Complexity Digest 2006.17

24-Apr-2006

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Content

  1. Islands of Stability, FrontlineThoughts.com
  2. Evolution Of Cooperative Strategies From First Principles, Nature
  3. Why And When We Lie: Study Finds That People Are More Willing To Lie To Coworkers Than To Strangers, Innovations-report
  4. Honeybee Decision-making Ability Rivals Any Department Committee, ScienceDaily
  5. Dynamics and Development of the International System: A Complexity Science Perspective, arXiv
  6. Complexity and Philosophy, arXiv
  7. Exploring Stephen Hawking's Flexiverse, New Scientist
  8. Salvage Prospect For 'Junk' DNA, BBC News
  9. Evolution: Spot On (And Off), Nature
  10. Watching The Brain Switch Off 'self', Innovations-report
  11. Neuroscience: Spikes Too Kinky In The Cortex?, Nature
    1. Unique Features Of Action Potential Initiation In Cortical Neurons, Nature
    2. Weak Pairwise Correlations Imply Strongly Correlated Network States In A Neural Population, Nature
  12. Synaptic Scaling Mediated By Glial TNF-, Nature
  13. Gamers May Soon Control Action With Thoughts, Mercury News
    1. Brain Games Aim To Boost Your IQ, BBC News
  14. Spatiotemporal Dynamics Of Rhoa Activity In Migrating Cells, Nature
  15. Genetic Finding Suggests Alternative Treatment Strategy for Common, Complex Skin Disorders, Bio.com
  16. Switch-A-Vision: Electric Spectacles Could Aid Aging Eyes, Science News
  17. Bacteria Render Beans Easier to Digest and More Nutritious, Scientific American
    1. Experts Make Flatulence-Free Bean, BBC News
  18. How The Octopus Forms An Elbow, Innovations-report
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Network
    1. Holding The Line: Human Rights Defenders In The Age Of Terror, British J. Politics & Int. Relations
    2. In Egypt, Resurgence Of Militant Islamists
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Webcast Announcements
    3. Conference Announcements
    4. Call for Papers - Course/Book Announcements

  1. Islands of Stability, FrontlineThoughts.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Today we again turn to our exploration of the implications of complexity theory and the critical state and their applications to the market. Can we find some explanation for the seeming decrease in market volatility and an increased appetite for risk and leverage? The more I meditate on this, the more implications and explanations for market behavior seem to come to mind. What I hope to do is give you a way to understand the markets apart from the usual easy bromides.

  2. Evolution Of Cooperative Strategies From First Principles, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: One of the greatest challenges in the modern biological and social sciences is to understand the evolution of cooperative behaviour. General outlines of the answer to this puzzle are currently emerging as a result of developments in the theories of kin selection, reciprocity, multilevel selection and cultural group selection. The main conceptual tool used in probing the logical coherence of proposed explanations has been game theory, including both analytical models and agent-based simulations.

  3. Why And When We Lie: Study Finds That People Are More Willing To Lie To Coworkers Than To Strangers, Innovations-report Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Though explicit talk of money may be considered gauche, we are frequently confronted with the dreaded query "How much did you pay for that?" Our response to being put on the spot? Lies. But a new study (...) found that we are more likely to muddle the truth with our coworkers than with perfect strangers. Interestingly, the researchers also found that people are most likely to lie and claim they got a bargain than to inflate the price they actually paid. (...) the researchers argue that our willingness to lie is directly related to perceived threats to our self-esteem and self-image. (...)

  4. Honeybee Decision-making Ability Rivals Any Department Committee, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: When 10,000 honeybees fly the coop to hunt for a new home, usually a tree cavity, they have a unique method of deciding which site is right: With great efficiency they narrow down the options and minimize bad decisions. Their technique (...) includes coalition building until a quorum develops. (...) Scientists had known that honeybee scouts "waggle dance" to report on food. Seeley and his colleagues, however, have confirmed that they dance to report on real estate, too, as part of their group decision-making process. The better the housing site, the stronger the waggle dance, (...).

  5. Dynamics and Development of the International System: A Complexity Science Perspective, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: (...) this research is focused on the Great Power war dynamics in the time period 1495 - 1945. According to this research, the international system has self-organized critical (SOC) characteristics. A critical point is the attractor of the international system. The war dynamics of Great Powers can be illustrated by a power law. As a result of a driving force, the international system is constantly being pushed toward this critical point. The security dilemma is a booster of this driving force. Tension and frustration build up in the international system as a result of various system thresholds, and are periodically discharged through wars.

  6. Complexity and Philosophy, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: The science of complexity is based on a new way of thinking that stands in sharp contrast to the philosophy underlying Newtonian science, which is based on reductionism, determinism, and objective knowledge. This paper reviews the historical development of this new world view, focusing on its philosophical foundations. (...)
    • Source: Complexity and Philosophy, Francis Heylighen, Paul Cilliers, Carlos Gershenson, DOI: cs.CC/0604072, arXiv, 2006/04/19

  7. Exploring Stephen Hawking's Flexiverse, New Scientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Just as a particle travelling from point A to point B takes every possible path in between, so too must the history of the universe. In one history, the Earth never formed. In another, Al Gore is president. And in yet another, Elvis is still - well, you get the idea. "The universe doesn't have a single history, but every possible history, each with its own probability," Hertog says.

  8. Salvage Prospect For 'Junk' DNA, BBC News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    The genome may possess far more complexity than was imagined
    A mathematical analysis of the human genome suggests that so-called "junk DNA" might not be so useless after all.

    The term junk DNA refers to those portions of the genome which appear to have no specific purpose.

    But a team from IBM has identified patterns, or "motifs", that were found both in the junk areas of the genome and those which coded for proteins.

    The presence of the motifs in junk DNA suggests these portions of the genome may have an important functional role.

  9. Evolution: Spot On (And Off), Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The repeated appearance and loss of a spot on the wings of fruitflies during their evolution is caused by mutations in one gene. This finding provides an unprecedented window on the genetics of convergent evolution.

  10. Watching The Brain Switch Off 'self', Innovations-report Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Everybody has experienced a sense of "losing oneself" in an activity--whether a movie, sport, sex, or meditation. Now, researchers have caught the brain in the act of losing "self" as it shuts down introspection during a demanding sensory task. The Researchers (...) say their findings show that self-related function actually shuts down during such intense sensory tasks. Thus, an "observer" function in the brain does not appear to play an active part of in the production of our vivid sensory experiences. These findings go against common models of sensory experience (...).

  11. Neuroscience: Spikes Too Kinky In The Cortex?, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The HH formalism predicts that, when viewed at high temporal precision, spikes rise smoothly once the membrane voltage reaches the activation threshold. Naundorf et al.2 have tested this by recording spikes from a variety of cortical neurons in vitro and in vivo. They found that the spikes rise much more abruptly than expected from the models based on the HH formalism. Moreover, the voltage at which the spike takes off (the threshold) varies remarkably from spike to spike in the same neuron in vivo (...).

    1. Unique Features Of Action Potential Initiation In Cortical Neurons, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Neurons process and encode information by generating sequences of action potentials. For all spiking neurons, the encoding of single-neuron computations into sequences of spikes is biophysically determined by the cell's action-potential-generating mechanism.

    2. Weak Pairwise Correlations Imply Strongly Correlated Network States In A Neural Population, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Biological networks have so many possible states that exhaustive sampling is impossible. Successful analysis thus depends on simplifying hypotheses, but experiments on many systems hint that complicated, higher-order interactions among large groups of elements have an important role. Here we show, in the vertebrate retina, that weak correlations between pairs of neurons coexist with strongly collective behaviour in the responses of ten or more neurons. We find that this collective behaviour is described quantitatively by models that capture the observed pairwise correlations but assume no higher-order interactions.

  12. Synaptic Scaling Mediated By Glial TNF-, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Two general forms of synaptic plasticity that operate on different timescales are thought to contribute to the activity-dependent refinement of neural circuitry during development: (1) long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD), which involve rapid adjustments in the strengths of individual synapses in response to specific patterns of correlated synaptic activity, and (2) homeostatic synaptic scaling, which entails uniform adjustments in the strength of all synapses on a cell in response to prolonged changes in the cell's electrical activity.

  13. Gamers May Soon Control Action With Thoughts, Mercury News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Someday soon, video gamers may be able to use their heads, literally, to get better scores in their games.

    At least two start-ups have developed technology that monitors a player's brain waves and uses the signals to control the action in games. They hope it will enable game creators to immerse players in imaginary worlds that they can control with their thoughts instead of their hands.

    San Jose's NeuroSky has been testing prototypes of its system that uses a sensor-laden headband to monitor brain waves, and then uses the signals to control the interaction in video games.

    1. Brain Games Aim To Boost Your IQ, BBC News Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Computer games have long been derided by critics as mindless, brain-rotting fun.

      But a new wave of games is turning the cliche on its head.

      Nintendo has sold nearly five million copies of its three Nintendo DS brain training games since the series launched in Japan a year ago.

      The first title in the series, Dr Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain?, sees players follow a daily regime of brain-enhancing exercises and is due to be released in the UK in June.

  14. Spatiotemporal Dynamics Of Rhoa Activity In Migrating Cells, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Rho family GTPases regulate the actin and adhesion dynamics that control cell migration. Current models postulate that Rac promotes membrane protrusion at the leading edge and that RhoA regulates contractility in the cell body. However, there is evidence that RhoA also regulates membrane protrusion. Here we use a fluorescent biosensor, based on a novel design preserving reversible membrane interactions, to visualize the spatiotemporal dynamics of RhoA activity during cell migration. In randomly migrating cells, RhoA activity is concentrated in a sharp band directly at the edge of protrusions.

  15. Genetic Finding Suggests Alternative Treatment Strategy for Common, Complex Skin Disorders, Bio.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: A genetic finding by researchers at the National Institutes of Health provides new insight into the cause of a series of related, common and complex illnesses - including hay fever and asthma as well as the skin disorders eczema and psoriasis - and suggests a novel therapeutic approach. (...)

    The solution could be as simple as developing a lotion that effectively blocks allergens from getting through damaged skin. Keeping allergens out of the skin would keep the immune system from over-stimulating cell growth, giving the skin time to re-create a normal barrier. Current therapies for these skin conditions principally focus on suppressing the immune system, but the medicines used can produce undesired side-effects.

  16. Switch-A-Vision: Electric Spectacles Could Aid Aging Eyes, Science News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    LOOK OUT. Electric signals from microchips in the black boxes attached to these prototype eyeglasses change focus settings to improve near vision. Li et al./PNAS
    A new type of eyeglasses with electrically adjustable focus might someday render bifocals and reading glasses obsolete, the device's inventors say. So far, the researchers have made a battery-powered prototype with close-up focus that flicks on and off with a switch. Future versions of the eyeglasses may incorporate a distance sensor to automatically adjust the focus as the viewer's gaze changes between far and near viewing, says one of the inventors, electrical engineer David L. Mathine of the University of Arizona in Tucson.

  17. Bacteria Render Beans Easier to Digest and More Nutritious, Scientific American Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    In the absence of meat, common black beans are a primary source of protein, minerals and vitamins in much of the developing world. But beans are notoriously hard to digest, failing to freely release many of their nutrients in the gut. Now researchers have discovered that fermenting beans with two strands of common bacteria free up many more nutrients and make the legumes easier to digest.

    1. Experts Make Flatulence-Free Bean, BBC News Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts:
      Beans have a fearsome reputation for inducing flatulence
      A method of creating super-nutritious but flatulence-free beans has been developed by scientists.

      Beans are a cheap and key source of nutrition especially in the developing world, but many people are thought to be put off by anti-social side-effects.

      A Venezuelan team says fermenting beans with certain friendly bacteria can cut the amount of wind-causing compounds, and boost beans' nutritional value.

  18. How The Octopus Forms An Elbow, Innovations-report Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The flexible arm of the octopus has virtually an infinite number of degrees of freedom, allowing a repertoire of movements unmatched by even the human arm. Human-like movement control helps flexible arms achieve precision. The octopus arm is extremely flexible. Thanks to this flexibility--the arm is said to possess a virtually infinite number of "degrees of freedom"--the octopus is able to generate a vast repertoire of movements that is unmatched by the human arm. (...) Researchers have now illuminated how octopus arms are able to form joint-like structures, and how the movements of these joints are controlled.

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

    1. Holding The Line: Human Rights Defenders In The Age Of Terror, British J. Politics & Int. Relations Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Human rights defenders have received renewed attention in the current period owing to new institutional and normative developments at the international level and renewed targeting by states at the domestic level. (...) Using a cross-national data set of 195 countries for the period 1997 to 2003, this article explores the main factors that account for the cross-national variation in acts of abuse against human rights defenders in the post 9/11 era, including the presence of anti-terror legislation. (...) the analysis shows that while reported abuse against human rights defenders has indeed increased since 2001(...).

    2. In Egypt, Resurgence Of Militant Islamists Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Third Sinai blast in 18 months shows new strength of domestic terror groups.

      Three bombs spaced just minutes apart ripped through the crowded Egyptian beach resort of Dahab on Monday, killing at least 18 people and confirming the extent to which domestic terror groups have reestablished themselves after years of relative peace. It's the third time since October 2004 that Egypt's popular Sinai Peninsula beaches have been targeted. Prior to that first attack - three suicide bombs that killed 31 at Taba - Egypt had not experienced any terror attacks since 1997.

  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Graph Theory and Networks in Biology, Oliver Mason, Mark Verwoerd, 2006/04/06, arXiv, DOI: q-bio.MN/0604006
      2. Memories For Life: A Review Of The Science And Technology, K. O'Hara, R. Morris, N. Shadbolt, G. J. Hitch, W. Hall, N. Beagrie, 2006/04/13, Journal of The Royal Society Interface, DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2006.0125
      3. Flying Tip Of Bees: Leave Your Legs Dangling!, 2006/04/18, ScienceDaily & Society for Experimental Biology
      4. Self-Similar Patterns Of Nature: Insect Diversity At Local To Global Scales, B. J. Finlay, J. A. Thomas, G. C. McGavin, T. Fenchel, R. T. Clarke, 2006/04/19, Proceedings: Biological Sciences, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2006.3525
      5. US Tops Global Spamming Charts: But China Coming Up Fast, I. Thomson, 2006/04/20, vnunet.com
      6. Space Scientists Find That Solar Wind Becomes Music In The Right Hands, 2006/04/21, ScienceDaily & University Of California, Berkeley
      7. Complex Hybrid Models Combining Deterministic And Machine Learning Components For Numerical Climate Modeling And Weather Prediction, V. M. Krasnopolsky - vladimir.krasnopolskyanoaa.gov, M. S. F.-Rabinovitza, Mar. 2006, online 2006/03/09, Neural Networks, DOI: 10.1016/j.neunet.2006.01.002
      8. Optimal Complex Networks Spontaneously Emerge When Information Transfer Is Maximized At Least Expense: A Design Perspective, S. Katare - skatareaford.com, D. H. West, Mar.-Apr. 2006, Online 2006/04/17, Complexity, DOI: 10.1002/cplx.20119
      9. Structural Database For Reducing Cost In Materials Design And Complexity Of Multiscale Computations, N. Zarkevich - zarkevicauiuc.edu, Mar.-Apr. 2006, Online 2006/04/17, Complexity, DOI: 10.1002/cplx.20117
      10. Quantum Bios And Biotic Complexity In The Distribution Of Galaxies, H. Sabelli, L. Kovacevic - lakinekakiayahoo.com, Mar.-Apr. 2006, Online 2006/04/17, Complexity, DOI: 10.1002/cplx.20121
      11. Interdisciplinarity And Political Science, M. Moran, May 2006, Online 2006/04/11, Politics, DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9256.2006.00253.x
      12. The Foreign V. The Domestic After September 11th: The Methodology Of Political Analysis Revisited, D. Haubrich, May 2006, Online 2006/04/11, Politics, DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9256.2006.00254.x

    2. Webcast Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Ralph Abraham on Complexity Digest, , Calcutta, India, 05/12/27
      2. An Afternoon with Michael Crichton, Washington, 05/11/06
      3. Illuminating the Shadow of the Future, Ann Arbor, Mi 05/09/23-25
      4. Open Network of Centres of Excellence in Complex Systems - Brainstorming Meeting, Paris, France 05/09/19-23
      5. Complexity, Science & Society Conference 2005, U. Liverpool, UK 2005/09/11-14
      6. ECAL 2005 - VIIIth European Conference on Artificial Life, Canterbury, Kent, UK 2005/09/5-9
      7. T. Irene Sanders, Executive Director and Founder, The Washington Center for Complexity & Public Policy, 05/08/27, QuickTime video (10:38 min), Podcast
      8. North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity 2005 Conference, Virtual Conference Network, St. Pete's Beach, Florida, 05/06/09-11
      9. Understanding Complex Systems - Computational Complexity and Bioinformatics, Virtual Conference Network, Urbana-Champaign, Il, UIUC, 05/05/16-19
      10. Nonlinearity, Fluctuations, and Complexity, with a celebration of the 65th birthday of Gregoire Nicolis. , Complexity Session, Universite' Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium, 05/03/16
      11. World Economic Forum , Davos, Switzerland, 05/01/26-30
      12. 1st European Conference on Complex Systems, Torino, Italy, 04/12/5-7
      13. From Autopoiesis to Neurophenomenology: A Tribute to Francisco Varela (1946-2001), Paris, France, 2004/06/18-20
      14. Evolutionary Epistemology, Language, and Culture, Brussels, Belgium, 04/05/26-28
      15. International Conference on Complex Systems 2004, Boston, 04/05/16-21
      16. Nonlinear Dynamics And Chaos: Lab Demonstrations, Strogatz, Steven H., Internet-First University Press, 1994
      17. CERN Webcast Service, Streamed videos of Archived Lectures and Live Events
      18. Dean LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing Since February 1998
      19. Edge Videos

    3. Conference Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      2. 5th Intl Joint Conf on Autonomous Agents And Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2006) Future University, Hakodate, Japan, )6/05/08-12
      3. 6th Understanding Complex Systems Symposium, Urbana-Champaign, Il, 06/05/15-18
      4. Nonlinearities: from Turbulent to Magic, Copenhagen, Denmark. 06/05/17-20
      5. Intl Wkshp on Software Engineering Challenges for Ubiquitous Computing , Lancaster, UK, 06/06/01-02
      6. Alife X - The 10th Intl Conf on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems,Bloomington, Indiana, 06/06/03-07
      7. 1st Intl Conf on Economic Sciences with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, Univ of Bologna, Italy, 06/06/15-17
      8. NKS 2006: The Wolfram Science Conference, Washington, D.C., 06/06/16-18
      9. Beyond Genome, 8th Annual Systems Biology - Pathway and Disease Modeling, San Francisco, California, 06/06/19-21
      10. Intl Conf on Complex Systems (ICCS), Boston, Ma, 06/06/25-30
      11. 11th Annual Congress of the European College of Sport Science, Lausanne, Switzerland, 06/07/05-08
      12. 2006 Genetic And Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2006), Seattle, Washington, USA, 06/07/08-12
      13. Intl Soc for the Systems Sciences 50th Ann Conf - Complexity, Democracy & Sustainability, Sonoma, California, 06/07/09-14
      14. The 1st Intl Conf on Knowledge Communication and Peer Reviewing: KCPR 2006 , Orlando, Florida USA, 06/07/20-23
      15. Toward Social Mechanisms of Android Science, An ICCS Symposium co-located at CogSci 2006, Vancouver , Canada, 06/07/26
      16. 5th World Congress of Biomechanics, Munich, Germany, 06/07/29-08/04
      17. 50th Anniversary Summit of AI, Monte Verita, Switzerland, 06/07/09-14
      18. Potentials of Complexity Science for Business, Governments, and the Media 2006 Budapest, 06/08/03-05
      19. FIAS Summer School - Theoretical Neuroscience & Complex Systems, Frankfurt/Main, Germany, 06/08/05-27
      20. 2006 Intl Conf on Nonlinear Science and Complexity, Beijing, China, 06/08/07-12
      21. Symmetry Festival 2006, Symmetry in Art and Science Education, Budapest, Hungary, 06/08/12-18
      22. 6th International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, Marina Del Rey, Ca, U.S.A., 06/08/21-23
      23. World Conference on Social Simulation (WCSS-06) , Kyoto, Japan, 06/08/21-25
      24. 7th Intl Symposium on Knowledge and Systems Sciences (KSS'2006), Beijing, 06/09/22-25.
      25. European Conference on Complex Systems 2006 (ECCS'06), Oxford, England, 06/09/25-29
      26. FROM ANIMALS TO ANIMATS 9, The Ninth Intl Conf on the SIMULATION OF ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR (SAB'06), Roma, Italy, 06/09/25-30
      27. 6th Intl Conf on Simulated Evolution and Learning , Hefei, China, 06/10/15-18
      28. 2006 IEEE/WIC/ACM Intl Workshop on Interaction between Agents and Data Mining (IADM-06), Hongkong, China, 06/12/18
      29. 3rd International Workshop on Complexity and Philisophy, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 07/02/22-23
      30. Summer School In Complexity Science, London, UK, 07/07/08-17

    4. Call for Papers - Course/Book Announcements Bookmark and Share

      1. Chaos and Complexity Resources for Students and Teachers, 06/03/01
      2. MSc Complexity Science: Systems Thinking from New Biology to Novel Computation, Southampton, UK
      3. Volume Four Complexity and Knowledge Management: Understanding the Role of Knowledge in the Management of Social Networks, ISCE Managing the Complex Book Series
      4. New Issue of Emergence: Complexity & Organization (E:CO), Volume 7 Numbers 3 & 4, 2005 Special Double Issue: Complexity and Storytelling Guest Editors: Ken Baskin & David Boje was published online.

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