Collaborative distributed decision making for large scale disaster relief operations: Drawing analogies from robust natural systems

One of the most ignored, but urgent and vital challenges confronting society today is the vulnerability of urban areas to extreme events. Current organization of response systems, predominantly based on a command and control model, limits their effectiveness and efficiency. Particularly, in decision‐making processes where a large number of actors may be involved. In this article, a new distributed collaborative decision‐making model is proposed to overcome command and control limitations encountered in stressful, hostile, chaotic, and large‐scale settings. This model was derived by borrowing concepts from the collective decision making of honeybees foraging, a successful process in solving complex tasks within complex settings. The model introduced in this article was evaluated through differential equations, i.e., continuous analysis, and difference equations, i.e., discrete analysis. The most important result found is that the best available option in any large‐scale decision‐making problem can be configured as an attractor, in a distributed and timely manner. We suggest that the proposed model has the potential to facilitate decision‐making processes in large‐scale settings. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 11:28–38, 2005     

Estimating the largest singular values of large sparse matrices via modified moments

We describe a procedure for determining a few of the largest singular values of a large sparse matrix. The method by Golub and Kent which uses the method of modified moments for estimating the eigenvalues of operators used in iterative methods for the solution of linear systems of equations is appropriately modified in order to generate a sequence of bidiagonal matrices whose singular values approximate those of the original sparse matrix. A simple Lanczos recursion is proposed for determining the corresponding left and right singular vectors. The potential asynchronous computation of the bidiagonal matrices using modified moments with the iterations of an adapted Chebyshev semi-iterative (CSI) method is an attractive feature for parallel computers. Comparisons in efficiency and accuracy with an appropriate Lanczos algorithm (with selective re-orthogonalization) are presented on large sparse (rectangular) matrices arising from applications such as information retrieval and seismic reflection tomography. This procedure is essentially motivated by the theory of moments and Gauss quadrature.This author's work was supported by the National Science Foundation under grants NSF CCR-8717492 and CCR-910000N (NCSA), the U.S. Department of Energy under grant DOE DE-FG02-85ER25001, and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under grant AFOSR-90-0044 while at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Center for Supercomputing Research and Development.This author's work was supported by the U.S. Army Research Office under grant DAAL03-90-G-0105, and the National Science Foundation under grant NSF DCR-8412314.     

Architectural issues related to the optical implementation of an EGS network based on embedded control

Free-space optical implementations of switching networks have been proposed to circumvent many of the system-level problems that may be encountered in systems that require many high-density, high-bandwidth connections. The details of a new class of switching network (the EGS network), that is well-suited to free-space implementations, is described. The common control injection problem that plagues most free-space photonic networks, i.e. how can control information from an electronic source be injected into the network for applications that require relatively high network reconfiguration rates, is examined. A new technique for control injection, called embedded control, which permits network operation even with relatively high network reconfiguration rates is also proposed.     

Selection of windows, attractors and self-similar patterns in a coupled map lattice

It is shown that a lattice of diffusively coupled logistic maps displays self-similar period-doubling cascades to chaos with all the known stages of pattern formation. The location of the self-similar patterns is determined. The basins of attraction yielding window structures, so far believed to be negligibly small, are shown to cover virtually all initial conditions given a certain maximum amplitude to the random initial conditions. As a consequence a means for selecting attractors in a CML is obtained. A new pattern selection regime at high nonlinearity is reported and the basins of attraction of some attractors of small lattices are investigated.     

Scaling by Binormalization

We present an iterative algorithm (BIN) for scaling all the rows and columns of a real symmetric matrix to unit 2-norm. We study the theoretical convergence properties and its relation to optimal conditioning. Numerical experiments show that BIN requires 2–4 matrix–vector multiplications to obtain an adequate scaling, and in many cases significantly reduces the condition number, more than other scaling algorithms. We present generalizations to complex, nonsymmetric and rectangular matrices.     

Torsors and Stacks

It is shown that the groupoid of G-torsors, suitably defined, can be used to construct a model for the stack associated to G, for arbitrary sheaves of groupoids G. This research was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.     

High-performance liquid chromatography and thin-layer chromatography assays for Devil's Club (Oplopanax horridus)

Devil's root, Oplopanax horridus, is a widely used folk medicine in Alaska and British Columbia. The inner bark of the root and stem has been used to treat colds, cough, fever, and diabetes. The present study involves the development of high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) and thin-layer chromatography (TLC) methods to detect the presence of trans-nerolidol and sterols in the root bark. The HPLC and TLC analytical methods presented are suitable for the characterization and identification of Oplopanax horridus.     

Chemistry of biureas—I: Cyclisation of ethoxycarbonyl derivatives of thiobiureas and bithioureas

The interaction of ethoxycarbonyl isothiocyanate with semicarbazides or thiosemicarbazides produces 1-ethoxycarbonyl-2-thiobiureas or bithioureas, respectively. The former are cyclisable to 2-ethoxycarbonamido-5-hydroxy-l,3,4-thiadiazole in acid, or to 2(H)-carbamoyl-3-hydroxy-5-alkylthio-1,2,4-triazoles, and thence to 3-hydroxy-5-mercapto-1,2,4-triazole in alkaline media. The ring-closure of the 1-ethoxycarbonylbithioureas proceeds similarly affording, under the influence of acids, 5-amino (or mercapto)-2-ethoxycarbonamido-1,3,4-thiadiazoles. The action of alkali produces compounds derived from 3-hydroxy-5-mercapto-1,2,4-triazole; the isolation, in a selected example, of the 2(H)-phenylthiocarbamoyl-derivative, elucidates the course of this reaction. Hydrazinolysis of 1-ethoxycarbonylbithiourea yields 4-amino-3-hydrazino-5-mercapto-1,2,4-triazole.     

THE VISUAL PIGMENT CYANIDE EFFECT

The visual pigment of the Tokay gecko (Gekko gekko) with its in situ absorption maximum at 521 nm has its spectral position at 500 to 505 nm when chloride-deficient digitonin is used for the extraction. In this case the addition of chloride or bromide to the extract restores the maximum to 521 nm. This property, characteristic of gecko pigments in general, does not occur with any of the rhodopsins that have been tested. Simple salts of cyanide, a pseudohalogenoid with an ionic radius close to those of chloride and bromide and/or its hydrolysis product attacks both this gecko pigment and rhodopsins in the dark. This is seen as a slow thermal loss of photopigment if (sodium) cyanide is present at concentrations above 40 mM for the gecko pigment and 150 mM for the rhodopsins of the midshipman (Porichthys notatus) and of the frog (Rana pipiens). In all cases the loss of the photopigment is accompanied by the appearance of a spectral product with maximum absorption at about 340 nm. Cyanide addition has no effect on the photosensitivity of the native pigments and neither does it alter, as do chloride, bromide and other anions, the spectral absorbance curve. The spectral product at 340 nm also appears when the visual pigments are photolyzed in the presence of cyanide salts below the threshold concentrations given above. Incubation of digitonin-solubilized all-trans-retinal with (sodium) cyanide leads to a reaction product with absorption spectrum similar to that obtained with visual pigments under comparable conditions.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Synthesis and polymerisation of α,ω-bis(3-pyrrolyl)alkanes

The synthesis, characterisation and polymerisation studies of a homologous series of α,ω-bis(pyrrolyl)alkanes are described. These α,ω-bis(pyrrolyl)alkanes were produced using Friedel-Crafts acylation followed by reduction of the carbonyl group using Red-Al^®. Chemical polymerisation of the resultant dimers using FeCl₃ produced poly(α,ω-bis(pyrrolyl)alkane) films, which were characterised by SEM, FTIR and tested for conductivity.