Spatial flocking: Control by speed, distance, noise and delay

Fish, birds, insects and robots frequently swim or fly in groups. During their 3 dimensional collective motion, these agents do not stop, they avoid collisions by strong short-range repulsion, and achieve group cohesion by weak long-range attraction. In a minimal model that is isotropic, and continuous in both space and time, we demonstrate that (i) adjusting speed to a preferred value, combined with (ii) radial repulsion and an (iii) effective long-range attraction are sufficient for the stable ordering of autonomously moving agents in space. Our results imply that beyond these three rules ordering in space requires no further rules, for example, explicit velocity alignment, anisotropy of the interactions or the frequent reversal of the direction of motion, friction, elastic interactions, sticky surfaces, a viscous medium, or vertical separation that prefers interactions within horizontal layers. Noise and delays are inherent to the communication and decisions of all moving agents. Thus, next we investigate their effects on ordering in the model. First, we find that the amount of noise necessary for preventing the ordering of agents is not sufficient for destroying order. In other words, for realistic noise amplitudes the transition between order and disorder is rapid. Second, we demonstrate that ordering is more sensitive to displacements caused by delayed interactions than to uncorrelated noise (random errors). Third, we find that with changing interaction delays the ordered state disappears at roughly the same rate, whereas it emerges with different rates. In summary, we find that the model discussed here is simple enough to allow a fair understanding of the modeled phenomena, yet sufficiently detailed for the description and management of large flocks with noisy and delayed interactions. Our code is available at http://github.com/fij/flocComment: 12 pages, 7 figure

Connecting Rationality and Spirituality in Business Education

The paper argues that there is an imbalance in business, management and leadership education between providing abstract concepts and opportunities for personal growth. Connecting rationality and spirituality in higher education is necessary if we want to prepare students for the complexities and challenges of organisations. Kopatsy’s model of Intellectual Capital illustrates how crucial it is to cultivate right morality in society. Business education has a responsibility to provide safe environments and opportunities for students to connect their rational thoughts with their conscience and embody their “true self”. The paper gives an example of how introducing techniques from voice therapy and drama enable students to look beyond the rational. By engaging with the true self students discover dormant qualities in themselves and start moving towards their purpose, meaning, universal connectedness and spirituality

Llibres

Ressenya del llibre: Inmunología celular y molecular de Abdul K. Abbas, Andrew H. Lichtman i Shiv Pilla

Burridge-Knopoff Models as Elastic Excitable Media

We construct a model of an excitable medium with elastic rather than the usual diffusive coupling. We explore the dynamics of elastic excitable media, which we find to be dominated by low dimensional structures, including global oscillations, period-doubled pacemakers, and propagating fronts. We suggest that examples of elastic excitable media are to be found in such diverse physical systems as Burridge-Knopoff models of frictional sliding, electronic transmission lines, and active optical waveguides

Beyond Language

The authors of this paper invite you to imagine you are holding a kaleidoscope. As you put it against the light, an orderly pattern of pieces of glass creates a design pleasing to the eye; but when you give it a shake, the design changes completely. The colours are still the same but the design has reconfigured itself into a different pattern. In the same way, at strategic points in time, history shakes up the world and our perceptions of it. The evolution of globalisation and the rapid growth of computer technology have created precisely one of those strategic points and the world of education is no less shaken-up than any other aspect of our lives(Thurlow, Lengel and Tomic, 2004). Perhaps there is a need to remind ourselves, every now and then, that the world our students inhabit is very different to the one lived in by previous generations

Trust Capital is an Important Component of Moral Capital

The paper argues that whilst it is important to appreciate the contribution of technical, theoretical, tangible types of knowledge to education it is also important to appreciate that without the intangible aspects of reflection, mentoring, practice based initiatives and opportunities for character building, education will not fulfil its true potentials and will fall short in giving the support that current and future generations are looking for. The authors base their discussion on the work of Kopatsy, the Hungarian economist, who claims that the multiplication of the four components of knowledge, morality, talent and effort show the size of the Intellectual Capital of the individual. It is argued that one’s level of trusting is an important part of one’s morality and as such can influence the Intellectual Capital of the individual and of the community

Factors of Trusting in International Business

The paper reports on an online survey that set out to identify some of the factors of trusting. The survey was open to all nationalities and asked a broad variety of questions regarding individual choices of trusting. The authors give a brief overview of trust in different disciplines and argue that defining trust as an action provides a new platform for examining our relationships inside and outside organisations. Trusting as action signals the possibility of individual choices, new decisions and the potential for building more meaningful relationships. This paper identifies a set of factors that can form a basis for personal reflection and also provide a starting point for an organisational review of relationships in the workplace. Such a review is particularly valuable when members of the organisation come from different cultural background. Understanding our factors of trusting is the first step towards appreciating the needs of others in long term relationship building. The authors suggest that a more in depth survey could ascertain the validity of this pilot study. Understanding our own factors of trusting will enable us to recognise and accommodate the needs of others and build trusting relationships both in national and in international business