Defining and Detecting Emergence in Complex Networks. In: Khosla R, Howlett RJ, Jain LC, editors. Knowledge-Based Intelligent Information and Engineering Systems. Berlin: Springer Berlin Heidelberg; 2005. pp. 573-80. [DOI: 10.1007/11554028_79]

In search of scientific objectivity: Is there such a property for paediatric concussion?

Concussions are a significant public health problem worldwide. This brain injury is problematic in the paediatric population for a variety of reasons; however, the enquiry into these problems has been mainly through the biomedical perspective. This approach has impacted nursing knowledge and practice of children and youth with a concussion, primarily since other perspectives are viewed as not being objective. In this manuscript, I draw on Thomas Kuhn's view of objectivity to evaluate the biomedical perspective of concussion. I utilize current research and clinical examples to illustrate the advantages and drawbacks of this perspective for nursing. From this discussion, I propose an alternative perspective to capture the complexity of paediatric concussions for nursing, a systems perspective. Although I argue for an alternative perspective to approach paediatric concussions for nursing, I maintain that the biomedical perspective can be incorporated as one part of nursing knowledge and practice for paediatric concussion.

Quantifying emergence and self-organisation of Enterobacter cloacae microbial communities

From microbial communities to cancer cells, many such complex collectives embody emergent and self-organising behaviour. Such behaviour drives cells to develop composite features such as formation of aggregates or expression of specific genes as a result of cell-cell interactions within a cell population. Currently, we lack universal mathematical tools for analysing the collective behaviour of biological swarms. To address this, we propose a multifractal inspired framework to measure the degree of emergence and self-organisation from scarce spatial (geometric) data and apply it to investigate the evolution of the spatial arrangement of Enterobacter cloacae aggregates. In a plate of semi-solid media, Enterobacter cloacae form a spatially extended pattern of high cell density aggregates. These aggregates nucleate from the site of inoculation and radiate outward to fill the entire plate. Multifractal analysis was used to characterise these patterns and calculate dynamics changes in emergence and self-organisation within the bacterial population. In particular, experimental results suggest that the new aggregates align their location with respect to the old ones leading to a decrease in emergence and increase in self-organisation.

Ergonomics issues in future systems

The paper starts by discussing some of the historical background to the design of systems and the development of systems thinking, from the perspective of Ergonomics. This is followed by an attempt to describe the likely future for systems design and operation; critical points being that these systems will interoperate with other systems; they will be long-lived; and we cannot afford for them to fail. This leads on to a discussion of complexity and its effects. The paper then goes on to discuss how and why Ergonomics practitioners should be interested in these effects. This includes dealing with intrinsic complexity (inherent in the purposes of the system) and induced complexity (introduced by the the organization, process design and operation of the system), the significance of trust, shared situation awareness and sense-making, the need for excellent communications, the importance of knowledge, experience and governance. Finally, a brief section, pointing to other sources, outlines possible approaches for designing these future systems.

Genetic diversity promotes homeostasis in insect colonies

Although most insect colonies are headed by a singly mated queen, some ant, wasp and bee taxa have evolved high levels of multiple mating or 'polyandry'. We argue here that a contributing factor towards the evolution of polyandry is that the resulting genetic diversity within colonies provides them with a system of genetically based task specialization, enabling them to respond resiliently to environmental perturbation. An alternate view is that genetic contributions to task specialization are a side effect of multiple mating, which evolved through other causes, and that genetically based task specialization now makes little or no contribution to colony fitness.

Spatial updating, spatial transients, and regularities of a complex automaton with nonperiodic architecture

We study the dynamics of patterns exhibited by rule 52, a totalistic cellular automaton displaying intricate behaviors and wide regions of active/inactive synchronization patches. Systematic computer simulations involving 2(30) initial configurations reveal that all complexity in this automaton originates from random juxtaposition of a very small number of interfaces delimiting active/inactive patches. Such interfaces are studied with a sidewise spatial updating algorithm. This novel tool allows us to prove that the interfaces found empirically are the only interfaces possible for these periods, independently of the size of the automata. The spatial updating algorithm provides an alternative way to determine the dynamics of automata of arbitrary size, a way of taking into account the complexity of the connections in the lattice.