Month: June 2018

CCS2018 Satellite. ReACT#3: Robustness, Adaptability and Critical Transitions in Living Systems #3.

Deadline 28/06. Register your abstract soon! 
 
 
After the success of the Satellite at ECCS 2014 and CCS 2016, we would like to propose a follow-up Satellite always focusing on Robustness, Adaptability and Critical Transitions in Living Systems 

Living systems are characterized by the recurrent emergence of patterns: power-laws distributions, long-range correlations and structured self-organization in living matter are the norm, rather than the exception. All these features are also typical of thermo-dynamical systems poised near a critical point. The great lesson from physics is that criticality can emerge as a collective behaviour in a many-body system with simple (e.g. pairwise) interactions and its characteristics depend only on few details like the dimensionality or symmetries. 

In a statistical-mechanics approach, it is fundamental to determine the order parameter, which characterizes the different system phases. This is a crucial step to obtain the key ingredients needed to formulate a modeling framework, so as to obtain a better understanding of the system’s macroscopic behaviour. However, the understating of biological/social systems needs more than a mere generalization of the standard statistical mechanics approach. 

One of the most striking feature of living systems is that they are structured as evolving systems were interactions can turn-on or off, as well as strengthening and weakening, reconfiguring the system connectivity. Thus, by rearranging both the structural and functional topology, living interacting systems may demonstrate unique evolvability, scalability and adaptability properties. 

It is of crucial importance to make further steps in the understanding of the main properties that simultaneously confer to these systems high level of both adaptability and robustness. If we can “learn” from evolution, then we would be able to both better manage/supervise these systems and also design more optimal and sustainable new systems. 

Relevance to the conference main tracks 

1. Foundations of Complex Systems* (Complex networks, self-organization, nonlinear dynamics, statistical physics, mathematical modeling, simulation) 

2. Biological Complexity* (Biological networks, system biology, evolution, natural science, medicine and physiology)

 

Misinformation and biases infect social media, both intentionally and accidentally

Social media are among the primary sources of news in the U.S. and across the world. Yet users are exposed to content of questionable accuracy, including conspiracy theories, clickbait, hyperpartisan content, pseudo science and even fabricated “fake news” reports.

It’s not surprising that there’s so much disinformation published: Spam and online fraud are lucrative for criminals, and government and political propaganda yield both partisan and financial benefits. But the fact that low-credibility content spreads so quickly and easily suggests that people and the algorithms behind social media platforms are vulnerable to manipulation.

Source: theconversation.com

Quantifying the ecological diversity and health of online news

Even in developed countries with an active free press, news coverage can be dominated by only a few players. This can lead to a reduction of topical and community diversity. Ownership structures might further limit coverage by implicitly or explicitly biasing editorial policies. In this paper, we apply ecological diversity measures to quantify the health of the Chilean online news ecology using extensive ownership and social media data. Results indicate that high levels concentration characterizes the Chilean media landscape in terms of ownership and topical coverage. Our methods reveal which groups of outlets and ownership exert the greatest influence on news coverage and can be generalized to any nation’s news system.

 

Quantifying the ecological diversity and health of online news

Erick Elejalde, Leo Ferres, Eelco Herder, Johan Bollen

Journal of Computational Science

Source: www.sciencedirect.com

Universal migration predicts human movements under climate change

Climate change is expected to displace millions of people through impacts like sea level rise, crop failures, and more frequent extreme weather. Yet scientists still cannot predict where these expected climate-induced migrants are likely to go in the coming decades. A new study, published today in Environmental Research Letters, seeks to address this nee

Source: ioppublishing.org

Vicky Prefers Voltaire to Vogue: Obstacles to the Self-actualisation of Gifted Women within Social Systems

Giftedness is characterized by high intellectual capabilities and ambitions, unconventional thinking, and a drive to learn and be creative. We argue that gifted women face specific obstacles that, for many, have precluded their ability to develop their gifts, hindered their educational development and career, and made them feel frustrated and unfulfilled. We analyse testimonies of gifted women that we collected from across the globe to provide concrete evidence of these hurdles, thereby highlighting their struggles, while noting in particular their experiences of shame, guilt, fear and self-doubt. A full understanding of these issues requires a deconstruction of the symbolic paradigm that underpins the social system we live in. As gifted women are by nature drawn to creative, independent, intellectual pursuits, they deviate from the norms imposed by the social system. The resulting negative reactions frequently lead them to believe there is something intrinsically wrong with them. This produces the painful emotion of shame, which potently suppresses self- actualization.

 

Vicky Prefers Voltaire to Vogue:

Obstacles to the Self-actualisation of Gifted Women within
Social Systems
Kate KINGSBURY & Francis HEYLIGHEN

Source: pespmc1.vub.ac.be