Introduction to the Session "Simulation of Complex Systems -- Realism and Simple Modeling"
Kohji Hirata
@
Return to the Programme@
Embodiment and Abstraction of Dynamo Simulation
Tetsuya Sato
Notwithstanding its 80 years long history, the dynamo problem had remained unsolved until very recently. This obstinate problem has finally come to a clue to its essential resolution. The advancement of simulation techniques along with the supercomputer and periphery technologies has made it possible to resolve highly tangled complex intertwinements.
@@As this example of dynamo problem indicates, an individual physical phenomenon, no matter how complex it looks, can be solved as far as its first principles are known. This may give an evidence that supercomputer simulation will be a scientific tool superior to the conventional mathematical tool to comprehend an embodiment of an individual complex phenomenon. As far as one is kept captured with standpoint that one wants to find a solution for a given problem, however, simulation stays a passive tool to gather ears of corn after the reapers in Modern Science. Simulation has a great potentiality to cultivate a new field in science to abstract universal laws from complex phenomena in various different fields.
@@In this talk, embodiment and abstraction will be addressed through the simulation of the dynamo problem.@
Tetsuya Sato (Doctor of
@Engineering , Kyoto University)Abstract Simulation
Tatsuo Yanagita
@
Return to the ProgrammeRugged energy landscape of a protein in the native state
Nobuhiro Go
Life on the earth is the result of evolution of self-reproductive chemical systems. Such systems have in general made themselves more and more complex during the history of evolution in order to increase the stability against environmental fluctuations, and also have developed so that they transfer the information about their own complex system to their offspring in the form of genetic information. Genetic information is expressed as base sequences of DNA or RNA, and a whole set of genetic information of a single living organism is called genome. Genome consists of a unit called gene, and in a living cell molecular machinery made of protein and/or RNA is produced based on information carried by each gene. Each molecular machinery carries an elementary function@which is a constituent of a set of various functions necessary for each individual organism to maintain its life and to reproduce its offspring. Here we can see a one to one to one correspondence between genetic information, molecular machinery and elementary function.
@@Protein is a polymer, in which 20 types of amino acids are@polymerized linearly in a specific sequence determined by genetic information. After polymerized in a cell, a polymer chain is folded autonomously into a specific three-dimensional structure determined by the amino acid sequence without using any additional pieces of information. When folded into the specific structure, a protein molecule is said to be in the native state. The molecule can carry out its function in this native state. When a protein molecule is taken out of a cell and the environmental condition is changed beyond a certain extent, the folded specific structure is destroyed and goes over to a state in which the molecule takes random structures. This is a phenomenon similar to the order-disorder phase transitions like solid-liquid transitions. Therefore the native state must be characterized by a distinctively low energy which can cope with the large entropy gain associated with the transition into the random unfolded state. The molecule searches out the point with the distinctively low energy in a very large conformational space with a very complex rugged energy surface during the autonomous folding process. Currently this folding process is being studied actively both experimentally and theoretically. In theoretical studies, simulation studies in terms of simplified theoretical models of proteins are actively carried out to extract the essential aspects of the folding phenomenon.
@@One of the ultimate goals of the studies of proteins is to understand the mechanism of biological functions based on the molecular structure in terms of the language of such material science as physics. The three-dimensional structures of proteins are known to be thermally fluctuating to quite a significant extent around the average structure elucidated by e.g. the X-ray crystallography. It is also known that such fluctuation is necessary for the molecule to carry out its function. From the point of view of the study of protein folding,@the native state is represented by a single point in the conformational space. However, from the point of view of the study of the molecular mechanism of functions, the native state corresponds to a certain range in the conformational space, and conformational fluctuation in such a space must be considered. The conformational dynamics necessary for carrying out the function is determined by the landscape of the energy surface in this space. The landscape is known both experimentally and theoretically to be very complex and rugged. For simulation studies, detailed theoretical models of proteins are necessary. In the lecture I will present our@such recent study, and will also describe how the energy landscape is related to various functions of proteins.
Nobuhiro Go
Member of Science Council of Japan, Chairman of Commission on Biological
Physics of IUPAP, Council Member of IUPAB
Theoretical studies of structure and function of biopolymers.
Protein Folding: From Lattice Models to Real Proteins
Eugene
ShakhnovichProtein folding is a field where theoretical physics, chemistry, molecular and evolutionary biology meet. A theoretical study of statistical mechanics of heteropolymers provides fundamental insights into protein folding, evolution and design. We show that there exist deep analogies between protein design/evolution and well-known statistical-mechanical models which make it possible to address, from a fundamental perspective such questions as degeneracy of protein code (i.e. how many sequences can fold to a given structure). Further we present the results of simulation of ''Darwinian'' evolution towards fast folding sequences which provide valuable hints in a quest for evolutionary messages about protein folding encoded in protein sequences. In particular, using the lessons from model protein evolution we were able to decipher evolutionary ''signals'' that call for fast folding in the superfamilies of structurally related nonhomologous proteins
Eugene Shakhnovich
1984 PhD Theoretical Physics and Biophysics Moscow University
1984-1986 Research Associate Academy of Sciences USSR
1986-1990 Senior Fellow Academy of Sciences USSR
1990-1991 Research Associate Harvard University
1991-1995 Assistant Professor Harvard University
1995-1997 Associate Professor Harvard University
1997-Present Full Professor Harvard University
Theoretical and experimental studies of protein folding. evolution and design, bioinformatics, rational drug/ligand design, theory of soft-condensed complex systems including complex polymer gels, polyelectropytes/ampholytes, polymer dynamics, polymer adsorption/recognition, liquid crystals, hydrodynamics and spin glasses.
Return to the ProgrammeSocial Complexity and Socio-Politics of Information
Tadashi Yamamoto
Chaotic social phenomena will generate new social systems under the circumstance that the existing social value systems are abandoned around the world and whole world system is transformed as a nation states are collapsing and the boundaries disappear.
@@It is very clear that the formation of societies is caused by imperfect information which is symbolized by "uncertainty to the future". Human beings might form the societies in order to overcome not "primitive violent state" but such imperfect information. For example, the power of prediction has been a strong ability, as it were a centripetal force, to form the societies. From the prediction to "the rule of law", from the uncontrollable market to the plan, human beings pursued regularized societies and (linear) ordered and operational social systems.
@@Today, the world society aims to introduce "transparency" and "legal stability of market" to all countries from the end of the cold war. The global communities are artificially constructed with the intension of ordering the world. Back of the tendency, this world ordering is dual to the trend to develop the operation and realization of information and risk supported by advanced computer network. The social transformation normally works from the chaotic and disordered world structure to the ordered world structure. At the same time, the disordered wordl is ready to be covered by the plural global communities which strengthen the network containing the non-linear interactions and oppose to the ordering of social systems.
@@In this research, assuming the basic structure which is composed of distributed and autonomous, and heterogeneous agents and their interactions, the nested and stratificated society which is generated from the dynamics of such structure is regarded as a model of the virtual society on the computer network. The purpose of building the model is to investigate the possibility to design the new social systems as the model of liberal society, based on the autonomous distributed societies which are established by the freedom and autonomy of the components, which enable us not only to exclude the real power of nation and society but also to enjoy the emergent productions of the complex societies. On such social composition, it should be discussed how the social value making process behaves and what social values are yielded.
@@Societies and virtual societies are generated from frequent transformations which are based on the linkage of interaction caused by heterogeneous or asymmetric imperfect information among agents. The plural heterogeneous communities are intermediary and locally generated bodies. As the community based society is considered, it is a very typical trial to investigate the scale, incidence and height of hierarchy about the formed communities, characteristics and its changing of the boundary, and non-linear interaction.
@@On the other hand, homogeneous system structure and transformation are nested and stratificated through every step of generating societies from the individual level to the global society. Thus, the nested and stratificated structure, and the traversing loops through hierarchy yield the characteristics of virtual societies. It is very crucial to clear the characteristics of political decision making process on the complex society which is so stratificated and nested that it contains complex or non-linear interaction. Moreover, ripple process of the political symbolic operation should be characterized. In particular, when each local society changes autonomously, there occcurs the political behavior dilemma under the asymmetric imperfect information.
@@Social complexity is the base which can provide emergence and development of human societies and can be considered to yield new societies against the ordering of social systems.@
Tadashi Yamamoto
His academic concerns are across the area of politics, sociology, systems science, and computer science. In more detail, he is deeply interested in generating conceptual and mathmatical modeling of societies, simulating societies and in visibly presenting social characters. Also, he is concerned with development of new social/political systems based on information systems.
(a) Mathematical modeling of social systems and computer simulation.
(b) Design of new social systems and advanced political systems.
(c) Liberalism and democracy realized by computer technology on information networks.
The emergence and collapse of money
YASUTOMI Ayumu
Money is
@a structure which emerges amongst people who are trying to exchange their commodities. Its elements are the behaviour of exchange conducted by such people. As Karl Marx indicated, once this structure emerges, people mistake the function of this structure for the function of@the commodity which becomes money. This mistake supports the reproduction of this structure's elements.YASUTOMI Ayumu
The@research of Economic History in Manchuria by the method of financial analysis and of Complex Systems by the method of computer simulation. Recently he is active in observing the formation process of soybean and cotton products markets in Manchuria and in computational analysis of dynamical systems whose dimension is variable.
Return to the ProgrammeDynamics - Nonlinear Phenomena and Time Series Analysis
Tohru Ozaki
The behavior of chaotic processes generated by relatively simple dynamical systems is the subject of ongoing research in complex systems. Many researchers in these fields are scientists with backgrounds in physical sciences and engineering interested in constructing simple non-linear models to simulate complex phenomena in natural and social sciences.
On the other hand, a major concern of traditional statistical time series analysis has been the model estimation, prediction and control of inear and nonlinear time series generated from stochastic processes. Models for prediction and control of multivariate systems often involve complex feed-backs among the variables. Linear models have been useful in producing good results in real applications such as control of power plant boilers or cement rotary kilns. With the development of Akaike's Information Criterion, the linear time series approach has made remarkable progress in the last few decades.
Since the late 1970's, however, new types of time series data, often with very nonlinear and complex patterns of oscillation, for example limit cyclic nonlinear vibrations in mechanical engineering, EEG data taken from epileptic subjects or ECG data in biomedical sciences, have lead statistical time series analysts to the development of non-linear and non-stationary time series models. Here, although their main concern is still model estimation, prediction and control, checking whether an "estimated" model generates time series "similar" to the real data is also an important issue.
It is easy to contrast statistical time series analysis and chaos time series analysis born from physics. However, it is more productive to find similarities in the two approaches which will help to solve many difficult problems arising from science. Although there has not been much communication between the two schools of thought, they have not be in complete ignorance of each others work. It is well known that Akaike's Information Criterion is closely connected with the work of Boltzmann at the end of last century. Also at the beginning of this century, a long time before some of the recent chaos physicists paid attention to the similarity of their work to statistical time series analysis, the Ehrenfests(1912) pointed out the importance of Einstein's inductive use of Boltzmann's entropy in his work on Brownian motion. They also highlighted the close relationship of Einstein's idea of the inductive method to the statistics beeing developed at that time by Pearson and others. They even wrote "the extension of the statistical treatment to a steadily increasing range of physical phenomena gives the "statistical experiment" an increasing methodological significance in the whole of physical research."
At the end of the twentieth century, we should not lose any opportunity for discussion between different schools with common interests. At this symposium and in this particular session, we are especially interested in the characterization(both quantitative and qualitative) of time series. It may be interesting to discuss how we can use knowledge from nonlinear science to improve the prediction and control of series in the real world taken from a wide range of fields such as neuroscience, astronomy, economics and finance etc.
Here, we would like to bring together statistical time series analysts, neural network, chaos chaos researchers neuroscientists and others working in related fields. I look forward to hearing stimulating ideas and views on nonlinear dynamics in the talks and discussions in this session. Further I hope that we could see, beyond the difference of the approaches and schools, in this session the future direction of the study of complex systems in the next century.
References
[1] Ehrenfest, T. and P.(1912) The Conceptual Foundation of the Statistical Approach in Mechanics. Published in German Encyclopedia of Mathematical Sciences. English translation (by M.J. Moravcsik) published by Dover Publishing Co., New York.
@ Return to the ProgrammeThe Statistical Analysis of Nonlinear Brain Dynamics
Pedro Valdes-Sosa
Elucidating the complex nonlinear dynamics of the brain is a formidable task. This work presents some initial tools developed for the analysis of complex neural systems by the Cuban Neuroscience Center and the Institute of Statistical Mathematics of Japan. The approach involves combining convergent data driven and model driven techniques to the same set of data. The data driven approach fits nonlinear nonparametric Autoregressive time series models in order to evaluate the dynamical behavior of the non stochastic "skeleton" of EEG data in order to empirically identify bifurcations of brain activity. Included is a new technique for the empirical estimation of the differential equations of the observed system. The model driven approach then explores the capacity of continuos time neural mass models to explain the empirically estimated dynamics. The continuos time neural mass models are formulated as stochastic differential equations. The Local linearization approach of T. Ozaki is then applied to discretize these equations, construct the corresponding Kalman filter, and carry out Maximum Likelihood estimation of model parameters. The use of this methodology is illustrated by an analysis of the human alpha rhythm. Both data driven and model driven approaches support the existence, in this type of EEG activity, of a Hopf bifurcation. The procedures developed are an instance of solving a dynamical inverse problem. The evaluation of neural dynamics in intact human subjects by noninvasive imaging methods further complicates the issue by embedding the dynamical inverse problem within another inverse problem, the spatial inverse problem of constructing functional tomographic images. A hierarchical Bayesian approach to the solution of this problem will be presented and directions of future work sketched out.
Pedro A. Valdes-Sosa
1973 MD. University of Havana, 1978 Ph.D. CNIC (National Center for Scientific Research, With training in Mathematical statistics and Computer Science University of Havana).
1979 Postdoc New York University Brain Research Laboratories
Past work: 1969 computer programming of EEG brain signals and time series analysis with Laboratory of Neurophysiology of CNIC (predecessor of CNC).
Co-author of Neurometrics methodology (1977). Present work: Development of computerized systems for EEG analysis; use of multivariate statistics and time series analysis in Neurophysiology; nonlinear dynamical systems theory applied to brain function; theory and development of EEG/MEG Tomographic imaging systems; Multimodal Brain Image Fusion and statistical problems of Brain Images.
Chaotic Features of Rhythmic Brain Activity
Hatsuo Hayashi
Hippocampal and thalamic neurons cause spontaneous firing. Such spontaneous firing is one of the major causes of rhythmic brain activity. However, neuronal networks cause complex spatiotemporal activity which is different from the activity of single neurons, because the activity of neuronal networks depends not only on intrinsic properties of individual neurons but also on the network structure, balance of excitatory and inhibitory connections, and properties of synapses.
@@In general, the dynamical degrees of freedom of rhythmic brain activity is high, so that it is difficult to investigate geometrical structure of their phase portraits and represent chaotic features by means of one-dimensional maps. Actually, evidence for chaotic brain activity was not provided for ten years in spite of a huge number of publications after Babloyantz and her colleagues successfully demonstrated relatively law and non-integer correlation dimensions of human sleep EEGs in 1985. During the period, statistical measures, such as correlation dimensions and Lyapunov exponents, were entirely used to explore dynamical features of brain activity, and those were inconclusive debates about the determinism of brain activity. In other words, such statistical measures were not certain evidence for chaos.
@@Brain activity can be often observed as rhythmic EEGs. This fact indicates that neurons fire in synchrony. Larger brain waves reflect better synchronization, and epileptic EEGs are in the case of excessive synchronization. Although the synchronization of neuronal activity is consistent with low and non-integer correlation dimensions of brain waves, synchronization of neuronal activity of most spontaneous brain waves appears to be insufficient for analysis to gain insight into their dynamical features in phase spaces less than three dimensions. This is, probably, one of the reasons why it is generally difficult to investigate geometrical structure of attractors and features of Poinc*re maps obtained from "spontaneous" brain waves.
@@If chaotic features of rhythmic brain activity appear due to synchronization of neuronal activity, we can consider several cases where we may observe chaotic brain activity: (1) short-lasting facilitation of the synchronization due to afferent input, (2) long-term facilitation of the synchronization due to long-term potentiation (LTP) of post-synaptic potential, and (3) facilitated synchronization in pathological activity, such as spontaneous seizure.
@@In this lecture, first of all, we will show that a neural network model of the hippocampal CA3 spontaneously causes field current rhythms, which resemble epileptic, delta, theta and beta waves, depending on the strength of excitatory and inhibitory connections. These irregular rhythmic waves reflect complex spatiotemporal activity of the network and have not been characterized as low-dimensional chaos. However, synchronization of such neuronal activity is facilitated by afferent input, and field current of the network causes phase-lockings and chaotic responses depending on the stimulus parameters. The chaotic responses are well characterized by means of one-dimensional maps.
@@Second, phase-locked and chaotic field potential responses of the rat hippocampal CA3 in vitro and the rat somatosensory cortex in vivo to afferent input will be demonstrated. These responses are also characterized by means of attractors reconstructed in phase-spaces and one-dimensional strobomaps.
@@Third, it will be shown that rat hippocampal CA3 slices spontaneously cause synchronized bursting discharges due to LTP of excitatory synapses between pyramidal cells. The cross-correlation functions of spontaneous field potentials simultaneously recorded at two sites indicate that synchronization of neuronal activity in CA3 is highly facilitated due to LTP.
@@Finally, we will show an example of human seizure activity intracranially recorded at the hippocampus. The time series of the seizure was divided into 10 s epochs, and correlation dimensions were estimated in those epochs. The correlation dimension at the initial stage is quite high and reduces with time. This suggests that synchronization of neuronal activity is facilitated with time. Attractors in phase-spaces and one-dimensional return maps at earlier stages are just messy, and the structure of the attractor changes with time. At an intermediate stage where correlation dimension is quite low, the one-dimensional map clearly shows chaotic features. When the synchronization is extremely facilitated at the final stage, chaotic activity bifurcates to a limit cycle and the seizure stops.
@@Spatial complexity reduces when synchronization of neuronal activity in the brain is facilitated by afferent input or in some pathological cases. However, temporal complexity of rhythmic brain activity remains and the survived temporal complexity shows chaotic features.
Hatsuo Hayashi
I am recently interested in nonlinear dynamical features of the brain activity which are related to brain functions.
Return to the ProgrammeDetecting a Driven Nonlinear Oscillator Underlying Experimental Time Series: The Sunspot Cycle
Milan Palus
The historical data of the sunspot index have been attracting researchers for more than a century. In 1852 Wolf reported the now well-know 11-year cycle. Of course, the sunspot cycle is not strictly periodic, but fluctuations in its amplitude as well as in its frequency occur. Therefore researchers have turned towards stochastic models in order to make predictions of the future behavior of the sunspot cycle. On the other hand, development in nonlinear dynamics and theory of deterministic chaos, namely methods and algorithms for analysis and prediction of (potentially) nonlinear and chaotic time series have naturally found their way into the analyses of the sunspot series. Several authors have claimed an evidence for the deterministic chaotic origin of the sunspot cycle, based on estimations of correlation dimension, Lyapunov exponents and an increase of a prediction error with a prediction horizon. The dimensional algorithms, however, have been found unreliable when applied to relatively short experimental data, and properties consistent with stochastic processes (colored noises) such as autocorrelations can lead to spurious convergence of dimensional estimates. Similar behavior has been observed also for Lyapunov exponent estimators. And the increase of a prediction error with an increasing prediction horizon is not a property exclusive for chaos, but it can also be observed in systems with a deterministic skeleton and an intrinsic stochastic component (``dynamical noise'').
Milan Palus
Detection and characterization of nonlinear phenomena in experimental time series. Applications in physics, meteorology, climatology, physiology, engineering, economy and finance.
Return to the ProgrammeReconstruction and Prediction of Nonlinear Dynamical Systems: Neural Net Approach
Takashi Matsumoto
When nonlinearity is involved, time series prediction becomes a rather difficult task where the conventional linear methods have limited successes for various reasons.
Takashi Matsumoto
1973 Ph.D., Waseda University (Electrical Engineering)
1973 Associate Professor, Waseda University
1977-79 Visting Research Scientist, U.C.Berkeley
1980 Professor, Waseda University
Field of Interests: Nonlinear time series prediction problems, Bifurcation/Chaos, On-line signature verification via HMM, IC design/implementation
Return to the ProgrammeModelling Finanfial Time Series With Continuous-Time Non-Linear Autoregressions
Peter Brockwell
Continuous-time autoregressive (CAR) processes have been of interest to physicists and engineers for many years (see e.g. Fowler (1936)). Early papers dealing with the properties and statistical analysis of such processes, and of the more general continuous-time autoregressive moving average (CARMA) processes, include those of Doob (1944), Bartlett (1946), Phillips (1959) and Durbin (1961). In the last ten years there has been a resurgence of interest in continuous-time processes partly as a result of the very successful application of stochastic differential equation models to problems in finance, exemplified by the derivation of the Black-Scholes option-pricing formula and its generalizations (Hull and White (1987)). Numerous examples of econometric applications of continuous-time models are contained in the book of Bergstrom (1990). Continuous-time models have also been utilized very successfully for the modelling of irregularly-spaced data (Jones (1981)). At the same time there has been an increasing realization that non-linear time series models provide much better representations of many empirically observed time series than linear models. The threshold ARMA models of Tong (1983) have been particularly successful in representing a wide variety of data sets, and the ARCH and GARCH models of Engle (1982) and Bollerslev (1986) respectively have had great success in the modelling of financial data. Continuous-time versions of ARCHand GARCH models have been developed by Nelson (1990). In this paper we discuss continuous-time ARMA models, their basic properties, their relationship with discrete-time ARMA models, inference based on observations made at discrete times and non-linear processes which include continuous-time analogues of Tong's threshold ARMA models.
@@A general class of non-linear continuous-time autoregressive processes is defined, which includes continuous-time analogues of the threshold models of Tong. Questions of existence and uniqueness of solutions of the defining stochastic differential equations are considered as well as methods for numerical approximation. The question of fitting such models to data observed at discrete times is considered together with the use of such models for forecasting future values of the series.
@@The use of such models is illustrated by fitting them to Australian financial time series. It is found that the non-linear models provide a very good representation of the changing volatility of the series.
References:
Bartlett, M.S. (1946). On the theoretical specification and sampling properties of autocorrelated time series. J. Royal Statistical Soc. (Supplement)} 7, 27--41.
Bergstrom, A.R. (1990). Continuous Time Econometric Modelling. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Bollerslev, T. (1986). Generalised autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity. J. of Econometrics 51, 307--327.
Doob, J.L. (1944). The elementary Gaussian processes. Ann. Math. Statist. 25, 229--282.
Durbin, J. (1961). Efficient fitting of linear models for continuous stationary time series from discrete data. Bull. Int. Statist. Inst. 38, 273--281.
Fowler, R.H. (1936). Statistical Mechanics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Hull, J. and A. White (1987). The pricing of assets on options with stochastic volatilities. J. of Finance 42, 281--300.
Jones, R.H. (1981). Fitting a continuous time autoregression to discrete data. Applied Time Series Analysis II ed. D.F. Findley. Academic Press, New York, 651--682.
Nelson, D. (1990). ARCH models as diffusion approximations. J. of Econometrics 45, 7-38.
Tong, H. (1983). Threshold Models in Non-linear Time Series Analysis, Springer Lecture Notes in Statistics 21. Springer-Verlag, New York.
Peter Brockwell
Stochastic processes and their applications in physics, biology and economics. Time series and their applications. Coauthor with Richard Davis of Time Series: Theory and Methods, Introduction to Time Series and Forecasting, and ITSM for Windows.
Return to the ProgrammeYukito IBA
We can find various kinds of symbolical structures behind the activities of our daily life. Natural languages that we speak and write are the most remarkable, but not the only example of the representations with symbolical structures. How we code the landscape around us as a cognitive map? How we can identify an object in complex scenes? These questions naturally lead to the quests for the symbolical structures in our mind, which will be essential for understanding the cognitive behavior of us. Such a study is also relevant for automatic analysis of complex data from the real world.
In Tani's talk, autonomous robots are constructed and used as a tool for exploration of the emergence of symbols. These robots develop symbolical structures in their "mind" through the interaction with an environment and use them for a given task. On the other hand, in a computer world constructed by Hashimoto, agents developed a system of language through mutual communications. The studies of Tani and Hashimoto are regarded as typical examples of the "complex system" approach to symbols.
Yukito IBA
A Dynamical Systems Approach to Represent Cognition of Robots
Jun Tani
We speculate that the problems of cognitions commence when the robots attempt to acquire certain form of representation of the world so that they can mentally simulate or plan their own behavior sequences. In considering representation, it is important to consider how the representation can be grounded to the physical environments and how the mental processes manipulating them can be situated in the behavioral contexts. We study these problems with focusing on tasks of the robot navigation learning.
Communication and Emergence of Languages in Toy Worlds
Takashi Hashimoto
Our cognitive activities are based on articulating the world and symbolizing the articulated entities. We group the symbols and recognized them as unite objects. The system how we articulate and recognize the world and how they group entities in the world is called a categorical structure. To know how the categorical structure is established and develops is a key to study emergence of symbols.
@@We study dynamical changes of categorical structures in language users via communication by constructing artificial toy worlds using computer simulations. We study development of categorical structure based on the dynamical view of language. The dynamical view is that meanings of words are dynamically created through activities of sense-making by individual language users. In this view, we do not think that words are statically linked with their indicating objects a priori. Words are situated in a web of relationships among words according to the usage of the word in each use. The whole web of relation among words is a kind of representation of meaning. The relationships are derived from the usage of words in language.
@@We model development of categorical structure in language users by a constructive approach. The constructive approach is to build models with elements having internal dynamics that interact with each other, and then to observe the emergence of global behavior of the system. The elements in our model are language-using individuals having word relation matrices as their internal structure. They communicate by uttering and accepting sentences. Words in sentences are situated in relation with other words by each individual and word relationship dynamically changes with communication. They do not share any grammatical or semantic structure at first but an inference algorithm to calculate relationship among words from the usage of words in sentences and in a chain of conversations.
@@How words are organized in word relationship and how the relationship dynamically changes with conversation are observed by simulating "conversation" in which individuals speak and listen sentences. Words make clusters in the word relationship matrix according to the mutual relationship among words. This clustering is through of as categorization by each individual, since words in a cluster have strong relation and have weak relation with ones outside of the cluster. The cluster has a structure like prototype category. Relation between words gradually changes from strong to weak and boundaries of clusters are fuzzy. The large changes in the cluster structure are induced by appearing new words or new usage of words. A shared part to individuals in word relationship develops with conversation. However whole of relationship does not become to be the same among individuals. Since each individual has its own experience of communication by conversing with various individuals, interrelation among individuals ever changes. As the result of ever-changing relation, coexisting commonality and individuality of categorical structure is observed in an ensemble of individuals.
Takashi Hashimoto
Spatial Cognition and Relativity
Kyoko Inoue
Recently in the field of linguistics, human cognitive ability is discussed in conjunction with their ability to categorize. Accordingly, stronger interests have been drawn on the fact that people process information based on their habitual experience in everyday life. This is one approach toward answering to our year-long question, "which comes first, reality or language?"
@@In this paper, I will present a model of conceptual constraints in spatial conception and language in reference to the previous studies conducted by Cognitive Anthropology Research Group (CARG) at Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. The "Space Project" of CARG, which was a cross-linguistic study in more than 15 field sites where languages other than Indo-European were spoken, revealed two distinct spatial frames of reference: the egocentric (RELATIVE) and the environmental (ABSOLUTE). A case study in a Japanese community will be examined here in order to search for the possible conceptual constraints. More concretely, field results will be discussed in terms of (1) linguistic frames of spatial reference, (2) socio-cultural extension of space, and (3) communication disorder.
@@Japanese, like many Indo-European languages, possesses both RELATIVE and ABSOLUTE frames of reference, although its present linguistic system is overwhelmingly RELATIVE. A close comparison of the usage of RELATIVE and ABSOLUTE spatial lexemes in communication will illustrate the effect on how the human relationship has come to be recognized differently over the century, in the course of which the Japanese has switched from ABSOLUTE to RELATIVE linguistic system.
Kyoko Inoue
The research of linguistic anthropology with a focus on the relationship between grammatical categories and conceptualization of environmental information. Her special interests rest on the system of nominal classification as well as human spatial cognition.
Return to the ProgrammeCore Problems in High-Level Vision
Shimon Edelman
I shall discuss the following three core problems of high-level vision: (1) generalization of object recognition across changes in viewpoint, (2) recognition of novel instances of familiar categories of objects, and (3) representation and processing of structural information. The approach taken by the human visual system vis a vis these problems, as characterized by psychophysical, electrophysiological and imaging studies, will be examined and compared with expectations stemming from theories collectively labeled as ``classical'' symbolic AI.
@
@
Return to the ProgrammeA GENERATIVE GRAMMAR FOR THE BIRDSONG AND ITS BRAIN REPRESENTATION
Kazuo OKANOYA
Birdsong is a hierarchical behavior that is controlled by a set of discrete forebrain nuclei. Male Bengalese finches sing complex songs by arranging several discrete phonological elements into temporally dynamic sequences. Each song elements are organized into several *chunks,* and these chunks are arranged by a finite state grammar. Furthermore, adult birds rely on auditory feedback to produce normal songs and neural substrates for song production are lateralized into the left hemisphere.
@These@characteristics makes Bengalese finch song much similar to the human language than any other birdsongs. Why is this so?@@@Song is a sexual behavior in oscine songbirds. In general, males sing and females assess the quality of the male based on the song. We first asked whether the song complexity affects reproductive behavior in female birds. Two groups of eight birds were each kept in a sound proof chamber. One group of birds@were stimulated by a complex song while the other heard a simple song. We counted numbers of the eggs laid and numbers of nesting strings carried into the nest by each bird for 4 weeks. In addition, we collected blood samples before and after the experiments and these samples were used to assay the blood content of Estradiol. Results turned out that in all indices@measured, the birds in the complex song group scored higher. Thus, complex songs are more effective in stimulating female reproductive behavior.Kazuo
@OkanoyaI am interested in functions and mechanisms of animal behavior. My ultimate goal is to understand evolution of language as a biological process. For this purpose, I am currently working of the birdsong system.
Return to the ProgrammeExploring Simulation Science for the 21st Century
Tetsuya Sato
It may be said that towards the dawning of 21st century Modern Science has reached to its completeness. The jigsaw puzzle of Modern Science framed by the Reductionism has yet unpaved parts left behind. However, they will be completed sooner or later. "Science of Complex Systems", which is spreading over the would around the Santa Fe Institute, aims at revealing laws that govern the behaviors of many-body systems (complex systems) whose first interacting principles are almost impossible to find. Towards that aim one assumes an artificial simple rule for the evolution of an element of a complex system and follows its evolution repeatedly by, say, using a personal computer. Then, one compares the obtained spacial or temporal pattern with a similar one that is observed in a real world and hypothesizes that the given rule must be the rule that governs the real world. In contract, we, the computer simulation group at NIFS, have been exploring for nearly 20 years the 21st Century's Science with a new conception. The methodology is based on the fundamental interaction forces, or, the fundamental
@equations,@that Modern Science has been revealing for more than 300 years since Descartes and Newton. The essential tools for exploring this science, so-called "Simulation Science", are advanced supercomputers and visualization technologies.Tetsuya Sato (Doctor of
@Engineering , Kyoto University)Theoretical and simulation researches on nonlinear phenomena in space plasmas such as aurora and magnetosphric substorms. Simulation research on nonlinear dynamics of fusion plasmas. Currently, he is devoted himself on promoting Simulation Science as cultivating a new paradigm of science.
Return to the ProgrammeEarthquake Scale-Invariance, Their Modelling and Prediction
Yan Kagan
To study statistical properties of earthquake occurrence, we analyze several earthquake catalogs which include origin time, hypocenter, earthquake size (scalar seismic moment), and focal mechanism orientation for each earthquake. The seismicity is represented as a stochastic, tensor-valued, multidimensional, point process.
REFERENCES
Kagan, Y. Y., 1994. Observational evidence for earthquakes as a nonlinear dynamic process, Physica D, 77, 160-192.
Kagan, Y. Y., 1997a. Seismic moment-frequency relation for shallow earthquakes: Regional comparison, Journal of Geophysical Research, 102, 2835-2852.
Kagan, Y. Y., 1997b. Are earthquakes predictable?, Geophysical Journal International, 131, 505-525.
Yan Y. Kagan
RESEARCH INTERESTS: Earthquake statistics, modeling of earthquake occurrence, earthquake prediction and hazard assessment
Return to the ProgrammeSignal Extraction and Knowledge Discovery by Statistical Modeling
Genshiro Kitagawa
In statistical analysis, a model is built based on not only the current data but also prior knowledge on the object and the objective of the analysis. By the use of a proper model, it becomes possible to combine
@various@knowledge on the object or the information from current and other data sets. This makes it possible to extract useful information@which cannot be obtained by simple manipulation of the current data@and may result in important knowledge or discovery in sciences.@On the other hand, there is a danger of extracting biased result@if an analysis is made by using improper model. Therefore, in the analysis based on statistical modeling,@use of proper model is crucial.Genshiro Kitagawa
His main research interests are the time series snalysis and@statistical modeling. His recent research area includes nonlinear non-Gaussian state space modeling and extendsion of the information criterion based on numerical method. He joins many cooperative reserch projects in earth science and@finance/economics.
Return to the ProgrammeObject Recognition: More Than Remembrance of Things Past?
Shimon Edelman
To recognize a previously seen object, the visual system must overcome the variability in the object's appearance caused by illumination, pose, and, for articulated or flexible objects, by the effects of the additional degrees of freedom peculiar to such objects. Developments in computer vision suggest that it may be possible to achieve recognition invariant to these factors, by learning to interpolate between stored views of the target object, taken under representative combinations of viewing conditions. One may observe, however, that daily life situations typically require categorization, rather than recognition, of objects. Due to the open-ended character both of natural kinds and of artifical categories, categorization cannot rely on interpolation between stored examples. Nonetheless, knowledge of several representative members, or prototypes, of each of the categories of interest can still provide the necessary computational substrate for the categorization of new instances. The resulting representational scheme based on similarities to prototypes is readily mapped onto the mechanisms of biological vision revealed by recent psychophysical and physiological studies, and has intriguing implications for the understanding of the general issue of cognitive representation, and, in particular, of the manner in which representation can conform, or be faithful, to its object.
@
@
Return to the ProgrammeComplex System Biology
F An IntroductionKunihiko KANEKO
Basic problems for the construction of a scenario for the Life are discussed. Starting from the complementarity betwee syntax/rule/logic and semantics/behavior/image, the following problems are highlighted; intrinsic diversification, recursive type formation, rule generation, formation of internal representation, macroscopic robustness at an ensemble level, fixation of differentiation to symbols. To study these basic problems ``intra-inter dynamics" is introduced, which consists of internal dynamics of a unit, interaction among the units, and the replication (and death) of units according to their internal states.
Kunihiko KANEKO
Department of Pure and Applied Sciences,
College of Arts and Sciences, Univ. of Tokyo, 3-8-1, Komaba, Meguro, Tokyo 153, Japan
Ph. D. (1984, March) Univ. of Tokyo
Research and professional Experience
postdoctoral fellow, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Univ.@of@Tokyo, 1984 April-1984 October
postdoctoral fellow, Center for Nonlinear Sudies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, 1984 October-1985 March
Joshu (assistant professor), Institute of Physics, Univ. of Tokyo, 1985 March-1990 July
Visiting fellow by Japanese government program, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1987 October-1988 July
Stanislaw Ulam Visiting Scholar, Center for Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, 1988 September- 1989 September
Asscoiate Professor, Department of Pure and Applied Sciences, Univ. of Tokyo, 1990 July--- 1994 August
Professor, Department of Pure and Applied Sciences, Univ. of Tokyo, 1994 August --- Present
Research Field
Chaos,High-dimensional chaos, in particular coupled maps, and complex system biology.
By introcuing coupled map lattices and global coupled maps, he has been working on several aspects of high-dimensional chaos. Recently his main research interest is in the field of biology, where he is trying to establish a new field, `` complex system biology".
@