recent work has identified key
brain regions involved in suppressing memories and fingered some of the
chemical messengers involved. Applying their work to the clinic, some
researchers have seen promising preliminary results with drugs that either
weaken the emotional hold of traumatic memories or prevent newly formed
memories from becoming destructive in the first place.

* Learning to Forget, Greg Miller , 04/04/02, Science : 34-36


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06. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) Speech on Domestic Policy Issues , Brookings
Institution

Excerpts: In our open society, it is essential to distinguish vigorous debate
over honest differences of opinion from the repeated use of false and
misleading arguments to persuade the American people. Integrity is the
lifeblood of democracy. Deceit is a poison in its veins.

The most important principle in any representative democracy is for the people
to trust their government. If our leaders violate that trust, then all our
words of hope and opportunity and progress and justice ring false in the ears
of our people and the wider world, and our goals will never be achieved.
Editor's Note: The issue of truth in politics is clouded by political interests
of the persons, who claim the opponent has not been truthful. For the
scientific community it would be a challenge to quantify and objectify this
important notion of truth vs lie. Can one measure how far a statement deviates
from the truth and the magnitude of its "impact factor"?

* A Critique of Administration Policy on Health Care, Education, and the
Economy, Edward Kennedy , 04/04/05, Brookings Leadership Forum
* VIDEO - c-span video


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07. Human Origins from Afar , The Scientist

Excerpts: This dating method placed the Herto people on their sandy lakeside
about 156,000 years ago, a date that instantly electrified the team. For it was
in that time period that Mitochondrial Eve also lived, the figurative name for
the mitochondrial genome that has persisted in us all. (...)'What's the fossil
record like in Africa from 100,000 to 200,000 years ago?' I said, 'it's
terrible.'(...)
"(...) We simply predicted a model and stimulated them to look for fossils in
the right place."

* Human Origins from Afar, Ricki Lewis , 04/04/12, The Scientist, Volume 18,
Issue 7


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08. The Other Half of the Brain , Scientific American

Excerpts: Mounting evidence suggests that glial cells, overlooked for half a
century, may be nearly as critical to thinking and learning as neurons are

The recent book Driving Mr. Albert tells the true story of pathologist Thomas
Harvey, who performed the autopsy of Albert Einstein in 1955. (...)

One of the respected scientists who examined sections of the prized brain was
Marian C. Diamond of the University of California at Berkeley. She found
nothing unusual about the number or size of its neurons (nerve cells). But in
the association cortex, responsible for high-level cognition, she did discover
a surprisingly large number of nonneuronal cells known as glia--a much greater
concentration than that found in the average Albert's head....

* The Other Half of the Brain, R. Douglas Fields  , 04/04, Scientific American


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09. The Tyranny of Choice , Scientific American

Excerpts: Logic suggests that having options allows people to select precisely
what makes them happiest. But, as studies show, abundant choice often makes for
misery 
(...)

As the gross domestic product more than doubled in the past 30 years, the
proportion of the population describing itself as "very happy" declined by
about 5 percent, or by some 14 million people. In addition, more of us than
ever are clinically depressed. Of course, no one believes that a single factor
explains decreased well-being, but a number of findings indicate that the
explosion of choice plays an important role (...).

* The Tyranny of Choice, Barry Schwartz  , 04/04, Scientific American


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10. Contextually Evoked Object-Specific Responses in Human Visual Cortex ,
Science

Excerpts: Human visual recognition processes are remarkably robust and can
function effectively even under highly degraded viewing conditions. Contextual
information may play a critical role in such circumstances. Here, we provide
neurophysiological evidence that contextual cues can elicit object-specific
neural responses, which have hitherto been believed to be based on intrinsic
cues alone. Specifically, we find that the "fusiform face area" (FFA) maintains
its selectivity for faces without regard to whether the faces are defined
intrinsically or contextually. This finding further elucidates the role of the
FFA (...).

* Contextually Evoked Object-Specific Responses in Human Visual Cortex, David
Cox , Ethan Meyers , Pawan Sinha
 , 04/04/02, Science : 115-117.


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11. Study Finds Link Between Television Viewing and Attention Problems in
Children , Children  Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle

Excerpts: Early television exposure in children ages 1-3 is associated with
attention problems at age 7, (...). The study revealed that each hour of
television watched per day at ages 1-3 increases the risk of attention
problems, such as ADHD, by almost 10 percent at age 7. The study controls for
other attributes of the home environment including cognitive stimulation and
emotional support. 

The findings also suggest that preventive action can be taken to minimize the
risk of attention problems in children.

* Study Finds Link Between Television Viewing and Attention Problems in
Children, 04/04/05, Children  Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle
Press Release


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11.01. The Role Of Human Parietal Cortex In Attention Networks , Brain

Abstract: The parietal cortex has been proposed as part of the neural network
for guiding spatial attention. However, it is unclear to what degree the
parietal cortex contributes to the attentional modulations of activities of the
visual cortex and the engagement of the frontal cortex in the attention
network. We recorded behavioural performance (...) requiring detection of
targets at the attended or unattended locations. While the patient's reaction
times to left visual field stimuli were speeded by valid relative to invalid
cues (...) the patient's behavioural and neural responses to right visual field
stimuli were not influenced by cue validity.

* The Role Of Human Parietal Cortex In Attention Networks, S. Han
shan@pku.edu.cn , Y. Jiang  , H. Gu  , H. Rao  , L. Mao  , Y. Cui  , R. Zhai ,
2004/02/04, DOI: 10.1093/brain/awh071, Brain
* Contributed by Atin Das 


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12. Neuroprotection Requires A Paradigm Shift In Drug Development , Nature

Excerpts: In most neurodegenerative diseases, the brain is attacked and nerve
cells are killed by a variety of overactive signalling pathways. These pathways
are triggered by conditions such as oxidative or nitrosative stress,
accumulation of aberrant proteins, and excessive activity in the brain of the
neurotransmitter glutamate (excitotoxicity). (...)

These neurodegenerative processes could be potential drug targets for
neuroprotection. For example, injurious agents or instigators of degeneration
could be counteracted, as in the case of excessive amounts of glutamate, which
excite neurons to death

* Turning Down, But Not Off: Neuroprotection Requires A Paradigm Shift In Drug
Development, Stuart A. Lipton  , 04/04/01, DOI: 10.1038/428473a, Nature 428,
473 


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13. Fruit Fly Courtship Puts Neurons to Work , Science Now

Excerpts: 
 
 
In male fruit flies, this region of the brain, called the lateral
protocerebrum, is intimately involved in courtship.

CREDIT: R. GREENSPAN 
 


Turning certain neurons on or off in fly brains creates wildly erotic or
sexually withdrawn animals, a new study shows. The findings point to new
players in a complex circuit activated in the fly brain during courtship. 
(...) selectively switched neurons on and off in adult male flies. (...) Upping
the activity of neurons in one region of the brain, they found, made flies
court like crazy, while stifling nerve cell activity in the same brain zone
left males disinterested.

* Fruit Fly Courtship Puts Neurons to Work, Aparna Sreenivasan , 04/04/06,
Science Now 


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13.01. Long-Term Persistence Of Song Performance Rules In Nightingales ,
Behaviour

Abstract: Common nightingales are among those bird species that possess an
extremely large repertoire and perform it in a versatile singing style.
Thereby, repertoire size, composition, and performance differs considerably
among individuals. In this longitudinal field study, we investigated the
long-term stability of these differences in the song characteristics of
free-ranging nightingales. The long-term persistence of individual song
characteristics suggests that they are not related to dynamically changing
individual attributes, but may reflect long-term storage of information during
song acquisition as juveniles. In addition, we found that the repertoire
performance of adult nightingales allows fine-tuned vocal interactions among
several neighbouring males.

* Long-Term Persistence Of Song Performance Rules In Nightingales (Luscinia
Megarhynchos): A Longitudinal Field Study On Repertoire Size And Composition,
Kipper S.  , Mundry R.  , Hultsch H.  , Todt D. , Mar. 2004, DOI:
10.1163/156853904322981914, Behaviour
* Contributed by Atin Das 


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14. Monkey Business , Science News

Excerpts: 
 
 
SNIFFIN' AROUND. Two adults practice what researchers call hand sniffing. The
capuchins stick their fingers up each other's nose and sway gently, holding the
pose for several minutes at a time.

Perry/UCLA 
 


They're pugnacious and clever, and they have complex social lives ut do
capuchin monkeys actually exhibit cultural behaviors?

These are among the numerous social conventions that Perry and her colleagues
call "traditions." The behaviors are so named because they don't appear to be
an inherent part of the animals' biology; instead, the knee-high monkeys seem
either to invent them or to learn them from each other.(...)

Innovative, learned, parochial, transient, flexible hese words describe some
of the hallmarks of cultural behavior (...)

* Monkey Business, 04/04/03, Science News Online, Vol. 165, No. 14, Also
available in Audible format.


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15. Researchers Develop Electronic Nose For Multimedia , ScienceDaily

Excerpts: Their latest success, the development of an electronic nose for
multimedia use (...) an apparatus that will recognize the odors of ten
different smell groupings--from fruits, to coffees, to gases, to spices and to
just about everything in between. The device connects to a PC, which then
determines what smell the electronic nose has captured. "The nose works in a
more complex way than the eyes do. There are primarily three colour receptors
in the human eye, but there are several million smell receptors (...) you need
to create at least 1,000 smell channels to build a good electronic nose."

* Researchers Develop Electronic Nose For Multimedia, 2004/04/02, ScienceDaily
& University Of Alberta
* Contributed by Atin Das 


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16. The Role Of Conformity In Foraging When Personal And Social Information
Conflict , Behav. Ecol.

Abstract: Two experiments are presented exploring the relative use of prior
personal information and subsequent social information in foraging decisions of
guppies. Experiment 1 tested the assumption that when the use of information
acquired through personal experience is not costly, conflicting social
information will be ignored. Experiment 2 tested theoretical predictions that
when the use of information acquired through personal experience is potentially
costly, conflicting social information will be weighed more heavily (...).
These findings suggest that conformity can promote social learning in na e
individuals, but prior experience can insulate individuals from conformity
(...) personal and social information are not always weighed equally.

* The Role Of Conformity In Foraging When Personal And Social Information
Conflict, R. L. Kendal rachel@ants.stanford.edu , I. Coolen  , K. N. Laland ,
Mar. 2004, Behavioral Ecology
* Contributed by Pritha Das 


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17. Harnessing Nonlinearity: Predicting Chaotic Systems and Saving Energy in
Wireless Communication , Science

Abstract: We present a method for learning nonlinear systems, echo state
networks (ESNs). ESNs employ artificial recurrent neural networks in a way that
has recently been proposed independently as a learning mechanism in biological
brains. The learning method is computationally efficient and easy to use. On a
benchmark task of predicting a chaotic time series, accuracy is improved by a
factor of 2400 over previous techniques. The potential for engineering
applications is illustrated by equalizing a communication channel, where the
signal error rate is improved by two orders of magnitude.

* Harnessing Nonlinearity: Predicting Chaotic Systems and Saving Energy in
Wireless Communication, Herbert Jaeger  , Harald Haas
 , 04/04/02, Science : 78-80.


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18. Nanomechanical Quantum Limits , Science

Excerpts: Or is classical physics just an approximation to quantum physics,
even at macroscopic scales, so that if we were to try hard enough in our
experiments, quantum behavior would be observed in the motion of macroscopic
mechanical objects? (...) experiment whose goal is to test Heisenberg's
uncertainty principle on a vibrating mechanical beam that is about a hundredth
of a millimeter long. (...) equivalent in mass to about 1012 hydrogen atoms,
certainly belonging well outside the traditional, microscopic quantum domain.

* Nanomechanical Quantum Limits, Miles Blencowe  , Science 2004 304: 56-57


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19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks 





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19.01. Germans Free Moroccan Convicted of a 9/11 Role , NY Times

Excerpts: A German court on Wednesday released Mounir el-Motassadeq, the only
man convicted in connection with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United
States, pending a new trial later this year.

The release of Mr. Motassadeq, (...), followed a decision by a German appeals
court last month to reverse his conviction. The court ruled that Mr. Motassadeq
had been denied a fair trial because of the refusal of the United States to
allow testimony by a captured terrorist suspect.

* Germans Free Moroccan Convicted of a 9/11 Role, Richard Bernstein  ,
04/04/08, NYTimes


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19.02. When U.S. Aided Insurgents, Did It Breed Future Terrorists? , NY Times

Excerpts: Not only does he argue that terrorism does not necessarily have
anything to do with Islamic culture; he also insists that the spread of terror
as a tactic is largely an outgrowth of American cold war foreign policy.(...)
"The real damage the C.I.A. did was not the providing of arms and money," he
writes, " but the privatization of information about how to produce and spread
violence ?the formation of private militias ?capable of creating terror." The
best-known C.I.A.-trained terrorist, he notes dryly, is Osama bin Laden.

* When U.S. Aided Insurgents, Did It Breed Future Terrorists?, Hugh Eakin  ,
04/04/10, NYTimes


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19.03. Inquiry Into Attack on the Cole in 2000 Missed 9/11 Clues , NY Times

Excerpts: The American investigators probing the October 2000 terrorist attack
against the Navy destroyer Cole came tantalizingly close to detecting the Sept.
11 plot (...). 

The lost opportunity, described by the officials for the first time in
interviews this week, involved two of the eventual Sept. 11 hijackers, Khalid
al-Midhar and Nawaq Alhazmi, who fell under suspicion by the C.I.A. early in
2000 but were not put on a watch list of foreigners barred from entering the
United States until August 2001, after they were already here

* Inquiry Into Attack on the Cole in 2000 Missed 9/11 Clues, David Johnston ,
James Rise  , 04/04/11, NYTimes


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19.04. Connecting the Dots -- Tracking Two Identified Terrorists , Orgnet.com

Excerpts: Even though we have only mapped the network neighborhood of the two
original suspects, we now have enough data for two key conclusions:
All 19 hijackers were within 2 degrees of separation of the two original
suspects uncovered in 2000! 
Social network metrics reveal Mohammed Atta emerging as the local leader 


With hindsight, we have now mapped enough of the 9-11 conspiracy to stop it.
Again, the investigators are never sure they have uncovered enough information
while they are in the process of uncloaking the covert organization.

* Connecting the Dots -- Tracking Two Identified Terrorists, Valdis Krebs  ,
04/04/12, Orgnet.com, Spring 2002


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20. Links & Snippets 





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20.01. Other Publications 



- Zipf Analysis Of Audio Signals, E. Dellandr  dellandrea@univ-tours.fr , P.
Makris makris@univ-tours.fr , N. Vincent vincent@univ-tours.fr , Mar. 2004,
Fractals, DOI: 10.1142/S0218348X04002380
- Scaling Law For The Distribution Of Fluctuations In Share Volume, T.
Kaizojikaizoji@icu.ac.jp  , M. Nuki , Mar. 2004, Fractals, DOI:
10.1142/S0218348X04002318
- Dynamics Of A Two-Neuron System With Discrete And Distributed Delays, S. Ruan
ruan@math.miami.edu , Rami S. Filfil , online 2004/01/24, Physica D: Nonlinear
Phenomena, DOI: 10.1016/j.physd.2003.12.004
- Complexity In Health Care Systems, S. Penchas , Online 2004/03/09, Complexus,
DOI: 10.1159/000077211
- Polynomial Epidemics And Clustering In Contact Networks, B. Szendroi  , G.
Csanyi , 2004/04/08, Alphagalileo & Biology Letters
- Signature-Whistle Production In Undisturbed Free-Ranging Bottlenose Dolphins
(Turisops Truncatus), M. L. Hill  , L. S. Sayigh  , R. S. Wells , 2004/04/05,
Alphagalileo & Proceedings Biological Sciences
- Acoustic Monitoring On A Humpback Whale (Megaptera Novaeangliae) Feeding
Ground Shows Continual Singing Into Late Spring, C. W. Clark  , P. J. Clapham ,
2004/04/05, Alphagalileo & Proceedings Biological Sciences
- Reduced Flocking By Birds On Islands With Relaxed Predation, G. Beauchamp ,
2004/04/05, Alphagalileo & Proceedings Biological Sciences
- New Ethnic Report Highlights London's Health Divide In Ethnic Communities, E.
Snell elaine.snell@which.net , 2004/04/05, Alphagalileo
- SMS At Your Fingertips - Neuroscientists In Bonn Aim To Communicate By Sense
Of Touch, R. Eckmiller eckmiller@nero.uni-bonn.de , 2004/04/07, Alphagalileo
- Brain Activity, Including Memory-processing, Changes In Tourette Syndrome,
2004/04/06, ScienceDaily & Washington University School Of Medicine
- Lack Of Specific Brain Protein Causes Marked Deficits In Learning, Memory,
2004/04/08, ScienceDaily & University Of Texas Southwestern Medical Center At
Dallas
- The Politics Of The Asian Financial Crisis In Malaysia And South Korea, S.
Lee , Feb. 2004, Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy
- Don't Lose Sleep On It: A Re-Examination Of The Daylight Savings Time
Anomaly, R. P. Lamb  , R. A. Zuber  , J. M. Gandar , online 2004/03/15 Applied
Financial Economics, DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2003.11.012
- The Neuropsychology Of Narrative: Story Comprehension, Story Production And
Their Interrelation , Raymond A. Mar  , 04/04/07, Neuropsychologia, Stories are
used extensively for human communication; both the comprehension and production
of oral and written narratives constitute a fundamental part of our experience.
While study of this topic has..., DOI: 10.1016/S0028-3932(04)00047-8
- Jonathan Weiner, 'His Brother's Keeper' , 04/04/09, NPR TOTN, It's a
progressive, fatal neurological disease, triggered by the death of nerve cells
that make muscles move, and named after its most famous victim, Lou Gehrig. In
this hour, we'll talk with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jonathan Weiner about
one man's mission to save his brother from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).
- Information Technology: In The Know, Philip Ball  , 04/04/01, Nature 428, 462
- 463, DOI: 10.1038/428462a
- Evolutionary Biology: Ferns Reawakened, Torsten Eriksson  , 04/04/01, Nature
428, 480 - 481, DOI: 10.1038/428480a
- Long Horns Win: Selection in action ttacks favor spike length for lizards,
04/04/03, Science News Online, Vol. 165, No. 14, Also available in Audible
format.
A hunting bird's quirk  tendency to impale prey on thorns eaves a record that
has allowed scientists to catch a glimpse of an evolutionary force in action.
- Foraging among the Galaxies: Andromeda's dining habits are documented,
04/04/03, Science News Online, Vol. 165, No. 14, Also available in Audible
format.
A new survey is adding to the evidence that Andromeda, the Milky Way  sister
galaxy, has not only grown bigger in the past by feasting on smaller galaxies
but is continuing to do so.
- All Roads Lead to RUNX, 04/04/03, Science News Online, Vol. 165, No. 14, Also
available in Audible format.
Genetic mutations that predispose some people to the autoimmune diseases lupus,
psoriasis, and rheumatoid arthritis appear to have a common molecular feature:
They derail the work of a protein, called RUNX1, that regulates how active
certain genes are.
- Microbes craft unusual crystals, 04/04/03, Science News Online, Vol. 165, No.
14, Also available in Audible format.
Bacteria dwelling in an abandoned iron mine form unusual crystals that could
help scientists look for signs of previous life on Mars.



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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 


 
 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

 Complexity Science and the Exploration of the Emerging World, Austin, TX,
04/04/17
 
 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


IDS'04 - Intentional Dynamic Systems Symposium, Memphis, TN, USA,  04/04/24-26

 
 New Horizons In Search Theory
, Newport, RI, 04/04/26-28

 
Human Systems Dynamics at Work: Complexity Tools for Today, Minneapolis,
Minnesota, 04/04/27-28 


Life, a Nobel Story , Brussels, BE, 04/04/28

 Urban
 Vulnerability and Network Failure: Constructions and Experiences
 of Emergencies, Crises and Collapse,  Manchester, UK,
 04/04/29-30
 
 Strategic Thinking in a Complex World, Smithsonian Resident Associates
Program, 04/05/01-22 

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

  International Conference on the Ontology of Spacetime, 
Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 04/05/11-14

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

 
Understanding Complex Systems (UCS2004),
Urbana-Champaign, Il, USA, 04/05/17-20

 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

 An Intl Tribute to Francisco Varela, Paris,04/06/18-20

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

 
Biannual Meeting Society for Research on Biological Rhythms, Whistler, BC,
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 

 
ICAD 2004 10th International Conference on Auditory Display, Sydney, Australia,
04/07/06-09

 
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), Chen!
nai, 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 

 
Facing Complexity, Wellington, NZ, 04/07/15-17


 Interdisciplinary Colloquium, Security Bytes, Security/Life/Terror
, Lancaster, 04/07/17-19

 Gordon Research Conference on "Oscillations & Dynamic Instabilities In
Chemical Systems", Lewiston, ME, 04/07/18-23

 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
 
 
ICCC 2004, IEEE International Conference on Computational Cybernetics, ,
Vienna, Austria, 04/08/30-09/01

 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 







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