Emergent Behaviour

For many years the full potential of creating and leveraging integrated health ICT systems such as electronic health records to improve healthcare delivery, reducing its cost and promoting prevention has been elusive. Traditional health ICT business, innovation, development and adoption models have failed to address chronic road blocks to realizing its full potential and have led to many high profile failures. The chronic symptoms include persistent barriers to integration and interoperability, high cost, duplication of effort, and poor, to no support for collaborative, "evidence based" medicine. This paper provides a review of case studies and analysis on how open innovation, or open source processes, can break the grid lock and bring the fundamental paradigm shift needed to exploit the full potential of health ICTs. The paper will discuss how the open innovation model, as applied to health ICT, provides a framework for harnessing the naturally occurring "bottom up" forces and emergent behaviour found in complex adaptive systems such as healthcare. It does this by describing a model and context for collaborative, open, peer reviewed, evidence-based innovation and technology transfer processes. Evidence from case studies are presented on how open ICT innovation in healthcare provides essential feed backloops for supporting, researching, developing and disseminating while driving continuous quality improvement at a global scale.

Using only simple rules for local interactions, groups of agents can form self-organizing super-organisms or “flocks” that show global emergent behavior. When agents are also extended with memory and goals the resulting flock not only demonstrates emergent behavior, but also collective intelligence: the ability for the group to solve problems that might be beyond the ability of the individual alone. Until now, research has focused on the improvement of particle design for global behavior; however, techniques for human-designed particles are task-specific. In this paper we will demonstrate that evolutionary computing techniques can be applied to design particles, not only to optimize the parameters for movement but also the structure of controlling finite state machines that enable collective intelligence. The evolved design not only exhibits emergent, self-organizing behavior but also significantly outperforms a human design in a specific problem domain. The strategy of the evolved design may be very different from what is intuitive to humans and perhaps reflects more accurately how nature designs systems for problem solving. Furthermore, evolutionary design of particles for collective intelligence is more flexible and able to target a wider array of problems either individually or as a whole.

Motivation -The socio-technical challenges created by Tangible User Interfaces with regards to invasiveness, privacy, visibility, control, etc. have been pointed out by several authors, but this case study focuses on two, more basic socio-technical aspects regarding the user's perspective and interaction with others. The paper presents a case study regarding the design of the interaction of interactive urban furniture, Wi-roni, for browsing information on the Web through a gesturebased interface in a public space.

Questa tesi si inserisce nel dibattito interdisciplinare sull'individuazione e la promozione di modelli di governance di rete capaci di migliorare la sostenibilità sociale, ambientale ed economica dei sistemi socio-ecologici. L'originalità della ricerca risiede nel tentativo di far dialogare linguaggi, teorie e pratiche dell'antropologia con quelli dell'analisi delle reti sociali e della scienza della complessità, nell'analizzare una rete di interazione tra comunità di pratiche della società civile. L'analisi si basa su un caso studio consistente nella rete di collaborazioni tra organizzazioni della società civile di Verona e sui materiali raccolti e prodotti durante un lavoro di campo prolungato.

Natural disturbances play a key role in ecosystem dynamics and are important factors for sustainable forest ecosystem management. Quantitative models are frequently employed to tackle the complexities associated with disturbance processes. Here we review the wide variety of approaches to modelling natural disturbances in forest ecosystems, addressing the full spectrum of disturbance modelling from single events to integrated disturbance regimes. We applied a general, process-based framework founded in disturbance ecology to analyze modelling approaches for drought, wind, forest fires, insect pests and ungulate browsing. Modelling approaches were reviewed by disturbance agent and mechanism, and a set of general disturbance modelling concepts was deduced. We found that although the number of disturbance modelling approaches emerging over the last 15 years has increased strongly, statistical concepts for descriptive modelling are still largely prevalent over mechanistic concepts for explanatory and predictive applications. Yet, considering the increasing importance of disturbances for forest dynamics and ecosystem stewardship under anthropogenic climate change, the latter concepts are crucial tool for understanding and coping with change in forest ecosystems. Current challenges for disturbance modelling in forest ecosystems are thus (i) to overcome remaining limits in process understanding, (ii) to further a mechanistic foundation in disturbance modelling, (iii) to integrate multiple disturbance processes in dynamic ecosystem models for decision support in forest management, and (iv) to bring together scaling capabilities across several levels of organization with a representation of system complexity that captures the emergent behaviour of disturbance regimes.

Doğal sistemleri anlama biçimimiz, özellikle son yüzyılda gerçekleşen bilimsel gelişmeler ile birlikte  oldukça gelişmiştir. Farklı bilim disiplinlerinin arasındaki muğlak sınırlar etrafında, doğadaki davranışların, son derece kompleks; fakat birbirleri içinde farklı ölçeklerde harmoni içinde büyüyen sistemler bütünü olduğu görülmüştür. Beliren davranış, morfogenetik süreçler gibi kendiliğinden örgütlü sistem tasarımları, sistem teorisi etrafında kurallı tasarım organizasyonları üretmenin önemini ortaya koyar. Doğal sistemleri tam olarak çözümlemek ve bunu birebir tasarım bilgisine dahil etmek, iki durumun süreçlerinin farklı işlemesinin de sebebiyle neredeyse imkansızdır. Doğayı tam olarak çözümlemektense, onu bir yeniden yapım sürecine sokarak kendi içinde sentetik ve doğalın bir arada olduğu yeni bir organizasyon üretmek mümkün olabilir. Bu bahsedilen organizasyon, bir mimari tasarım seminer dersi boyunca katılımcılar ile birlikte denenmiştir. Ders boyunca fiziksel materyal etkileşim deneyleri yapılmış ve bu deneylerin getirdiği sonuçlar ile bazı sayısal tasarım teknikleri tasarlanarak uygulanmıştır. Elde edilen yeni teknik ile, belirlenen bir mimari programda, tasarım bilgisi, mimariyi üretmek üzerine kullanılmıştır.

Workstations and personal computers are increasingly being delivered with the ability to handle multimedia data; more and more of us are linked by high-speed digital networks. With multimedia communication environments becoming more commonplace, what have we learned from earlier experiences with prototype media environments? This paper reports on some of our experiences as developers, researchers and users of flexible, networked, multimedia computer environments, or "media spaces". It focusses on the lessons we can learn from extended, long-term use of media spaces, with connections that last not hours or days, but months or years. We take as our starting point a set of assumptions which differ from traditional analytical perspectives. In particular, we begin from the position that that a real-world baseline is not always an appropriate point of comparison for new media technologies; that a set of complex and intricate communicative behaviours arise over time; and that media spaces connect not only individuals, but the wider social groups of which they form part. We outline a framework based on four perspectives-individual, interactional, communal and societal-from which to view the behaviour of individuals and groups linked by multimedia environments. On the basis of our long-term findings, we argue for a view of media spaces which, first, focuses on a wider interpretation of media space interaction than the traditional view of persont-to-person connections, and, second, emphasises emergent communicative practices, rather than looking for the transfer of face-to-face behaviours. diation and the mechanisms and practices by which conversation and interaction are typically managed In this paper, we want to take a different approach to understanding the nature of communication in media space environments. In particular, we want to take as our starting point three positions which differ from the normal assumptions behind these investigations:

Purpose -This article is an edited version of a report commissioned by the British Library and JISC to identify how the specialist researchers of the future (those born after 1993) are likely to access and interact with digital resources in five to ten years' time. The purpose is to investigate the impact of digital transition on the information behaviour of the Google Generation and to guide library and information services to anticipate and react to any new or emerging behaviours in the most effective way. Design/methodology/approach -The study was virtually longitudinal and is based on a number of extensive reviews of related literature, survey data mining and a deep log analysis of a British Library and a JISC web site intended for younger people. Findings -The study shows that much of the impact of ICTs on the young has been overestimated. The study claims that although young people demonstrate an apparent ease and familiarity with computers, they rely heavily on search engines, view rather than read and do not possess the critical and analytical skills to assess the information that they find on the web. Originality/value -The paper reports on a study that overturns the common assumption that the "Google generation" is the most web-literate.

Natural disturbances play a key role in ecosystem dynamics and are important factors for sustainable forest ecosystem management. Quantitative models are frequently employed to tackle the complexities associated with disturbance processes. Here we review the wide variety of approaches to modelling natural disturbances in forest ecosystems, addressing the full spectrum of disturbance modelling from single events to integrated disturbance regimes. We applied a general, process-based framework founded in disturbance ecology to analyze modelling approaches for drought, wind, forest fires, insect pests and ungulate browsing. Modelling approaches were reviewed by disturbance agent and mechanism, and a set of general disturbance modelling concepts was deduced. We found that although the number of disturbance modelling approaches emerging over the last 15 years has increased strongly, statistical concepts for descriptive modelling are still largely prevalent over mechanistic concepts for ex...

Emergence activity of a maternity colony of Eptesicus serotinus was monitored from May to August 1997 and 1998 at StÏ relice, Czech Republic. We focused mainly on the impact of predation risk on emergence parameters, but the effects of reproductive and climatic factors were assessed too. Observations were made with 10-days intervals during two consecutive nights from which the rst was a control and the second a treatment night. On treatment nights a stuffed specimen of Tyto alba (in 1997) or Falco tinnunculus (in 1998) was placed close to the roost exits and recorded calls of the particular species were played back towards the roost. In 1997 the bats emerged earlier during lactation than during gravidity, while in 1998 the trend was opposite. This could be explained by a different course of food availability in each year. During poor weather the number of emerged bats decreased and bats probably used an alternative roost. The predation risk did not affect the values of any emergence parameter but induced changes in relationships among emergence parameters. When bats emerged earlier and thus were exposed to increased potential predation pressure, they increased their degree of clustering to decrease the probability of being attacked. The perception of predation risk was not affected by weather conditions or reproductive period.

Previous research has shown how dynamical systems theory provides a relevant framework for investigating decision-making behavior in sport. The aim of this study was to adopt concepts and tools from nonlinear dynamics in examining effects of boxer-target distance and perceived punching efficiency on emergent decision-making during a typical practice task in boxing. Results revealed the existence of critical values of scaled distances between boxers and targets for first time appearance and disappearance of a diverse range of boxing actions including jabs, hooks and uppercuts. Reasons for the diversity of actions were twofold: i) abrupt (qualitative) changes in the number of the possible punches, i.e. motor solutions to the hitting task; and ii), fine modification of the probabilities of selecting specific striking patterns. Boxers were able to exploit the emerging perception of strikeability, leading to a changing diversity of selected actions and a cascade of abrupt changes in the perceptual-motor work space of the task. Perceived efficiency of a punching action by the participants also changed as a function of the scaled distance to a target and was correlated with the probability of occurrence of specific boxing actions. Accordingly, scaled distance-dependent perceived efficiency seems an important perceptual constraint in the training task of punching a heavy bag in boxers.

Discrete-element, individual-based and agent-based modelling techniques represent the interactions of individuals or entities with one another and their environments by sets of computational rules. These methods are now being used in geophysics, ecology, zoology, and increasingly in the social sciences. A characteristic is that the "agents" are embedded in an environment with which they interact, so that joint evolution of physical, ecological and socio-economic systems can be studied; this makes them of interest in integrated geographical investigation. Of particular interest is the fact that they allow the study of macro-scale emergent behaviour generated by multiple individual actions. Discrete techniques have the potential to create integrated models that cross disciplines. Similar computational methods can be employed to control the spatial search process, deal with irregular or changing boundaries, and to track the evolution of systems where preservation of heterogeneity across space and time is important. The complex series of feedbacks between the diVerent types of system can thus be modelled within a single computational framework. Humans modelled in this way as "agents" can allow the collective eVect of many interacting individuals to generate emergent structures at the community scale. The structural characteristics of their social and natural environments will inXuence their behaviour, while at the same time constituting emergent consequences of their actions. The principal challenge of the latter is to Wnd those sets of rules that represent the beliefs and desires of real human agents, accurately reXecting the cultural context, while allowing us to explore the social and economic limitations of agents to take action. This paper reviews and illustrates discrete methods applicable to a range of geographical enquiries, and with particular reference to individual-and agent-based methods, assesses the rich diversity of approaches that must be combined to take full advantage of their potential to explore interactions of social and environmental processes.

Previous research has shown how dynamical systems theory provides a relevant framework for investigating decision-making behavior in sport. The aim of this study was to adopt concepts and tools from nonlinear dynamics in examining effects of boxer-target distance and perceived punching efficiency on emergent decision-making during a typical practice task in boxing. Results revealed the existence of critical values of scaled distances between boxers and targets for first time appearance and disappearance of a diverse range of boxing actions including jabs, hooks and uppercuts. Reasons for the diversity of actions were twofold: i) abrupt (qualitative) changes in the number of the possible punches, i.e. motor solutions to the hitting task; and ii), fine modification of the probabilities of selecting specific striking patterns. Boxers were able to exploit the emerging perception of strikeability, leading to a changing diversity of selected actions and a cascade of abrupt changes in the ...

The aim of this project is to make simulated characters in interactive real-time software scenarios more believable by increasing the personality of their behaviour. This will be achieved by implementing biologically inspired Artificial Life (Alife) architectures into their control mechanisms.

Swarm robotics is a relatively new technology that is being explored for its potential use in a variety of different applications and environments. Previous emerging technologies have often overlooked security until later developmental stages, when it has had to be undesirably ...

The mathematical modelling of the keloid disease triggered by a virus has been recently investigated by one of the authors, Bianca (2011) [5], where it was shown that the model is able to depict the emerging behaviours which occur during the keloid formation.

Biological believability and how to design machines which can perceive, learn and make choices are currently being addressed in humanmachine interfaces. Once these ambitious targets have been reached, dynamic human-machine interactions will have to be studied focusing in particular on possible changes in the interactive structure and thus on any manifestations of emerging behaviours. The FACE (Facial Automaton for Conveying Emotions) project addresses both issues. FACE is a lifelike artifact intended as a believable human-machine interface that is able to engage in non verbal communication by imitating and learning the emotional behaviour of an interlocutor. At present, the immediate objective is focused upon exploring its use in social skills and emotional therapy in individuals with autism. It will enable us to verify if the system can help children with autism to learn, identify, interpret, and use emotional information and to extend these skills in a socially appropriate, flexible, and adaptive context.

The emergence of Daubenton's bats Myotis daubentonii from a priory in the north of England was recorded to assess the impact of an annual music festival. Bat emergence was related to measured environmental variables using generalized linear modelling. The temperatures inside and outside the priory were signi®cant predictors of the numbers of bats emerging. Sunset time was a signi®cant predictor of the time of bat emergence. The timing of bat emergence was signi®cantly later during the music festival, but there was no signi®cant difference in the number of bats emerging. The bats left the priory up to 47 min later on festival nights than one would expect them to emerge in the absence of the festival. The results on the patterns of bat emergence were used to make recommendations regarding the timing of the music festival in the following year to minimize detrimental impacts on the bat colony.

The traditional systems engineering (SE) methodologies for integration, verification, validation, test and evaluation (IVVT&E) throughout the lifecycle are focused on expected outcomes (behavior, capabilities), which may not necessarily apply for system of systems (SoS), where some emergent behavior and knowledge may be needed in untested scenarios (unknown environments). Next-generation SoS consisting of partially or fully decentralized systems are incorporating advances in computing, sensing, and communications operations to address uncertainty and emergence in SoS. Thus, current standardized and formalized IVVT&E methodologies will need to be modified, adapted, or an evolutionary IVVT&E framework for SoS is required to test and evaluate integrated SoS capabilities in unknown scenarios. This paper discusses several potential strategies and explores possible methodologies that may be applied to develop a SoS IVVT&E framework, as applied to an unmanned aerial system (UAS), based on existing architectural frameworks such as Department of Defense Architecture Framework (DoDAF).

The article identifies the combined influence of the Web Experience (or online experience) components on the online consumer’s behaviour from three different angles: (1) The relative importance of the online experience factors in choosing an online vendor, (2) the actual effect of these factors on the vendor choice and (3) the influence of personal and behavioural characteristics on the virtual shopping behaviour. The results identify early symptoms of an emerging behavioural convergence among Internet users of different cultures and nationalities, suggesting that cultural and behavioural differences in the physical world could have limited influence on people’s behaviour in the virtual marketplace. This outcome could suggest the emergence of a global virtual village, an issue worth of further scholastic research but also an issue of particular importance for global Web vendors and web site designers.

Background: Children display a variety of behaviour during anaesthetic recovery. The purpose of this study was to study the frequency and duration of emergence behaviour in children following anaesthesia and the factors that alter the incidence of various emergence behaviour following anaesthesia. Methods: A prospective study of children who required outpatient lower abdominal surgery was designed to determine an incidence and duration of emergence agitation. We developed a 5-point scoring scale to study the postanaesthetic behaviour in these children. The scale included behaviour from asleep (score ¼ 1) to disorientation and severe restlessness (score ¼ 5). Children were scored by a blinded observer every 10 min during the first hour of recovery or until discharge from same day surgery. Results: We found 27 of 260 children experienced a period of severe restlessness and disorientation (score 5) during anaesthesia emergence. Thirty percent of the children (79/260) experienced a period of inconsolable crying or severe restlessness (score 4 or 5) following anaesthesia. The frequency of this behaviour was greatest on arrival in the recovery room, but many children who arrived asleep in the recovery room later experienced a period of agitation or inconsolable crying. Conclusions: Repeated assessments of behaviour following anaesthetic recovery are required to define an incidence and duration of emergence agitation. Emergence agitation occurs most frequently in the initial 10 min of recovery, but many children who arrive asleep experience agitation later during recovery.

We tested the hypothesis that clustering in the behaviour of emerging bats is a response to the risk of avian predation. We hypothesised that if avian predation was the cause of clustering, bats in the prolonged absence of avian predators, would not cluster or would cluster less during their emergences. We studied the Azorean bat (Nyctalus azoreum) in the Azores Archipelago. The Azores have a depauperate fauna with no raptorial birds likely to predate bats. The Azorean bat is an endemic mammal to the archipelago, which has an unusually extensive degree of diurnal activity that has been hypothesised to reflect release from the risk of diurnal predation by raptors. Contrary to our prediction Azorean bats clustered during emergence to the same extent as bat species which occur where there are raptors. Two interpretations of these data are possible. First, the hypothesis that the behaviour is anti-predatory may be incorrect. Most of the variation in clustering was explained by variation in ambient temperature possibly suggesting the bats emerged in groups to aid exploitation of sparsely distributed food. Alternatively, the behaviour may be anti-predatory, but the key factor precipitating clustering may not be the risk from aerial predators, but terrestrial predators, such as rats (Rattus norvegicusv and cats (Felis cattus), both of which were common around the roost sites.

Natural disturbances play a key role in ecosystem dynamics and are important factors for sustainable forest ecosystem management. Quantitative models are frequently employed to tackle the complexities associated with disturbance processes. Here we review the wide variety of approaches to modelling natural disturbances in forest ecosystems, addressing the full spectrum of disturbance modelling from single events to integrated disturbance regimes. We applied a general, process-based framework founded in disturbance ecology to analyze modelling approaches for drought, wind, forest fires, insect pests and ungulate browsing. Modelling approaches were reviewed by disturbance agent and mechanism, and a set of general disturbance modelling concepts was deduced. We found that although the number of disturbance modelling approaches emerging over the last 15 years has increased strongly, statistical concepts for descriptive modelling are still largely prevalent over mechanistic concepts for explanatory and predictive applications. Yet, considering the increasing importance of disturbances for forest dynamics and ecosystem stewardship under anthropogenic climate change, the latter concepts are crucial tool for understanding and coping with change in forest ecosystems. Current challenges for disturbance modelling in forest ecosystems are thus (i) to overcome remaining limits in process understanding, (ii) to further a mechanistic foundation in disturbance modelling, (iii) to integrate multiple disturbance processes in dynamic ecosystem models for decision support in forest management, and (iv) to bring together scaling capabilities across several levels of organization with a representation of system complexity that captures the emergent behaviour of disturbance regimes.

In recent years, parallel developments in disparate disciplines have focused on what has come to be termed connectivity; a concept used in understanding and describing complex systems. Conceptualisations and operationalisations of connectivity have evolved largely within their disciplinary boundaries, yet similarities in this concept and its application among disciplines are evident. However, any implementation of the concept of connectivity carries with it both ontological and epistemological constraints, which leads us to ask if there is one type or set of approach(es) to connectivity that might be applied to all disciplines. In this review we explore four ontological and epistemological challenges in using connectivity to understand complex systems from the standpoint of widely different disciplines. These are: (i) defining the fundamental unit for the study of connectivity; (ii) separating structural connectivity from functional connectivity; (iii) understanding emergent behaviour; and (iv) measuring connectivity. We draw upon discipline-specific insights from Computational Neuroscience, Ecology, Geomorphology, Neuroscience, Social Network Science and Systems Biology to explore the use of connectivity among these disciplines. We evaluate how a connectivity-based approach has generated new understanding of structural-functional relationships that characterise complex systems and propose a 'common toolbox' underpinned by network-based approaches that can advance connectivity studies by overcoming existing constraints.

The effects of a commercial insecticide formulation of teflubenzuron (Nomolt ®) have been tested inside a plexiglas structured microcosm. This artificial ecosystem has been articulated in two cells: one of them was used for analysis and the other one as a control environment. Each cell had light and aeration control; temperature and humidity control was not provided. The test species have been chosen in order to represent different trophic levels: to create a terrestrial food chain, detritus consumers have been introduced into the microcosm, in association with the primary producers Trifolium repens L. var. sylvestris and Phacelia tanacetifolia Benth. and the primary consumer Osmia rufa L. An aquatic chain was also created inside each cell. On this artificial ecosystem, teflubenzuron has been tested for chronic toxicity by spraying, on the flowering vegetation inside the analysis cell, an aqueous solution containing 0.15 ml of Nomolt ® per litre. Before spraying, 11 O. rufa males just emerged and 15 O. rufa female cocoons have been introduced in the biological community of each cell. Results have been statistically analyzed. Teflubenzuron produced a rapid lethal effect on O. rufa emergence from most of the cocoons and it influenced adversely different behavioural aspects of the adults. This kind of damage increased during the testing period, and, after 7 days all the red mason bees contained in the analysis cell were died. In the control cell the survivorship of the bees was 13 day; their conditions were good until the end of their lives, but this result is considerably shorter than the life period recorded for other Osmia bees in past experiments. Probably this is due to temperature and humidity control missing; after this experience it is rather evident that this kind of regulation is essential for microcosms. Another problem to be recorded for future experiences is that, in presence of a water pond, these solitary bees tend to throw themselves in it and they often die, even if small wooden floats are placed on the water surface. Teflubenzuron seems to affect emergence, behaviour and survival of O. rufa bees in a microcosm environment.

A numerical model detailing the functioning and emergent behaviour of an eroding coastal system is described. Model output from a 50-km study region centred on the soft-rock shore of northeast Norfolk was verified through comparison with cliff recession rates that were extracted from historical maps spanning more than a century. Predictions were then made for the period 2000 to 2100 under combined climatic change and management scenarios. For the scenarios evaluated, the model was relatively insensitive to increases in offshore wave height and moderately sensitive to changes in wave direction, but the most important effects were associated with accelerated sea-level rise (SLR). In contrast to predictions made using a modified version of the Bruun rule, the systems model predicted rather complex responses to SLR. For instance, on some sectors of coast, whereas the Bruun rule predicted increased recession under accelerated SLR, the systems model actually predicted progradation owing to the delivery of sediment from eroding coasts up-drift. By contrast, on coasts where beaches are underlain by shore platforms, both the Bruun rule and the systems model predicted accelerated recession rates. However, explicit consideration of the interaction between beach and shore platform within the systems model indicates that these coasts have a broader range of responses and lower overall vulnerability to SLR than predicted by the Bruun rule.

We present a novel approach to the computational study of creativity, called Artificial Creativity. Artificial Creativity promotes the study of the creative behaviour of individuals and societies in artificial societies of agents. It is similar to the approach to that taken by Artificial Life researchers involved in developing computational models. We present a framework for developing Artificial Creativity systems as an adaptation of Liu’s dual generate-and-test model of creativity. An example implementation of an Artificial Creativity system is presented to illustrate the potential benefits of our new approach as a way of investigating the emergent nature of creativity in societies of communicating agents. Finally, we discuss some future research directions that are possible by extending the abilities of individuals and studying the emergent behaviour of societies.

A framework for understanding and exploiting embodiment is presented which is not dependent on any specific ontological context. This framework is founded on a new definition of embodiment, based on the relational dynamics that exist between biological organisms and their environments, and inspired by the structural dynamics of the bacterium Escherichia coli. The definition draws on the idea of mutual perturbation between a system (biological organism, robot, or software agent) and its environment, enabling structural coupling between the two. The framework provides a vocabulary and concepts that can be used to discuss and analyse embodiment in any kind of environment, not just the material world. Rather than blurring boundaries between disciplines and domains, this permits the characterisation of distinctions and common features between them, in a manner meaningful to all parties. Other benefits include the potential quantification of embodiment, and access to practical and theoretical ideas associated with material embodiment for those working with non-material systems. The relational embodiment definition is illustrated by ongoing experimental work in which the relational dynamics that exist between E. coli and its environment are applied in a variety of environments, both software and material, using a Cellular Automata-based system with artificial 'sensory' and 'effector' surfaces. This experimental system is also used to outline a biologically grounded, dynamical systems-based approach to the generation of behaviour in a variety of operational environments, exploiting features of the embodiment framework presented.

We investigate the concept of Smart Business Networks by using Beer's Viable System Model (VSM) to analyse how such a network mitigates the affect of emergent, and therefore unforecastable, demands upon the networked businesses. We examine the requirements for network smartness, highlight some significant properties of one Smart Network and use our case analysis and concepts from systems theory to suggest some general properties such as natural stability and distributed capability. We have found that smartness is distributed and shared behavioural process standards can act to stabilise complex systems. This is important because it mitigates emergent behaviour within increasingly complex business networks. The contributions of our article apply both to academics and business practitioners and are in its illustration and investigation of one Smart Business Network including how the smart capability functions at a strategic, business process and technical level; and the use of Beer's VSM to analyse an electricity market.

This article analyses a flocking algorithm that was developed specifically for small and simple swarm robots. It is similar to traditional flocking algorithms for swarm robots, however it does not need communication nor global information. Its only requirements are at least 4 circumferential distance sensors which can have very limited range. This is possible because our algorithm generates emergent alignment of flock members. We show an analysis of our simulations and a short overview of a real robot experiment.

Abstract: It is a characteristic,of swarm,robotics that specifying overall emergent,swarm behaviours in terms,of the low-level behaviours of individual,robots is very difcult.,Yet if swarm,robotics is to make,the transition,from,the laboratory,to real-world engineering realisation,we need,such specications,. This paper,explores the use of temporal,logic to formally specify, and possibly also prove, the emergent behaviours of a robotic swarm. The paper,makes,use of a simplied,wireless connected,swarm,as a

In recent years, parallel developments in disparate disciplines have focused on what has come to be termed connectivity; a concept used in understanding and describing complex systems. Conceptualisations and operationalisations of connectivity have evolved largely within their disciplinary boundaries, yet similarities in this concept and its application among disciplines are evident. However, any implementation of the concept of connectivity carries with it both ontological and epistemological constraints, which leads us to ask if there is one type or set of approach(es) to connectivity that might be applied to all disciplines. In this review we explore four ontological and epistemological challenges in using connectivity to understand complex systems from the standpoint of widely different disciplines. These are: (i) defining the fundamental unit for the study of connectivity; (ii) separating structural connectivity from functional connectivity; (iii) understanding emergent behaviour; and (iv) measuring connectivity. We draw upon discipline-specific insights from Computational Neuroscience, Ecology, Geomorphology, Neuroscience, Social Network Science and Systems Biology to explore the use of connectivity among these disciplines. We evaluate how a connectivity-based approach has generated new understanding of structural-functional relationships that characterise complex systems and propose a 'common toolbox' underpinned by network-based approaches that can advance connectivity studies by overcoming existing constraints.

We propose a framework for engineering emergent behaviour that allows system specification and design at the level of the emergence. We discuss how rule migration can be used to trans- late this high-level multi-layer design (mobile process model) into an equivalent simple cellular automaton model with only local rules, and emergent behaviour. In this paper, we use a case study

We describe a true-concurrent approach for managing dependencies between distributed and concurrent coordinator components of a long-running transaction. In previous work we have described how interactions specified in a scenario can be translated into a tuples-based behavioural description, namely vector languages. In this paper we show how reasoning against order-theoretic properties of such languages can reveal missing behaviours which are not explicitly described in the scenario but are still possible. Our approach supports the gradual refinement of scenarios of interaction into a complete set of behaviours that includes all desirable orderings of execution and prohibits emergent behaviour of the transaction.

Dengue virus (DENV) is a member of the genus Flavivirus of the family Flaviviridae. DENV causes a wide range of diseases in humans, from the acute febrile illness dengue fever (DF) to life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever/dengue shock syndrome (DHF/DSS). There is not knowledge of the genetic relations among DENV circulating in Ecuador. Given the emerging behaviour of DENV, a single tube RT-PCR assay using a pair of consensus primers to target the NS5 coding region has been recently validated for rapid detection of flaviviruses. In order to gain insight into the degree of genetic variation of DENV strains isolated in Ecuador, DENV NS5 sequences from 23 patients were obtained by direct sequencing of PCR fragments using the mentioned one step RT-PCR assay. Phylogenetic analysis carried out using the 23 Ecuadorian DENV NS5 sequences, as well as 56 comparable sequences from DENV strains isolated elsewhere, revealed a close genetic relation among Ecuadorian strains and DENV isolates of Caribbean origin. The use of partial NS5 gene sequences may represent a useful alternative for a rapid phylogenetic analysis of DENV outbreaks.

Natural disturbances play a key role in ecosystem dynamics and are important factors for sustainable forest ecosystem management. Quantitative models are frequently employed to tackle the complexities associated with disturbance processes. Here we review the wide variety of approaches to modelling natural disturbances in forest ecosystems, addressing the full spectrum of disturbance modelling from single events to integrated disturbance regimes. We applied a general, process-based framework founded in disturbance ecology to analyze modelling approaches for drought, wind, forest fires, insect pests and ungulate browsing. Modelling approaches were reviewed by disturbance agent and mechanism, and a set of general disturbance modelling concepts was deduced. We found that although the number of disturbance modelling approaches emerging over the last 15 years has increased strongly, statistical concepts for descriptive modelling are still largely prevalent over mechanistic concepts for explanatory and predictive applications. Yet, considering the increasing importance of disturbances for forest dynamics and ecosystem stewardship under anthropogenic climate change, the latter concepts are crucial tool for understanding and coping with change in forest ecosystems. Current challenges for disturbance modelling in forest ecosystems are thus (i) to overcome remaining limits in process understanding, (ii) to further a mechanistic foundation in disturbance modelling, (iii) to integrate multiple disturbance processes in dynamic ecosystem models for decision support in forest management, and (iv) to bring together scaling capabilities across several levels of organization with a representation of system complexity that captures the emergent behaviour of disturbance regimes.

Workstations and personal computers are increasingly being delivered with the ability to handle multimedia data; more and more of us are linked by high-speed digital networks. With multimedia communication environments becoming more commonplace, what have we learned from earlier experiences with prototype media environments? This paper reports on some of our experiences as developers, researchers and users of flexible, networked, multimedia computer environments, or "media spaces". It focusses on the lessons we can learn from extended, long-term use of media spaces, with connections that last not hours or days, but months or years. We take as our starting point a set of assumptions which differ from traditional analytical perspectives. In particular, we begin from the position that that a real-world baseline is not always an appropriate point of comparison for new media technologies; that a set of complex and intricate communicative behaviours arise over time; and that media spaces connect not only individuals, but the wider social groups of which they form part. We outline a framework based on four perspectives-individual, interactional, communal and societal-from which to view the behaviour of individuals and groups linked by multimedia environments. On the basis of our long-term findings, we argue for a view of media spaces which, first, focuses on a wider interpretation of media space interaction than the traditional view of persont-to-person connections, and, second, emphasises emergent communicative practices, rather than looking for the transfer of face-to-face behaviours. diation and the mechanisms and practices by which conversation and interaction are typically managed In this paper, we want to take a different approach to understanding the nature of communication in media space environments. In particular, we want to take as our starting point three positions which differ from the normal assumptions behind these investigations:

Motivation -The socio-technical challenges created by Tangible User Interfaces with regards to invasiveness, privacy, visibility, control, etc. have been pointed out by several authors, but this case study focuses on two, more basic socio-technical aspects regarding the user's perspective and interaction with others. The paper presents a case study regarding the design of the interaction of interactive urban furniture, Wi-roni, for browsing information on the Web through a gesturebased interface in a public space.

This paper describes a project funded by the European Commission' which seeks to provide the technology and software infrastructure necessary to support the next generation of evolving infohabitants in a way that makes that infrastructure universal, open and scalable. The Distributed Resource Evolutionary Algorithm Machine (DREAM) will use existing hardware infrastructure in a more efficient manner, by utilising otherwise unused CPU time. It will allow infohabitants' to cooperate , communicate, negotiate and trade; and emergent behaviour is expected to result. It is expected that there will be an emergent economy that results from the provision and use of CPU cycles by infohabitants and their owners. The DREAM infrastructure will be evaluated with new work on distributed data mining, distributed scheduling and the modelling of economic and social behaviour.

In this paper, MAZCS -- a MultiAgent system that learns using ZCS -- is used for social modelling on the "El Farol" Bar problem. Experiments with ten agents and different goal settings for the problem show that MAZCS is always able to solve it and emergent behaviour derives from the autonomous control of each agent.