Complexity Digest 2003.35

01-Sep-2003

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Content

  1. Systems Biology: Understanding Cells, Nature
    1. Cell Culture: Biology's New Dimension, Nature
  2. Modelling The Dynamics Of Language Death, Nature
    1. Zoology: You Aren't What You Eat, Nature
    2. Evidence For Differential Selection And Potential Adaptive, Behav. Ecol. & Sociobiol.
  3. Developmental Biology: Hotspots For Evolution, Nature
  4. Complex Behavior Of Elevators In Peak Traffic, Physica A: Stat. Mech. & its Appl.
  5. Centralized Reward System Gives Rise to Fast and Efficient Work Sharing for Intelligent Internet Agents Lacking Direct Communication, arXiv
    1. Counter-Googling, Trendwatching.Com
    2. Itinerancy Of Money, Chaos
  6. In Search of a Scientific Revolution, Science News
    1. Grid Computing Gets A Speed Boost From Mathematica 5, Grid Today
    2. UCSD Chemists Develop Self-Assembling Silicon Particles, ScienceDaily
  7. Is It Time To Move Beyond Zeroes And Ones?,, Embedded.com
  8. Heatwave Underlines Climate-Model Failures, Nature
  9. MIT Everyware, Wired
  10. Applying Emergent Self-Organizing Behavior For The Coordination Of 4G Networks, Bell Labs Tech. J.
  11. How the Blackout Came to Life, NYTimes
    1. Power Up!, Wired
    2. It's a Flawed World After All, Wired
  12. Will Fact Match Fiction As Scientists Start Work On Thinking Robot?,, The Guardian
    1. The Ghost in Your Machine, Business Week
    2. Machine Thinks, Therefore It Is, Wired
    3. The Man Who Mistook His Girlfriend for a Robot, Popular Science
  13. Do Different Writing Systems Involve Distinct Profiles Of Brain Activation?, J. of Neurolinguistics
    1. Branching Thalamic Afferents Link Action and Perception, J. Neurophysiol.
  14. Water Worlds Make A Splash As The Best Hope For Alien Life, Nature
    1. Cell Biology: Metabolism Meets Death, Nature
  15. Fatigued Neurons Explain Waterfall Illusion, Newscientist
  16. Eons of a Cold, Dry, Dusty Mars, Science
  17. Complex Dynamics And Regime Control In Pierce Diode With Delay Feedback, Nonlin. Phenomena In Complex Sys.
  18. Granular Materials: Shaken Sand - A Granular Fluid?, Nature
    1. Mathematics: The 24-Dimensional Greengrocer, Nature
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
  20. Complex Challenges: Global Terroist Networks
    1. U.S. Miscalculated Security For Iraq, Washington Times
  21. Links & Snippets
  22. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Papers
    2. Webcast Announcements
    3. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements
    4. ComDig Announcement: New ComDig Archive in Beta Test

  1. Systems Biology: Understanding Cells, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Many of the properties that characterize living organisms are also exhibited by individual cells. These include communication, homeostasis, spatial and temporal organization, reproduction, and adaptation to external stimuli. Biological explanations of these complex phenomena are often based on the logical and informational processes that underpin the mechanisms involved. (...) DNA's structure relates to heredity because of the coding and replicative capacity of its polynucleotide sequence, whereas the interactions of activators and repressors with promoter regions are best understood in terms of the feedback loops that regulate gene expression.

    1. Cell Culture: Biology's New Dimension, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: There's a big difference between a flat layer of cells and a complex, three-dimensional tissue. But until recently, many biologists have glossed over this fact. Alison Abbott discovers what they've been missing. (...) But the limitations of considering biology in, effectively, just two dimensions are now becoming clear. Led by cancer researchers, biologists are increasingly turning to three-dimensional cell cultures, where they are discovering patterns of gene expression and other biological activities that more closely mirror what happens in living organisms.

  2. Modelling The Dynamics Of Language Death, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Thousands of the world's languages are vanishing at an alarming rate, with 90% of them being expected to disappear with the current generation1. Here we develop a simple model of language competition that explains historical data on the decline of Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Quechua (the most common surviving indigenous language in the Americas) and other endangered languages. A linguistic parameter that quantifies the threat of language extinction can be derived from the model and may be useful in the design and evaluation of language-preservation programmes.

    1. Zoology: You Aren't What You Eat, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: An obscure marine worm does not belong among the molluscs, as had been thought. Rather, it has a claim to being the most primitive extant member of the group of animals that includes vertebrates. (...)The problem is its unassuming nature. Sans proper gonads, excretory system, body cavity, even a through gut, the worm has very few distinguishing features. And it is only about 2 cm in length. In the end, zoologists usually admitted defeat and banished it to one of several groups of primitive flatworm.

    2. Evidence For Differential Selection And Potential Adaptive, Behav. Ecol. & Sociobiol. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: Social parasites exploit the socially managed resources of social insect colonies in order to maximise their own fitness. The inquilines are among the most specialised social parasites (...). They are usually relatives of their host and so share ancestral characteristics. In the present study, we document the size distribution of parasite and host workers and infer how selection has acted on A. insinuator to reduce, but not eliminate, its investment in a worker caste. We further show experimentally that social parasite workers are more vulnerable to the general insect pathogenic fungus Metarhizium than are host workers.

  3. Developmental Biology: Hotspots For Evolution, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Two studies of fruitflies suggest that although development relies on a diverse toolkit of genes, the evolution of physical characteristics might be powered by variation in just a few of these tools. The physical characteristics of animals evolve because their genes change (...). It is not always clear, though, which genes are involved. The genes that regulate embryonic or larval development are likely candidates, because they control how the animal develops. (...) modifications at just a few developmental hotspots underlie 'parallel' evolutionary changes that occurred independently in different species.

  4. Complex Behavior Of Elevators In Peak Traffic, Physica A: Stat. Mech. & its Appl. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: We study the dynamical behavior of elevators in the morning peak traffic. We present a stochastic model of the elevators to take into account the interactions between elevators through passengers. The dynamics of the elevators is expressed in terms of a coupled nonlinear map with noises. The number of passengers carried by an elevator and the time-headway between elevators exhibit the complex behavior with varying elevator trips. (...) the behavior of elevators exhibits a deterministic chaos even if there are no noises. The chaotic motion depends on the loading parameter, the maximum capacity of an elevator, and the number of elevators.

  5. Centralized Reward System Gives Rise to Fast and Efficient Work Sharing for Intelligent Internet Agents Lacking Direct Communication, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: WWW has a scale-free structure where novel information is often difficult to locate. Moreover, Intelligent agents easily get trapped in this structure. Here a novel method is put forth, which turns these traps into information repositories, supplies: We populated an Internet environment with intelligent news foragers. Foraging has its associated cost whereas foragers are rewarded if they detect not yet discovered novel information. The intelligent news foragers crawl by using the estimated long-term cumulated reward, and also have a finite sized memory: the list of most promising supplies. Foragers form an artificial life community: the most successful ones are allowed to multiply, while unsuccessful ones die out. The specific property of this community is that there is no direct communication amongst foragers but the centralized rewarding system. Still, fast division of work is achieved.

    1. Counter-Googling, Trendwatching.Com Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: So instead of consumers Googling you before they buy your services, you should Google THEM, and instantly get more personal information than you'd ever be able to capture with traditional 1:1 in an entire life-time. TRENDWATCHING.COM has dubbed this emerging trend COUNTER-GOOGLING, (...). (...) The Bel Air Hotel in LA already Googles first-time guests upon arrival, based on their reservation details (name and address), leading to personalized services like assigning guests a room with morning sun if Googling shows the guest enjoys jogging early in the day (...).

    2. Itinerancy Of Money, Chaos Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: Previously, I studied the emergence and collapse of money in a computer simulation model. In this paper I will revisit the same topic (...). I discuss this problem from the viewpoint of chaotic itinerancy. Money is the most popular system for evading the difficulty of exchange under division of labor. It emerges autonomously from exchanges among selfish agents which behave as automata. And such emergent money collapses autonomously. I describe money as a structure in economic space, explaining its autonomous emergence and collapse as two phases of the same phenomenon. This dynamics shares some aspects with chaotic itinerancy.
      • Source: Itinerancy Of Money, A. Yasutomi, DOI: 10.1063/1.1604593, 2003/08/22
      • Contributed by Pritha Das - prithadas01ayahoo.com

  6. In Search of a Scientific Revolution, Science News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Others, like Carl E. Lippitt of Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, came looking for help with applying Wolfram's concepts to engineering designs. For instance, Lippitt and his Sandia colleagues are exploring control schemes for proposed battlefield robots that would aid soldiers, for example by carrying extra gear. Because the battlefield is such a complex environment, those robots would require intricate behavioral repertoires. That's where Wolfram's ideas of generating complexity from simplicity seem to fit in, Lippitt says. Yet Lippitt couldn't find in Wolfram's book guidance for developing practical devices.

    1. Grid Computing Gets A Speed Boost From Mathematica 5, Grid Today Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Wolfram Research has significantly increased the performance of its grid computing application with the release of gridMathematica 1.1. gridMathematica now includes Mathematica 5, the new high-performance version of Wolfram's leading technical computing software. The update delivers large performance gains in dense numerical linear algebra, support for sparse numerical linear algebra, large-scale linear programming, arbitrary precision computation and interprocess communication speed.

    2. UCSD Chemists Develop Self-Assembling Silicon Particles, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Chemists (...) have developed minute grains of silicon that spontaneously assemble, orient and sense their local environment, a first step toward the development of robots the size of sand grains that could be used in medicine, bioterrorism surveillance and pollution monitoring. (...) report the design and synthesis of tiny silicon chips, or "smart dust," which consist of two colored mirrors, green on one side and red on the other. Each mirrored surface is modified to find and stick to a desired target, and to adjust its color slightly to let the observer know what it has found.

  7. Is It Time To Move Beyond Zeroes And Ones?,, Embedded.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: (...) silicon-germanium one of the most interesting and tantalizing aspects (...), considering how compatible it is with the use of multi-valued logic. Beyond the improvements in performance that have garnered the most attention, SiGe's greatest impact may lie in the fact that like GaAs, GaAsP, InP and other exotic combinations, transistors built with it are heterojunction devices which are inherently capable of producing multiple threshold levels. (...) They could be used to build 3-base, 4-base, and higher logic functions, effectively increasing a device's information density without further shrinking the transistor structure.

  8. Heatwave Underlines Climate-Model Failures, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Researchers are unsure whether this summer's European heatwave - which may have caused 3,000 deaths in France alone, according to government estimates - can be attributed to global warming. But there's one thing they do agree on: that it demonstrates the need for better regional climate models, to help climatologists get to grips with the processes that drive extreme weather. Existing models of the global climate system simulate observed, long-term changes in mean temperature reasonably well, researchers say. But models of regions such as Europe are less well developed,

  9. MIT Everyware, Wired Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: When MIT announced to the world in April 2001 that it would be posting the content of some 2,000 classes on the Web, it hoped the program - dubbed OpenCourseWare - would spur a worldwide movement among educators to share knowledge and improve teaching methods. (...). At a time when most enterprises were racing to profit from the Internet (...) here was the pinnacle of technology and science education ready to give it away. Not the degrees, which now cost about $41,000 a year, but the content. No registration required.
    • Source: MIT Everyware, Every lecture, every handout, every quiz. All online. For free. Meet the global geeks getting an MIT education, open source-style, David Diamond, Wired, Issue 11.09, September 2003

  10. Applying Emergent Self-Organizing Behavior For The Coordination Of 4G Networks, Bell Labs Tech. J. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Future fourth-generation (4G) wireless networks are expected to have an ad hoc, dynamic structure (...). Controlling such a network means coping with uncertainty, not only of traffic demand, but also in the network structure. Because of this, a new approach to the control and coordination of 4G networks will be needed, one that replaces centralized with highly decentralized control. This paper describes the use of an entropy-based complexity metric to investigate and manipulate the behavior of such self-organizing systems in mobile networks. We introduce a self-organizing algorithm for cell dimensioning, and apply the complexity metric to extract information on network-wide behavior.

  11. How the Blackout Came to Life, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: We already use the language of epidemiology when we speak of "viruses" propagating across the Internet, "infecting" our computers. Likewise, it's tempting to view the blackout, spreading from link to link along the power grid, as a pernicious kind of electrical contagion. But that's not quite the right metaphor, either. The blackout was not caused by an infectious electrical disease; it was caused by the grid's immune response to the threat of such a disease. (...), the grid suffered a violent allergic reaction, a sort of anaphylactic shock.

    1. Power Up!, Wired Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: (...) companies found it efficient to connect their grids to their neighbor's, who then connected to their neighbor's. The result, according to Peter Meisen of the Global Energy Network Institute, is that the electricity grids of all the nations of North and South America should be interconnected within the next 10 years. The Eastern Hemisphere could follow a decade later, as companies like Eskom, the largest energy firm in South Africa, plow ahead with plans to install high-capacity transmission lines across Africa and into Europe.
      • Source: Power Up!, Patrick Di Justo, Wired, 03/09

    2. It's a Flawed World After All, Wired Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Experts agreed that the two episodes -- while unrelated -- offered a cautionary tale about the role of technology in our lives. The incidents laid bare the brittleness of increasingly complex, interconnected systems, leading some to question their near-total dependence on them. "When things like this happen at the same time, we realize that we're living in a world that's wired and creative, but that doesn't make it any more predictable or understandable," said Rosalind Williams, director of MIT's Program in Science, Society and Technology.

  12. Will Fact Match Fiction As Scientists Start Work On Thinking Robot?,, The Guardian Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Humans do this kind of evaluating almost without thinking. In order to be able to plan realistically, for example, we need to know not only what our physical limitations are (what we could do) and what is the best choice if we consider our options (what we should do) but also what we are likely to choose (what we would do). "My analogy is the recovering alcoholic who would like some cigarettes," said Mr Holland. "He can go to the bar next door or the tobacconist half a mile away.

    1. The Ghost in Your Machine, Business Week Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The world of smart computers -- machines that would be familiar with your habits and know when you're stressed or fatigued -- could be only a few years away. The computers would note your mental logic for saving information and follow the same logic in saving files. They would accurately infer your intent, remember past experiences (for instance, that you tend to make errors in multiplication), and alert you to mistakes. These so-called cognitive machines -(...) -- are already here in prototype, (...)

    2. Machine Thinks, Therefore It Is, Wired Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: A new type of thinking machine that could completely change how people interact with computers is being developed at the Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories. Over the past five years, a team led by Sandia cognitive psychologist Chris Forsythe has been working on creating intelligent machines: computers that can accurately infer intent, remember prior experiences with users, and allow users to call upon simulated experts to help them analyze problems and make decisions. (...) (...) trying to mimic real human interaction, embedding within computers an extremely human-like cognitive model (...)

    3. The Man Who Mistook His Girlfriend for a Robot, Popular Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: It's a backless head,(...), but it's got a face, a real face, with soft flesh-toned polymer skin and finely sculpted features and high cheekbones and big blue eyes. Hanson hooks it up to his laptop, (...). He's not saying much; it might be an awkward moment except for the fact that everyone else is too busy checking out the head to notice. Then Hanson taps a few keys and . . . it moves. It looks left and right. It smiles. It frowns, sneers, knits its brows anxiously.

  13. Do Different Writing Systems Involve Distinct Profiles Of Brain Activation?, J. of Neurolinguistics Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Receptive language-specific cortical maps have been repeatedly verified through normative and clinical magnetoencephalography studies. However, different writing systems may entail distinct neuro-anatomical substrates, hence different brain activation patterns for reading the various types of script. The project presented here is an attempt to describe the brain mechanisms mediating printed word recognition in languages with complex writing systems, such as Japanese, in view of the implications for a neurolinguistic model of language processing.

    1. Branching Thalamic Afferents Link Action and Perception, J. Neurophysiol. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: Recent observations of single axons and review of older literature show that axons afferent to the thalamus commonly branch, sending one branch to the thalamus and another to a motor or premotor center of the brain stem. That is, the messages that the thalamus relays to the cerebral cortex can be regarded as copies of motor instructions. This pattern of axonal branching is reviewed, particularly for the somatosensory and the visual pathways. The extent to which this anatomical evidence relates to views that link action to perception is explored. Most pathways going through the thalamus to the cortex are already involved in motor mechanisms. These motor links occur before and during activity in the parallel and hierarchical corticocortical circuitry that currently forms the focus of many studies of perceptual processing.

  14. Water Worlds Make A Splash As The Best Hope For Alien Life, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: researchers think that real water worlds - Earth-sized planets predominantly covered by oceans - are more likely than land-covered planets to host life. Simple assumptions about the likely distribution of planets in the Milky Way suggest that many water worlds exist in our Galaxy, but elude existing methods of detection. "There could be as many as one billion stellar systems with potentially habitable zones," says Siegfried Franck, a geophysicist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (...) locate the 'habitable zone' of 47 UMa, a Sun-like star some 45 light years away.

    1. Cell Biology: Metabolism Meets Death, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: A protein that controls cell death has been found in a complex with a protein involved in glucose metabolism. (...) all cells, need food to survive: (...) there is evidence that there is a more direct connection between the molecular pathways that convert food into energy within a cell and the pathways that control whether the cell lives or dies. For instance, the continued survival of mammalian cells depends on the availability of extracellular growth-factor proteins, which inhibit cell-death pathways1 - and many of these proteins affect metabolism as well.

  15. Fatigued Neurons Explain Waterfall Illusion, Newscientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: It is an illusion that has bedazzled people since Aristotle described it 2000 years ago. If you look at a waterfall for a short time, then look at the bank beside it, the bank will appear to drift upwards. Now an experiment that monitors brain activity has explained how the "waterfall effect" arises. It confirms a hypothesis proposed in the 19th century by the German psychologist Sigmund Exner. He said the waterfall illusion was caused by neurons tuned to opposite directions of motion.

  16. Eons of a Cold, Dry, Dusty Mars, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: (...) starting to build a case for a volcanic planet only gently touched by the chemical alteration that water has wreaked on Earth for billions of years. In the emerging view, a perpetually frigid climate has kept Mars's modest store of water locked up as ice most of the time. The surface may never have been particularly hospitable to life, at least not for long. If so, the search for signs of life will have to focus on the martian interior and its rare surface exposures.

  17. Complex Dynamics And Regime Control In Pierce Diode With Delay Feedback, Nonlin. Phenomena In Complex Sys. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: In this paper the dynamics of Pierce diode with overcritical current under the influence of delay feedback is investigated. The system without feedback demonstrates complex behaviour including chaotic regimes. The possibility of oscillation regime control depending on the delay feedback parameter values is shown. Also the paper describes construction of a finite-dimensional model of electron beam behaviour, which is based on the Galerkin approximation by linear modes expansion. The dynamics of the model is close to the one given by the distributed model.

  18. Granular Materials: Shaken Sand - A Granular Fluid?, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The connection between random grain motion and viscosity in shaken sand - a strongly non-equilibrium system - has been probed. Curiously, the link is similar to that found in an ordinary liquid in thermal equilibrium. By measuring both the free and forced oscillations of a rigid pendulum immersed in an ordinary liquid, the temperature and viscosity of the liquid can be determined. This is due, in part, to a relation from equilibrium statistical mechanics known as the fluctuation-dissipation theorem, (...) devised by Einstein to explain the diffusive Brownian motion (...).

    1. Mathematics: The 24-Dimensional Greengrocer, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The best way to stack oranges has been evident in markets around the world for centuries, but the mathematics of the problem is far from trivial. The solution for the 24-dimensional case is now within reach. Put a handful of identical coins on the table, and push them around until they fit together as closely as possible. You will get a honeycomb pattern, or hexagonal lattice,. (...) the 'kissing number' in two dimensions is six, and that the hexagonal lattice is the most efficient way to pack circles.

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

  20. Complex Challenges: Global Terroist Networks Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. U.S. Miscalculated Security For Iraq, Washington Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: (...) failed to predict any significant resistance from Saddam loyalists, much less the deadly combination of Ba'athist holdouts and foreign terrorists preying daily on American troops.(...) Iraq, like Afghanistan, has become a battlefield for fighting violent Muslim fundamentalists. A second U.S. victory in Iraq, after toppling Saddam, would deliver a significant defeat to Islamist terrorists and perhaps lessen their appeal in the Arab world.(...) In July, commanders noticed the guerrillas, or their jihadist allies, had turned to outright terrorism by attacking civilians and assassinating Iraqis who cooperated with the coalition.

  21. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

  22. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Papers Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Viruses, But Not Bacteria, Tied To Mental Decline, Sciencenews, Past infection by multiple common viruses may contribute to cognitive decline in some elderly people.
      2. Bomb Sniffer: Cantilevers Detect Trace Amounts Of Explosives, Sciencenews, An ultra-sensitive chemical sensor uses microcantilevers to detect airborne plastic explosives within seconds.
      3. Musical Pairs: Egg-Deploying Bird Species Divide For A Song, ScienceNews, A new genetic analysis bolsters the idea that musical taste, rather than geography, split Africa's indigobirds into multiple species.
      4. Uneasy Breathing: Lung Ills Linked To Suicidal Thoughts, ScienceNews, Patients who suffer from asthma and other lung disorders report thoughts of suicide and self-harm far more often than do people treated for other physical illnesses.
      5. Everglades Plant Is He, Then She, Then He, ScienceNews, Sawgrass, the signature plant of the Everglades, switches genders twice during its week of blooming and thus reduces the chances of self- fertilization.
      6. Brawny Brains: Creatine Pills May Aid Memory And Cognition, ScienceNews, The popular muscle-building supplement creatine can boost performance on mental tests.
      7. Near-Death Events Take Arresting Turn, ScienceNews, A survey of people treated for serious heart problems indicates that 1 in 10 of those who survived cardiac arrest had an accompanying near-death experience.
      8. Tech Wave 2: The Sensor Revolution , Business Week, Soon, sensor networks will track everything from weather to inventory
      9. Silent Pump For Water-Cooled Pcs Developed, New Scientist, The system, developed by a Californian start-up company, aims to silently solve the problem that the faster chips get, the hotter they become.
      10. Red Wine Chemical Extends Life - In Yeast, New Scientist, The findings could help explain the drink's beneficial effects in humans, and even one day be used to slow age-related diseases.
      11. Humans Trained To Hunger Like Pavlov's Dogs, New Scientist, People can be conditioned to crave foods at the sight of abstract images - but a brain 'brake' stops them overindulging, research reveals.
      12. Encoding Predictive Reward Value in Human Amygdala and Orbitofrontal Cortex, Jay A. Gottfried, John O'Doherty, Raymond J. Dolan, Science Aug 22 2003: 1104-1107.
      13. Gene Counters Struggle to Get the Right Answer, Elizabeth Pennisi, Science Aug 22 2003: 1040-1041
      14. Earth Science: Tiny Triggers Deep Down , Harry W. Green II, Nature 424, 893 - 894 (21 August 2003), DOI: 10.1038/424893a
      15. Childhood Mental Health Linked To Birth Date, 00:01 29 August 2003, New Scientist, Children born in the last quarter of the school year are more prone to problems like hyperactivity and behavioural difficulties.
      16. DNA Power Computing? Could Be Associated Press , 01:36 PM Aug. 17, 2003 PT, Wired
      17. Taipei Center Activates Access Grid, 03/08/25, Grid Today, The southern branch of the Taipei National Center for High-performance Computing has successfully completed developing its Access Grid technology, through which remote teaching would be made available in more than 40 interactive classrooms at different locations worldwide.
      18. Modified yeast produces fully human proteins, , 12:45 29 August 2003, New Scientist, The new fungus adds crucial sugars in the pattern seen in humans - protein based drugs should become cheaper and better.
      19. Double Failure Caused London Power Blackout , 15:52 29 August 03, NewScientist.com news service
      20. Computer Game Boosts Children's' Language Skills , 17:42 28 August 2003, New Scientist, The game, based on distinguishing between sounds, is claimed to deliver the equivalent of two years improvement in just a few weeks.
      21. Next SoBig Worm May Trigger Torrent Of Spam , 17:55 29 August 2003, New Scientist, Half of all computers sending spam have been infected with a computer virus, leading experts to warn of further trouble ahead.
      22. Squeezed light breaks quantum barrier, 18 August 2003
      23. Music industry claims MP3s are traceable , 18:30 29 August 2003, New Scientist, Legal documents suggest analysis of MP3 music files can prove they were downloaded illegally from an online file-sharing network.
      24. Color Sensitivity Of Cells Responsive To Complex Stimuli In The Temporal Cortex, R. Edwards, D. Xiao, C. Keysers, P. Földiák & D. Perrett - dpast-and.ac.uk, 2003, DOI: 10.1152/jn.00524.2002
      25. Mathematical Representation Of Social Systems. Uncertainty And Optimization Of Social System Evolution, I. A. Miklashevich, 2003
      26. Imitation in Language and Speech: Roles and Functional Base, Allott, Robin, 2003-08-17, CogPrints, DOI: 3111
      27. Embodied Cognition: A Field Guide, Michael L. Anderson, 2003-09, Artificial Intelligence 149(1):91-130, DOI: 10.1016/S0004-3702(03)00054-7
      28. On Conceptual Design of Intelligent Mechatronic Systems, George Rzevski, 2003-12, Mechatronics 13(10):1029-1044, DOI: 10.1016/S0957-4158(03)00041-2
      29. Integrated Scheduling: The Best Of Both Worlds, J. B. Weissman - jonacs.umn.edu, l. r. abburi & d. england, 2003/06/20, DOI: 10.1016/S0743-7315(03)00013-3
      30. A Novel Network Processor For Security Applications In High-Speed Data Networks, K. G. Vlachos, 2003/07/09, DOI: 10.1002/bltj.10058
      31. Evolution And Anti-Evolution In A Minimal Stock Market Model, R. Rothenstein - rrothaphysik.uni-bremen.de & k. pawelzik, 2003/08/15, DOI: 10.1016/S0378-4371(03)00396-0
      32. Scaling Laws And Persistence In Human Brain Activity, S. Thurner - thurneraunivie.ac.at , c. windischberger, e. moser, p. wall & m. barth, 2003/08/15, DOI: 10.1016/S0378-4371(03)00279-5
      33. New Research Shows Candidate Name Order Will Matter In California Recall Election, 2003/08/21, ScienceDaily & Ohio State Univ.
      34. Honeybee Gene Find Ends 150-year Search, 2003/08/21, ScienceDaily & Univ. Of Calif.-Davis
      35. Cockroach Classification Is To Be Amended, S. Komarov - textmasterainformnauka.ru, 2003/08/22
      36. Appreciation Of Humor Doesn't Change With Age, 2003/08/25, ScienceDaily & Baycrest Center For Geriatric Care
      37. Scientists Create World's Most Efficient Light-Bulb, D. Reid - david.reidaiop.org, 2003/08/27
      38. Stability Of Long-Lived Consensus, S. Dolev - dolevacs.bgu.ac.il & s. rajsbaum, Aug. 2003, DOI: 10.1016/S0022-0000(03)00063-1
      39. Mathematical Modelling Of The Competition Between Tumors And Immune System Considering The Role Of The Antibodies, M. Kolev - mkkolevayahoo.com, Jun. 2003, DOI: 10.1016/S0895-7177(03)80018-3
      40. 'Smart' Dust Knows where to Go, Mon Aug 25, 5:11 PM ET, Yohoo.com
      41. A Note On The Regularity Of Competitive Equilibria And Asset Structures, P. Gottardi & A. Kajii - kajiiaiser.osaka-u.ac.jp, Sep. 2003, DOI: 10.1016/S0304-4068(03)00043-0

    2. Webcast Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Fair Value; The Good, The Bad, and The Unknown, Financial Executives International (FEI), 03/08/26, 5:00-6:00 p.m. GMT
      2. 13th Ann Intl Conf, Soc f Chaos Theory in Psych & Life Sciences, Boston, MA, USA, 2003/08/08-10
      3. IMA International Conference Bifurcation 2003, Univ. Southampton, UK, 27-30 July, 2003
      4. New Santa Fe Institute President About His Vision for SFI's Future Role, (Video, Santa Fe, NM, 03/06/04)
      5. Edge Videos
      6. World Economic Forum Extraordinary Annual Meeting, Jordan, 03/06/21-23
      7. SPIE's 1st Intl Symp on Fluctuations and Noise, Santa Fe, NM, 2003/06/01-04
      8. NAS Sackler Colloquium on Mapping Knowledge Domains, Video/Audio Report, 03/05/11
      9. Uncertainty and Surprise: Questions on Working with the Unexpected and Unknowable, The University of Texas Austin, Texas USA, 2003/04/10-12
      10. New Trends In Industrial Partnership And Innovation Management At European Research Laboratories, CERN, Geneva, 2003/03/19 (with webcast)
        1. CERN Webcast Service, Streamed videos of Archived Lectures and Live Events
      11. Dean LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing Since February 1998

       


    3. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Thematic Institute "Networks and Risks", Budapest, Hungary, 03/08/25 - 09/27
      2. Conference on Growing Networks and Graphs in Statistical Physics, Finance, Biology and Social Systems, Rome, 03/09/01-05
      3. Protecting the Homeland: The Need for a Public/Private Partnership, Washington, DC, 03/09/04-05
      4. Call for Papers on Dynamical Hierarchies, Special Issue of Artificial Life, Deadline: 2003/09/05
      5. Executive Leadership in a Changing Environment, Washington, DC, 03/09/07-12, 03/10/05-10
      6. 7th European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL-2003), Dortmund, Germany, 2003/09/14-17
      7. A Dual International Conference on Ethics, Complexity & Organisations & Creativity, London, UK, 2003/09/17-18
      8. Innovative Clusters- A New Challenge, Competitive Institute 6th Global Conference, Gothenburg, Sweden, 03/09/17-19
      9. 1st German Conference on Multiagent System Technologies (MATES'03), Erfurt, Germany, 2003/09/22-25
      10. Dynamics Days 2003, XXIII Annual Conference, 4 Decades of Chaos 1963-2003, Palma de Mallorca, Spain, 03/09/24-27
      11. Improving The NHS Through The Lens Of Complexity, U Exeter, UK, 03/09/24-26
      12. Emerging Technologies Conference at MIT, Cambridge, MA, 2003/09/24-25
      13. Exystence Thematic Institute - Algorithms And Challenges In Hard Combinatorial Problems, Turin, Italy, 03/10/01-30
      14. Intl School Mathematical Aspects of Quantum Chaos II Quantum Chaos on Hyperbolic Manifolds, Schloss Reisensburg (Günzburg, Germany), 03/10/04-11
      15. European Workshop on The Analysis of Microfabrics in Geomaterials, München, Germany, 03/10/06-11
      16. 2003 IEEE/WIC Intl Joint Conf. Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology, Halifax, Canada, 2003/10/13-17
        1. Workshop on Collaboration Agents: Autonomous Agents for Collaborative Environments, Halifax, Canada, 03/10/13
      17. Intl Congress on Computational Intelligence, Medellin, Colombia, 03/11/06-08, (Mirror)
      18. American Society for Cybernetics (ASC) 2003 Conference (H.v.Foerster), Vienna, Austria, 2003/11/10-15
      19. Trends And Perspectives In Extensive And Non-Extensive Statistical Mechanics, In Honour Of The 60th Birthday Of Constantino Tsallis, Angra Dos Reis, Brazil, 2003/11/19-21
      20. ICDM '03: The Third IEEE International Conference on Data Mining, Melbourne, Florida, USA, 2003/11/19-22
      21. 4th Intl Conf on Systems Science and Systems Engineering, Hong Kong, 03/11/25-28
      22. 3rd International Workshop on Meta-Synthesis and Complex System, Guangzhou, China, 2003/11/29-30
      23. 2nd International Workshop on the Mathematics and Algorithms of Social Insects, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; 2003/12/15-17
      24. 2nd Biennial Seminar on the Philosophical, Epistemological, and Methodological Implications of Complexity Theory, Havana, Cuba, 04/01/07-10
      25. 1st International Workshop on Biologically Inspired Approaches to Advanced Information Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland, 04/01/29-30
      26. 4th Intl ICSC Symposium Engineering Of Intelligent Systems (EIS 2004), Island of Madeira, Portugal, 04/02/29-03/02
      27. Fractal 2004, "Complexity and Fractals in Nature", 8th Intl Multidisciplinary Conf, Vancouver, Canada, 2004/04/04-07
      28. Urban Vulnerability and Network Failure: Constructions and Experiences of Emergencies, Crises and Collapse, Manchester, UK, 04/04/29-30
      29. Fifth International Conference on Complex Systems (ICCS2004), Boston, MA, USA, 2004/05/16-21
      30. 3rd Intl Conf on Systems Thinking in Management (ICSTM 2004) "Transforming Organizations to Achieve Sustainable Success", Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, 04/05/19-21
      31. 9th Annual Workshop on Economics and Heterogeneous Interaction Agents (WEHIA04), Kyoto, Japan, 2004/05/27-29
      32. 13th International Symposium on HIV & Emerging Infectious Diseases, Toulon, France, 04/06/03-05
      33. From Animals To Animats 8, 8th Intl Conf On The Simulation Of Adaptive Behavior (SAB'04), Los Angeles, USA, 04/07/13-17

       


    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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