Author: cxdig

Community First Theory: How Collective Organization Generates Individual Diversity

Takashi Ikegami, Hiroki Kojima, and Akiko Kashiwagi

Entropy 2026, 28(5), 523

Collective systems often exhibit emergent behaviors that cannot be reduced to the properties of individual components. A central question is whether individuality itself is a precondition for collective organization, or whether it arises from it. Here we develop and empirically test Community First Theory, which proposes that collective organization is the generative substrate from which individual dynamical identity emerges. To operationalize this claim, we introduce non-trivial information closure (NTIC), which quantifies whether an individual’s temporal predictability is self-determined or distributed across collective relations. Using high-resolution tracking of complete Tetrahymena populations across four generations, we show that information closure emerges transiently in the middle phase of the cell cycle, flanked by strong collective coupling. Cells in the information-closed regime show significantly greater divergence from parental phenotypes, demonstrating that community organization actively generates behavioral diversity. These results provide initial empirical support for Community First Theory in a single-model system and suggest that NTIC offers a substrate-independent tool for locating agency transitions in collective systems.

Read the full article at: www.mdpi.com

Directionality-Induced Jamming in Multiplex Networks

Mateo Bouchet, Alejandro Tejedor, Xiangrong Wang, and Yamir Moreno

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 207401

We study diffusion on multiplex networks with directed interlayer couplings. We demonstrate both numerically and analytically that even with undirected layers, interlayer directionality alone reproduces superdiffusion and the prime regime. We further reveal a new phenomenon, the directionality-induced jamming, whereby directed interlayer links hinder diffusion, fragmenting the system into dynamically disconnected components and preventing convergence to the steady state of the diffusion process. Via an optimization process, we show that this new regime is attainable in both toy models and real-world topologies. These findings underscore the crucial role of interlayer link directionality in shaping the emergent behavior of multiplex systems, with potential implications for the design and control of such systems.

Read the full article at: journals.aps.org

Evolution of spatial structure, passing network patterns, and gameplay intensity in elite women’s and men’s football (2020–2025) | Scientific Reports

Rebecca Carstens, Raj Deshpande, Pau Esteve, Nicoló Fidelibus, Sara Linde Neven, Ramona Ottow, Lokamruth K.R., Paula Rodríguez-Sánchez, Luca Santagata, Javier M. Buldú, Brennan Klein & Maddalena Torricelli
Scientific Reports (2026)

Elite football is believed to have evolved in recent years, yet systematic evidence for the pace and form of that change remains sparse. Drawing on event-level records for 13,018 matches across ten top-tier men’s and women’s leagues in England, Spain, Germany, Italy, and the United States (2020–2025), we quantify match dynamics through two complementary lenses: conventional performance statistics and pitch-passing networks that track ball movement across spatial regions of the field. Between 2020 and 2025, average passing volume, pass accuracy, and the proportion of passes made under pressure all increased, with the largest year-on-year changes occurring in women’s competitions. Network measures reveal that normalized outreach decreased, indicating teams increasingly concentrate ball circulation into shorter-range passing connections rather than wide spatial distribution. These trends are consistent across countries and tiers, yet persistent national differences indicate that stylistic diversity remains. Notably, women’s competitions exhibit stronger rates of change across most metrics, consistent with an accelerating professionalization, while the systematic decline in network outreach across all competitions is consistent with a sport-wide shift toward shorter, more concentrated passing structures.

Read the full article at: www.nature.com

Facilitating credit is the most important function of Money: A role for Bitcoin?

Klaus Jaffe

Money serves several roles: a medium of exchange to buy and sell without bartering; a unit of account to price goods consistently; a store of value to save purchasing power over time; a means to defer payment of future obligations like credit or loans. An agent based computer simulation program determine quantitatively the relative importance of these services. The main results showed that money for credit was by far the feature that achieved the largest overall production of wealth in the simulated societies. A conclusion from this study suggests that fomenting the use of internationally tradable currencies such as Bitcoin seems to be most promising pathway for international economic growth in the near future.

Read the full article at: papers.ssrn.com

FORESIGHTERS Doctoral Programme

Queen’s University Belfast is delighted to launch the recruitment process for 20 Early-Stage Researchers (ESRs) as part of its Foresighters Doctoral Training Programme. This offers an exceptional opportunity for future research leaders to access an innovative programme of doctoral training at one of the UK’s leading universities and engage in high impact, inter-disciplinary research with a wide range of non-academic partners.

FORESIGHTERS (Future ORiEnted Skills, Innovation for Governance for Health, Technology, EneRgy, citieS and creativity) offers unique opportunities to build a future research career that tackles complex societal problems. While researchers will be based in academic units across the university, from engineering, humanities, social science and the arts, they will be working within one of 5 interdisciplinary research themes (Health, Technology, Energy, Future Cities, and Creativity). The cohort of researchers will be bound by a common perspective and training in Futures Thinking and Futures Literacy and will develop the skills and capabilities to understand, imagine, and critically use different ideas about the future to better understand key challenges. In addition to advanced training offered by the Thomas Moran Graduate School, FORESIGHTERS ESRs will be trained in skills for anticipating change and using multiple possible futures to stimulate reflection, creativity, resilience and focus for contemporary action. The training programme also has a strong emphasis on the development of sustainable, diverse, and equitable research environments.