复杂性文摘 NO0334

复杂性文摘 NO：2003.34

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Complexity Digest 2003.34 Archive: http://www.comdig.org, European Mirror:
http://www.comdig.de
Asian Mirror: http://www.phil.pku.edu.cn/resguide/comdig/ (Chinese GB-Code)
"I think the next
century will be the century of complexity." Stephen Hawking

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Content:

01. Set of Rules Too Complex to Be Followed Properly, NYTimes
02. Learning Curve: A Simulation-Based Approach to Dynamic Pricing,
Electronic Comm. Res.
03. Autonomous Mapping Of E-Business Demands Via Invisible Internet Agents,
Electronic Comm. Res.
04. Self-organising Behaviour in the Presence of Negative Externalities: A
Conceptual Model of
Commuter Choice, European Journal of Operational Research
04.01. Genetic Algorithms and Fuzzy Control: A Practical Synergism for
Industrial Applications,
Computers in Industry
05. Cognitive Machines - Machines Accurately Infer User Intent, Remember
Experiences, ScienceDaily
05.01. Computer Model Forecasts Crime Sprees, New Scientist
06. Language Evolution: Consensus And Controversies, Trends in Cognitive Sc.
06.01. Evolving Grounded Communication For Robots, Trends in Cognitive Sc.
07. A Twist on Artificial Intelligence: DNA, SunSpot.net
07.01. Electronic Textiles Charge Ahead, Science
08. Action Plans Used In Action Observation, Nature
08.01. Brain Patterns The Same Whether Doing Or Just Watching, Queen's
Researcher Discovers,
ScienceDaily
09. Discretizing Light Behaviour In Linear And Nonlinear Waveguide
Lattices, NYTimes
09.01. Photonic Structures In Biology, Nature
09.02. Sea Sponge Inspires Better Fiber-Optic Cables, Scientific American
10. Terahertz Imaging: T-Ray Specs, Nature
11. Biological Vs. Social, Economic And Political Priority-Setting In
Conservation, Ecol. Lett.
11.01. Meta-Ecosystems: A Theoretical Framework For A Spatial Ecosystem
Ecology, Ecol. Lett.
12. The Power Of Time: Spatiotemporal Scaling Of Species Diversity, Ecol. Lett.
12.01. Flowers' Sick Trick Gives Botanists Double Trouble, Nature
13. Teaching Cells New Tricks, Trends in Biotech.
13.01. How AIDS Destroys Immunity, EurekAlert
14. Extending The Genetic Code, The Scientist
15. Modifying the Message, Science
16. Prediction Of Auditory Spatial Acuity From Neural Images, Nature
17. Why Humans and Their Fur Parted Ways, NYTimes
18. Climate Change, Human Impacts, and the Resilience of Coral Reefs, Science
18.01. Drought Portends Mosquito Misery, Science
19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
19.01. War Zone Between The Forces Of Terror And The Occupying Forces, Al-Hayat
19.02. Decoding Terror, ScienCentral News
19.03. Ashcroft Criticized for Talks on Terror, NYTimes
20. Links & Snippets
20.01. Other Papers
20.02. Webcast Announcements
20.03. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements
20.04. ComDig Announcement: New ComDig Archive in Beta Test

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01. Set of Rules Too Complex to Be Followed Properly , NYTimes

Excerpts: Many of those rules - how much power can move in a line, when
systems need to be shut
down in an emergency - were drawn up long before deregulation opened the
sluice gates and enabled
the present transfer of billions of watts of energy around the country
daily in wholesale
transactions across hundreds or thousands of miles. As detailed as those
rules are, according to
many people in the industry, they are no match for the overwhelming scale
and complexity of the
grid (?.

* Set of Rules Too Complex to Be Followed Properly, James Glanz, Andrew C.
Revkin, 03/08/19,
NYTimes

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02. Learning Curve: A Simulation-Based Approach to Dynamic Pricing ,
Electronic Comm. Res.

Abstract: By employing dynamic pricing, sellers have the potential to
increase their revenue by
selling their goods at prices customized to the buyers' demand (...). As
dynamic pricing becomes a
necessary competitive maneuver, and as market mechanisms become more
complex, there is a growing
need for software agents to be used to automate the task of implementing
instantaneous price
changes. The following article presents the Learning Curve Simulator, a
market simulator designed
for analyzing agent pricing strategies in markets under finite time
horizons and fluctuation buyer
demand. (...) we demonstrate the strength of a simulation-based approach to
understanding agent
pricing strategies.

* Learning Curve: A Simulation-Based Approach to Dynamic Pricing, J. M.
DiMicco., Jul.-Oct. 2003
* Contributed by Pritha Das

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03. Autonomous Mapping Of E-Business Demands Via Invisible Internet Agents
, Electronic Comm. Res.

Abstract: In business Internet-based systems demands and supplies can be
hidden in different forms
and locations. We develop a simple type of agents called knowledgeable
objects for carrying and
mapping heterogeneous and distributed business data in a self-processing
way. Internet agents
coordinate these invisible agent objects to implement a competitive mapping
via agent bidding. The
concept of agent awareness and invisibility is used for regulating agent
interaction scope to
decrease mapping time and to accord with system capacity. Our analysis
shows that this combination
of agent-interval-based techniques not only meets the distributed,
heterogeneous, and dynamic
tendencies of E-business systems (...).

* Autonomous Mapping Of E-Business Demands And Supplies Via Invisible
Internet Agents, H. Pham, Y.
Ye & V. Nguyen, Jul.-Oct. 2003
* Contributed by Pritha Das

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04. Self-organising Behaviour in the Presence of Negative Externalities: A
Conceptual Model of
Commuter Choice , European Journal of Operational Research

Abstract: We use a model with local interaction (a one-dimensional cellular
automaton) to study how
commuters choose among alternative roads. Commuters have information about
their neighbours' most
recent experience (local interaction) and they remember their own
experiences (memory). We
illustrate how a simple, self-organizing system, based on local information
and locally rational
agents can in some cases outperform the Nash equilibrium. While the social
optimum is unenforceable
without a central planner, due to the variations in individual travel times
(i.e. the social
optimum is not individually rational), variations across commuters in the
steady-state of our
self-organising system are at least equivalent to, and mostly significantly
larger than those
required for the social equilibrium. Increasing the neighbourhood size
illustrates that more
information without co-ordination leads to worse overall performance.

* Self-organising Behaviour in the Presence of Negative Externalities: A
Conceptual Model of
Commuter Choice, Ann van Ackere, Erik R. Larsen, 2003-08-12, DOI:
10.1016/S0377-2217(03)00237-6,
European Journal of Operational Research, Article in Press, Corrected Proof
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson

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04.01. Genetic Algorithms and Fuzzy Control: A Practical Synergism for
Industrial Applications ,
Computers in Industry

Abstract: A way to automatically generate fuzzy controllers (FCs) that are
optimized according to a
merit figure is presented in this article. To achieve this task, a
procedure based on hierarchical
genetic algorithms (HGA) was developed. This procedure and the manner in
which fuzzy controllers
are codified into chromosomes is described. Resorting to this tool, several
fuzzy controllers were
constructed. The best three solutions obtained during simulation were
selected for testing using an
experimental prototype, which consists of an induction motor of variable
load. These preliminary
results are also included in the report. Based on these results, it is
concluded that hierarchical
genetic algorithms, though not the only, is a suitable artificial
intelligence technique to face
the problem of setting a fuzzy controller in a control loop without
previous experience in
controlling the plant. This is of help in many situations at industrial
environments.

* Genetic Algorithms and Fuzzy Control: A Practical Synergism for
Industrial Applications, Gerardo
Acosta, Elías Todorovich, 2003-08-07, DOI: 10.1016/S0166-3615(03)00102-7,
Computers in Industry,
Article in Press, Corrected Proof
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson

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05. Cognitive Machines - Machines Accurately Infer User Intent, Remember
Experiences , ScienceDaily

Excerpts: A new type of "smart" machine that could fundamentally change how
people interact with
computers is on the not-too-distant (...) cognitive machines that
accurately infer user intent,
remember experiences with users and allow users to call upon simulated
experts to help them analyze
situations and make decisions. "In the long term, the benefits from this
effort are expected to
include augmenting human effectiveness and embedding these cognitive models
into systems like
robots and vehicles for better human-hardware interactions. We expect to be
able to model, simulate
and analyze humans and societies of humans for Department of Energy,
military and national security
applications."

* Sandia Team Develops Cognitive Machines - Machines Accurately Infer User
Intent, Remember
Experiences And Allow Users To Call Upon Simulated Experts, 2003/08/15,
ScienceDaily & Sandia
National Lab.
* Contributed by Atin Das

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05.01. Computer Model Forecasts Crime Sprees , New Scientist

Excerpts: Computer forecasts that predict where and when crimes will happen
by analysing past
patterns should help police channel resources where they are needed most.
The technique, now under
trial in the US, could be available for routine use within a year.

Police "crime maps" that identify areas prone to illegal activity are
commonplace. But a more
powerful tool for forecasting crime is emerging from a huge electronic
database of six million
crimes recorded over the past 10 years in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and
Rochester, New York.

* Computer Model Forecasts Crime Sprees, Emily Singer, 03/08/17, New Scientist

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06. Language Evolution: Consensus And Controversies , Trends in Cognitive Sc.

Abstract: Why is language the way it is? How did language come to be this
way? And why is our
species alone in having complex language? This review provides a broad
overview of some of the
important current work in this area. We highlight new methodologies (such
as computational
modeling), emerging points of consensus (such as the importance of
pre-adaptation), and the major
remaining controversies (such as gestural origins of language). We also
discuss why language
evolution is such a difficult problem, and suggest probable directions
research may take in the
near future.

* Language Evolution: Consensus And Controversies, M. H. Christiansen,
2003/06/27, DOI:
10.1016/S1364-6613(03)00136-0
* Contributed by Atin Das

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06.01. Evolving Grounded Communication For Robots , Trends in Cognitive Sc.

Abstract: The computational and robotic synthesis of language evolution is
emerging as a new
exciting field of research. The objective is to come up with precise
operational models of how
communities of agents, equipped with a cognitive apparatus, a sensori-motor
system, and a body, can
arrive at shared grounded communication systems. Such systems may have
similar characteristics to
animal communication or human language. Apart from its technological
interest in building novel
applications in the domain of human-robot or robot-robot interaction, this
research is of interest
to the many disciplines concerned with the origins and evolution of
language and communication.

* Evolving Grounded Communication For Robots, L. Steels, 2003/06/28, DOI:
10.1016/S1364-6613(03)00129-3
* Contributed by Atin Das

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07. A Twist on Artificial Intelligence: DNA , SunSpot.net

Excerpts: Milan Stojanovic has a new tic-tac-toe adversary in his Columbia
University laboratory,
and after a hundred matches he has yet to beat it. "There's no way," he
sighs. Who is this tic-tac
titan? A computer, of course. Only here's the twist: its brain is based not
on silicon microchips
but on molecules of DNA.(...) One of Stojanovic's underwriters is NASA. The
space agency, he says,
wants to develop molecule-sized biocomputers capable of diagnosing and
perhaps even repairing
disease at the cellular level - perfect for astronauts on long spaceflights
and something silicon
devices could never do.

* A Twist on Artificial Intelligence: DNA, Michael Stroh, 2003-08-18,
SunSpot.net
* Contributed by Nadia Gershenson

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07.01. Electronic Textiles Charge Ahead , Science

Excerpts: Clothes may soon change color on command, give you a checkup, and
communicate by Wi-Fi,
(?.
(? a growing cadre of computer, electronics, and textile researchers are
poised to revolutionize
the fashion world, and perhaps at the same time the fields of
communication, medicine, advertising,
and even warfare. The rumpled-shirt crowd is looking to give the decidedly
low-tech world of
textiles a good dressing up, electrifying everything from jackets and
T-shirts to advertising
displays and carpets with electronic sensors, processing chips, and displays.

* Electronic Textiles Charge Ahead, Robert F. Service, Science Aug 15 2003:
909-911

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08. Action Plans Used In Action Observation , Nature

Excerpts: How do we understand the actions of others? (?. Because the eyes
are free to move when
observing such actions, the direct matching hypothesis predicts that
subjects should produce eye
movements similar to those produced when they perform the tasks.(? Here we
show that when subjects
observe a block stacking task, the coordination between their gaze and the
actor's hand is
predictive, rather than reactive, and is highly similar to the gaze-hand
coordination when they
perform the task themselves.

* Action Plans Used In Action Observation, J. Randall Flanagan, Roland S.
Johansson, 14 August
2003, DOI: 10.1038/nature01861, Nature 424, 769 - 771

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08.01. Brain Patterns The Same Whether Doing Or Just Watching, Queen's
Researcher Discovers ,
ScienceDaily

Excerpts: New findings from a Queen's behavioural expert in eye/hand
movement provide the first
direct evidence that our brain patterns are similar whether we are actually
doing something or
simply watching someone else do it.It's an insight that could have
significant implications for the
assessment of people with various movement disorders such as some stroke
victims, says (...). "We
perceive an action by running it at some covert level in our own system. An
example would be when
sports fans watch football on TV and move in anticipation of action on the
screen."

* Brain Patterns The Same Whether Doing Or Just Watching, Queen's
Researcher Discovers, 2003/08/14,
ScienceDaily & Queen's Univ.
* Contributed by Atin Das

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09. Discretizing Light Behaviour In Linear And Nonlinear Waveguide Lattices
, NYTimes

Excerpts: Light propagating in linear and nonlinear waveguide lattices
exhibits behaviour
characteristic of that encountered in discrete systems. (? opens up new
possibilities for
controlling the flow of light that would have been otherwise impossible in
the bulk: these effects
can be exploited to achieve diffraction-free propagation and minimize the
power requirements for
nonlinear processes. In two-dimensional networks of waveguides,
self-localized states-or discrete
solitons-can travel along 'wire-like' paths and can be routed to any
destination port. Such
possibilities may be useful for photonic switching architectures.

* Discretizing Light Behaviour In Linear And Nonlinear Waveguide Lattices,
Demetrios N.
Christodoulides, Falk Lederer, Yaron Silberberg, 14 August 2003, DOI:
10.1038/nature01936, Nature
424, 817 - 823

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09.01. Photonic Structures In Biology , Nature

Excerpts: Millions of years before we began to manipulate the flow of light
using synthetic
structures, biological systems were using nanometre-scale architectures to
produce striking optical
effects. An astonishing variety of natural photonic structures exists: a
species of Brittlestar
uses photonic elements composed of calcite to collect light, Morpho
butterflies use multiple layers
of cuticle and air to produce their striking blue colour and some insects
use arrays of elements,
known as nipple arrays, to reduce reflectivity in their compound eyes.
Natural photonic structures
are providing inspiration for technological applications.

* Photonic Structures In Biology, Pete Vukusic, J. Roy Sambles, 14 August
2003, DOI:
10.1038/nature01941, Nature 424, 852 - 855

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09.02. Sea Sponge Inspires Better Fiber-Optic Cables , Scientific American

Excerpt: Technologically speaking, the latest fiber-optic cables have
nothing on a small deep-sea
sponge. Scientists report today in the journal Nature that the so-called
glass sponge Euplectella
contains outgrowths are similar in structure to fiber-optic cables but much
less likely to break.

* Sea Sponge Inspires Better Fiber-Optic Cables, Sarah Graham, 2003-08-21,
Scientific American
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson

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10. Terahertz Imaging: T-Ray Specs , Nature

Excerpts: Radiation from a previously unexploited region of the
electromagnetic spectrum could hold
the key to a new generation of security devices. (?
Such is the potential power of a new imaging technology. Terahertz devices,
so named because they
detect electromagnetic radiation in the terahertz frequency range (1 THz is
1012 Hz), promise to
peer through clothing, revealing concealed weapons and explosives. The
technique could also be used
to seek out structural defects in materials, to detect skin cancer or to
provide new information
about astronomical objects.

* Terahertz Imaging: T-Ray Specs, Catherine Zandonella, 14 August 2003,
DOI: 10.1038/424721a,
Nature 424, 721 - 722

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11. Biological Vs. Social, Economic And Political Priority-Setting In
Conservation , Ecol. Lett.

Abstract: The most influential conservation priority-setting approaches
emphasize biodiversity and
threats when deciding where to focus investment. However, socio-economic
and political attributes
of nations influence the effectiveness of conservation actions. (...) only
a few countries emerged
as high priorities irrespective of which factors were included in the
analysis. Conversely, some
countries that ranked highly as priorities for conservation when focusing
solely on biological
metrics, did not rank highly when governance, population pressure, economic
costs and conservation
needs were considered. However, the analyses suggest that attention to
governance and return on
investment may alter biocentric assessments of ideal conservation investments.

* Biological Vs. Social, Economic And Political Priority-Setting In
Conservation, O'Connor C.,
Marvier M. & Kareiva P., Aug. 2003, DOI: 10.1046/j.1461-0248.2003.00499.x
* Contributed by Pritha Das

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11.01. Meta-Ecosystems: A Theoretical Framework For A Spatial Ecosystem
Ecology , Ecol. Lett.

Abstract: This contribution proposes the meta-ecosystem concept as a
natural extension of the
metapopulation and metacommunity concepts. A meta-ecosystem is defined as a
set of ecosystems
connected by spatial flows of energy, materials and organisms across
ecosystem boundaries. This
concept provides a powerful theoretical tool to understand the emergent
properties (...) thereby
has the potential to integrate the perspectives of community and landscape
ecology, to provide
novel fundamental insights into the dynamics and functioning of ecosystems
from local to global
scales, and to increase our ability to predict the consequences of land-use
changes on biodiversity
and the provision of ecosystem services to human societies.

* Meta-Ecosystems: A Theoretical Framework For A Spatial Ecosystem Ecology,
Loreau M, Mouquet N. &
Holt R.D., Aug. 2003, DOI: 10.1046/j.1461-0248.2003.00483.x
* Contributed by Pritha Das

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12. The Power Of Time: Spatiotemporal Scaling Of Species Diversity , Ecol.
Lett.

Abstract: The species-area relationship (SAR) provides the foundation for
much of theoretical
ecology and conservation practice. However, by ignoring time the SAR offers
an incomplete model for
biodiversity dynamics. We used long-term data from permanent plots in
Kansas grasslands, USA, to
show that the increase in the number of species found with increasing
periods of observation takes
the same power-law form as the SAR. A statistical model including time,
area, (...) and
demonstrates that while the effect of time depends on area, and vice versa,
time has strong effects
on species number even at relatively broad spatial scales.

* The Power Of Time: Spatiotemporal Scaling Of Species Diversity, Adler
P.B. & Lauenroth W.K., Aug.
2003, DOI: 10.1046/j.1461-0248.2003.00497.x
* Contributed by Pritha Das

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12.01. Flowers' Sick Trick Gives Botanists Double Trouble , Nature

Excerpts: Sickly plants have fooled botanists into incorporating the
symptoms of their ailments
into species descriptions, researchers say. The discovery raises the
prospect that some plants
currently classified as separate species are really just unhealthy samples
of other groups. (?

Bogus species names often arise when a researcher redescribes something
that has already been
named,(?. The International Plant Names Index contains more than one
million entries, but
researchers think that there are really only between 200,000 and 400,000
species of flowering
plant.

* Flowers' Sick Trick Gives Botanists Double Trouble, John Whitfield, 14
August 2003, DOI:
10.1038/424712b, Nature 424, 712

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13. Teaching Cells New Tricks , Trends in Biotech.

Abstract: The direct conversion of one differentiated cell type into
another - a process referred
to as transdifferentiation - would be beneficial for producing isogenic
(patient's own) cells to
replace sick or damaged cells or tissue. Adult stem cells display a broader
differentiation
potential than anticipated and might contribute to tissues other than those
in which they reside.
As such, they could be worthy therapeutic agents. To avoid unpredictable
tissue transformation,
nuclear reprogramming requires controlled and heritable epigenetic
modifications. Considerable
efforts remain to unravel the molecular processes underlying nuclear
reprogramming and evaluate
stable of the changes in reprogrammed cells.

* Teaching Cells New Tricks, P. Collas, Aug. 2003, DOI:
10.1016/S0893-6080(03)00147-1
* Contributed by Atin Das

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13.01. How AIDS Destroys Immunity , EurekAlert

Excerpts: A human gene named ATR normally protects people by preventing the
replication of cells
damaged by radiation or toxic chemicals. Now, Utah and New York researchers
have discovered how a
gene in the AIDS virus hijacks the human gene and turns it into a weapon
that prevents reproduction
of immune-system white blood cells, leaving AIDS patients vulnerable to
deadly infections and
cancer.(...) The ATR gene's normal job is to detect genetic damage to cells
caused by radiation,
toxic chemicals and chemotherapy, and to stop the damaged cells from
replicating until they can
repair themselves. Planelles and researchers at the University of
Rochester, N.Y., found evidence
that the vpr gene ?one of nine genes in the AIDS virus ?exploits this
normal repair process to
stop vital white blood cells from replicating, thus disabling the immune
system.

* How AIDS Destroys Immunity, 2003-08-20, EurekAlert
* Contributed by Nadia Gershenson

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14. Extending The Genetic Code , The Scientist

Excerpts: (...) Chin et al. independently incorporated five novel amino
acids into the genetic code
of S. cerevisiae, for example, creating a strain that incorporated an amino
acid with a
"benzophenone" side chain, useful as a photocrosslinker, into any mRNA that
contained the amber
suppressor codon.
"This methodology not only removes the constraints imposed by the genetic
code on our ability to
manipulate protein structure and function in yeast, it provides a gateway
to the systematic
expansion of the genetic codes of multicellular eukaryotes," conclude the
authors.

* Extending The Genetic Code, David Secko, 03/08/15, The Scientist

_________________________________________________________________

15. Modifying the Message , Science

Excerpts: One of the pioneering discoveries in genetic research was that
variation at one gene
could modify the phenotypic expression of variants at another gene. We know
now that phenotype
modification is the rule rather than the exception and that genetic
background strongly influences
the expression of most genetic variants. (? complex webs of interactions
allow organisms to survive
in the face of genetic and environmental stresses. The challenge now is to
understand these
networks in molecular detail. Key to this is identifying modifier genes and
determining how they
act(?.

* Modifying the Message, Joseph H. Nadeau, Science Aug 15 2003: 927-928

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16. Prediction Of Auditory Spatial Acuity From Neural Images , Nature

Excerpts: The owl can discriminate changes in the location of sound sources
as small as 3?and can
aim its head to within 2?of a source. A typical neuron (? has a spatial
receptive field that
spans 40??. (? examined the relationship between neuronal activity and
perceptual acuity in the
auditory space map in the barn owl midbrain. By analysing changes in firing
rate resulting from
small changes of stimulus azimuth, we show that most neurons can reliably
signal changes in source
location that are smaller than the behavioural threshold.

* Prediction Of Auditory Spatial Acuity From Neural Images, Avinash D. S.
Bala, Matthew. W.
Spitzer, Terry T. Takahashi, 14 August 2003, DOI: 10.1038/nature01835,
Nature 424, 771 - 774

_________________________________________________________________

17. Why Humans and Their Fur Parted Ways , NYTimes

Excerpts: One of the most distinctive evolutionary changes as humans parted
company from their
fellow apes was their loss of body hair. But why and when human body hair
disappeared, together
with the matter of when people first started to wear clothes, are questions
that have long lain
beyond the reach of archaeology and paleontology.
(? The result, if the dates are accurate, is something of an embarrassment.
It implies we were
naked for more than a million years before we started wearing clothes.

* Why Humans and Their Fur Parted Ways, Nicholas Wade, 03/08/19, NYTimes

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18. Climate Change, Human Impacts, and the Resilience of Coral Reefs , Science

Excerpts: The diversity, frequency, and scale of human impacts on coral
reefs are increasing to the
extent that reefs are threatened globally. Projected increases in carbon
dioxide and temperature
over the next 50 years exceed the conditions under which coral reefs have
flourished over the past
half-million years. However, reefs will change rather than disappear
entirely, with some species
already showing far greater tolerance to climate change and coral bleaching
than others.
International integration of management strategies that support reef
resilience need to be
vigorously implemented, (?

* Climate Change, Human Impacts, and the Resilience of Coral Reefs, T. P.
Hughes, A. H. Baird, D.
R. Bellwood, M. Card, S. R. Connolly, C. Folke, R. Grosberg, O.
Hoegh-Guldberg, J. B. C. Jackson,
J. Kleypas, J. M. Lough, P. Marshall, M. Nystr&, S. R. Palumbi, J. M.
Pandolfi, B. Rosen, J.
Roughgarden, Science Aug 15 2003: 929-933

_________________________________________________________________

18.01. Drought Portends Mosquito Misery , Science

Excerpts: A rainy year means more mosquitoes, right? (? The research found
that because dry
weather knocks out key mosquito predators and competitors, last year's
drought--not this year's
rainfall--may best predict mosquito outbreaks in wetlands. (? But in ponds
that were usually full
but dried out after a drought in 1999, mosquito larvae burgeoned the next
year, Chase reported. The
reason, he and Knight suspect, is that the drought killed both predators
and competitors, which in
these ponds aren't adapted to dry spells.

* Drought Portends Mosquito Misery, Jocelyn Kaiser, Science Aug 15 2003: 904

_________________________________________________________________

19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks

_________________________________________________________________

19.01. War Zone Between The Forces Of Terror And The Occupying Forces ,
Al-Hayat

Excerpts: This competition between the ideals of destruction and
pre-emptiveness has some
commonalities; one of which is that those of both ideals want chaos as the
basis for their ends.
The sort of unruly chaos that leads to disintegration and crumbling of the
ability to think, in
order for societies in the midst of chaos to fall in a terrible spiral. It
is the chaos of
exhaustion.
The issue is no longer theoretical or hypothetical because this chaos'
scene is the Arab societies.

* War Zone Between The Forces Of Terror And The Occupying Forces, Raghida
Dergham, 03/08/22,
Al-Hayat

_________________________________________________________________

19.02. Decoding Terror , ScienCentral News

Excerpts: Are terrorists and other law-breakers getting better at making
codes than we are at
breaking them? The electronic intelligence experts at the federal
government's National Security
Agency (NSA) are trying to prevent that from happening. But increasingly,
the international emails,
phone calls, and faxes that the NSA screens are encrypted, or scrambled by
complex mathematical
formulas. (?

So, who is winning this "code war"? "The advantage is always going to be in
favor of the
code-makers,(?

* Decoding Terror, Karen Lurie, 03/08/22, ScienCentral News

_________________________________________________________________

19.03. Ashcroft Criticized for Talks on Terror , NYTimes

Excerpts: Mr. Conyers said that the speeches in defense of the USA Patriot
Act, as the
antiterrorism law is known, appeared to conflict with Congressional
restrictions preventing the use
of Justice Department money for "publicity or propaganda purposes not
authorized by Congress." He
said they might also violate the Anti-Lobbying Act and its restrictions on
grass-roots lobbying on
legislative matters.

* Ashcroft Criticized for Talks on Terror, Eric Lichtblau, 03/08/22, NYTimes

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20. Links & Snippets

_________________________________________________________________

20.01. Other Papers

_________________________________________________________________

20.02. Webcast Announcements

     UPCOMING
     WEBCAST: Fair
     Value; The Good, The Bad, and The Unknown, Financial
     Executives International (FEI), 03/06/26, 5:00-6:00 p.m.
     GMT

     13th
     Ann Intl Conf, Soc f Chaos Theory in Psych & Life
     Sciences, Boston, MA, USA, 2003/08/08-10

     IMA
     International Conference Bifurcation 2003, Univ.
     Southampton, UK, 27-30 July, 2003

     New
     Santa Fe Institute President About His Vision for SFI's
     Future Role, (Video, Santa Fe, NM, 03/06/04)

     Edge
     Videos

     World
     Economic Forum Extraordinary Annual Meeting, Jordan,
     03/06/21-23

     SPIE's
     1st Intl Symp on Fluctuations and Noise,
     Santa Fe, NM, 2003/06/01-04

     NAS
     Sackler Colloquium on Mapping Knowledge Domains,
     Video/Audio Report, 03/05/11

     Uncertainty
     and Surprise: Questions on Working with the Unexpected and
     Unknowable, The University of Texas Austin, Texas
     USA, 2003/04/10-12

     New
     Trends In Industrial Partnership And Innovation Management
     At European Research Laboratories, CERN, Geneva,
     2003/03/19 (with webcast)

      CERN
      Webcast Service, Streamed videos of
      Archived Lectures and Live Events

     Dean
     LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing
     Since February 1998

      

_________________________________________________________________

20.03. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements

     Thematic
     Institute "Networks and Risks", Budapest, Hungary,
     03/08/25 - 09/27

     Conference
     on Growing Networks and Graphs in Statistical Physics,
     Finance, Biology and Social Systems, Rome,
     03/09/01-05

     Protecting
     the Homeland: The Need for a Public/Private
     Partnership, Washington, DC, 03/09/04-05

     Call for
     Papers on Dynamical Hierarchies, Special Issue of Artificial
     Life, Deadline: 2003/09/05

     Executive
     Leadership in a Changing Environment, Washington,
     DC, 03/09/07-12, 03/10/05-10

     7th
     European Conference on Artificial Life
     (ECAL-2003), Dortmund, Germany, 2003/09/14-17

     A
     Dual International Conference on Ethics, Complexity &
     Organisations & Creativity, London, UK,
     2003/09/17-18

     Innovative
     Clusters- A New Challenge, Competitive Institute
     6th Global Conference, Gothenburg, Sweden,
     03/09/17-19

     1st
     German Conference on Multiagent System Technologies
     (MATES'03), Erfurt, Germany, 2003/09/22-25

     Dynamics
     Days 2003, XXIII Annual Conference, 4 Decades of Chaos
     1963-2003, Palma de Mallorca, Spain,
     03/09/24-27

     Improving
     The NHS Through The Lens Of Complexity, U Exeter,
     UK, 03/09/24-26

     Emerging
     Technologies Conference at MIT, Cambridge, MA,
     2003/09/24-25

     Exystence
     Thematic Institute - Algorithms And Challenges In Hard
     Combinatorial Problems, Turin, Italy,
     03/10/01-30

     Intl
     School Mathematical Aspects of Quantum Chaos II Quantum
     Chaos on Hyperbolic Manifolds, Schloss Reisensburg
     (Günzburg, Germany), 03/10/04-11

     European
     Workshop on The Analysis of Microfabrics in
     Geomaterials, München, Germany,
     03/10/06-11

     2003
     IEEE/WIC Intl Joint Conf. Web Intelligence and Intelligent
     Agent Technology, Halifax, Canada, 2003/10/13-17

      Workshop on Collaboration
      Agents: Autonomous Agents for Collaborative
      Environments, Halifax, Canada, 03/10/13

     American
     Society for Cybernetics (ASC) 2003 Conference
     (H.v.Foerster), Vienna, Austria, 2003/11/10-15

     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

     ICDM
     '03: The Third IEEE International Conference on Data
     Mining, Melbourne, Florida, USA, 2003/11/19-22

     4th
     Intl Conf on Systems Science and Systems
     Engineering, Hong Kong, 03/11/25-28

     3rd
     International Workshop on Meta-Synthesis and Complex
     System, Guangzhou, China, 2003/11/29-30

     2nd
     International Workshop on the Mathematics and Algorithms of
     Social Insects, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Georgia, USA;
     2003/12/15-17

     2nd
     Biennial
     Seminar on the Philosophical, Epistemological, and
     Methodological Implications of Complexity Theory,
     Havana, Cuba, 04/01/07-10

     1st
     International Workshop on Biologically Inspired
     Approaches to Advanced Information Technology,
     Lausanne, Switzerland, 04/01/29-30

     4th
     Intl ICSC Symposium Engineering Of Intelligent Systems (EIS
     2004), Island of Madeira, Portugal,
     04/02/29-03/02

     Fractal
     2004, "Complexity and Fractals in Nature",
     8th Intl Multidisciplinary Conf, Vancouver,
     Canada, 2004/04/04-07

     Urban
     Vulnerability and Network Failure: Constructions and
     Experiences of Emergencies, Crises and Collapse,
     Manchester, UK, 04/04/29-30

     Fifth
     International Conference on Complex Systems
     (ICCS2004), Boston, MA, USA, 2004/05/16-21

     3rd
     Intl Conf on Systems Thinking in Management (ICSTM 2004)
     "Transforming Organizations to Achieve Sustainable
     Success", Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA,
     04/05/19-21

     13th
     International Symposium on HIV & Emerging Infectious
     Diseases, Toulon, France, 04/06/03-05

     From
     Animals To Animats 8, 8th Intl Conf On The
     Simulation Of Adaptive Behavior (SAB'04), Los
     Angeles, USA, 04/07/13-17

    

_________________________________________________________________

20.04. ComDig Announcement: New ComDig Archive in Beta Test

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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