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Task Group Summary 3--How can we enhance the robustness via interconnectivity?
Pages 21-32

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From page 21...
... Subsequent work has shown that the interplay between the resources and the demand can lead to cascading failures, uncovering a high degree of fragility of some systems. A good example is offered by the US electrical power grid, whose cascading East Coast breakdown was initiated by local failures.
From page 22...
... • How does one quantify the relative contributions of network structure and dynamical effects to robustness? • Are there universal design principles to robust systems?
From page 23...
... charged with thinking about how to enhance robustness via interconnectivity, considered several areas on which to focus. Group members from universities and government research centers saw complex systems from a variety of different perspectives: nanoscale bond interactions; microtubules and systems of self-organization in cell growth; sensor networks in the coordination of robots; human disaster relief social networks; water and turbulence; virus life cycles in the human body; and gene interaction networks derived by quantitative phenotyping.
From page 24...
... We delineated hypothetical performance objectives and relevant perturbations for selected complex systems, with an eye toward abstracting general robustness strategies from one system that could be applied in an analogous way to increase robustness in other systems. In the case of power grids, the objective in enhancing robustness was to maximize the number of people with electrical power and to minimize the risk of cascading power failure.
From page 25...
... In the case of genetic interactions, understanding fragilities that result from cancer-causing mutations would reveal targets for selectively killing cancer cells. Control in a complex system does not necessarily have to coincide with hubs of that system.
From page 26...
... Some biological systems are among the most robust complex systems in existence. Experimental data from yeast genetic interaction experiments, indicate, for example, that simple redundancy of function accounts for a small amount of the observed robustness.
From page 27...
... Robustness is incremental and non-linear, so we need to establish quantitative models and tools to measure sources of buffering capacity and better model phenomena such as stability thresholds. Adaptability of network topology within system structure is also key to enhancing robustness, as are built-in feedback mechanisms and active control.
From page 28...
... As a result, robustness, the ability of a system to limit, within some specified range, the magnitude of change in performance with respect to perturbations, can only be understood, enhanced, or engineered with the proper intellectual framework. Researchers at the 2008 National Academies Keck Futures Initiative Conference on Complex Systems were unable to develop a complete version of that intellectual system; nonetheless, the Task Group (3B)
From page 29...
... But it is not hard to imagine a reverse scenario, like increased plane travel helping spread a deadly pandemic, where interconnectivity decreases the robustness of a system. It turns out robustness does not result from finite set of qualities, the application of which could steel any system against failure, but instead depends on the system in question, the goals of the system and the perturbations that system faces.
From page 30...
... , design time Federal highway network Congestion, blockages, Diversity of paths, Construction, Transport, origin-destination link failure spatial separation, maintenance paths, flow provisioning Gene regulatory network Mutations, Canalization, Constructing additional Phenotype, multiple viable environmental connectivity, molecules, design modes (adaptability) conditions, redundancy, time development stages multitasking
From page 31...
... GFP is a luminescent protein found in jellyfish that is widely used as a marker for biological processes in experiments. Both proteins are far more robust than other similar proteins in the face of denaturing as a result of heat or pH, being cut up, and to the replacement of component amino acids with other amino acids.
From page 32...
... The government created the highway system in the 1950s to ensure cross continental military supply lines would not be interrupted by Soviet nuclear attack. As the threat of nuclear war receded, the highway system shifted to primarily providing travel arteries for citizens and companies.


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