Emergent Properties

How have connectionist models informed the study of development? This paper considers three contributions from specific models. First, connectionist models have proven useful for exploring nonlinear dynamics and emergent properties, and their role in nonlinear developmental trajectories, critical periods and developmental disorders. Second, connectionist models have informed the study of the representations that lead to behavioral dissociations. Third, connectionist models have provided insight into neural mechanisms, and why different brain regions are specialized for different functions. Connectionist and dynamic systems approaches to development have differed, with connectionist approaches focused on learning processes and representations in cognitive tasks, and dynamic systems approaches focused on mathematical characterizations of physical elements of the system and their interactions with the environment. The two approaches also share much in common, such as their emphasis on continuous, nonlinear processes and their broad application to a range of behaviors.

We describe here a new mapping method able to find out connectivity traces among variables thanks to an original mathematical approach. This method is based on an artificial adaptive system able to define the strength of the associations of each variable with all the others in any dataset, the Auto Contractive Map (AutoCM). After the training phase, the weights matrix of the AutoCM represents the warped landscape of the dataset. We apply a simple filter to the weights matrix of AutoCM system to show the map of the main connections between the variables. The example of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease data base is extremely useful to figure out how this new approach can help to re design the overall structure of factors related to a specific disease description. This new form of data mining can be expected to contribute to a better understanding of complexity of some wicked diseases.

The overexploitation of natural resources and the increasing number of social conflicts following from their unsustainable use point to a wide gap between the objectives of sustainability and current resource management practices. One of the reasons for the difficulties to close this gap is that for evolving complex systems like natural and socioeconomic systems, sustainability cannot be a static objective. Instead sustainable development is an open evolutionary process of improving the management of socialecological systems, through better understanding and knowledge. Therefore, natural resource management systems need to be able to deal with different temporal, spatial and social scales, nested hierarchies, irreducible uncertainty, multidimensional interactions and emergent properties. The co-evolutionary perspective outlined in this paper serves as heuristic device to map the interactions settled in the networks between the resource base, social institutions and the behaviour of individual actors. For this purpose we draw on ideas from complex adaptive systems theory, evolutionary theory and evolutionary economics. Finally, we outline a research agenda for a co-evolutionary approach for natural resource management systems.

A fundamental question in the field of circadian rhythms concerns the biochemical and molecular nature of the oscillator. There is strong evidence that circadian oscillators are cell autonomous and rely on periodic gene expression. In Drosophila, Neurospora, Aplysia, and vertebrates, circadian oscillators are thought to be based on molecular autoregulatory loops composed of transcription, translation, and negative feedback by proteins on nuclear transcription. By studying a mathematical model of molecular clocks based on this general concept, the authors sought to determine which features such clocks must have to generate robust and stable oscillations and to allow entrainment by external stimuli such as light. The model produced circadian oscillations as an emergent property even though a time delay in protein synthesis and rate constants of the feedback loop were much shorter than 24 h. Along with the delay in protein production, strong nonlinear interactions in macromolecular synthesis and nuclear feedback appeared to be required for the model to show well-behaved oscillatory behavior. Realistic phase-shifting patterns induced by external stimuli could be achieved by multiple mechanisms-namely, up-and downward perturbations of protein or mRNA synthesis or degradation rates. The model makes testable predictions about interactions between clock elements and mechanisms of entrainment and may help to understand the functions of the intricate molecular interactions governing circadian rhythmogenesis.

The vast, well-oxygenated hypolimnia of Lake Baikal and the Great Lakes were both dominated by endemic planktivorous fishes. These dominants, two species of sculpins (Comephorus, Comephoridae) in Lake Baikal and six species of deepwater ciscoes (Coregonus, Salmonidae) in the Great Lakes, although distant taxonomically, have morphologies suggesting a surprising degree of functional convergence. Here it is proposed that the same two buoyancy-regulation strategies observed in Baikal sculpins also arose in the deepwater ciscoes of the Great Lakes. One strategy favors hydrostatic lift (generated by low specific gravity) and is characterized by fatter, larger-bodied fish with smaller paired fins; the second strategy favors hydrodynamic lift (generated by swimming) and is characterized by leaner, smaller-bodied fish with larger paired fins. Both types likely evolved to feed on a single species of ecologically analogous, vertically migrating macrozooplankter: Macrohectopus branickii in Lake Baikal and Mysis relicta in the Great Lakes. It is suggested that Coregonus did not diversify and proliferate in Lake Baikal as they did in the Great Lakes because by the time Coregonus colonized Lake Baikal, pelagic sculpins were already dominant.

C++ template metaprogramming has been used with great success to build software applications and libraries. In practice, however, template metaprogramming suffers usability, reliability, and capability shortcomings, and it is not well understood in theory. Template metaprogramming has these problems because it relies on emergent properties of disparate language features that were tailored to other purposes. As a step toward solid and sound language support for metaprogramming, this paper establishes firm semantic foundations for select capabilities of template metaprogramming. We analyze C++ and the idioms of template metaprogramming and isolate, in a language-neutral fashion, fundamental capabilities of C++ that enable metaprogramming. Guided by this analysis, we present a design for a core calculus that directly expresses fundamental metaprogramming capabilities, including static computation, code generation, and type reflection. We prove a typesafety property for compile-time eva...

Practitioners and advocates of community food security (CFS) envision food systems that are decentralized, environmentally-sound over a long time-frame, supportive of collective rather than only individual needs, effective in assuring equitable food access, and created by democratic decision-making. These themes are loosely connected in literature about CFS, with no logical linkages among them. Clear articulation in a theoretical framework is needed for CFS to be effective as a guide for policy and action. CFS theory should delimit the level of analysis (i.e., what are the boundaries of "community"); show how CFS relates to individual, household, and national food security and explain emergent properties, which are important at the community level of analysis; point to the best indicators of CFS or its lack; clarify the determinants of CFS; and clarify the stages of movement toward CFS. This theoretical base would allow researchers to develop valid and reliable measures, and allow practitioners to weigh alternative options to create strategic plans. A theoretical base also would help establish common ground with potential partners by making the connections to anti-hunger work, sustainable agriculture, and community development clear.

What sets human beings apart from animals? How does ‘‘mind’ ’ fit with soul? Different historical and contemporary views of the mind/soul are considered. A clinical case is used to argue that a strong dualistic position is not compatible with neuro-scientific evidence nor with the expectation of life after death found in the Abrahamic faiths. Reductive physicalism is a widely held view, but risks devaluing human life. Midgely’s ‘‘many maps’ ’ model is suggested to fit better with a faith commitment. Non-reductive physicalism states that mind/soul is an emergent property of the complexity of the brain. Suggesting that there is no separable ‘‘soul’ ’ raises ethical questions, and Singer’s philosophy is given as one consequent reading of the moral standing of human beings. Holistic (weak) dualism and non-reductive physicalism are suggested as possible models of the nature of persons that fits both the scientific data and the teaching of the Abrahamic faiths. It is important for mental ...

… the invention of a great number of machines which facilitate and abridge labour, and enable one man to do the work of many' Smith 1981 [1776]) p. 17 1 Prepared for B. Hall and N. Rosenberg (eds.) (2010), Handbook of Innovation, Elsevier, Amsterdam/New York, forthcoming. Comments by

This paper provides some thoughts about success criteria for IS±IT project management. Cost, time and quality (The Iron Triangle), over the last 50 years have become inextricably linked with measuring the success of project management. This is perhaps not surprising, since over the same period those criteria are usually included in the description of project management. Time and costs are at best, only guesses, calculated at a time when least is known about the project. Quality is a phenomenon, it is an emergent property of peoples dierent attitudes and beliefs, which often change over the development life-cycle of a project. Why has project management been so reluctant to adopt other criteria in addition to the Iron Triangle, such as stakeholder bene®ts against which projects can be assessed? This paper proposes a new framework to consider success criteria, The Square Route. #

This study focuses on intervention processes that support sustainable agriculture. It argues that we know very little about how to intervene for sustainable agriculture, particularly for those areas where the Green Revolution has passed almost unnoticed and where degradation of natural resources is the normal practices, rather than the exception. As sustainability is a constructed, contextual and complicated concept, it is far from clear what sustainability is, how it comes about, and what it is actually for, although it has been at the top of the agenda for nearly a decade. No substantial biological or socialinstitutional breakthroughs or innovations have yet emerged, despite the considerable efforts that have been devoted so far to sustainable agriculture. Impressively, the word "sustainability" is such a powerful symbol that the very thought of an unsustainable agriculture immediately conjures up images of massive human deprivation and suffering and, ultimately, mass st...

This chapter offers a way of understanding the effects of poetic images (metaphorical or literal). It employs and extends the notion of ‘emergent properties’, as well as relevance theory’s account of how communicative acts can ‘show’ as much as they mean. The images examined are from poems by Mary Oliver (‘Wings’, ‘Wild Geese’, and ‘Mindful’). The chapter suggests that such poetry is particularly in need of a new theoretical approach capable of engaging with its focus on embodied experience and ‘merging’ with nature. It shows how ‘emergent properties’—for example, a complex sense of what continuity with nature might feel like—can result from engaging in a range of imaginary sensorimotor experiences. The final section of the chapter turns to an abstract painting by Natalia Wróbel which dialogues with Oliver’s poetry, and fleshes out the relevance theory account of communicative showing to articulate differences between artistic genres and media.

Applications of modern evolutionary theory to human culture have generated several different theoretical approaches that challenge traditional anthropological perspectives. "Cultural selection" and "mind parasite" theories model culture as an independent evolutionary system because transmission of cultural traits via social learning is distinct from transmission of genes vla DNA replication. "Dual-inheritance" and "co-evolution" theories model culture as an intermediary evolutionary process that involves information from two inheritance systems: genetics and social learning. "Evolutionary psychology" theories emphasize that the evolutionary history of natural selection on mental processes links culture and biological adaptation; hence, cultural information is viewed as part of the organic phenotype and not an independent evolutionary system. Cross-cultural universals and scenarios of the "environment of evolutionary adaptedness" are used to identify characteristics of the "evolved mind" (human nature). "Behavioral ecology" theories examine relations between behavior and environmental context. Behavioral/cultural variations are viewed as products of flexible decision-making processes (evolved mind) that may respond adaptively to micro-environmental differences. It is difficult to devise empirical tests that distinguish among these theories, because they share many basic premises and make similar predictions about human behavior. Indeed, some of the apparent differences may be more semantic than substantive.

The last several years have brought a renewed willingness to take seriously the phenomena we stab at with such terms and phrases as “subjectivity,” “consciousness,” and “the character of human existence.” The tone of today’s discussion, however, is very different from that which surrounded these words a half-century ago. Then, “existentialism” referred to issues of individual authenticity and commitment, “consciousness” was closely linked with concerns about action and with notions of social and historical determination, and Jean-Paul Sartre was the master thinker. The context in which existence, subjectivity, and consciousness were discussed was predominantly moral and political. In an important sense, as today’s talk about “subject position” and “the performance of identity” suggests, that discussion is still very much alive, though the terms are different, the context has changed from History-with-a-capital-“H” to matters of justice and liberty here and now, and Michel Foucault has displaced Sartre. At the same time, though, a different kind of inquiry into existence, subjectivity, and consciousness has taken shape, focused more squarely on the nature of these phenomena: on what sort of “thing” consciousness is, for example, on whether it can be explained, and, if so, what sort of explanation is required, and on why and how it matters.

s Abstract The capacity to exercise control over the nature and quality of one's life is the essence of humanness. Human agency is characterized by a number of core features that operate through phenomenal and functional consciousness. These include the temporal extension of agency through intentionality and forethought, selfregulation by self-reactive influence, and self-reflectiveness about one's capabilities, quality of functioning, and the meaning and purpose of one's life pursuits. Personal agency operates within a broad network of sociostructural influences. In these agentic transactions, people are producers as well as products of social systems. Social cognitive theory distinguishes among three modes of agency: direct personal agency, proxy agency that relies on others to act on one's behest to secure desired outcomes, and collective agency exercised through socially coordinative and interdependent effort. Growing transnational embeddedness and interdependence are placing a premium on collective efficacy to exercise control over personal destinies and national life.

Identifying students' misconceptions and learning difficulties and finding effective ways of addressing them has been one of the major concerns in chemistry education. However, the chemistry education community has paid little attention to determining discipline-specific aspects of chemistry that can lead to learning difficulties and misconceptions. In this article, it is argued that emergence plays a critical role in the epistemology and the ontology of chemistry and hence it should be taken into account for understanding learning difficulties and finding ways of addressing them in chemistry. It is particularly argued that one of the fundamental sources of learning difficulties and chemical misconceptions is learners' failure to understand the emergent nature of chemical entities, their properties, and interactions. In this article, an interpretive analysis framework is suggested for identifying specific learning demands and the sources of learners' misconceptions about the emergent chemical properties and phenomena. Findings from previous research on learners' misconceptions regarding emergent chemical properties are reanalyzed and interpreted through this framework. Inadequacies of typical teaching practices and their consequences are discussed from an emergentist perspective. Finally, implications of the emergentist perspective for more meaningful chemical education are discussed.

This paper provides some thoughts about success criteria for IS–IT project management. Cost, time and quality (The Iron Triangle), over the last 50 years have become inextricably linked with measuring the success of project management. This is perhaps not surprising, since over the same period those criteria are usually included in the description of project management. Time and costs are at best, only guesses, calculated at a time when least is known about the project. Quality is a phenomenon, it is an emergent property of peoples different attitudes and beliefs, which often change over the development life-cycle of a project. Why has project management been so reluctant to adopt other criteria in addition to the Iron Triangle, such as stakeholder benefits against which projects can be assessed? This paper proposes a new framework to consider success criteria, The Square Route.

This article deals with the philosophical idea of worldmaking pursued through techné, meaning the fusion of the technical means of artistic creation, theorizing, and analysis, but specifically occurring in a feedback loop involving introspection and computation (cybernetic phenomenology). The discussion ranges over a wide variety of topics, including (1) the history of music theory from Ancient Greece to the present (including a rebuttal to Daniel Chua’s (2001) account of music history); (2) emergent properties in music arising from self-organization (explored through the Ancient Chinese abstract strategy board game go); (3) the ontology of musical qualities (properties) and categories (including their relation to visual, tactile, and olfactory qualities and categories). 
Various repertoires, artists, and philosophies are referenced. The essay analyzes aspects of Ligeti’s Violin Concerto, Carter’s String Quartet No. 5, and Lachenmann’s Kinderspiel.  Connections to the author’s own previous analytical and theoretical work are also discussed in relation to his interactive algorithmic audio-visual works (such as Fluxations and FluxNOISations). The techné of these is discussed in terms of logistics as well as aesthetic influences, including Wagner, Liszt, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Crawford, Babbitt, Carter, Xenakis, Parker, Reich, Ligeti, Truax, Oliveros, Kandinsky, Miro, Pollock, Pollock, Hofmann, Rothko, Louis, Frankenthaler, Moholy-Nagy, Newman, Richter, and Brakhage.  The essay touches on philosophical ideas of Bergson, Whitehead, Deleuze, Harman, and Bogost, and more fully engages the philosophies of Nelson Goodman and Hannah Arendt in connection with artistic creation as relating to the theorizing and analysis of artistic works.     

Contact the author at [email protected]
Download the article through JSTOR: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7757/persnewmusi.54.1.0005
or http://tinyurl.com/zdvkllr

A numerical model for rock is proposed in which the rock is represented by a dense packing of non-uniform-sized circular or spherical particles that are bonded together at their contact points and whose mechanical behavior is simulated by the distinctelement method using the two-and three-dimensional discontinuum programs PFC2D and PFC3D. The microproperties consist of stiffness and strength parameters for the particles and the bonds. Damage is represented explicitly as broken bonds, which form and coalesce into macroscopic fractures when load is applied. The model reproduces many features of rock behavior, including elasticity, fracturing, acoustic emission, damage accumulation producing material anisotropy, hysteresis, dilation, post-peak softening and strength increase with confinement. These behaviors are emergent properties of the model that arise from a relatively simple set of microproperties. A material-genesis procedure and microproperties to represent Lac du Bonnet granite are presented. The behavior of this model is described for two-and three-dimensional biaxial, triaxial and Brazilian tests and for two-dimensional tunnel simulations in which breakout notches form in the region of maximum compressive stress. The sensitivity of the results to microproperties, including particle size, is investigated. Particle size is not a free parameter that only controls resolution; instead, it affects the fracture toughness and thereby influences damage processes (such as notch formation) in which damage localizes at macrofracture tips experiencing extensile loading.

Morris's Arc (1988) for String Quartet flows; it flows with substance, and with purpose. By flowing, I don’t just mean in the trivial sense that all music flows because it is unfolding in time and time flows. Rather I mean that there is continuity to its various surges of eventfulness; these surges are not disjunct or sudden. And by substance I mean both that its sound is as a sensuous fluid material and that the unfolding of its constituent events presents a coherent organization, thus binding together into a statement that seems meaningful in retrospect. By purpose I mean not only that there is a local logic to the consequence of one note following another, but also that the flow of events enables the material to organize into processes that forge a trajectory toward a goal.
    The analysis first focuses on local details considered in terms of pitch and pitch-class formations as arising from twelve-tone rows; then it delves into aspects of form, process, and texture. These are considered in terms of emergent properties in flux. The modeling of these properties and their flux employs some mathematical formalisms, but the reader can rely on the fact that every mathematical definition and formula is described carefully in prose as well.
    In Arc, the twelve-tone pitch class details and the surging emergent qualities projecting form are not completely separate from each other. Rather, all these features interact. Thus not only does the article weave together connections between such facets as form, process, and texture, but it also connects these to the twelve-tone rows and pitch-class configurations that are more straightforwardly part of the compositional plan (and more usual in analyses) of Morris’s music.

[Download the pdf below, or contact the author [email protected], for a digital offprint. It can also accessed through JSTOR: www.jstor.org/stable/10.7757/persnewmusi.52.2.0249 ]

Ecology requires the conceptual and technical ability to analyse complex and dynamic systems consisting of a high and variable number of components and relations. These components are part of a variable interaction structure in a spatially heterogeneous context. The components of ecological interaction networks can give rise to self-organised, and scale-dependent interaction patterns and processes, which are the underlying causes of the overall ecological systems states.

Mangroves are an ecological assemblage of trees and shrubs adapted to grow in intertidal environments along tropical coasts. Despite repeated demonstration of their economic and societal value, more than 50% of the world's mangroves have been destroyed, 35% in the past two decades to aquaculture and coastal development, altered hydrology, sea-level rise, and nutrient overenrichment. Variations in the structure and function of mangrove ecosystems have generally been described solely on the basis of a hierarchical classification of the physical characteristics of the intertidal environment, including climate, geomorphology, topography, and hydrology. Here, we use the concept of emergent properties at multiple levels within a hierarchical framework to review how the interplay between specialized adaptations and extreme trait plasticity that characterizes mangroves and intertidal environments gives rise to the biocomplexity that distinguishes mangrove ecosystems. The traits that allow mangroves to tolerate variable salinity, flooding, and nutrient availability influence ecosystem processes and ultimately the services they provide. We conclude that an integrated research strategy using emergent properties in empirical and theoretical studies provides a holistic approach for understanding and managing mangrove ecosystems. 395 Annu. Rev. Marine. Sci. 2010.2:395-417. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org by University of British Columbia on 10/26/10. For personal use only.

An interactive process model of the nature of representation intrinsically accounts for multiple emergent properties of consciousness, such as being a contentful experiential flow, from a situated and embodied point of view. A crucial characteristic of this model is that content is an internally related property of interactive process, rather than an externally related property as in all other contemporary models. Externally related content requires an interpreter, yielding the familiar regress of interpreters, along with a host of additional fatal problems. Further properties of consciousness, such as differentiated qualities of experience, including qualia, emerge with conscious reflection. In particular, qualia are not constituents or direct properties of consciousness per se. Assuming that they are so is a common and ultimately disastrous misconstrual of the problems of consciousness.

A central theme in many body physics is emergence - new properties arise when several particles are brought together. Particularly fascinating is the idea that the quantum statistics may be an emergent property. This was first noted in the Skyrme model of nuclear matter, where a theory formulated entirely in terms of a bosonic order parameter field contains fermionic excitations.

The overexploitation of natural resources and the increasing number of social conflicts following from their unsustainable use point to a wide gap between the objectives of sustainability and current resource management practices. One of the reasons for the difficulties to close this gap is that for evolving complex systems like natural and socioeconomic systems, sustainability cannot be a static objective. Instead sustainable development is an open evolutionary process of improving the management of socialecological systems, through better understanding and knowledge. Therefore, natural resource management systems need to be able to deal with different temporal, spatial and social scales, nested hierarchies, irreducible uncertainty, multidimensional interactions and emergent properties. The co-evolutionary perspective outlined in this paper serves as heuristic device to map the interactions settled in the networks between the resource base, social institutions and the behaviour of individual actors. For this purpose we draw on ideas from complex adaptive systems theory, evolutionary theory and evolutionary economics. Finally, we outline a research agenda for a co-evolutionary approach for natural resource management systems.

It is widely accepted that epilepsies are complex syndromes due to their multi-factorial origins and manifestations. Different mathematical and computational descriptions use appropriate methods to address nonlinear relationships, chaotic behaviors and emergent properties. These theoretical approaches can be divided into two major categories: descriptive, such as flowcharts, graphs and other statistical analyses, and explicative, which include both realistic and abstract models. Although these modeling tools have brought great advances, a common framework to guide their design, implementation and evaluation, with the goal of future integration, is still needed. In the current review, we discuss two examples of complexity analysis that can be performed with epilepsy data: behavioral sequences of temporal lobe seizures and alterations in an experimental cellular model. We also highlight the importance of the creation of model repositories for the epileptology field and encourage the development of mathematical descriptions of complex systems, together with more accurate simulation techniques. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled Translational Epilepsy Research. Main on-line resources of software and databases for simulation and analysis of networks.

Consciousness is now one of the central strands in the neuroscience agenda. The current interest in chronic vegetative states, and the ways that consciousness can be enhanced by peripheral and cortical stimulation, suggest that we may have to re-think the mechanisms of coma. A recent paper (Rosenberg 2009), looking at consciousness, coma and brain death, draws together the current strands of neuroscience thinking. However, he is very bold when claiming that 'There is no separate mind from the brain, the mind is the brain. Cartesian logic of a separate mind and brain is an archaic philosophical concept, displaced by current functional magnetic resonance imaging, deep brain stimulation studies, years of meticulous neuropathologic studies, and experimental neurophysiological animal studies that have proven that consciousness and mind are embedded into specific neuro-anatomical arousal behavioural circuits… It is now clear that coma, consciousness and cognition are neural-directed ...

Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

This thesis aims at analyzing the dynamics of the inflation. It explains driving and
resisting sources of inflation. In this thesis, methodology of economic analysis depends upon
one of the crucial scientific laws, known as the law of emergent property. In economics, this
law requires focusing on interactions of economic agents. In the literature, classical theory
of inflation, bases on this ex-post foundation, is the most recent theory in which emergent
property is taken into account. This theory in this thesis is tested for 26 European economies
during the period 2007-2018. Using data from Eurostat and European Central Bank, ARDL
type of dynamic fixed effect model is estimated for the testing driving and resisting sources
of inflation. Findings are consistent with the theory. Results demonstrate that inflation is
influenced positively by newly created purchasing power; negatively by unutilized growth
capacity; and positively by rate of profit. An important point in the findings is that profit rate
influences positively to inflation instead of negatively effect of rate of profit, which drives
production. For 26 European economies during the period 2007-2018, this important finding
shows that inflation is influenced positively (rather than negatively) by rate of profit as a
result of existing credit expansion (especially until 2015) exceeded maximum rate of growth.
So, newly created purchasing power was not sufficiently absorbed by supply dynamics of the
inflation.

While policy network theory employs complexity concepts (selfregulation, emergence) mainly as explanatory tools, potential theoretical contributions arising from the underpinning analytical principles have been less explored. It is argued that by directly considering multi-level environmental governance as a far-from-equilibrium complex system, it is possible to explore how governance structures might better support and construe the dynamic and delicate conditions necessary for the presence of life. Problem formulation or 'agenda setting' powers exerted by civil servants and scientists are examined as emergent properties, systemic in and necessary for the stability of multi-level governance structures. Finally, it is proposed that multi-level environmental governance design may be improved through a reconceptualisation of representation, informed by principles from complexity theory, which embraces and 'recaptures' power exerted through extra-electoral governance relationships.

Anthropogenic influences on the biosphere since the advent of the industrial age are increasingly causing global changes. Climatic change and the rising concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are ranking high in scientific and public agendas, and other components of global change are also frequently addressed, among which are the introductions of non indigenous species (NIS) in biogeographic regions well separated from the donor region, often followed by spectacular invasions. In the marine environment, both climatic change and spread of alien species have been studied extensively; this review is aimed at examining the main responses of ecosystems to climatic change, taking into account the increasing importance of biological invasions.

The substitution of knowledge to information as the entity that organizations process and deliver raises a number of questions concerning the nature of knowledge. The dispute on the codifiability of tacit knowledge and that juxtaposing the epistemology of practice vs. the epistemology of possession can be better faced by revisiting two crucial debates. One concerns the nature of cognition and the other the famous mind-body problem. Cognition can be associated with the capability of manipulating symbols, like in the traditional computational view of organizations, interpreting facts or symbols, like in the narrative approach to organization theory, or developing mental states (events), like argued by the growing field of organizational cognition. Applied to the study of organizations, the mind-body problem concerns the possibility (if any) and the forms in which organizational mental events, like trust, identity, cultures, etc., can be derived from the structural aspects (technological, cognitive or communication networks) of organizations. By siding in extreme opposite positions, the two epistemologies appear irreducible one another and pay its own inner consistency with remarkable difficulties in describing and explaining some empirical phenomena. Conversely, by legitimating the existence of both tacit and explicit knowledge, by emphasizing the space of human interactions, and by assuming that mental events can be explained with the structural aspects of organizations, Nonaka’s SECI model seems an interesting middle way between the two rival epistemologies.

Sponges constitute an abundant and functionally important component of coral reef systems. Given their demonstrated resistance to environmental stress, it might be expected that the role of sponges in reef systems under modern regimes of frequent and severe disturbance may become even more substantial. Disturbances have recently reshaped the community structure of many Caribbean coral reefs shifting them towards a state of persistent low coral cover and often a dominance of macroalgae. Using competition and growth rates recorded from Glover's Atoll in Belize, we parameterise a mathematical model used to simulate the three-way competition between sponges, macroalgae and coral. We use the model to determine the range of parameters in which each of the three species might be expected to dominate. Emergent properties arise from our simple model of this complex system, and these include a special case in which heightened competitive ability of macroalgae versus coral may counter-intuitively prove to be advantageous to the persistence of corals. Importantly, we show that even under scenarios whereby sponges fail to invade the system, inclusion of this third antagonist can qualitatively affect the likelihood of alternative stable states -generally in favour of macroalgal dominance. The interplay between multi-species competition and predation is complex, but our efforts highlight a key process that has, until now, remained unexplored: the extent to which sponges dissipate algal grazing pressure by providing generalist fish with an alternative food source. We highlight the necessity of identifying the extent by which this process takes place in tropical systems in order to improve projections of alternative stable states for Caribbean coral reefs.

We approach the problem of detecting Special Nuclear Material (SNM) smuggling across open borders by modeling a heterogeneous sensor network using an agent-based simulation. Our simulation SNM Data Analysis Tool (SNM-DAT) combines fixed seismic, metal, and radiation detectors with a mobile gamma spectrometer. Decision making within the simulation determines threat levels by combined signatures. The spectrometer is a limited-availability asset, and is only deployed for substantial threats. ''Crossers'' can be benign or carrying shielded SNM. Signatures and sensors are physics based, allowing us to model realistic sensor networks. The heterogeneous network provides great gains in detection efficiency compared to a radiation-only system. We can improve the simulation through better sensor and terrain models, additional signatures, and crossers that mimic actual trans-border traffic. We expect further gains in our ability to design sensor networks as we learn the emergent properties of heterogeneous detection, and potential adversary responses.

Bird flocking is a striking example of collective animal behaviour. A vivid illustration of this phenomenon is provided by the aerial display of vast flocks of starlings gathering at dusk over the roost and swirling with extraordinary spatial coherence. Both the evolutionary justification and the mechanistic laws of flocking are poorly understood, arguably because of a lack of data on large flocks. Here, we report a quantitative study of aerial display. We measured the individual three-dimensional positions in compact flocks of up to 2700 birds. We investigated the main features of the flock as a whole (shape, movement, density and structure) and we discuss these as emergent attributes of the grouping phenomenon. Flocks were relatively thin, of various sizes, but constant proportions. They tended to slide parallel to the ground and, during turns, their orientation changed with respect to the direction of motion. Individual birds kept a minimum distance from each other that was comparable to their wing span. The density within the aggregations was nonhomogeneous, as birds were packed more tightly at the border than the centre of the flock. These results constitute the first set of large-scale data on three-dimensional animal aggregations. Current models and theories of collective animal behaviour can now be tested against these data.

A macroecological view of the ecosystem offers the possibility to integrate information at large spatial and temporal scales over a variety of complex ecological systems. Marine macroecology can be regarded as a new research agenda aiming to develop new models which can explain the emergent structures and dynamics of complex ecological systems in terms of basic physical and biological principles (Brown 1999). Macroecology theory as a way to describe the emergent properties in terrestrial systems has received relatively little attention in marine ecology. This Theme Section is a collection of articles that will discuss the importance of macroecological and complexity theory, in a very broad context, to untangling patterns that underlie the relationships between species abundance and other biotic and abiotic factors linking organismal biology, population dynamics, community ecology, food web structure, biodiversity, and behavioral ecology, to ecosystem structure and function. This macroecological view of different processes underlying the dynamics of marine ecosystems extends the general theory of macroecology and allometric scaling, developed mainly for terrestrial systems (Brown 1995, West et al. 1997, to a marine context as recently proposed by Li (2002). Ultimately we need to understand by first principles, from organism organization to ecosystem organization (Reynolds 2001), the basic common ecological rules that generate the variability and patterns that we observe across scales. LITERATURE CITED Brown JH (1995) Macroecology. Chicago University Press, Chicago Brown JH (1999) Macroecology: progress and prospect. Oikos