Collective Strategy Condensation: When Envy Splits Societies

Human societies are characterized by three constituent features, besides others. (A) Options, as for jobs and societal positions, differ with respect to their associated monetary and non-monetary payoffs. (B) Competition leads to reduced payoffs when individuals compete for the same option as others. (C) People care about how they are doing relatively to others. The latter trait—the propensity to compare one’s own success with that of others—expresses itself as envy. It is shown that the combination of (A)–(C) leads to spontaneous class stratification. Societies of agents split endogenously into two social classes, an upper and a lower class, when envy becomes relevant. A comprehensive analysis of the Nash equilibria characterizing a basic reference game is presented. Class separation is due to the condensation of the strategies of lower-class agents, which play an identical mixed strategy. Upper-class agents do not condense, following individualist pure strategies. The model and results are size-consistent, holding for arbitrary large numbers of agents and options. Analytic results are confirmed by extensive numerical simulations. An analogy to interacting confined classical particles is discussed.     

Flow-driven Surface Instabilities of Tubular Chitosan Hydrogel

Spatial structures break their symmetry under the influence of shear stress arising from fluid flow. Here, we present surface instabilities appearing on chitosan tubes when an acidic solution of chitosan with various molecular weight is injected into a pool of sodium hydroxide solution. At slow flow rates wrinkle-to-fold transition takes place along the direction of the flow yielding a banded structure. For greater injection rates we observe coexisting modes of wrinkles and folds which are stabilized to periodic wrinkles when the alkaline concentration is increased. The instabilities are characterized by the scaling laws of the pattern wavelength and amplitude with the tube characteristics. Our experimental adaptation of mechanical instabilities provides a new in situ method to create soft biomaterials with the desired surface morphology without the use of any prefabricated templates.     

Local Rules: Emergence on Organizational Landscapes

This paper proposes that the theory of local rules provides a model for explaining organizational behavior as an emergent property of a fitness landscape. While local rule theory has its genesis in evolutionary biology, this paper links it to work in computational mathematical organizational theory. It further proposes that there are conditions, characterized by coadaptation, under which rules will survive in relatively stable forms, and other conditions, characterized by competition, under which local rules will change. The paper then discusses how catastrophe analysis can provide insights into changing patterns of organizational interactions. A discussion of methodology outline shows developments in agent-based simulation modeling can contribute to the development of local rule theory.     

初始状态对自组织演化过程的影响

从实验上系统研究了在强电场下处于介质中的大量金属小球从不同初始状态通过自组织演化为分形的过程;用Sandbox方法定量分析了最终形成的稳定树枝状分形的维数。结果表明:不同初始状态形成分形的过程完全不同,但最终的树枝状分形的维数基本相同。分析认为,小球之间的相互作用存在临界作用距离,不同初始状态相邻小球之间的平均间距不同,因而演化过程不同;而维数相同正是系统耗散相同的体现。     

Order and Pattern Formation in Psychotherapy

In an empirical analysis of the dynamics of psychotherapy processes, concepts and tools from self-organization theory are applied. Our focus is on pattern formation in the therapy system, i.e. the system constituted by the interaction dynamics of therapist and patient. The hypothesis of pattern formation explored is based on data sets of 28 psychotherapy courses (10 behavioral, 3 client-centered, 9 heuristic, 6 schema-oriented; 40 to 90 weekly sessions). Patients' and therapists' therapy session records are analyzed (33 variables addressing various aspects of the therapeutic relationship, of progress within and outside the therapy setting). Multivariate methods are implemented to test the key hypothesis of self-organization theory, namely the reduction of degrees of freedom of a system. Consistent with this hypothesis, a significant reduction of degrees of freedom is found when the initial and final sessions of the therapies are compared. Correspondingly, Landsberg order increased significantly in the course of therapies. Given these findings, the explorative question of how this self-organizing property relates to therapy outcome is investigated. We find a significant positive association with various outcome measures, such as: therapist's and client's evaluations of success (direct change measures), feelings of guilt, anxiety, social potence, depression (pre-post effect sizes), and others. These results suggest that order is related to therapy outcome. In our interpretation, order is a dynamical attribute of the therapeutic alliance to be considered as a promising therapy process variable.     

基于连续模型的人员疏散仿真分析

行人流连续模型直观地反映人群疏散过程中的疏散特征，本文基于行人流连续模型。研究行人在典型疏散场景下的疏散特征．在COMSOL中建立行人流连续模型及其方程，通过编写MATLAB代码，实现了连续模型及其循环求解框架．利用快速扫描法求解Eikonal方程得到背景场值，在每一步迭代循环中将背景场值作为模型的初始变量导入，调用COMSOL计算模块求解模型的瞬态控制方程．通过两个标准算例，重现了典型的行人流自组织现象，验证了连续模型的合理性．结果表明，本文的疏散仿真分析模型和计算程序是可靠的，疏散仿真分析可以为实际工程中的人员疏散方案的制定以及平面设计与安全布置等方面提供技术支撑．     

Pattern dynamics in cellular perception

By using a giant amoeboid cell of the Physarum plasmodium, changes in the intracellular distribution of chemical components are studied in relation to information processing in cell behavior. Various kinds of metabolites oscillate, and so the protoplasm should be a collection of chemical oscillators. Spatially, characteristic chemical patterns are self-organized for different cell shapes, and hence cell behavior. New phase waves propagate throughout the cell upon local stimulation, their direction being opposite for attraction and repulsion. Locomotion is inhibited when the coherence of the oscillators breaks. Thus, pattern dynamics is correlated with information processing in the amoeboid cell.     

非链式化学HF（DF）激光器工作气体中电子分离的非稳定性和气体放电等离子体的自组织现象

报道了放电引发的非链式HF（DF）激光器中的激活介质由电子碰撞负离子分离引起的电离非稳定性。这种非稳性出现在电极空间分离、脉冲CO2激光加热的基于sF6的混合气体的大体积放电中。实验研究了自引发体放电过程中由激光加热引起的放电等离子体的自组织现象以及由此在放电间隙的大部分区域形成的准周期等离子体结构。重点分析了等离子体结构随气体温度和注入能量的变化,讨论了等离子体自组织对电子碰撞分离不稳定性所产生的影响,解释了混合气体中由于电子碰撞使负离子消失导致的单等离子体通道移动的产生机理。     

Influence of the degree of ionization on the growth mechanism of poly(diallyldimethylammonium)/poly(acrylic acid) multilayers

pH‐dependent growth laws of the mass coverage Γ(n) of poly(diallyldimethylammonium) chloride and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) layer‐by‐layer films are analyzed by Quartz Crystal Microbalance‐D. (Attenuated Total Reflection)‐FTIR spectroscopy shows a degree of dissociation of acrylic acid groups in the films identical to that in solution. Apart from pH‐regimes of differently pronounced exponential and linear growth, the corresponding kinetics indicate pH‐dependent adsorption, reorganization, and diffusion processes. As the thickest films form with almost uncharged PAA (low pH), the results can only partly be explained by the dissociation degree of PAA in the film. For intermediate and high pH values chain interdiffusion as a mechanism for nonlinear growth is strongly dependent on the charge density of the PAA chains. However, at low pH other types of interactions, most likely ion–dipole interactions, play a major role in the multilayer growth. Furthermore, a change in the symmetry of growth can be observed in the low to intermediate pH range. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2017 , 55, 425–434