¸´ÔÓÐÔÎÄÕªNO£º2004.45
Complexity Digest 2004.45
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Mirror: http://www.comdig.de Asian
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(Chinese GB-Code) "I think
the next century will be the century of complexity." Stephen Hawking
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Content:
01. On The Emergence Of Complex Systems On The Basis Of The Coordination Of
Complex Behaviors Of Their Elements, Complexity
02. Europe Still Unhappy With U.S. Tax Subsidy, NY Times
02.01. False Friends Are Worse Than Bitter Enemies, Evol. & Human Behav.
03. Super Searches, Time
04. Software Helps Singers Find Perfect Pitch, NPR ME
04.01. Are Spatial Memories Strengthened In The Human Hippocampus During Slow
Wave Sleep?, Evol. & Human Behav.
04.02. Anxiety Good For Memory Recall, Bad For Solving Complex Problems,
ScienceDaily
04.03. Psychologist Finds Instance Where 'Two Wrongs Do Make A Right',
ScienceDaily
05. A Battle Cry to Decipher Immunity, The Scientist
06. Cardiovascular Biology: How Genes Know Their Place, Nature
06.01. Ural Farmers Got Milk Gene First?, Science Now
07. Immunology and Olfaction, Science
07.01. Making Sense, Nature
08. Spider Webs Untangle Evolution, Nature News
08.01. Supernova Debris Found On Earth, Nature News
09. Fish With Cleft Lip Solves Evolution Riddle, Nature News
09.01. Wandering Nostrils, Nature
10. Stickiness Takes On New Shapes, Nature News
11. Dynamic Instability of a Bacterial Engine, Science
12. Land Management: Forests, Fires And Climate, Nature
12.01. Biodiversity Effects on Soil Processes Explained by Interspecific
Functional Dissimilarity, Science
12.02. Hide And See, Conflicting Views Of Reef-Fish Colors, Science News
12.03. Marine Conservation: Sink Or Swim, Nature
13. Stealth Now Old Hat - USAF Looks Into Teleportation, Technovelgy.com
14. Structured Water Is Changing Models, The Scientist
14.01. Biophysics: Water-Repellent Legs Of Water Strider, Nature
15. Community resilience is key to disaster reduction, AlertNet
15.01. Cosmic Doomsday Delayed, Nature News
16. Democratic Values And Citizen Action: A View From US Ninth Graders, Int. J.
Edu. Res.
16.01. Students' Concepts And Attitudes Toward Citizenship: The Case Of Hong
Kong, Int. J. Edu. Res.
17. New Standards for Elections, NY Times
17.01. You Can Fool Some People Sometimes, arXiv
18. Dick Morris: Exit Polls Were "Juiced", News Hunds
18.01. Report Says Problems Led to Skewed Surveying Data, NY Times
18.02. House Dems Seek Election Inquiry, Wired News
19. Complex Challenges: Global Terroist Networks
19.01. Qaeda Now A Global Islamic Insurgency: Ex-CIA Official, Daily Times
Monitor
19.02. U.S. Judge Halts War-Crime Trial at Guantanamo, NY Times
20. Links & Snippets
20.01. Other Publications
20.02. Webcast Announcements
20.03. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements
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01. On The Emergence Of Complex Systems On The Basis Of The Coordination Of
Complex Behaviors Of Their Elements , Complexity
Excerpts: (...) The purpose of this article is to challenge the view, often
expressed and perhaps prevalent in most discussions, that the essence of
complex systems lies in the emergence of complex structures from the non-linear
interaction of many simple elements that obey simple rules. Typically, these
rules consist only of 0-1 alternatives selected in response to the input
received, as in many prototypes like cellular automata, Boolean networks, spin
systems, etc. We do not intend to deny that quite intricate patterns and
structures can occur in such systems. (...) This brings in a new aspect that
seems essential and indispensable to the emergence.
* On The Emergence Of Complex Systems On The Basis Of The Coordination Of
Complex Behaviors Of Their Elements, F. M. Atay atay@member.ams.org
, J. Jost
jost@mis.mpg.de , Sep.-Oct. 2004, Online
2004/10/25, DOI: 10.1002/cplx.20048,
Complexity
* Contributed by Atin Das - dasatinyahoo.co.in
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02. Europe Still Unhappy With U.S. Tax Subsidy , NY Times
Excerpts: The measure (...) was intended to do away with a tax cut for
exporters that was declared illegal by the World Trade Organization. Rather
than simply outlawing the tax subsidy system, Congress replaced it with three
times the number of tax cuts, involving nearly every sector of the economy from
tobacco farmers to shipbuilders.(...) (..) Europeans asked for talks with the
United States to question why some of the biggest American corporations should
be given a three-year grace period or transition before the original tax cut
was ended.
* Europe Still Unhappy With U.S. Tax Subsidy, Elizabeth Becker , 04/11/06,
NYTimes
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02.01. False Friends Are Worse Than Bitter Enemies , Evol. & Human Behav.
Excerpt: One of the most critical features of human society is the
pervasiveness of cooperation in social and economic exchanges. Moreover, social
scientists have found overwhelming evidence that such cooperative behavior is
likely to be directed toward in-group members. We propose that the group-based
nature of cooperation includes punishment behavior. Punishment behavior is used
to maintain cooperation within systems of social exchange (...) we conducted a
gift-giving game experiment with third-party punishment. The results of the
experiment (N=90) support the following hypothesis: Participants who are
cooperative in a gift-giving game punish noncooperative in-group members more
severely than they punish noncooperative out-group members.
* False Friends Are Worse Than Bitter Enemies: "Altruistic" Punishment
Of
In-Group Members, M. Shinada , T. Yamagishi toshio@let.hokudai.ac.jp
, Yu
Ohmura , Nov. 2004, online 2004/10/27, DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2004.08.001,
Evolution and Human Behavior
* Contributed by Atin Das - dasatinyahoo.co.in
_________________________________________________________________
03. Super Searches , Time
Excerpts: IBM's webfountain, a new internet tool, helps companies spot online
trends before they emerge.
"We're looking at relationships between entities, and between people and
places
and products," (...). If a company wants to know, for example, what
potential
customers are saying online about its new gizmo, or even what people are saying
in a specific language about the company's product, WebFountain can help give
the answer. In one pilot program, WebFountain found that the buzz on college
campuses preceded music sales of new CDs by two weeks (...).
* Super Searches, Laura A. Locke , 04/11/08, Time
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04. Software Helps Singers Find Perfect Pitch , NPR ME
Excerpts: For those with less-than-perfect singing voices, technology offers
help. A number of computer programs can correct pitch to make just about anyone
sound in tune -- even NPR's Renee Montagne, who lends her voice to show how the
software works.
The technology has become quite prevalent in the music industry, finding its
way into many of today's pop recordings -- and some classical ones, as well.
* Software Helps Singers Find Perfect Pitch, Renee Montagne , David
Kestenbaum
, 04/11/08, NPR ME
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04.01. Are Spatial Memories Strengthened In The Human Hippocampus During Slow
Wave Sleep? , Evol. & Human Behav.
Excerpt: (...) Here, using regional cerebral blood flow measurements, we show
that, in humans, hippocampal areas that are activated during route learning in
a virtual town are likewise activated during subsequent slow wave sleep. Most
importantly, we found that the amount of hippocampal activity expressed during
slow wave sleep positively correlates with the improvement of performance in
route retrieval on the next day. These findings suggest that learning-dependent
modulation in hippocampal activity during human sleep reflects the offline
processing of recent episodic and spatial memory traces, which eventually leads
to the plastic changes underlying the subsequent improvement in performance.
* Are Spatial Memories Strengthened In The Human Hippocampus During Slow Wave
Sleep?, P. Peigneux , S. Laureys , S. Fuchs , F. Collette
, F. Perrin , J.
Reggers , C. Phillips , C. Degueldre , G. D. Fiore , J.
Aerts , A. Luxen
, P. Maquet , Nov. 2004, online 2004/10/27, Evolution and Human Behavior
* Contributed by Atin Das - dasatinyahoo.co.in
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04.02. Anxiety Good For Memory Recall, Bad For Solving Complex Problems ,
ScienceDaily
Excerpts: (...) Researchers at Ohio State University gave a battery of simple
cognitive tests to 19 first-year medical students one to two days before a
regular classroom exam - a period when they would be highly stressed. Students
were also given a similar battery of tests a week after the exam, when things
were less hectic. While pre-exam stress helped students accurately recall a
list of memorized numbers, they did less well on the tests that required them
to consider many possibilities in order to come up with a reasonable answer. A
week after the exam, the opposite was true. (...)
* Anxiety Good For Memory Recall, Bad For Solving Complex Problems, 2004/11/05,
ScienceDaily & Ohio State University
* Contributed by Atin Das - dasatinyahoo.co.in
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04.03. Psychologist Finds Instance Where 'Two Wrongs Do Make A Right' ,
ScienceDaily
Excerpts: A trusted mental map of your surroundings turns out to be slightly
misaligned, skewing your orientation. Your ability to control the direction in
which you move is similarly compromised, although in a manner opposite the
map's offset. Taken together, the errors cancel one another, and you end up
exactly where you want to be. Contrary to the proverb, two wrongs do make a
right. This exception is the rule when it comes to how our brain processes what
our eyes see and where our body moves, according to a discovery by University
of Oregon researchers (...).
* Psychologist Finds Instance Where 'Two Wrongs Do Make A Right', 2004/11/04,
ScienceDaily & University Of Oregon
* Contributed by Atin Das - dasatinyahoo.co.in
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05. A Battle Cry to Decipher Immunity , The Scientist
Excerpts: The march to demystify mammalian immunity has been long and arduous.
At the frontlines we face a dizzying array of biochemicals and interactions
between multiple cell types aimed at detecting, eliminating, and remembering
intruders. (...)
But recent advances in our understanding of innate immunity--that hard-wired,
first line of defense that doesn't appear to adapt during infection--have
served as a signal flare, rallying those discouraged by the system's
complexity. As an initiating factor in the immune response, innate immunity
offers an inroad to the entire system.
* A Battle Cry to Decipher Immunity, Luke A. O'Neill , 04/11/08, The Scientist
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06. Cardiovascular Biology: How Genes Know Their Place , Nature
Excerpts: Embryonic development is largely a matter of switching on the right
genes, in the right place, and at the right time - it's no use activating
heart-manufacturing genes in the limbs, for instance. (...) Using mice, the
authors first discovered that the protein in question, named Baf60c, is
initially expressed only in the developing heart. Investigating further, they
found that completely eliminating Baf60c from mouse embryos led to major
cardiac defects (and early death). Knocking out about 50% of the protein led to
somewhat milder, although still ultimately fatal, problems, (...).
* Cardiovascular Biology: How Genes Know Their Place, Amanda Tromans ,
04/11/04, DOI: 10.1038/432029a, Nature 432, 29
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06.01. Ural Farmers Got Milk Gene First? , Science Now
Excerpts: Less than half of all adults can easily digest milk, a trait believed
to have first appeared in people who kept dairy animals. Now scientists have
traced the genetic roots of milk tolerance to the Ural mountains, well north of
where pastoralism is thought to have begun. The surprising result supports a
theory that nomads from the Urals were one of two major farmer groups that
spread into Europe, bringing the Indo-European languages that eventually
diverged into the world's largest family of modern languages.
* Ural Farmers Got Milk Gene First?, 04/11/05, Science News
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07. Immunology and Olfaction , Science
Excerpts: Immunology and Olfaction Although absent in humans, the vomeronasal
organ (VNO) plays a central role in controlling reproductive and social
behaviors in most mammals. Vomeronasal sensory neurons detect pheromones and
other molecules that carry information about gender, sexual and social status,
dominance hierarchy, and individuality, but it has been very difficult to
define the molecular nature of these signals. Leinders-Zufall et al. (p. 1033)
show that major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I peptides can activate
selective VNO neurons in the basal layer of the VNO.
* Immunology and Olfaction, Science
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07.01. Making Sense , Nature
Excerpts: Proprioceptors precisely measure physical properties, such as muscle
length, tendon tension, joint angle or deep pressure. (...) So proprioception
provides information on the physics of the body, (...). The maps derived from
these complex calculations not only guide body movement, they also (together
with touch) sense the size and shape of objects and measure the geometry of
external space. (...)So subjective body consciousness provided by myriad
networking proprioceptors is the basis of objective knowledge of fundamental
physical properties ?space, time and weight ?of external reality.
* Making Sense, Victor Smetacek , Franz Mechsner , 04/11/04, DOI:
10.1038/432021a, Nature 432, 21
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08. Spider Webs Untangle Evolution , Nature News
Excerpts: Tetragnatha stelarobusta on Maui and T.
hawaiensis on the island
of Hawaii weave very similar types of web. c PNAS
The biologist Stephen Jay Gould famously proposed that if we could "rewind
the
tape" of evolution and play it again, chance would give rise to a world
that
was completely different from the one we live in now. But the concept that
chance reigns supreme may ring less true when it comes to complex behaviours.
A study of the similarities between the webs of different spider species in
Hawaii provides fresh evidence that behavioural tendencies can actually evolve
rather predictably, even in widely separated places.
* Spider Webs Untangle Evolution, Roxanne Khamsi , 04/11/01, Nature News
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08.01. Supernova Debris Found On Earth , Nature News
Excerpts: Each supernova sprays a cocktail of exotic
elements across the
cosmos. c NASA
Cosmic fallout from an exploding star dusted the Earth about 2.8 million years
ago, and may have triggered a change in climate that affected the course of
human evolution. The evidence comes from an unusual form of iron that was
blasted through space by a supernova before eventually settling into the rocky
crust beneath the Pacific Ocean.
(...)
The team has now analysed a different piece of ocean crust, where the supernova
detritus is concentrated into a clear band of rock that can be accurately
dated.
* Supernova Debris Found On Earth, Mark Peplow , 04/11/02, Nature News
_________________________________________________________________
09. Fish With Cleft Lip Solves Evolution Riddle , Nature News
Excerpts: A 395-million-year-old fish may have answered a pressing question of
human evolution: how did our nasal cavities adopt their current layout? The
strange specimen has nostrils in the middle of its upper teeth. The fish,
called Kenichthys campbelli, represents a halfway point in the evolutionary
reshuffling of the nasal passages(...). Most modern fish have four external
nostrils, whereas land vertebrates, which are descended from Kenichthys, have
nasal passages that form openings near the throat called choanae. The fossil,
(...), represents a crucial intermediate step between external nostrils and
choanae.
* Fish With Cleft Lip Solves Evolution Riddle, Michael Hopkin , 04/11/03,
Nature News
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09.01. Wandering Nostrils , Nature
Excerpts: An answer (...) now emerges from an ancient fossil fish.
The structures known as choanae may seem obscure. But we've all got them; they
are the 'internal nostrils' that form the passage between our nasal cavity and
throat that we use for breathing when our mouth is closed. They have also been
the subject of much argument among those studying comparative vertebrate
anatomy ?in particular, the question of how choanae originated in the
tetrapods, or land vertebrates, a group that consists of amphibians, reptiles,
birds and mammals.
* Wandering Nostrils, Philippe Janvier , 04/11/04, DOI: 10.1038/432023a, Nature
432, 23 - 24
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10. Stickiness Takes On New Shapes , Nature News
Excerpts: Was Spiderman's suit covered in tiny
doughnuts? c AP PHGOTO/Brian
Hendler
Animals such as insects and lizards employ an impressive range of tools to
achieve surface-scaling superpowers. The structures they use include everything
from flat attachment pads, used by grasshoppers, to microscopic hairs, which
cover the feet of geckos.
But scientists have never had the maths to calculate how well these different
shapes perform. Now, new equations enable them to compare different shapes,
which could allow us to design artificial surfaces that stick to walls better
than anything found in nature, according to researchers
* Stickiness Takes On New Shapes, Roxanne Khamsi , 04/11/05, Nature News
_________________________________________________________________
11. Dynamic Instability of a Bacterial Engine , Science
Excerpts: Bacteria are endowed with a considerable degree of internal
organization. Thanks to fluorescence microscopy, it is now clear that many
bacterial components--DNA as well as proteins--are found in specific
subcellular locations. Indeed, the discovery of prokaryotic homologs of both
tubulin and actin, which are key components of eukaryotic cellular
organization, has overturned the textbook credo that cytoskeletons are
exclusive to eukaryotes . (...)
They show that ParM is a dynamic polymerization engine that drives the
segregation of DNA plasmids during bacterial cell division.
* Dynamic Instability of a Bacterial Engine, Jakob Moller-Jensen , Kenn Gerdes
, 04/11/05, Science : 987-989
_________________________________________________________________
12. Land Management: Forests, Fires And Climate , Nature
Excerpts: In the past 15 years, the western United States has experienced some
extreme fires, notable for their size and severity. The annual costs of fire
suppression now exceed $1.6 billion, and the ceiling seems nowhere in sight. In
the absence of large fires during most of the twentieth century, many forests
have become filled with a dense understorey of shrubs and small trees that
provide 'ladder fuels' that set the crowns of trees alight: these crown fires
are the most destructive types of wildfire.
* Land Management: Forests, Fires And Climate, Cathy Whitlock , 04/11/04, DOI:
10.1038/432028a, Nature 432, 28 - 29
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12.01. Biodiversity Effects on Soil Processes Explained by Interspecific
Functional Dissimilarity , Science
Excerpts: The relation between species diversity and ecosystem functioning has
been keenly debated. (...), the functional dissimilarity of the species in a
community may influence the overall functioning of an ecosystem. Heemsbergen et
al. (
p. 1019) filled tubes with soil, topped them with alder leaves, and added
combinations of different numbers of species of annelids, isopods, and
millipedes. They then tracked three "ecosystem function" variables
over
subsequent weeks. (...) The more dissimilar in function its members, the better
the assemblage at decomposing the leaves.
* Biodiversity Effects on Soil Processes Explained by Interspecific Functional
Dissimilarity, D. A. Heemsbergen , M. P. Berg , M. Loreau , J. R. van Hal , J.
H. Faber , H. A. Verhoef , 04/11/05, Science : 1019-1020.
_________________________________________________________________
12.02. Hide And See, Conflicting Views Of Reef-Fish Colors , Science News
Excerpts: Popular Hues. Calculations based on fish
vision suggest that from
a distance yellows blend in with a generic reef background, and the blues fade
into vistas of water. A fish among branching corals would be hidden like a
soldier wearing camouflage. PhotoDisc Although the fish
may dazzle the
human eye with scarlet, rose, yellow, turquoise, emerald, and dozens of other
shades, some theorists have proposed that, in the complexity of a reef, the
riot of fish colors serves as camouflage. (...)
Improvements in cameras and in equipment for analyzing light and color are now
inspiring new approaches to approximating a fish-eye view of the reefs. Looking
at the abundant coloration from a fishy perspective, the new work demonstrates
that people can be quite wrong about what's showy and what's subtle.
* Hide And See, Conflicting Views Of Reef-Fish Colors, Susan Milius , 04/11/06,
Science News
_________________________________________________________________
12.03. Marine Conservation: Sink Or Swim , Nature
Excerpts: Conservation biologists generally agree that unique habitats in the
open sea such as hydrothermal vents, seamounts and cold-water reefs require
urgent protection. Fishing, pollution and commercial traffic in international
waters ?known in treaties as the 'high seas' ?have increased to such an
extent that ecosystems once deemed out of human reach are feeling the effects.
Two years ago, delegates at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in
Johannesburg, South Africa, agreed to establish by 2012 a network of marine
reserves representing all major habitats, both within and beyond national
jurisdiction.
* Marine Conservation: Sink Or Swim, Henry Nicholls , 04/11/04, DOI:
10.1038/432012a, Nature 432, 12 - 14
_________________________________________________________________
13. Stealth Now Old Hat - USAF Looks Into Teleportation , Technovelgy.com
Excerpts:
("Old School" Teleportation Technology)
The author broke down the various possibilities in this way
Teleportation ?SciFi: the disembodied transport of persons or inanimate
objects across space by advanced (futuristic) technological means (adapted from
Vaidman, 2001). We will call this sf- Teleportation, which will not be
considered further in this study.
Teleportation ?psychic: the conveyance of persons or inanimate objects by
psychic means. We will call this p-Teleportation.
Teleportation ?engineering the vacuum or spacetime metric: the conveyance of
persons or inanimate objects across space by altering the properties of the
spacetime vacuum, or by altering the spacetime metric (geometry). We will call
this vm-Teleportation.
Teleportation ?quantum entanglement: the disembodied transport of the quantum
state of a system and its correlations across space to another system, where
system refers to any single or collective particles of matter or energy such as
baryons (protons, neutrons, etc.), leptons (electrons, etc.), photons, atoms,
ions, etc. We will call this q-Teleportation.
Teleportation ?exotic: the conveyance of persons or inanimate objects by
transport through extra space dimensions or parallel universes. We will call
this e-Teleportation.
Editor's Note: This is another example of the power of technical science terms
applied to an area where non-experts make funding decisions.
* Stealth Now Old Hat - USAF Looks Into Teleportation, Frank Herbert ,
04/11/01, Technovelgy.com
_________________________________________________________________
14. Structured Water Is Changing Models , The Scientist
Excerpts: Water molecules cluster to form
hydrogen-bonded bicyclo-octamers
(H2O)8 (top left) that can link together into larger structures (top right).
Ideally they form 280-member icosahedral clusters, (H2O)280, (below), shown
looking down the two-fold, three-fold, and five-fold axes of symmetry. Only the
oxygen atoms of the constituent water molecules are shown (except at top left).
Large water-molecule clusters may be crucial to cellular
processes
Researchers are beginning to glimpse water's secret social life. Evidence is
mounting that water in living systems naturally gathers into frameworks of 14,
17, 21, 196, 280, or more molecules. Some say that the clusters' apparent
existence necessitates redesigning simulation models of life processes. And
support is growing behind the idea that these intricate structures play key
roles in operations ranging from molecular binding to turning on and off basic
cell processes.
* Structured Water Is Changing Models, Bennett Daviss , 04/11/08, The Scientist
_________________________________________________________________
14.01. Biophysics: Water-Repellent Legs Of Water Strider , Nature
Excerpts: Water striders (Gerris remigis) have remarkable non-wetting legs that
enable them to stand effortlessly and move quickly on water, a feature believed
to be due to a surface-tension effect caused by secreted wax We show here,
however, that it is the special hierarchical structure of the legs, which are
covered by large numbers of oriented tiny hairs (microsetae) with fine
nanogrooves, that is more important in inducing this water resistance.(...)
The maximal supporting force of a single leg is (...) about 15 times the total
body weight of the insect.
* Biophysics: Water-Repellent Legs Of Water Strider, Xuefeng Gao , Lei Jiang ,
04/11/04, DOI: :10.1038/432036a, Nature 432, 36
_________________________________________________________________
15. Community resilience is key to disaster reduction , AlertNet
(...)
The correlation between underdevelopment and disasters is made clear in this
year's annual World Disasters Report
(...) Why are fewer people dying from disasters even as more people are being
affected? This is a question that the World Disasters Report 2004 seeks to
answer.
(...) But we present evidence that the knowledge and resilience of people at
risk contributes far more to reducing the toll of disasters than many of us in
the developed world may expect.
(...)The lesson from Andhra Pradesh is that while authorities and experts can
undermine community resilience by offering inappropriate advice, local people
often have the knowledge and skills to craft their own recovery. The challenge
for aid organisations and governments alike is to understand and nurture these
local resources so that community resilience to disasters can flourish.
* Community resilience is key to disaster reduction, Ibrahim Osman , October
28, 2004, Reuters Foundation: AlertNet
* Contributed by Hugh Trenchard - htrenchardshaw.ca
_________________________________________________________________
15.01. Cosmic Doomsday Delayed , Nature News
Excerpts: Dark energy is bloating the Universe, at least
for the next few
billion years. c NASA (...) dark energy has two sources. One
is a
hypothetical form of energy produced by the seething mass of particles that
spontaneously appear and disappear in a vacuum. The other is a type of force
field that is intrinsic to the fabric of the Universe and continually drives
its expansion.(...) ""(...) for the next 10 billion years we
will see
exponential expansion," says Linde. "Over that time, you will be
unable to
distinguish the Universe from one that will expand forever."
* Cosmic Doomsday Delayed, Mark Peplow , 04/11/05, Nature News
_________________________________________________________________
16. Democratic Values And Citizen Action: A View From US Ninth Graders , Int.
J. Edu. Res.
Excerpt: (...) US ninth graders were assessed for their civic knowledge,
concepts, attitudes, and experiences. The study yielded information about the
development of democratic attitudes and dispositions toward social action. US
ninth graders rated free expression and free elections as most important for
democracy. They were less sure about the importance of peaceful protests. US
ninth graders were above the international average in their support of rights
for both women and immigrants. However, not all groups of students were willing
to extend rights to "the other." (...) Socio-economic variables and
race/ethnicity were related to civic knowledge.
* Democratic Values And Citizen Action: A View From US Ninth Graders, C. L.
Hahn chahn@emory.edu , Online 2004/10/30,
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijer.2004.07.010,
International Journal of Educational Research
* Contributed by Pritha Das - prithadas01yahoo.com
_________________________________________________________________
16.01. Students' Concepts And Attitudes Toward Citizenship: The Case Of Hong
Kong , Int. J. Edu. Res.
Excerpt: This paper analyses the data obtained from the findings on Hong Kong
(...). Because the survey was conducted two years after Hong Kong's return to
China, the findings reflect concepts and attitudes toward citizenship among
Hong Kong students shortly after the change of sovereignty. The study shows
that Hong Kong ranks highest in two aspects of citizenship: civic knowledge and
attitudes toward immigrants. Hong Kong ranks lowest in attitudes toward the
nation, support for women's political rights, confidence in participating at
school, and open classroom climate. Moreover, Hong Kong students are most
concerned about elections and freedom of expression, (...).
* Students' Concepts And Attitudes Toward Citizenship: The Case Of Hong Kong,
C. L. Hahn chahn@emory.edu , Online
2004/10/30, DOI:
10.1016/j.ijer.2004.07.007, International Journal of Educational Research
* Contributed by Pritha Das - prithadas01yahoo.com
_________________________________________________________________
17. New Standards for Elections , NY Times
Excerpts: The 2004 election may not have an asterisk next to it (...), but the
mechanics of our democracy remained badly flawed. From untrustworthy electronic
voting machines, to partisan secretaries of state, to outrageously long lines
at the polls, the election system was far from what voters are entitled to.
It's patently obvious that presidential elections, at least, should be
conducted under uniform rules. Voters in Alaska and Texas should not have
different levels of protection when it comes to their right to cast a ballot
and have it counted.
* New Standards for Elections, NY Times
_________________________________________________________________
17.01. You Can Fool Some People Sometimes , arXiv
Abstract: We develop an empirical procedure to qunatify future company
performance based on top management promises. We find that the number of future
tense sentence occurrences in 10-K reports is significantly negatively
correlated with the return as well as with the excess return on the company
stock price. We extrapolate the same methodology to US presidential campaigns
since 1960 and come to some startling conclusions.
* You Can Fool Some People Sometimes, Rasa Karapandza , Milos Bozovic ,
2004/10/29, DOI: math.ST/0410586, arXiv
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson
_________________________________________________________________
18. Dick Morris: Exit Polls Were "Juiced" , News Hunds
Excerpts: MORRIS: Exit polling is by far the most accurate form of polling. In
thirty years I've never seen an exit poll be wrong.
O'REILLY: So you think this was juiced?
MORRIS: Juiced. I use exit pollings in foreign campaigns as a check on the
government's count...
O'REILLY (interrupts): Are you accusing ABC News of cooking their poll?
(...)
Or, even more interesting, maybe the exit polls were absolutely correct and a
whole lot of Kerry votes got destroyed, lost, eaten up or changed by paperless
voting machines.
Editor's Note: See also blackboxvoting.org or
blackboxvoting.com
* Dick Morris: Exit Polls Were "Juiced", 04/11/04, News Hounds
_________________________________________________________________
18.01. Report Says Problems Led to Skewed Surveying Data , NY Times
Excerpts: "The last wave of national exit polls we received, along with
many
other subscribers, showed Kerry winning the popular vote by 51 percent to 48
percent, if true, surely enough to carry the Electoral College,?(...).
Officials with the consortium said they did not yet have a full explanation for
why the national poll skewed in Mr. Kerry's favor. (...)
Even Tony Blair, (...), was fooled. (...) he had gone to bed thinking Mr. Kerry
was the next president (...), only to wake up to learn otherwise.
* Report Says Problems Led to Skewed Surveying Data, Jim Rutenberg , 04/11/05,
NYTimes
_________________________________________________________________
18.02. House Dems Seek Election Inquiry , Wired News
Excerpts: (...) were not anticipating that an investigation would change the
outcome of the election.
"But we do want to make sure that where there are problems they're fixed so
that it won't affect other elections in the future," Doty said. "We
want to
make sure that people can be confident in the system."
Doty said, however, that if the GAO does find a lot more problems that haven't
yet been reported, then people will at least know about them and be able to
decide what to do about them.
* House Dems Seek Election Inquiry, Kim Zetter , 04/11/05, Wired News
_________________________________________________________________
19. Complex Challenges: Global Terroist Networks
_________________________________________________________________
19.01. Qaeda Now A Global Islamic Insurgency: Ex-CIA Official , Daily Times
Monitor
Excerpts: The US administration has failed to recognise that Al Qaeda is now a
global Islamic insurgency rather than a traditional terrorist organisation, and
so poses a different threat than previously believed, (...).
Michael Scheuer, who is also the author of a best-selling book critical of the
handling of the fight against terrorism, said in an interview with The New York
Times that the government "doesn't respect the threat" because most
officials
still regard Al Qaeda as a terrorist organisation that can be defeated by
arresting or killing its operatives.
* Qaeda Now A Global Islamic Insurgency: Ex-CIA Official, 04/11/09, Daily Times
Monitor, Pakistan
_________________________________________________________________
19.02. U.S. Judge Halts War-Crime Trial at Guantanamo , NY Times
Excerpts: A federal judge ruled Monday that President Bush had both overstepped
his constitutional bounds and improperly brushed aside the Geneva Conventions
in establishing military commissions to try detainees at the United States
naval base here as war criminals.
The ruling (...) brought an abrupt halt to the trial here of one detainee, one
of hundreds being held at Guant¨¢namo as enemy combatants. It threw into doubt
the future of the first set of United States military commission trials since
the end of World War II (...).
* U.S. Judge Halts War-Crime Trial at Guantanamo, Neil A. Lewis , 04/11/09,
NYTimes
_________________________________________________________________
20. Links & Snippets
_________________________________________________________________
20.01. Other Publications
- Emergent Effective Collusion in an Economy of Perfectly Rational Competitors,
Russell K. Standish , Steve Keen , 2004/11/03, arXiv, DOI: nlin.AO/0411006
- Was Darwin Wrong?, David Quammen , 2004/11, National Geographic Magazine
- Simulating Political Attitudes and Voting Behavior, Johannes Kottonau ,
Claudia Pahl-Wostl , 2004/10/31, JASSS 7(4)
- Responsibility for Societies of Agents, Rosaria Conte , Mario Paolucci ,
2004/10/31, JASSS 7(4)
- Formal Systems and Agent-Based Social Simulation Equals Null?, Maria Fasli ,
2004/10/31, JASSS 7(4)
- Reasoning About Other Agents: a Plea for Logic-Based Methods, Wendelin Reich
, 2004/10/31, JASSS 7(4)
- Understanding MABS and Social Simulation: Switching Between Languages in a
Hierarchy of Levels, Oswaldo Ter¨¢n , 2004/10/31, JASSS 7(4)
- The Design of Participatory Agent-Based Social Simulations, Ana Maria
Ramanath , Nigel Gilbert , 2004/10/31, JASSS 7(4)
- Simulating SARS: Small-World Epidemiological Modeling and Public Health
Policy Assessments, Chung-Yuan Huang , Chuen-Tsai Sun , Ji-Lung Hsieh , Holin
Lin , 2004/10/31, JASSS 7(4)
- Dynamics of the tuning process between singers, R. Urteaga1 and P.G. Bolcatto
, Published online 5 November 2004, Eur. Phys. J. B 41, 569-573 (2004), DOI:
DOI: 10.1140/epjb/e2004-00350-3
- Is Prediction Possible? Chaotic Behavior Of Multiple Equilibria Regulation
Model In Cellular Automata Topology, I. D. Katerelos iokat@panteoin.gr
, A. G.
Koulouris , Sep.-Oct. 2004, Online 2004/10/25, Complexity, DOI:
10.1002/cplx.20052
- Nonlinear Microscopy: New Techniques And Applications, J. Mertz jmertz@bu.edu
, Oct. 2004, online 2004/09/11, Current Opinion in Neurobiology, DOI:
10.1016/j.conb.2004.08.013
- How Do Memory Systems Interact? Evidence From Human Classification Learning,
R. A. Poldrack poldrack@ucla.edu , P.
Rodriguez , Nov. 2004, Neurobiology of
Learning and Memory, DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2004.05.003
- Coordination Of Multiple Memory Systems, P. E. Gold pgold@uiuc.edu
, Nov.
2004, online 2004/09/11, Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, DOI:
10.1016/j.nlm.2004.07.003
- Sexual Selection And The Risk Of Extinction In Mammals, E. H. Morrow ,
C.
Fricke , 2004/11/01, Alphagalileo & Proc. B (Biological Sciences)
- Developmental Stress Selectively Affects The Song Control Nucleus HVC In The
Zebra Finch, K. L. Buchanan , S. Leitner , K. A. Spencer , C.
K. Catchpole ,
2004/11/01, Alphagalileo & Proc. B (Biological Sciences)
- Evidence For 'Cross-Talk' Between The A And B Chromosomes Of Rye, T. Ribeiro
, B. Pires , M. Delgado , W. Viegas , N. Jones , L.
M.-Cecillo ,
2004/11/01, Alphagalileo & Biology Letters
- Effects Of Contact Shape On The Scaling Of Biological Attachments, R.
Spolenak , S. N. Gorb , H. Gao , E. Arzt , 2004/11/01,
Alphagalileo & Proc.
A (Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences)
- Why Mollusca Do Not Die On Land, S. Komarov textmaster@informnauka.ru
,
2004/11/05, Alphagalileo
- Electroconvulsive Therapy Improves Mood, Quality Of Life, J. Bealing
j.a.bealing@sussex.ac.uk ,
2004/11/04, ScienceDaily & Wake Forest University
Baptist Medical Center
- New Understanding Of Neural Circuits May Help Speed Development Of
Thought-controlled Prosthetic Devices For Paralyzed, 2004/11/03, ScienceDaily
&
Society For Neuroscience
- Diverse Mechanisms To Remember Various Odors, T. Preat , Oct. 2004, online
2004/10/27, Neuron, DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2004.10.022
- Artificial Neural Networks For Non-Stationary Time Series, T. Y. Kim ,
K. J.
Oh johanoh@hansung.ac.kr , C. Kim
, J. D. Do , Oct. 2004, Neurocomputing, DOI:
10.1016/j.neucom.2004.04.002
- Groupware Adoption In A Distributed Organization: Transporting And
Transforming Technology Through Social Worlds, G. Marka gmark@ics.uci.edu
, S.
Poltrock steven.poltrock@boeing.com
, Oct. 2004, online 2004/09/11, Information
and Organization, DOI: 10.1016/j.infoandorg.2004.06.001
- Green Chemistry, J. C. Warner john_warner@uml.edu
, A. S. Cannon , K. M. Dye
, Oct.-Nov. 2004, online 2004/09/21, Environmental Impact Assessment Review,
DOI: 10.1016/j.eiar.2004.06.006
- Does Mentalising Ability Influence Cooperative Decision-making in a Social
Dilemma? Introspective Evidence from a Study of Adults with Autism Spectrum
Disorder , Elisabeth Hill; David Sally; Uta Frith , Vol 11, 2004, Journal of
Consciousness Studies, 2004, vol. 11, no. 7-8, pp. 144-161(18)
Publisher: Imprint Academic
- Towards Quantum Entanglement in Nanoelectromechanical Devices, J. Eisert , M.
B. Plenio , S. Bose, J. Hartley , 04/11/05, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 190402
- Black-Hole Emissions Untangled, Mark Peplow , 04/11/04, Nature News
- Playing With Sandpiles, Michael Creutz , Per Bak memorial volume Physica A
340, 521-526 (2004)
- The Ensemble Approach To Understand Genetic Regulatory Networks, Stuart
Kauffman , Physica A 340, 733-740 (2004), Per Bak memorial volume
- Critical brain networks, Dante R. Chialvo , 04/09/15, Physica A: Statistical
Mechanics and its Applications Volume 340, Issue 4 , Pages 756-765 Complexity
and Criticality: in memory of Per Bak (1947--2002)
- Computer Simulations Of History Of Life: Speciation, Emergence Of Complex
Species From Simpler Organisms, And Extinctions, Debashish Chowdhury , Dietrich
Stauffer , 04/09/15, , Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications
Volume 340, Issue 4 , Pages 685-696 Complexity and Criticality: in memory of
Per Bak (1947--2002)
- Learning And Evolution In Bacterial Taxis: An Operational Amplifier Circuit
Modeling The Computational Dynamics Of The Prokaryotic 'Two Component System'
Protein Network, Vieri Di Paolaa , Pedro C. Marijuan , Rafael Lahoz-Beltra ,
04/04-06, Biosystems, Volume 74, Issues 1-3 , Pages 29-49
- Target for Nicotine Addiction Found, 04/11/05, Researchers gain new insight
into the molecular mechanisms of addiction. Science New
- Stopping Malaria at the Placenta, 04/11/05, Science News, Targeting a key
protein may stop the parasite from hopping from mom to fetus
- Living for Today, Locked in a Paralyzed Body, Right-to-die issues receive a
lot of attention, but less is known about those with A.L.S., or Lou Gehrig's
disease, who want to live. This feature includes audio and photos of two men
living with the disease.
- Nicotine's Good Side: Substance Curbs Sepsis In Mice, Diana Parsell ,
04/11/06, Science News
- Wayfaring Sleepers: Brain Area Linked To Slumber-Aided Recall, Science News,
04/11/06 Enhanced activity in an inner-brain structure called the hippocampus
during sleep solidifies memories of recently visited places and the routes
taken to get to them.
- Metal Makeover, 04/11/06, Science News, Metallic glasses with extraordinary
strength and corrosion resistance have been known for decades, but only
recently have researchers been able to make such alloys on a large scale from
inexpensive iron.
- Malaria Vaccine Shows Promise In Mozambique, 04/11/06, Science News, An
experimental malaria vaccine tested on children in Mozambique provides some
protection against the potentially life-threatening disease.
- Brain-Based Help For Adults With Dyslexia, 04/11/06, Science News, Intensive
phonics instruction for adults with dyslexia yields brain changes that underlie
their improved reading ability.
- Summer Births Linked To Schizophrenia, 04/11/06, Science News, People who
develop a severe form of schizophrenia are strikingly likely to have been born
in June or July, raising the possibility that seasonal influences on early
brain development contribute to this disorder.
- Acne Drug Affects Brain Function, 04/11/06, Science News, The antiacne drug
Accutane may decrease activity in a part of the brain that regulates mood.
- Oxygen Deficit Linked To ADHD, 04/11/06, Science News, Sleep apnea may be a
risk factor for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
- High-Fat Diets Slim Down Learning, 04/11/06, Science News, High-fat diets
decrease the ability of male rats to learn and remember.
_________________________________________________________________
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
Complexity and Philosophy Workshop - 2-Day Conference , Rio
de Janeiro,
04/11
Denaturing Darwin: International Conference on Evolution and Organization
, Amersfoort, The Netherlands, 04/11/12-14
5th International EMBL PhD Students Symposium, , Heidelberg, Germany,
04/12/02-04
An Introduction to Complexity Science, Rockville,巠MD USA, 04/12/06
Improving Health of the Chronically Ill: Insights from Complexity Science,
Rockville,巠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
2005 Meeting Arbeitskreis
Physik sozio-onomischer Systeme, AKSOE (Socio-Economic-Physics),
Physik
seit Einstein,
Berlin, Germany, 05/03/04-09
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
2005 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Trade Show
Nanotech 2005, Anaheim, California, U.S.A., 05/05/08-12
2ndShanghai Intl Symposium on Nonlinear Science and Applications,
Shanghai,
05/06/03-07
IEEE Swarm Intelligence Symposium
Pasadena, California, USA, 05/06/08-10
Powders & Grains 2005, Stuttgart, Germany, 05/06/18-22
6th Intl Conf Symmetry in Nonlinear Mathematical Physics, Kiev,
Ukraine.
05/06/20-26
Workshop on Complexity and Policy Analysis, Cork, Ireland, 05/06/22-24
5th Gathering on?Biosemiotics, Urbino, Italy, 05/07/22-24
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
_________________________________________________________________
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