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• Heriot-Watt University - Masterclass material.
• New Bifurcation software: CONTENT 1.3.
• Complexity and management mail list.
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• Orthogonal Polynomials, Integral Transforms and Solutions for Dynamics of Multilevel Systems.
• Brent L. Swinney Youth Fund.
• Interested in Chaotic Advection in Fluid Mechanics?.
• From Calculus to Chaos.
• SIAM Dynamical Systems Activity Group Elections.
• Dynamics Days 1998.

For several years the Universities of Heriot-Watt and Edinburgh have been running Masterclasses for the brightest mathematics school students in Lothian Region. The pupils, aged about 13, spend 2 1/2 hrs each Saturday studying recent developments in Mathematics such as chaos, fractals, evolutionary games, etc. Some of these classes involve using purpose-built interactive computer programs to illustrate, for example, the construction of a fractal curve. We are now beginning to put this material up on WWW to make it available to a wider audience. Visit our site at http://www.ma.hw.ac.uk/masterclass/ to see what is available, or email Chris Eilbeck chris@ma.hw.ac.uk

This is to inform that new CONTENT 1.3 is now available by ftp. CONTENT is a multi-platform interactive environment to study dynamical systems. It is designed to perform simulation, continuation, and normal form analysis of dynamical systems appearing in research and engineering.

1. This version of CONTENT supports:

For ODEs:

• numerical integration;
• continuation of equilibria and limit cycles;
• detection and normal form analysis of branching, fold and Hopf bifurcation points for equilibria;
• continuation of fold and Hopf bifurcations;
• detection of codim 2 equilibrium bifurcations (cusp, Bogdanov-Takens, generalised Hopf, zero-Hopf, and double Hopf);
• normal form analysis of cusp and Bogdanov-Takens bifurcations;
• continuation of double Hopf bifurcation;
• detection of branching, limit points, flip and torus (NS) bifurcations of limit cycles;
• branch switching at equilibrium bifurcations (including switching to the limit cycle ontinuation at Hopf points).

• iteration;
• continuation of fixed points and cycles;
• detection and normal form analysis of branching and limit points, flip and torus (NS) bifurcations for fixed points and cycles;
• branch switching at branching and flip points.

• continuation of steady states;
• detection of branching and limit points.

• on-line specification and updating of the dynamical systems (e.g., RHS);
• symbolic generation of derivatives of RHS;
• visualisation of the solutions in multiple 2D and 3D graphic windows, as well as in the numerical form;
• Postscript hardcopy;
• storage, import and export of computed curves in a platform- independent format;
• on-line hypertext help with figures;

CONTENT 1.3 is freely available by anonymous ftp from ftp.cwi.nl (192.16.196.148):

cd pub

cd CONTENT

bin

get source_file target_file

bye

content-1.3-sgi-irix6.3.tar.gz

content-1.3-sun-sunos5.5.tar.gz

content-1.3-decalpha-osf3.2.tar.gz

content-1.3-hp-hpux9000.tar.gz

content-1.3-ibmpc-linux.2.0.18.tar.gz

content-1.3-ibmpc-mswin.bcpp5.zip

content-1.3-aix-aix.4.tar.gz

These files contain binary executables for running on the corresponding platform (hardware+OS[+complier]), as well as example dynamical systems.

The target_file is:

content.tar.gz for Unix (SGI, Sun, DEC, HP, PC Linux)

content.zip for MS Windows

4. Software requirements for CONTENT

Unix: C and C++ compilers must be accessible via the PATH variable, as well as the X11, X toolkit and Motif libraries via the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable.

MS_Windows: Borland C++ compiler 5.0 must be installed. CONTENT uses only command line compiler bcc32.

We wish you success in using CONTENT!

Dynamical Systems Laboratory
Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica
Kruislaan 413
1098 SJ Amsterdam
The Netherlands

A shared language based on the new science of complexity can have an important role in managerial sense making. The use of complexity theory can change the way managers think about the problems they face. Instead of competing in a game or a war, managers of a complexity thinking enterprise are trying to find their way on an ever changing, ever turbulent landscape. Such a conception of their organisations' basic task can, in turn, change the day-to-day decisions made by management. The most productive applications of complexity language have to do with new possibilities for innovation. These possibilities require new ways of thinking, but old models of thinking persist long after they are productive. New ways of thinking don't just happen; they require both discussion and support.

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Please pass this message on to anyone you feel would be interested -- we have room for 100 more members.

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The site can be reached at: http://www.calresco.force9.co.uk

For information have a look at: http://www.isir.minsk.by/~zelenkov/physmath.

As the title implies, it has quite a wide range, and is intended for a very wide readership, but it does contain some introductory material on nonlinear systems, together with some novice-friendly computer programs. These "Ten programs for exploring dynamics" can be downloaded, if desired, from my web site http://www.jesus.ox.ac.uk/~dacheson where further details of the book may be found.

The results of the SIAM Dynamical Systems Activity Group Elections have been announced. The following have been elected to term running November 1st 1997 through October 31st 1999.