Complexity Digest 2003.08

24-Feb-2003

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Content

  1. Can You Create Child Prodigies, Or Are They Simply Miracles Of Nature?, Time asia
  2. Live from the Future of Life, Time
    1. Report From "The Future Of Life" Conference, KurzweilAI.net
  3. With an Evolutionary Milestone, the Race for Survival Began, NYTimes
    1. Networks And History, Complexity
  4. Complexity Theory And Models For Social Networks, Complexity
  5. Businesses Mobilize Production Through Markets, Complexity
    1. Too Many Pennies From Heaven?, NYTimes
  6. Cooperative Games Of Choosing Partners And Forming Coalitions In The Marketplace, Math. and Comp. Model.
  7. From Kissing Frogs To Demonic Possession, People Are Led To Believe They Experienced The Improbable, ScienceDaily
  8. Does the Red Queen Reign in the Kingdom of Digital Organisms?, arXiv
  9. The Purr of the Qubit, Time
  10. Better Than Hubble, Human Eye Can Self-Correct Some Optical Faults, Cornell Press Release
  11. Buzzwords Of History, Revealed By Computer Scans, Indicate New Ways Of Searching The Web, Cornell Press Release
    1. Word 'Bursts' May Reveal Online Trends, New Scientist
  12. Design Of Metabolic Networks: Weak And Strong Robustness, Bull. of Math. Biol.
    1. Ecological Food Webs: High-Quality Data Facilitate Theoretical Unification,, PNAS
    2. Allometric Scaling of Ant Foraging Trail Networks, SFI Working Papers
    3. Ecological Community Description Using The Food Web, Species Abundance, And Body Size, PNAS
  13. Disease Evolution On Networks: The Role Of Contact Structure, Proc. Biol. Sc.
    1. Decreased Chaos After Exercise In Cardiac Output Time Series Of Rats: A Preliminary Report, Nonlin. Analysis: Real World Appl.
  14. Epigenetics and Disease: Altered States, Nature
  15. Bone Marrow Helps Bones To Repair Themselves, Alphagalileo
  16. Factors Influencing Decision Making, J. Experi. Psych. Learning, Mem., & Cogn.
    1. Perception and Causation: the Puzzle Unraveled, Analysis
  17. Chromatin Structure: More Folding, More Complexity Than Expected, ScienceDaily
    1. Pavlov's Flies: Researchers Identify Fruit Fly Memory Mutants; Broad Implications Seen For Treating Alzheimer's And Other Human Diseases, ScienceDaily
  18. Military Locks On To Firm's Concept, BusinessToday.com
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
    1. Trying to Walk the Line Between Fear and Ridicule, NYTimes
    2. High-density Storage Of Nuclear Waste Heightens Terrorism Risks; Study Finds Attack On Spent Fuel Could Unleash Contamination Worse Than Chernobyl, ScienceDaily
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Coming and Ongoing Webcasts
    3. Conference Announcements
      1. Public Conference Calls
    4. ComDig Announcement: New ComDig Archive in Beta Test

  1. Can You Create Child Prodigies, Or Are They Simply Miracles Of Nature?, Time asia Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: (...), children with an aptitude for numbers show six to seven times more metabolic activity in the right side of their brains, an area known to mediate pattern recognition and spatial awareness-key abilities for math and music. Scans also showed heightened activity in the frontal lobes, believed to play a crucial "executive" role in coordinating thought and improving concentration. This region of the brain is virtually inactive in average children when doing the same tasks. (...)also can switch very efficiently between the brain's left and right hemispheres (...)

  2. Live from the Future of Life, Time Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Juan Enriquez, director of the Harvard Business School's life science project, (...) genomics-based information would dominate the world economy in the next 50 years, only those countries that understand these developments and take advantage of them are going to be big winners. The rest, he said, are going to fall by the wayside, economically and otherwise. (...) Predictions from the Future of Life conference for the year 2010: By then we'll have sequenced the complete tree of life, possibly even breeds long extinct, including the common ancestor of humans and chimps.

    1. Report From "The Future Of Life" Conference, KurzweilAI.net Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Larry Smarr, Director, California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology, drew a comparison between the growth of the Internet and the original evolution of multicellular life. (...) Shortly after multicellular life started, "nervous systems evolved to further improve intercellular communication." Similarly, the Internet has hooked together what had been separate computers that can now share information over long distances, he pointed out. The growth of the Internet has many biological features and has been developing like a multicellular organism, including a nervous system.

  3. With an Evolutionary Milestone, the Race for Survival Began, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Their findings suggest that the earliest head appeared about 700 million years ago in a hydra-like organism that may have been a common ancestor to species from snails to human beings. In the picture emerging from these studies, the early head was simply a net of nerve cells at the mouth of the organism. Some scientists believe it was similar to the cluster of nerves present around the oral opening in cnidarians - a family of stinging aquatic creatures that includes the modern-day hydra, the sea anemone and the jellyfish.

    1. Networks And History, Complexity Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: Events and event structures compose the constituent elements of history. In order to construct historical accounts of event sequences, historians have to make cases. This article proposes a method for casing historical events. We illustrate the analytic strategy by considering a complex population of interrelated events that make up a narrative of revolution, counter revolution, and revolution in a small village in China. Implications for the methodology of historical social science are discussed
      • Source: Networks And History, Peter Bearman - psb17acolumbia.edu, James Moody, Robert Faris, Complexity, Volume 8, Issue 1, 2002. Pages: 61-71

  4. Complexity Theory And Models For Social Networks, Complexity Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Much work in complexity theory employs agent-based models in simulations of systems of multiple agents. Agent interaction follows some standard types of network topologies. My aim is to assess how recent advances in the statistical modeling of social networks may contribute to agent-based modeling traditions, specifically, by providing structural characterizations of a variety of network topologies. I illustrate the points by reference to a computational model for the evolution of cooperation among agents embedded in neighborhoods and by reference to complex, real social networks defined by the ties of political support between US Senators as revealed through ties of cosponsorship of legislation.

  5. Businesses Mobilize Production Through Markets, Complexity Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Business is modeled as interlocking social constructions that emerge in mobilizing differentiated production flows amidst uncertainty. The model is stochastic, nonlinear, and sited in a network ecology for identities that have come to share a discourse which itself recognizes embeddings in distinct levels of firm, market, and sector. Three counterintuitive findings are emphasized: competitive markets can be viable for increasing returns to scale; effects of substitutability/saturation are opposite for different sorts of competititive markets; and markets orient to flow uncertainty.

    1. Too Many Pennies From Heaven?, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Taken together, Mr. Bush's proposals would radically transform the way people invest in stocks, think about taxes and save. Critics and supporters alike say this is simply the first installment in a plan to overhaul the tax system from one that taxes income to one that taxes consumption. (...) Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, warned bluntly last week about a trend toward uncontrollable deficits and disparaged as premature the White House arguments that the economy needs a fiscal stimulus.

  6. Cooperative Games Of Choosing Partners And Forming Coalitions In The Marketplace, Math. and Comp. Model. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Two games of interacting between a coalition of players in a marketplace and the residual players acting there are discussed, along with two approaches to fair imputation of gains of coalitions in cooperative (...). In the first game, which is an antagonistic one, the residual players try to minimize the coalition's gain, whereas in the second game, which is a noncooperative one, they try to maximize their own gain as a coalition. A meaningful interpretation of possible relations between gains and Nash equilibrium strategies in both games (...) is presented.

  7. From Kissing Frogs To Demonic Possession, People Are Led To Believe They Experienced The Improbable, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: During a recent study of memory recall and the use of suggestive interviewing, UC Irvine cognitive psychologist Elizabeth Loftus successfully planted false memories in volunteers of several study groups -- memories that included such unlikely events as kissing frogs, shaking hands with Bugs Bunny at Disneyland, and witnessing a demonic possession. Her success at planting these memories challenge the argument that suggestive interviewing may reliably prompt real memories instead of planting false ones. (...) Loftus conducted her study by having volunteers conduct a set of actions that mixed the common place (flipping a coin) with the unusual and even bizarre (crushing a Hershey's kiss with a dental floss container). Later, her research team asked volunteers to imagine additional actions they performed that day, such as kissing a frog. At a future time, participants were asked to recall their actions on that specific day[j1]. Ayanna Thomas, a doctoral student in Loftus' research group, found that 15 percent of the study's volunteers claimed they had actually performed some of the actions they had only imagined.

  8. Does the Red Queen Reign in the Kingdom of Digital Organisms?, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: In competition experiments between two RNA viruses of equal or almost equal fitness, often both strains gain in fitness before one eventually excludes the other. This observation has been linked to the Red Queen effect, which describes a situation in which organisms have to constantly adapt just to keep their status quo. I carried out experiments with digital organisms (self-replicating computer programs) in order to clarify how the competing strains' location in fitness space influences the Red-Queen effect. I found that gains in fitness during competition were prevalent for organisms that were taken from the base of a fitness peak, but absent or rare for organisms that were taken from the top of a peak or from a considerable distance away from the nearest peak. In the latter two cases, either neutral drift and loss of the fittest mutants or the waiting time to the first beneficial mutation were more important factors. Moreover, I found that the Red-Queen dynamic in general led to faster exclusion than the other two mechanisms.
    • Source: test

  9. The Purr of the Qubit, Time Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Mathematicians have proved that a quantum computer with thousands of calculating atoms could rapidly find the factors of numbers hundreds of digits long - a problem that would take the best conventional supercomputers billions of years. Since the codes used to protect corporate and military secrets are based on factoring, this development is of more than academic interest. Program a row of atoms to scan huge databases of information, and the result could be, among other things, the ultimate chess master, a quantum Deep Blue.

  10. Better Than Hubble, Human Eye Can Self-Correct Some Optical Faults, Cornell Press Release Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: (...) While the vision-impaired Hubble Space Telescope needed optical doctoring from shuttle astronauts, vision researchers back on Earth were wondering if the human eye was clever enough to fix itself. Now a neurobiology study at Cornell University suggests that internal parts of the eye indeed can compensate for less-than-perfect conditions in other parts -- either developmentally (during the lifetime of one individual) or genetically (over many generations). (...) Wavefront analysis is a recently developed technique for "seeing," with computer-based mathematical simulation, more precisely what the eye perceives. A beam of harmless laser light shines through the eye's optics (the transparent cornea, which begins to focus light, and the lens, which completes the focusing) toward the retina, where millions of photoreceptor cones and rods line the rear surface of the eye. As the light rays are reflected back through the internal optics and exit the eye, the wavefront analyzer measures and computes deviations from a perfectly formed light beam or test pattern a short distance in front of the eye. Light rays exiting an optically perfect eye should be perfectly parallel, but irregularities in the thickness or shape of the cornea or a less-than-perfect lens can cause the exiting light rays to become nonparallel. A test pattern (produced by light passing though regularly spaced lenslets to form a grid, something like the lines on graph paper) should form a regular array of luminous points in an optically perfect eye, but a distorted pattern can tell the wavefront analyzer a great deal about irregularities in the cornea and lens. The Cornell study, which was funded, in part, by Topcon Corp., and built upon earlier research from Spanish colleagues, looked for ways the eye might compensate internally for several kinds of optical faults. (...)

  11. Buzzwords Of History, Revealed By Computer Scans, Indicate New Ways Of Searching The Web, Cornell Press Release Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: (...) Jon Kleinberg, a professor of computer science at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., has developed a method for a computer to find the topics that dominate a discussion at a particular time by scanning large collections of documents for sudden, rapid bursts of words. Among other tests of the method, he scanned presidential State of the Union addresses from 1790 to the present and created a list of words that eerily reflects historical trends. The technique, he suggests, could have many "data mining" applications, including searching the Web or studying trends in society as reflected in Web pages. (...) He devised a search algorithm that looks for "burstiness," measuring not just the number of times words appear, but the rate of increase in those numbers over time. Programs based on his algorithm can scan text that varies with time and flag the most "bursty" words. "The method is motivated by probability models used to analyze the behavior of communication networks, where burstiness occurs in the traffic due to congestion and hot spots," he explains. (...) While we already know about these trends in American history, Kleinberg points out, a computer doesn't, and it has found these ideas just by scanning raw text. So such a technique should work just as well on historical records in obscure situations where we have no idea what the important terms or keywords are. It might even be used to screen e-mail "chatter" by terrorists. Sociologists, Kleinberg adds, may find it interesting to look for trends in personal Web logs popularly known as "blogs." For searching the Web, Kleinberg suggests, such a technique could help zero in on what a searcher wants by recognizing the time context of such material as news stories. For instance, he says, a person searching for the word "sniper" today is likely to be looking for information about the recent attacks around the nation's capital -- but the same search nearly four decades ago might have come from someone interested in the Kennedy assassination. (...)

    1. Word 'Bursts' May Reveal Online Trends, New Scientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Searching for sudden "bursts" in the usage of particular words could be used to rapidly identify new trends and sort information more efficiently, (...) . While other popular search techniques simply count the number of words or phrases in documents, Kleinberg's approach also takes into account the rate at which the word usage increases. (...) "The key is to find unexpected changes in the frequency of the appearance of words," (...). (...) identifying spikes in search terms can be used to track the spread of news and rumours around the world.

  12. Design Of Metabolic Networks: Weak And Strong Robustness, Bull. of Math. Biol. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Starting from a limited set of reactions describing changes in the carbon skeleton of biochemical compounds complete sets of metabolic networks are constructed. The networks are characterized by the number and types of participating reactions. Groups of networks are identified with respect to their ability to perform a certain number of metabolic conversions in an elementary way which are called the network's functions. Evolutionary algorithms are applied to study the development of network populations under constant and time dependent environmental conditions. It is shown that the populations evolve toward clusters of networks performing a common function and which are closely neighboured.

    1. Ecological Food Webs: High-Quality Data Facilitate Theoretical Unification,, PNAS Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Despite the enormous diversity and complexity of ecological systems, when data for many individuals of many different species are analyzed, there are emergent regularities in the statistical distributions of numerical abundance, spatial dispersion, (...) now ecology is beginning to understand the mechanistic processes that produce them. This conceptual unification is being facilitated by two breakthroughs. First, intensive, technology-assisted empirical studies are generating vast quantities of new and better data. Second, theoretical advances are characterizing the interrelationships among ecological phenomena and explaining them in terms of first principles (...).

    2. Allometric Scaling of Ant Foraging Trail Networks, SFI Working Papers Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: The aggregation of individuals into colonies raises important questions about scaling of structure and function. We model the metabolic benefits and costs of two-dimensional, fractal-like foraging trails, such as those used by ant colonies. The total area foraged by the colony and, consequently, the resource flow to the nest and rate of colony metabolism, increase non-linearly with the number of foragers (F) as F 2/3. Since the cost of foraging increases linearly with F, the model predicts an optimal number of foragers and, therefore, the total foraging area that maximizes colony fitness or energy allocation to reproduction. The scaling of foraging may influence the evolution of coloniality.

    3. Ecological Community Description Using The Food Web, Species Abundance, And Body Size, PNAS Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Measuring the numerical abundance and average body size of individuals of each species in an ecological community's food web reveals new patterns and illuminates old ones. (...) The trivariate description of an ecological community by using the food web, average body sizes, and numerical abundance includes many well studied bivariate and univariate relationships based on subsets of these three variables. We are not aware of any single community for which all of these relationships have been analyzed simultaneously. Our approach demonstrates the connectedness of ecological patterns traditionally treated as independent.

  13. Disease Evolution On Networks: The Role Of Contact Structure, Proc. Biol. Sc. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Changes in human social patterns are likely to influence the evolution of communicable diseases, which rely on contact between host individuals to transmit and survive. We simulated the spread and evolution of disease within computer-generated networks that describe two distinct patterns of social contact between hosts. In local networks, individuals belong to many social cliques whose members tend to have contact with each other; in contrast, global networks do not contain such cliques. We find that seases evolve to be highly infectious in local networks, but much less so in global networks.

    1. Decreased Chaos After Exercise In Cardiac Output Time Series Of Rats: A Preliminary Report, Nonlin. Analysis: Real World Appl. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: The post-exercise period is associated with a profound decrease in sympathetic activity and arterial pressure. In this study, we measured cardiac output (CO) and systolic blood pressure (SBP) continuously for at least 5 min in rats before (n=5) and after (n=4) exercise. The purpose of this study was to determine if acute exercise produces post-exercise changes in the low frequency power of CO (...). These results suggest that the CO time series appear to be chaotic in nature and the decrease in LLE after exercise, especially in relation to HR appears to be due to a decrease in sympathetic activity.
      Editor's Note: This seems to be in agreement with the report that people are especially vulnerable to heart attach shortly after strenuous exercise.

  14. Epigenetics and Disease: Altered States, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The idea that epigenetics [changes in genome that leave DNA sequence unchanged, Ed.] underpins many of the world's health scourges is still highly speculative. (...) Each of our cells carries the genes for making all the building blocks of the body, but only some of them are active. Epigenetic modifications act like switches, helping to control gene activity so that only those that are required in a particular cell are actually turned on. They constitute a 'memory' of gene activity that can be passed on each time a cell divides, ensuring that liver cells beget more liver cells, (...).

  15. Bone Marrow Helps Bones To Repair Themselves, Alphagalileo Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Specially prepared titanium mesh and bone marrow cells have made it possible to allow new bone cells to grow in bone fractures. Researchers inserted a titanium mesh scaffold into a bone fracture in a rat. They allowed bone marrow cells to grow on this and the bone marrow cells stimulated new bone growth. In combination with bone marrow cells, titanium mesh forms a good culture medium for new bone growth in the case of bone damage. The researchers improved this bone growth by dynamically 'sowing' the cells onto the mesh. In this technique the mesh lies on a turning plate.

  16. Factors Influencing Decision Making, J. Experi. Psych. Learning, Mem., & Cogn. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Aspects of an experimental environment were manipulated in 3 experiments to examine the parameters under which the "take-the-best" (TTB) heuristic operates. Results indicated TTB use to be more prevalent when the cost of information was high, when validities of the cues were known, and when a deterministic environment was used. However, large individual variability in strategy use was observed as well as a significant proportion of behavior inconsistent with TTB, expecially its stopping rule. The results demarcate some of the heuristic's boundary conditions and also question the validity of TTB as a psychologically plausible and pervasive model of behavior.

    1. Perception and Causation: the Puzzle Unraveled, Analysis Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: The problem with the causal theory is not that it fails to articulate with sufficient detail the right kind of causal relation, or that it relies on empirical rather than merely a priori considerations about what perception really is. The problem, rather, is that it relies on a much too simplistic account of the content of perceptual experience. Once we enrich our account of perceptual content, we'll get a better understanding of what's right in the causal theory, what's wrong, and how the causal theory needs to be amended to give a more illuminating account.

  17. Chromatin Structure: More Folding, More Complexity Than Expected, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: New molecular technologies (...) are exposing unexpectedly high levels of DNA folding and complex protein-rich assemblages within the nucleus of cells that (...) "seriously challenge the textbook models. What we are seeing suggests that there may be machinery, not yet identified, that controls the folding and the movements of enzymes that turn genes on and off." "The 'New' Nucleus: Mothership of the Human Genome." Chromatin is a part of a cell's nucleus that contains nucleic acids and proteins -- the genetic material necessary for cell division. During mitosis, chromatin folds and condenses. The level of folding, however, is much higher than previously thought (...).

    1. Pavlov's Flies: Researchers Identify Fruit Fly Memory Mutants; Broad Implications Seen For Treating Alzheimer's And Other Human Diseases, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: By teaching fruit flies to avoid an odor and isolating mutant flies that can't remember their lessons, researchers (...) have identified dozens of genes required for long-term memory. In the same study, using DNA chip technology, the scientists identified another large group of candidate memory genes that are either switched on or off in the fly brain during memory formation. The study is significant in part because many of the fruit fly genes it uncovered have counterparts in (...) human learning and memory, they may be important for understanding human memory deficit disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.

  18. Military Locks On To Firm's Concept, BusinessToday.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The biggest obstacle Bonabeau sees to the widespread adoption of swarm intelligence is mindsets. ``Giving up direct and complete control - not being able to always make sense of what the swarm does collectively - these are very difficult things for people to accept,'' Bonabeau said. Surprisingly, he said, the military seems more willing to accept, (...), new ways of looking at things than many parts of the business world. Too often in business, (...), ``A manager would rather live with a problem he can't solve than a solution he doesn't understand.''

  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Trying to Walk the Line Between Fear and Ridicule, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: After setting off considerable anxiety and a run on emergency supplies by formally putting the United States on high alert for a terrorist strike and urging Americans to equip their own home emergency kits, Mr. Ridge pulled way back today (...). But Mr. Ridge's color-coding of terror threats and his recent advice to buy duct tape and plastic sheeting quickly became fodder for parody and ridicule.(...) Not making clear what is celebrity gossip and what are real emergencies in television news broadcasts "really is like crying wolf," Mrs. Bush said (...).
      Editor's Note: It seems there is a simple rule emerging for terrorist agents: "Chatter on cell phones and e-mail about big coming events around Muslim holidays and strike only on days when the color code is below orange!"

    2. High-density Storage Of Nuclear Waste Heightens Terrorism Risks; Study Finds Attack On Spent Fuel Could Unleash Contamination Worse Than Chernobyl, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: A space-saving method for storing spent nuclear fuel has dramatically heightened the risk of a catastrophic radiation release in the event of a terrorist attack (...). Terrorists targeting the high-density storage systems used at nuclear power plants throughout the nation could cause contamination problems "significantly worse than those from Chernobyl," the study found. Strapped for long-term storage options, the nation's 103 nuclear power plants routinely pack four to five times the number of spent fuel rods into water-cooled tanks than the tanks were designed to hold, the authors reported. This high-density configuration is safe when cooled by water, but would likely cause a fire (...).

  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Robotics Put New Face On The Future, Sci-Fi Depictions Still A Long Way Off, Eric Schmidt, The Denver Post , 03/02/17
      2. Washington: F.B.I. and C.I.A. Set for a Major Consolidation in Counterterror, Eric Lichtblau, NYTimes, 03/02/15, In a major organizational shift, the entire counterterrorism sections of the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. will move into a single complex as a way of better coordinating the analysis and tracking of information, the White House said today.
      3. Dong G, Wu Q. Related Articles, Links, The Comparison Between Approximate Entropy And Complexity In The Study Of Sleep EEG, Zhongguo Yi Liao Qi Xie Za Zhi. 1999 Nov;23(6):311-5, 336. Chinese, PMID: 12583078 [PubMed - in process]
      4. A Complexity Reduction Algorithm For Analysis And Annotation Of Large Genomic Sequences, Genome Res. 2003 Feb;13(2):313-22., Chuang TJ, Lin WC, Lee HC, Wang CW, Hsiao KL, Wang ZH, Shieh D, Lin SC, Ch'ang LY, PMID: 12566410
      5. Aging And The Time And Frequency Structure Of Force Output Variability, Vaillancourt DE, Newell KM, J Appl Physiol. 2003 Mar;94(3):903-12, PMID: 12571125
      6. Nonlinear Dynamic Analysis Of Heart Rate Variability In Patients With Diabetic Autonomic Neuropathy, Li YQ, Gao F, Geng Q, Deng QK, Di Yi Jun Yi Da Xue Xue Bao. 2003 Feb;23(2):133-7, PMID: 12581961
      7. Lung Sensors: Complex Functions Require Complex Structures, Winfried L. Neuhuber, Am. J. Respir. Cell Mol. Biol. 2003 March 1; 28(3): p. 265-266
      8. New Arrival Date For Earliest Australians,Emma Young,12:58 18 February 03
      9. Molecular Secret Of Special Forces Toughness, NewScientist.com news service, 11:06 18 February 03
      10. Cash Machine "Pressure Signature" Could Thwart Thieves, Will Knight, 18:24 17 February 03
      11. Matchmaking And Species Marriage: A Game-Theory Model Of Community Assembly, Maria Uriarte and Hudson Kern Reeve, PNAS 2003;100 1787-1792
      12. Photoexcited Breathers in Conjugated Polyenes: An Excited-State Molecular Dynamics Study, S. Tretiak, A. Saxena, R. L. Martin, A. R. Bishop, PNAS published 19 February 2003, 10.1073/pnas.0530132100
      13. Contrast Tuning in Auditory Cortex, Barbour, Dennis L., Wang, Xiaoqin, Science 2003 299: 1073-1075
      14. Genomics: Tinker, Tailor: Can Venter Stitch Together a Genome From Scratch?, Carl Zimmer, Science 2003 299: 1006-1007
      15. DNA Duplex-Quadruplex Exchange As the Basis For a Nanomolecular Machine, Patrizia Alberti, Jean-Louis Mergny, PNAS 2003;100 1569-1573
      16. Assembly of Core Helices and Rapid Tertiary Folding of A Small Bacterial Group I Ribozyme, Prashanth Rangan, Benoit Masquida, Eric Westhof, Sarah A. Woodson, PNAS 2003;100 1574-1579
      17. DNA Unzipped Under A Constant Force Exhibits Multiple Metastable, Intermediates, Claudia Danilowicz, Vincent W. Coljee, Cedric Bouzigues, David K. Lubensky, David R. Nelson, Mara Prentiss, PNAS 2003;100 1694-1699
      18. Communication Between Neocortex And Hippocampus During Sleep In Rodents, Anton Sirota, Jozsef Csicsvari, Derek Buhl, and Gyorgy Buzsaki, PNAS 2003;100 2065-2069
      19. Changes in Consciousness, Conceptual Memory, and Quantitative Electroencephalographical Measures During Recovery from Sevoflurane- and Remifentanil-Based Anesthesia, Andrew Ronald Gordon Muncaster, James Wallace Sleigh, Murray Williams, Anesth Analg 2003 March 1; 96(3): p. 720-725
      20. Insights Into mRNA Transport In Neurons, Fabrice Roegiers, PNAS published 10 February 2003, 10.1073/pnas.0630376100
      21. Seeds Of Understanding Of Plant Diversity, H. C. Muller-Landau, PNAS published 10 February 2003, 10.1073/pnas.0438004100
      22. Human Behaviour: Adult Persistence Of Head-Turning Asymmetry, Onur Gunturkun, Nature 421, 711 (2003); doi:10.1038/421711a
      23. Thermohaline Circulation: The Current Climate, Stefan Rahmstorf, Nature 421, 699 (2003); doi:10.1038/421699a, Heat and freshwater fluxes at the ocean's surface play a key role in forming ocean currents, which in turn have a major effect on climate.
      24. Molecular Motors: A Magnificent Machine, Richard B. Vallee And Peter Hook, Nature 421, 701 (2003); doi:10.1038/421701a, Electron-microscope studies of the motor protein dynein reveal fascinating details of the movements of its various structural regions. The protein displays a degree of gymnastic ability that is rarely seen.
      25. Quantum Gravity: The Quantum Of Area?, John Baez, Nature 421, 702 (2003); doi:10.1038/421702a, What is the smallest unit of area? To find out, theorists have been wrestling with the notion of quantum black holes. Two independent analyses now seem to lead to the same answer.
      26. Inflammation: Border Crossings, Ann Ager, Nature 421, 703 (2003); doi:10.1038/421703a, When inflammatory cells leave blood vessels to repair injured tissues, they are helped on their way by the endothelial cells lining the vessels. The invagination and expulsion of endothelial membrane may be the key.
      27. The Effect Of Aggressiveness On The Population Dynamics Of A Territorial Bird, F. Mougeot, S. M. Redpath, F. Leckie, P. J. Hudson, Nature 421, 737 - 739 (2003); doi:10.1038/nature01395
      28. Strong Universality in Forced and Decaying Turbulence. Victor S. L'vov, Ruben Pasmanter, Anna Pomyalov, Itamar Procaccia. arXiv. 2003-02-18
      29. Scale-free Network on Euclidean Space Optimized by Rewiring of Links. S. S. Manna, A. Kabakcioglu. arXiv. 2003-02-12
      30. Variability In Memory Performance In Aged Healthy Individuals: An fMRI Study, G. Grön, D. Bittner, B. Schmitz, A. P. Wunderlich, R. Tomczak &  M. W. Riep, Neurobiol. of Aging, Vol. 24, Issue 3, pp:453-462, May-Jun. 2003, DOI: 10.1016/S0197-4580(02)00128-8
      31. Auditory Registration Without Learning, S. M. Sheffert & R. M. Shiffrin, J. Experi. Psych. Learning, Mem., & Cogn., Vol. 29, Issue 1, pp: 10-21, 2003/02/13
      32. Nonterminal Complexity Of Programmed Grammars, H. Fernau, Theor. Comp. Sc., Vol. 296, Issue 2, pp:225-251, 2003/03/08, DOI: 10.1016/S0304-3975(02)00656-4
      33. The Method to Compare Nucleotide Sequences Based on the Minimum Entropy Principle, M. G. Sadovsky, Bull. of Math. Biol., Vol. 65, Issue 2, pp: 309-322, Mar. 2003, DOI: 10.1016/S0092-8240(02)00107-6
      34. Los Alamos Makes First Map Of Ice On Mars, ScienceDaily, 2003/02/17, A color map is available
      35. Does Morality Have A Biological Basis? An Empirical Test Of The Factors Governing Moral Sentiments Relating To Incest, D. Lieberman, J. Tooby & L. Cosmides, Proc. Biol. Sc. & Alphagalileo, 2003/02/19
      36. Unexpected Discontinuities In Life-History Evolution Under Size-Dependent Mortality, B. Taborsky, U. Dieckmann & M Heino, Proc. Biol. Sc. & Alphagalileo, 2003/02/19

    2. Coming and Ongoing Webcasts Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. INSC 2003, International Nonlinear Sciences Conference, Conference Webcast
      2. World Economic Forum Meeting "Building Trust", Davos, Switzerland, 03/01/23-28
      3. 2002 Financial Management Conference, 02/10/16-19
      4. The Center for Business Innovation Bi-Monthly Web Cast, 03/01/15, TOPIC: CBI Future Scan Version 6.0, WHO: David McIntosh, Director of the CBI Network
      5. Artificial Life Conference (A-Life 8), Sydney, Australia, 02/12/09-13
      6. Dean LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing Since February 1998

       


    3. Conference Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. GGF7 - The 7th Global Grid Forum, "Grids Around the World", Tokyo, JP, 03/03/04-07
      2. Complexity Science In Practice: Understanding & Acting To Improve Health and Health Care, Mayo Clinic Rochester, Minnesota USA, 03/03/21-22
      3. Fourth International Conference on Intelligent Data Engineering and Automated Learning (IDEAL'03), Hong Kong, 03/03/21-23
      4. 2003 AAAI Spring Symposium Series, Computational Synthesis: From Basic Building Blocks To High Level Functionality, Stanford, 03/03/24-27
      5. Jahrestagung 2003 des AKSOE (Physics of Socio-Economical Systems), Dresden, Germany, 03/03/24-28
      6. Design and Product Complexity Meeting, Open Univ, Milton Keynes, UK, 03/04/07
      7. Explorations of Complexity - A Science of Qualities: A Conversation with Brian Goodwin, Open Univ, Milton Keynes, UK, 03/04/07
      8. Uncertainty and Surprise: Questions on Working with the Unexpected, U. of Texas at Austin, Texas, 03/04/10-12
      9. 7th Annual Swarm Researchers and Users Meeting (SwarmFest2003), Notre Dame, IN, 03/04/13-14
      10. Agent-Based Simulation 4, Montpellier, France, 03/04/28-30
      11. NAS Sackler Colloquium on Mapping Knowledge Domains, The Beckman Center, Irvine, CA, 03/05/09-11
      12. The Opening of Systems Theory, Copenhagen Business School, Copenhagen, DK, 02/05/23-25
      13. SPIE's 1st Intl Symp on Fluctuations and Noise, Santa Fe, NM, 03/06/01-04
      14. 21st ICDE World Conf on Open Learning and Distance Education, Hong Kong, 03/06/01-05
      15. 17th Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Simulation (PADS 2003), San Diego, California, 03/06/10-13
      16. 2003 Summer Computer Simulation Conference (SCSC '03), Montreal, Canada, 03/06/20-24
      17. 5th Intl Conf "Symmetry in Nonlinear Mathematical Physics", Kiev, Ukraine, 03/06/23-29, Mirror
      18. 9th International Conference on Auditory Display, Boston, MA, 03/07/07-09, Wkshp on Assistive Technologies for the Blind, 03/07/06
      19. 2003 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2003), Chicago, IL,03/07/12-16
      20. 2nd Intl Joint Conf on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS-2003), Melbourne, Australia, 03/07/14-18
      21. 7th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (SCI 2003), Orlando, Florida, 03/07/27-30
      22. 13th Annual International Conference, Soc f Chaos Theory in Psych & Life Sciences,Boston, MA, USA, 03/08/08-10
      23. 1st German Conference on Multiagent System Technologies (MATES'03), Erfurt, Germany, 03/09/22-25
      24. 7th European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL-2003), Dortmund, Germany, 03/09/14-17
      25. 2003 IEEE/WIC Intl Joint Conf. Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology, Beijing, China, 03/10/13-17
      26. ICDM '03: The Third IEEE International Conference on Data Mining, Melbourne, Florida, USA, 03/11/19-22
      27. 3rd International Workshop on Meta-Synthesis and Complex System, Guangzhou, China, 03/11/29-30
      28. 2nd International Workshop on the Mathematics and Algorithms of Social Insects, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; 03/12/15-17

      1. Public Conference Calls Next Article Bookmark and Share

        1. Complexity And Medical Practice, Pat Rush & Bob Lindberg, PlexusCalls, 03/01/10, Audio File Available Now, mp3
        2. John Holland in Conversation, PlexusCalls, - Audio File Available Now, mp3
        3. Are Disease and Aging Information/Complexity Loss Syndromes?, PlexusCalls, 02/11/08, 1 - 2 pm EST (To learn more about Ary Goldberger’s work and HeartSongs, Music of the Heart.) Audio File Available Now, mp3
        4. Brenda Zimmerman in Conversation, PlexusCalls, Audio File Available Now, mp3
        5. The Complexity of Entrepreneurship: A Launchcyte Story, Tom Petzinger, PlexusCalls, 02/11/22, Audio File Available Now, mp3
        6. A Practical and Appreciative Approach to Complex and Chronic Challenges, Keith McCandless, PlexusCalls, Jan 2003, Audio File Available Now, mp3

    4. ComDig Announcement: New ComDig Archive in Beta Test Bookmark and Share

      We are in the process of upgrading the Complexity Digest archives to a format with improved search capabilities. Also, we will finally be able to adequately publish the valuable feedback and comments from our knowledgable readers. You are cordially invited to become a beta tester of our new ComDig2 archive.

       


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