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venerdì 30 dicembre 2016

# s-behav: collective behavior following strong periodic patterns

<< by using big data to analyse massive data sets of modern and historical news, social media and Wikipedia page views, periodic patterns in the collective behaviour of the population can be observed that could otherwise go unnoticed. >>

<< people's collective behaviour follows strong periodic patterns and is more predictable than previously thought >>

Tom Lansdall-Welfare. Big data shows people’s collective behaviour follows strong periodic patterns. 8 Nov.2016

http://thinkbig.enm.bris.ac.uk/big-data-shows-peoples-collective-behaviour-follows-strong-periodic-patterns/

Dzogang F. et al. Discovering Periodic Patterns in Historical News. PLoS ONE 11(11): e0165736. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0165736

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0165736

2016 IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM)

http://icdm2016.eurecat.org/

mercoledì 28 dicembre 2016

# e-behav: smart obsessions ...

<< On the crowded morning metro in Helsinki, silence prevails >>

<<  A loud "yeah!" breaks the quiet, along with delighted screech from a toddler whose mother has just handed him her smartphone to calm him down with a video >>

Anne Kauranen. Smartphone-obsessed Finns rank tops in screen time. Dec. 27, 2016.

http://m.phys.org/news/2016-12-smartphone-obsessed-finns-tops-screen.html

<< tefficient’s  14th  public  analysis  on  the  development and  drivers  of  mobile  data  usage >>

http://tefficient.com/unlimited-pushes-data-usage-to-new-heights/

doc:   http://media.tefficient.com/2016/12/tefficient-industry-analysis-5-2016-mobile-data-usage-and-pricing-1H-2016-1.pdf

martedì 27 dicembre 2016

# s-brain: we may be biologically tuned to allow seemingly confident people to ...

<< In today's political climate in particular, we should be aware that when facts aren't clear, we may be biologically tuned to allow seemingly confident people to hold more sway on our own beliefs >>

How our brains are biologically tuned to be influenced by confident people. Dec. 13, 2016.

http://m.medicalxpress.com/news/2016-12-brains-biologically-tuned-confident-people.html

Daniel Campbell-Meiklejohn, Arndis Simonsen, Chris D. Frith and Nathaniel D. Daw. Independent Neural Computation of Value from Other People's Confidence. J. of Neurosci. 9 Dec. 2016, 4490-15; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4490-15.2016

http://www.jneurosci.org/content/early/2016/12/09/JNEUROSCI.4490-15.2016

sabato 24 dicembre 2016

s-brain-ethno: beliefs vs brain networks responding

<< When political beliefs are challenged, a person's brain becomes active in areas that govern personal identity and emotional responses to threats >>

<< Political beliefs are like religious beliefs in the respect that both are part of who you are and important for the social circle to which you belong >> Jonas Kaplan.

Emily  Gersema. Which  brain networks respond  when someone sticks to a belief? Dec. 23, 2016.

http://news.usc.edu/114481/which-brain-networks-respond-when-someone-sticks-to-a-belief/

Jonas T. Kaplan, Sarah I. Gimbel,  Sam Harris. Neural correlates of maintaining one's political beliefs in the face of counterevidence. Nature. Scientific Reports 6, Article number: 39589 (2016). doi :10.1038/srep39589

http://www.nature.com/articles/srep39589

venerdì 23 dicembre 2016

# s-gst: a model of a silent invasion

<< Cells from early, low-density lesions displayed more stemness features, migrated more and founded more metastases than cells from dense, advanced tumours >>

[AA] << found  that  at  least  80%  of  metastases  were  derived  from  early disseminated  cancer  cells >>

Hedayatollah Hosseini, Milan M. S. Obradović, et al. Early dissemination seeds metastasis in breast cancer. Nature Volume: 540, Pages: 552–558 Date published: (22 Dec. 2016)  doi:10.1038/nature20785

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature20785.html

Kathryn L. Harper, Maria Soledad Sosa, et al. Mechanism of early dissemination and metastasis in Her2+ mammary cancer. Nature Volume: 540, Pages: 588–592 Date published: (22 Dec. 2016) doi:10.1038/nature20609

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature20609.html

mercoledì 21 dicembre 2016

# s-arts: le composizioni uniche di Diego, artista, ex bancario market maker 'pescivendolo'

<< Sono sempre stato bravo a vendere, ho fatto il pescivendolo dai 12 ai 23 anni (..) In sostanza ero diventato il pescivendolo dei mercati finanziari. Per essere un bravo venditore, qualunque cosa si venda, bisogna conoscere il prodotto, i clienti e avere quel fattore X che ti permette di mettere insieme le due cose >>

<< Ero il numero uno del mio team da sei anni. Ma la vita è una sola, non è previsto alcun refund >>

<< Ma realizzarsi come artista era comunque la principale ragione per la quale Diego aveva deciso di dare una svolta alla propria esistenza >>

<< Prendo una fotografia o disegno un’immagine, separo le varie forme e tonalità, le intaglio su carta e strato su strato spruzzo i colori (..) Alla fine distruggo lo stencil: voglio che tutte le mie opere siano pezzi unici >>

Andrea de Cesco. Diego Farneti e le sue due vite a Londra: “Questa è la mia arte. A 40 anni ho lasciato tutto per realizzare solo pezzi unici”. 21 Dic. 2016

http://m.huffpost.com/it/entry/13581984

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/4928318/thumbs/o-DIEGO-FARNETI-6-900.jpg?3

FonT: chissa' se (e se SI, di quanto) erano tossici i 'pesci' che Diego proponeva e a chi li  'piazzava' ...

domenica 18 dicembre 2016

# s-acad: statistical associations in genetically modified (GM) crop studies

<< ties between researchers and the GM crop industry were common, with 40% of the articles considered displaying conflicts of interest (COI) >>

<< compared to the absence of COI, the presence of a COI was associated with a 50% higher frequency of outcomes favorable to the interests of the GM crop company >>

Guillemaud T, Lombaert E, Bourguet D. Conflicts of Interest in GM Bt Crop Efficacy and Durability Studies. PLoS ONE 2016; 11(12): e0167777. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0167777

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0167777

Many GMO studies have financial conflicts of interest. Dec. 16, 2016.

http://m.phys.org/news/2016-12-gmo-financial-conflicts.html

venerdì 16 dicembre 2016

# n-ethno: immediate intuizioni vs estreme - a posteriori - opinioni ...

<< "L’Europa non conta più nulla" ...  “La Germania (..) per i suoi meriti, è il paese più forte d’Europa però la leadership è un’altra cosa, è rendersi conto dei problemi degli altri, dei problemi collettivi e questo i tedeschi non lo sanno fare” >>

Romano Prodi “L’Europa non conta più nulla. L’Italia non resti sola”. 15 Dicembre 2016

http://m.huffpost.com/it/entry/13648200

FonT: poco dopo il crollo del muro di Berlino (1989) un laureato in  fisica, responsabile hardware di un centro di calcolo universitario mi disse: "e' caduto il muro ... se 'anche' si riuniscono le due germanie noi siamo perduti ...". Angela Merkel, anche lei laureata in fisica, potrebbe (qui si sottolinea "potrebbe") aver avuto stesse sincroniche "unmittelbare einblicke", io penso ...

Tuttavia il fisico in questione non sempre sembrava credibile nel suo dire ... ad es. in altra occasione costui si prese la briga di informarmi sui costi (inverosimili, campati in aria, presumo inventati sul momento, chissa' perche' ... ) di leasing annuale di un pack statistico; informazione che aveva meritato una risposta a contenuto informativo confrontabile ("cazzo!", se ricordo bene ...) accompagnata da reattiva esoftalmia roteante ai confini d'im-probabili quasistocastici iperspazi ...

mercoledì 14 dicembre 2016

s-soc: they never turn down a chance to have coffee and cake ...

<< There's a word in Swedish,  lagom, that can be roughly translated as: “Not too much, not too little, just right”. It's “moderate” or “just enough” >>

<<  Swedish culture has taken a step further lately, by making moves towards a six-hour working day >>

<< Burned-out people cost companies and society time and money >>

<< It's a win-win situation >>

BJ Epstein. How Swedish literature reflects the benefits of a shorter working day. Nov. 16, 2016

http://theconversation.com/how-swedish-literature-reflects-the-benefits-of-a-shorter-working-day-68114

also:

La foresta di Masuda. Feb.  06, 2005

http://inkpi.blogspot.it/2005/02/1726-la-foresta-di-masuda.html

FonT: da quello che si vede ma specialmente "che si sente" ho idea che non sia completamente campata in aria l'ipotesi (terrificante) secondo la quale il 99.9% degli umani, anche "di alto rango" sociale- professionale sembrano impotenti nella gestione non autolesiva delle "alte velocita" delle dinamiche sociali- culturali (sempre caotiche, sempre relative) ...; percio' l'ipotesi (intrigante) di re-indirizzo verso "tempi lenti" sociali.

lunedì 12 dicembre 2016

# s-gst: together, in complex flock configurations

<< Moving particles  with no memory can  group  together in complex flock configurations using only instantaneous cues >>

Flocks Without Memory. Dec. 8, 2016

https://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.248001

Lucas Barberis, Fernando Peruani. Large-Scale Patterns in a Minimal Cognitive Flocking Model: Incidental Leaders, Nematic Patterns, and Aggregates Patterns. Phys. Rev. Lett. 117 , 248001. Publ. 6 Dec. 2016

http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.248001

domenica 11 dicembre 2016

# s-dance: actually, they don't write ...

<< “If people in the literary world groan,” Mr. Engdahl (Horace Engdahl) added, “one must remind them that the gods don’t write, they dance and they sing.” >>

Joe Coscarelli. Bob Dylan Sends Warm Words but Skips Nobel Prize Ceremonies. Dec. 10, 2016.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/12/10/arts/bob-dylan-skips-nobel-prize-ceremonies.html

sabato 10 dicembre 2016

# e-sec: byzantine fault in-tolerance

<< Byzantine failures are considered the most general and most difficult class of failures among the failure modes >>

<< The objective of Byzantine fault tolerance is to be able to defend against Byzantine failures, in which components of a system fail with symptoms that prevent some components of the system from reaching agreement among themselves, where such agreement is needed for the correct operation of the system >>

<< Byzantine failures imply no restrictions, which means that failed node can generate arbitrary data, pretending to be a correct one, which makes fault tolerance utterly difficult. >> Nov. 19, 2016.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_fault_tolerance

venerdì 9 dicembre 2016

# s-gene-behav: short horns for large results (in giant hissing cockroaches)

<< males from two species of giant hissing cockroaches from Madagascar may have evolved different physical characteristics based on their strategies for winning a female >>

<<  "These cockroaches are acting like red deer in the rut, competing for females by combat, but if they don't have the size and strength to win fights outright, they can try and sneak mates. A male cockroach seems to be adapted to be either a lover or a fighter, and what's interesting is that they do this before they become fully adult, at the final moult."  >>  Kate Durrant.

<< Animals that must compete for a mate can do so in various ways: some males will defend a female from rival males by force, while others will sneak past larger males and mate with females behind their backs >>

<< These two strategies, 'fighters' and 'lovers', are associated with different behaviours and characteristics >>

AA << found that the Flat-horned cockroach, which is small with short horns (as its name suggests), was non-aggressive and had large testes, which indicates that it is more likely to avoid fighting by mating with females behind the backs of larger males, while the Wide-horned cockroach, which is large and heavily armoured with large horns, was highly aggressive in combat between males and was not well-endowed in terms of testes size >>

Species of giant cockroaches employ different strategies in the mating game. Nov. 8, 2016

http://m.phys.org/news/2016-11-species-giant-cockroaches-strategies-game.html

Kate  L.  Durrant, Ian  M.  Skicko, et al.  Comparative  morphological  trade-offs between  pre-  and  post- copulatory sexual selection  in  Giant  hissing cockroaches  (Tribe:  Gromphadorhini). Nature. Scientific Reports 6, Article  number:  36755. Publ online Nov. 07, 2016. doi: 10.1038/srep36755

http://www.nature.com/articles/srep36755

giovedì 8 dicembre 2016

# n-ethno: it felt distinctly European, by James, Mike & Neil (NYTimes) ...

<< 3. ‘GOMORRAH’ Italy (SundanceTV) The first season of this series, a traditional Mafia saga set in present-day Naples, was an addictive blend of speed, tension, desolate atmosphere and stark violence. While it raided the histories of both Italian and American film and gangster mythology for its look and style, it felt distinctly European, with an operatic realism unlike anything on American TV. >>

James Poniewozik, Mike Hale, Neil Genzlinger. The Best TV Shows of 2016. Dec 5, 2016

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/arts/television/best-tv-shows.html

mercoledì 7 dicembre 2016

# s-ecol: even if they aren't part of the diet ...

AA << report snake species throughout the globe possess a mutation that protects them from a class of cardiotonic steroids known as bufadienolides, contained in the skin of some toads, even if the toads aren't part of the snakes' diet. >>

Feast without fear: Scientist says more snake species resist toxin. Nov. 22, 2016

http://m.phys.org/news/2016-11-feast-scientist-snake-species-resist.html

Shabnam Mohammadi, Zachariah Gompert, et al. Toxin-resistant isoforms of Na+/K+ -ATPase in snakes do not closely track dietary specialization on toads. Proc. of the Royal Soc. B: Biol. Sci. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2016.2111. Publ. 16 Nov. 2016.

http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/283/1842/20162111

lunedì 5 dicembre 2016

# n-lang: masters of breath to play 'click' in Taa sound system

<< With five distinct kinds of clicks, multiple tones and strident vowels — vocalized with a quick choking sound — the Taa language, spoken by a few thousand people in Botswana and Namibia , is believed by most linguists to have the largest sound inventory of any tongue in the world >>

Bryant Rousseau. Which Language Uses the Most Sounds? Click 5 Times for the Answer. Nov. 25, 2016.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/11/25/world/what-in-the-world/click-languages-taa-xoon-xoo-botswana.html

https://youtu.be/xIPrQYtUNaI

domenica 4 dicembre 2016

# s-behav: the regular chaotic of wild flamingos (Phoenicopterus roseus) dancers

<< Flamingos are very good dancers. They twist and preen, they scratch their heads, they march in unison. >>

Nicholas Bakalar. Flamingo Mating Rules:  1.  Learn  the  Funky Chicken. Nov. 28,  2016.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/science/flamingos-dancing-sexual-display.html

Charlotte  Perrot, Arnaud  Bechet, et al. Sexual display complexity  varies non-linearly with age and  predicts breeding  status  in  greater  flamingos.  Nature. Scientific Reports 6 (2016); Article  number:  36242. doi: 10.1038/srep36242

http://www.nature.com/articles/srep36242

sabato 3 dicembre 2016

# s-phys: how a plasmoid instability could behave

<< The paper describes how the plasmoid instability begins in a slow linear phase that goes through a period of quiescence before accelerating into an explosive phase that triggers a dramatic increase in the speed of magnetic reconnection. >>

<< Plasmoid instability, which breaks up plasma current sheets into small magnetic islands called plasmoids, has generated considerable interest in recent years as a possible mechanism for fast reconnection. >>

<<  At issue is how magnetic reconnection, a universal process that sets off solar flares, northern lights and cosmic gamma-ray bursts, occurs so much faster than theory says should be possible. >>

John Greenwald. Researchers propose an explanation for the mysterious onset of a universal process. Nov. 22, 2016

http://m.phys.org/news/2016-11-explanation-mysterious-onset-universal.html

Comisso L., Lingam M., et al. General theory of the plasmoid instability. Phys. Plasmas 23, 100702 (2016);

http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4964481

venerdì 2 dicembre 2016

# n-soc-law: performance epifanica di bozza di scheda elettorale Senato della Repubblica

riforma costituzionale; facsimile di bozza di scheda elettorale Senato della Repubblica:

http://videofq.meride.tv/fq2/video/folder1/renzi_scheda_senato_fq2.mp4

http://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2016/11/30/riforme-renzi-mostra-la-scheda-elettorale-del-nuovo-senato-sara-elezione-diretta/3226835/

FonT: circa l'abilita' di far comparire / sparire Entita' di varia natura ... il Presid. del Consiglio Matteo Renzi potrebbe (qui si sottolinea "potrebbe") ricordare a qualcuno quell'accademici declinanti a giustificare marachelle (Entita' in apparizione, duplicazione, sparizione, sostituzione, ...): "l'ho fatto per il bene della disciplina ..."

Tuttavia altri potrebbero (qui si sottolinea "potrebbero")  associare  questa in-credibile pubblica  performance a contesti dove certi venditori usano il mezzo televisivo per proporre l'ennesima patacchina e/o pataccona ...

patacchina, pataccona cfr
http://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/patacca/

more : le sostanziali ragioni per votare NO ("a prescindere", come diceva Toto' ... )

(1) non e' una riforma politicamente condivisa;

(2) il Presid. del Consiglio Matteo Renzi non e' stato eletto;

http://m.ilgiornale.it/news/2016/05/23/renzi-io-non-eletto-mi-ha-chiamato-napolitano-in-una-situazione-demerg/1262470/

(3) a seguito della sentenza Corte Costituzionale 1/2014, 4 dicembre 2013;

http://www.cortecostituzionale.it/actionSchedaPronuncia.do?anno=2014&numero=1

(4) a seguito della sentenza Cassazione 8878/2014, 4 aprile 2014;

http://www.giurcost.org/casi_scelti/Cassazione/Cass.sent.8878-2014.pdf