复杂性文摘NO：2004.42

Complexity Digest 2004.42

Archive: http://www.comdig.org, European Mirror: http://www.comdig.de Asian
Mirror: http://www.phil.pku.edu.cn/resguide/comdig/ (Chinese GB-Code) "I think
the next century will be the century of complexity." Stephen Hawking

_________________________________________________________________


Content:

01. Macroeconomists Showed Why Good Intentions Go Wrong, Science
01.01. A Marketplace in the Brain?, Science Now
01.02. A Group Decision Support Approach To Evaluating Journals, Infor. &
Manag.
01.03. The Importance Of Biodiversity To Global Food Security, FAO Newsroom
02. Change And Stability In Children's Social Network And Self-Perceptions,
Int. Behav. Dev.
03. Extracting The Trajectory Of Writing Brush In Chinese Character
Calligraphy, Engg. Appl. Arti. Intell.
04. Neuroscience and Neuroethics, Science
04.01. Neuroeconomics: The Consilience of Brain and Decision, Science
04.02. Paralysed Man Sends E-Mail By Thought, Nature News
05. Learning Languages 'Boosts Brain', BBC News
05.01. Educating Via Analyses Of Science In Movies And TV, Science News
05.02. Under the Surface, the Brain Seethes With Undiscovered Activity,
Rochester News
05.03. Hearing Better In The Dark: Blindness Fuels Ability To Place Distant
Sounds, Science News
06. Embryonic Stem Cells Correct Congenital Heart Defect in Mouse Embryos
06.01. Disease Backs Cancer Origin Theory, Science
06.02. New Method Identifies Chromosome Changes in Malignant Cells,
KurzweilAI.net
06.03. Chromosome Instability Tied to Cancer, Science Now
07. Centenarian Clams Cut Calories, Science Now
07.01. Why Beavers Survived In The 19th Century, Alphagalileo
07.02. Global Amphibians In Deep Trouble, BBC News
08. Giant Virus Sequenced, Science Now
08.01. Recombination Dramatically Speeds Up Evolution of Finite Populations,
arXiv
08.02. Trash To Treasure: Junk DNA Influences Eggs, Early Embryos, Science News
09. With Few Suppliers of Flu Shots, Shortage Was Long in Making, NY Times
10. People Are Human-Bacteria Hybrid, Wired
11. Google Search Becomes Personal, BBC News
11.01. E-Mail Marketing: How To Do It Lawfully, Interactive Marketing
12. Nanotubes Form Transparent Film, Technology Review
12.01. Water Filters Rely on Nanotech, Wired
12.02. Some Assembly Required
13. Change In The Weather? Wind Farms Might Affect Local Climates, Science News
14. Development of "Artificial Retina", DOE Press Release
15. Low Overhead Self-checking Combinatorial and Sequential Circuits Designed
by Evolution, CSRP
15.01. Purdue Professor Puts New Spin On Quantum Computer Technology, Purdue
News
15.02. Super Slow Light May Help Speed Optical Communications, NIST Tech Beat
16. Puppet Government, 'South Park' Creators' Left Jab at Jingoism May
Backfire, Washington Post
17. Block the Vote, NY Times
17.01. Gaming the Polls, Science Now
17.02. The Great American E-Voting Experiment, New Scientist
17.03. Supreme Court Orders Review of Texas Districts, NPR ATC
18. Spy Chiefs Say Cooperation Should Begin at the Bottom, NY Times
18.01. Broad Use of Harsh Tactics Is Described at Cuba Base, NY Times
19. Complex Challenges: Global Terroist Networks
19.01. Saudis Blame U.S. and Its Role in Iraq for Rise of Terror, NY Times
19.02. Looting Targeted Iraq's Nuclear Equipment, NPR ME
19.03. Pentagon: Ex-Detainees Return to Terror
19.04. The G7, International Terrorism And Domestic Politics: Modeling Policy
Cohesion In Response To Systemic Disturbance, Int. Interactions
19.05. University Of Florida Researchers Shine Light On New Explosives
Detection Method, ScienceDaily
20. Links & Snippets
20.01. Other Publications
20.02. Webcast Announcements
20.03. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements

_________________________________________________________________

01. Macroeconomists Showed Why Good Intentions Go Wrong , Science

Excerpts: Inflation and unemployment often fluctuated out of control, and
occasionally a government's well intentioned actions would make matters worse.
(...) For example, in the late 1970s, inflation and unemployment rose
dramatically at the same time?something that the Keynesian picture forbids.
(...)
(...) showed that governments have trouble committing to a policy; this lack of
commitment leads to a credibility problem, which, in turn, can lead to an
undesirable outcome. "The effect of a tax cut today depends on whether people
think it is permanent or just temporary,?...).

* Macroeconomists Showed Why Good Intentions Go Wrong, Charles Seife ,
04/10/15, Science Now


_________________________________________________________________

01.01. A Marketplace in the Brain? , Science Now

Excerpts: There are a number of studies that investigate violations of
rationality in human decision making. One important violation that is
repeatedly observed is a tendency to discount expected outcomes proportionate
to their delay. This results in a systematic inconsistency of preference over
time.(...)

The dominant theory in the behavioral sciences has been that normal people
discount the option of a delayed reward according to an exponential curve, that
is, by a constant percentage per unit time. This exponential curve is similar
to that used by financial markets (...).

* A Marketplace in the Brain?, George Ainslie  , John Monterosso , 04/10/15,
Science


_________________________________________________________________

01.02. A Group Decision Support Approach To Evaluating Journals , Infor. &
Manag.

Excerpts: One of the most important decisions made in academic institutions,
research organizations, and government agencies is the grading or ranking of
journals for their academic values. Current methods for evaluating journals use
either a subjective (e.g., experts' judgments on journals) or objective
approach (e.g., impact factors of journals), (...). This paper presents a
formal procedure that integrates objective and subjective judgments to provide
a comprehensive method. The procedure is based on a fuzzy set approach that
deals with the imprecise and missing information inherent in the evaluation
process. The system was tested in Hong Kong in an assessment of faculty
research productivity. (...)

* A Group Decision Support Approach To Evaluating Journals, E. Turban  , D.
Zhou  , J. Ma isjian@cityu.edu.hk , Dec. 2004, DOI: 10.1016/j.im.2003.12.003,
Information & Management
* Contributed by Pritha Das


_________________________________________________________________

01.03. The Importance Of Biodiversity To Global Food Security , FAO Newsroom

Excerpts: "Biological diversity is one of the keys to ending world hunger
(...)." "Our planet abounds with life and it is this great diversity that
holds one of the keys to ending hunger,"(...).  The Treaty, which entered into
force this year, is a binding international instrument that secures the
conservation and sustainable utilization of the world's agricultural genetic
diversity. It guarantees that farmers and breeders have access to genetic
materials they need and it also ensures that farmers receive a fair and
equitable share of the benefits derived from their work.

* The Importance Of Biodiversity To Global Food Security, 04/10/15, FAO
Newsroom Contributed by Hugh Trenchard


_________________________________________________________________

02. Change And Stability In Children's Social Network And Self-Perceptions ,
Int. Behav. Dev.

Excerpts: This study examined the changes in children's social network and
specific self-perceptions during the transition from elementary school to
junior high school (JHS). The participants were 200 preadolescent children (104
girls, 96 boys). Children's self-perceptions (global self-worth, perceived
academic competence, and perceived social acceptance) and social network
characteristics (parents and peer-enacted support) were evaluated four
consecutive times over a 2-year period. Despite a slight decrease in the size
of children's social network after the transition, the passage into JHS had no
negative impact on the quality and functional aspects of their relationships
with parents and school friends. (...)

* Change And Stability In Children's Social Network And Self-Perceptions During
Transition From Elementary To Junior High School, S. Cantin  , M. Boivin , Nov.
2004, DOI: 10.1080/01650250444000289, International Journal of Behavioral
Development
* Contributed by Atin Das


_________________________________________________________________

03. Extracting The Trajectory Of Writing Brush In Chinese Character Calligraphy
, Engg. Appl. Arti. Intell.

Excerpts: This paper describes the extraction of the trajectory of the writing
brush in Chinese character calligraphy (CCC), based on image and curve
processing techniques and the calligraphy knowledge. This trajectory is used in
a CCC robot which is developed to inherit CCC techniques. (...) Firstly, for a
given Chinese character, its image patterns in block style are retrieved from
CCC database which contains 29,456 characters written by different famous
calligraphers in Chinese history. (...) The trajectory and the pressure control
information are sent to the CCC robot to imitate calligrapher's behavior. The
experiment results show that the proposed method obtains very good trajectories
(...).

* Extracting The Trajectory Of Writing Brush In Chinese Character Calligraphy,
F. Yao fyao@tnstate.edu , G. Shao  , J. Yi , Sep. 2004, online 2004/09/29, DOI:
10.1016/j.engappai.2004.08.008, Engineering Applications of Artificial
Intelligence
* Contributed by Atin Das


_________________________________________________________________

04. Neuroscience and Neuroethics , Science

Excerpts: Finally, special issues arise when we penetrate into the
philosophical territory where dualists and determinists debate over free will.
As we learn more about the neurobiology of choice and decision, will we reach a
point at which we feel less free? Perhaps more important for society, will we
eventually know enough to change our view about individual responsibility for
antisocial acts? There are those who worry about this. (...) seems so unlikely
to me that our knowledge of the brain will deepen enough to fuse it with the
mind.

* Neuroscience and Neuroethics, Donald Kennedy , 04/10/15, Science:34


_________________________________________________________________

04.01. Neuroeconomics: The Consilience of Brain and Decision , Science

Excerpts: Economics, psychology, and neuroscience are converging today into a
single, unified discipline with the ultimate aim of providing a single, general
theory of human behavior. This is the emerging field of neuroeconomics in which
consilience, the accordance of two or more inductions drawn from different
groups of phenomena, seems to be operating. (...) The goal of this discipline
is thus to understand the processes that connect sensation and action by
revealing the neurobiological mechanisms by which decisions are made. This
review describes recent developments in neuroeconomics (...).

* Neuroeconomics: The Consilience of Brain and Decision, Paul W. Glimcher  ,
Aldo Rustichini , 04/10/15, Science, 447-452


_________________________________________________________________

04.02. Paralysed Man Sends E-Mail By Thought , Nature News

Excerpts:     Controlling objects with thought is becoming a reality.
  c Alamy
The device can tap into a hundred neurons at a time, and is the most
sophisticated such implant tested in humans so far.(...)

In June 2004, surgeons implanted a device containing 100 electrodes into the
motor cortex of a 24-year-old quadriplegic. (...) Each electrode taps into a
neuron (...).

The BrainGate allowed the patient to control a computer or television using his
mind, even when doing other things at the same time. Researchers report for
example that he could control his television while talking and moving his head.

* Paralysed Man Sends E-Mail By Thought, Roxanne Khamsi , 04/10/13, Nature News


_________________________________________________________________

05. Learning Languages 'Boosts Brain' , BBC News

Excerpts:     Learning languages enhances the brain, scientists believe    They
found learning other languages altered grey matter - the area of the brain
which processes information - in the same way exercise builds muscles.

People who learned a second language at a younger age were also more likely to
have more advanced grey matter than those who learned later, the team said.
(...)

The scans revealed the density of the grey matter in the left inferior parietal
cortex of the brain was greater in bilinguals than in those without a second
language.

* Learning Languages 'Boosts Brain', 04/10/13, BBC News


_________________________________________________________________

05.01. Educating Via Analyses Of Science In Movies And TV , Science News

Excerpts:     Spinning Wheel. Visual clues in 2001: A Space Odyssey enable
students to calculate the artificial gravity along the space station's inner
rim, a phenomenon depicted accurately in the film. NASA
To counter the inaccuracies underlying The Day after Tomorrow, Weaver and his
colleague Claude Hillaire-Marcel of the University of Quebec in Montreal used
computer models to analyze today's climate in terms of what's known about
global cooling in the past.

Without a doubt, abrupt climate change has occurred-but it was abrupt in terms
of decades, not weeks. For example, a few times during Earth's history, the
onset of cooling seems to have been triggered by immense surges of glacial
meltwater into the North Atlantic (...).

* Educating Via Analyses Of Science In Movies And TV, Sid Perkins , 04/10/16,
Science News


_________________________________________________________________

05.02. Under the Surface, the Brain Seethes With Undiscovered Activity ,
Rochester News

Excerpts: There's an old myth that we only use 10 percent of our brains, but
researchers at the University of Rochester have found in reality that roughly
80 percent of our cognitive power may be cranking away on tasks completely
unknown to us. Curiously, this clandestine activity does not exist in the
youngest brains, leading scientists to believe that the mysterious goings-on
that absorb the majority of our minds are dedicated to subconsciously
reprocessing our initial thoughts and experiences. (...)
?...) very basis of comprehending vision may be a very different task for
young brains versus old brains.?
* Under the Surface, the Brain Seethes With Undiscovered Activity, Jonathan
Sherwood  , 04/10/06, Rochester News


_________________________________________________________________

05.03. Hearing Better In The Dark: Blindness Fuels Ability To Place Distant
Sounds , Science News

Excerpts: New evidence indicates that blind people estimate the locations of
distant sounds more accurately than sighted people do, even if sight loss
didn't occur until adolescence or young adulthood.

* Hearing Better In The Dark: Blindness Fuels Ability To Place Distant Sounds,
04/10/16, Science News


_________________________________________________________________

06. Embryonic Stem Cells Correct Congenital Heart Defect in Mouse Embryos

Excerpts: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center researchers have discovered a
previously unsuspected capacity of embryonic stem cells to influence
neighboring defective cells and restore their capacity to function normally.
Fifteen embryonic stem cells were injected into early embryos of mice whose
hearts were genetically predisposed to develop a lethal...

* Embryonic Stem Cells Correct Congenital Heart Defect in Mouse Embryos,
04/10/13, KurzweilAI.net


_________________________________________________________________

06.01. Disease Backs Cancer Origin Theory , Science

Excerpts: In 1914, German biologist Theodor Boveri noticed that the cancer
cells he was studying contained an abnormal number of chromosomes, a state
called aneuploidy. The observation led him to postulate that the condition was
a root cause of cancer. But as researchers began to discover that mutations in
specific oncogenes and tumor-suppressor genes were enough to set cancer in
motion, the aneuploidy theory fell out of fashion. Now it's back, thanks to a
series of studies in the mid-1990s on the larger issue of genomic instability.

* Disease Backs Cancer Origin Theory, David Grimm , 04/10/15, Science : 389


_________________________________________________________________

06.02. New Method Identifies Chromosome Changes in Malignant Cells ,
KurzweilAI.net

Excerpts: Princeton scientists have invented a fast and reliable method for
identifying alterations to chromosomes that occur when cells become malignant.
It quickly analyzes an entire genome and produces a reliable list of chromosome
sections that have been either deleted or added. The technique helps to show
how cells modify their own genetic makeup...

* New Method Identifies Chromosome Changes in Malignant Cells, 04/10/13,
KurzweilAI.net


_________________________________________________________________

06.03. Chromosome Instability Tied to Cancer , Science Now

Excerpts:


  Wrong number. The abnormal number of chromosomes seen in this individual may
give clues to the origins of cancer.
CREDIT: SANDRA HANKS


Almost all cancer cells have gained or lost entire chromosomes. Despite the
genetic turmoil this causes, scientists have disagreed for nearly a century
about whether this abnormality and other types of genomic instability are the
starting gun for cancer or merely collateral damage. A study published online
10 October in Nature Genetics provides the strongest evidence yet for the
starting gun theory by showing that mutations in a gene involved in ensuring
proper numbers of chromosomes result in childhood cancer.

* Chromosome Instability Tied to Cancer, David Grimm , 04/10/12, Science Now


_________________________________________________________________

07. Centenarian Clams Cut Calories , Science Now

Excerpts:


  Half shell. This cross section of a Cucullaea raea clam reveals dark growth
bands in the shell linked to age.
CREDIT: DEVIN BUICK


A long-lived clam that inhabited the waters of Antarctica 45 million years ago
may provide further evidence for the virtues of a calorie-restricted diet. In a
study published in the October issue of Geology, researchers suggest that a
shortage of food helped the fist-sized clam Cucullaea raea survive for up to
120 years, making it one of the longest-lived animals known. The findings
challenge the prevailing explanation for bivalve longevity, and they may
provide clues about which factors extend life spans for all animals.

* Centenarian Clams Cut Calories, David Grimm , 04/10/15, Science Now


_________________________________________________________________

07.01. Why Beavers Survived In The 19th Century , Alphagalileo

Excerpts: Russian scientists give an explanation for the wonder of beaver
survival throughout the 19th century, when these animals were badly endangered
and lived in conditions that would be fatal for another mammalian species. A
population of beavers can survive, if it includes only three animals living
together. Such a small size of viable population is explained by the genetic
adaptation of beavers to inbreeding. Beaver genome and behaviour account for an
outstanding viability of this species (...). Beavers have a rather puritan
character: as distinct from other mammalian species, they don't give way to
promiscuity, but live as couples and even families. (...).

* Why Beavers Survived In The 19th Century, S. Komarov
textmaster@informnauka.ru , 2004/10/15, Alphagalileo
* Contributed by Atin Das


_________________________________________________________________

07.02. Global Amphibians In Deep Trouble , BBC News

Excerpts:     Almost 6,000 amphibian species are known to science

They say as many as 122 species may have become extinct since 1980 and a third
of known amphibians face oblivion.

Naturalists describe the creatures as sensitive indicators of the health of the
wider environment.(...)



"This study significantly expands our current knowledge and provides a baseline
from which we can monitor our impact on the environment over time.

"The fact that one third of amphibians are in a precipitous decline tells us
that we are rapidly moving towards a potentially epidemic number of
extinctions."

* Global Amphibians In Deep Trouble, 04/10/14, BBC News


_________________________________________________________________

08. Giant Virus Sequenced , Science Now

Excerpts: The DNA of the world's largest known virus contains a surprising
collection of genes previously thought to exist only in bacteria and other
living cells. This discovery further blurs the line between complex molecules
and living organisms, the researchers report. Published online 14 October in
Science, the study may also help to answer questions about how complex
organisms first evolved on Earth.(...)
The DNA contains some 1260 genes, 50 of which code for functions never before
seen in viruses, including DNA repair and translating mRNA into protein.

* Giant Virus Sequenced, 04/10/15, Science Now


_________________________________________________________________

08.01. Recombination Dramatically Speeds Up Evolution of Finite Populations ,
arXiv

Abstract: We study the role of recombination, as practiced by
genetically-competent bacteria, in speeding up Darwinian evolution. This is
done by adding a new process to a previously-studied Markov model of evolution
on a smooth fitness landscape; this new process allows alleles to be exchanged
with those in the surrounding medium. Our results, both numerical and analytic,
indicate that for a wide range of intermediate population sizes, recombination
dramatically speeds up the evolutionary advance.

* Recombination Dramatically Speeds Up Evolution of Finite Populations,
Elisheva Cohen , David A. Kessler , Herbert Levine , 2004/10/13, DOI:
q-bio.PE/0410015, arXiv
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson


_________________________________________________________________

08.02. Trash To Treasure: Junk DNA Influences Eggs, Early Embryos , Science
News

Excerpts: A type of DNA once thought to be little more than genetic clutter may
play a role in gene expression in mammalian eggs and newly formed embryos.

* Trash To Treasure: Junk DNA Influences Eggs, Early Embryos, 04/10/16, Science
News


_________________________________________________________________

09. With Few Suppliers of Flu Shots, Shortage Was Long in Making , NY Times

Excerpts: In particular, public health experts have long cautioned against the
country's dependence on a few vaccine makers, and yet this has become standard
practice. There are now only two major manufacturers for the nation's supply of
flu vaccine, and at least a half-dozen other vaccines are made by single
suppliers. Britain, by contrast, has spread its order for flu vaccines among
five suppliers, precisely to avoid the kind of predicament America now faces.

In recent years there have been many significant disruptions of vaccine
supplies.

* With Few Suppliers of Flu Shots, Shortage Was Long in Making, Denise Grady ,
04/10/17, NYTimes


_________________________________________________________________

10. People Are Human-Bacteria Hybrid , Wired

Excerpts: Most of the cells in your body are not your own, nor are they even
human. They are bacterial. From the invisible strands of fungi (...), to the
kilogram of bacterial matter in our guts, we are best viewed as walking
"superorganisms," highly complex conglomerations of human, fungal, bacterial
and viral cells.(...)
Understanding the workings of the superorganism, they say, is crucial to the
development of personalized medicine and health care in the future because
individuals can have very different responses to drugs, depending on their
microbial fauna.

* People Are Human-Bacteria Hybrid, Rowan Hooper
, 04/10/11, Wired


_________________________________________________________________

11. Google Search Becomes Personal , BBC News

Excerpts: The net giant has released a preliminary version of a desktop program
that will search computer hard drives, as well as the web. "We think of this as
the photographic memory of your computer," (...). Others like Microsoft and
Apple are planning similar search tools to find information buried in a hard
drive. Search is becoming an increasingly competitive and lucrative arena. If
there's anything you once saw on your computer screen, we think you should be
able to find it again quickly

* Google Search Becomes Personal, 04/10/14, BBC News


_________________________________________________________________

11.01. E-Mail Marketing: How To Do It Lawfully , Interactive Marketing

Abstract: Marketing by e-mail has become a key channel of communication for
many businesses across the UK. But the level of government and industry
regulation has greatly increased in recent years in this area, creating what
many businesses now regard as an overly complex patchwork of rules and
standards. This paper sets out the basic rules in this area and suggests a
number of practical compliance measures.

* E-Mail Marketing: How To Do It Lawfully, W. Malcolm , Oct.-Dec. 2004, DOI:
10.1017/S1355770X04001524, Interactive Marketing
* Contributed by Pritha Das


_________________________________________________________________

12. Nanotubes Form Transparent Film , Technology Review

Excerpts: Researchers (...) have found a way to make flexible, transparent
films of single-walled carbon nanotubes that have a maximum amount of contact
between nanotubes within the film, which makes the film a good electrical
conductor. (...)

The researchers made the films by suspending nanotubes in liquid, filtering
them out using a membrane, then dissolving the membrane. The films have
consistent thicknesses that can be controlled with nanoscale precision,
according to the researchers. They have made films as large as 10 centimeters
in diameter and 50 to 150 nanometers thick.

* Nanotubes Form Transparent Film, 04/10/14, Technology Review


_________________________________________________________________

12.01. Water Filters Rely on Nanotech , Wired

Excerpts: A slow, methodical transformation of the $400-billion-a-year
water-management industry is currently in progress, and nanotechnology appears
to be leading the way.

Water covers more than 70 percent of the Earth, but only 1 percent can be
consumed without processing, filtering or melting polar ice caps. That supply
appears to be dwindling as the global population grows and industry and
agriculture require more and more water.

Last week the NanoWater congress met in Amsterdam to discuss how nanotechnology
applications can help solve the world's water shortage.

* Water Filters Rely on Nanotech, Michael Bradbury , 04/10/14, Wired


_________________________________________________________________

12.02. Some Assembly Required

The patterns arising from self-assembly are ubiquitous in nature, from the
opalescent inner surface of the abalone shell to the internal compartments of a
living cell. (...)

We are on the verge of a materials revolution in which entirely new classes of
"supermolecules?and particles will be designed and fabricated with desired
features, including programmable instructions for assembly. These new building
blocks will be the "atoms?and "molecules?of tomorrow's materials,
self-assembling into novel structures made possible solely by their unique
design.

* Some Assembly Required, Sharon C. Glotzer , 04/10/15, Science 419-420


_________________________________________________________________

13. Change In The Weather? Wind Farms Might Affect Local Climates , Science
News

Excerpts:     Weather Makers. Large-scale wind farms can increase wind speed,
temperature, and evaporation at ground level, a new analysis suggests.
  PhotoDisc

The simulation suggests that during the day, while sun-induced convection
handily mixes the lower layers of the atmosphere, such a wind farm wouldn't
have important climatic effects.

In predawn hours, however, when the atmosphere typically is less turbulent, a
large windmill array could influence the local climate. (...) Adding the wind
farm would increase the average wind speed to 5 m/s. Also, the 10,000 windmills
would increase the temperature across the area by about 2°C for several hours.

* Change In The Weather? Wind Farms Might Affect Local Climates, Sid Perkins ,
04/10/16, Science News


_________________________________________________________________

14. Development of "Artificial Retina" , DOE Press Release

Excerpt: In an effort to speed the design and development of an artificial
retina that could potentially help millions of people blinded by retinal
diseases, Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham announced today that five
Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories, a private company and three
universities have signed agreements to form a research partnership.

The goal of the agreements signed today is to advance the science, technology
and clinical success of the field of artificial sight using the facilities and
resources of DOE's national laboratories.

* Development of "Artificial Retina", 04/10/14, DOE Press Release


_________________________________________________________________

15. Low Overhead Self-checking Combinatorial and Sequential Circuits Designed
by Evolution , CSRP

Abstract: Evolutionary techniques are applied to the design of self-checking
digital circuits in simulation. For the combinational and sequential benchmarks
attempted, evolved designs are totally self-checking with respect to single
stuck-at faults in mission logic, have no latency and use significantly less
resources than hand-designed equivalents. The approach can be extended to
evolve fail-safe circuits, analog self-test, and self-checking checkers under
multiple faults.

* Low Overhead Self-checking Combinatorial and Sequential Circuits Designed by
Evolution, Miguel Garvie , Adrian Thompson , 2004/10/15, Cognitive Science
Research Paper 572, University of Sussex
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson


_________________________________________________________________

15.01. Purdue Professor Puts New Spin On Quantum Computer Technology , Purdue
News

Excerpts:

Purdue University physicists have built a critical component for the
development of quantum computers and spintronic devices, potentially bringing
advances in cryptography and high-speed database searches a step closer.

A team of researchers including Leonid P. Rokhinson has created a device that
can effectively split a stream of quantum objects such as electrons into two
streams according to the spin of each, herding those with "up" spin in one
direction and corralling those that spin "down" in another.
Editor's Note: One of the main advantages of spintronics is that one doesn't
have to displace electrons just to flip bits (or "phits?. This design uses
spins only to change the momentum of moving electrons; maybe this direction
does not really solve the problem with Moore's law?

* Purdue Professor Puts New Spin On Quantum Computer Technology, Chad Boutin
cboutin@purdue.edu , 04/10/13, Purdue News


_________________________________________________________________

15.02. Super Slow Light May Help Speed Optical Communications , NIST Tech Beat

Excerpts:     Light waves that travel very slowly without distortion could
eventually help simplify and reduce the cost of high-speed optical
communications.
Light is so fast that it takes less than 2 seconds to travel from the Earth to
the moon. This blazing fast speed is what makes the Internet and other complex
communications systems possible. But sometimes light needs to be slowed down so
that signals can be routed in the right direction and order, converted from one
form to another or synchronized properly.

Now, physicists (...) have proposed a new way to slow light down to almost
one-millionth its usual speed-to the mere speed of a jet aircraft.

* Super Slow Light May Help Speed Optical Communications, Laura Ost
laura.ost@nist.gov , 04/10/14, NIST Tech Beat


_________________________________________________________________

16. Puppet Government, 'South Park' Creators' Left Jab at Jingoism May Backfire
, Washington Post

Excerpts: Parker and Stone's new offensive blast, "Team America: World Police,"
is a profane and sometimes bitingly funny
sociopolitical-musical-action-adventurical story, told entirely with clumsy
marionettes (and two kittens) performing in a 1/3-scale, post-9/11 world.

The movie -- shot in the manner of those short-lived, 1960s-style
Saturday-morning puppet melodramas -- is a testament to the deeply dissociative
powers of American entertainment consumers: Whatever anxieties and tragic
losses have been caused by terrorists, it's all a big joke here.

* Puppet Government, 'South Park' Creators' Left Jab at Jingoism May Backfire,
Hank Stuever , 04/10/15, Washington Post


_________________________________________________________________

17. Block the Vote , NY Times

Excerpts: Earlier this week former employees of Sproul & Associates (operating
under the name Voters Outreach of America), a firm hired by the Republican
National Committee to register voters, told a Nevada TV station that their
supervisors systematically tore up Democratic registrations.

(...) Officials have begun a criminal investigation into reports of similar
actions by Sproul in Oregon.

Republicans claim, of course, that they did nothing wrong - and that besides,
Democrats do it, too. But there haven't been any comparably credible
accusations against Democratic voter-registration organizations.

* Block the Vote, Paul Krugman , 04/10/15, NYTimes


_________________________________________________________________

17.01. Gaming the Polls , Science Now

Excerpts: Adding an element of competition to opinion polls may elicit more
truthful According to Drazen Prelec of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, the key idea is to introduce an element of competition--to turn the
poll into a game. Besides asking participants to name their favorite movie, the
pollster would ask them to predict the outcome of the poll. Each respondent
would then receive a score that factored in the accuracy of their forecast and
the "informativeness" of their response to their first question.
(...) in this game, the optimal strategy is always to say what you really
believe.

* Gaming the Polls, Dana Mackenzie , 04/10/15, Science Now


_________________________________________________________________

17.02. The Great American E-Voting Experiment , New Scientist

Excerpts:     US election trouble spots

* The Great American E-Voting Experiment, Eugenie Samuel Reich , Celeste Biever
, 04/10/16, New Scientist


_________________________________________________________________

17.03. Supreme Court Orders Review of Texas Districts , NPR ATC

Excerpts: The Supreme Court sends a controversial case back to a lower court.
Justices ordered a three-judge panel to reconsider last year's bitterly fought
Texas congressional redistricting, which some feel benefits Republicans. Hear
NPR's Melissa Block.

* Supreme Court Orders Review of Texas Districts, 04/10/18, NPR ATC


_________________________________________________________________

18. Spy Chiefs Say Cooperation Should Begin at the Bottom , NY Times

Excerpts: Three of the nation's top spymasters in the Bush administration told
a meeting of satellite builders on Wednesday that the way to defend the United
States against terrorist attacks was not to reshuffle the top management but to
improve cooperation among rank-and-file analysts, spies, investigators and
military officers.


"Speed and agility are the key to the war on terrorism, not more levels of
bureaucracy in Washington," said George J. Tenet, who resigned as director of
central intelligence in July, after seven years in the post.

* Spy Chiefs Say Cooperation Should Begin at the Bottom, Eric Lipton ,
04/10/14, NYTimes


_________________________________________________________________

18.01. Broad Use of Harsh Tactics Is Described at Cuba Base , NY Times

Excerpts: Many detainees at Guantánamo Bay were regularly subjected to harsh
and coercive treatment, (...).

David Sheffer, (...) who teaches law at George Washington University, said the
procedure of shackling prisoners to the floor in a state of undress while
playing loud music ?(...) - and lights clearly constituted torture. "I don't
think there's any question that treatment of that character satisfies the
severe pain and suffering requirement, be it physical or mental, that is
provided for in the Convention Against Torture,'' Mr. Sheffer said.

* Broad Use of Harsh Tactics Is Described at Cuba Base, Neil A. Lewis ,
04/10/17, NYTimes


_________________________________________________________________

19. Complex Challenges: Global Terroist Networks





_________________________________________________________________

19.01. Saudis Blame U.S. and Its Role in Iraq for Rise of Terror , NY Times

Excerpts: But when insurgents beheaded an American engineer, (...), they said
it was in revenge for "what thousands of Muslims taste every day because of the
fire from the American Apache" helicopter.(...)
"We are grateful to the United States; most of us were educated there," said
Prince al-Shafi. He and others said Saudis are picking other countries for
their children now because of their anger, and because of the immigration
obstacles they believe they and other Arabs face traveling to the United States
since 9/11.

* Saudis Blame U.S. and Its Role in Iraq for Rise of Terror, Joel Brinkley ,
04/10/14, NYTimes


_________________________________________________________________

19.02. Looting Targeted Iraq's Nuclear Equipment , NPR ME

Excerpts: According to an International Atomic Energy Agency report, equipment
that could be used to make atomic weapons vanished in targeted looting at the
beginning of the Iraq war. The IAEA routinely visited nuclear-related
facilities in Iraq before the war, but the interim administration there has not
yet invited the IAEA back to resume inspections. Hear NPR's Mike Shuster.

* Looting Targeted Iraq's Nuclear Equipment, 04/10/14, NPR ME


_________________________________________________________________

19.03. Pentagon: Ex-Detainees Return to Terror

Excerpts: Despite gaining their freedom by signing pledges to renounce
violence, at least seven former prisoners of the United States at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, have returned to terrorism, at times with deadly consequences.

At least two are believed to have died in fighting in Afghanistan, and a third
was recaptured during a raid of a suspected training camp in Afghanistan, Lt.
Cmdr. Flex Plexico, a Pentagon spokesman, said last week. Others are at large.

Additional former detainees have expressed a desire to rejoin the fight, (...).

* Pentagon: Ex-Detainees Return to Terror, 04/10/17, AP/ABC News


_________________________________________________________________

19.04. The G7, International Terrorism And Domestic Politics: Modeling Policy
Cohesion In Response To Systemic Disturbance , Int. Interactions

Abstract: This work probes the variability in G7 cohesion in response to
relatively new disturbances in the international system. Using a domestic
politics model, we argue that G7 cohesion weakens in the face of international
terrorism in the context of variable domestic consequences to common foreign
policy responses to this systemic disturbance. We compare the predictions from
our model with predictions stemming from neorealist and
liberal/institutionalist explanations. We find that, consistent with the
domestic politics explanation, G7 foreign policy cohesion declines as internal
terrorism increases.

* The G7, International Terrorism And Domestic Politics: Modeling Policy
Cohesion, T. Volgy  , K. Kanthak  , R. Ingersoll  , D. Frazier , Jul.-Sep.
2004, DOI: 10.1080/03050620490492079, International Interactions
* Contributed by Pritha Das


_________________________________________________________________

19.05. University Of Florida Researchers Shine Light On New Explosives
Detection Method , ScienceDaily

Excerpts: A team of University of Florida researchers has invented a way to
rapidly detect traces of TNT or other hidden explosives (...). The method uses
photoluminescence spectroscopy, a technique that casts light on a material and
measures the range and intensity of the wavelengths of light the material
produces in response. The wavelength of the emitted light varies depending on
the chemical structure of the material (...). "Once you shine a laser at the
sample, the laser then re-emits (it) at specific wavelengths that are different
for each material -- it's a kind of a fingerprint."

* University Of Florida Researchers Shine Light On New Explosives Detection
Method, 2004/10/13, ScienceDaily & University Of Florida
* Contributed by Atin Das


_________________________________________________________________

20. Links & Snippets





_________________________________________________________________

20.01. Other Publications



- Recursive Self-organizing Network Models, Barbara Hammer , Alessio Micheli ,
Alessandro Sperduti , Marc Strickert , 2004/10/09, Neural Networks, Article in
Press, Corrected Proof, DOI: 10.1016/j.neunet.2004.06.009
- HIV in Monkeys 'Blocked by Drug', 2004/10/14, BBC News
- Security Under the Skin, Sean Coughlan , 2004/10/15, BBC News
- Complex Environments, Complex Behaviour, M.J. Aitkenhead
m.aitkenhead@macaulay.ac.uk , A. J. S. McDonald , Sep. 2004, online 2004/10/12,
Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, DOI:
10.1016/j.engappai.2004.08.006
- Reading Outside The Library: How The Internet Has Affected Reading In China,
H. Qunqing qqh21@hotmail.com , Sep. 2004, Information Development, DOI:
10.1177/0266666904046825
- How Different Feature Spaces May Be Represented In Cortical Maps, N.V.
Swindale , Nov. 2004, Network: Computation in Neural Systems, DOI:
10.1088/0954-898X/15/4/001
- Mental State Expressions In US And Japanese Children's Books, J. D.-Seymour
, M. Shatz  , H. Wellman  , M. Saito , Nov. 2004, International Journal of
Behavioral Development, DOI: 10.1080/01650250444000261
- Evidence For Maternally Inherited Factors Favouring Male Homosexuality And
Promoting Female Fecundity, F. Corna  , A. C.-Ciani  , C. Capiluppi ,
2004/10/11, Alphagalileo & Proc. B (Biological Sciences)
- Sexual Selection, Natural Selection And The Evolution Of Dimorphic Coloration
And Ornamentation In Agamid Lizards, D. M. S.-Fox  , T. J. Ord , 2004/10/11,
Alphagalileo & Proc. B (Biological Sciences)
- Generation Cycles In Indonesian Lady Beetle Populations May Occur As A Result
Of Cannibalism, K. Nakamura  , N. Hasan  , I. Abbas  , H. C. J. Godfray  , M.
B. Bonsall , 2004/10/11, Alphagalileo & Biology Letters
- Eastern Europeans Happy And Unhappy With Democracy, J. Westlin
jorgen.westlin@adm.oru.se , 2004/10/12, Alphagalileo
- A Step Towards Unraveling The Genetic Pathways Of Left-Right Body Asymmetry,
A. Coutinho acoutin@igc.gulbenkian.pt , 2004/10/12, Alphagalileo
- Why Rocks Curl, 2004/10/05, ScienceDaily
- Imaging Studies Clarify Brain Changes Associated With Language Deficits In
Autism, 2004/10/14, ScienceDaily & Massachusetts General Hospital
- Component Of Volcanic Gas May Have Played A Significant Role In The Origins
Of Life On Earth, 2004/10/12, ScienceDaily & Scripps Research Institute
- Self-Monitoring Query Execution For Adaptive Query Processing, A. Gounaris
gounaris@cs.man.ac.uk , N. W. Paton , norm@cs.man.ac.uk  , A. A. A. Fernandes
alvaro@cs.man.ac.uk , R. Sakellariou rizos@cs.man.ac.uk , Dec. 2004, Online
2004/06/11, Data & Knowledge Engineering, DOI: 10.1016/j.datak.2004.05.002
- On The Political Economy Of Immigration And Income Redistribution, J. Dolmas
, G. W. Huffman , Nov. 2004, International Economic Review, DOI:
10.1111/j.0020-6598.2004.00300.x
- Measuring National Power, K. Kadera  , G. Sorokin , Jul.-Sep. 2004,
International Interactions, DOI: 10.1080/03050620490492097
- Quasiscarred Resonances in a Spiral-Shaped Microcavity, Soo-Young Lee ,
Sunghwan Rim , Jung-Wan Ryu , Tae-Yoon Kwon , Muhan Choi , Chil-Min Kim ,


Calculated field intensity plot of a "quasiscarred" resonance in a
spiral-shaped dielectric microcavity. Unlike the scarred resonances which occur
in many different chaotic systems, here there is no unstable periodic orbit
underlying the pattern of localization.




Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 164102 (2004)
- Inaccessibility in Online Learning of Recurrent Neural Networks, Asaki Saito
, Makoto Taiji , Takashi Ikegami , 04/10/15, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 168101, DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.168101
- Geographical Coarse Graining of Complex Networks, Beom Jun Kim  , 04/10/13,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 168701
- F.C.C. Clears Internet Access by Power Lines, Stephen Labaton  , 04/10/17,
NYTimes, The F.C.C. adopted rules that will enable utility companies to offer
an alternative to broadband services provided by cable and phone companies.
- Mars Rovers: New Evidence Of Past Water, 04/10/16, Science News, Twin rovers
on opposite sides of the Red Planet have found additional evidence that liquid
water once flowed there.
- A.M. And P.M. Clocks: Fruit Fly Brain Has Double Timekeepers, 04/10/16,
Science News, Two research teams have pinpointed one group of fly-brain neurons
keeping time for morning activity and a different neuron group performing the
same function for evening activity.
- Curry Cover-Up Unraveled, Brain study hints at why some spices mask the smell
of rotting food
- Two Clocks Keep Flies' Time, Separate cellular clocks control morning and
evening activity
- Cave Fish Go Blind on Purpose, Loss of eyesight isn't an accident--it's part
of the plan
- Plankton Share the Spectrum, Diversity thrives when species use different
wavelengths for photosynthesis
- Cosmic Symmetry-breaking, Bifurcation, Fractality and Biogenesis, Chris King
, 04/09, NeuroQuantology
- Implications of Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem on A.I. vs. Mind, 04/09, Fatih
GELGI, NeuroQuantology
- Emergence and Organization Towards a Taxonomy of Organizing Relations,
Stephen Jones  , 04/09, NeuroQuantology
- U.S. Hits Debt Limit After Senators Put Off Raising Ceiling , Jonathan
Weisman
  , 04/10/15, Washington Post. Leaders Promise Action After Election; Snow
Withholds Contributions to Federal Pension Plan
- Manjul Bhargava: An Artist of Music and Math , 04/10/18, NPR ME, Number
theory expert Manjul Bhargava is also a master of Indian drumming. He sees
close links between his two loves -- both connect seemingly random ideas to
create beauty.
- Neuroscience: Higher Brain Functions, Peter Stern , Gilbert Chin , John
Travis


, 04/10/15, Science : 431
- Behavioral Neuroscience Uncaged, Greg Miller


, 04/10/15, Science : 432-434
- Language and the Origin of Numerical Concepts, Rochel Gelman  , C. R.
Gallistel
, 04/10/15, Science : 441-443
- The Role of the Medial Frontal Cortex in Cognitive Control, K. Richard
Ridderinkhof , Markus Ullsperger , Eveline A. Crone , Sander Nieuwenhuis

, 04/10/15, Science : 443-447



_________________________________________________________________

20.02. Webcast Announcements



  ALife 9: Ninth International Conference on Artificial Life, Boston, MA,
04/09/12-15

The 4th Intl Workshop on Meta-synthesis and Complex System, Beijing, China,
04/07/22-23


Intl Conf on Complex Networks: Structure, Function and Processes, Kolkata,
India, 04/06/27-30


 From Autopoiesis to Neurophenomenology: A Tribute to Francisco Varela
(1946-2001), Paris, France, 2004/06/18-20



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



Evolutionary Epistemology, Language, and Culture, Brussels, Belgium,
04/05/26-28


International Conference on Complex Systems 2004, Boston, 04/05/16-21


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


Nonlinear Dynamics and Statistical Mechanics Days, Brussels, Belgium,
04/04/26-27


Science Education Forum for Chinese Language Culture, Panel Discussion, Taipei,
Taiwan, 04/05/01


Biologically Inspired Approaches to Advanced Information Technology, ,
Lausanne,Switzerland, 04/01/29-30


Nonlinear Dynamics And Chaos: Lab Demonstrations, Strogatz, Steven H.,
Internet-First University Press, 1994

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

  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



  Intl Workshop On Bifurcations In Nonsmooth And Hybrid Dynamical Systems  ,
Milano (Italy), 04/10/21-22

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


Social and Organizational Innovation, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 04/10/25-27

  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


ICDM '04: The Fourth IEEE Intl Conf on Data Mining, Brighton, UK, 04/11/01-04


International Congress of Nanotechnology and Nano World Expo,San Francisco, CA,
04/11/07-11

Denaturing Darwin: International Conference on Evolution and Organization
, Amersfoort, The Netherlands, 04/11/12-14




An Introduction to Complexity Science, Rockville,?MD USA, 04/12/06



Improving Health of the Chronically Ill: Insights from Complexity Science,
Rockville,?MD USA, 04/12/07-08

  The 7th Asia-Pacific Complex Systems Conference,  Queensland, Australia,
04/12/06-10

  17th Australian Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence,  Queensland,
Australia, 04/12/06-10

Cellular Computing Symposium, U Warwick
(UK), 04/12/09-10

  International Conference On Computational Intelligence (Icci 2004) ,
Istanbul, Turkey, 04/12/15-17


  Kondratieff Waves, Warfare And World Security, NATO Advanced Research
Workshop
, Covilh? Portugal, 05/02/14-17



5th Creativity And Cognition Conference, London.UK, 05/04/12-15


Social Intelligence and Interaction in Animals, Robots and Agents, Hatfield,
UK, 05/04/12-15


IEEE Swarm Intelligence Symposium
Pasadena, California, USA, 05/06/08-10

  Powders & Grains 2005, Stuttgart, Germany, 05/06/18-22

  Workshop on Complexity and Policy Analysis, Cork, Ireland, 05/06/22-24

  ECAL 2005 - VIIIth European Conference on Artificial Life, Canterbury, Kent,
UK, 05/09/05-09


  Complexity, Science and Society Conf 2005, Liverpool, UK, 05/09/11-14


18th International Conference on Noise and Fluctuations (ICNF 2005), Salamanca,
Spain, 05/09/19-23







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