Preschoolers' vocabulary acquisition in Chile: the roles of socioeconomic status and quality of home environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Lohndorf, Regina T; Vermeer, Harriet J; Cárcamo, Rodrigo A; Mesman, Judi

2018-05-01

Preschoolers' vocabulary acquisition sets the stage for later reading ability and school achievement. This study examined the role of socioeconomic status (SES) and the quality of the home environment of seventy-seven Chilean majority and Mapuche minority families from low and lower-middle-class backgrounds in explaining individual differences in vocabulary acquisition of their three-and-a-half-year-old children. Additionally, we investigated whether the relation between SES and receptive and expressive vocabulary was mediated by the quality of the home environment as the Family Investment Model suggests. The quality of the home environment significantly predicted receptive and expressive vocabulary above and beyond ethnicity, SES, parental caregiver status, and quantity of daycare. Furthermore, the quality of the home environment mediated the relation between SES and expressive and receptive vocabulary acquisition.

Evolutionary Expectations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nash, Ulrik William

2014-01-01

, they are correlated among people who share environments because these individuals satisfice within their cognitive bounds by using cues in order of validity, as opposed to using cues arbitrarily. Any difference in expectations thereby arise from differences in cognitive ability, because two individuals with identical...... cognitive bounds will perceive business opportunities identically. In addition, because cues provide information about latent causal structures of the environment, changes in causality must be accompanied by changes in cognitive representations if adaptation is to be maintained. The concept of evolutionary......The concept of evolutionary expectations descends from cue learning psychology, synthesizing ideas on rational expectations with ideas on bounded rationality, to provide support for these ideas simultaneously. Evolutionary expectations are rational, but within cognitive bounds. Moreover...

The Costs and Risks of Maturing Technologies, Traditionally vs. Evolutionary Approaches

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Pennock, Michael J; Rouse, William B

2008-01-01

.... This results in more frequent, smaller increments of deployed capability. In theory, evolutionary acquisition could be more cost effective than traditional acquisition approaches because it avoids most of the risk inherent...

The Bilingual Brain: Human Evolution and Second Language Acquisition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L. Kirk Hagen

2008-01-01

Full Text Available For the past half-century, psycholinguistic research has concerned itself with two mysteries of human cognition: (1 that children universally acquire a highly abstract, computationally complex set of linguistic rules rapidly and effortlessly, and (2 that second language acquisition (SLA among adults is, conversely, slow, laborious, highly variable, and virtually never results in native fluency. We now have a decent, if approximate, understanding of the biological foundations of first language acquisition, thanks in large part to Lenneberg's (1964, 1984 seminal work on the critical period hypothesis. More recently, the elements of a promising theory of language and evolution have emerged as well (see e.g. Bickerton, 1981, 1990; Leiberman, 1984, 1987. I argue here that the empirical foundations of an evolutionary theory of language are now solid enough to support an account of bilingualism and adult SLA as well. Specifically, I will show that evidence from the environment of evolutionary adaptation of paleolithic humans suggests that for our nomadic ancestors, the ability to master a language early in life was an eminently useful adaptation. However, the ability to acquire another language in adulthood was not, and consequently was not selected for propagation.

The deep subterranean environment as a potential model system in ecological, biogeographical and evolutionary research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David Sánchez-Fernández

2018-01-01

Full Text Available One of the main challenges in ecology, biogeography and evolution is to understand and predict how species may respond to environmental changes. Here we focus on the deep subterranean environment, a system that minimizes most of the typical uncertainties of studies on epigean (surface environments. Caves are relatively homogeneous habitats with nearly constant environmental conditions and simplified biological communities, allowing to control for biotic interactions. Thus, this particular system could be considered a natural habitat whose environmental conditions are similar to what can be reproduced in a laboratory, being an ideal model system for ecological, biogeographical and evolutionary studies. Subterranean species may potentially be used to assess the capability to persist in situ in a global change scenario, as they cannot accommodate to drastic changing conditions by behavioural plasticity, microhabitat use or by migrating to distant, more suitable areas, something frequent in epigean environments. In order to provide accurate predictions of the response of the subterranean biodiversity to climate change, we encourage evolutionary biologist, biogeographers and conservation biologist to work in this interesting ecosystem.

Acquisition of stereo panoramas for display in VR environments

KAUST Repository

Ainsworth, Richard A.

2011-01-23

Virtual reality systems are an excellent environment for stereo panorama displays. The acquisition and display methods described here combine high-resolution photography with surround vision and full stereo view in an immersive environment. This combination provides photographic stereo-panoramas for a variety of VR displays, including the StarCAVE, NexCAVE, and CORNEA. The zero parallax point used in conventional panorama photography is also the center of horizontal and vertical rotation when creating photographs for stereo panoramas. The two photographically created images are displayed on a cylinder or a sphere. The radius from the viewer to the image is set at approximately 20 feet, or at the object of major interest. A full stereo view is presented in all directions. The interocular distance, as seen from the viewer\\'s perspective, displaces the two spherical images horizontally. This presents correct stereo separation in whatever direction the viewer is looking, even up and down. Objects at infinity will move with the viewer, contributing to an immersive experience. Stereo panoramas created with this acquisition and display technique can be applied without modification to a large array of VR devices having different screen arrangements and different VR libraries.

Gestural acquisition in great apes: the Social Negotiation Hypothesis.

Science.gov (United States)

Pika, Simone; Fröhlich, Marlen

2018-01-24

Scientific interest in the acquisition of gestural signalling dates back to the heroic figure of Charles Darwin. More than a hundred years later, we still know relatively little about the underlying evolutionary and developmental pathways involved. Here, we shed new light on this topic by providing the first systematic, quantitative comparison of gestural development in two different chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus and Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) subspecies and communities living in their natural environments. We conclude that the three most predominant perspectives on gestural acquisition-Phylogenetic Ritualization, Social Transmission via Imitation, and Ontogenetic Ritualization-do not satisfactorily explain our current findings on gestural interactions in chimpanzees in the wild. In contrast, we argue that the role of interactional experience and social exposure on gestural acquisition and communicative development has been strongly underestimated. We introduce the revised Social Negotiation Hypothesis and conclude with a brief set of empirical desiderata for instigating more research into this intriguing research domain.

Asymmetric competition impacts evolutionary rescue in a changing environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Den Elzen, Courtney L; Kleynhans, Elizabeth J; Otto, Sarah P

2017-06-28

Interspecific competition can strongly influence the evolutionary response of a species to a changing environment, impacting the chance that the species survives or goes extinct. Previous work has shown that when two species compete for a temporally shifting resource distribution, the species lagging behind the resource peak is the first to go extinct due to competitive exclusion. However, this work assumed symmetrically distributed resources and competition. Asymmetries can generate differences between species in population sizes, genetic variation and trait means. We show that asymmetric resource availability or competition can facilitate coexistence and even occasionally cause the leading species to go extinct first. Surprisingly, we also find cases where traits evolve in the opposite direction to the changing environment because of a 'vacuum of competitive release' created when the lagging species declines in number. Thus, the species exhibiting the slowest rate of trait evolution is not always the most likely to go extinct in a changing environment. Our results demonstrate that the extent to which species appear to be tracking environmental change and the extent to which they are preadapted to that change may not necessarily determine which species will be the winners and which will be the losers in a rapidly changing world. © 2017 The Author(s).

Rank acquisition in rhesus macaque yearlings following permanent maternal separation: The importance of the social and physical environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Wooddell, Lauren J; Kaburu, Stefano S K; Murphy, Ashley M; Suomi, Stephen J; Dettmer, Amanda M

2017-11-01

Rank acquisition is a developmental milestone for young primates, but the processes by which primate yearlings attain social rank in the absence of the mother remain unclear. We studied 18 maternally reared yearling rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) that differed in their social and physical rearing environments. We found that early social experience and maternal rank, but not individual traits (weight, sex, age), predicted dominance acquisition in the new peer-only social group. Yearlings also used coalitions to reinforce the hierarchy, and social affiliation (play and grooming) was likely a product, rather than a determinant, of rank acquisition. Following relocation to a familiar environment, significant rank changes occurred indicating that familiarity with a physical environment was salient in rank acquisition. Our results add to the growing body of literature emphasizing the role of the social and physical environment on behavioral development, namely social asymmetries among peers. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Evolutionary consequences of polyploidy in prokaryotes and the origin of mitosis and meiosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Markov, Alexander V; Kaznacheev, Ilya S

2016-06-08

The origin of eukaryote-specific traits such as mitosis and sexual reproduction remains disputable. There is growing evidence that both mitosis and eukaryotic sex (i.e., the alternation of syngamy and meiosis) may have already existed in the basal eukaryotes. The mating system of the halophilic archaeon Haloferax volcanii probably represents an intermediate stage between typical prokaryotic and eukaryotic sex. H. volcanii is highly polyploid, as well as many other Archaea. Here, we use computer simulation to explore genetic and evolutionary outcomes of polyploidy in amitotic prokaryotes and its possible role in the origin of mitosis, meiosis and eukaryotic sex. Modeling suggests that polyploidy can confer strong short-term evolutionary advantage to amitotic prokaryotes. However, it also promotes the accumulation of recessive deleterious mutations and the risk of extinction in the long term, especially in highly mutagenic environment. There are several possible strategies that amitotic polyploids can use in order to reduce the genetic costs of polyploidy while retaining its benefits. Interestingly, most of these strategies resemble different components or aspects of eukaryotic sex. They include asexual ploidy cycles, equalization of genome copies by gene conversion, high-frequency lateral gene transfer between relatives, chromosome exchange coupled with homologous recombination, and the evolution of more accurate chromosome distribution during cell division (mitosis). Acquisition of mitosis by an amitotic polyploid results in chromosome diversification and specialization. Ultimately, it transforms a polyploid cell into a functionally monoploid one with multiple unique, highly redundant chromosomes. Specialization of chromosomes makes the previously evolved modes of promiscuous chromosome shuffling deleterious. This can result in selective pressure to develop accurate mechanisms of homolog pairing, and, ultimately, meiosis. Emergence of mitosis and the first

Co-evolutionary dynamics of the human-environment system in the Heihe River basin in the past 2000years.

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Zhixiang; Wei, Yongping; Feng, Qi; Xie, Jiali; Xiao, Honglang; Cheng, Guodong

2018-09-01

There is limited quantitative understanding of interactions between human and environmental systems over the millennial scale. We aim to reveal the co-evolutionary dynamics of the human-environment system in a river basin by simulating the water use and net primary production (NPP) allocation for human and environmental systems over the last 2000years in Heihe River basin (HRB) in northwest China. We partition the catchment total evapotranspiration (ET) into ET for human and environmental systems with a social-hydrological framework and estimate the NPP for human and environmental systems using the Box-Lieth model, then classify the co-evolutionary processes of the human-environment system into distinct phases using the rate of changes of NPP over time, and discover the trade-offs or synergies relationships between them based on the elasticity of change of the NPP for humans to the change of NPP for environment. The co-evolutionary dynamics of human-environment system in the HRB can be divided into four periods, including: Phase I (Han Dynasty-Yuan Dynasty): predevelopment characterized by nearly no trade-offs between human and environment; Phase II (Yuan Dynasty-RC): slow agricultural development: characterized by a small human win due to small trade-offs between human and environment; Phase III (RC-2000): rapid agricultural development: characterized by a large human win due to large trade-offs between human and environment, and Phase IV (2000-2010): a rebalance characterized by large human wins with a small-environment win due to synergies, although these occurred very occasionally. This study provides a quantitative approach to describe the co-evolution of the human-environment system from the perspective of trade-offs and synergies in the millennial scale for the first time. The relationships between humans and environment changed from trade-off to synergy with the implementation of the water reallocation scheme in 2000. These findings improve the

Evolutionary robotics

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

In evolutionary robotics, a suitable robot control system is developed automatically through evolution due to the interactions between the robot and its environment. It is a complicated task, as the robot and the environment constitute a highly dynamical system. Several methods have been tried by various investigators to ...

Designing a parallel evolutionary algorithm for inferring gene networks on the cloud computing environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Wei-Po; Hsiao, Yu-Ting; Hwang, Wei-Che

2014-01-16

To improve the tedious task of reconstructing gene networks through testing experimentally the possible interactions between genes, it becomes a trend to adopt the automated reverse engineering procedure instead. Some evolutionary algorithms have been suggested for deriving network parameters. However, to infer large networks by the evolutionary algorithm, it is necessary to address two important issues: premature convergence and high computational cost. To tackle the former problem and to enhance the performance of traditional evolutionary algorithms, it is advisable to use parallel model evolutionary algorithms. To overcome the latter and to speed up the computation, it is advocated to adopt the mechanism of cloud computing as a promising solution: most popular is the method of MapReduce programming model, a fault-tolerant framework to implement parallel algorithms for inferring large gene networks. This work presents a practical framework to infer large gene networks, by developing and parallelizing a hybrid GA-PSO optimization method. Our parallel method is extended to work with the Hadoop MapReduce programming model and is executed in different cloud computing environments. To evaluate the proposed approach, we use a well-known open-source software GeneNetWeaver to create several yeast S. cerevisiae sub-networks and use them to produce gene profiles. Experiments have been conducted and the results have been analyzed. They show that our parallel approach can be successfully used to infer networks with desired behaviors and the computation time can be largely reduced. Parallel population-based algorithms can effectively determine network parameters and they perform better than the widely-used sequential algorithms in gene network inference. These parallel algorithms can be distributed to the cloud computing environment to speed up the computation. By coupling the parallel model population-based optimization method and the parallel computational framework, high

Gene Acquisition Convergence between Entomopoxviruses and Baculoviruses

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Julien Thézé

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Organisms from diverse phylogenetic origins can thrive within the same ecological niches. They might be induced to evolve convergent adaptations in response to a similar landscape of selective pressures. Their genomes should bear the signature of this process. The study of unrelated virus lineages infecting the same host panels guarantees a clear identification of phyletically independent convergent adaptation. Here, we investigate the evolutionary history of genes in the accessory genome shared by unrelated insect large dsDNA viruses: the entomopoxviruses (EPVs, Poxviridae and the baculoviruses (BVs. EPVs and BVs have overlapping ecological niches and have independently evolved similar infection processes. They are, in theory, subjected to the same selective pressures from their host’s immune responses. Their accessory genomes might, therefore, bear analogous genomic signatures of convergent adaption and could point out key genomic mechanisms of adaptation hitherto undetected in viruses. We uncovered 32 homologous, yet independent acquisitions of genes originating from insect hosts, different eukaryotes, bacteria and viruses. We showed different evolutionary levels of gene acquisition convergence in these viruses, underlining a continuous evolutionary process. We found both recent and ancient gene acquisitions possibly involved to the adaptation to both specific and distantly related hosts. Multidirectional and multipartite gene exchange networks appear to constantly drive exogenous gene assimilations, bringing key adaptive innovations and shaping the life histories of large DNA viruses. This evolutionary process might lead to genome level adaptive convergence.

Species co-evolutionary algorithm: a novel evolutionary algorithm based on the ecology and environments for optimization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Li, Wuzhao; Wang, Lei; Cai, Xingjuan

2015-01-01

and affect each other in many ways. The relationships include competition, predation, parasitism, mutualism and pythogenesis. In this paper, we consider the five relationships between solutions to propose a co-evolutionary algorithm termed species co-evolutionary algorithm (SCEA). In SCEA, five operators...

Evolutionary novelty in gravity sensing through horizontal gene transfer and high-order protein assembly.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tu Anh Nguyen

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Horizontal gene transfer (HGT can promote evolutionary adaptation by transforming a species' relationship to the environment. In most well-understood cases of HGT, acquired and donor functions appear to remain closely related. Thus, the degree to which HGT can lead to evolutionary novelties remains unclear. Mucorales fungi sense gravity through the sedimentation of vacuolar protein crystals. Here, we identify the octahedral crystal matrix protein (OCTIN. Phylogenetic analysis strongly supports acquisition of octin by HGT from bacteria. A bacterial OCTIN forms high-order periplasmic oligomers, and inter-molecular disulphide bonds are formed by both fungal and bacterial OCTINs, suggesting that they share elements of a conserved assembly mechanism. However, estimated sedimentation velocities preclude a gravity-sensing function for the bacterial structures. Together, our data suggest that HGT from bacteria into the Mucorales allowed a dramatic increase in assembly scale and emergence of the gravity-sensing function. We conclude that HGT can lead to evolutionary novelties that emerge depending on the physiological and cellular context of protein assembly.

Combining Environment-Driven Adaptation and Task-Driven Optimisation in Evolutionary Robotics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Haasdijk, E.W.; Bredeche, Nicolas; Eiben, A.E.

2014-01-01

Embodied evolutionary robotics is a sub-field of evolutionary robotics that employs evolutionary algorithms on the robotic hardware itself, during the operational period, i.e., in an on-line fashion. This enables robotic systems that continuously adapt, and are therefore capable of (re-)adjusting

Evolutionary Awareness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gregory Gorelik

2014-10-01

Full Text Available In this article, we advance the concept of “evolutionary awareness,” a metacognitive framework that examines human thought and emotion from a naturalistic, evolutionary perspective. We begin by discussing the evolution and current functioning of the moral foundations on which our framework rests. Next, we discuss the possible applications of such an evolutionarily-informed ethical framework to several domains of human behavior, namely: sexual maturation, mate attraction, intrasexual competition, culture, and the separation between various academic disciplines. Finally, we discuss ways in which an evolutionary awareness can inform our cross-generational activities—which we refer to as “intergenerational extended phenotypes”—by helping us to construct a better future for ourselves, for other sentient beings, and for our environment.

Evolutionary Design of Convolutional Neural Networks for Human Activity Recognition in Sensor-Rich Environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Baldominos, Alejandro; Saez, Yago; Isasi, Pedro

2018-04-23

Human activity recognition is a challenging problem for context-aware systems and applications. It is gaining interest due to the ubiquity of different sensor sources, wearable smart objects, ambient sensors, etc. This task is usually approached as a supervised machine learning problem, where a label is to be predicted given some input data, such as the signals retrieved from different sensors. For tackling the human activity recognition problem in sensor network environments, in this paper we propose the use of deep learning (convolutional neural networks) to perform activity recognition using the publicly available OPPORTUNITY dataset. Instead of manually choosing a suitable topology, we will let an evolutionary algorithm design the optimal topology in order to maximize the classification F1 score. After that, we will also explore the performance of committees of the models resulting from the evolutionary process. Results analysis indicates that the proposed model was able to perform activity recognition within a heterogeneous sensor network environment, achieving very high accuracies when tested with new sensor data. Based on all conducted experiments, the proposed neuroevolutionary system has proved to be able to systematically find a classification model which is capable of outperforming previous results reported in the state-of-the-art, showing that this approach is useful and improves upon previously manually-designed architectures.

Evolutionary adaptations: theoretical and practical implications for visual ergonomics.

Science.gov (United States)

Fostervold, Knut Inge; Watten, Reidulf G; Volden, Frode

2014-01-01

The literature discussing visual ergonomics often mention that human vision is adapted to light emitted by the sun. However, theoretical and practical implications of this viewpoint is seldom discussed or taken into account. The paper discusses some of the main theoretical implications of an evolutionary approach to visual ergonomics. Based on interactional theory and ideas from ecological psychology an evolutionary stress model is proposed as a theoretical framework for future research in ergonomics and human factors. The model stresses the importance of developing work environments that fits with our evolutionary adaptations. In accordance with evolutionary psychology, the environment of evolutionary adaptedness (EEA) and evolutionarily-novel environments (EN) are used as key concepts. Using work with visual display units (VDU) as an example, the paper discusses how this knowledge can be utilized in an ergonomic analysis of risk factors in the work environment. The paper emphasises the importance of incorporating evolutionary theory in the field of ergonomics. Further, the paper encourages scientific practices that further our understanding of any phenomena beyond the borders of traditional proximal explanations.

Comparison of evolutionary computation algorithms for solving bi ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

failure probability. Multiobjective Evolutionary Computation algorithms (MOEAs) are well-suited for Multiobjective task scheduling on heterogeneous environment. The two Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms such as Multiobjective Genetic. Algorithm (MOGA) and Multiobjective Evolutionary Programming (MOEP) with.

Indoor Thermal Comfort, an Evolutionary Biology Perspective

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Stoops, John L.

2006-04-15

As is becoming increasingly clear, the human species evolvedin the East African savannah. Details of the precise evolutionary chainremain unresolved however it appears that the process lasted severalmillion years, culminating with the emergence of modern Homo sapiensroughly 200,000 years ago. Following that final evolutionary developmentmodern Homo sapiens relatively quickly populated the entire world.Clearly modern Homo sapiens is a successful, resourceful and adaptablespecies. In the developed societies, modern humans live an existence farremoved from our evolutionary ancestors. As we have learned over the lastcentury, this "new" lifestyle can often result in unintendedconsequences. Clearly, our modern access to food, shelter, transportationand healthcare has resulted in greatly expanded expected lifespan butthis new lifestyle can also result in the emergence of different kinds ofdiseases and health problems. The environment in modern buildings haslittle resemblance to the environment of the savannah. We strive tocreate environments with little temperature, air movement and lightvariation. Building occupants often express great dissatisfaction withthese modern created environments and a significant fraction even developsomething akin to allergies to specific buildings (sick buildingsyndrome). Are the indoor environments we are creating fundamentallyunhealthy -- when examined from an evolutionary perspective?

Evolutionary dynamics of bacteria in a human host environment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Yang, Lei; Jelsbak, Lars; Marvig, Rasmus Lykke

2011-01-01

Laboratory evolution experiments have led to important findings relating organism adaptation and genomic evolution. However, continuous monitoring of long-term evolution has been lacking for natural systems, limiting our understanding of these processes in situ. Here we characterize the evolution...... long-term in vitro evolution experiments. The evolved phenotype of the infecting bacteria further suggests that the opportunistic pathogen has transitioned to become a primary pathogen for cystic fibrosis patients.......Laboratory evolution experiments have led to important findings relating organism adaptation and genomic evolution. However, continuous monitoring of long-term evolution has been lacking for natural systems, limiting our understanding of these processes in situ. Here we characterize...... the evolutionary dynamics of a lineage of a clinically important opportunistic bacterial pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, as it adapts to the airways of several individual cystic fibrosis patients over 200,000 bacterial generations, and provide estimates of mutation rates of bacteria in a natural environment...

Risk attitudes in a changing environment: An evolutionary model of the fourfold pattern of risk preferences.

Science.gov (United States)

Mallpress, Dave E W; Fawcett, Tim W; Houston, Alasdair I; McNamara, John M

2015-04-01

A striking feature of human decision making is the fourfold pattern of risk attitudes, involving risk-averse behavior in situations of unlikely losses and likely gains, but risk-seeking behavior in response to likely losses and unlikely gains. Current theories to explain this pattern assume particular psychological processes to reproduce empirical observations, but do not address whether it is adaptive for the decision maker to respond to risk in this way. Here, drawing on insights from behavioral ecology, we build an evolutionary model of risk-sensitive behavior, to investigate whether particular types of environmental conditions could favor a fourfold pattern of risk attitudes. We consider an individual foraging in a changing environment, where energy is needed to prevent starvation and build up reserves for reproduction. The outcome, in terms of reproductive value (a rigorous measure of evolutionary success), of a one-off choice between a risky and a safe gain, or between a risky and a safe loss, determines the risk-sensitive behavior we should expect to see in this environment. Our results show that the fourfold pattern of risk attitudes may be adaptive in an environment in which conditions vary stochastically but are autocorrelated in time. In such an environment the current options provide information about the likely environmental conditions in the future, which affect the optimal pattern of risk sensitivity. Our model predicts that risk preferences should be both path dependent and affected by the decision maker's current state. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

A teleofunctional account of evolutionary mismatch.

Science.gov (United States)

Cofnas, Nathan

When the environment in which an organism lives deviates in some essential way from that to which it is adapted, this is described as "evolutionary mismatch," or "evolutionary novelty." The notion of mismatch plays an important role, explicitly or implicitly, in evolution-informed cognitive psychology, clinical psychology, and medicine. The evolutionary novelty of our contemporary environment is thought to have significant implications for our health and well-being. However, scientists have generally been working without a clear definition of mismatch. This paper defines mismatch as deviations in the environment that render biological traits unable, or impaired in their ability, to produce their selected effects (i.e., to perform their proper functions in Neander's sense). The machinery developed by Millikan in connection with her account of proper function, and with her related teleosemantic account of representation, is used to identify four major types, and several subtypes, of evolutionary mismatch. While the taxonomy offered here does not in itself resolve any scientific debates, the hope is that it can be used to better formulate empirical hypotheses concerning the effects of mismatch. To illustrate, it is used to show that the controversial hypothesis that general intelligence evolved as an adaptation to handle evolutionary novelty can, contra some critics, be formulated in a conceptually coherent way.

Individual Differences in Spatial Knowledge Acquisition from a Virtual Environment: An Eye-Tracking Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ryosuke Uenaka

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Previous studies have shown that spatial knowledge acquisition differs across individuals in both real and virtual environments. For example, in a real environment, Ishikawa & Montello (2006 showed that some participants had almost perfect configural knowledge of the environment after one or two learning trials, whereas others performed at chance even after repeated learning trials. Using a virtual version of Ishikawa & Montello's layouts, we measured eye movements while participants were learning a layout of a route, as eye movements are shown to be closely linked to performance in spatial navigation tasks. We prepared three different layouts of a route depicted in a desktop virtual environment, along with the locations of four landmarks on that route. After learning each of the routes, we administered three different measures of spatial knowledge: numbering the landmark order, estimation of direction, and map sketching. Self-reported sense-of-direction (SDQ-S was also measured. Behavioral analyses showed positive correlations across the routes in the estimation of direction. However, consistent correlations were not observed between eye movements and performance of the estimation of direction in each route. Those results suggest that eye movements do not predict individual differences in spatial knowledge acquisition.

Evolutionary Design of Convolutional Neural Networks for Human Activity Recognition in Sensor-Rich Environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alejandro Baldominos

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Human activity recognition is a challenging problem for context-aware systems and applications. It is gaining interest due to the ubiquity of different sensor sources, wearable smart objects, ambient sensors, etc. This task is usually approached as a supervised machine learning problem, where a label is to be predicted given some input data, such as the signals retrieved from different sensors. For tackling the human activity recognition problem in sensor network environments, in this paper we propose the use of deep learning (convolutional neural networks to perform activity recognition using the publicly available OPPORTUNITY dataset. Instead of manually choosing a suitable topology, we will let an evolutionary algorithm design the optimal topology in order to maximize the classification F1 score. After that, we will also explore the performance of committees of the models resulting from the evolutionary process. Results analysis indicates that the proposed model was able to perform activity recognition within a heterogeneous sensor network environment, achieving very high accuracies when tested with new sensor data. Based on all conducted experiments, the proposed neuroevolutionary system has proved to be able to systematically find a classification model which is capable of outperforming previous results reported in the state-of-the-art, showing that this approach is useful and improves upon previously manually-designed architectures.

Evolutionary Design of Convolutional Neural Networks for Human Activity Recognition in Sensor-Rich Environments

Science.gov (United States)

2018-01-01

Human activity recognition is a challenging problem for context-aware systems and applications. It is gaining interest due to the ubiquity of different sensor sources, wearable smart objects, ambient sensors, etc. This task is usually approached as a supervised machine learning problem, where a label is to be predicted given some input data, such as the signals retrieved from different sensors. For tackling the human activity recognition problem in sensor network environments, in this paper we propose the use of deep learning (convolutional neural networks) to perform activity recognition using the publicly available OPPORTUNITY dataset. Instead of manually choosing a suitable topology, we will let an evolutionary algorithm design the optimal topology in order to maximize the classification F1 score. After that, we will also explore the performance of committees of the models resulting from the evolutionary process. Results analysis indicates that the proposed model was able to perform activity recognition within a heterogeneous sensor network environment, achieving very high accuracies when tested with new sensor data. Based on all conducted experiments, the proposed neuroevolutionary system has proved to be able to systematically find a classification model which is capable of outperforming previous results reported in the state-of-the-art, showing that this approach is useful and improves upon previously manually-designed architectures. PMID:29690587

Applying evolutionary anthropology.

Science.gov (United States)

Gibson, Mhairi A; Lawson, David W

2015-01-01

Evolutionary anthropology provides a powerful theoretical framework for understanding how both current environments and legacies of past selection shape human behavioral diversity. This integrative and pluralistic field, combining ethnographic, demographic, and sociological methods, has provided new insights into the ultimate forces and proximate pathways that guide human adaptation and variation. Here, we present the argument that evolutionary anthropological studies of human behavior also hold great, largely untapped, potential to guide the design, implementation, and evaluation of social and public health policy. Focusing on the key anthropological themes of reproduction, production, and distribution we highlight classic and recent research demonstrating the value of an evolutionary perspective to improving human well-being. The challenge now comes in transforming relevance into action and, for that, evolutionary behavioral anthropologists will need to forge deeper connections with other applied social scientists and policy-makers. We are hopeful that these developments are underway and that, with the current tide of enthusiasm for evidence-based approaches to policy, evolutionary anthropology is well positioned to make a strong contribution. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Applying Evolutionary Anthropology

Science.gov (United States)

Gibson, Mhairi A; Lawson, David W

2015-01-01

Evolutionary anthropology provides a powerful theoretical framework for understanding how both current environments and legacies of past selection shape human behavioral diversity. This integrative and pluralistic field, combining ethnographic, demographic, and sociological methods, has provided new insights into the ultimate forces and proximate pathways that guide human adaptation and variation. Here, we present the argument that evolutionary anthropological studies of human behavior also hold great, largely untapped, potential to guide the design, implementation, and evaluation of social and public health policy. Focusing on the key anthropological themes of reproduction, production, and distribution we highlight classic and recent research demonstrating the value of an evolutionary perspective to improving human well-being. The challenge now comes in transforming relevance into action and, for that, evolutionary behavioral anthropologists will need to forge deeper connections with other applied social scientists and policy-makers. We are hopeful that these developments are underway and that, with the current tide of enthusiasm for evidence-based approaches to policy, evolutionary anthropology is well positioned to make a strong contribution. PMID:25684561

Predicting evolutionary responses when genetic variance and selection covary with the environment: a large-scale Open Access Data approach

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ramakers, J.J.C.; Culina, A.; Visser, M.E.; Gienapp, P.

2017-01-01

Additive genetic variance and selection are the key ingredients for evolution. In wild populations, however, predicting evolutionary trajectories is difficult, potentially by an unrecognised underlying environment dependency of both (additive) genetic variance and selection (i.e. G×E and S×E).

An evolutionary perspective on gradual formation of superego in the primal horde

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erdem ePulcu

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Freud proposed that the processes which occurred in the primal horde are essential for understanding superego formation and therefore, the successful dissolution of the Oedipus complex. However, Freud theorized superego formation in the primal horde as if it is an instant, all-or-none achievement. The present paper proposes an alternative model aiming to explain gradual development of superego in the primitive man. The proposed model is built on knowledge from evolutionary and neural sciences as well as anthropology, and it particularly focuses on the evolutionary significance of the acquisition of fire by hominids in the Pleistocene period in the light of archaeological findings. Acquisition of fire is discussed as a form of sublimation which might have helped Prehistoric man to maximise the utility of limited evolutionary biological resources, potentially contributing to the rate and extent of bodily evolution. The limitations of both Freud's original conceptualisation and the present model are discussed accordingly in an interdisciplinary framework.

Local Fitness Landscapes Predict Yeast Evolutionary Dynamics in Directionally Changing Environments.

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Gorter, Florien A; Aarts, Mark G M; Zwaan, Bas J; de Visser, J Arjan G M

2018-01-01

The fitness landscape is a concept that is widely used for understanding and predicting evolutionary adaptation. The topography of the fitness landscape depends critically on the environment, with potentially far-reaching consequences for evolution under changing conditions. However, few studies have assessed directly how empirical fitness landscapes change across conditions, or validated the predicted consequences of such change. We previously evolved replicate yeast populations in the presence of either gradually increasing, or constant high, concentrations of the heavy metals cadmium (Cd), nickel (Ni), and zinc (Zn), and analyzed their phenotypic and genomic changes. Here, we reconstructed the local fitness landscapes underlying adaptation to each metal by deleting all repeatedly mutated genes both by themselves and in combination. Fitness assays revealed that the height, and/or shape, of each local fitness landscape changed considerably across metal concentrations, with distinct qualitative differences between unconditionally (Cd) and conditionally toxic metals (Ni and Zn). This change in topography had particularly crucial consequences in the case of Ni, where a substantial part of the individual mutational fitness effects changed in sign across concentrations. Based on the Ni landscape analyses, we made several predictions about which mutations had been selected when during the evolution experiment. Deep sequencing of population samples from different time points generally confirmed these predictions, demonstrating the power of landscape reconstruction analyses for understanding and ultimately predicting evolutionary dynamics, even under complex scenarios of environmental change. Copyright © 2018 by the Genetics Society of America.

Understanding the mind from an evolutionary perspective: an overview of evolutionary psychology.

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Shackelford, Todd K; Liddle, James R

2014-05-01

The theory of evolution by natural selection provides the only scientific explanation for the existence of complex adaptations. The design features of the brain, like any organ, are the result of selection pressures operating over deep time. Evolutionary psychology posits that the human brain comprises a multitude of evolved psychological mechanisms, adaptations to specific and recurrent problems of survival and reproduction faced over human evolutionary history. Although some mistakenly view evolutionary psychology as promoting genetic determinism, evolutionary psychologists appreciate and emphasize the interactions between genes and environments. This approach to psychology has led to a richer understanding of a variety of psychological phenomena, and has provided a powerful foundation for generating novel hypotheses. Critics argue that evolutionary psychologists resort to storytelling, but as with any branch of science, empirical testing is a vital component of the field, with hypotheses standing or falling with the weight of the evidence. Evolutionary psychology is uniquely suited to provide a unifying theoretical framework for the disparate subdisciplines of psychology. An evolutionary perspective has provided insights into several subdisciplines of psychology, while simultaneously demonstrating the arbitrary nature of dividing psychological science into such subdisciplines. Evolutionary psychologists have amassed a substantial empirical and theoretical literature, but as a relatively new approach to psychology, many questions remain, with several promising directions for future research. For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website. The authors have declared no conflicts of interest for this article. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A Cost Effective Solution for Development Environment for Data Acquisition, Monitoring and Simulation of PLC Controlled Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

O. Bjelica

2014-06-01

Full Text Available It is very important to test and monitor the operation of Programmable Logic Controller (PLC in real time (online. Nowadays, conventional, but expensive monitoring systems for PLCs, such as Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA systems, software and hardware simulators (or debuggers, are widely used. This paper proposes a user friendly and cost-effective development environment for monitoring, data acquisition and online simulation of applications with PLC. The purpose of this solution is to simulate the process which is controlled by the PLC. The performances of the proposed development environment are presented on the examples of washing machine and dishwasher simulators.

Radioprotection of the environment: on the context of biodiversity and evolutionary theory. A reference organism has no genetic properties

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cedervall, Bjoern

2008-01-01

The recent efforts to define a basis for radioprotection of the environment include some concepts and ideas related to various endpoints which need a clarification. This paper focuses on the biodiversity concept and the context of individuals of a species as well as that of the species as a gene pool. A major problem with the ambition to radioprotect biodiversity is the concept 'reference organism' which has no genetic properties and therefore is in contradiction with a real biological species. Biodiversity and the species (gene pool) concept are, just as any other areas of biology, integral parts of evolutionary theory. With the reference organism as a basis no meaningful reasoning can take place which relates data on radioactivity levels or mutations to potential effects on populations or biodiversity. It is therefore suggested that the national and international bodies involved in radioprotection of the environment take advantage of evolutionary theory as a reference frame. (author)

[Evolutionary medicine: an introduction. Evolutionary biology, a missing element in medical teaching].

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Swynghedauw, Bernard

2009-05-01

The aim of this brief review article is to help to reconcile medicine with evolutionary biology, a subject that should be taught in medical school. Evolutionary medicine takes the view that contemporary ills are related to an incompatibility between the environment in which humans currently live and their genomes, which have been shaped by diferent environmental conditions during biological evolution. Human activity has recently induced acute environmental modifications that have profoundly changed the medical landscape. Evolutionary biology is an irreversible, ongoing and discontinuous process characterized by periods of stasis followed by accelerations. Evolutionary biology is determined by genetic mutations, which are selected either by Darwinian selective pressure or randomly by genetic drift. Most medical events result from a genome/environment conflict. Some may be purely genetic, as in monogenic diseases, and others purely environmental, such as traffic accidents. Nevertheless, in most common diseases the clinical landscape is determined by the conflict between these two factors, the genetic elements of which are gradually being unraveled Three examples are examined in depth:--The medical consequences of the greenhouse effect. The absence of excess mortality during recent heat waves suggests that the main determinant of mortality in the 2003 heatwave was heatstroke and old age. The projected long-term effects of global warming call for research on thermolysis, a forgotten branch of physiology.--The hygiene hypothesis postulates that the exponential rise in autoimmune and allergic diseases is linked to lesser exposure to infectious agents, possibly involving counter-regulatory factors such as IL-10.--The recent rise in the incidence of obesity and type 2 diabetes in rich countries can be considered to result from a conflict between a calorie-rich environment and gene variants that control appetite. These variants are currently being identified by genome

Rearing environment influences boldness and prey acquisition behavior, and brain and lens development of bull trout

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Brignon, William R.; Pike, Martin M.; Ebbesson, Lars O.E.; Schaller, Howard A.; Peterson, James T.; Schreck, Carl B.

2018-01-01

Animals reared in barren captive environments exhibit different developmental trajectories and behaviors than wild counterparts. Hence, the captive phenotypes may influence the success of reintroduction and recovery programs for threatened and endangered species. We collected wild bull trout embryos from the Metolius River Basin, Oregon and reared them in differing environments to better understand how captivity affects the bull trout Salvelinus confluentusphenotype. We compared the boldness and prey acquisition behaviors and development of the brain and eye lens of bull trout reared in conventional barren and more structurally complex captive environments with that of wild fish. Wild fish and captive reared fish from complex habitats exhibited a greater level of boldness and prey acquisition ability, than fish reared in conventional captive environments. In addition, the eye lens of conventionally reared bull trout was larger than complex reared captive fish or same age wild fish. Interestingly, we detected wild fish had a smaller relative cerebellum than either captive reared treatment. Our results suggest that rearing fish in more complex captive environments can create a more wild-like phenotype than conventional rearing practices. A better understanding of the effects of captivity on the development and behavior of bull trout can inform rearing and reintroduction programs though prediction of the performance of released individuals.

Population and evolutionary dynamics in spatially structured seasonally varying environments.

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Reid, Jane M; Travis, Justin M J; Daunt, Francis; Burthe, Sarah J; Wanless, Sarah; Dytham, Calvin

2018-03-25

Increasingly imperative objectives in ecology are to understand and forecast population dynamic and evolutionary responses to seasonal environmental variation and change. Such population and evolutionary dynamics result from immediate and lagged responses of all key life-history traits, and resulting demographic rates that affect population growth rate, to seasonal environmental conditions and population density. However, existing population dynamic and eco-evolutionary theory and models have not yet fully encompassed within-individual and among-individual variation, covariation, structure and heterogeneity, and ongoing evolution, in a critical life-history trait that allows individuals to respond to seasonal environmental conditions: seasonal migration. Meanwhile, empirical studies aided by new animal-tracking technologies are increasingly demonstrating substantial within-population variation in the occurrence and form of migration versus year-round residence, generating diverse forms of 'partial migration' spanning diverse species, habitats and spatial scales. Such partially migratory systems form a continuum between the extreme scenarios of full migration and full year-round residence, and are commonplace in nature. Here, we first review basic scenarios of partial migration and associated models designed to identify conditions that facilitate the maintenance of migratory polymorphism. We highlight that such models have been fundamental to the development of partial migration theory, but are spatially and demographically simplistic compared to the rich bodies of population dynamic theory and models that consider spatially structured populations with dispersal but no migration, or consider populations experiencing strong seasonality and full obligate migration. Second, to provide an overarching conceptual framework for spatio-temporal population dynamics, we define a 'partially migratory meta-population' system as a spatially structured set of locations that can

Asymmetric Evolutionary Games

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McAvoy, Alex; Hauert, Christoph

2015-01-01

Evolutionary game theory is a powerful framework for studying evolution in populations of interacting individuals. A common assumption in evolutionary game theory is that interactions are symmetric, which means that the players are distinguished by only their strategies. In nature, however, the microscopic interactions between players are nearly always asymmetric due to environmental effects, differing baseline characteristics, and other possible sources of heterogeneity. To model these phenomena, we introduce into evolutionary game theory two broad classes of asymmetric interactions: ecological and genotypic. Ecological asymmetry results from variation in the environments of the players, while genotypic asymmetry is a consequence of the players having differing baseline genotypes. We develop a theory of these forms of asymmetry for games in structured populations and use the classical social dilemmas, the Prisoner’s Dilemma and the Snowdrift Game, for illustrations. Interestingly, asymmetric games reveal essential differences between models of genetic evolution based on reproduction and models of cultural evolution based on imitation that are not apparent in symmetric games. PMID:26308326

Eco-evolutionary spatial dynamics in the Glanville fritillary butterfly.

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Hanski, Ilkka A

2011-08-30

Demographic population dynamics, gene flow, and local adaptation may influence each other and lead to coupling of ecological and evolutionary dynamics, especially in species inhabiting fragmented heterogeneous environments. Here, I review long-term research on eco-evolutionary spatial dynamics in the Glanville fritillary butterfly inhabiting a large network of approximately 4,000 meadows in Finland. The metapopulation persists in a balance between frequent local extinctions and recolonizations. The genetic spatial structure as defined by neutral markers is much more coarse-grained than the demographic spatial structure determined by the fragmented habitat, yet small-scale spatial structure has important consequences for the dynamics. I discuss three examples of eco-evolutionary spatial dynamics. (i) Extinction-colonization metapopulation dynamics influence allele frequency changes in the phosphoglucose isomerase (Pgi) gene, which leads to strong associations between genetic variation in Pgi and dispersal, recolonization, and local population dynamics. (ii) Inbreeding in local populations increases their risk for extinction, whereas reciprocal effects between inbreeding, population size, and emigration represent likely eco-evolutionary feedbacks. (iii) Genetically determined female oviposition preference for two host plant species exhibits a cline paralleling a gradient in host plant relative abundances, and host plant preference of dispersing females in relation to the host plant composition of habitat patches influences immigration (gene flow) and recolonization (founder events). Eco-evolutionary spatial dynamics in heterogeneous environments may not lead to directional evolutionary changes unless the environment itself changes, but eco-evolutionary dynamics may contribute to the maintenance of genetic variation attributable to fluctuating selection in space and time.

Evolutionary theory and the naturalist fallacy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grodal, Torben Kragh

2008-01-01

that great work of art are also automatically fitness-enhancing in the present day environment, at that there are simple correllations between whether a work of art has a high aesthetic value and whether it is fitness-enhancing or not.  Keywords :  Evolutionary aesthetics, film theory, literary theory......The article is an invited response to a target article by Joseph Carroll entitled "An evolutionary paradigm for literary study". It argues that the target article  misuse the fact that works of art are based on adaptations that were fitness-enhancing in the era of evolutionary adaptations to claim...

Different opinions of physicians on the importance of measures to prevent acquisition of Pseudomonas aeruginosa from the environment.

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Steinkamp, Gratiana; Ullrich, Gerald

2003-12-01

Since chronic infection with mucoid Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) is associated with deteriorating lung function, many parents of young children with cystic fibrosis (CF) fear the first PA positive throat swab as a milestone in the progression of the disease. To reduce the risk of PA acquisition from the environment, they perform preventive measures at home or outdoors. In an attempt to evaluate the attitude of CF physicians towards these measures and the respective consulting practice, we mailed a questionnaire to all 65 certified paediatric CF centres in Germany. Physicians from 54 (83%) CF clinics replied. They expressed widely different ideas about the impact of the environment for the acquisition of P. aeruginosa, and recommended a large spectrum of preventive measures. Some physicians proposed only few precautions, which focussed on the prevention of cross-infection between patients, whereas others suggested prevention of any contact with moist or wet places, e.g. use different toothbrushes for mornings and evenings, or do without air-conditioning in the car. CF physicians have different opinions on the risk of PA acquisition from the environment. Doctors who recommend strict precautions could engender a parental fear of a ubiquous threat from invisible bacteria. The resulting extended safety measures might impair the family's quality of life. Copyright 2003 European Cystic Fibrosis Society

Evolutionary ecology of virus emergence.

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Dennehy, John J

2017-02-01

The cross-species transmission of viruses into new host populations, termed virus emergence, is a significant issue in public health, agriculture, wildlife management, and related fields. Virus emergence requires overlap between host populations, alterations in virus genetics to permit infection of new hosts, and adaptation to novel hosts such that between-host transmission is sustainable, all of which are the purview of the fields of ecology and evolution. A firm understanding of the ecology of viruses and how they evolve is required for understanding how and why viruses emerge. In this paper, I address the evolutionary mechanisms of virus emergence and how they relate to virus ecology. I argue that, while virus acquisition of the ability to infect new hosts is not difficult, limited evolutionary trajectories to sustained virus between-host transmission and the combined effects of mutational meltdown, bottlenecking, demographic stochasticity, density dependence, and genetic erosion in ecological sinks limit most emergence events to dead-end spillover infections. Despite the relative rarity of pandemic emerging viruses, the potential of viruses to search evolutionary space and find means to spread epidemically and the consequences of pandemic viruses that do emerge necessitate sustained attention to virus research, surveillance, prophylaxis, and treatment. © 2016 New York Academy of Sciences.

An Evolutionary Psychology Approach to Consumer Choice

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ZURINA BT MOHAIDIN

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Human behaviour can be explained not only through experience and environments but also by incorporating evolutionary explanation. Consumer behaviour could not be understood accurately without infusing Darwinian evolutionary theory which has contributed in the knowledge of human nature. Evolutionary psychology revolves around the human’s evolved mental and the impact on human’s traits and behaviour where the influence of the environment to our genes would determine our individual behaviour and traits, resulting in variation among us. Foraging which is a part of behavioural ecology involves many sequences or repetitions of animals’ activities and decision making which is useful to relate these patterns of activities to the decisions made in human consumption. The aim of this research is to investigate the similarities of human consumption and ecological behaviour by employing interpretative and comparative approach. It is hoped that by applying the evolutionary theory in explaining consumer choice, this study is able to contribute to the development of behavioural ecology in human consumption. The analysis of the data is done aggregately for 200 consumers and individually for 20 consumers, who have purchased four product categories over a year. This study concludes that the theories of evolutionary psychology can fit to the consumers’ buying behaviour implicating its usefulness in explaining the consumers’ choice.

How evolutionary principles improve the understanding of human health and disease.

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Gluckman, Peter D; Low, Felicia M; Buklijas, Tatjana; Hanson, Mark A; Beedle, Alan S

2011-03-01

An appreciation of the fundamental principles of evolutionary biology provides new insights into major diseases and enables an integrated understanding of human biology and medicine. However, there is a lack of awareness of their importance amongst physicians, medical researchers, and educators, all of whom tend to focus on the mechanistic (proximate) basis for disease, excluding consideration of evolutionary (ultimate) reasons. The key principles of evolutionary medicine are that selection acts on fitness, not health or longevity; that our evolutionary history does not cause disease, but rather impacts on our risk of disease in particular environments; and that we are now living in novel environments compared to those in which we evolved. We consider these evolutionary principles in conjunction with population genetics and describe several pathways by which evolutionary processes can affect disease risk. These perspectives provide a more cohesive framework for gaining insights into the determinants of health and disease. Coupled with complementary insights offered by advances in genomic, epigenetic, and developmental biology research, evolutionary perspectives offer an important addition to understanding disease. Further, there are a number of aspects of evolutionary medicine that can add considerably to studies in other domains of contemporary evolutionary studies.

Evolutionary relevance facilitates visual information processing.

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Jackson, Russell E; Calvillo, Dusti P

2013-11-03

Visual search of the environment is a fundamental human behavior that perceptual load affects powerfully. Previously investigated means for overcoming the inhibitions of high perceptual load, however, generalize poorly to real-world human behavior. We hypothesized that humans would process evolutionarily relevant stimuli more efficiently than evolutionarily novel stimuli, and evolutionary relevance would mitigate the repercussions of high perceptual load during visual search. Animacy is a significant component to evolutionary relevance of visual stimuli because perceiving animate entities is time-sensitive in ways that pose significant evolutionary consequences. Participants completing a visual search task located evolutionarily relevant and animate objects fastest and with the least impact of high perceptual load. Evolutionarily novel and inanimate objects were located slowest and with the highest impact of perceptual load. Evolutionary relevance may importantly affect everyday visual information processing.

Evolutionary engineering reveals divergent paths when yeast is adapted to different acidic environments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fletcher, Eugene; Feizi, Amir; Bisschops, Markus M. M.

2017-01-01

Tolerance of yeast to acid stress is important for many industrial processes including organic acid production. Therefore, elucidating the molecular basis of long term adaptation to acidic environments will be beneficial for engineering production strains to thrive under such harsh conditions....... Previous studies using gene expression analysis have suggested that both organic and inorganic acids display similar responses during short term exposure to acidic conditions. However, biological mechanisms that will lead to long term adaptation of yeast to acidic conditions remains unknown and whether...... factor in the evolutionary process since cells evolved on two different carbon sources (raffinose and glucose) generated a different set of mutations in response to the presence of lactic acid. Therefore, different strategies are required for a rational design of low pH tolerant strains depending...

The Physcomitrella genome reveals evolutionary insights into the conquest of land by plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rensing, Stefan A.; Lang, Daniel; Zimmer, Andreas D.; Terry, Astrid; Salamov, Asaf; Shapiro, Harris; Nishiyama, Tomaoki; Perroud, Pierre-Francois; Lindquist, Erika A.; Kamisugi, Yasuko; Tanahashi, Takako; Sakakibara, Keiko; Fujita, Tomomichi; Oishi, Kazuko; Shin, Tadasu; Kuroki, Yoko; Toyoda, Atsushi; Suzuki, Yutaka; Hashimoto, Shin-ichi; Yamaguchi, Kazuo; Sugano, Sumio; Kohara, Yuji; Fujiyama, Asao; Anterola, Aldwin; Aoki, Setsuyuki; Ashton, Neil; Barbazuk, W. Brad; Barker, Elizabeth; Bennetzen, Jeffrey L.; Blankenship, Robert; Cho, Sung Hyun; Dutcher, Susan K.; Estelle, Mark; Fawcett, Jeffrey A.; Gundlach, Heidrum; Hanada, Kousuke; Melkozernov, Alexander; Murata, Takashi; Nelson, David R.; Pils, Birgit; Prigge, Michael; Reiss, Bernd; Renner, Tanya; Rombauts, Stephane; Rushton, Paul J.; Sanderfoot, Anton; Schween, Gabriele; Shiu, Shin-Han; Stueber, Kurt; Theodoulou, Frederica L.; Tu, Hank; Van de Peer, Yves; Verrier, Paul J.; Waters, Elizabeth; Wood, Andrew; Yang, Lixing; Cove, David; Cuming, Andrew C.; Hasebe, Mitsayasu; Lucas, Susan; Mishler, Brent D.; Reski, Ralf; Grigoriev, Igor V.; Quatrano, Rakph S.; Boore, Jeffrey L.

2007-09-18

We report the draft genome sequence of the model moss Physcomitrella patens and compare its features with those of flowering plants, from which it is separated by more than 400 million years, and unicellular aquatic algae. This comparison reveals genomic changes concomitant with the evolutionary movement to land, including a general increase in gene family complexity; loss of genes associated with aquatic environments (e.g., flagellar arms); acquisition of genes for tolerating terrestrial stresses (e.g., variation in temperature and water availability); and the development of the auxin and abscisic acid signaling pathways for coordinating multicellular growth and dehydration response. The Physcomitrella genome provides a resource for phylogenetic inferences about gene function and for experimental analysis of plant processes through this plant's unique facility for reverse genetics.

Evolutionary Relevance Facilitates Visual Information Processing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Russell E. Jackson

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Visual search of the environment is a fundamental human behavior that perceptual load affects powerfully. Previously investigated means for overcoming the inhibitions of high perceptual load, however, generalize poorly to real-world human behavior. We hypothesized that humans would process evolutionarily relevant stimuli more efficiently than evolutionarily novel stimuli, and evolutionary relevance would mitigate the repercussions of high perceptual load during visual search. Animacy is a significant component to evolutionary relevance of visual stimuli because perceiving animate entities is time-sensitive in ways that pose significant evolutionary consequences. Participants completing a visual search task located evolutionarily relevant and animate objects fastest and with the least impact of high perceptual load. Evolutionarily novel and inanimate objects were located slowest and with the highest impact of perceptual load. Evolutionary relevance may importantly affect everyday visual information processing.

Preschoolers' Vocabulary Acquisition in Chile: The Roles of Socioeconomic Status and Quality of Home Environment

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Lohndorf, Regina T.; Vermeer, Harriet J.; Cárcamo, Rodrigo A.; Mesman, Judi

2018-01-01

Preschoolers' vocabulary acquisition sets the stage for later reading ability and school achievement. This study examined the role of socioeconomic status (SES) and the quality of the home environment of seventy-seven Chilean majority and Mapuche minority families from low and lower-middle-class backgrounds in explaining individual differences in…

Research traditions and evolutionary explanations in medicine.

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Méthot, Pierre-Olivier

2011-02-01

In this article, I argue that distinguishing 'evolutionary' from 'Darwinian' medicine will help us assess the variety of roles that evolutionary explanations can play in a number of medical contexts. Because the boundaries of evolutionary and Darwinian medicine overlap to some extent, however, they are best described as distinct 'research traditions' rather than as competing paradigms. But while evolutionary medicine does not stand out as a new scientific field of its own, Darwinian medicine is united by a number of distinctive theoretical and methodological claims. For example, evolutionary medicine and Darwinian medicine can be distinguished with respect to the styles of evolutionary explanations they employ. While the former primarily involves 'forward looking' explanations, the latter depends mostly on 'backward looking' explanations. A forward looking explanation tries to predict the effects of ongoing evolutionary processes on human health and disease in contemporary environments (e.g., hospitals). In contrast, a backward looking explanation typically applies evolutionary principles from the vantage point of humans' distant biological past in order to assess present states of health and disease. Both approaches, however, are concerned with the prevention and control of human diseases. In conclusion, I raise some concerns about the claim that 'nothing in medicine makes sense except in the light of evolution'.

Lexical Link Analysis (LLA) Application: Improving Web Service to Defense Acquisition Visibility Environment (DAVE)

Science.gov (United States)

2015-05-01

1 LEXICAL LINK ANALYSIS (LLA) APPLICATION: IMPROVING WEB SERVICE TO DEFENSE ACQUISITION VISIBILITY ENVIRONMENT(DAVE) May 13-14, 2015 Dr. Ying...REPORT DATE MAY 2015 2. REPORT TYPE 3. DATES COVERED 00-00-2015 to 00-00-2015 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Lexical Link Analysis (LLA) Application...Making 3 2 1 3 L L A Methods • Lexical Link Analysis (LLA) Core – LLA Reports and Visualizations • Collaborative Learning Agents (CLA) for

First Language Acquisition and Teaching

Science.gov (United States)

Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena

2011-01-01

"First language acquisition" commonly means the acquisition of a single language in childhood, regardless of the number of languages in a child's natural environment. Language acquisition is variously viewed as predetermined, wondrous, a source of concern, and as developing through formal processes. "First language teaching" concerns schooling in…

The repertoire and dynamics of evolutionary adaptations to controlled nutrient-limited environments in yeast.

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David Gresham

2008-12-01

Full Text Available The experimental evolution of laboratory populations of microbes provides an opportunity to observe the evolutionary dynamics of adaptation in real time. Until very recently, however, such studies have been limited by our inability to systematically find mutations in evolved organisms. We overcome this limitation by using a variety of DNA microarray-based techniques to characterize genetic changes -- including point mutations, structural changes, and insertion variation -- that resulted from the experimental adaptation of 24 haploid and diploid cultures of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to growth in either glucose, sulfate, or phosphate-limited chemostats for approximately 200 generations. We identified frequent genomic amplifications and rearrangements as well as novel retrotransposition events associated with adaptation. Global nucleotide variation detection in ten clonal isolates identified 32 point mutations. On the basis of mutation frequencies, we infer that these mutations and the subsequent dynamics of adaptation are determined by the batch phase of growth prior to initiation of the continuous phase in the chemostat. We relate these genotypic changes to phenotypic outcomes, namely global patterns of gene expression, and to increases in fitness by 5-50%. We found that the spectrum of available mutations in glucose- or phosphate-limited environments combined with the batch phase population dynamics early in our experiments allowed several distinct genotypic and phenotypic evolutionary pathways in response to these nutrient limitations. By contrast, sulfate-limited populations were much more constrained in both genotypic and phenotypic outcomes. Thus, the reproducibility of evolution varies with specific selective pressures, reflecting the constraints inherent in the system-level organization of metabolic processes in the cell. We were able to relate some of the observed adaptive mutations (e.g., transporter gene amplifications to known features

Segmental duplications and evolutionary acquisition of UV damage response in the SPATA31 gene family of primates and humans.

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Bekpen, Cemalettin; Künzel, Sven; Xie, Chen; Eaaswarkhanth, Muthukrishnan; Lin, Yen-Lung; Gokcumen, Omer; Akdis, Cezmi A; Tautz, Diethard

2017-03-06

Segmental duplications are an abundant source for novel gene functions and evolutionary adaptations. This mechanism of generating novelty was very active during the evolution of primates particularly in the human lineage. Here, we characterize the evolution and function of the SPATA31 gene family (former designation FAM75A), which was previously shown to be among the gene families with the strongest signal of positive selection in hominoids. The mouse homologue for this gene family is a single copy gene expressed during spermatogenesis. We show that in primates, the SPATA31 gene duplicated into SPATA31A and SPATA31C types and broadened the expression into many tissues. Each type became further segmentally duplicated in the line towards humans with the largest number of full-length copies found for SPATA31A in humans. Copy number estimates of SPATA31A based on digital PCR show an average of 7.5 with a range of 5-11 copies per diploid genome among human individuals. The primate SPATA31 genes also acquired new protein domains that suggest an involvement in UV response and DNA repair. We generated antibodies and show that the protein is re-localized from the nucleolus to the whole nucleus upon UV-irradiation suggesting a UV damage response. We used CRISPR/Cas mediated mutagenesis to knockout copies of the gene in human primary fibroblast cells. We find that cell lines with reduced functional copies as well as naturally occurring low copy number HFF cells show enhanced sensitivity towards UV-irradiation. The acquisition of new SPATA31 protein functions and its broadening of expression may be related to the evolution of the diurnal life style in primates that required a higher UV tolerance. The increased segmental duplications in hominoids as well as its fast evolution suggest the acquisition of further specific functions particularly in humans.

Proteomics in evolutionary ecology.

Science.gov (United States)

Baer, B; Millar, A H

2016-03-01

Evolutionary ecologists are traditionally gene-focused, as genes propagate phenotypic traits across generations and mutations and recombination in the DNA generate genetic diversity required for evolutionary processes. As a consequence, the inheritance of changed DNA provides a molecular explanation for the functional changes associated with natural selection. A direct focus on proteins on the other hand, the actual molecular agents responsible for the expression of a phenotypic trait, receives far less interest from ecologists and evolutionary biologists. This is partially due to the central dogma of molecular biology that appears to define proteins as the 'dead-end of molecular information flow' as well as technical limitations in identifying and studying proteins and their diversity in the field and in many of the more exotic genera often favored in ecological studies. Here we provide an overview of a newly forming field of research that we refer to as 'Evolutionary Proteomics'. We point out that the origins of cellular function are related to the properties of polypeptide and RNA and their interactions with the environment, rather than DNA descent, and that the critical role of horizontal gene transfer in evolution is more about coopting new proteins to impact cellular processes than it is about modifying gene function. Furthermore, post-transcriptional and post-translational processes generate a remarkable diversity of mature proteins from a single gene, and the properties of these mature proteins can also influence inheritance through genetic and perhaps epigenetic mechanisms. The influence of post-transcriptional diversification on evolutionary processes could provide a novel mechanistic underpinning for elements of rapid, directed evolutionary changes and adaptations as observed for a variety of evolutionary processes. Modern state-of the art technologies based on mass spectrometry are now available to identify and quantify peptides, proteins, protein

Diabetes and Obesity—An Evolutionary Perspective

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Sylvia Kirchengast

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Obesity and type II diabetes belong to the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century. Initially both diseases were typical of affluent societies. Currently both conditions however are increasingly found in low and middle income countries. In future obesity and diabetes are expected to reach epidemic proportions and affect developing countries to a greater extent than developed ones. A globalization of obesity and diabetes is observable. Recently prevalence rates increased, especially in Asia, the Near and Middle East, the Western Pacific region and even in Sub-Saharan Africa. Evolutionary Anthropology tries to understand the evolutionary mechanisms promoting rising obesity and diabetes type II rates. Homo sapiens evolved in an environment quite different from our recent one. Profound changes in physical activity patterns and nutritional habits during the last 10,000 years and increasingly during the last 200 years increased the risk of obesity and diabetes type II. Consequently our recent environment is called “obesogenic”. This mismatch has been recently observable among societies experiencing rapid cultural changes characterized by Westernization and modernization. This review focuses on obesity and type II diabetes from the viewpoint of evolutionary anthropology.

On the evolutionary origins of equity.

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Stéphane Debove

Full Text Available Equity, defined as reward according to contribution, is considered a central aspect of human fairness in both philosophical debates and scientific research. Despite large amounts of research on the evolutionary origins of fairness, the evolutionary rationale behind equity is still unknown. Here, we investigate how equity can be understood in the context of the cooperative environment in which humans evolved. We model a population of individuals who cooperate to produce and divide a resource, and choose their cooperative partners based on how they are willing to divide the resource. Agent-based simulations, an analytical model, and extended simulations using neural networks provide converging evidence that equity is the best evolutionary strategy in such an environment: individuals maximize their fitness by dividing benefits in proportion to their own and their partners' relative contribution. The need to be chosen as a cooperative partner thus creates a selection pressure strong enough to explain the evolution of preferences for equity. We discuss the limitations of our model, the discrepancies between its predictions and empirical data, and how interindividual and intercultural variability fit within this framework.

Ecological and evolutionary consequences of niche construction for its agent.

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Kylafis, Grigoris; Loreau, Michel

2008-10-01

Niche construction can generate ecological and evolutionary feedbacks that have been underinvestigated so far. We present an eco-evolutionary model that incorporates the process of niche construction to reveal its effects on the ecology and evolution of the niche-constructing agent. We consider a simple plant-soil nutrient ecosystem in which plants have the ability to increase the input of inorganic nutrient as an example of positive niche construction. On an ecological time scale, the model shows that niche construction allows the persistence of plants under infertile soil conditions that would otherwise lead to their extinction. This expansion of plants' niche, however, requires a high enough rate of niche construction and a high enough initial plant biomass to fuel the positive ecological feedback between plants and their soil environment. On an evolutionary time scale, we consider that the rates of niche construction and nutrient uptake coevolve in plants while a trade-off constrains their values. Different evolutionary outcomes are possible depending on the shape of the trade-off. We show that niche construction results in an evolutionary feedback between plants and their soil environment such that plants partially regulate soil nutrient content. The direct benefit accruing to plants, however, plays a crucial role in the evolutionary advantage of niche construction.

[Charles Darwin and the problem of evolutionary progress].

Science.gov (United States)

Iordanskiĭ, N N

2010-01-01

According to Ch. Darwin's evolutionary theory, evolutionary progress (interpreted as morpho-physiological progress or arogenesis in recent terminology) is one of logical results of natural selection. At the same time, natural selection does not hold any factors especially promoting evolutionary progress. Darwin emphasized that the pattern of evolutionary changes depends on organism nature more than on the pattern of environment changes. Arogenesis specificity is determined by organization of rigorous biological systems - integral organisms. Onward progressive development is determined by fundamental features of living organisms: metabolism and homeostasis. The concept of social Darwinism differs fundamentally from Darwin's ideas about the most important role of social instincts in progress of mankind. Competition and selection play secondary role in socio-cultural progress of human society.

Evolutionary constrained optimization

CERN Document Server

Deb, Kalyanmoy

2015-01-01

This book makes available a self-contained collection of modern research addressing the general constrained optimization problems using evolutionary algorithms. Broadly the topics covered include constraint handling for single and multi-objective optimizations; penalty function based methodology; multi-objective based methodology; new constraint handling mechanism; hybrid methodology; scaling issues in constrained optimization; design of scalable test problems; parameter adaptation in constrained optimization; handling of integer, discrete and mix variables in addition to continuous variables; application of constraint handling techniques to real-world problems; and constrained optimization in dynamic environment. There is also a separate chapter on hybrid optimization, which is gaining lots of popularity nowadays due to its capability of bridging the gap between evolutionary and classical optimization. The material in the book is useful to researchers, novice, and experts alike. The book will also be useful...

Evolutionary Game Theory-Based Evaluation of P2P File-Sharing Systems in Heterogeneous Environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yusuke Matsuda

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Peer-to-Peer (P2P file sharing is one of key technologies for achieving attractive P2P multimedia social networking. In P2P file-sharing systems, file availability is improved by cooperative users who cache and share files. Note that file caching carries costs such as storage consumption and processing load. In addition, users have different degrees of cooperativity in file caching and they are in different surrounding environments arising from the topological structure of P2P networks. With evolutionary game theory, this paper evaluates the performance of P2P file sharing systems in such heterogeneous environments. Using micro-macro dynamics, we analyze the impact of the heterogeneity of user selfishness on the file availability and system stability. Further, through simulation experiments with agent-based dynamics, we reveal how other aspects, for example, synchronization among nodes and topological structure, affect the system performance. Both analytical and simulation results show that the environmental heterogeneity contributes to the file availability and system stability.

Review of the ASDEX upgrade data acquisition environment - present operation and future requirements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Behler, K.; Blank, H.; Buhler, A.; Drube, R.; Friedrich, H.; Foerster, K.; Hallatschek, K.; Heimann, P.; Hertweck, F.; Maier, J.; Heimann, R.; Hertweck, F.; Maier, J.; Merkel, R.; Pacco-Duechs, M.-G.; Raupp, G.; Reuter, H.; Schneider-Maxon, U.; Tisma, R.; Zilker, M.

1999-01-01

The data acquisition environment of the ASDEX upgrade fusion experiment was designed in the late 1980s to handle a predicted quantity of 8 Mbytes fo data per discharge. After 7 years of operation a review of the whole data acquisition and analysis environment shows what remains of the original design ideas. Comparing the original 15 diagnostics with the present set of 250 diagnostic datasets generated per shot shows how the system has grown. Although now a vast accumulation of functional parts, the system still works in a stable manner and is maintainable. The underlying concepts affirming these qualities are modularity and compatibility. Modularity ensures that most parts of the system can be modified without affecting others. Standards for data structures and interfaces between components and methods are the prerequisites which make modularity work. The experience of the last few years shows that, besides the standards achieved, new, mainly real-time, features are needed: real-time event recognition allowing reaction to complex changing conditions; real-time wavelet analysis allowing adapted sampling rates; real-time data exchange between diagnostics and control; real-time networks allowing flexible computer coupling to permit interplay between different components; object-oriented programming concepts and databases are required for readily adaptable software modules. A final assessment of our present data processing situation and future requirements shows that modern information technology methods have to be applied more intensively to provide the most flexible means to improve the interaction of all components on a large fusion device. (orig.)

Environmental fluctuations restrict eco-evolutionary dynamics in predator-prey system.

Science.gov (United States)

Hiltunen, Teppo; Ayan, Gökçe B; Becks, Lutz

2015-06-07

Environmental fluctuations, species interactions and rapid evolution are all predicted to affect community structure and their temporal dynamics. Although the effects of the abiotic environment and prey evolution on ecological community dynamics have been studied separately, these factors can also have interactive effects. Here we used bacteria-ciliate microcosm experiments to test for eco-evolutionary dynamics in fluctuating environments. Specifically, we followed population dynamics and a prey defence trait over time when populations were exposed to regular changes of bottom-up or top-down stressors, or combinations of these. We found that the rate of evolution of a defence trait was significantly lower in fluctuating compared with stable environments, and that the defence trait evolved to lower levels when two environmental stressors changed recurrently. The latter suggests that top-down and bottom-up changes can have additive effects constraining evolutionary response within populations. The differences in evolutionary trajectories are explained by fluctuations in population sizes of the prey and the predator, which continuously alter the supply of mutations in the prey and strength of selection through predation. Thus, it may be necessary to adopt an eco-evolutionary perspective on studies concerning the evolution of traits mediating species interactions. © 2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

Species packing in eco-evolutionary models of seasonally fluctuating environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Kremer, Colin T; Klausmeier, Christopher A

2017-09-01

As ecology and evolution become ever more entwined, many areas of ecological theory are being re-examined. Eco-evolutionary analyses of classic coexistence mechanisms are yielding new insights into the structure and stability of communities. We examine fluctuation-dependent coexistence models, identifying communities that are both ecologically and evolutionarily stable. Members of these communities possess distinct environmental preferences, revealing widespread patterns of limiting similarity. This regularity leads to consistent changes in the structure of communities across fluctuation regimes. However, at high amplitudes, subtle differences in the form of fluctuations dramatically affect the collapse of communities. We also show that identical fluctuations can support multiple evolutionarily stable communities - a novel example of alternative stable states within eco-evolutionary systems. Consequently, the configuration of communities will depend on historical contingencies, including details of the adaptive process. Integrating evolution into the study of coexistence offers new insights, while enriching our understanding of ecology. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS.

Evolutionary dynamics with fluctuating population sizes and strong mutualism

Science.gov (United States)

Chotibut, Thiparat; Nelson, David R.

2015-08-01

Game theory ideas provide a useful framework for studying evolutionary dynamics in a well-mixed environment. This approach, however, typically enforces a strictly fixed overall population size, deemphasizing natural growth processes. We study a competitive Lotka-Volterra model, with number fluctuations, that accounts for natural population growth and encompasses interaction scenarios typical of evolutionary games. We show that, in an appropriate limit, the model describes standard evolutionary games with both genetic drift and overall population size fluctuations. However, there are also regimes where a varying population size can strongly influence the evolutionary dynamics. We focus on the strong mutualism scenario and demonstrate that standard evolutionary game theory fails to describe our simulation results. We then analytically and numerically determine fixation probabilities as well as mean fixation times using matched asymptotic expansions, taking into account the population size degree of freedom. These results elucidate the interplay between population dynamics and evolutionary dynamics in well-mixed systems.

Evolutionary dynamics with fluctuating population sizes and strong mutualism.

Science.gov (United States)

Chotibut, Thiparat; Nelson, David R

2015-08-01

Game theory ideas provide a useful framework for studying evolutionary dynamics in a well-mixed environment. This approach, however, typically enforces a strictly fixed overall population size, deemphasizing natural growth processes. We study a competitive Lotka-Volterra model, with number fluctuations, that accounts for natural population growth and encompasses interaction scenarios typical of evolutionary games. We show that, in an appropriate limit, the model describes standard evolutionary games with both genetic drift and overall population size fluctuations. However, there are also regimes where a varying population size can strongly influence the evolutionary dynamics. We focus on the strong mutualism scenario and demonstrate that standard evolutionary game theory fails to describe our simulation results. We then analytically and numerically determine fixation probabilities as well as mean fixation times using matched asymptotic expansions, taking into account the population size degree of freedom. These results elucidate the interplay between population dynamics and evolutionary dynamics in well-mixed systems.

[Evolutionary perspective in precocious puberty].

Science.gov (United States)

Hochberg, Ze'ev

2014-10-01

Pubertal development is subject to substantial heritability, but much variation remains to be explained, including fast changes over the last 150 years, that cannot be explained by changes of gene frequency in the population. This article discusses the influence of environmental factors to adjust maturational tempo in the service of fitness goals. Utilizing evolutionary development thinking (evo-devo), the author examines adolescence as an evolutionary life-history stage in its developmental context. The transition from the preceding stage of juvenility entails adaptive plasticity in response to energy resources, social needs of adolescence and maturation toward youth and adulthood. Using Belsky's evolutionary theory of socialization, I show that familial psychosocial environment during the infancy-childhood and childhood-juvenility transitions foster a fast life-history and reproductive strategy rather than early maturation being just a risk factor for aggression and delinquency. The implications of the evo-devo framework for theory building, illuminates new directions in the understanding of precocious puberty other than a diagnosis of a disease.

Knowledge Acquisition and Job Training for Advanced Technical Skills Using Immersive Virtual Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Watanuki, Keiichi; Kojima, Kazuyuki

The environment in which Japanese industry has achieved great respect is changing tremendously due to the globalization of world economies, while Asian countries are undergoing economic and technical development as well as benefiting from the advances in information technology. For example, in the design of custom-made casting products, a designer who lacks knowledge of casting may not be able to produce a good design. In order to obtain a good design and manufacturing result, it is necessary to equip the designer and manufacturer with a support system related to casting design, or a so-called knowledge transfer and creation system. This paper proposes a new virtual reality based knowledge acquisition and job training system for casting design, which is composed of the explicit and tacit knowledge transfer systems using synchronized multimedia and the knowledge internalization system using portable virtual environment. In our proposed system, the education content is displayed in the immersive virtual environment, whereby a trainee may experience work in the virtual site operation. Provided that the trainee has gained explicit and tacit knowledge of casting through the multimedia-based knowledge transfer system, the immersive virtual environment catalyzes the internalization of knowledge and also enables the trainee to gain tacit knowledge before undergoing on-the-job training at a real-time operation site.

Using Leading Indicators to Improve DoD Acquisitions

Science.gov (United States)

2013-10-01

to experience high unit cost growth in spite of NM cost breeches . Acquisition problems are uncovered too late in the development process to allow...challenging capabilities. An evolutionary approach also ensures that operational experience inform future versions of a product’s requirements. Once...constraints are shaped by both internal and external forces, it must steer product development through the conscious implementation of certain policies

Evolutionary Dynamics of Pathoadaptation Revealed by Three Independent Acquisitions of the VirB/D4 Type IV Secretion System in Bartonella.

Science.gov (United States)

Harms, Alexander; Segers, Francisca H I D; Quebatte, Maxime; Mistl, Claudia; Manfredi, Pablo; Körner, Jonas; Chomel, Bruno B; Kosoy, Michael; Maruyama, Soichi; Engel, Philipp; Dehio, Christoph

2017-03-01

The α-proteobacterial genus Bartonella comprises a group of ubiquitous mammalian pathogens that are studied as a model for the evolution of bacterial pathogenesis. Vast abundance of two particular phylogenetic lineages of Bartonella had been linked to enhanced host adaptability enabled by lineage-specific acquisition of a VirB/D4 type IV secretion system (T4SS) and parallel evolution of complex effector repertoires. However, the limited availability of genome sequences from one of those lineages as well as other, remote branches of Bartonella has so far hampered comprehensive understanding of how the VirB/D4 T4SS and its effectors called Beps have shaped Bartonella evolution. Here, we report the discovery of a third repertoire of Beps associated with the VirB/D4 T4SS of B. ancashensis, a novel human pathogen that lacks any signs of host adaptability and is only distantly related to the two species-rich lineages encoding a VirB/D4 T4SS. Furthermore, sequencing of ten new Bartonella isolates from under-sampled lineages enabled combined in silico analyses and wet lab experiments that suggest several parallel layers of functional diversification during evolution of the three Bep repertoires from a single ancestral effector. Our analyses show that the Beps of B. ancashensis share many features with the two other repertoires, but may represent a more ancestral state that has not yet unleashed the adaptive potential of such an effector set. We anticipate that the effectors of B. ancashensis will enable future studies to dissect the evolutionary history of Bartonella effectors and help unraveling the evolutionary forces underlying bacterial host adaptation. © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution.

Feasibility study of a XML-based software environment to manage data acquisition hardware devices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arcidiacono, R.; Brigljevic, V.; Bruno, G.; Cano, E.; Cittolin, S.; Erhan, S.; Gigi, D.; Glege, F.; Gomez-Reino, R.; Gulmini, M.; Gutleber, J.; Jacobs, C.; Kreuzer, P.; Lo Presti, G.; Magrans, I.; Marinelli, N.; Maron, G.; Meijers, F.; Meschi, E.; Murray, S.; Nafria, M.; Oh, A.; Orsini, L.; Pieri, M.; Pollet, L.; Racz, A.; Rosinsky, P.; Schwick, C.; Sphicas, P.; Varela, J.

2005-01-01

A Software environment to describe configuration, control and test systems for data acquisition hardware devices is presented. The design follows a model that enforces a comprehensive use of an extensible markup language (XML) syntax to describe both the code and associated data. A feasibility study of this software, carried out for the CMS experiment at CERN, is also presented. This is based on a number of standalone applications for different hardware modules, and the design of a hardware management system to remotely access to these heterogeneous subsystems through a uniform web service interface

Feasibility study of a XML-based software environment to manage data acquisition hardware devices

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Arcidiacono, R. [Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (United States); Brigljevic, V. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Zagreb (Croatia); Bruno, G. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Cano, E. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Cittolin, S. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Erhan, S. [University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Gigi, D. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Glege, F. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Gomez-Reino, R. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Gulmini, M. [INFN-Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, Legnaro (Italy); CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Gutleber, J. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Jacobs, C. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Kreuzer, P. [University of Athens, Athens (Greece); Lo Presti, G. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Magrans, I. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland) and Electronic Engineering Department, Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona (Spain)]. E-mail: ildefons.magrans@cern.ch; Marinelli, N. [Institute of Accelerating Systems and Applications, Athens (Greece); Maron, G. [INFN-Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, Legnaro (Italy); Meijers, F. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Meschi, E. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Murray, S. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Nafria, M. [Electronic Engineering Department, Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona (Spain); Oh, A. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Orsini, L. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Pieri, M. [University of California, San Diago, San Diago, CA (United States); Pollet, L. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Racz, A. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Rosinsky, P. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Schwick, C. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Sphicas, P. [University of Athens, Athens (Greece); CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Varela, J. [LIP, Lisbon (Portugal); CERN, Geneva (Switzerland)

2005-07-01

A Software environment to describe configuration, control and test systems for data acquisition hardware devices is presented. The design follows a model that enforces a comprehensive use of an extensible markup language (XML) syntax to describe both the code and associated data. A feasibility study of this software, carried out for the CMS experiment at CERN, is also presented. This is based on a number of standalone applications for different hardware modules, and the design of a hardware management system to remotely access to these heterogeneous subsystems through a uniform web service interface.

Social traits, social networks and evolutionary biology.

Science.gov (United States)

Fisher, D N; McAdam, A G

2017-12-01

The social environment is both an important agent of selection for most organisms, and an emergent property of their interactions. As an aggregation of interactions among members of a population, the social environment is a product of many sets of relationships and so can be represented as a network or matrix. Social network analysis in animals has focused on why these networks possess the structure they do, and whether individuals' network traits, representing some aspect of their social phenotype, relate to their fitness. Meanwhile, quantitative geneticists have demonstrated that traits expressed in a social context can depend on the phenotypes and genotypes of interacting partners, leading to influences of the social environment on the traits and fitness of individuals and the evolutionary trajectories of populations. Therefore, both fields are investigating similar topics, yet have arrived at these points relatively independently. We review how these approaches are diverged, and yet how they retain clear parallelism and so strong potential for complementarity. This demonstrates that, despite separate bodies of theory, advances in one might inform the other. Techniques in network analysis for quantifying social phenotypes, and for identifying community structure, should be useful for those studying the relationship between individual behaviour and group-level phenotypes. Entering social association matrices into quantitative genetic models may also reduce bias in heritability estimates, and allow the estimation of the influence of social connectedness on trait expression. Current methods for measuring natural selection in a social context explicitly account for the fact that a trait is not necessarily the property of a single individual, something the network approaches have not yet considered when relating network metrics to individual fitness. Harnessing evolutionary models that consider traits affected by genes in other individuals (i.e. indirect genetic

A new DoD initiative: the Computational Research and Engineering Acquisition Tools and Environments (CREATE) program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arevalo, S; Atwood, C; Bell, P; Blacker, T D; Dey, S; Fisher, D; Fisher, D A; Genalis, P; Gorski, J; Harris, A; Hill, K; Hurwitz, M; Kendall, R P; Meakin, R L; Morton, S; Moyer, E T; Post, D E; Strawn, R; Veldhuizen, D v; Votta, L G

2008-01-01

In FY2008, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) initiated the Computational Research and Engineering Acquisition Tools and Environments (CREATE) program, a $360M program with a two-year planning phase and a ten-year execution phase. CREATE will develop and deploy three computational engineering tool sets for DoD acquisition programs to use to design aircraft, ships and radio-frequency antennas. The planning and execution of CREATE are based on the 'lessons learned' from case studies of large-scale computational science and engineering projects. The case studies stress the importance of a stable, close-knit development team; a focus on customer needs and requirements; verification and validation; flexible and agile planning, management, and development processes; risk management; realistic schedules and resource levels; balanced short- and long-term goals and deliverables; and stable, long-term support by the program sponsor. Since it began in FY2008, the CREATE program has built a team and project structure, developed requirements and begun validating them, identified candidate products, established initial connections with the acquisition programs, begun detailed project planning and development, and generated the initial collaboration infrastructure necessary for success by its multi-institutional, multidisciplinary teams

23 CFR 710.309 - Acquisition.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 23 Highways 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Acquisition. 710.309 Section 710.309 Highways FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION RIGHT-OF-WAY AND ENVIRONMENT RIGHT-OF-WAY AND REAL ESTATE Project Development § 710.309 Acquisition. The process of acquiring real property includes...

Evolutionary process of deep-sea bathymodiolus mussels.

Science.gov (United States)

Miyazaki, Jun-Ichi; de Oliveira Martins, Leonardo; Fujita, Yuko; Matsumoto, Hiroto; Fujiwara, Yoshihiro

2010-04-27

Since the discovery of deep-sea chemosynthesis-based communities, much work has been done to clarify their organismal and environmental aspects. However, major topics remain to be resolved, including when and how organisms invade and adapt to deep-sea environments; whether strategies for invasion and adaptation are shared by different taxa or unique to each taxon; how organisms extend their distribution and diversity; and how they become isolated to speciate in continuous waters. Deep-sea mussels are one of the dominant organisms in chemosynthesis-based communities, thus investigations of their origin and evolution contribute to resolving questions about life in those communities. We investigated worldwide phylogenetic relationships of deep-sea Bathymodiolus mussels and their mytilid relatives by analyzing nucleotide sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 4 (ND4) genes. Phylogenetic analysis of the concatenated sequence data showed that mussels of the subfamily Bathymodiolinae from vents and seeps were divided into four groups, and that mussels of the subfamily Modiolinae from sunken wood and whale carcasses assumed the outgroup position and shallow-water modioline mussels were positioned more distantly to the bathymodioline mussels. We provisionally hypothesized the evolutionary history of Bathymodilolus mussels by estimating evolutionary time under a relaxed molecular clock model. Diversification of bathymodioline mussels was initiated in the early Miocene, and subsequently diversification of the groups occurred in the early to middle Miocene. The phylogenetic relationships support the "Evolutionary stepping stone hypothesis," in which mytilid ancestors exploited sunken wood and whale carcasses in their progressive adaptation to deep-sea environments. This hypothesis is also supported by the evolutionary transition of symbiosis in that nutritional adaptation to the deep sea proceeded from extracellular

Terrain Appreciation in Virtual Environments: Spatial Knowledge Acquisition

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Singer, Michael

1997-01-01

...) in training dismounted soldiers. This experiment investigated the effects of different VE parameters on spatial knowledge acquisition by comparing learning in advanced VE, restricted VE, and standard map training...

ADAPTIVE SELECTION OF AUXILIARY OBJECTIVES IN MULTIOBJECTIVE EVOLUTIONARY ALGORITHMS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. A. Petrova

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Subject of Research.We propose to modify the EA+RL method, which increases efficiency of evolutionary algorithms by means of auxiliary objectives. The proposed modification is compared to the existing objective selection methods on the example of travelling salesman problem. Method. In the EA+RL method a reinforcement learning algorithm is used to select an objective – the target objective or one of the auxiliary objectives – at each iteration of the single-objective evolutionary algorithm.The proposed modification of the EA+RL method adopts this approach for the usage with a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm. As opposed to theEA+RL method, in this modification one of the auxiliary objectives is selected by reinforcement learning and optimized together with the target objective at each step of the multiobjective evolutionary algorithm. Main Results.The proposed modification of the EA+RL method was compared to the existing objective selection methods on the example of travelling salesman problem. In the EA+RL method and its proposed modification reinforcement learning algorithms for stationary and non-stationary environment were used. The proposed modification of the EA+RL method applied with reinforcement learning for non-stationary environment outperformed the considered objective selection algorithms on the most problem instances. Practical Significance. The proposed approach increases efficiency of evolutionary algorithms, which may be used for solving discrete NP-hard optimization problems. They are, in particular, combinatorial path search problems and scheduling problems.

Inductive acquisition of expert knowledge

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Muggleton, S.H.

1986-01-01

Expert systems divide neatly into two categories: those in which (1) the expert decisions result in changes to some external environment (control systems), and (2) the expert decisions merely seek to describe the environment (classification systems). Both the explanation of computer-based reasoning and the bottleneck (Feigenbaum, 1979) of knowledge acquisition are major issues in expert-systems research. The author contributed to these areas of research in two ways: 1. He implemented an expert-system shell, the Mugol environment, which facilitates knowledge acquisition by inductive inference and provides automatic explanation of run-time reasoning on demand. RuleMaster, a commercial version of this environment, was used to advantage industrially in the construction and testing of two large classification systems. 2. He investigated a new techniques called 'sequence induction' that can be used in construction of control systems. Sequence induction is based on theoretical work in grammatical learning. He improved existing grammatical learning algorithms as well as suggesting and theoretically characterizing new ones. These algorithms were successfully applied to acquisition of knowledge for a diverse set of control systems, including inductive construction of robot plans and chess end-gam strategies.

Enhancing Evolutionary Optimization in Uncertain Environments by Allocating Evaluations via Multi-armed Bandit Algorithms

OpenAIRE

Qiu, Xin; Miikkulainen, Risto

2018-01-01

Optimization problems with uncertain fitness functions are common in the real world, and present unique challenges for evolutionary optimization approaches. Existing issues include excessively expensive evaluation, lack of solution reliability, and incapability in maintaining high overall fitness during optimization. Using conversion rate optimization as an example, this paper proposes a series of new techniques for addressing these issues. The main innovation is to augment evolutionary algor...

Evolution in Mind: Evolutionary Dynamics, Cognitive Processes, and Bayesian Inference.

Science.gov (United States)

Suchow, Jordan W; Bourgin, David D; Griffiths, Thomas L

2017-07-01

Evolutionary theory describes the dynamics of population change in settings affected by reproduction, selection, mutation, and drift. In the context of human cognition, evolutionary theory is most often invoked to explain the origins of capacities such as language, metacognition, and spatial reasoning, framing them as functional adaptations to an ancestral environment. However, evolutionary theory is useful for understanding the mind in a second way: as a mathematical framework for describing evolving populations of thoughts, ideas, and memories within a single mind. In fact, deep correspondences exist between the mathematics of evolution and of learning, with perhaps the deepest being an equivalence between certain evolutionary dynamics and Bayesian inference. This equivalence permits reinterpretation of evolutionary processes as algorithms for Bayesian inference and has relevance for understanding diverse cognitive capacities, including memory and creativity. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

LEGS data acquisition facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

LeVine, M.J.

1985-01-01

The data acquisition facility for the LEGS medium energy photonuclear beam line is composed of an auxiliary crate controller (ACC) acting as a front-end processor, loosely coupled to a time-sharing host computer based on a UNIX-like environment. The ACC services all real-time demands in the CAMAC crate: it responds to LAMs generated by data acquisition modules, to keyboard commands, and it refreshes the graphics display at frequent intervals. The host processor is needed only for printing histograms and recording event buffers on magnetic tape. The host also provides the environment for software development. The CAMAC crate is interfaced by a VERSAbus CAMAC branch driver

The environmental zero-point problem in evolutionary reaction norm modeling.

Science.gov (United States)

Ergon, Rolf

2018-04-01

There is a potential problem in present quantitative genetics evolutionary modeling based on reaction norms. Such models are state-space models, where the multivariate breeder's equation in some form is used as the state equation that propagates the population state forward in time. These models use the implicit assumption of a constant reference environment, in many cases set to zero. This zero-point is often the environment a population is adapted to, that is, where the expected geometric mean fitness is maximized. Such environmental reference values follow from the state of the population system, and they are thus population properties. The environment the population is adapted to, is, in other words, an internal population property, independent of the external environment. It is only when the external environment coincides with the internal reference environment, or vice versa, that the population is adapted to the current environment. This is formally a result of state-space modeling theory, which is an important theoretical basis for evolutionary modeling. The potential zero-point problem is present in all types of reaction norm models, parametrized as well as function-valued, and the problem does not disappear when the reference environment is set to zero. As the environmental reference values are population characteristics, they ought to be modeled as such. Whether such characteristics are evolvable is an open question, but considering the complexity of evolutionary processes, such evolvability cannot be excluded without good arguments. As a straightforward solution, I propose to model the reference values as evolvable mean traits in their own right, in addition to other reaction norm traits. However, solutions based on an evolvable G matrix are also possible.

Transforming Biology Assessment with Machine Learning: Automated Scoring of Written Evolutionary Explanations

Science.gov (United States)

Nehm, Ross H.; Ha, Minsu; Mayfield, Elijah

2012-01-01

This study explored the use of machine learning to automatically evaluate the accuracy of students' written explanations of evolutionary change. Performance of the Summarization Integrated Development Environment (SIDE) program was compared to human expert scoring using a corpus of 2,260 evolutionary explanations written by 565 undergraduate…

Update on the ASDEX Upgrade data acquisition and data management environment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Behler, K., E-mail: karl.behler@ipp.mpg.de; Blank, H.; Buhler, A.; Drube, R.; Eixenberger, H.; Engelhardt, K.; Lohs, A.; Merkel, R.; Raupp, G.; Treutterer, W.

2014-05-15

Highlights: • An exponential growth of data amount was managed over more than twenty years of experiment operation. • Continuous adaptation of the diagnostic software and configuration keeps track with actual experiment demands. • A great number of distributed, varying diagnostics is centrally managed. - Abstract: It has been a while since it had been reported on the status of ASDEX Upgrade data acquisition (DAQ) and data management environment. An update on changes, expansions, and enhancements applied in the last years will be given. The acquired amount of data per shot increased from 4 GiB to 40 GiB in eight years. Network, storage, and archive challenges have been managed by stepwise improvements. New DAQ techniques have been introduced to replace outdated technologies. Real-time diagnostics speed-up data provisioning and contribute to feedback control. Information technology applied to ASDEX Upgrade is under permanent change. Recent and future steps are outlined.

Degree of food processing of household acquisition patterns in a Brazilian urban area is related to food buying preferences and perceived food environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Vedovato, G M; Trude, A C B; Kharmats, A Y; Martins, P A

2015-04-01

This cross-sectional study examined the association between local food environment and consumers' acquisition of ultra-processed food. Households were randomly selected from 36 census tracts in Santos City, Brazil. Mothers, of varying economic status, who had children ages 10 or younger (n = 538) were interviewed concerning: their household food acquisition of 31 groups of food and beverages, perceptions of local food environment, food sources destinations, means of transportation used, and socioeconomic status. Food acquisition patterns were classified based on the degree of industrial food processing. Logistic regression models were fitted to assess the association between consumer behaviors and acquisition patterns. The large variety of fresh produce available in supermarkets was significantly related to lower odds of ultra-processed food purchases. After adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, higher odds for minimally-processed food acquisition were associated with: frequent use of specialized markets to purchase fruits and vegetables (OR 1.89, 95% CI 1.01-2.34), the habit of walking to buy food (OR 1.58, 95% CI 1.08-2.30), and perceived availability of fresh produce in participants' neighborhood (OR 1.58, 95% CI 1.08-2.30). Acquisition of ultra-processed food was positively associated with the use of taxis as principal means of transportation to food sources (OR 2.35, 95% CI 1.08-5.13), and negatively associated with perceived availability of a variety of fruits and vegetables in the neighborhood (OR 0.57, 95% CI 0.37-0.88). The results suggest that interventions aiming to promote acquisition of less processed food in settings similar to Santos, may be most effective if they focus on increasing the number of specialized fresh food markets in local neighborhood areas, improve residents' awareness of these markets' availability, and provide appropriate transportation. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Achieving sustainable plant disease management through evolutionary principles.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhan, Jiasui; Thrall, Peter H; Burdon, Jeremy J

2014-09-01

Plants and their pathogens are engaged in continuous evolutionary battles and sustainable disease management requires novel systems to create environments conducive for short-term and long-term disease control. In this opinion article, we argue that knowledge of the fundamental factors that drive host-pathogen coevolution in wild systems can provide new insights into disease development in agriculture. Such evolutionary principles can be used to guide the formulation of sustainable disease management strategies which can minimize disease epidemics while simultaneously reducing pressure on pathogens to evolve increased infectivity and aggressiveness. To ensure agricultural sustainability, disease management programs that reflect the dynamism of pathogen population structure are essential and evolutionary biologists should play an increasing role in their design. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Rapid, value-based, evolutionary acquisition and its application to a USMC tactical service orientated architecture

OpenAIRE

Ferrel, Tyrone H.

2009-01-01

Approved for public release, distribution unlimited Over budget, behind schedule, and underperforming information technology acquisition programs plague not only the USMC, but almost all government agencies and many private sector entities as well. Causes of this crisis abound and one cannot easily or narrowly define them because of their seemingly disparate and far-reaching nature. This thesis first defines what truly constitutes an acquisition program's success versus its failure an...

Evolutionary Medicine and Future of Humanity: Will Evolution Have the Final Word?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maciej Henneberg

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Evolutionary medicine in its classical form assumes that since cultural evolution is faster than biological evolution, ailments of modern people are a result of mismatch between adaptations to the past environments and current situations. A core principle is that we, humans, having evolved for millions of years in a specific natural environment (environment of evolutionary adaptation EEA are biologically adapted to this past environment and the ancient lifestyle. This adaptation to the past produces major mismatch of our bodies with the present, highly anthropic and thus “artificial” living conditions. This article provides two areas of possible future evolution, diet and physical activity levels which have been dramatically altered in industrialised societies. Consequently, micro-evolution is an on-going process.

Petroleum, energy and environment: the status of 2001 fusions-acquisitions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

2002-01-01

After the year 2000 world surge of fusions-acquisitions in various industrial sectors (telecommunications in particular), the phenomenon has slowed down during the year 2001 except for the energy sector and in particular in the oil and gas industry. This article summarizes the status of these fusions-acquisitions according to a study carried out by the French centre of foreign trade (CFCE). (J.S.)

KENS data acquisition system KENSnet

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arai, Masatoshi; Furusaka, Michihiro; Satoh, Setsuo; Johnson, M.W.

1988-01-01

The installation of a new data acquisition system KENSnet has been completed at the KENS neutron facility. For data collection, 160 Mbytes are necessary for temporary disk storage, and 1 MIPS of CPU is required. For the computing system, models were chosen from the VAX family of computers running their proprietary operating system VMS. The VMS operating system has a very user friendly interface, and is well suited to instrument control applications. New data acquisition electronics were developed. A gate module receives a signal of proton extraction time from the accelerator, and checks the veto signals from the sample environment equipment (vacuum, temperature, chopper phasing, etc.). Then the signal is issued to a delay-time module. A time-control module starts timing from the delayed start signal from the delay-time module, and distributes an encoded time-boundary address to memory modules at the preset times anabling the memory modules to accumulate data histograms. The data acquisition control program (ICP) and the general data analysis program (Genie) were both developed at ISIS, and have been installed in the new data acquisition system. They give the experimenter 'user-friendly' data acquisition and a good environment for data manipulation. The ICP controls the DAE and transfers the histogram data into the computers. (N.K.)

Evolving Robot Controllers for Structured Environments Through Environment Decomposition

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Moreno, Rodrigo; Faiña, Andres; Støy, Kasper

2015-01-01

In this paper we aim to develop a controller that allows a robot to traverse an structured environment. The approach we use is to decompose the environment into simple sub-environments that we use as basis for evolving the controller. Specifically, we decompose a narrow corridor environment...... environments and that the order in which the decomposed sub-environments are presented in sequence impacts the performance of the evolutionary algorithm....

Acquisition system for the CLIC Module

CERN Document Server

Vilalte, Sebastien

2011-01-01

The status of R&D activities for CLIC module acquisition are discussed [1]. LAPP is involved in the design of the local CLIC module acquisition crate, described in the document Study of the CLIC Module Front-End Acquisition and Evaluation Electronics [2]. This acquisition system is a project based on a local crate, assigned to the CLIC module, including several mother boards. These motherboards are foreseen to hold mezzanines dedicated to the different subsystems. This system has to work in radiation environment. LAPP is involved in the development of Drive Beam stripline position monitors read-out, described in the document Drive Beam Stripline BPM Electronics and Acquisition [3]. LAPP also develops a generic acquisition mezzanine that allows to perform all-around acquisition and components tests for drive beam stripline BPM read-out.

Evolutionary History of the Global Emergence of the Escherichia coli Epidemic Clone ST131.

Science.gov (United States)

Stoesser, Nicole; Sheppard, Anna E; Pankhurst, Louise; De Maio, Nicola; Moore, Catrin E; Sebra, Robert; Turner, Paul; Anson, Luke W; Kasarskis, Andrew; Batty, Elizabeth M; Kos, Veronica; Wilson, Daniel J; Phetsouvanh, Rattanaphone; Wyllie, David; Sokurenko, Evgeni; Manges, Amee R; Johnson, Timothy J; Price, Lance B; Peto, Timothy E A; Johnson, James R; Didelot, Xavier; Walker, A Sarah; Crook, Derrick W

2016-03-22

Escherichia colisequence type 131 (ST131) has emerged globally as the most predominant extraintestinal pathogenic lineage within this clinically important species, and its association with fluoroquinolone and extended-spectrum cephalosporin resistance impacts significantly on treatment. The evolutionary histories of this lineage, and of important antimicrobial resistance elements within it, remain unclearly defined. This study of the largest worldwide collection (n= 215) of sequenced ST131E. coliisolates to date demonstrates that the clonal expansion of two previously recognized antimicrobial-resistant clades, C1/H30R and C2/H30Rx, started around 25 years ago, consistent with the widespread introduction of fluoroquinolones and extended-spectrum cephalosporins in clinical medicine. These two clades appear to have emerged in the United States, with the expansion of the C2/H30Rx clade driven by the acquisition of ablaCTX-M-15-containing IncFII-like plasmid that has subsequently undergone extensive rearrangement. Several other evolutionary processes influencing the trajectory of this drug-resistant lineage are described, including sporadic acquisitions of CTX-M resistance plasmids and chromosomal integration ofblaCTX-Mwithin subclusters followed by vertical evolution. These processes are also occurring for another family of CTX-M gene variants more recently observed among ST131, theblaCTX-M-14/14-likegroup. The complexity of the evolutionary history of ST131 has important implications for antimicrobial resistance surveillance, epidemiological analysis, and control of emerging clinical lineages ofE. coli These data also highlight the global imperative to reduce specific antibiotic selection pressures and demonstrate the important and varied roles played by plasmids and other mobile genetic elements in the perpetuation of antimicrobial resistance within lineages. Escherichia coli, perennially a major bacterial pathogen, is becoming increasingly difficult to manage due to

Different habitats within a region contain evolutionary heritage from different epochs depending on the abiotic environment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bartish, I.V.; Ozinga, W.A.; Bartish, M.I.; Wamelink, G.W.W.; Hennekens, S.M.; Prinzing, Andreas

2016-01-01

Aim: Biodiversity hot-spots are regions containing evolutionary heritage from ancient or recent geological epochs, i.e. evolutionary 'museums' or 'cradles', respectively. We hypothesize that: (1) there are also 'museums' and 'cradles' within regions - some species pools of particular habitat

Right-Sizing the Department of Defense Acquisition Workforce

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

1997-01-01

.... Through the leadership of vigorous acquisition reform, astute management in a highly dynamic environment and great innovation, the acquisition workforce will be significantly smaller at the end of FY...

Input and Intake in Language Acquisition

Science.gov (United States)

Gagliardi, Ann C.

2012-01-01

This dissertation presents an approach for a productive way forward in the study of language acquisition, sealing the rift between claims of an innate linguistic hypothesis space and powerful domain general statistical inference. This approach breaks language acquisition into its component parts, distinguishing the input in the environment from…

Evolutionary process of deep-sea bathymodiolus mussels.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jun-Ichi Miyazaki

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Since the discovery of deep-sea chemosynthesis-based communities, much work has been done to clarify their organismal and environmental aspects. However, major topics remain to be resolved, including when and how organisms invade and adapt to deep-sea environments; whether strategies for invasion and adaptation are shared by different taxa or unique to each taxon; how organisms extend their distribution and diversity; and how they become isolated to speciate in continuous waters. Deep-sea mussels are one of the dominant organisms in chemosynthesis-based communities, thus investigations of their origin and evolution contribute to resolving questions about life in those communities. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDING: We investigated worldwide phylogenetic relationships of deep-sea Bathymodiolus mussels and their mytilid relatives by analyzing nucleotide sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 4 (ND4 genes. Phylogenetic analysis of the concatenated sequence data showed that mussels of the subfamily Bathymodiolinae from vents and seeps were divided into four groups, and that mussels of the subfamily Modiolinae from sunken wood and whale carcasses assumed the outgroup position and shallow-water modioline mussels were positioned more distantly to the bathymodioline mussels. We provisionally hypothesized the evolutionary history of Bathymodilolus mussels by estimating evolutionary time under a relaxed molecular clock model. Diversification of bathymodioline mussels was initiated in the early Miocene, and subsequently diversification of the groups occurred in the early to middle Miocene. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The phylogenetic relationships support the "Evolutionary stepping stone hypothesis," in which mytilid ancestors exploited sunken wood and whale carcasses in their progressive adaptation to deep-sea environments. This hypothesis is also supported by the evolutionary transition of

Network-level architecture and the evolutionary potential of underground metabolism.

Science.gov (United States)

Notebaart, Richard A; Szappanos, Balázs; Kintses, Bálint; Pál, Ferenc; Györkei, Ádám; Bogos, Balázs; Lázár, Viktória; Spohn, Réka; Csörgő, Bálint; Wagner, Allon; Ruppin, Eytan; Pál, Csaba; Papp, Balázs

2014-08-12

A central unresolved issue in evolutionary biology is how metabolic innovations emerge. Low-level enzymatic side activities are frequent and can potentially be recruited for new biochemical functions. However, the role of such underground reactions in adaptation toward novel environments has remained largely unknown and out of reach of computational predictions, not least because these issues demand analyses at the level of the entire metabolic network. Here, we provide a comprehensive computational model of the underground metabolism in Escherichia coli. Most underground reactions are not isolated and 45% of them can be fully wired into the existing network and form novel pathways that produce key precursors for cell growth. This observation allowed us to conduct an integrated genome-wide in silico and experimental survey to characterize the evolutionary potential of E. coli to adapt to hundreds of nutrient conditions. We revealed that underground reactions allow growth in new environments when their activity is increased. We estimate that at least ∼20% of the underground reactions that can be connected to the existing network confer a fitness advantage under specific environments. Moreover, our results demonstrate that the genetic basis of evolutionary adaptations via underground metabolism is computationally predictable. The approach used here has potential for various application areas from bioengineering to medical genetics.

23 CFR 710.501 - Early acquisition.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION RIGHT-OF-WAY AND ENVIRONMENT RIGHT-OF-WAY AND REAL ESTATE Property Acquisition Alternatives § 710.501 Early acquisition. (a) Real property... the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000d-2000d-4); (5) The State determined and the FHWA concurs...

An Evolutionary Perspective on Toxic Leadership

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lucia Ovidia VREJA

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Charles Darwin’s prediction from 1859, that future psychology was going to be built on principles derived from evolutionary theory came at last to be fulfilled. Nowadays, there are at least four disciplines that attempt to explain human behaviours as evolutionary adaptations (or maladaptations to the natural and/or social environment: human sociobiology, human behavioural ecology, evolutionary psychology, memetics and gene–culture coevolution theory (in our view, the most adequate of all. According to gene–culture coevolution theory, articulated language was the singular phenomenon that permitted humans to become a cultural species, and from that moment on culture become itself a selection factor. Culture means transmission of information from one generation to the next and learning from other individuals’ experiences, trough language. So, it is of critical importance to have good criteria for the selection of those individuals from whom we should learn. Yet when humans also choose their leaders from among those role-models, according to the same criteria, this mechanism can become a maladaptation and the result can be toxic leadership.

Evolutionary molecular medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Nesse, Randolph M; Ganten, Detlev; Gregory, T Ryan; Omenn, Gilbert S

2012-05-01

Evolution has long provided a foundation for population genetics, but some major advances in evolutionary biology from the twentieth century that provide foundations for evolutionary medicine are only now being applied in molecular medicine. They include the need for both proximate and evolutionary explanations, kin selection, evolutionary models for cooperation, competition between alleles, co-evolution, and new strategies for tracing phylogenies and identifying signals of selection. Recent advances in genomics are transforming evolutionary biology in ways that create even more opportunities for progress at its interfaces with genetics, medicine, and public health. This article reviews 15 evolutionary principles and their applications in molecular medicine in hopes that readers will use them and related principles to speed the development of evolutionary molecular medicine.

[Evolutionary medicine: A new look on health and disease].

Science.gov (United States)

Bauduer, F

2017-03-01

Evolutionary medicine represents an innovative approach deriving from evolutionary biology. It includes the initial Darwin's view, its actualization in the light of progresses in genetics and also dissident theories (i.e. non gene-based) particularly epigenetics. This approach enables us to reconsider the pathophysiology of numerous diseases, as for instance, infection, and our so-called diseases of civilization especially obesity, type 2 diabetes, allergy or cancer. Evolutionary medicine may also improve our knowledge regarding inter-individual variation in susceptibility to disease or drugs. Furthermore, it points out the impact of our behaviors and environment on the genesis of a series of diseases. Copyright © 2016 Société Nationale Française de Médecine Interne (SNFMI). Published by Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.

The Work Breakdown Structure in an Acquisition Reform Environment

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Albert, Neil

1997-01-01

These viewgraphs discuss acquisition reform, costs, provide a definition for work breakdown structure, development process of work breakdown, an overview of contract business management, a GAO review...

Investigating the Environment: Investigating Resource Acquisition and Use.

Science.gov (United States)

Sheridan, Jack

This unit provides the student with a simulated experience in the development of decision making skills. The acquisition of petroleum resources in a hypothetical republic provides the basic scenario around which the simulation develops. Students are supplied with specific information about petroleum geology, finances, and drilling. With this…

[Evolutionary medicine: the future looking at the past].

Science.gov (United States)

Carvalho, Serafim; Rosado, Margarida

2008-01-01

Evolutionary medicine is an emergent basic science that offers new and varied perspectives to the comprehension of the human health and disease, considering them as a result of a gap between our modern lives and the environment where human beings evolve. This work's goals are to understand the importance of the evolutionary theories on concepts of health and disease, providing a new insight on medicine investigation. This bibliography review is based on Medline and PsycINFO articles research between 1996 and 2007 about review and experimental studies published in English, using the key words evolutionary and medicine, psychiatry, psychology, behaviour, health, disease, gene. There were selected forty-five articles based on and with special interest on the authors' practice. There were also consulted some allusive books. The present human genome and phenotypes are essentially Palaeolithic ones: they are not adapted to the modern life style, thus favouring the so called diseases of civilization. Fitting evolutionary strategies, apparently protective ones, when excessive, are the core syndromes of many emotional disruptive behaviours and diseases. Having the stone age's genes, we are obliged to live in the space age. With the evolutionary approach, postmodern medicine is detecting better the vulnerabilities, restrictions, biases, adaptations and maladaptations of human body, its actual diseases and its preventions and treatment.

A REAL-TIME DATA ACQUISITION APPORACH OF ENVIROMENTAL ERGONOMIC PARAMETER USING LabVIEW

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ZULFADLI ZAILAN

2016-04-01

Full Text Available A safe and comfort workstation can increase the performances of the worker. Environment parameter is one of the factor that need to be monitor and display to create a safe and comfort work station. An acquisition system that can monitored and display these environment parameter need to be developed. In this paper, an acquisition system is developed to monitored and display three environment parameter which is sound, light and temperature. An acquisition system consists of sensor, data acquisition (DAQ, power supply board, computer and LabVIEW. Sensor will captured the environment parameter then DAQ convert the signal gained from sensor into computer. All the data from sensor and DAQ then will be program by using LabVIEW. An acquisition system has been test and able to captured all three environment data and test is conducted in the lab scale. It is hoped that with this acquisition system, a safe and comfort workstation can be provided to a worker and eventually can increase workers performance and decrease worker’s medical cost due to low accident and health problem among workers.

Evolutionary Process for Integrating COTS-Based Systems (EPIC): An Overview. Key Elements in Building, Fielding, and Supporting Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) Based Solutions

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Albert, Cecilia

2002-01-01

.... The Evolutionary Process for Integrating COTS-based systems (EPIC) redefines acquisition, management, and engineering practices to more effectively leverage the COTS marketplace and other sources of pre-existing components...

Evolutionary Developmental Robotics: Improving Morphology and Control of Physical Robots.

Science.gov (United States)

Vujovic, Vuk; Rosendo, Andre; Brodbeck, Luzius; Iida, Fumiya

2017-01-01

Evolutionary algorithms have previously been applied to the design of morphology and control of robots. The design space for such tasks can be very complex, which can prevent evolution from efficiently discovering fit solutions. In this article we introduce an evolutionary-developmental (evo-devo) experiment with real-world robots. It allows robots to grow their leg size to simulate ontogenetic morphological changes, and this is the first time that such an experiment has been performed in the physical world. To test diverse robot morphologies, robot legs of variable shapes were generated during the evolutionary process and autonomously built using additive fabrication. We present two cases with evo-devo experiments and one with evolution, and we hypothesize that the addition of a developmental stage can be used within robotics to improve performance. Moreover, our results show that a nonlinear system-environment interaction exists, which explains the nontrivial locomotion patterns observed. In the future, robots will be present in our daily lives, and this work introduces for the first time physical robots that evolve and grow while interacting with the environment.

Turkish Air Force's Experiences in Chemical Material Acquisition

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Taskiran, Huseyin

2002-01-01

.... In addition, it analyzes the chemical material acquisition from business perspective. Due to operating in different environments, the Turkish Air Force and the private sector have different objectives in the acquisition of chemical materials...

Evolutionary medicine: update on the relevance to family practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Naugler, Christopher T

2008-09-01

To review the relevance of evolutionary medicine to family practice and family physician training. Articles were located through a MEDLINE search, using the key words evolution, Darwin, and adaptation. Most references presented level III evidence (expert opinion), while a minority provided level II evidence (epidemiologic studies). Evolutionary medicine deals with the interplay of biology and the environment in the understanding of human disease. Yet medical schools have virtually ignored the need for family physicians to have more than a cursory knowledge of this topic. A review of the main trends in this field most relevant to family practice revealed that a basic knowledge of evolutionary medicine might help in explaining the causation of diseases to patients. Evolutionary medicine has also proven key to explaining the reasons for the development of antibiotic resistance and has the potential to explain cancer pathogenesis. As an organizing principle, this field also has potential in the teaching of family medicine. Evolutionary medicine should be studied further and incorporated into medical training and practice. Its practical utility will be proven through the generation of testable hypotheses and their application in relation to disease causation and possible prevention.

The Language Environment and Syntactic Word-Class Acquisition.

Science.gov (United States)

Zavrel, Jakub; Veenstra, Jorn

A study analyzed the distribution of words in a three-million-word corpus of text from the "Wall Street Journal," in order to test a theory of the acquisition of word categories. The theory, an alternative to the semantic bootstrapping hypothesis, proposes that the child exploits multiple sources of cues (distributional, semantic, or…

Evolutionary and developmental modules.

Science.gov (United States)

Lacquaniti, Francesco; Ivanenko, Yuri P; d'Avella, Andrea; Zelik, Karl E; Zago, Myrka

2013-01-01

The identification of biological modules at the systems level often follows top-down decomposition of a task goal, or bottom-up decomposition of multidimensional data arrays into basic elements or patterns representing shared features. These approaches traditionally have been applied to mature, fully developed systems. Here we review some results from two other perspectives on modularity, namely the developmental and evolutionary perspective. There is growing evidence that modular units of development were highly preserved and recombined during evolution. We first consider a few examples of modules well identifiable from morphology. Next we consider the more difficult issue of identifying functional developmental modules. We dwell especially on modular control of locomotion to argue that the building blocks used to construct different locomotor behaviors are similar across several animal species, presumably related to ancestral neural networks of command. A recurrent theme from comparative studies is that the developmental addition of new premotor modules underlies the postnatal acquisition and refinement of several different motor behaviors in vertebrates.

Applying evolutionary biology to address global challenges

Science.gov (United States)

Carroll, Scott P.; Jørgensen, Peter Søgaard; Kinnison, Michael T.; Bergstrom, Carl T.; Denison, R. Ford; Gluckman, Peter; Smith, Thomas B.; Strauss, Sharon Y.; Tabashnik, Bruce E.

2014-01-01

Two categories of evolutionary challenges result from escalating human impacts on the planet. The first arises from cancers, pathogens and pests that evolve too quickly, and the second from the inability of many valued species to adapt quickly enough. Applied evolutionary biology provides a suite of strategies to address these global challenges that threaten human health, food security, and biodiversity. This review highlights both progress and gaps in genetic, developmental and environmental manipulations across the life sciences that either target the rate and direction of evolution, or reduce the mismatch between organisms and human-altered environments. Increased development and application of these underused tools will be vital in meeting current and future targets for sustainable development. PMID:25213376

Incorporating Development Into Evolutionary Psychology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David F. Bjorklund

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Developmental thinking is gradually becoming integrated within mainstream evolutionary psychology. This is most apparent with respect to the role of parenting, with proponents of life history theory arguing that cognitive and behavioral plasticity early in life permits children to select different life history strategies, with such strategies being adaptive solutions to different fitness trade-offs. I argue that adaptations develop and are based on the highly plastic nature of infants’ and children’s behavior/cognition/brains. The concept of evolved probabilistic cognitive mechanisms is introduced, defined as information processing mechanisms evolved to solve recurrent problems faced by ancestral populations that are expressed in a probabilistic fashion in each individual in a generation and are based on the continuous and bidirectional interaction over time at all levels of organization, from the genetic through the cultural. Early perceptual/cognitive biases result in behavior that, when occurring in a species-typical environment, produce continuous adaptive changes in behavior (and cognition, yielding adaptive outcomes. Examples from social learning and tool use are provided, illustrating the development of adaptations via evolved probabilistic cognitive mechanisms. The integration of developmental concepts into mainstream evolutionary psychology (and evolutionary concepts into mainstream developmental psychology will provide a clearer picture of what it means to be human.

Extended evolutionary psychology: the importance of transgenerational developmental plasticity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karola eStotz

2014-08-01

Full Text Available What kind mechanisms one deems central for the evolutionary process deeply influences one’s understanding of the nature of organisms, including cognition. Reversely, adopting a certain approach to the nature of life and cognition and the relationship between them or between the organism and its environment should affect one’s view of evolutionary theory. This paper explores this reciprocal relationship in more detail. In particular it argues that the view of living and cognitive systems, especially humans, as deeply integrated beings embedded in and transformed by their genetic, epigenetic (molecular and cellular, behavioral, ecological, socio-cultural and cognitive-symbolic legacies calls for an extended evolutionary synthesis that goes beyond either a theory of genes juxtaposed against a theory of cultural evolution and or even more sophisticated theories of gene-culture coevolution and niche construction. Environments, particularly in the form of developmental environments, do not just select for variation, they also create new variation by influencing development through the reliable transmission of non-genetic but heritable information. This paper stresses particularly views of embodied, embedded, enacted and extended cognition, and their relationship to those aspects of extended inheritance that lie between genetic and cultural inheritance, the still grey area of epigenetic and behavioral inheritance systems that play a role in parental effect. These are the processes that can be regarded as transgenerational developmental plasticity and that I think can most fruitfully contribute to, and be investigated by, developmental psychology.

Extended evolutionary psychology: the importance of transgenerational developmental plasticity.

Science.gov (United States)

Stotz, Karola

2014-01-01

What kind mechanisms one deems central for the evolutionary process deeply influences one's understanding of the nature of organisms, including cognition. Reversely, adopting a certain approach to the nature of life and cognition and the relationship between them or between the organism and its environment should affect one's view of evolutionary theory. This paper explores this reciprocal relationship in more detail. In particular it argues that the view of living and cognitive systems, especially humans, as deeply integrated beings embedded in and transformed by their genetic, epigenetic (molecular and cellular), behavioral, ecological, socio-cultural and cognitive-symbolic legacies calls for an extended evolutionary synthesis that goes beyond either a theory of genes juxtaposed against a theory of cultural evolution and or even more sophisticated theories of gene-culture coevolution and niche construction. Environments, particularly in the form of developmental environments, do not just select for variation, they also create new variation by influencing development through the reliable transmission of non-genetic but heritable information. This paper stresses particularly views of embodied, embedded, enacted and extended cognition, and their relationship to those aspects of extended inheritance that lie between genetic and cultural inheritance, the still gray area of epigenetic and behavioral inheritance systems that play a role in parental effect. These are the processes that can be regarded as transgenerational developmental plasticity and that I think can most fruitfully contribute to, and be investigated by, developmental psychology.

Graphical user interface for image acquisition and processing

Science.gov (United States)

Goldberg, Kenneth A.

2002-01-01

An event-driven GUI-based image acquisition interface for the IDL programming environment designed for CCD camera control and image acquisition directly into the IDL environment where image manipulation and data analysis can be performed, and a toolbox of real-time analysis applications. Running the image acquisition hardware directly from IDL removes the necessity of first saving images in one program and then importing the data into IDL for analysis in a second step. Bringing the data directly into IDL creates an opportunity for the implementation of IDL image processing and display functions in real-time. program allows control over the available charge coupled device (CCD) detector parameters, data acquisition, file saving and loading, and image manipulation and processing, all from within IDL. The program is built using IDL's widget libraries to control the on-screen display and user interface.

Evolutionary thinking

Science.gov (United States)

Hunt, Tam

2014-01-01

Evolution as an idea has a lengthy history, even though the idea of evolution is generally associated with Darwin today. Rebecca Stott provides an engaging and thoughtful overview of this history of evolutionary thinking in her 2013 book, Darwin's Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution. Since Darwin, the debate over evolution—both how it takes place and, in a long war of words with religiously-oriented thinkers, whether it takes place—has been sustained and heated. A growing share of this debate is now devoted to examining how evolutionary thinking affects areas outside of biology. How do our lives change when we recognize that all is in flux? What can we learn about life more generally if we study change instead of stasis? Carter Phipps’ book, Evolutionaries: Unlocking the Spiritual and Cultural Potential of Science's Greatest Idea, delves deep into this relatively new development. Phipps generally takes as a given the validity of the Modern Synthesis of evolutionary biology. His story takes us into, as the subtitle suggests, the spiritual and cultural implications of evolutionary thinking. Can religion and evolution be reconciled? Can evolutionary thinking lead to a new type of spirituality? Is our culture already being changed in ways that we don't realize by evolutionary thinking? These are all important questions and Phipps book is a great introduction to this discussion. Phipps is an author, journalist, and contributor to the emerging “integral” or “evolutionary” cultural movement that combines the insights of Integral Philosophy, evolutionary science, developmental psychology, and the social sciences. He has served as the Executive Editor of EnlightenNext magazine (no longer published) and more recently is the co-founder of the Institute for Cultural Evolution, a public policy think tank addressing the cultural roots of America's political challenges. What follows is an email interview with Phipps. PMID:26478766

The impact of the home learning environment in native- vs. second-language acquisition

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bleses, Dorthe; Højen, Anders; Dale, Philip S.

., 2007). However, little is known about the relative importance of the HLE for native- vs. second-language acquisition. This question was examined in 1,200 second-language and 8,000 native-language learners of Danish. The parents of the 3-5-year-old children completed a HLE questionnaire......The home literacy environment (HLE) has been shown to impact language and literacy skills in preschool-aged children via factors such as availability of books, frequency of reading and child age when parents began reading to the child (Burgess, Hecht, & Lonigan, 2002; Payne, Whitehurst, & Angell......, 1994). Many dual language learners (DLL) rely on interactions in the second language outside the home to acquire second-language proficiency, but the HLE also influences second-language development in DLL, whether the native language or the second language is the primary home language (Duursma et al...

Real-time UNIX in HEP data acquisition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Buono, S.; Gaponenko, I.; Jones, R.; Mapelli, L.; Mornacchi, G.; Prigent, D.; Sanchez-Corral, E.; Skiadelli, M.; Toppers, A.; Duval, P.Y.; Ferrato, D.; Le Van Suu, A.; Qian, Z.; Rondot, C.; Ambrosini, G.; Fumagalli, G.; Aguer, M.; Huet, M.

1994-01-01

Today's experimentation in high energy physics is characterized by an increasing need for sensitivity to rare phenomena and complex physics signatures, which require the use of huge and sophisticated detectors and consequently a high performance readout and data acquisition. Multi-level triggering, hierarchical data collection and an always increasing amount of processing power, distributed throughout the data acquisition layers, will impose a number of features on the software environment, especially the need for a high level of standardization. Real-time UNIX seems, today, the best solution for the platform independence, operating system interface standards and real-time features necessary for data acquisition in HEP experiments. We present the results of the evaluation, in a realistic application environment, of a Real-Time UNIX operating system: the EP/LX real-time UNIX system. ((orig.))

The ABCs of an evolutionary education science: The academic, behavioral, and cultural implications of an evolutionary approach to education theory and practice

Science.gov (United States)

Kauffman, Rick, Jr.

Calls for improving research-informed policy in education are everywhere. Yet, while there is an increasing trend towards science-based practice, there remains little agreement over which of the sciences to consult and how to organize a collective effort between them. What Education lacks is a general theoretical framework through which policies can be constructed, implemented, and assessed. This dissertation submits that evolutionary theory can provide a suitable framework for coordinating educational policies and practice, and can provide the entire field of education with a clearer sense of how to better manage the learning environment. This dissertation explores two broad paths that outline the conceptual foundations for an Evolutionary Education Science: "Teaching Evolution" and "Using Evolution to Teach." Chapter 1 introduces both of these themes. After describing why evolutionary science is best suited for organizing education research and practice, Chapter 1 proceeds to "teach" an overview of the "evolutionary toolkit"---the mechanisms and principles that underlie the modern evolutionary perspective. The chapter then employs the "toolkit" in examining education from an evolutionary perspective, outlining the evolutionary precepts that can guide theorizing and research in education, describing how educators can "use evolution to teach.". Chapters 2-4 expand on this second theme. Chapters 2 and 3 describe an education program for at-risk 9th and 10th grade students, the Regents Academy, designed entirely with evolutionary principles in mind. The program was rigorously assessed in a randomized control design and has demonstrated success at improving students' academic performance (Chapter 2) and social & behavioral development (Chapter 3). Chapter 4 examines current teaching strategies that underlie effective curriculum-instruction-assessment practices and proposes a framework for organizing successful, evidence-based strategies for neural

[Narcissism in the world of Facebook. An evolutionary psychopathological interpretation].

Science.gov (United States)

Szekeres, Adám; Tisljár, Roland

2013-01-01

In the last few decades there has been a considerable increase in the levels of narcissism among the population of individualistic, western cultures. The phenomena of narcissism induced a large number of psychological researches, some of which approaches the issue from changes in environmental factors. The modern environment of these days is substantially different from the one to which our ancestors have adapted over millions of years of evolution. The research results of narcissism from the perspective of evolutionary psychopathology approach have yet to integrate.The present review focuses on two studies and empirical findings induced by them in which an attempt is made to explore the evolutionary origins of narcissism. Relating to these studies we present the main mechanisms by which evolution may have played a role in the development and maintenance of narcissism. One of the significant elements of the current, changing social environment allowing virtual contacts is the social networking site called Facebook. Following the presentation of the main features of the site we discuss research results in connection with narcissistic traits and Facebook usage. Finally an attempt is made to integrate these findings into an evolutionary psychopathological framework.

128 Channel PCI-based data acquisition system for MDSplus

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Llobet, Xavier E-mail: xavier.llobet@epfl.ch; Duval, Basil P. E-mail: basil.duval@epfl.ch

2002-06-01

With the increasing demand for analogue channel acquisition on the TCV tokamak, a new PCI based acquisition has been specified, designed, built and installed into our MDSplus acquisition environment. The design criteria were to not only improve the cost/channel, as compared to our conventional hub based acquisition (CAMAC), but to provide some distributed processing power to avoid the associated acquisition server saturation, both in terms of CPU and network bandwidth. These units were initially intended to satisfy the requirements of general variable rate acquisition from a variety of sources, and many channel acquisition from modern multi-channel diagnostics. Hosted by a i386-Linux PC in a crate with four available PCI slots, each single-PCI slot 32-channel digitiser features sampling frequencies up to 200 kHz, and 64 MB of memory, providing 1 Msample of 16-bit data per channel. The local hard disk is used for immediate local storage of all the acquired data from the selected channels into a local MDSplus database. The host is then accessed as a MDS/IP server that provides, on demand, down-sampled and software filtered traces. The local hard disk capacity is used for medium to long-term storage and availability of the full data set with optional mirror technology to guard against hard disk failure. We have thus obtained a general solution for high resolution, multi-channel routine acquisition using the multi-platform MDSplus environment, in which different software and hardware architectures are intelligently linked across a standard TCP/IP network. The implementation presented here uses ONLY standard components of the MDSplus environment.

128 Channel PCI-based data acquisition system for MDSplus

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Llobet, Xavier; Duval, Basil P.

2002-01-01

With the increasing demand for analogue channel acquisition on the TCV tokamak, a new PCI based acquisition has been specified, designed, built and installed into our MDSplus acquisition environment. The design criteria were to not only improve the cost/channel, as compared to our conventional hub based acquisition (CAMAC), but to provide some distributed processing power to avoid the associated acquisition server saturation, both in terms of CPU and network bandwidth. These units were initially intended to satisfy the requirements of general variable rate acquisition from a variety of sources, and many channel acquisition from modern multi-channel diagnostics. Hosted by a i386-Linux PC in a crate with four available PCI slots, each single-PCI slot 32-channel digitiser features sampling frequencies up to 200 kHz, and 64 MB of memory, providing 1 Msample of 16-bit data per channel. The local hard disk is used for immediate local storage of all the acquired data from the selected channels into a local MDSplus database. The host is then accessed as a MDS/IP server that provides, on demand, down-sampled and software filtered traces. The local hard disk capacity is used for medium to long-term storage and availability of the full data set with optional mirror technology to guard against hard disk failure. We have thus obtained a general solution for high resolution, multi-channel routine acquisition using the multi-platform MDSplus environment, in which different software and hardware architectures are intelligently linked across a standard TCP/IP network. The implementation presented here uses ONLY standard components of the MDSplus environment

Evolutionary Stable Strategy

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Journals; Resonance – Journal of Science Education; Volume 21; Issue 9. Evolutionary Stable Strategy: Application of Nash Equilibrium in Biology. General Article Volume 21 Issue 9 September 2016 pp 803- ... Keywords. Evolutionary game theory, evolutionary stable state, conflict, cooperation, biological games.

Deathly drool: evolutionary and ecological basis of septic bacteria in Komodo dragon mouths.

OpenAIRE

J J Bull; Tim S Jessop; Marvin Whiteley

2010-01-01

Komodo dragons, the world's largest lizard, dispatch their large ungulate prey by biting and tearing flesh. If a prey escapes, oral bacteria inoculated into the wound reputedly induce a sepsis that augments later prey capture by the same or other lizards. However, the ecological and evolutionary basis of sepsis in Komodo prey acquisition is controversial. Two models have been proposed. The ?bacteria as venom? model postulates that the oral flora directly benefits the lizard in prey capture ir...

Eco-evolutionary feedback and the invasion of cooperation in prisoner's dilemma games.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Feng Zhang

Full Text Available Unveiling the origin and forms of cooperation in nature poses profound challenges in evolutionary ecology. The prisoner's dilemma game is an important metaphor for studying the evolution of cooperation. We here classified potential mechanisms for cooperation evolution into schemes of frequency- and density-dependent selection, and focused on the density-dependent selection in the ecological prisoner's dilemma games. We found that, although assortative encounter is still the necessary condition in ecological games for cooperation evolution, a harsh environment, indicated by a high mortality, can foster the invasion of cooperation. The Hamilton rule provides a fundamental condition for the evolution of cooperation by ensuring an enhanced relatedness between players in low-density populations. Incorporating ecological dynamics into evolutionary games opens up a much wider window for the evolution of cooperation, and exhibits a variety of complex behaviors of dynamics, such as limit and heteroclinic cycles. An alternative evolutionary, or rather succession, sequence was proposed that cooperation first appears in harsh environments, followed by the invasion of defection, which leads to a common catastrophe. The rise of cooperation (and altruism, thus, could be much easier in the density-dependent ecological games than in the classic frequency-dependent evolutionary games.

Development links psychological causes to evolutionary explanations.

Science.gov (United States)

Fedyk, Mark; Kushnir, Tamar

2014-04-01

Our conscious abilities are learned in environments that have evolved to support them. This insight provides an alternative way of framing Huang & Bargh's (H&B's) provocative hypothesis. To understand the conflict between unconscious goals and consciousness, we can study the emergence of conscious thought and control in childhood. These developmental processes are also central to the best available current evolutionary theories.

The use of information theory in evolutionary biology.

Science.gov (United States)

Adami, Christoph

2012-05-01

Information is a key concept in evolutionary biology. Information stored in a biological organism's genome is used to generate the organism and to maintain and control it. Information is also that which evolves. When a population adapts to a local environment, information about this environment is fixed in a representative genome. However, when an environment changes, information can be lost. At the same time, information is processed by animal brains to survive in complex environments, and the capacity for information processing also evolves. Here, I review applications of information theory to the evolution of proteins and to the evolution of information processing in simulated agents that adapt to perform a complex task. © 2012 New York Academy of Sciences.

Unfair and Anomalous Evolutionary Dynamics from Fluctuating Payoffs

Science.gov (United States)

Stollmeier, Frank; Nagler, Jan

2018-02-01

Evolution occurs in populations of reproducing individuals. Reproduction depends on the payoff a strategy receives. The payoff depends on the environment that may change over time, on intrinsic uncertainties, and on other sources of randomness. These temporal variations in the payoffs can affect which traits evolve. Understanding evolutionary game dynamics that are affected by varying payoffs remains difficult. Here we study the impact of arbitrary amplitudes and covariances of temporally varying payoffs on the dynamics. The evolutionary dynamics may be "unfair," meaning that, on average, two coexisting strategies may persistently receive different payoffs. This mechanism can induce an anomalous coexistence of cooperators and defectors in the prisoner's dilemma, and an unexpected selection reversal in the hawk-dove game.

Historical change and evolutionary theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Masters, Roger D

2007-09-01

Despite advances in fields like genetics, evolutionary psychology, and human behavior and evolution--which generally focus on individual or small group behavior from a biological perspective--evolutionary biology has made little impact on studies of political change and social history. Theories of natural selection often seem inapplicable to human history because our social behavior is embedded in language (which makes possible the concepts of time and social identity on which what we call "history" depends). Peter Corning's Holistic Darwinism reconceptualizes evolutionary biology, making it possible to go beyond the barriers separating the social and natural sciences. Corning focuses on two primary processes: "synergy" (complex multivariate interactions at multiple levels between a species and its environment) and "cybernetics" (the information systems permitting communication between individuals and groups over time). Combining this frame of reference with inclusive fitness theory, it is possible to answer the most important (and puzzling) question in human history: How did a species that lived for millennia in hunter-gatherer bands form centralized states governing large populations of non-kin (including multi-ethnic empires as well as modern nation-states)? The fragility and contemporary ethnic violence in Kenya and the Congo should suffice as evidence that these issues need to be taken seriously. To explain the rise and fall of states as well as changes in human laws and customs--the core of historical research--it is essential to show how the provision of collective goods can overcome the challenge of self-interest and free-riding in some instances, yet fail to do so in others. To this end, it is now possible to consider how a state providing public goods can--under circumstances that often include effective leadership--contribute to enhanced inclusive fitness of virtually all its members. Because social behavior needs to adapt to ecology, but ecological

Evolutionary Divergences in Root Exudate Composition among Ecologically-Contrasting Helianthus Species.

Science.gov (United States)

Bowsher, Alan W; Ali, Rifhat; Harding, Scott A; Tsai, Chung-Jui; Donovan, Lisa A

2016-01-01

Plant roots exude numerous metabolites into the soil that influence nutrient availability. Although root exudate composition is hypothesized to be under selection in low fertility soils, few studies have tested this hypothesis in a phylogenetic framework. In this study, we examined root exudates of three pairs of Helianthus species chosen as phylogenetically-independent contrasts with respect to native soil nutrient availability. Under controlled environmental conditions, seedlings were grown to the three-leaf-pair stage, then transferred to either high or low nutrient treatments. After five days of nutrient treatments, we used gas chromatography-mass spectrometry for analysis of root exudates, and detected 37 metabolites across species. When compared in the high nutrient treatment, species native to low nutrient soils exhibited overall higher exudation than their sister species native to high nutrient soils in all three species pairs, providing support for repeated evolutionary shifts in response to native soil fertility. Species native to low nutrient soils and those native to high nutrient soils responded similarly to low nutrient treatments with increased exudation of organic acids (fumaric, citric, malic acids) and glucose, potentially as a mechanism to enhance nutrition acquisition. However, species native to low nutrient soils also responded to low nutrient treatments with a larger decrease in exudation of amino acids than species native to high nutrient soils in all three species pairs. This indicates that species native to low nutrient soils have evolved a unique sensitivity to changes in nutrient availability for some, but not all, root exudates. Overall, these repeated evolutionary divergences between species native to low nutrient soils and those native to high nutrient soils provide evidence for the adaptive value of root exudation, and its plasticity, in contrasting soil environments.

An Evolutionary Model of Spatial Competition

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Knudsen, Thorbjørn; Winter, Sidney G.

  This paper sets forth an evolutionary model in which diverse businesses, with diverse offerings, compete in a stylized physical space.  When a business firm attempts to expand its activity, so as to profit further from the capabilities it has developed, it necessarily does so in a "new location...... as well in the new environment as they did in the old; the firm may respond with effort to locate appropriate environments or by modification of its routines.  Tradeoffs are presented between the complexity of a business model and its replication costs,  as well as issues involving response....... Randomly generated firm policies are tested first by a local market environment, and then, if success leads the firm to grow spatially, in a gradually expanding environment.  In the initial experiments reported here, we show that the model generates configurations that reflect features of the exogenous...

EvoBuild: A Quickstart Toolkit for Programming Agent-Based Models of Evolutionary Processes

Science.gov (United States)

Wagh, Aditi; Wilensky, Uri

2018-04-01

Extensive research has shown that one of the benefits of programming to learn about scientific phenomena is that it facilitates learning about mechanisms underlying the phenomenon. However, using programming activities in classrooms is associated with costs such as requiring additional time to learn to program or students needing prior experience with programming. This paper presents a class of programming environments that we call quickstart: Environments with a negligible threshold for entry into programming and a modest ceiling. We posit that such environments can provide benefits of programming for learning without incurring associated costs for novice programmers. To make this claim, we present a design-based research study conducted to compare programming models of evolutionary processes with a quickstart toolkit with exploring pre-built models of the same processes. The study was conducted in six seventh grade science classes in two schools. Students in the programming condition used EvoBuild, a quickstart toolkit for programming agent-based models of evolutionary processes, to build their NetLogo models. Students in the exploration condition used pre-built NetLogo models. We demonstrate that although students came from a range of academic backgrounds without prior programming experience, and all students spent the same number of class periods on the activities including the time students took to learn programming in this environment, EvoBuild students showed greater learning about evolutionary mechanisms. We discuss the implications of this work for design research on programming environments in K-12 science education.

Using Options to Manage Dynamic Uncertainty in Acquisition Projects

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Ceylan, B. K; Ford, David N

2002-01-01

Uncertainty in acquisition projects and environments can degrade performance. Traditional project planning, management tools, and methods can effectively deal with uncertainties in relatively stable environments...

EvoluCode: Evolutionary Barcodes as a Unifying Framework for Multilevel Evolutionary Data.

Science.gov (United States)

Linard, Benjamin; Nguyen, Ngoc Hoan; Prosdocimi, Francisco; Poch, Olivier; Thompson, Julie D

2012-01-01

Evolutionary systems biology aims to uncover the general trends and principles governing the evolution of biological networks. An essential part of this process is the reconstruction and analysis of the evolutionary histories of these complex, dynamic networks. Unfortunately, the methodologies for representing and exploiting such complex evolutionary histories in large scale studies are currently limited. Here, we propose a new formalism, called EvoluCode (Evolutionary barCode), which allows the integration of different evolutionary parameters (eg, sequence conservation, orthology, synteny …) in a unifying format and facilitates the multilevel analysis and visualization of complex evolutionary histories at the genome scale. The advantages of the approach are demonstrated by constructing barcodes representing the evolution of the complete human proteome. Two large-scale studies are then described: (i) the mapping and visualization of the barcodes on the human chromosomes and (ii) automatic clustering of the barcodes to highlight protein subsets sharing similar evolutionary histories and their functional analysis. The methodologies developed here open the way to the efficient application of other data mining and knowledge extraction techniques in evolutionary systems biology studies. A database containing all EvoluCode data is available at: http://lbgi.igbmc.fr/barcodes.

Evolutionary Instability of Symbiotic Function in Bradyrhizobium japonicum

Science.gov (United States)

Sachs, Joel L.; Russell, James E.; Hollowell, Amanda C.

2011-01-01

Bacterial mutualists are often acquired from the environment by eukaryotic hosts. However, both theory and empirical work suggest that this bacterial lifestyle is evolutionarily unstable. Bacterial evolution outside of the host is predicted to favor traits that promote an independent lifestyle in the environment at a cost to symbiotic function. Consistent with these predictions, environmentally-acquired bacterial mutualists often lose symbiotic function over evolutionary time. Here, we investigate the evolutionary erosion of symbiotic traits in Bradyrhizobium japonicum, a nodulating root symbiont of legumes. Building on a previous published phylogeny we infer loss events of nodulation capability in a natural population of Bradyrhizobium, potentially driven by mutation or deletion of symbiosis loci. Subsequently, we experimentally evolved representative strains from the symbiont population under host-free in vitro conditions to examine potential drivers of these loss events. Among Bradyrhizobium genotypes that evolved significant increases in fitness in vitro, two exhibited reduced symbiotic quality, but no experimentally evolved strain lost nodulation capability or evolved any fixed changes at six sequenced loci. Our results are consistent with trade-offs between symbiotic quality and fitness in a host free environment. However, the drivers of loss-of-nodulation events in natural Bradyrhizobium populations remain unknown. PMID:22073160

Symbionticism revisited: a discussion of the evolutionary impact of intracellular symbioses.

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, F J

1979-04-11

Wallin (1927) first published the notion that the fusion of bacteria with host cells was the principal source of genetic novelty for speciation. He suggested that mitochondria are transitional elements in this process. While the significance that he attributed to symbiosis now seem excessive, he was one of the first authors to be aware of the evolutionary potential of symbiotic events and his view of mitochondria may not seem strange to many cell biologist today. The most significant evolutionary development which has been attributed to intracellular symbiosis is the origin of eukaryotic cellular organization. The current status of the 'serial endosymbiosis hypothesis' is briefly review. The case for the symbiotic origin of the chloroplast, based principally on 16 S RNA oligonucleotide cataloguing, is very strong. Mitochondrial origins are more obscure but also appear to be symbiotic due to recent 18 S cataloguing from wheat embryos. The probablility of the multiple origin of some eukaryotic organelles is also examined, the processes in question being the acquisition of distinct stocks of chloroplasts from disparate photosynthetic prokaryotes and the secondary donation of organelles from degenerate eukaryotic endosymbionts to their hosts, with specific reference to the dinoflagellates Peridinium balticum, Kryptoperidinium foliaceum and the ciliate Mesodinium rubrum. It is concluded that the evolutionary potential of intracellular symbiosis ('cytobiosis': a term introduced in this paper) is great, with the best established influence being on the origin of eukaryotic chloroplasts. Together with the potential effects of viral vectors, symbiosis serves as a supplementary speciation mechanism capable of producing directed evolutionary changes. It is likely that these processes will explain some of the apparent anomalies in evolutionary rates and direction which are not readily explicable by the conventional synthetic theory of evolution.

influence of environment on a child's acquisition of english

African Journals Online (AJOL)

USER

Department of Linguistics and Communication Studies. University of Port ... The analysis of data collected showed that parents of the children under ... environmental factors is the acquisition of English by the Nigerian child and the ... language will be moribund if children are not speaking them now. ..... 'Book in the house'.

Effects of Clonal Reproduction on Evolutionary Lag and Evolutionary Rescue.

Science.gov (United States)

Orive, Maria E; Barfield, Michael; Fernandez, Carlos; Holt, Robert D

2017-10-01

Evolutionary lag-the difference between mean and optimal phenotype in the current environment-is of keen interest in light of rapid environmental change. Many ecologically important organisms have life histories that include stage structure and both sexual and clonal reproduction, yet how stage structure and clonality interplay to govern a population's rate of evolution and evolutionary lag is unknown. Effects of clonal reproduction on mean phenotype partition into two portions: one that is phenotype dependent, and another that is genotype dependent. This partitioning is governed by the association between the nonadditive genetic plus random environmental component of phenotype of clonal offspring and their parents. While clonality slows phenotypic evolution toward an optimum, it can dramatically increase population survival after a sudden step change in optimal phenotype. Increased adult survival slows phenotypic evolution but facilitates population survival after a step change; this positive effect can, however, be lost given survival-fecundity trade-offs. Simulations indicate that the benefits of increased clonality under environmental change greatly depend on the nature of that change: increasing population persistence under a step change while decreasing population persistence under a continuous linear change requiring de novo variation. The impact of clonality on the probability of persistence for species in a changing world is thus inexorably linked to the temporal texture of the change they experience.

The problems of assessing the value of mergers and acquisitions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Borovikov A.D.

2017-04-01

Full Text Available the article discusses some questions concerning mergers and acquisitions of companies. The essential foundation of any mergers and acquisitions is always the competitive environment, more precisely, its constant changes.

A Work Environment Climate Assessment of an Army Acquisition Center

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Doelling, Michael C; Kalapacs, Jenni J

2005-01-01

.... The goal of this Joint Applied Project was to identify organizational climate characteristics of the Army Acquisition Center to provide supervisors with data on the extent to which employees perceive...

The extended evolutionary synthesis: its structure, assumptions and predictions

Science.gov (United States)

Laland, Kevin N.; Uller, Tobias; Feldman, Marcus W.; Sterelny, Kim; Müller, Gerd B.; Moczek, Armin; Jablonka, Eva; Odling-Smee, John

2015-01-01

Scientific activities take place within the structured sets of ideas and assumptions that define a field and its practices. The conceptual framework of evolutionary biology emerged with the Modern Synthesis in the early twentieth century and has since expanded into a highly successful research program to explore the processes of diversification and adaptation. Nonetheless, the ability of that framework satisfactorily to accommodate the rapid advances in developmental biology, genomics and ecology has been questioned. We review some of these arguments, focusing on literatures (evo-devo, developmental plasticity, inclusive inheritance and niche construction) whose implications for evolution can be interpreted in two ways—one that preserves the internal structure of contemporary evolutionary theory and one that points towards an alternative conceptual framework. The latter, which we label the ‘extended evolutionary synthesis' (EES), retains the fundaments of evolutionary theory, but differs in its emphasis on the role of constructive processes in development and evolution, and reciprocal portrayals of causation. In the EES, developmental processes, operating through developmental bias, inclusive inheritance and niche construction, share responsibility for the direction and rate of evolution, the origin of character variation and organism–environment complementarity. We spell out the structure, core assumptions and novel predictions of the EES, and show how it can be deployed to stimulate and advance research in those fields that study or use evolutionary biology. PMID:26246559

Migrating Legacy Systems in the Global Merger & Acquisition Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Katerattanakul, Pairin; Kam, Hwee-Joo; Lee, James J.; Hong, Soongoo

2009-01-01

The MetaFrame system migration project at WorldPharma, while driven by merger and acquisition, had faced complexities caused by both technical challenges and organizational issues in the climate of uncertainties. However, WorldPharma still insisted on instigating this post-merger system migration project. This project served to (1) consolidate the…

A conceptual evolutionary aseismic decision support framework for hospitals

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Yufeng; Dargush, Gary F.; Shao, Xiaoyun

2012-12-01

In this paper, aconceptual evolutionary framework for aseismic decision support for hospitalsthat attempts to integrate a range of engineering and sociotechnical models is presented. Genetic algorithms are applied to find the optimal decision sets. A case study is completed to demonstrate how the frameworkmay applytoa specific hospital.The simulations show that the proposed evolutionary decision support framework is able to discover robust policy sets in either uncertain or fixed environments. The framework also qualitatively identifies some of the characteristicbehavior of the critical care organization. Thus, by utilizing the proposedframework, the decision makers are able to make more informed decisions, especially toenhance the seismic safety of the hospitals.

Evolutionary History of the Enzymes Involved in the Calvin-Benson Cycle in Euglenids.

Science.gov (United States)

Markunas, Chelsea M; Triemer, Richard E

2016-05-01

Euglenids are an ancient lineage that may have existed as early as 2 billion years ago. A mere 65 years ago, Melvin Calvin and Andrew A. Benson performed experiments on Euglena gracilis and elucidated the series of reactions by which carbon was fixed and reduced during photosynthesis. However, the evolutionary history of this pathway (Calvin-Benson cycle) in euglenids was more complex than Calvin and Benson could have imagined. The chloroplast present today in euglenophytes arose from a secondary endosymbiosis between a phagotrophic euglenid and a prasinophyte green alga. A long period of evolutionary time existed before this secondary endosymbiotic event took place, which allowed for other endosymbiotic events or gene transfers to occur prior to the establishment of the green chloroplast. This research revealed the evolutionary history of the major enzymes of the Calvin-Benson cycle throughout the euglenid lineage and showed that the majority of genes for Calvin-Benson cycle enzymes shared an ancestry with red algae and/or chromophytes suggesting they may have been transferred to the nucleus prior to the acquisition of the green chloroplast. © 2015 The Author(s) Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology © 2015 International Society of Protistologists.

Evolutionary speed limited by water in arid Australia.

Science.gov (United States)

Goldie, Xavier; Gillman, Len; Crisp, Mike; Wright, Shane

2010-09-07

The covariation of biodiversity with climate is a fundamental pattern in nature. However, despite the ubiquity of this relationship, a consensus on the ultimate cause remains elusive. The evolutionary speed hypothesis posits direct mechanistic links between ambient temperature, the tempo of micro-evolution and, ultimately, species richness. Previous research has demonstrated faster rates of molecular evolution in warmer climates for a broad range of poikilothermic and homeothermic organisms, in both terrestrial and aquatic environments. In terrestrial systems, species richness increases with both temperature and water availability and the interaction of those terms: productivity. However, the influence of water availability as an independent variable on micro-evolutionary processes has not been examined previously. Here, using methodology that limits the potentially confounding role of cladogenetic and demographic processes, we report, to our knowledge, the first evidence that woody plants living in the arid Australian Outback are evolving more slowly than related species growing at similar latitudes in moist habitats on the mesic continental margins. These results support a modified evolutionary speed explanation for the relationship between the water-energy balance and plant diversity patterns.

Risks of Mergers and Acquisitions Processes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Skitsko Volodymyr I.

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Despite structural changes both in the economies of individual countries and in the world at large, the size of the merger/acquisition market is not declining and is tending to grow further. However, uncertainty in the global environment increases the importance of proper analysis, assessment and risk management in merger/acquisition transactions. Using the relevant research and publications by various authors, we have built a general ranking of the significance of merger and acquisition risks according to phases of the indicated process, with comparison of individual risk ratings, based on the publications by authors from Central and Eastern Europe and other countries around the world. The ranking of risks and threats of mergers/acquisitions proposed in this work can be considered one of the most complete for today. Further research needs to focus on the analysis, evaluation, and modeling of merger/acquisition risks, which occupy the top of the ranking, presented by the article.

Massively parallel evolutionary computation on GPGPUs

CERN Document Server

Tsutsui, Shigeyoshi

2013-01-01

Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) are metaheuristics that learn from natural collective behavior and are applied to solve optimization problems in domains such as scheduling, engineering, bioinformatics, and finance. Such applications demand acceptable solutions with high-speed execution using finite computational resources. Therefore, there have been many attempts to develop platforms for running parallel EAs using multicore machines, massively parallel cluster machines, or grid computing environments. Recent advances in general-purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU) have opened u

Soft computing integrating evolutionary, neural, and fuzzy systems

CERN Document Server

Tettamanzi, Andrea

2001-01-01

Soft computing encompasses various computational methodologies, which, unlike conventional algorithms, are tolerant of imprecision, uncertainty, and partial truth. Soft computing technologies offer adaptability as a characteristic feature and thus permit the tracking of a problem through a changing environment. Besides some recent developments in areas like rough sets and probabilistic networks, fuzzy logic, evolutionary algorithms, and artificial neural networks are core ingredients of soft computing, which are all bio-inspired and can easily be combined synergetically. This book presents a well-balanced integration of fuzzy logic, evolutionary computing, and neural information processing. The three constituents are introduced to the reader systematically and brought together in differentiated combinations step by step. The text was developed from courses given by the authors and offers numerous illustrations as

Ancient Biomolecules and Evolutionary Inference.

Science.gov (United States)

Cappellini, Enrico; Prohaska, Ana; Racimo, Fernando; Welker, Frido; Pedersen, Mikkel Winther; Allentoft, Morten E; de Barros Damgaard, Peter; Gutenbrunner, Petra; Dunne, Julie; Hammann, Simon; Roffet-Salque, Mélanie; Ilardo, Melissa; Moreno-Mayar, J Víctor; Wang, Yucheng; Sikora, Martin; Vinner, Lasse; Cox, Jürgen; Evershed, Richard P; Willerslev, Eske

2018-04-25

Over the last decade, studies of ancient biomolecules-particularly ancient DNA, proteins, and lipids-have revolutionized our understanding of evolutionary history. Though initially fraught with many challenges, the field now stands on firm foundations. Researchers now successfully retrieve nucleotide and amino acid sequences, as well as lipid signatures, from progressively older samples, originating from geographic areas and depositional environments that, until recently, were regarded as hostile to long-term preservation of biomolecules. Sampling frequencies and the spatial and temporal scope of studies have also increased markedly, and with them the size and quality of the data sets generated. This progress has been made possible by continuous technical innovations in analytical methods, enhanced criteria for the selection of ancient samples, integrated experimental methods, and advanced computational approaches. Here, we discuss the history and current state of ancient biomolecule research, its applications to evolutionary inference, and future directions for this young and exciting field. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Biochemistry Volume 87 is June 20, 2018. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Introduced species as evolutionary traps

Science.gov (United States)

Schlaepfer, Martin A.; Sherman, P.W.; Blossey, B.; Runge, M.C.

2005-01-01

Invasive species can alter environments in such a way that normal behavioural decision-making rules of native species are no longer adaptive. The evolutionary trap concept provides a useful framework for predicting and managing the impact of harmful invasive species. We discuss how native species can respond to changes in their selective regime via evolution or learning. We also propose novel management strategies to promote the long-term co-existence of native and introduced species in cases where the eradication of the latter is either economically or biologically unrealistic.

Evolutionary Naturalism and the Logical Structure of Valuation: The Other Side of Error Theory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Richard A Richards

2006-01-01

Full Text Available On one standard philosophical position adopted by evolutionary naturalists, human ethical systems are nothing more than evolutionary adaptations that facilitate social behavior. Belief in an absolute moral foundation is therefore in error. But evolutionary naturalism, by its commitment to the basic valutional concept of fitness, reveals another, logical error: standard conceptions of value in terms of simple predication and properties are mistaken. Valuation has instead, a relational structure that makes reference to respects, subjects and environments. This relational nature is illustrated by the analogy commonly drawn between value and color. Color perception, as recognized by the ecological concept, is relational and dependent on subject and environment. In a similar way, value is relational and dependent on subject and environment. This makes value subjective, but also objective in that it is grounded on facts about mattering. At bottom, values are complex relational facts. The view presented here, unlike other prominent relational and naturalistic conceptions of value, recognizes the full range of valuation in nature. The advantages of this relational conception are first, that it gets valuation right; second, it provides a framework to better explain and understand valuation in all its varieties and patterns.

Evolutionary Naturalism and the Logical Structure of Valuation: The Other Side of Error Theory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Richard A Richards

2005-01-01

Full Text Available On one standard philosophical position adopted by evolutionary naturalists, human ethical systems are nothing more than evolutionary adaptations that facilitate social behavior. Belief in an absolute moral foundation is therefore in error. But evolutionary naturalism, by its commitment to the basic valutional concept of fitness, reveals another, logical error: standard conceptions of value in terms of simple predication and properties are mistaken. Valuation has instead, a relational structure that makes reference to respects, subjects and environments. This relational nature is illustrated by the analogy commonly drawn between value and color. Color perception, as recognized by the ecological concept, is relational and dependent on subject and environment. In a similar way, value is relational and dependent on subject and environment. This makes value subjective, but also objective in that it is grounded on facts about mattering. At bottom, values are complex relational facts. The view presented here, unlike other prominent relational and naturalistic conceptions of value, recognizes the full range of valuation in nature. The advantages of this relational conception are first, that it gets valuation right; second, it provides a framework to better explain and understand valuation in all its varieties and patterns.

Adaptations to High Salt in a Halophilic Protist: Differential Expression and Gene Acquisitions through Duplications and Gene Transfers

Science.gov (United States)

Harding, Tommy; Roger, Andrew J.; Simpson, Alastair G. B.

2017-01-01

The capacity of halophiles to thrive in extreme hypersaline habitats derives partly from the tight regulation of ion homeostasis, the salt-dependent adjustment of plasma membrane fluidity, and the increased capability to manage oxidative stress. Halophilic bacteria, and archaea have been intensively studied, and substantial research has been conducted on halophilic fungi, and the green alga Dunaliella. By contrast, there have been very few investigations of halophiles that are phagotrophic protists, i.e., protozoa. To gather fundamental knowledge about salt adaptation in these organisms, we studied the transcriptome-level response of Halocafeteria seosinensis (Stramenopiles) grown under contrasting salinities. We provided further evolutionary context to our analysis by identifying genes that underwent recent duplications. Genes that were highly responsive to salinity variations were involved in stress response (e.g., chaperones), ion homeostasis (e.g., Na+/H+ transporter), metabolism and transport of lipids (e.g., sterol biosynthetic genes), carbohydrate metabolism (e.g., glycosidases), and signal transduction pathways (e.g., transcription factors). A significantly high proportion (43%) of duplicated genes were also differentially expressed, accentuating the importance of gene expansion in adaptation by H. seosinensis to high salt environments. Furthermore, we found two genes that were lateral acquisitions from bacteria, and were also highly up-regulated and highly expressed at high salt, suggesting that this evolutionary mechanism could also have facilitated adaptation to high salt. We propose that a transition toward high-salt adaptation in the ancestors of H. seosinensis required the acquisition of new genes via duplication, and some lateral gene transfers (LGTs), as well as the alteration of transcriptional programs, leading to increased stress resistance, proper establishment of ion gradients, and modification of cell structure properties like membrane

Adaptations to High Salt in a Halophilic Protist: Differential Expression and Gene Acquisitions through Duplications and Gene Transfers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tommy Harding

2017-05-01

Full Text Available The capacity of halophiles to thrive in extreme hypersaline habitats derives partly from the tight regulation of ion homeostasis, the salt-dependent adjustment of plasma membrane fluidity, and the increased capability to manage oxidative stress. Halophilic bacteria, and archaea have been intensively studied, and substantial research has been conducted on halophilic fungi, and the green alga Dunaliella. By contrast, there have been very few investigations of halophiles that are phagotrophic protists, i.e., protozoa. To gather fundamental knowledge about salt adaptation in these organisms, we studied the transcriptome-level response of Halocafeteria seosinensis (Stramenopiles grown under contrasting salinities. We provided further evolutionary context to our analysis by identifying genes that underwent recent duplications. Genes that were highly responsive to salinity variations were involved in stress response (e.g., chaperones, ion homeostasis (e.g., Na+/H+ transporter, metabolism and transport of lipids (e.g., sterol biosynthetic genes, carbohydrate metabolism (e.g., glycosidases, and signal transduction pathways (e.g., transcription factors. A significantly high proportion (43% of duplicated genes were also differentially expressed, accentuating the importance of gene expansion in adaptation by H. seosinensis to high salt environments. Furthermore, we found two genes that were lateral acquisitions from bacteria, and were also highly up-regulated and highly expressed at high salt, suggesting that this evolutionary mechanism could also have facilitated adaptation to high salt. We propose that a transition toward high-salt adaptation in the ancestors of H. seosinensis required the acquisition of new genes via duplication, and some lateral gene transfers (LGTs, as well as the alteration of transcriptional programs, leading to increased stress resistance, proper establishment of ion gradients, and modification of cell structure properties like

State-Dependent Risk Preferences in Evolutionary Games

Science.gov (United States)

Roos, Patrick; Nau, Dana

There is much empirical evidence that human decision-making under risk does not correspond the decision-theoretic notion of "rational" decision making, namely to make choices that maximize the expected value. An open question is how such behavior could have arisen evolutionarily. We believe that the answer to this question lies, at least in part, in the interplay between risk-taking and sequentiality of choice in evolutionary environments.

23 CFR 710.503 - Protective buying and hardship acquisition.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 23 Highways 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Protective buying and hardship acquisition. 710.503 Section 710.503 Highways FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION RIGHT-OF-WAY AND ENVIRONMENT RIGHT-OF-WAY AND REAL ESTATE Property Acquisition Alternatives § 710.503 Protective buying and...

Polymorphic Evolutionary Games.

Science.gov (United States)

Fishman, Michael A

2016-06-07

In this paper, I present an analytical framework for polymorphic evolutionary games suitable for explicitly modeling evolutionary processes in diploid populations with sexual reproduction. The principal aspect of the proposed approach is adding diploid genetics cum sexual recombination to a traditional evolutionary game, and switching from phenotypes to haplotypes as the new game׳s pure strategies. Here, the relevant pure strategy׳s payoffs derived by summing the payoffs of all the phenotypes capable of producing gametes containing that particular haplotype weighted by the pertinent probabilities. The resulting game is structurally identical to the familiar Evolutionary Games with non-linear pure strategy payoffs (Hofbauer and Sigmund, 1998. Cambridge University Press), and can be analyzed in terms of an established analytical framework for such games. And these results can be translated into the terms of genotypic, and whence, phenotypic evolutionary stability pertinent to the original game. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evolutionary trade-offs in kidney injury and repair.

Science.gov (United States)

Lei, Yutian; Anders, Hans-Joachim

2017-11-01

Evolutionary medicine has proven helpful to understand the origin of human disease, e.g. in identifying causal roles of recent environmental changes impacting on human physiology (environment-phenotype mismatch). In contrast, diseases affecting only a limited number of members of a species often originate from evolutionary trade-offs for usually physiologic adaptations assuring reproductive success in the context of extrinsic threats. For example, the G1 and G2 variants of the APOL1 gene supporting control of Trypanosoma infection come with the trade-off that they promote the progression of kidney disease. In this review we extend the concept of evolutionary nephrology by discussing how the physiologic adaptations (danger responses) to tissue injury create evolutionary trade-offs that drive histopathological changes underlying acute and chronic kidney diseases. The evolution of multicellular organisms positively selected a number of danger response programs for their overwhelming benefits in assuring survival such as clotting, inflammation, epithelial healing and mesenchymal healing, i.e. fibrosis and sclerosis. Upon kidney injury these danger programs often present as pathomechanisms driving persistent nephron loss and renal failure. We explore how classic kidney disease entities involve insufficient or overshooting activation of these danger response programs for which the underlying genetic basis remains largely to be defined. Dissecting the causative and hierarchical relationships between danger programs should help to identify molecular targets to control kidney injury and to improve disease outcomes.

Remembering the evolutionary Freud.

Science.gov (United States)

Young, Allan

2006-03-01

Throughout his career as a writer, Sigmund Freud maintained an interest in the evolutionary origins of the human mind and its neurotic and psychotic disorders. In common with many writers then and now, he believed that the evolutionary past is conserved in the mind and the brain. Today the "evolutionary Freud" is nearly forgotten. Even among Freudians, he is regarded to be a red herring, relevant only to the extent that he diverts attention from the enduring achievements of the authentic Freud. There are three ways to explain these attitudes. First, the evolutionary Freud's key work is the "Overview of the Transference Neurosis" (1915). But it was published at an inopportune moment, forty years after the author's death, during the so-called "Freud wars." Second, Freud eventually lost interest in the "Overview" and the prospect of a comprehensive evolutionary theory of psychopathology. The publication of The Ego and the Id (1923), introducing Freud's structural theory of the psyche, marked the point of no return. Finally, Freud's evolutionary theory is simply not credible. It is based on just-so stories and a thoroughly discredited evolutionary mechanism, Lamarckian use-inheritance. Explanations one and two are probably correct but also uninteresting. Explanation number three assumes that there is a fundamental difference between Freud's evolutionary narratives (not credible) and the evolutionary accounts of psychopathology that currently circulate in psychiatry and mainstream journals (credible). The assumption is mistaken but worth investigating.

Multiscale structure in eco-evolutionary dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Stacey, Blake C.

In a complex system, the individual components are neither so tightly coupled or correlated that they can all be treated as a single unit, nor so uncorrelated that they can be approximated as independent entities. Instead, patterns of interdependency lead to structure at multiple scales of organization. Evolution excels at producing such complex structures. In turn, the existence of these complex interrelationships within a biological system affects the evolutionary dynamics of that system. I present a mathematical formalism for multiscale structure, grounded in information theory, which makes these intuitions quantitative, and I show how dynamics defined in terms of population genetics or evolutionary game theory can lead to multiscale organization. For complex systems, "more is different," and I address this from several perspectives. Spatial host--consumer models demonstrate the importance of the structures which can arise due to dynamical pattern formation. Evolutionary game theory reveals the novel effects which can result from multiplayer games, nonlinear payoffs and ecological stochasticity. Replicator dynamics in an environment with mesoscale structure relates to generalized conditionalization rules in probability theory. The idea of natural selection "acting at multiple levels" has been mathematized in a variety of ways, not all of which are equivalent. We will face down the confusion, using the experience developed over the course of this thesis to clarify the situation.

Deathly drool: evolutionary and ecological basis of septic bacteria in Komodo dragon mouths.

Science.gov (United States)

Bull, J J; Jessop, Tim S; Whiteley, Marvin

2010-06-21

Komodo dragons, the world's largest lizard, dispatch their large ungulate prey by biting and tearing flesh. If a prey escapes, oral bacteria inoculated into the wound reputedly induce a sepsis that augments later prey capture by the same or other lizards. However, the ecological and evolutionary basis of sepsis in Komodo prey acquisition is controversial. Two models have been proposed. The "bacteria as venom" model postulates that the oral flora directly benefits the lizard in prey capture irrespective of any benefit to the bacteria. The "passive acquisition" model is that the oral flora of lizards reflects the bacteria found in carrion and sick prey, with no relevance to the ability to induce sepsis in subsequent prey. A third model is proposed and analyzed here, the "lizard-lizard epidemic" model. In this model, bacteria are spread indirectly from one lizard mouth to another. Prey escaping an initial attack act as vectors in infecting new lizards. This model requires specific life history characteristics and ways to refute the model based on these characteristics are proposed and tested. Dragon life histories (some details of which are reported here) prove remarkably consistent with the model, especially that multiple, unrelated lizards feed communally on large carcasses and that escaping, wounded prey are ultimately fed on by other lizards. The identities and evolutionary histories of bacteria in the oral flora may yield the most useful additional insights for further testing the epidemic model and can now be obtained with new technologies.

[Evolutionary medicine].

Science.gov (United States)

Wjst, M

2013-12-01

Evolutionary medicine allows new insights into long standing medical problems. Are we "really stoneagers on the fast lane"? This insight might have enormous consequences and will allow new answers that could never been provided by traditional anthropology. Only now this is made possible using data from molecular medicine and systems biology. Thereby evolutionary medicine takes a leap from a merely theoretical discipline to practical fields - reproductive, nutritional and preventive medicine, as well as microbiology, immunology and psychiatry. Evolutionary medicine is not another "just so story" but a serious candidate for the medical curriculum providing a universal understanding of health and disease based on our biological origin. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Core principles of evolutionary medicine

Science.gov (United States)

Grunspan, Daniel Z; Nesse, Randolph M; Barnes, M Elizabeth; Brownell, Sara E

2018-01-01

Abstract Background and objectives Evolutionary medicine is a rapidly growing field that uses the principles of evolutionary biology to better understand, prevent and treat disease, and that uses studies of disease to advance basic knowledge in evolutionary biology. Over-arching principles of evolutionary medicine have been described in publications, but our study is the first to systematically elicit core principles from a diverse panel of experts in evolutionary medicine. These principles should be useful to advance recent recommendations made by The Association of American Medical Colleges and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to make evolutionary thinking a core competency for pre-medical education. Methodology The Delphi method was used to elicit and validate a list of core principles for evolutionary medicine. The study included four surveys administered in sequence to 56 expert panelists. The initial open-ended survey created a list of possible core principles; the three subsequent surveys winnowed the list and assessed the accuracy and importance of each principle. Results Fourteen core principles elicited at least 80% of the panelists to agree or strongly agree that they were important core principles for evolutionary medicine. These principles over-lapped with concepts discussed in other articles discussing key concepts in evolutionary medicine. Conclusions and implications This set of core principles will be helpful for researchers and instructors in evolutionary medicine. We recommend that evolutionary medicine instructors use the list of core principles to construct learning goals. Evolutionary medicine is a young field, so this list of core principles will likely change as the field develops further. PMID:29493660

Analog Circuit Design Optimization Based on Evolutionary Algorithms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mansour Barari

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This paper investigates an evolutionary-based designing system for automated sizing of analog integrated circuits (ICs. Two evolutionary algorithms, genetic algorithm and PSO (Parswal particle swarm optimization algorithm, are proposed to design analog ICs with practical user-defined specifications. On the basis of the combination of HSPICE and MATLAB, the system links circuit performances, evaluated through specific electrical simulation, to the optimization system in the MATLAB environment, for the selected topology. The system has been tested by typical and hard-to-design cases, such as complex analog blocks with stringent design requirements. The results show that the design specifications are closely met. Comparisons with available methods like genetic algorithms show that the proposed algorithm offers important advantages in terms of optimization quality and robustness. Moreover, the algorithm is shown to be efficient.

Investigating intertemporal choice through experimental evolutionary robotics.

Science.gov (United States)

Paglieri, Fabio; Parisi, Domenico; Patacchiola, Massimiliano; Petrosino, Giancarlo

2015-06-01

In intertemporal choices, subjects face a trade-off between value and delay: achieving the most valuable outcome requires a longer time, whereas the immediately available option is objectively poorer. Intertemporal choices are ubiquitous, and comparative studies reveal commonalities and differences across species: all species devalue future rewards as a function of delay (delay aversion), yet there is a lot of inter-specific variance in how rapidly such devaluation occurs. These differences are often interpreted in terms of ecological rationality, as depending on environmental factors (e.g., feeding ecology) and the physiological and morphological constraints of different species (e.g., metabolic rate). Evolutionary hypotheses, however, are hard to verify in vivo, since it is difficult to observe precisely enough real environments, not to mention ancestral ones. In this paper, we discuss the viability of an approach based on evolutionary robotics: in Study 1, we evolve robots without a metabolism in five different ecologies; in Study 2, we evolve metabolic robots (i.e., robots that consume energy over time) in three different ecologies. The intertemporal choices of the robots are analyzed both in their ecology and under laboratory conditions. Results confirm the generality of delay aversion and the usefulness of studying intertemporal choice through experimental evolutionary robotics. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Evolutionary perspectives into placental biology and disease

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Edward B. Chuong

2013-12-01

Full Text Available In all mammals including humans, development takes place within the protective environment of the maternal womb. Throughout gestation, nutrients and waste products are continuously exchanged between mother and fetus through the placenta. Despite the clear importance of the placenta to successful pregnancy and the health of both mother and offspring, relatively little is understood about the biology of the placenta and its role in pregnancy-related diseases. Given that pre- and peri-natal diseases involving the placenta affect millions of women and their newborns worldwide, there is an urgent need to understand placenta biology and development. Here, we suggest that the placenta is an organ under unique selective pressures that have driven its rapid diversification throughout mammalian evolution. The high divergence of the placenta complicates the use of non-human animal models and necessitates an evolutionary perspective when studying its biology and role in disease. We suggest that diversifying evolution of the placenta is primarily driven by intraspecies evolutionary conflict between mother and fetus, and that many pregnancy diseases are a consequence of this evolutionary force. Understanding how maternal–fetal conflict shapes both basic placental and reproductive biology – in all species – will provide key insights into diseases of pregnancy.

Unique portable signal acquisition/processing station

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Garron, R.D.; Azevedo, S.G.

1983-01-01

At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, there are experimental applications requiring digital signal acquisition as well as data reduction and analysis. A prototype Signal Acquisition/Processing Station (SAPS) has been constructed and is currently undergoing tests. The system employs an LSI-11/23 computer with Data Translation analog-to-digital hardware. SAPS is housed in a roll-around cart which has been designed to withstand most subtle EMI/RFI environments. A user-friendly menu allows a user to access powerful data acquisition packages with a minimum of training. The software architecture of SAPS involves two operating systems, each being transparent to the user. Since this is a general purpose workstation with several units being utilized, an emphasis on low cost, reliability, and maintenance was stressed during conception and design. The system is targeted for mid-range frequency data acquisition; between a data logger and a transient digitizer

Data acquisition for the Zeus central tracking detector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Quinton, S.; Allen, D.; Cambell, D.; Mcarthur, I.

1990-01-01

The Zeus experiment is being installed on the Hera electron-proton collider being built at the Desy laboratory in Hamburg. The high-beam crossover rate of the Hera machine will provide experience in data acquisition and triggering relevant to the environment of future accelerators such as the SSC. The Transputer-based data acquisition system for the Zeus central tracking detector is described

Recent advances in evolutionary multi-objective optimization

CERN Document Server

Datta, Rituparna; Gupta, Abhishek

2017-01-01

This book covers the most recent advances in the field of evolutionary multiobjective optimization. With the aim of drawing the attention of up-andcoming scientists towards exciting prospects at the forefront of computational intelligence, the authors have made an effort to ensure that the ideas conveyed herein are accessible to the widest audience. The book begins with a summary of the basic concepts in multi-objective optimization. This is followed by brief discussions on various algorithms that have been proposed over the years for solving such problems, ranging from classical (mathematical) approaches to sophisticated evolutionary ones that are capable of seamlessly tackling practical challenges such as non-convexity, multi-modality, the presence of multiple constraints, etc. Thereafter, some of the key emerging aspects that are likely to shape future research directions in the field are presented. These include:< optimization in dynamic environments, multi-objective bilevel programming, handling high ...

Evolution in the office: how evolutionary psychology can increase employee health, happiness, and productivity.

Science.gov (United States)

Fitzgerald, Carey J; Danner, Kimberly M

2012-12-20

We review the empirical literature that has implemented aspects of our ancestral environment into the workplace and discuss the positive influence these factors have had on employees' physical and psychological health. We focus upon several components of our ancestral environment, including sunlight, greenery, sleep, physical movement, and social interaction with fellow humans as well as animals (specifically, dogs). Employers who are willing to adopt an evolutionary psychological approach to organizing their workplaces may drastically improve their workers' overall physical and psychological health as well as their overall productivity. This will, in turn, decrease employer costs related to medical care, absenteeism, and lack of productivity. Suggestions regarding how to implement these evolutionary psychological methods to the workplace are also discussed.

Multidimensional extended spatial evolutionary games.

Science.gov (United States)

Krześlak, Michał; Świerniak, Andrzej

2016-02-01

The goal of this paper is to study the classical hawk-dove model using mixed spatial evolutionary games (MSEG). In these games, played on a lattice, an additional spatial layer is introduced for dependence on more complex parameters and simulation of changes in the environment. Furthermore, diverse polymorphic equilibrium points dependent on cell reproduction, model parameters, and their simulation are discussed. Our analysis demonstrates the sensitivity properties of MSEGs and possibilities for further development. We discuss applications of MSEGs, particularly algorithms for modelling cell interactions during the development of tumours. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

EVOLUTIONARY FOUNDATIONS FOR MOLECULAR MEDICINE

Science.gov (United States)

Nesse, Randolph M.; Ganten, Detlev; Gregory, T. Ryan; Omenn, Gilbert S.

2015-01-01

Evolution has long provided a foundation for population genetics, but many major advances in evolutionary biology from the 20th century are only now being applied in molecular medicine. They include the distinction between proximate and evolutionary explanations, kin selection, evolutionary models for cooperation, and new strategies for tracing phylogenies and identifying signals of selection. Recent advances in genomics are further transforming evolutionary biology and creating yet more opportunities for progress at the interface of evolution with genetics, medicine, and public health. This article reviews 15 evolutionary principles and their applications in molecular medicine in hopes that readers will use them and others to speed the development of evolutionary molecular medicine. PMID:22544168

Attractive evolutionary equilibria

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Joosten, Reinoud A.M.G.; Roorda, Berend

2011-01-01

We present attractiveness, a refinement criterion for evolutionary equilibria. Equilibria surviving this criterion are robust to small perturbations of the underlying payoff system or the dynamics at hand. Furthermore, certain attractive equilibria are equivalent to others for certain evolutionary

Resource scarcity, effort, and performance in physically demanding jobs: An evolutionary explanation.

Science.gov (United States)

Pitesa, Marko; Thau, Stefan

2018-03-01

Based on evolutionary theory, we predicted that cues of resource scarcity in the environment (e.g., news of droughts or food shortages) lead people to reduce their effort and performance in physically demanding work. We tested this prediction in a 2-wave field survey among employees and replicated it experimentally in the lab. In Study 1, employees who perceived resources in the environment to be scarce reported exerting less effort when their jobs involved much (but not little) physical work. In Study 2, participants who read that resources in the environment were scarce performed worse on a task demanding more (carrying books) but not less (transcribing book titles) physical work. This result was found even though better performance increased participants' chances of additional remuneration, and even though scarcity cues did not affect individuals' actual ability to meet their energy needs. We discuss implications for managing effort and performance, and the potential of evolutionary psychology to explain core organizational phenomena. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Is Exercise Really Medicine? An Evolutionary Perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Lieberman, Daniel E

2015-01-01

An evolutionary perspective helps evaluate the extent to which exercise is medicine and to explain the exercise paradox: why people tend to avoid exercise despite its benefits. Many lines of evidence indicate that humans evolved to be adapted for regular, moderate amounts of endurance physical activity into late age. However, because energy from food was limited, humans also were selected to avoid unnecessary exertion, and most anatomical and physiological systems evolved to require stimuli from physical activity to adjust capacity to demand. Consequently, selection never operated to cope with the long-term effects of chronic inactivity. However, because all adaptations involve trade-offs, there is no evolutionary-determined dose or type of physical activity that will optimize health. Furthermore, because humans evolved to be active for play or necessity, efforts to promote exercise will require altering environments in ways that nudge or even compel people to be active and to make exercise fun.

Open Issues in Evolutionary Robotics.

Science.gov (United States)

Silva, Fernando; Duarte, Miguel; Correia, Luís; Oliveira, Sancho Moura; Christensen, Anders Lyhne

2016-01-01

One of the long-term goals in evolutionary robotics is to be able to automatically synthesize controllers for real autonomous robots based only on a task specification. While a number of studies have shown the applicability of evolutionary robotics techniques for the synthesis of behavioral control, researchers have consistently been faced with a number of issues preventing the widespread adoption of evolutionary robotics for engineering purposes. In this article, we review and discuss the open issues in evolutionary robotics. First, we analyze the benefits and challenges of simulation-based evolution and subsequent deployment of controllers versus evolution on real robotic hardware. Second, we discuss specific evolutionary computation issues that have plagued evolutionary robotics: (1) the bootstrap problem, (2) deception, and (3) the role of genomic encoding and genotype-phenotype mapping in the evolution of controllers for complex tasks. Finally, we address the absence of standard research practices in the field. We also discuss promising avenues of research. Our underlying motivation is the reduction of the current gap between evolutionary robotics and mainstream robotics, and the establishment of evolutionary robotics as a canonical approach for the engineering of autonomous robots.

Digital approach for the design of statistical analog data acquisition on SoCs

OpenAIRE

Adao Antonio de Souza Junior

2005-01-01

With the current demand for mixed-signal SoCs, an increasing number of designers are looking for ADC architectures that can be easily implemented over digital substrates. Since ADC performance is strongly dependent upon physical and electrical features, it gets more difficult for them to benefit from more recent technologies, where these features are more variable. This way, analog signal acquisition is not allowed to follow an evolutionary trend compatible with Moore’s Law. In fact, such tre...

Evolution in the Office: How Evolutionary Psychology Can Increase Employee Health, Happiness, and Productivity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carey J. Fitzgerald

2012-12-01

Full Text Available We review the empirical literature that has implemented aspects of our ancestral environment into the workplace and discuss the positive influence these factors have had on employees' physical and psychological health. We focus upon several components of our ancestral environment, including sunlight, greenery, sleep, physical movement, and social interaction with fellow humans as well as animals (specifically, dogs. Employers who are willing to adopt an evolutionary psychological approach to organizing their workplaces may drastically improve their workers' overall physical and psychological health as well as their overall productivity. This will, in turn, decrease employer costs related to medical care, absenteeism, and lack of productivity. Suggestions regarding how to implement these evolutionary psychological methods to the workplace are also discussed.

Image Acquisition of Robust Vision Systems to Monitor Blurred Objects in Hazy Smoking Environments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahn, Yongjin; Park, Seungkyu; Baik, Sunghoon; Kim, Donglyul; Nam, Sungmo; Jeong, Kyungmin

2014-01-01

-short exposure time to only get the illumination light. Here, the illuminant illuminates objects by flashing strong light through disturbance materials, such as smoke and dust environments. In contrast to passive conventional vision systems, the RGI active vision technology enables operation even in harsh environments like invisible smoke. In this paper, two robust vision systems for smearing based on the wavefront correction image and range-gated image are studied and compared. Image acquisition using a vision system based on wavefront correction is carried out in air-turbulence and smoke environments

Image Acquisition of Robust Vision Systems to Monitor Blurred Objects in Hazy Smoking Environments

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ahn, Yongjin; Park, Seungkyu; Baik, Sunghoon; Kim, Donglyul; Nam, Sungmo; Jeong, Kyungmin [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2014-05-15

-short exposure time to only get the illumination light. Here, the illuminant illuminates objects by flashing strong light through disturbance materials, such as smoke and dust environments. In contrast to passive conventional vision systems, the RGI active vision technology enables operation even in harsh environments like invisible smoke. In this paper, two robust vision systems for smearing based on the wavefront correction image and range-gated image are studied and compared. Image acquisition using a vision system based on wavefront correction is carried out in air-turbulence and smoke environments.

Deathly drool: evolutionary and ecological basis of septic bacteria in Komodo dragon mouths.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J J Bull

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Komodo dragons, the world's largest lizard, dispatch their large ungulate prey by biting and tearing flesh. If a prey escapes, oral bacteria inoculated into the wound reputedly induce a sepsis that augments later prey capture by the same or other lizards. However, the ecological and evolutionary basis of sepsis in Komodo prey acquisition is controversial. Two models have been proposed. The "bacteria as venom" model postulates that the oral flora directly benefits the lizard in prey capture irrespective of any benefit to the bacteria. The "passive acquisition" model is that the oral flora of lizards reflects the bacteria found in carrion and sick prey, with no relevance to the ability to induce sepsis in subsequent prey. A third model is proposed and analyzed here, the "lizard-lizard epidemic" model. In this model, bacteria are spread indirectly from one lizard mouth to another. Prey escaping an initial attack act as vectors in infecting new lizards. This model requires specific life history characteristics and ways to refute the model based on these characteristics are proposed and tested. Dragon life histories (some details of which are reported here prove remarkably consistent with the model, especially that multiple, unrelated lizards feed communally on large carcasses and that escaping, wounded prey are ultimately fed on by other lizards. The identities and evolutionary histories of bacteria in the oral flora may yield the most useful additional insights for further testing the epidemic model and can now be obtained with new technologies.

The dynamics of mergers and acquisitions: ancestry as the seminal determinant.

Science.gov (United States)

Viegas, Eduardo; Cockburn, Stuart P; Jensen, Henrik J; West, Geoffrey B

2014-11-08

Understanding the fundamental mechanisms behind the complex landscape of corporate mergers and acquisitions is of crucial importance to economies across the world. Adapting ideas from the fields of complexity and evolutionary dynamics to analyse business ecosystems, we show here that ancestry, i.e. the cumulative sum of historical mergers across all ancestors, is the key characteristic to company mergers and acquisitions. We verify this by comparing an agent-based model to an extensive range of business data, covering the period from the 1830s to the present day and a range of industries and geographies. This seemingly universal mechanism leads to imbalanced business ecosystems, with the emergence of a few very large, but sluggish 'too big to fail' entities, and very small, niche entities, thereby creating a paradigm where a configuration akin to effective oligopoly or monopoly is a likely outcome for free market systems.

Phanerozoic changes in hardpart availability and utilization in benthic communities: evolutionary ecology or evolutionary stratigraphy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kidwell, S.M.

1985-01-01

Published experiments on modern communities and quantitative data from Miocene assemblages indicate that the accumulation of dead hardparts can drive specific changes in the composition of benthic communities (taphonomic feedback). Both opportunities and pathways of taphonomic feedback have changed over the Phanerozoic, however, owing to the evolution and environmental expansion of hardpart producers, utilizers, and destroyers. These changes were tracked using semi-quantitative estimates of hardpart availability based on familial diversity of the most abundant taxa, scored according to preservation potential at or near the seafloor. The data suggest a dramatic increase in hardpart availability from the Cambrian into the later Paleozoic, with a decline through the Mesozoic and Cenozoic related to the loss or dramatic reduction in calcitic epifauna, recliners on soft substrata, and large shelled nekton/plankton. The reduction in opportunities for taphonomic feedback among epifauna was accompanied by an increase in levels of infaunal interactions in the Cenozoic, which is characterized by fully three-dimensional shell gravels. In addition to evolutionary change in body sizes of hardpart producers and biotically-driven declines in certain benthic life habits, the change in pathways of taphonomic feedback was also a consequence of the large-scale shift from predominantly carbonate sedimentation in the Paleozoic to predominantly terrigenous sedimentation in the Cenozoic. For example, the waning of epifauna-dominated communities is closely associated with the restriction of level-bottom carbonate environments through the late Mesozoic and Cenozoic. The global evolution of sedimentary environments and their relative representation is important not only in its consequences for sampling but as a driving mechanism of evolutionary ecology of marine benthos.

The design of a study environment for acquiring academic and professional competence

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kirschner, P.A.; Vilsteren, P. van

Proposes a framework for the design of a learning environment which encourages the acquisition of academic and professional competence. Definition of knowledge, cognitive skill and competence; Acquisition of competence; Designing an environment for competence acquisition; Implementation of study

Evolutionary conservation and changes in insect TRP channels

OpenAIRE

Tominaga Makoto; Kohno Keigo; Sokabe Takaaki; Matsuura Hironori; Kadowaki Tatsuhiko

2009-01-01

Abstract Background TRP (Transient Receptor Potential) channels respond to diverse stimuli and thus function as the primary integrators of varied sensory information. They are also activated by various compounds and secondary messengers to mediate cell-cell interactions as well as to detect changes in the local environment. Their physiological roles have been primarily characterized only in mice and fruit flies, and evolutionary studies are limited. To understand the evolution of insect TRP c...

Sex, rebellion and decadence: the scandalous evolutionary history of the human Y chromosome.

Science.gov (United States)

Navarro-Costa, Paulo

2012-12-01

It can be argued that the Y chromosome brings some of the spirit of rock&roll to our genome. Equal parts degenerate and sex-driven, the Y has boldly rebelled against sexual recombination, one of the sacred pillars of evolution. In evolutionary terms this chromosome also seems to have adopted another of rock&roll's mottos: living fast. Yet, it appears to have refused to die young. In this manuscript the Y chromosome will be analyzed from the intersection between structural, evolutionary and functional biology. Such integrative approach will present the Y as a highly specialized product of a series of remarkable evolutionary processes. These led to the establishment of a sex-specific genomic niche that is maintained by a complex balance between selective pressure and the genetic diversity introduced by intrachromosomal recombination. Central to this equilibrium is the "polish or perish" dilemma faced by the male-specific Y genes: either they are polished by the acquisition of male-related functions or they perish via the accumulation of inactivating mutations. Thus, understanding to what extent the idiosyncrasies of Y recombination may impact this chromosome's role in sex determination and male germline functions should be regarded as essential for added clinical insight into several male infertility phenotypes. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Molecular Genetics of Human Reproductive Failure. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Testing the ecological consequences of evolutionary change using elements.

Science.gov (United States)

Jeyasingh, Punidan D; Cothran, Rickey D; Tobler, Michael

2014-02-01

Understanding the ecological consequences of evolutionary change is a central challenge in contemporary biology. We propose a framework based on the ˜25 elements represented in biology, which can serve as a conduit for a general exploration of poorly understood evolution-to-ecology links. In this framework, known as ecological stoichiometry, the quantity of elements in the inorganic realm is a fundamental environment, while the flow of elements from the abiotic to the biotic realm is due to the action of genomes, with the unused elements excreted back into the inorganic realm affecting ecological processes at higher levels of organization. Ecological stoichiometry purposefully assumes distinct elemental composition of species, enabling powerful predictions about the ecological functions of species. However, this assumption results in a simplified view of the evolutionary mechanisms underlying diversification in the elemental composition of species. Recent research indicates substantial intraspecific variation in elemental composition and associated ecological functions such as nutrient excretion. We posit that attention to intraspecific variation in elemental composition will facilitate a synthesis of stoichiometric information in light of population genetics theory for a rigorous exploration of the ecological consequences of evolutionary change.

A STUDY ON DEFENSE ACQUISITION MODELS WITH AN EMERGING MARKET PERSPECTIVE. THE CASE OF TURKEY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mustafa Kemal Topcu

2015-10-01

Full Text Available With the end of the Cold War, the static environment, characteristic of the bipolar world, has changed quickly into a dynamic and complicated environment with new actors. These changes have also affected the countries’ armed forces and new approaches to procurement/acquisition come into progress. After the Cold War, countries have focused on responding to changing threats with their decreasing defense budgets. In this study, acquisition models and their effects on Turkey’s technology acquisition and defense industry are evaluated. The evaluation is performed based on criteria such as contribution to national economy, customization, acquisition cost, time and risk, life cycle cost, and technology acquisition. Major acquisition models in this study are determined as direct procurement, production under license, joint venture, indigenous development, production via international consortium. Finally, it is observed that the best model is indigenous development while the others will serve as technology acquisition for indigenous development.

40 CFR 205.54-2 - Sound data acquisition system.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 24 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Sound data acquisition system. 205.54-2 Section 205.54-2 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) NOISE ABATEMENT PROGRAMS TRANSPORTATION EQUIPMENT NOISE EMISSION CONTROLS Medium and Heavy Trucks § 205.54-2 Sound...

Evolutionary Demography

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Levitis, Daniel

2015-01-01

of biological and cultural evolution. Demographic variation within and among human populations is influenced by our biology, and therefore by natural selection and our evolutionary background. Demographic methods are necessary for studying populations of other species, and for quantifying evolutionary fitness......Demography is the quantitative study of population processes, while evolution is a population process that influences all aspects of biological organisms, including their demography. Demographic traits common to all human populations are the products of biological evolution or the interaction...

Macroevolution of panicoid inflorescences: a history of contingency and order of trait acquisition

Science.gov (United States)

Reinheimer, R.; Vegetti, A. C.; Rua, G. H.

2013-01-01

Background and Aims Inflorescence forms of panicoid grasses (Panicoideae s.s.) are remarkably diverse and they look very labile to human eyes; however, when performing a close inspection one can identify just a small subset of inflorescence types among a huge morphospace of possibilities. Consequently, some evolutionary constraints have restricted, to some extent, the diversification of their inflorescence. Developmental and genetic mechanisms, the photosynthetic type and plant longevity have been postulated as candidate constraints for angiosperms and panicoids in particular; however, it is not clear how these factors operate and which of these have played a key role during the grass inflorescence evolution. To gain insight into this matter the macroevolutionary aspects of panicoid inflorescences are investigated. Methods The inflorescence aspect (lax versus condensed), homogenization, truncation of the terminal spikelet, plant longevity and photosynthetic type were the traits selected for this study. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo methods were used to test different models of evolution and to evaluate the existence of evolutionary correlation among the traits. Both, models and evolutionary correlation were tested and analysed in a phylogenetic context by plotting the characters on a series of trees. For those cases in which the correlation was confirmed, test of contingency and order of trait acquisition were preformed to explore further the patterns of such co-evolution. Key Results The data reject the independent model of inflorescence trait evolution and confirmed the existence of evolutionary contingency. The results support the general trend of homogenization being a prerequisite for the loss of the terminal spikelet of the main axis. There was no evidence for temporal order in the gain of homogenization and condensation; consequently, the homogenization and condensation could occur simultaneously. The correlation between

Heritable symbiosis: The advantages and perils of an evolutionary rabbit hole.

Science.gov (United States)

Bennett, Gordon M; Moran, Nancy A

2015-08-18

Many eukaryotes have obligate associations with microorganisms that are transmitted directly between generations. A model for heritable symbiosis is the association of aphids, a clade of sap-feeding insects, and Buchnera aphidicola, a gammaproteobacterium that colonized an aphid ancestor 150 million years ago and persists in almost all 5,000 aphid species. Symbiont acquisition enables evolutionary and ecological expansion; aphids are one of many insect groups that would not exist without heritable symbiosis. Receiving less attention are potential negative ramifications of symbiotic alliances. In the short run, symbionts impose metabolic costs. Over evolutionary time, hosts evolve dependence beyond the original benefits of the symbiosis. Symbiotic partners enter into an evolutionary spiral that leads to irreversible codependence and associated risks. Host adaptations to symbiosis (e.g., immune-system modification) may impose vulnerabilities. Symbiont genomes also continuously accumulate deleterious mutations, limiting their beneficial contributions and environmental tolerance. Finally, the fitness interests of obligate heritable symbionts are distinct from those of their hosts, leading to selfish tendencies. Thus, genes underlying the host-symbiont interface are predicted to follow a coevolutionary arms race, as observed for genes governing host-pathogen interactions. On the macroevolutionary scale, the rapid evolution of interacting symbiont and host genes is predicted to accelerate host speciation rates by generating genetic incompatibilities. However, degeneration of symbiont genomes may ultimately limit the ecological range of host species, potentially increasing extinction risk. Recent results for the aphid-Buchnera symbiosis and related systems illustrate that, whereas heritable symbiosis can expand ecological range and spur diversification, it also presents potential perils.

Evolutionary growth process of highly conserved sequences in vertebrate genomes.

Science.gov (United States)

Ishibashi, Minaka; Noda, Akiko Ogura; Sakate, Ryuichi; Imanishi, Tadashi

2012-08-01

Genome sequence comparison between evolutionarily distant species revealed ultraconserved elements (UCEs) among mammals under strong purifying selection. Most of them were also conserved among vertebrates. Because they tend to be located in the flanking regions of developmental genes, they would have fundamental roles in creating vertebrate body plans. However, the evolutionary origin and selection mechanism of these UCEs remain unclear. Here we report that UCEs arose in primitive vertebrates, and gradually grew in vertebrate evolution. We searched for UCEs in two teleost fishes, Tetraodon nigroviridis and Oryzias latipes, and found 554 UCEs with 100% identity over 100 bps. Comparison of teleost and mammalian UCEs revealed 43 pairs of common, jawed-vertebrate UCEs (jUCE) with high sequence identities, ranging from 83.1% to 99.2%. Ten of them retain lower similarities to the Petromyzon marinus genome, and the substitution rates of four non-exonic jUCEs were reduced after the teleost-mammal divergence, suggesting that robust conservation had been acquired in the jawed vertebrate lineage. Our results indicate that prototypical UCEs originated before the divergence of jawed and jawless vertebrates and have been frozen as perfect conserved sequences in the jawed vertebrate lineage. In addition, our comparative sequence analyses of UCEs and neighboring regions resulted in a discovery of lineage-specific conserved sequences. They were added progressively to prototypical UCEs, suggesting step-wise acquisition of novel regulatory roles. Our results indicate that conserved non-coding elements (CNEs) consist of blocks with distinct evolutionary history, each having been frozen since different evolutionary era along the vertebrate lineage. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Evolutionary Fuzzy Control and Navigation for Two Wheeled Robots Cooperatively Carrying an Object in Unknown Environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Juang, Chia-Feng; Lai, Min-Ge; Zeng, Wan-Ting

2015-09-01

This paper presents a method that allows two wheeled, mobile robots to navigate unknown environments while cooperatively carrying an object. In the navigation method, a leader robot and a follower robot cooperatively perform either obstacle boundary following (OBF) or target seeking (TS) to reach a destination. The two robots are controlled by fuzzy controllers (FC) whose rules are learned through an adaptive fusion of continuous ant colony optimization and particle swarm optimization (AF-CACPSO), which avoids the time-consuming task of manually designing the controllers. The AF-CACPSO-based evolutionary fuzzy control approach is first applied to the control of a single robot to perform OBF. The learning approach is then applied to achieve cooperative OBF with two robots, where an auxiliary FC designed with the AF-CACPSO is used to control the follower robot. For cooperative TS, a rule for coordination of the two robots is developed. To navigate cooperatively, a cooperative behavior supervisor is introduced to select between cooperative OBF and cooperative TS. The performance of the AF-CACPSO is verified through comparisons with various population-based optimization algorithms for the OBF learning problem. Simulations and experiments verify the effectiveness of the approach for cooperative navigation of two robots.

Evolutionary Rate Heterogeneity of Primary and Secondary Metabolic Pathway Genes in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Science.gov (United States)

Mukherjee, Dola; Mukherjee, Ashutosh; Ghosh, Tapash Chandra

2015-11-10

Primary metabolism is essential to plants for growth and development, and secondary metabolism helps plants to interact with the environment. Many plant metabolites are industrially important. These metabolites are produced by plants through complex metabolic pathways. Lack of knowledge about these pathways is hindering the successful breeding practices for these metabolites. For a better knowledge of the metabolism in plants as a whole, evolutionary rate variation of primary and secondary metabolic pathway genes is a prerequisite. In this study, evolutionary rate variation of primary and secondary metabolic pathway genes has been analyzed in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Primary metabolic pathway genes were found to be more conserved than secondary metabolic pathway genes. Several factors such as gene structure, expression level, tissue specificity, multifunctionality, and domain number are the key factors behind this evolutionary rate variation. This study will help to better understand the evolutionary dynamics of plant metabolism. © The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution.

A Self-adaptive Dynamic Evaluation Model for Diabetes Mellitus, Based on Evolutionary Strategies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

An-Jiang Lu

2016-03-01

Full Text Available In order to evaluate diabetes mellitus objectively and accurately, this paper builds a self-adaptive dynamic evaluation model for diabetes mellitus, based on evolutionary strategies. First of all, on the basis of a formalized description of the evolutionary process of diabetes syndromes, using a state transition function, it judges whether a disease is evolutionary, through an excitation parameter. It then, provides evidence for the rebuilding of the evaluation index system. After that, by abstracting and rebuilding the composition of evaluation indexes, it makes use of a heuristic algorithm to determine the composition of the evolved evaluation index set of diabetes mellitus, It then, calculates the weight of each index in the evolved evaluation index set of diabetes mellitus by building a dependency matrix and realizes the self-adaptive dynamic evaluation of diabetes mellitus under an evolutionary environment. Using this evaluation model, it is possible to, quantify all kinds of diagnoses and treatment experiences of diabetes and finally to adopt ideal diagnoses and treatment measures for different patients with diabetics.

The Bilingual Brain Revisited: A Comment on Hagen (2008

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lawrence A. Hirschfeld

2008-01-01

Full Text Available L.K. Hagen (2008; Evolutionary Psychology, 6, 43–63 proposes that effortless first acquisition compared to more difficult second language acquisition provides evidence that the monolinguistic nature of our ancestral social environments implies a near-constant state of intergroup conflict. I argue to the contrary that the capacity to acquire multiple languages simultaneously in childhood without decrement to first language acquisition suggests that there was selection pressure for multilingualism. I further argue that this cognitive capacity is evidence for an ancestral environment in which distinct groups commingled (e.g., through long-term trading and marriage relationships in relative security.

Can an Evolutionary Analysis Dissolve the Paradox of Horror?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kjeldgaard-Christiansen, Jens; Clasen, Mathias; Johnson, John

The paradox of horror” is the problem of why so many people are motivated to experience the negative emotions induced by horror media. In this talk, we argue that an evolutionary analysis may dissolve the paradox of horror. From an evolutionary perspective, horror may be analyzed as a simulation...... technology that allows users to attain adaptive experience with perceived threat and negative emotion in a safe environment. The argument is supported by results from a comprehensive MTurk survey of American users of horror media (n=1,071). Results include findings on the personal details (e.g., sex......), supernatural beliefs (e.g., paranormal beliefs), personality traits (e.g., Big Five), horror genre preferences (e.g., supernatural versus natural horror), and horror-induced emotional responses of users of horror media. The strongest individual predictors of horror media enjoyment are sex (male preference...

Advantages of storage in a fluctuating environment.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kooi, B.W.; Troost, T.A.

2006-01-01

We will elaborate the evolutionary course of an ecosystem consisting of a population in a chemostat environment with periodically fluctuating nutrient supply. The organisms that make up the population consist of structural biomass and energy storage compartments. In a constant chemostat environment

Linguistic Diversity in First Language Acquisition Research: Moving beyond the Challenges

Science.gov (United States)

Kelly, Barbara F.; Forshaw, William; Nordlinger, Rachel; Wigglesworth, Gillian

2015-01-01

The field of first language acquisition (FLA) needs to take into account data from the broadest typological array of languages and language-learning environments if it is to identify potential universals in child language development, and how these interact with socio-cultural mechanisms of acquisition. Yet undertaking FLA research in remote…

Anthropology and the study of menopause: evolutionary, developmental, and comparative perspectives.

Science.gov (United States)

Sievert, Lynnette Leidy

2014-10-01

This work aims to consider how the discipline of anthropology contributes to the study of menopause through evolutionary, developmental, and comparative perspectives. This study was a review of skeletal and ethnographic evidence for menopause and postreproductive life in humans' distant past, hypotheses for the evolution of menopause and long postreproductive life, variation in age at menopause with focus on childhood environments, and the study of variation in symptom experience across populations. Longevity, rather than capacity for menopause, sets humans apart from other primates. Skeletal evidence demonstrates that some Neanderthals and archaic Homo sapiens lived to the age at menopause and that at least one third of women in traditional foraging populations live beyond menopause. The evolutionary reasons for why women experience a long postreproductive life continue to be debated. A developmental perspective suggests that early childhood may be a critical time for the environment to irreversibly influence the number of oocytes or rate of follicular atresia and, ultimately, age at menopause. A comparative perspective examines symptom experience at midlife through participant observation, qualitative interviews, and quantitative instruments to gain a holistic understanding of the meaning, experience, and sociocultural context of menopause. An evolutionary perspective suggests that menopause is not a recent phenomenon among humans. A developmental perspective focuses on the influence of early childhood on ovarian function. A comparative perspective expands clinical norms and provides knowledge about the range of human variations.

Hybrid fitness, adaptation and evolutionary diversification: lessons learned from Louisiana Irises.

Science.gov (United States)

Arnold, M L; Ballerini, E S; Brothers, A N

2012-03-01

Estimates of hybrid fitness have been used as either a platform for testing the potential role of natural hybridization in the evolution of species and species complexes or, alternatively, as a rationale for dismissing hybridization events as being of any evolutionary significance. From the time of Darwin's publication of The Origin, through the neo-Darwinian synthesis, to the present day, the observation of variability in hybrid fitness has remained a challenge for some models of speciation. Yet, Darwin and others have reported the elevated fitness of hybrid genotypes under certain environmental conditions. In modern scientific terminology, this observation reflects the fact that hybrid genotypes can demonstrate genotype × environment interactions. In the current review, we illustrate the development of one plant species complex, namely the Louisiana Irises, into a 'model system' for investigating hybrid fitness and the role of genetic exchange in adaptive evolution and diversification. In particular, we will argue that a multitude of approaches, involving both experimental and natural environments, and incorporating both manipulative analyses and surveys of natural populations, are necessary to adequately test for the evolutionary significance of introgressive hybridization. An appreciation of the variability of hybrid fitness leads to the conclusion that certain genetic signatures reflect adaptive evolution. Furthermore, tests of the frequency of allopatric versus sympatric/parapatric divergence (that is, divergence with ongoing gene flow) support hybrid genotypes as a mechanism of evolutionary diversification in numerous species complexes.

Evolutionary psychology: new perspectives on cognition and motivation.

Science.gov (United States)

Cosmides, Leda; Tooby, John

2013-01-01

Evolutionary psychology is the second wave of the cognitive revolution. The first wave focused on computational processes that generate knowledge about the world: perception, attention, categorization, reasoning, learning, and memory. The second wave views the brain as composed of evolved computational systems, engineered by natural selection to use information to adaptively regulate physiology and behavior. This shift in focus--from knowledge acquisition to the adaptive regulation of behavior--provides new ways of thinking about every topic in psychology. It suggests a mind populated by a large number of adaptive specializations, each equipped with content-rich representations, concepts, inference systems, and regulatory variables, which are functionally organized to solve the complex problems of survival and reproduction encountered by the ancestral hunter-gatherers from whom we are descended. We present recent empirical examples that illustrate how this approach has been used to discover new features of attention, categorization, reasoning, learning, emotion, and motivation.

Robust and Flexible Scheduling with Evolutionary Computation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Mikkel T.

Over the last ten years, there have been numerous applications of evolutionary algorithms to a variety of scheduling problems. Like most other research on heuristic scheduling, the primary aim of the research has been on deterministic formulations of the problems. This is in contrast to real world...... scheduling problems which are usually not deterministic. Usually at the time the schedule is made some information about the problem and processing environment is available, but this information is uncertain and likely to change during schedule execution. Changes frequently encountered in scheduling...... environments include machine breakdowns, uncertain processing times, workers getting sick, materials being delayed and the appearance of new jobs. These possible environmental changes mean that a schedule which was optimal for the information available at the time of scheduling can end up being highly...

Software aspects of designing an online data acquisition system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bandyopadhyay, A.

1989-01-01

The design aspect of a data acquisition system software for experimental nuclear physics applications is discussed. The features of a good data acquisition system and the techniques which are used to meet the requirements are also discussed. The suitability of different programming languages for different applications have been outlined. The operating system requirements and the difficulties encountered by the programmer for non-ideal operating system environment is also highlighted. (author)

Evolutionary games under incompetence.

Science.gov (United States)

Kleshnina, Maria; Filar, Jerzy A; Ejov, Vladimir; McKerral, Jody C

2018-02-26

The adaptation process of a species to a new environment is a significant area of study in biology. As part of natural selection, adaptation is a mutation process which improves survival skills and reproductive functions of species. Here, we investigate this process by combining the idea of incompetence with evolutionary game theory. In the sense of evolution, incompetence and training can be interpreted as a special learning process. With focus on the social side of the problem, we analyze the influence of incompetence on behavior of species. We introduce an incompetence parameter into a learning function in a single-population game and analyze its effect on the outcome of the replicator dynamics. Incompetence can change the outcome of the game and its dynamics, indicating its significance within what are inherently imperfect natural systems.

MDSplus data acquisition system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stillerman, J.A.; Fredian, T.W.; Klare, K.; Manduchi, G.

1997-01-01

MDSplus, a tree based, distributed data acquisition system, was developed in collaboration with the ZTH Group at Los Alamos National Lab and the RFX Group at CNR in Padua, Italy. It is currently in use at MIT, RFX in Padua, TCV at EPFL in Lausanne, and KBSI in South Korea. MDSplus is made up of a set of X/motif based tools for data acquisition and display, as well as diagnostic configuration and management. It is based on a hierarchical experiment description which completely describes the data acquisition and analysis tasks and contains the results from these operations. These tools were designed to operate in a distributed, client/server environment with multiple concurrent readers and writers to the data store. While usually used over a Local Area Network, these tools can be used over the Internet to provide access for remote diagnosticians and even machine operators. An interface to a relational database is provided for storage and management of processed data. IDL is used as the primary data analysis and visualization tool. IDL is a registered trademark of Research Systems Inc. copyright 1996 American Institute of Physics

Attractive evolutionary equilibria

OpenAIRE

Roorda, Berend; Joosten, Reinoud

2011-01-01

We present attractiveness, a refinement criterion for evolutionary equilibria. Equilibria surviving this criterion are robust to small perturbations of the underlying payoff system or the dynamics at hand. Furthermore, certain attractive equilibria are equivalent to others for certain evolutionary dynamics. For instance, each attractive evolutionarily stable strategy is an attractive evolutionarily stable equilibrium for certain barycentric ray-projection dynamics, and vice versa.

Cross border M and A environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hill, M.B.

1998-01-01

An overview of the Canada-U.S. cross-border merger and acquisition environment and exchangeable share structure within the petroleum industry is provided. Recent U.S. acquisitions in Canada, Canadian investment conditions, indexed price analysis from January 1, 1997 to October 16, 1998, and a variety of other share price/cash flow statistics relevant to mergers and acquisitions are examined. tabs., figs

Basic emotions and adaptation. A computational and evolutionary model.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniela Pacella

Full Text Available The core principles of the evolutionary theories of emotions declare that affective states represent crucial drives for action selection in the environment and regulated the behavior and adaptation of natural agents in ancestrally recurrent situations. While many different studies used autonomous artificial agents to simulate emotional responses and the way these patterns can affect decision-making, few are the approaches that tried to analyze the evolutionary emergence of affective behaviors directly from the specific adaptive problems posed by the ancestral environment. A model of the evolution of affective behaviors is presented using simulated artificial agents equipped with neural networks and physically inspired on the architecture of the iCub humanoid robot. We use genetic algorithms to train populations of virtual robots across generations, and investigate the spontaneous emergence of basic emotional behaviors in different experimental conditions. In particular, we focus on studying the emotion of fear, therefore the environment explored by the artificial agents can contain stimuli that are safe or dangerous to pick. The simulated task is based on classical conditioning and the agents are asked to learn a strategy to recognize whether the environment is safe or represents a threat to their lives and select the correct action to perform in absence of any visual cues. The simulated agents have special input units in their neural structure whose activation keep track of their actual "sensations" based on the outcome of past behavior. We train five different neural network architectures and then test the best ranked individuals comparing their performances and analyzing the unit activations in each individual's life cycle. We show that the agents, regardless of the presence of recurrent connections, spontaneously evolved the ability to cope with potentially dangerous environment by collecting information about the environment and then

Basic emotions and adaptation. A computational and evolutionary model.

Science.gov (United States)

Pacella, Daniela; Ponticorvo, Michela; Gigliotta, Onofrio; Miglino, Orazio

2017-01-01

The core principles of the evolutionary theories of emotions declare that affective states represent crucial drives for action selection in the environment and regulated the behavior and adaptation of natural agents in ancestrally recurrent situations. While many different studies used autonomous artificial agents to simulate emotional responses and the way these patterns can affect decision-making, few are the approaches that tried to analyze the evolutionary emergence of affective behaviors directly from the specific adaptive problems posed by the ancestral environment. A model of the evolution of affective behaviors is presented using simulated artificial agents equipped with neural networks and physically inspired on the architecture of the iCub humanoid robot. We use genetic algorithms to train populations of virtual robots across generations, and investigate the spontaneous emergence of basic emotional behaviors in different experimental conditions. In particular, we focus on studying the emotion of fear, therefore the environment explored by the artificial agents can contain stimuli that are safe or dangerous to pick. The simulated task is based on classical conditioning and the agents are asked to learn a strategy to recognize whether the environment is safe or represents a threat to their lives and select the correct action to perform in absence of any visual cues. The simulated agents have special input units in their neural structure whose activation keep track of their actual "sensations" based on the outcome of past behavior. We train five different neural network architectures and then test the best ranked individuals comparing their performances and analyzing the unit activations in each individual's life cycle. We show that the agents, regardless of the presence of recurrent connections, spontaneously evolved the ability to cope with potentially dangerous environment by collecting information about the environment and then switching their behavior

Modified single prolonged stress reduces cocaine self-administration during acquisition regardless of rearing environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Hofford, Rebecca S; Prendergast, Mark A; Bardo, Michael T

2018-02-15

Until recently, there were few rodent models available to study the interaction of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and drug taking. Like PTSD, single prolonged stress (SPS) produces hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis dysfunction and alters psychostimulant self-administration. Other stressors, such as isolation stress, also alter psychostimulant self-administration. However, it is currently unknown if isolation housing combined with SPS can alter the acquisition or maintenance of cocaine self-administration. The current study applied modified SPS (modSPS; two hours restraint immediately followed by cold swim stress) to rats raised in an isolation condition (Iso), enrichment condition (Enr), or standard condition (Std) to measure changes in cocaine self-administration and HPA markers. Regardless of rearing condition, rats exposed to modSPS had greater corticosterone (CORT) release and reduced cocaine self-administration during initial acquisition compared to non-stressed controls. In addition, during initial acquisition, rats that received both Iso rearing and modSPS showed a more rapid increase in cocaine self-administration across sessions compared to Enr and Std rats exposed to modSPS. Following initial acquisition, a dose response analysis showed that Iso rats were overall most sensitive to changes in cocaine unit dose; however, modSPS had no effect on the cocaine dose response curve. Further, there was no effect of either modSPS or differential rearing on expression of glucocorticoid receptor (GR) in hypothalamus, medial prefrontal cortex, amygdala, or nucleus accumbens. By using modSPS in combination with Iso housing, this study identified unique contributions of each stressor to acquisition of cocaine self-administration. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Evolutionary principles and their practical application.

Science.gov (United States)

Hendry, Andrew P; Kinnison, Michael T; Heino, Mikko; Day, Troy; Smith, Thomas B; Fitt, Gary; Bergstrom, Carl T; Oakeshott, John; Jørgensen, Peter S; Zalucki, Myron P; Gilchrist, George; Southerton, Simon; Sih, Andrew; Strauss, Sharon; Denison, Robert F; Carroll, Scott P

2011-03-01

Evolutionary principles are now routinely incorporated into medicine and agriculture. Examples include the design of treatments that slow the evolution of resistance by weeds, pests, and pathogens, and the design of breeding programs that maximize crop yield or quality. Evolutionary principles are also increasingly incorporated into conservation biology, natural resource management, and environmental science. Examples include the protection of small and isolated populations from inbreeding depression, the identification of key traits involved in adaptation to climate change, the design of harvesting regimes that minimize unwanted life-history evolution, and the setting of conservation priorities based on populations, species, or communities that harbor the greatest evolutionary diversity and potential. The adoption of evolutionary principles has proceeded somewhat independently in these different fields, even though the underlying fundamental concepts are the same. We explore these fundamental concepts under four main themes: variation, selection, connectivity, and eco-evolutionary dynamics. Within each theme, we present several key evolutionary principles and illustrate their use in addressing applied problems. We hope that the resulting primer of evolutionary concepts and their practical utility helps to advance a unified multidisciplinary field of applied evolutionary biology.

Modulated Acquisition of Spatial Distortion Maps

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aleš Švigelj

2013-08-01

Full Text Available This work discusses a novel approach to image acquisition which improves the robustness of captured data required for 3D range measurements. By applying a pseudo-random code modulation to sequential acquisition of projected patterns the impact of environmental factors such as ambient light and mutual interference is significantly reduced. The proposed concept has been proven with an experimental range sensor based on the laser triangulation principle. The proposed design can potentially enhance the use of this principle to a variety of outdoor applications, such as autonomous vehicles, pedestrians’ safety, collision avoidance, and many other tasks, where robust real-time distance detection in real world environment is crucial.

Modulated acquisition of spatial distortion maps.

Science.gov (United States)

Volkov, Alexey; Gros, Jerneja Zganec; Zganec, Mario; Javornik, Tomaž; Svigelj, Aleš

2013-08-21

This work discusses a novel approach to image acquisition which improves the robustness of captured data required for 3D range measurements. By applying a pseudo-random code modulation to sequential acquisition of projected patterns the impact of environmental factors such as ambient light and mutual interference is significantly reduced. The proposed concept has been proven with an experimental range sensor based on the laser triangulation principle. The proposed design can potentially enhance the use of this principle to a variety of outdoor applications, such as autonomous vehicles, pedestrians' safety, collision avoidance, and many other tasks, where robust real-time distance detection in real world environment is crucial.

Micro-evolutionary responses and adaptive costs of Caenorhabditis elegans populations exposed to environmental stress

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dutilleul, M.

2013-01-01

The contemporary evolution of organisms is largely dependent on anthropogenic disturbances. In particular, pollution amplifies the intensity or the quantity of selection pressures on populations. However, these changes may have negative effects on the life, growth and reproduction of individuals, the demographics of the population, and its phenotypic and genetic characteristics over generations. Thus, micro-evolutionary changes are likely to occur in response to selection pressures. These phenomenon lead to collateral damages: adaptive costs. For example, a reduction of genetic diversity in a population entails a decrease in its potential to adapt to other stressors. Populations can be more susceptible to many environmental changes, especially with the increase of human activities. Hence in an ecological risk assessment, studying the mechanisms of action and immediate adverse effects of pollutants on organisms is no longer sufficient. It is also necessary to expand our knowledge on the evolution of populations in polluted environment. In this context, our study aims to determine the micro-evolutionary response of Caenorhabditis elegans populations exposed to environmental stressors, and to measure their costs of adaptation. Populations were experimentally exposed for 22 generations to a high concentration of uranium, sodium chloride or an alternation of both these pollutants. The analysis of phenotypic and genetic changes, observed through measures of life history traits, was accomplished using several quantitative genetics techniques. In particular, we confirmed the genetic differentiation between populations with an increase of resistance in populations exposed to different pollutions. The speed of evolutionary responses depended on the conditions of exposure and their effects on the expression of the genetic structure of traits (e.g. G matrix). Micro-evolutionary changes were linked to costs of adaptation, such as reduced fertility in stressful novel

Unexpected Nongenetic Individual Heterogeneity and Trait Covariance in Daphnia and Its Consequences for Ecological and Evolutionary Dynamics.

Science.gov (United States)

Cressler, Clayton E; Bengtson, Stefan; Nelson, William A

2017-07-01

Individual differences in genetics, age, or environment can cause tremendous differences in individual life-history traits. This individual heterogeneity generates demographic heterogeneity at the population level, which is predicted to have a strong impact on both ecological and evolutionary dynamics. However, we know surprisingly little about the sources of individual heterogeneity for particular taxa or how different sources scale up to impact ecological and evolutionary dynamics. Here we experimentally study the individual heterogeneity that emerges from both genetic and nongenetic sources in a species of freshwater zooplankton across a large gradient of food quality. Despite the tight control of environment, we still find that the variation from nongenetic sources is greater than that from genetic sources over a wide range of food quality and that this variation has strong positive covariance between growth and reproduction. We evaluate the general consequences of genetic and nongenetic covariance for ecological and evolutionary dynamics theoretically and find that increasing nongenetic variation slows evolution independent of the correlation in heritable life-history traits but that the impact on ecological dynamics depends on both nongenetic and genetic covariance. Our results demonstrate that variation in the relative magnitude of nongenetic versus genetic sources of variation impacts the predicted ecological and evolutionary dynamics.

Selection of a Data Acquisition and Controls System Communications and Software Architecture for Johnson Space Center's Space Environment Simulation Laboratory Thermal and Vacuum Test Facilities

Science.gov (United States)

Jordan, Eric A.

2004-01-01

Upgrade of data acquisition and controls systems software at Johnson Space Center's Space Environment Simulation Laboratory (SESL) involved the definition, evaluation and selection of a system communication architecture and software components. A brief discussion of the background of the SESL and its data acquisition and controls systems provides a context for discussion of the requirements for each selection. Further framework is provided as upgrades to these systems accomplished in the 1990s and in 2003 are compared to demonstrate the role that technological advances have had in their improvement. Both of the selections were similar in their three phases; 1) definition of requirements, 2) identification of candidate products and their evaluation and testing and 3) selection by comparison of requirement fulfillment. The candidates for the communication architecture selection embraced several different methodologies which are explained and contrasted. Requirements for this selection are presented and the selection process is described. Several candidates for the software component of the data acquisition and controls system are identified, requirements for evaluation and selection are presented, and the evaluation process is described.

Building blocks for modular data acquisition systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hoffmann, B

1996-12-31

The principles of building blocks for modular data acquisition systems by means of the VIC bus are discussed. Real time operating systems based on the VME environment for program development drastically reducing the time needed to develop a working system. 4 figs.

Does sex speed up evolutionary rate and increase biodiversity?

Science.gov (United States)

Melián, Carlos J; Alonso, David; Allesina, Stefano; Condit, Richard S; Etienne, Rampal S

2012-01-01

Most empirical and theoretical studies have shown that sex increases the rate of evolution, although evidence of sex constraining genomic and epigenetic variation and slowing down evolution also exists. Faster rates with sex have been attributed to new gene combinations, removal of deleterious mutations, and adaptation to heterogeneous environments. Slower rates with sex have been attributed to removal of major genetic rearrangements, the cost of finding a mate, vulnerability to predation, and exposure to sexually transmitted diseases. Whether sex speeds or slows evolution, the connection between reproductive mode, the evolutionary rate, and species diversity remains largely unexplored. Here we present a spatially explicit model of ecological and evolutionary dynamics based on DNA sequence change to study the connection between mutation, speciation, and the resulting biodiversity in sexual and asexual populations. We show that faster speciation can decrease the abundance of newly formed species and thus decrease long-term biodiversity. In this way, sex can reduce diversity relative to asexual populations, because it leads to a higher rate of production of new species, but with lower abundances. Our results show that reproductive mode and the mechanisms underlying it can alter the link between mutation, evolutionary rate, speciation and biodiversity and we suggest that a high rate of evolution may not be required to yield high biodiversity.

Monitoring and Acquisition Real-time System (MARS)

Science.gov (United States)

Holland, Corbin

2013-01-01

MARS is a graphical user interface (GUI) written in MATLAB and Java, allowing the user to configure and control the Scalable Parallel Architecture for Real-Time Acquisition and Analysis (SPARTAA) data acquisition system. SPARTAA not only acquires data, but also allows for complex algorithms to be applied to the acquired data in real time. The MARS client allows the user to set up and configure all settings regarding the data channels attached to the system, as well as have complete control over starting and stopping data acquisition. It provides a unique "Test" programming environment, allowing the user to create tests consisting of a series of alarms, each of which contains any number of data channels. Each alarm is configured with a particular algorithm, determining the type of processing that will be applied on each data channel and tested against a defined threshold. Tests can be uploaded to SPARTAA, thereby teaching it how to process the data. The uniqueness of MARS is in its capability to be adaptable easily to many test configurations. MARS sends and receives protocols via TCP/IP, which allows for quick integration into almost any test environment. The use of MATLAB and Java as the programming languages allows for developers to integrate the software across multiple operating platforms.

Cultural evolutionary theory: How culture evolves and why it matters.

Science.gov (United States)

Creanza, Nicole; Kolodny, Oren; Feldman, Marcus W

2017-07-24

Human cultural traits-behaviors, ideas, and technologies that can be learned from other individuals-can exhibit complex patterns of transmission and evolution, and researchers have developed theoretical models, both verbal and mathematical, to facilitate our understanding of these patterns. Many of the first quantitative models of cultural evolution were modified from existing concepts in theoretical population genetics because cultural evolution has many parallels with, as well as clear differences from, genetic evolution. Furthermore, cultural and genetic evolution can interact with one another and influence both transmission and selection. This interaction requires theoretical treatments of gene-culture coevolution and dual inheritance, in addition to purely cultural evolution. In addition, cultural evolutionary theory is a natural component of studies in demography, human ecology, and many other disciplines. Here, we review the core concepts in cultural evolutionary theory as they pertain to the extension of biology through culture, focusing on cultural evolutionary applications in population genetics, ecology, and demography. For each of these disciplines, we review the theoretical literature and highlight relevant empirical studies. We also discuss the societal implications of the study of cultural evolution and of the interactions of humans with one another and with their environment.

Algorithmic Mechanism Design of Evolutionary Computation.

Science.gov (United States)

Pei, Yan

2015-01-01

We consider algorithmic design, enhancement, and improvement of evolutionary computation as a mechanism design problem. All individuals or several groups of individuals can be considered as self-interested agents. The individuals in evolutionary computation can manipulate parameter settings and operations by satisfying their own preferences, which are defined by an evolutionary computation algorithm designer, rather than by following a fixed algorithm rule. Evolutionary computation algorithm designers or self-adaptive methods should construct proper rules and mechanisms for all agents (individuals) to conduct their evolution behaviour correctly in order to definitely achieve the desired and preset objective(s). As a case study, we propose a formal framework on parameter setting, strategy selection, and algorithmic design of evolutionary computation by considering the Nash strategy equilibrium of a mechanism design in the search process. The evaluation results present the efficiency of the framework. This primary principle can be implemented in any evolutionary computation algorithm that needs to consider strategy selection issues in its optimization process. The final objective of our work is to solve evolutionary computation design as an algorithmic mechanism design problem and establish its fundamental aspect by taking this perspective. This paper is the first step towards achieving this objective by implementing a strategy equilibrium solution (such as Nash equilibrium) in evolutionary computation algorithm.

Defense Acquisition Review Journal. Volume 16, Number 3, Issue 52

Science.gov (United States)

2009-10-01

Journal (ARJ) print year. FROM THE EDITOR I am excited to announce the lineup of research articles for Issue 52 of the Defense Acquisition Review... identification and causality, and to prevent the variety generated by EA from reducing total product performance. From Amorphous to Defined: Balancing Risks...possible in this environment, and will allow better flow of strategic-level acquisition advice, including the identification of existing and

Data Management Standards in Computer-aided Acquisition and Logistic Support (CALS)

Science.gov (United States)

Jefferson, David K.

1990-01-01

Viewgraphs and discussion on data management standards in computer-aided acquisition and logistic support (CALS) are presented. CALS is intended to reduce cost, increase quality, and improve timeliness of weapon system acquisition and support by greatly improving the flow of technical information. The phase 2 standards, industrial environment, are discussed. The information resource dictionary system (IRDS) is described.

Software development for a switch-based data acquisition system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Booth, A. (Superconducting Super Collider Lab., Dallas, TX (United States)); Black, D.; Walsh, D. (Fermi National Accelerator Lab., Batavia, IL (United States))

1991-12-01

We report on the software aspects of the development of a switch-based data acquisition system at Fermilab. This paper describes how, with the goal of providing an integrated systems engineering'' environment, several powerful software tools were put in place to facilitate extensive exploration of all aspects of the design. These tools include a simulation package, graphics package and an Expert System shell which have been integrated to provide an environment which encourages the close interaction of hardware and software engineers. This paper includes a description of the simulation, user interface, embedded software, remote procedure calls, and diagnostic software which together have enabled us to provide real-time control and monitoring of a working prototype switch-based data acquisition (DAQ) system.

Evolutionary Explanations of Eating Disorders

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Igor Kardum

2008-12-01

Full Text Available This article reviews several most important evolutionary mechanisms that underlie eating disorders. The first part clarifies evolutionary foundations of mental disorders and various mechanisms leading to their development. In the second part selective pressures and evolved adaptations causing contemporary epidemic of obesity as well as differences in dietary regimes and life-style between modern humans and their ancestors are described. Concerning eating disorders, a number of current evolutionary explanations of anorexia nervosa are presented together with their main weaknesses. Evolutionary explanations of eating disorders based on the reproductive suppression hypothesis and its variants derived from kin selection theory and the model of parental manipulation were elaborated. The sexual competition hypothesis of eating disorder, adapted to flee famine hypothesis as well as explanation based on the concept of social attention holding power and the need to belonging were also explained. The importance of evolutionary theory in modern conceptualization and research of eating disorders is emphasized.

The citation field of evolutionary economics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dolfsma, Wilfred; Leydesdorff, Loet

2010-01-01

Evolutionary economics has developed into an academic field of its own, institutionalized around, amongst others, the Journal of Evolutionary Economics (JEE). This paper analyzes the way and extent to which evolutionary economics has become an interdisciplinary journal, as its aim was: a journal

EvolQG - An R package for evolutionary quantitative genetics [version 2; referees: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Diogo Melo

2016-06-01

Full Text Available We present an open source package for performing evolutionary quantitative genetics analyses in the R environment for statistical computing. Evolutionary theory shows that evolution depends critically on the available variation in a given population. When dealing with many quantitative traits this variation is expressed in the form of a covariance matrix, particularly the additive genetic covariance matrix or sometimes the phenotypic matrix, when the genetic matrix is unavailable and there is evidence the phenotypic matrix is sufficiently similar to the genetic matrix. Given this mathematical representation of available variation, the EvolQG package provides functions for calculation of relevant evolutionary statistics; estimation of sampling error; corrections for this error; matrix comparison via correlations, distances and matrix decomposition; analysis of modularity patterns; and functions for testing evolutionary hypotheses on taxa diversification.

On the evolution of misunderstandings about evolutionary psychology.

Science.gov (United States)

Young, J; Persell, R

2000-04-01

Some of the controversy surrounding evolutionary explanations of human behavior may be due to cognitive information-processing patterns that are themselves the result of evolutionary processes. Two such patterns are (1) the tendency to oversimplify information so as to reduce demand on cognitive resources and (2) our strong desire to generate predictability and stability from perceptions of the external world. For example, research on social stereotyping has found that people tend to focus automatically on simplified social-categorical information, to use such information when deciding how to behave, and to rely on such information even in the face of contradictory evidence. Similarly, an undying debate over nature vs. nurture is shaped by various data-reduction strategies that frequently oversimplify, and thus distort, the intent of the supporting arguments. This debate is also often marked by an assumption that either the nature or the nurture domain may be justifiably excluded at an explanatory level because one domain appears to operate in a sufficiently stable and predictable way for a particular argument. As a result, critiques in-veighed against evolutionary explanations of behavior often incorporate simplified--and erroneous--assumptions about either the mechanics of how evolution operates or the inevitable implications of evolution for understanding human behavior. The influences of these tendencies are applied to a discussion of the heritability of behavioral characteristics. It is suggested that the common view that Mendelian genetics can explain the heritability of complex behaviors, with a one-gene-one-trait process, is misguided. Complex behaviors are undoubtedly a product of a more complex interaction between genes and environment, ensuring that both nature and nurture must be accommodated in a yet-to-be-developed post-Mendelian model of genetic influence. As a result, current public perceptions of evolutionary explanations of behavior are

Towards a mechanistic foundation of evolutionary theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Doebeli, Michael; Ispolatov, Yaroslav; Simon, Burt

2017-02-15

Most evolutionary thinking is based on the notion of fitness and related ideas such as fitness landscapes and evolutionary optima. Nevertheless, it is often unclear what fitness actually is, and its meaning often depends on the context. Here we argue that fitness should not be a basal ingredient in verbal or mathematical descriptions of evolution. Instead, we propose that evolutionary birth-death processes, in which individuals give birth and die at ever-changing rates, should be the basis of evolutionary theory, because such processes capture the fundamental events that generate evolutionary dynamics. In evolutionary birth-death processes, fitness is at best a derived quantity, and owing to the potential complexity of such processes, there is no guarantee that there is a simple scalar, such as fitness, that would describe long-term evolutionary outcomes. We discuss how evolutionary birth-death processes can provide useful perspectives on a number of central issues in evolution.

Ecological divergence and evolutionary transition of resprouting types in Banksia attenuata.

Science.gov (United States)

He, Tianhua

2014-08-01

Resprouting is a key functional trait that allows plants to survive diverse disturbances. The fitness benefits associated with resprouting include a rapid return to adult growth, early flowering, and setting seed. The resprouting responses observed following fire are varied, as are the ecological outcomes. Understanding the ecological divergence and evolutionary pathways of different resprouting types and how the environment and genetics interact to drive such morphological evolution represents an important, but under-studied, topic. In the present study, microsatellite markers and microevolutionary approaches were used to better understand: (1) whether genetic differentiation is related to morphological divergence among resprouting types and if so, whether there are any specific genetic variations associated with morphological divergence and (2) the evolutionary pathway of the transitions between two resprouting types in Banksia attenuata (epicormic resprouting from aerial stems or branch; resprouting from a underground lignotuber). The results revealed an association between population genetic differentiation and the morphological divergence of postfire resprouting types in B. attenuata. A microsatellite allele has been shown to be associated with epicormic populations. Approximate Bayesian Computation analysis revealed a likely evolutionary transition from epicormic to lignotuberous resprouting in B. attenuata. It is concluded that the postfire resprouting type in B. attenuata is likely determined by the fire's characteristics. The differentiated expression of postfire resprouting types in different environments is likely a consequence of local genetic adaptation. The capacity to shift the postfire resprouting type to adapt to diverse fire regimes is most likely the key factor explaining why B. attenuata is the most widespread member of the Banksia genus.

Evolutionary Studies in Business: A Presentation of a New Journal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paloma Fernández Pérez

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The Journal of Evolutionary Studies in Business is a new open access journal led by an international interdisciplinary team of scholars located in eight institutions from three continents who wants to attract contributions that help shed light on the new questions, challenges, methodologies and realities, faced by businesses in an evolutionary perspective. The journal calls particularly for review essays that deal with new research topics about business, and provide useful overviews of the key ideas, scholars, and debates about important research topics concerning business and its environment. The strategic areas of interest for submissions from authors are: Management Challenges, Entrepreneurship, Science and Business, Creative Industries, International Business, Business History, and Latin American Businesses. JESB will also publish articles about relevant online resources that contain information of interest to academic scholars and business practitioners.

Introduction: integrating genetic and cultural evolutionary approaches to language.

Science.gov (United States)

Mesoudi, Alex; McElligott, Alan G; Adger, David

2011-04-01

The papers in this special issue of Human Biology address recent research in the field of language evolution, both the genetic evolution of the language faculty and the cultural evolution of specific languages. While both of these areas have received increasing interest in recent years, there is also a need to integrate these somewhat separate efforts and explore the relevant gene-culture coevolutionary interactions. Here we summarize the individual contributions, set them in the context of the wider literature, and identify outstanding future research questions. The first set of papers concerns the comparative study of nonhuman communication in primates and birds from both a behavioral and neurobiological perspective, revealing evidence for several common language-related traits in various nonhuman species and providing clues as to the evolutionary origin and function of the human language faculty. The second set of papers discusses the consequences of viewing language as a culturally evolving system in its own right, including claims that this removes the need for strong genetic biases for language acquisition, and that phylogenetic evolutionary methods can be used to reconstruct language histories. We conclude by highlighting outstanding areas for future research, including identifying the precise selection pressures that gave rise to the language faculty in ancestral hominin species, and determining the strength, domain specificity, and origin of the cultural transmission biases that shape languages as they pass along successive generations of language learners.

Evolutionary thinking: "A conversation with Carter Phipps about the role of evolutionary thinking in modern culture".

Science.gov (United States)

Hunt, Tam

2014-12-01

Evolution as an idea has a lengthy history, even though the idea of evolution is generally associated with Darwin today. Rebecca Stott provides an engaging and thoughtful overview of this history of evolutionary thinking in her 2013 book, Darwin's Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution. Since Darwin, the debate over evolution-both how it takes place and, in a long war of words with religiously-oriented thinkers, whether it takes place-has been sustained and heated. A growing share of this debate is now devoted to examining how evolutionary thinking affects areas outside of biology. How do our lives change when we recognize that all is in flux? What can we learn about life more generally if we study change instead of stasis? Carter Phipps' book, Evolutionaries: Unlocking the Spiritual and Cultural Potential of Science's Greatest Idea, delves deep into this relatively new development. Phipps generally takes as a given the validity of the Modern Synthesis of evolutionary biology. His story takes us into, as the subtitle suggests, the spiritual and cultural implications of evolutionary thinking. Can religion and evolution be reconciled? Can evolutionary thinking lead to a new type of spirituality? Is our culture already being changed in ways that we don't realize by evolutionary thinking? These are all important questions and Phipps book is a great introduction to this discussion. Phipps is an author, journalist, and contributor to the emerging "integral" or "evolutionary" cultural movement that combines the insights of Integral Philosophy, evolutionary science, developmental psychology, and the social sciences. He has served as the Executive Editor of EnlightenNext magazine (no longer published) and more recently is the co-founder of the Institute for Cultural Evolution, a public policy think tank addressing the cultural roots of America's political challenges. What follows is an email interview with Phipps.

Data acquisition system of the GDL facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Salikova, T.V.

1992-01-01

Data acquisition system (DAS) operates in the RSX-IIM environment with the CAMAC system CAMAC driven and CAMAC control processor are used for the CAMAC system operation support. The exchange rate between a problem and the CAMAC module is equal to 100 K worf/c. 14 refs

Where Evolutionary Psychology Meets Cognitive Neuroscience: A Précis to Evolutionary Cognitive Neuroscience1

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Austen L. Krill

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Cognitive neuroscience, the study of brain-behavior relationships, has long attempted to map the brain. The discipline is flourishing, with an increasing number of functional neuroimaging studies appearing in the scientific literature daily. Unlike biology and even psychology, the cognitive neurosciences have only recently begun to apply evolutionary meta-theory and methodological guidance. Approaching cognitive neuroscience from an evolutionary perspective allows scientists to apply biologically based theoretical guidance to their investigations and can be conducted in both humans and nonhuman animals. In fact, several investigations of this sort are underway in laboratories around the world. This paper and two new volumes (Platek, Keenan, and Shackelford [Eds.], 2007; Platek and Shackelford [Eds.], under contract represent the first formal attempts to document the burgeoning field of evolutionary cognitive neuroscience. Here, we briefly review the current state of the science of evolutionary cognitive neuroscience, the methods available to the evolutionary cognitive neuroscientist, and what we foresee as the future directions of the discipline.

Investigating the evolutionary history of irrigated agricultural technology in the Heihe River Basin, China

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, S.; Wei, Y.; Zhao, Y.; Zheng, H.

2017-12-01

Human's innovative abilities do not only enable rapid expansion of civilization, but also lead to enormous modifications on the natural environment. Technology, while a key factor embedded in socioeconomic developments, its impacts have been rarely appropriately considered in river basin management. This research aims to examine the evolutionary history of irrigated agricultural technology in the Heihe River Basin, China, and how its characteristics interacted with the river basin environment. It adopts a content analysis approach to collect and summarize quantitative technological information in the Heihe River Basin across a time span of more than 2000 years from the Han Dynasty (206 BC) to 2015. Two Chinese academic research databases: Wan Fang Data and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) were chosen as data sources. The results show that irrigated agricultural technologies in Heihe River Basin have shifted from focusing on developing new farming tools and cultivation methods to adapting modernized, water-saving irrigation methods and water diversion infrastructures. In additions, the center of irrigated agricultural technology in the Heihe river basin has moved from downstream to middle stream since the Ming Dynasty (1368AD) as a result of degraded natural environment. The developing trend of technology in the Heihe River Basin thus coincides with the change of societal focus from agricultural production efficiency to the human-water balance and environmental remediation. This research demonstrates that irrigated agricultural technologies had a twisted evolutionary history in the Heihe River Basin, influenced by a diverse range of environmental and socioeconomic factors. It provides insights into the fact that technology exhibits a co-evolutionary characteristic with the social development history in the region, pointing towards the urgent need to maintain the balance between human and environment.

Essays on nonlinear evolutionary game dynamics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ochea, M.I.

2010-01-01

Evolutionary game theory has been viewed as an evolutionary repair of rational actor game theory in the hope that a population of boundedly rational players may attain convergence to classic rational solutions, such as the Nash Equilibrium, via some learning or evolutionary process. In this thesis

Acquisition and tracking for underwater optical communications

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, Andrew J.; Laycock, Leslie L.; Griffith, Michael S.; McCarthy, Andrew G.; Rowe, Duncan P.

2017-10-01

There is a growing requirement to transfer large volumes of data between underwater platforms. As seawater is transmissive in the visible band, underwater optical communications is an active area of interest since it offers the potential for power efficient, covert and high bandwidth datalinks at short to medium ranges. Short range systems have been successfully demonstrated using sources with low directionality. To realise higher data rates and/or longer ranges, the use of more efficient directional beams is required; by necessity, these must be sufficiently aligned to achieve the required link margin. For mobile platforms, the acquisition and tracking of each node is therefore critical in order to establish and maintain an optical datalink. This paper describes work undertaken to demonstrate acquisition and tracking in a 3D underwater environment. A range of optical sources, beam steering technologies, and tracking sensors have been assessed for suitability. A novel scanning strategy exploiting variable beam divergence was developed to provide robust acquisition whilst minimising acquisition time. A prototype system was assembled and demonstrated in a large water tank. This utilised custom quadrant detectors based on Silicon PhotoMultiplier (SiPM) arrays for fine tracking, and a Wide Field of View (WFoV) sCMOS camera for link acquisition. Fluidic lenses provided dynamic control of beam divergence, and AC modulation/filtering enabled background rejection. The system successfully demonstrated robust optical acquisition and tracking between two nodes with only nanowatt received optical powers. The acquisition time was shown to be dependent on the initial conditions and the transmitted optical power.

Sustainability and the anthropogenic alteration of evolutionary processes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John Cairns, Jr.

2004-08-01

Full Text Available Persuasive evidence indicates that Earth is now experiencing a major biotic crisis. Even if humankind ceases severe stress on natural systems, the crisis will probably disrupt the basic evolutionary processes that characterized the period preceding the agricultural and industrial revolutions.Proliferation of drug and pesticide resistant species and opportunistic species that thrive in human-dominated ecosystems will become increasingly common. The effect on humankind of altering basic evolutionary processes is uncertain because the understanding of these processes is not robust. The probable result will not be an environment as favorable to humans as the one that has existed for most of human history. Humans probably have altered the environment since Homo sapiens first appeared. However, only in the last two centuries has the degree and rate of change reached levels now considered by many people to be ‘normal’, even though the record shows they are not.Greatly improved technology has facilitated increased exploitation of natural resources to unsustainablelevels. This exploitation, in turn, has led to exponential human population growth, which has depleted natural capital (living systems and the services they provide. Economic globalization has ensured that ecosystems far distant from consumers can be and are profitably exploited. Economicgrowth has become a universal mantra that is coupled with a conviction that such growth can continue indefinitely on a finite planet. A major paradigm shift is essential if sustainable use of the planet is to become a reality.

Integrating genomics into evolutionary medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Rodríguez, Juan Antonio; Marigorta, Urko M; Navarro, Arcadi

2014-12-01

The application of the principles of evolutionary biology into medicine was suggested long ago and is already providing insight into the ultimate causes of disease. However, a full systematic integration of medical genomics and evolutionary medicine is still missing. Here, we briefly review some cases where the combination of the two fields has proven profitable and highlight two of the main issues hindering the development of evolutionary genomic medicine as a mature field, namely the dissociation between fitness and health and the still considerable difficulties in predicting phenotypes from genotypes. We use publicly available data to illustrate both problems and conclude that new approaches are needed for evolutionary genomic medicine to overcome these obstacles. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dinosaurs reveal the geographical signature of an evolutionary radiation.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Donovan, Ciara; Meade, Andrew; Venditti, Chris

2018-03-01

Dinosaurs dominated terrestrial ecosystems across the globe for over 100 million years and provide a classic example of an evolutionary radiation. However, little is known about how these animals radiated geographically to become globally distributed. Here, we use a biogeographical model to reconstruct the dinosaurs' ancestral locations, revealing the spatial mechanisms that underpinned this 170-million-year-long radiation. We find that dinosaurs spread rapidly initially, followed by a significant continuous and gradual reduction in their speed of movement towards the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary (66 million years ago). This suggests that the predominant mode of dinosaur speciation changed through time with speciation originally largely driven by geographical isolation-when dinosaurs speciated more, they moved further. This was gradually replaced by increasing levels of sympatric speciation (species taking advantage of ecological opportunities within their existing environment) as terrestrial space became a limiting factor. Our results uncover the geographical signature of an evolutionary radiation.

Form of an evolutionary tradeoff affects eco-evolutionary dynamics in a predator-prey system.

Science.gov (United States)

Kasada, Minoru; Yamamichi, Masato; Yoshida, Takehito

2014-11-11

Evolution on a time scale similar to ecological dynamics has been increasingly recognized for the last three decades. Selection mediated by ecological interactions can change heritable phenotypic variation (i.e., evolution), and evolution of traits, in turn, can affect ecological interactions. Hence, ecological and evolutionary dynamics can be tightly linked and important to predict future dynamics, but our understanding of eco-evolutionary dynamics is still in its infancy and there is a significant gap between theoretical predictions and empirical tests. Empirical studies have demonstrated that the presence of genetic variation can dramatically change ecological dynamics, whereas theoretical studies predict that eco-evolutionary dynamics depend on the details of the genetic variation, such as the form of a tradeoff among genotypes, which can be more important than the presence or absence of the genetic variation. Using a predator-prey (rotifer-algal) experimental system in laboratory microcosms, we studied how different forms of a tradeoff between prey defense and growth affect eco-evolutionary dynamics. Our experimental results show for the first time to our knowledge that different forms of the tradeoff produce remarkably divergent eco-evolutionary dynamics, including near fixation, near extinction, and coexistence of algal genotypes, with quantitatively different population dynamics. A mathematical model, parameterized from completely independent experiments, explains the observed dynamics. The results suggest that knowing the details of heritable trait variation and covariation within a population is essential for understanding how evolution and ecology will interact and what form of eco-evolutionary dynamics will result.

Practical advantages of evolutionary computation

Science.gov (United States)

Fogel, David B.

1997-10-01

Evolutionary computation is becoming a common technique for solving difficult, real-world problems in industry, medicine, and defense. This paper reviews some of the practical advantages to using evolutionary algorithms as compared with classic methods of optimization or artificial intelligence. Specific advantages include the flexibility of the procedures, as well as their ability to self-adapt the search for optimum solutions on the fly. As desktop computers increase in speed, the application of evolutionary algorithms will become routine.

Highly Adaptable but Not Invulnerable: Necessary and Facilitating Conditions for Research in Evolutionary Developmental Biology

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Laudel, Grit; Benninghoff, Martin; Lettkemann, Eric; Håkansson, Elias; Whitley, Richard; Gläser, Jochen

2014-01-01

Evolutionary developmental biology is a highly variable scientific innovation because researchers can adapt their involvement in the innovation to the opportunities provided by their environment. On the basis of comparative case studies in four countries, we link epistemic properties of research

Data acquisition remote node powered over the communications optical fiber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Batista, Antonio J.N.; Sousa, Jorge; Gonçalves, Bruno

2015-01-01

Large nuclear fusion reactors, like ITER, will have harsh electromagnetic environments nearby the machine. Foreseeing the necessity for special data acquisition remote nodes, on difficult access locations and as close as possible to the experimental devices, motivated the system design. The architecture is based on the power-over-fiber technology recent advancements and respective implementation aim is to attain a proof of concept for the fusion technology field and others, e.g., high energy physics, industry, etc. The design intends the replacement of traditional copper cables and power supplies, vulnerable to electromagnetic interference, by the communications optical fiber of the data acquisition remote node. Optical fibers provide galvanic isolation, immunity to noisy electromagnetic environments and simultaneously can supply power to the remote node electronics. System architecture uses a laser power converter (array of photovoltaic cells) to convert the laser light, from the optical fiber, into electricity. The generated electrical power is enough for powering the remote node electronics and optoelectronics, such as an ADC, a low power FPGA and an optical transmitter. The laser power converter is also used as the communications receiver and from which the acquisition clock is recovered, providing synchronism between remote data acquisition nodes. Descriptions of the system architecture, tested implementations and future improvements are presented.

Acquisition of reliable vacuum hardware for large accelerator systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Welch, K.M.

1995-01-01

Credible and effective communications prove to be the major challenge in the acquisition of reliable vacuum hardware. Technical competence is necessary but not sufficient. The authors must effectively communicate with management, sponsoring agencies, project organizations, service groups, staff and with vendors. Most of Deming's 14 quality assurance tenants relate to creating an enlightened environment of good communications. All projects progress along six distinct, closely coupled, dynamic phases. All six phases are in a state of perpetual change. These phases and their elements are discussed, with emphasis given to the acquisition phase and its related vocabulary. Large projects require great clarity and rigor as poor communications can be costly. For rigor to be cost effective, it can't be pedantic. Clarity thrives best in a low-risk, team environment

The effects of international acquisitions in Serbia on status and engagement of human resources

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Branko Rakita

2013-04-01

Full Text Available In the past few decades globalization and deregulation of international economy has been noticeably accelerated. Consequently, new globalized business environment with numerous business opportunities as well as growing business risks has been made. The new business environment opened the door to intensive implementation of acquisitions as a market entry strategy. Foreign direct investments (FDI in most of transition countries, including Serbia, predominantly come in the form of international acquisitions. There is a wide theoretical analysis of the effects of FDIs on target country economy. The overall conclusion is that green field projects, in comparison with international acquisitions, have more favorable effects on all aspects of host country’s economy. This paper examines the effects of international acquisitions in Serbia on work practices, wages and productivity using the analysis of the financial statements and the results of survey carried out among the foreign investors. It was found that decline of employment; productivity growth and increase in real wages are the results of the acquisitions. The survey also shows that the foreign investors invested in training and development of the acquired employees.

Behavior acquisition in artificial agents

OpenAIRE

Thurau, Christian

2006-01-01

Computational skill acquisition in robots and simulated agents has been a topic of increasing popularity throughout the last years. Despite impressive progress, autonomous behavior at a level of animals and humans are not yet replicated by machines. Especially when a complex environment demands versatile, goal-oriented behavior, current artificial systems show shortcomings. Consider for instance modern 3D computer games. Despite their key role for more emersive game experience, surprisingly l...

Determining the Best Loci of Knowledge, Responsibilities and Decision Rights in Major Acquisition Organizations

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Dillard, John; Nissen, Mark E

2005-01-01

... in varying environments. Their results reinforce Contingency Theory and suggest that particular characteristics of different acquisition environments make one organizational form relatively more or less appropriate than another...

Calculating evolutionary dynamics in structured populations.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Charles G Nathanson

2009-12-01

Full Text Available Evolution is shaping the world around us. At the core of every evolutionary process is a population of reproducing individuals. The outcome of an evolutionary process depends on population structure. Here we provide a general formula for calculating evolutionary dynamics in a wide class of structured populations. This class includes the recently introduced "games in phenotype space" and "evolutionary set theory." There can be local interactions for determining the relative fitness of individuals, but we require global updating, which means all individuals compete uniformly for reproduction. We study the competition of two strategies in the context of an evolutionary game and determine which strategy is favored in the limit of weak selection. We derive an intuitive formula for the structure coefficient, sigma, and provide a method for efficient numerical calculation.

Evolutionary Multiplayer Games

OpenAIRE

Gokhale, Chaitanya S.; Traulsen, Arne

2014-01-01

Evolutionary game theory has become one of the most diverse and far reaching theories in biology. Applications of this theory range from cell dynamics to social evolution. However, many applications make it clear that inherent non-linearities of natural systems need to be taken into account. One way of introducing such non-linearities into evolutionary games is by the inclusion of multiple players. An example is of social dilemmas, where group benefits could e.g.\\ increase less than linear wi...

An evolutionary link between capsular biogenesis and surface motility in bacteria.

Science.gov (United States)

Agrebi, Rym; Wartel, Morgane; Brochier-Armanet, Céline; Mignot, Tâm

2015-05-01

Studying the evolution of macromolecular assemblies is important to improve our understanding of how complex cellular structures evolved, and to identify the functional building blocks that are involved. Recent studies suggest that the macromolecular complexes that are involved in two distinct processes in Myxococcus xanthus - surface motility and sporulation - are derived from an ancestral polysaccharide capsule assembly system. In this Opinion article, we argue that the available data suggest that the motility machinery evolved from this capsule assembly system following a gene duplication event, a change in carbohydrate polymer specificity and the acquisition of additional proteins by the motility complex, all of which are key features that distinguish the motility and sporulation systems. Furthermore, the presence of intermediates of these systems in bacterial genomes suggests a testable evolutionary model for their emergence and spread.

Evolutionary programming-based univector field navigation method for past mobile robots.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Y J; Kim, J H; Kwon, D S

2001-01-01

Most of navigation techniques with obstacle avoidance do not consider the robot orientation at the target position. These techniques deal with the robot position only and are independent of its orientation and velocity. To solve these problems this paper proposes a novel univector field method for fast mobile robot navigation which introduces a normalized two dimensional vector field. The method provides fast moving robots with the desired posture at the target position and obstacle avoidance. To obtain the sub-optimal vector field, a function approximator is used and trained by evolutionary programming. Two kinds of vector fields are trained, one for the final posture acquisition and the other for obstacle avoidance. Computer simulations and real experiments are carried out for a fast moving mobile robot to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

Does sex speed up evolutionary rate and increase biodiversity?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carlos J Melián

Full Text Available Most empirical and theoretical studies have shown that sex increases the rate of evolution, although evidence of sex constraining genomic and epigenetic variation and slowing down evolution also exists. Faster rates with sex have been attributed to new gene combinations, removal of deleterious mutations, and adaptation to heterogeneous environments. Slower rates with sex have been attributed to removal of major genetic rearrangements, the cost of finding a mate, vulnerability to predation, and exposure to sexually transmitted diseases. Whether sex speeds or slows evolution, the connection between reproductive mode, the evolutionary rate, and species diversity remains largely unexplored. Here we present a spatially explicit model of ecological and evolutionary dynamics based on DNA sequence change to study the connection between mutation, speciation, and the resulting biodiversity in sexual and asexual populations. We show that faster speciation can decrease the abundance of newly formed species and thus decrease long-term biodiversity. In this way, sex can reduce diversity relative to asexual populations, because it leads to a higher rate of production of new species, but with lower abundances. Our results show that reproductive mode and the mechanisms underlying it can alter the link between mutation, evolutionary rate, speciation and biodiversity and we suggest that a high rate of evolution may not be required to yield high biodiversity.

MultiSeq: unifying sequence and structure data for evolutionary analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wright Dan

2006-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Since the publication of the first draft of the human genome in 2000, bioinformatic data have been accumulating at an overwhelming pace. Currently, more than 3 million sequences and 35 thousand structures of proteins and nucleic acids are available in public databases. Finding correlations in and between these data to answer critical research questions is extremely challenging. This problem needs to be approached from several directions: information science to organize and search the data; information visualization to assist in recognizing correlations; mathematics to formulate statistical inferences; and biology to analyze chemical and physical properties in terms of sequence and structure changes. Results Here we present MultiSeq, a unified bioinformatics analysis environment that allows one to organize, display, align and analyze both sequence and structure data for proteins and nucleic acids. While special emphasis is placed on analyzing the data within the framework of evolutionary biology, the environment is also flexible enough to accommodate other usage patterns. The evolutionary approach is supported by the use of predefined metadata, adherence to standard ontological mappings, and the ability for the user to adjust these classifications using an electronic notebook. MultiSeq contains a new algorithm to generate complete evolutionary profiles that represent the topology of the molecular phylogenetic tree of a homologous group of distantly related proteins. The method, based on the multidimensional QR factorization of multiple sequence and structure alignments, removes redundancy from the alignments and orders the protein sequences by increasing linear dependence, resulting in the identification of a minimal basis set of sequences that spans the evolutionary space of the homologous group of proteins. Conclusion MultiSeq is a major extension of the Multiple Alignment tool that is provided as part of VMD, a structural

Evolutionary insights from studies on viruses of hyperthermophilic archaea.

Science.gov (United States)

Prangishvili, David

2003-05-01

The morphological diversity of viruses which parasitize hyperthermophilic archaea thriving at temperatures > or = 80 degrees C appears to exceed that of viruses of prokaryotes living at lower temperatures. Based on assumptions of the existence of viruses in the prebiotic phase of evolution and hot origins of cellular life, we suggest that this remarkable diversity could have its source in ancestral diversity of viral morphotypes in hot environments. Attempts are made to trace evolutionary relationships of viruses of hyperthermophilic archaea with other viruses.

ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS IN CORPORATE INTEGRATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lucia P. BLĂJUȚ

2015-04-01

Full Text Available This paper highlights the role of international mergers and acquisitions in corporate integration. The factors that stimulate mergers and acquisitions activities bring real changes in the world economy. Mergers and acquisitions are a form of expansion: mergers can take place either as a statutory merger or consolidation and minority, majority or full acquisitions dominate the international market. It is very important to not confuse the meaning of the two terms. Multinational companies are forced by the competitive environment to adopt new strategies to penetrate a particular market and decrease the position of competition on global market or to counteract competitor action on the other market. Cross-border M and A is functionally classified in horizontal, vertical, concentric and conglomerate. The balance between these types of M and A has been changing over time and the distinction among these four categories is not always clear-cut.

Evolutionary fuzzy ARTMAP neural networks for classification of semiconductor defects.

Science.gov (United States)

Tan, Shing Chiang; Watada, Junzo; Ibrahim, Zuwairie; Khalid, Marzuki

2015-05-01

Wafer defect detection using an intelligent system is an approach of quality improvement in semiconductor manufacturing that aims to enhance its process stability, increase production capacity, and improve yields. Occasionally, only few records that indicate defective units are available and they are classified as a minority group in a large database. Such a situation leads to an imbalanced data set problem, wherein it engenders a great challenge to deal with by applying machine-learning techniques for obtaining effective solution. In addition, the database may comprise overlapping samples of different classes. This paper introduces two models of evolutionary fuzzy ARTMAP (FAM) neural networks to deal with the imbalanced data set problems in a semiconductor manufacturing operations. In particular, both the FAM models and hybrid genetic algorithms are integrated in the proposed evolutionary artificial neural networks (EANNs) to classify an imbalanced data set. In addition, one of the proposed EANNs incorporates a facility to learn overlapping samples of different classes from the imbalanced data environment. The classification results of the proposed evolutionary FAM neural networks are presented, compared, and analyzed using several classification metrics. The outcomes positively indicate the effectiveness of the proposed networks in handling classification problems with imbalanced data sets.

Industrial Applications of Evolutionary Algorithms

CERN Document Server

Sanchez, Ernesto; Tonda, Alberto

2012-01-01

This book is intended as a reference both for experienced users of evolutionary algorithms and for researchers that are beginning to approach these fascinating optimization techniques. Experienced users will find interesting details of real-world problems, and advice on solving issues related to fitness computation, modeling and setting appropriate parameters to reach optimal solutions. Beginners will find a thorough introduction to evolutionary computation, and a complete presentation of all evolutionary algorithms exploited to solve different problems. The book could fill the gap between the

Nanoscopical dissection of ancestral nucleoli in Archaea: a case of study in Evolutionary Cell Biology

KAUST Repository

Islas Morales, Parsifal

2018-04-01

Is the nucleolus a sine qua non condition of eukaryotes? The present project starts from this central question to contribute to our knowledge about the origin and the evolution of the cells. The nucleolus is a cryptic organelle that plays a central role in cell function. It is responsible for the orchestration of ribosomal RNA expression, maturation and modification in the regulatory context of cellular homeostasis. Ribosomal expression is undoubtedly the greatest transcriptional and regulatory activity of any cell. The nucleolus is not just a conventional organelle –membrane-limited-, but a magnificent transcriptional puff: a dichotomy between structure and process, form and function. What is the minimum nucleolus? Evolution should bring some light into these questions. Evolutionary cell biology (ECB) has raised increasing attention in the last decades. Is this a new discipline and an historical opportunity to combine functional and evolutionary biology towards the insight that cell evolution underlies organismic complexity? In the post-genomic era, we have developed the potential of combining high throughput acquisition of data with functional in situ and in sillico approaches: integration understood as omics approaches. Can this provide a real consilience between evolutionary and functional approaches? The reduced number of model organisms and cultivation techniques still excludes the majority of the extant diversity of cells from the scope of experimental inquiry. Furthermore, at the conceptual level, the simplification of evolutionary processes in biosciences still limits the conformation of a successful disciplinary link between functional and evolutionary biology. This limits the formulation of questions and experiments that properly address the mechanistic nature of cellular events that underlie microbial and organismic diversity and evolution. Here we provide a critical and comparative review to the historical background of ECB. This project takes the

Core principles of evolutionary medicine: A Delphi study.

Science.gov (United States)

Grunspan, Daniel Z; Nesse, Randolph M; Barnes, M Elizabeth; Brownell, Sara E

2018-01-01

Evolutionary medicine is a rapidly growing field that uses the principles of evolutionary biology to better understand, prevent and treat disease, and that uses studies of disease to advance basic knowledge in evolutionary biology. Over-arching principles of evolutionary medicine have been described in publications, but our study is the first to systematically elicit core principles from a diverse panel of experts in evolutionary medicine. These principles should be useful to advance recent recommendations made by The Association of American Medical Colleges and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to make evolutionary thinking a core competency for pre-medical education. The Delphi method was used to elicit and validate a list of core principles for evolutionary medicine. The study included four surveys administered in sequence to 56 expert panelists. The initial open-ended survey created a list of possible core principles; the three subsequent surveys winnowed the list and assessed the accuracy and importance of each principle. Fourteen core principles elicited at least 80% of the panelists to agree or strongly agree that they were important core principles for evolutionary medicine. These principles over-lapped with concepts discussed in other articles discussing key concepts in evolutionary medicine. This set of core principles will be helpful for researchers and instructors in evolutionary medicine. We recommend that evolutionary medicine instructors use the list of core principles to construct learning goals. Evolutionary medicine is a young field, so this list of core principles will likely change as the field develops further.

Conceptual Barriers to Progress Within Evolutionary Biology.

Science.gov (United States)

Laland, Kevin N; Odling-Smee, John; Feldman, Marcus W; Kendal, Jeremy

2009-08-01

In spite of its success, Neo-Darwinism is faced with major conceptual barriers to further progress, deriving directly from its metaphysical foundations. Most importantly, neo-Darwinism fails to recognize a fundamental cause of evolutionary change, "niche construction". This failure restricts the generality of evolutionary theory, and introduces inaccuracies. It also hinders the integration of evolutionary biology with neighbouring disciplines, including ecosystem ecology, developmental biology, and the human sciences. Ecology is forced to become a divided discipline, developmental biology is stubbornly difficult to reconcile with evolutionary theory, and the majority of biologists and social scientists are still unhappy with evolutionary accounts of human behaviour. The incorporation of niche construction as both a cause and a product of evolution removes these disciplinary boundaries while greatly generalizing the explanatory power of evolutionary theory.

Evolutionary Statistical Procedures

CERN Document Server

Baragona, Roberto; Poli, Irene

2011-01-01

This proposed text appears to be a good introduction to evolutionary computation for use in applied statistics research. The authors draw from a vast base of knowledge about the current literature in both the design of evolutionary algorithms and statistical techniques. Modern statistical research is on the threshold of solving increasingly complex problems in high dimensions, and the generalization of its methodology to parameters whose estimators do not follow mathematically simple distributions is underway. Many of these challenges involve optimizing functions for which analytic solutions a

The effects of different styles of interaction on the learning of evolutionary theories

Science.gov (United States)

Sugimoto, Akiko

This study investigated the effects of different styles of social interaction on the learning of advanced biological knowledge. Recent research has increasingly acknowledged the importance of social interaction for promoting learning and cognitive development. However, there has been a controversy about the optimal style of interaction. Some studies have showed the beneficial effects of symmetrical interactions such as an argument between peers, whereas other studies have found the superiority of asymmetrical interactions in which a novice learn with the guidance of an expert. The reason for the contradictory results may be that different styles of interaction enhance different kinds of learning. The present study focused on the three styles of interaction; (1) Conflicting style, in which two novice students with scientifically wrong but conflicting views argue with one another, (2) Guiding style, in which a novice student is led by a more expert student to an understanding of scientifically appropriate knowledge, (3) Mutual Constructive style, in which an expert student and a novice student jointly solve a scientific problem on an equal footing. Sixty college students with non-biology-majors and 30 students with a biology major participated in this experiment to discuss an evolutionary problem in these three styles of interaction, with the former serving as novices and the latter as experts. Analyses of the Pre- and the Posttest performance and discussion processes in the Interaction session revealed the following. First, the Guiding style and the Mutual Constructive style enhanced the acquisition of the scientific evolutionary conceptual framework more effectively than the Conflicting style. However, some students in the Conflicting style also grasped the scientific evolutionary framework, and many students reconstructed their theories of evolution through discussion, even if the frameworks remained scientifically inappropriate. Second, the students who discussed

Evolutionary history, immigration history, and the extent of diversification in community assembly.

Science.gov (United States)

Knope, Matthew L; Forde, Samantha E; Fukami, Tadashi

2011-01-01

During community assembly, species may accumulate not only by immigration, but also by in situ diversification. Diversification has intrigued biologists because its extent varies even among closely related lineages under similar ecological conditions. Recent research has suggested that some of this puzzling variation may be caused by stochastic differences in the history of immigration (relative timing and order of immigration by founding populations), indicating that immigration and diversification may affect community assembly interactively. However, the conditions under which immigration history affects diversification remain unclear. Here we propose the hypothesis that whether or not immigration history influences the extent of diversification depends on the founding populations' prior evolutionary history, using evidence from a bacterial experiment. To create genotypes with different evolutionary histories, replicate populations of Pseudomonas fluorescens were allowed to adapt to a novel environment for a short or long period of time (approximately 10 or 100 bacterial generations) with or without exploiters (viral parasites). Each evolved genotype was then introduced to a new habitat either before or after a standard competitor genotype. Most genotypes diversified to a greater extent when introduced before, rather than after, the competitor. However, introduction order did not affect the extent of diversification when the evolved genotype had previously adapted to the environment for a long period of time without exploiters. Diversification of these populations was low regardless of introduction order. These results suggest that the importance of immigration history in diversification can be predicted by the immigrants' evolutionary past. The hypothesis proposed here may be generally applicable in both micro- and macro-organisms.

Part E: Evolutionary Computation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

2015-01-01

of Computational Intelligence. First, comprehensive surveys of genetic algorithms, genetic programming, evolution strategies, parallel evolutionary algorithms are presented, which are readable and constructive so that a large audience might find them useful and – to some extent – ready to use. Some more general...... kinds of evolutionary algorithms, have been prudently analyzed. This analysis was followed by a thorough analysis of various issues involved in stochastic local search algorithms. An interesting survey of various technological and industrial applications in mechanical engineering and design has been...... topics like the estimation of distribution algorithms, indicator-based selection, etc., are also discussed. An important problem, from a theoretical and practical point of view, of learning classifier systems is presented in depth. Multiobjective evolutionary algorithms, which constitute one of the most...

Economic chances and problems of the peaceful uses of nuclear energy in an evolutionary context

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hohn, B.

1992-01-01

To organize and ensure energy supply is of pivotal importance for social development. Therefore, the paper focuses on the issue of nuclear energy within the stress field of society, technology, energy and evolution. Nuclear energy use is studied with regard to its evolutionary fit, on the basis of an integrating analysis overriding economic considerations. So the criterion of customary economics is expanded by the evaluation criterion of evolutionary principles. After considering the theoretical structure of environment and resource economy and its limits, the evolutionary background of energy and energy use is examined. Evolution strategies are outlined to show how structures and orders are formed in the course of evolution and how energy resources are exploited. In view of the global ecological crisis, solution strategies require a solid concept of an evolutionary fitting energy system the requirement profile of which can be obtained, by means of fitting criteria, from a synthesis of economic theory and the outlined evolution strategies. In order to sound the evolutionary fit of nuclear energy use on the basis of the theoretical foundations of economics and evolution and of the fitting criteria obtained from their synthesis, the status of the problem and its multifacetted interconnections are structured. Critical analysis of the peaceful use of nuclear energy is performed by means of a systematics which is to ensure that the mental order gradually approaches the evaluation of the evolutionary fit of nuclear power. (orig./HSCH) [de

Concept for a Microcontroller Based Data Acquisition Device for Use in Nuclear Environments Measuring and Monitoring

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stratton, Sam; Stevenson, Dave; Magnifico, Matteo

2013-06-01

Micro-controllers, (which are a superset of microprocessors), usually include a microprocessor, RAM, nonvolatile memory and an interface controller all on a single chip. Micro-controllers are widely used in what are known as 'embedded systems'. An embedded system is designed for a specific function often in a larger overall system. Where the home PC is designed for flexibility and many different types of software applications, embedded systems are most often fixed in their functionality and typically will not change during the life of their implementation. By the same token, the software developed for a micro-controller will not typically change during device deployment and is therefore called 'firmware'. A Data Acquisition (DAQ) micro-controller will also include an Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) on the chip. The current state of nuclear power plant control systems is somewhat antiquated and even though there have been great strides made in the upgrade of Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) systems, the industry as a whole has been slow to adopt the latest in technology. The benefits of digital technology are widely recognized in the NPP industry and yet adoption has still been slow due at least to some degree by the significant safety concerns of the industry. Results in other industries including satellite manufacture however, have shown that risk can be managed and high reliability achieved to produce electronics that function without errors for many years. In addition, the catastrophe that occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi plant is causing some in the NPP industry to consider electronics that can withstand severe radiation and temperature conditions. The technology exists today to develop a single chip micro-controller data acquisition system that can survive and function reliably in radiation and other harsh environments and would be suitable for implementation in an NPP system. (authors)

Contemporary issues in evolutionary biology

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

These discussions included, among others, the possible consequences of nonDNA-based inheritance—epigenetics and cultural evolution, niche construction, and developmental mechanisms on our understanding of the evolutionary process, speciation, complexity in biology, and constructing a formal evolutionary theory.

Impact of thermal stress on evolutionary trajectories of pathogen resistance in three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus).

Science.gov (United States)

Schade, Franziska M; Shama, Lisa N S; Wegner, K Mathias

2014-07-26

Pathogens are a major regulatory force for host populations, especially under stressful conditions. Elevated temperatures may enhance the development of pathogens, increase the number of transmission stages, and can negatively influence host susceptibility depending on host thermal tolerance. As a net result, this can lead to a higher prevalence of epidemics during summer months. These conditions also apply to marine ecosystems, where possible ecological impacts and the population-specific potential for evolutionary responses to changing environments and increasing disease prevalence are, however, less known. Therefore, we investigated the influence of thermal stress on the evolutionary trajectories of disease resistance in three marine populations of three-spined sticklebacks Gasterosteus aculeatus by combining the effects of elevated temperature and infection with a bacterial strain of Vibrio sp. using a common garden experiment. We found that thermal stress had an impact on fish weight and especially on survival after infection after only short periods of thermal acclimation. Environmental stress reduced genetic differentiation (QST) between populations by releasing cryptic within-population variation. While life history traits displayed positive genetic correlations across environments with relatively weak genotype by environment interactions (GxE), environmental stress led to negative genetic correlations across environments in pathogen resistance. This reversal of genetic effects governing resistance is probably attributable to changing environment-dependent virulence mechanisms of the pathogen interacting differently with host genotypes, i.e. GPathogenxGHostxE or (GPathogenxE)x(GHostxE) interactions, rather than to pure host genetic effects, i.e. GHostxE interactions. To cope with climatic changes and the associated increase in pathogen virulence, host species require wide thermal tolerances and pathogen-resistant genotypes. The higher resistance we found

MimiLook: A Phylogenetic Workflow for Detection of Gene Acquisition in Major Orthologous Groups of Megavirales.

Science.gov (United States)

Jain, Sourabh; Panda, Arup; Colson, Philippe; Raoult, Didier; Pontarotti, Pierre

2017-04-07

With the inclusion of new members, understanding about evolutionary mechanisms and processes by which members of the proposed order, Megavirales, have evolved has become a key area of interest. The central role of gene acquisition has been shown in previous studies. However, the major drawback in gene acquisition studies is the focus on few MV families or putative families with large variation in their genetic structure. Thus, here we have tried to develop a methodology by which we can detect horizontal gene transfers (HGTs), taking into consideration orthologous groups of distantly related Megavirale families. Here, we report an automated workflow MimiLook, prepared as a Perl command line program, that deduces orthologous groups (OGs) from ORFomes of Megavirales and constructs phylogenetic trees by performing alignment generation, alignment editing and protein-protein BLAST (BLASTP) searching across the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) non-redundant (nr) protein sequence database. Finally, this tool detects statistically validated events of gene acquisitions with the help of the T-REX algorithm by comparing individual gene tree with NCBI species tree. In between the steps, the workflow decides about handling paralogs, filtering outputs, identifying Megavirale specific OGs, detection of HGTs, along with retrieval of information about those OGs that are monophyletic with organisms from cellular domains of life. By implementing MimiLook, we noticed that nine percent of Megavirale gene families (i.e., OGs) have been acquired by HGT, 80% OGs were Megaviralespecific and eight percent were found to be sharing common ancestry with members of cellular domains (Eukaryote, Bacteria, Archaea, Phages or other viruses) and three percent were ambivalent. The results are briefly discussed to emphasize methodology. Also, MimiLook is relevant for detecting evolutionary scenarios in other targeted phyla with user defined modifications. It can be accessed at

Aerial robotic data acquisition system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hofstetter, K.J.; Hayes, D.W.; Pendergast, M.M.

1995-01-01

A small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) equipped with sensors for physical and chemical measurements of remote environments, is described. A miniature helicopter airframe is used as a platform for sensor testing and development. The sensor output is integrated with the flight control system for real-time, interactive, data acquisition and analysis. Pre programmed flight missions will be flown with several sensors to demonstrate the cost-effective surveillance capabilities of this new technology. (author) 10 refs

Applications of evolutionary economic geography

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boschma, R.A.; Frenken, K.; Puranam, Krishna Kishore; Ravi Kumar Jain B., xx

2008-01-01

This paper is written as the first chapter of an edited volume on evolutionary economics and economic geography (Frenken, K., editor, Applied Evolutionary Economics and Economic Geography, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, expected publication date February 2007). The paper reviews empirical applications of

Case Analysis Of The Joint High Speed Vessel Program: Defense Acquisition

Science.gov (United States)

2016-09-01

commercial environment and a military operating environment, simultaneously. Operating in commercial or non-military environments require compliance with...In the case of the individual technology demonstrations by the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps, compliance with the acquisition principles outlined by...the USN considered outsourcing the management of the fleet, but concluded that the ships would continue to be manned by CIVMARs. The list of ships

Chikungunya virus adapts to tiger mosquito via evolutionary convergence: a sign of things to come?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Higgs Stephen

2008-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Since 2004, several million indigenous cases of Chikungunya virus disease occurred in Africa, the Indian Ocean, India, Asia and, recently, Europe. The virus, usually transmitted by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, has now repeatedly been associated with a new vector, Ae. Albopictus. Analysis of full-length viral sequences reveals three independent events of virus exposure to Ae. Albopictus, each followed by the acquisition of a single adaptive mutation providing selective advantage for transmission by this mosquito. This disconcerting and current unique example of "evolutionary convergence" occurring in nature illustrates rapid pathogen adaptation to ecological perturbation, driven directly as a consequence of human activities.

Evolution of dispersal in spatially and temporally variable environments: The importance of life cycles.

Science.gov (United States)

Massol, François; Débarre, Florence

2015-07-01

Spatiotemporal variability of the environment is bound to affect the evolution of dispersal, and yet model predictions strongly differ on this particular effect. Recent studies on the evolution of local adaptation have shown that the life cycle chosen to model the selective effects of spatiotemporal variability of the environment is a critical factor determining evolutionary outcomes. Here, we investigate the effect of the order of events in the life cycle on the evolution of unconditional dispersal in a spatially heterogeneous, temporally varying landscape. Our results show that the occurrence of intermediate singular strategies and disruptive selection are conditioned by the temporal autocorrelation of the environment and by the life cycle. Life cycles with dispersal of adults versus dispersal of juveniles, local versus global density regulation, give radically different evolutionary outcomes that include selection for total philopatry, evolutionary bistability, selection for intermediate stable states, and evolutionary branching points. Our results highlight the importance of accounting for life-cycle specifics when predicting the effects of the environment on evolutionarily selected trait values, such as dispersal, as well as the need to check the robustness of model conclusions against modifications of the life cycle. © 2015 The Author(s). Evolution © 2015 The Society for the Study of Evolution.

A quantitative account of genomic island acquisitions in prokaryotes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roos Tom E

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Microbial genomes do not merely evolve through the slow accumulation of mutations, but also, and often more dramatically, by taking up new DNA in a process called horizontal gene transfer. These innovation leaps in the acquisition of new traits can take place via the introgression of single genes, but also through the acquisition of large gene clusters, which are termed Genomic Islands. Since only a small proportion of all the DNA diversity has been sequenced, it can be hard to find the appropriate donors for acquired genes via sequence alignments from databases. In contrast, relative oligonucleotide frequencies represent a remarkably stable genomic signature in prokaryotes, which facilitates compositional comparisons as an alignment-free alternative for phylogenetic relatedness. In this project, we test whether Genomic Islands identified in individual bacterial genomes have a similar genomic signature, in terms of relative dinucleotide frequencies, and can therefore be expected to originate from a common donor species. Results When multiple Genomic Islands are present within a single genome, we find that up to 28% of these are compositionally very similar to each other, indicative of frequent recurring acquisitions from the same donor to the same acceptor. Conclusions This represents the first quantitative assessment of common directional transfer events in prokaryotic evolutionary history. We suggest that many of the resident Genomic Islands per prokaryotic genome originated from the same source, which may have implications with respect to their regulatory interactions, and for the elucidation of the common origins of these acquired gene clusters.

The place of development in mathematical evolutionary theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Rice, Sean H

2012-09-01

Development plays a critical role in structuring the joint offspring-parent phenotype distribution. It thus must be part of any truly general evolutionary theory. Historically, the offspring-parent distribution has often been treated in such a way as to bury the contribution of development, by distilling from it a single term, either heritability or additive genetic variance, and then working only with this term. I discuss two reasons why this approach is no longer satisfactory. First, the regression of expected offspring phenotype on parent phenotype can easily be nonlinear, and this nonlinearity can have a pronounced impact on the response to selection. Second, even when the offspring-parent regression is linear, it is nearly always a function of the environment, and the precise way that heritability covaries with the environment can have a substantial effect on adaptive evolution. Understanding these complexities of the offspring-parent distribution will require understanding of the developmental processes underlying the traits of interest. I briefly discuss how we can incorporate such complexity into formal evolutionary theory, and why it is likely to be important even for traits that are not traditionally the focus of evo-devo research. Finally, I briefly discuss a topic that is widely seen as being squarely in the domain of evo-devo: novelty. I argue that the same conceptual and mathematical framework that allows us to incorporate developmental complexity into simple models of trait evolution also yields insight into the evolution of novel traits. Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company.

A quantitative evolutionary theory of adaptive behavior dynamics.

Science.gov (United States)

McDowell, J J

2013-10-01

The idea that behavior is selected by its consequences in a process analogous to organic evolution has been discussed for over 100 years. A recently proposed theory instantiates this idea by means of a genetic algorithm that operates on a population of potential behaviors. Behaviors in the population are represented by numbers in decimal integer (phenotypic) and binary bit string (genotypic) forms. One behavior from the population is emitted at random each time tick, after which a new population of potential behaviors is constructed by recombining parent behavior bit strings. If the emitted behavior produced a benefit to the organism, then parents are chosen on the basis of their phenotypic similarity to the emitted behavior; otherwise, they are chosen at random. After parent behavior recombination, the population is subjected to a small amount of mutation by flipping random bits in the population's bit strings. The behavior generated by this process of selection, reproduction, and mutation reaches equilibrium states that conform to every empirically valid equation of matching theory, exactly and without systematic error. These equations are known to describe the behavior of many vertebrate species, including humans, in a variety of experimental, naturalistic, natural, and social environments. The evolutionary theory also generates instantaneous dynamics and patterns of preference change in constantly changing environments that are consistent with the dynamics of live-organism behavior. These findings support the assertion that the world of behavior we observe and measure is generated by evolutionary dynamics. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved

Acquisition of Uropygial Gland Microbiome by Hoopoe Nestlings.

Science.gov (United States)

Martín-Vivaldi, Manuel; Soler, Juan José; Martínez-García, Ángela; Arco, Laura; Juárez-García-Pelayo, Natalia; Ruiz-Rodríguez, Magdalena; Martínez-Bueno, Manuel

2017-12-18

Mutualistic symbioses between animals and bacteria depend on acquisition of appropriate symbionts while avoiding exploitation by non-beneficial microbes. The mode of acquisition of symbionts would determine, not only the probability of encountering but also evolutionary outcomes of mutualistic counterparts. The microbiome inhabiting the uropygial gland of the European hoopoe (Upupa epops) includes a variety of bacterial strains, some of them providing antimicrobial benefits. Here, the mode of acquisition and stability of this microbiome is analyzed by means of Automated rRNA Intergenic Spacer Analysis and two different experiments. The first experiment impeded mothers' access to their glands, thus avoiding direct transmission of microorganisms from female to offspring secretions. The second experiment explored the stability of the microbiomes by inoculating glands with secretions from alien nests. The first experiment provoked a reduction in similarity of microbiomes of mother and nestlings. Interestingly, some bacterial strains were more often detected when females had not access to their glands, suggesting antagonistic effects among bacteria from different sources. The second experiment caused an increase in richness of the microbiome of receivers in terms of prevalence of Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) that reduced differences in microbiomes of donors and receivers. That occurred because OTUs that were present in donors but not in receivers incorporated to the microbiome of the latter, which provoked that cross-inoculated nestlings got similar final microbiomes that included the most prevalent OTUs. The results are therefore consistent with a central role of vertical transmission in bacterial acquisition by nestling hoopoes and support the idea that the typical composition of the hoopoe gland microbiome is reached by the incorporation of some bacteria during the nestling period. This scenario suggests the existence of a coevolved core microbiome composed by

Evolutionary disarmament in interspecific competition.

Science.gov (United States)

Kisdi, E; Geritz, S A

2001-12-22

Competitive asymmetry, which is the advantage of having a larger body or stronger weaponry than a contestant, drives spectacular evolutionary arms races in intraspecific competition. Similar asymmetries are well documented in interspecific competition, yet they seldom lead to exaggerated traits. Here we demonstrate that two species with substantially different size may undergo parallel coevolution towards a smaller size under the same ecological conditions where a single species would exhibit an evolutionary arms race. We show that disarmament occurs for a wide range of parameters in an ecologically explicit model of competition for a single shared resource; disarmament also occurs in a simple Lotka-Volterra competition model. A key property of both models is the interplay between evolutionary dynamics and population density. The mechanism does not rely on very specific features of the model. Thus, evolutionary disarmament may be widespread and may help to explain the lack of interspecific arms races.

Parallel evolutionary computation in bioinformatics applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Pinho, Jorge; Sobral, João Luis; Rocha, Miguel

2013-05-01

A large number of optimization problems within the field of Bioinformatics require methods able to handle its inherent complexity (e.g. NP-hard problems) and also demand increased computational efforts. In this context, the use of parallel architectures is a necessity. In this work, we propose ParJECoLi, a Java based library that offers a large set of metaheuristic methods (such as Evolutionary Algorithms) and also addresses the issue of its efficient execution on a wide range of parallel architectures. The proposed approach focuses on the easiness of use, making the adaptation to distinct parallel environments (multicore, cluster, grid) transparent to the user. Indeed, this work shows how the development of the optimization library can proceed independently of its adaptation for several architectures, making use of Aspect-Oriented Programming. The pluggable nature of parallelism related modules allows the user to easily configure its environment, adding parallelism modules to the base source code when needed. The performance of the platform is validated with two case studies within biological model optimization. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Development of a population of cancer cells: Observation and modeling by a Mixed Spatial Evolutionary Games approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Świerniak, Andrzej; Krześlak, Michał; Student, Sebastian; Rzeszowska-Wolny, Joanna

2016-09-21

Living cells, like whole living organisms during evolution, communicate with their neighbors, interact with the environment, divide, change their phenotypes, and eventually die. The development of specific ways of communication (through signaling molecules and receptors) allows some cellular subpopulations to survive better, to coordinate their physiological status, and during embryonal development to create tissues and organs or in some conditions to become tumors. Populations of cells cultured in vitro interact similarly, also competing for space and nutrients and stimulating each other to better survive or to die. The results of these intercellular interactions of different types seem to be good examples of biological evolutionary games, and have been the subjects of simulations by the methods of evolutionary game theory where individual cells are treated as players. Here we present examples of intercellular contacts in a population of living human cancer HeLa cells cultured in vitro and propose an evolutionary game theory approach to model the development of such populations. We propose a new technique termed Mixed Spatial Evolutionary Games (MSEG) which are played on multiple lattices corresponding to the possible cellular phenotypes which gives the possibility of simulating and investigating the effects of heterogeneity at the cellular level in addition to the population level. Analyses performed with MSEG suggested different ways in which cellular populations develop in the case of cells communicating directly and through factors released to the environment. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Acquisition of reliable vacuum hardware for large accelerator systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Welch, K.M.

1996-01-01

Credible and effective communications prove to be the major challenge in the acquisition of reliable vacuum hardware. Technical competence is necessary but not sufficient. We must effectively communicate with management, sponsoring agencies, project organizations, service groups, staff and with vendors. Most of Deming's 14 quality assurance tenets relate to creating an enlightened environment of good communications. All projects progress along six distinct, closely coupled, dynamic phases; all six phases are in a state of perpetual change. These phases and their elements are discussed, with emphasis given to the acquisition phase and its related vocabulary. (author)

Slowly switching between environments facilitates reverse evolution in small populations

Science.gov (United States)

Tan, Longzhi; Gore, Jeff

2011-03-01

The rate at which a physical process occurs usually changes the behavior of a system. In thermodynamics, the reversibility of a process generally increases when it occurs at an infinitely slow rate. In biological evolution, adaptations to a new environment may be reversed by evolution in the ancestral environment. Such fluctuating environments are ubiquitous in nature, although how the rate of switching affects reverse evolution is unknown. Here we use a computational approach to quantify evolutionary reversibility as a function of the rate of switching between two environments. For small population sizes, which travel on landscapes as random walkers, we find that both genotypic and phenotypic reverse evolution increase at slow switching rates. However, slow switching of environments decreases evolutionary reversibility for a greedy walker, corresponding to large populations (extensive clonal interference). We conclude that the impact of the switching rate for biological evolution is more complicated than other common physical processes, and that a quantitative approach may yield significant insight into reverse evolution.

Incorporating evolutionary principles into environmental management and policy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lankau, Richard; Jørgensen, Peter Søgaard; Harris, David J.

2011-01-01

As policymakers and managers work to mitigate the effects of rapid anthropogenic environmental changes, they need to consider organisms’ responses. In light of recent evidence that evolution can be quite rapid, this now includes evolutionary responses. Evolutionary principles have a long history...... in conservation biology, and the necessary next step for the field is to consider ways in which conservation policy makers and managers can proactively manipulate evolutionary processes to achieve their goals. In this review, we aim to illustrate the potential conservation benefits of an increased understanding...... of evolutionary history and prescriptive manipulation of three basic evolutionary factors: selection, variation, and gene flow. For each, we review and propose ways that policy makers and managers can use evolutionary thinking to preserve threatened species, combat pest species, or reduce undesirable evolutionary...

Automated system for data acquisition and monitoring

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Borza Sorin

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The Environmental management has become, with the development of human society a very important issue. There have been multiple systems that automatically monitors the environment. In this paper we propose a system that integrates GIS software and data acquisition software. In addition the proposed system implements new AHP multicriteria method that can get an answer online on each pollutant influence on limited geographical area in which the monitors. Factors pollutants of limited geographical areas are taken automatically by specific sensors through acquisition board. Labview software, with virtual instrument created by transferring them into a database Access. Access database they are taken up by software Geomedia Professional and processed using multi-criteria method AHP, so that at any moment, their influence on the environment and classify these influences, can be plotted on the screen monitoring system. The system allows, the automatic collection of data, the memorization and the generation of GIS elements. The research presented in this paper were aimed at implementing multi-criteria methods in GIS software.

A data acquisition system based on general VME system in WinXP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ning Zhe; Qian Sen; Wang Yifang; Heng Yuekun; Zhang Jiawei; Fu Zaiwei; Qi Ming; Zheng Yangheng

2010-01-01

The compilation and encapsulation of a general data acquisition system based on VME board in WinXP environment was developed using LabVIEW with graphics interface. By integrating the emulational instrument panel of LabVIEW and calling the Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs) of crate controller, the VME modules were encapsulated into function modules independently, for convenience of use. The BLT, MBLT and CBLT readout modes for different VME boards were studied. The modules can be selected and modified easily according to the requirements of different tests. Finally, successful applications of the high resolution data acquisition software (DAQ) in several experiment environments are reported.(authors)

A scoreboard of mergers and acquisitions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Parent, L.V

1989-08-01

In the late 70s and early 80s when market growth was not a viable alternative and price deregulation was imminent, new strategies were sought that would provide some basis for survival in a deregulated environment, and merger/acquisition strategy took on new significance. According to the author, eight mega gas pipe line companies have evolved. The strategic objectives behind these merges is analyzed.

Evolutionary economics and industry location

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boschma, R.A.; Frenken, K.

2003-01-01

This paper aims to provide the outlines of an evolutionary economic geography of industry location. We discuss two evolutionary explanations of industry location, that is, one that concentrates on spin-offs, and one that focuses attention on knowledge and agglomeration economies. We claim that both

Evolutionary institutionalism.

Science.gov (United States)

Fürstenberg, Dr Kai

Institutions are hard to define and hard to study. Long prominent in political science have been two theories: Rational Choice Institutionalism (RCI) and Historical Institutionalism (HI). Arising from the life sciences is now a third: Evolutionary Institutionalism (EI). Comparative strengths and weaknesses of these three theories warrant review, and the value-to-be-added by expanding the third beyond Darwinian evolutionary theory deserves consideration. Should evolutionary institutionalism expand to accommodate new understanding in ecology, such as might apply to the emergence of stability, and in genetics, such as might apply to political behavior? Core arguments are reviewed for each theory with more detailed exposition of the third, EI. Particular attention is paid to EI's gene-institution analogy; to variation, selection, and retention of institutional traits; to endogeneity and exogeneity; to agency and structure; and to ecosystem effects, institutional stability, and empirical limitations in behavioral genetics. RCI, HI, and EI are distinct but complementary. Institutional change, while amenable to rational-choice analysis and, retrospectively, to criticaljuncture and path-dependency analysis, is also, and importantly, ecological. Stability, like change, is an emergent property of institutions, which tend to stabilize after change in a manner analogous to allopatric speciation. EI is more than metaphorically biological in that institutional behaviors are driven by human behaviors whose evolution long preceded the appearance of institutions themselves.

Evolutionary foundations for cancer biology.

Science.gov (United States)

Aktipis, C Athena; Nesse, Randolph M

2013-01-01

New applications of evolutionary biology are transforming our understanding of cancer. The articles in this special issue provide many specific examples, such as microorganisms inducing cancers, the significance of within-tumor heterogeneity, and the possibility that lower dose chemotherapy may sometimes promote longer survival. Underlying these specific advances is a large-scale transformation, as cancer research incorporates evolutionary methods into its toolkit, and asks new evolutionary questions about why we are vulnerable to cancer. Evolution explains why cancer exists at all, how neoplasms grow, why cancer is remarkably rare, and why it occurs despite powerful cancer suppression mechanisms. Cancer exists because of somatic selection; mutations in somatic cells result in some dividing faster than others, in some cases generating neoplasms. Neoplasms grow, or do not, in complex cellular ecosystems. Cancer is relatively rare because of natural selection; our genomes were derived disproportionally from individuals with effective mechanisms for suppressing cancer. Cancer occurs nonetheless for the same six evolutionary reasons that explain why we remain vulnerable to other diseases. These four principles-cancers evolve by somatic selection, neoplasms grow in complex ecosystems, natural selection has shaped powerful cancer defenses, and the limitations of those defenses have evolutionary explanations-provide a foundation for understanding, preventing, and treating cancer.

Ecological and evolutionary drivers of the elevational gradient of diversity.

Science.gov (United States)

Laiolo, Paola; Pato, Joaquina; Obeso, José Ramón

2018-05-02

Ecological, evolutionary, spatial and neutral theories make distinct predictions and provide distinct explanations for the mechanisms that control the relationship between diversity and the environment. Here, we test predictions of the elevational diversity gradient focusing on Iberian bumblebees, grasshoppers and birds. Processes mediated by local abundance and regional diversity concur in explaining local diversity patterns along elevation. Effects expressed through variation in abundance were similar among taxa and point to the overriding role of a physical factor, temperature. This determines how energy is distributed among individuals and ultimately how the resulting pattern of abundance affects species incidence. Effects expressed through variation in regional species pools depended instead on taxon-specific evolutionary history, and lead to diverging responses under similar environmental pressures. Local filters and regional variation also explain functional diversity gradients, in line with results from species richness that indicate an (local) ecological and (regional) historical unfolding of diversity-elevation relationships. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS.

Evolutionary change in continuous reaction norms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Murren, Courtney J; Maclean, Heidi J; Diamond, Sarah E

2014-01-01

Understanding the evolution of reaction norms remains a major challenge in ecology and evolution. Investigating evolutionary divergence in reaction norm shapes between populations and closely related species is one approach to providing insights. Here we use a meta-analytic approach to compare...... divergence in reaction norms of closely related species or populations of animals and plants across types of traits and environments. We quantified mean-standardized differences in overall trait means (Offset) and reaction norm shape (including both Slope and Curvature). These analyses revealed...... contributed to the best-fitting models, especially for Offset, Curvature, and the total differences (Total) between reaction norms. Congeneric species had greater differences in reaction norms than populations, and novel environmental conditions increased the differences in reaction norms between populations...

The stepwise evolution of the exome during acquisition of docetaxel resistance in breast cancer cells

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Stine Ninel; Ehlers, Natasja Spring; Zhu, Shida

2016-01-01

Background: Resistance to taxane-based therapy in breast cancer patients is a major clinical problem that may be addressed through insight of the genomic alterations leading to taxane resistance in breast cancer cells. In the current study we used whole exome sequencing to discover somatic genomic...... alterations, evolving across evolutionary stages during the acquisition of docetaxel resistance in breast cancer cell lines. Results: Two human breast cancer in vitro models (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231) of the step-wise acquisition of docetaxel resistance were developed by exposing cells to 18 gradually increasing...... resistance relevant genomic variation appeared to arise midway towards fully resistant cells corresponding to passage 31 (5 nM docetaxel) for MDA-MB-231 and passage 16 (1.2 nM docetaxel) for MCF-7, and where the cells also exhibited a period of reduced growth rate or arrest, respectively. MCF-7 cell acquired...

Clustering of Pan- and Core-genome of Lactobacillus provides Novel Evolutionary Insights for Differentiation.

Science.gov (United States)

Inglin, Raffael C; Meile, Leo; Stevens, Marc J A

2018-04-24

Bacterial taxonomy aims to classify bacteria based on true evolutionary events and relies on a polyphasic approach that includes phenotypic, genotypic and chemotaxonomic analyses. Until now, complete genomes are largely ignored in taxonomy. The genus Lactobacillus consists of 173 species and many genomes are available to study taxonomy and evolutionary events. We analyzed and clustered 98 completely sequenced genomes of the genus Lactobacillus and 234 draft genomes of 5 different Lactobacillus species, i.e. L. reuteri, L. delbrueckii, L. plantarum, L. rhamnosus and L. helveticus. The core-genome of the genus Lactobacillus contains 266 genes and the pan-genome 20'800 genes. Clustering of the Lactobacillus pan- and core-genome resulted in two highly similar trees. This shows that evolutionary history is traceable in the core-genome and that clustering of the core-genome is sufficient to explore relationships. Clustering of core- and pan-genomes at species' level resulted in similar trees as well. Detailed analyses of the core-genomes showed that the functional class "genetic information processing" is conserved in the core-genome but that "signaling and cellular processes" is not. The latter class encodes functions that are involved in environmental interactions. Evolution of lactobacilli seems therefore directed by the environment. The type species L. delbrueckii was analyzed in detail and its pan-genome based tree contained two major clades whose members contained different genes yet identical functions. In addition, evidence for horizontal gene transfer between strains of L. delbrueckii, L. plantarum, and L. rhamnosus, and between species of the genus Lactobacillus is presented. Our data provide evidence for evolution of some lactobacilli according to a parapatric-like model for species differentiation. Core-genome trees are useful to detect evolutionary relationships in lactobacilli and might be useful in taxonomic analyses. Lactobacillus' evolution is directed

Molecular Evolutionary Constraints that Determine the Avirulence State of Clostridium botulinum C2 Toxin.

Science.gov (United States)

Prisilla, A; Prathiviraj, R; Chellapandi, P

2017-04-01

Clostridium botulinum (group-III) is an anaerobic bacterium producing C2 toxin along with botulinum neurotoxins. C2 toxin is belonged to binary toxin A family in bacterial ADP-ribosylation superfamily. A structural and functional diversity of binary toxin A family was inferred from different evolutionary constraints to determine the avirulence state of C2 toxin. Evolutionary genetic analyses revealed evidence of C2 toxin cluster evolution through horizontal gene transfer from the phage or plasmid origins, site-specific insertion by gene divergence, and homologous recombination event. It has also described that residue in conserved NAD-binding core, family-specific domain structure, and functional motifs found to predetermine its virulence state. Any mutational changes in these residues destabilized its structure-function relationship. Avirulent mutants of C2 toxin were screened and selected from a crucial site required for catalytic function of C2I and pore-forming function of C2II. We found coevolved amino acid pairs contributing an essential role in stabilization of its local structural environment. Avirulent toxins selected in this study were evaluated by detecting evolutionary constraints in stability of protein backbone structure, folding and conformational dynamic space, and antigenic peptides. We found 4 avirulent mutants of C2I and 5 mutants of C2II showing more stability in their local structural environment and backbone structure with rapid fold rate, and low conformational flexibility at mutated sites. Since, evolutionary constraints-free mutants with lack of catalytic and pore-forming function suggested as potential immunogenic candidates for treating C. botulinum infected poultry and veterinary animals. Single amino acid substitution in C2 toxin thus provides a major importance to understand its structure-function link, not only of a molecule but also of the pathogenesis.

Extended data acquisition support at GSI

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marinescu, D.C.; Busch, F.; Hultzsch, H.; Lowsky, J.; Richter, M.

1984-01-01

The Experiment Data Acquisition and Analysis System (EDAS) of GSI, designed to support the data processing associated with nuclear physics experiments, provides three modes of operation: real-time, interactive replay and batch replay. The real-time mode is used for data acquisition and data analysis during an experiment performed at the heavy ion accelerator at GSI. An experiment may be performed either in Stand Alone Mode, using only the Experiment Computers, or in Extended Mode using all computing resources available. The Extended Mode combines the advantages of the real-time response of a dedicated minicomputer with the availability of computing resources in a large computing environment. This paper first gives an overview of EDAS and presents the GSI High Speed Data Acquisition Network. Data Acquisition Modes and the Extended Mode are then introduced. The structure of the system components, their implementation and the functions pertinent to the Extended Mode are presented. The control functions of the Experiment Computer sub-system are discussed in detail. Two aspects of the design of the sub-system running on the mainframe are stressed, namely the use of a multi-user installation for real-time processing and the use of a high level programming language, PL/I, as an implementation language for a system which uses parallel processing. The experience accumulated is summarized in a number of conclusions

Evolutionary principles and their practical application

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hendry, A. P.; Kinnison, M. T.; Heino, M.

2011-01-01

Evolutionary principles are now routinely incorporated into medicine and agriculture. Examples include the design of treatments that slow the evolution of resistance by weeds, pests, and pathogens, and the design of breeding programs that maximize crop yield or quality. Evolutionary principles...... are also increasingly incorporated into conservation biology, natural resource management, and environmental science. Examples include the protection of small and isolated populations from inbreeding depression, the identification of key traits involved in adaptation to climate change, the design...... of harvesting regimes that minimize unwanted life-history evolution, and the setting of conservation priorities based on populations, species, or communities that harbor the greatest evolutionary diversity and potential. The adoption of evolutionary principles has proceeded somewhat independently...

Data acquisition system for fusion diagnostics on the ARGUS laser

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Greenwood, J.R.; Campbell, D.E.; Frerking, C.E.

1976-09-01

An extensive data acquisition and analysis system has been implemented for experiments on the ARGUS laser. The system is based upon a PDP-11/40 minicomputer and CAMAC interfaces. Highspeed transient digitizers, calorimeter digitizing modules and time integrated data are interfaced through CAMAC over a fiber optic serial highway. The system allows for dynamic definition of the experimental environment by an operator, automatic data acquisition during a shot. Two interactive graphics terminals allow experimenters real-time access to target shot data

Feedback between Population and Evolutionary Dynamics Determines the Fate of Social Microbial Populations

Science.gov (United States)

Sanchez, Alvaro; Gore, Jeff

2013-01-01

The evolutionary spread of cheater strategies can destabilize populations engaging in social cooperative behaviors, thus demonstrating that evolutionary changes can have profound implications for population dynamics. At the same time, the relative fitness of cooperative traits often depends upon population density, thus leading to the potential for bi-directional coupling between population density and the evolution of a cooperative trait. Despite the potential importance of these eco-evolutionary feedback loops in social species, they have not yet been demonstrated experimentally and their ecological implications are poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate the presence of a strong feedback loop between population dynamics and the evolutionary dynamics of a social microbial gene, SUC2, in laboratory yeast populations whose cooperative growth is mediated by the SUC2 gene. We directly visualize eco-evolutionary trajectories of hundreds of populations over 50–100 generations, allowing us to characterize the phase space describing the interplay of evolution and ecology in this system. Small populations collapse despite continual evolution towards increased cooperative allele frequencies; large populations with a sufficient number of cooperators “spiral” to a stable state of coexistence between cooperator and cheater strategies. The presence of cheaters does not significantly affect the equilibrium population density, but it does reduce the resilience of the population as well as its ability to adapt to a rapidly deteriorating environment. Our results demonstrate the potential ecological importance of coupling between evolutionary dynamics and the population dynamics of cooperatively growing organisms, particularly in microbes. Our study suggests that this interaction may need to be considered in order to explain intraspecific variability in cooperative behaviors, and also that this feedback between evolution and ecology can critically affect the demographic fate

feedback between population and evolutionary dynamics determines the fate of social microbial populations.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alvaro Sanchez

Full Text Available The evolutionary spread of cheater strategies can destabilize populations engaging in social cooperative behaviors, thus demonstrating that evolutionary changes can have profound implications for population dynamics. At the same time, the relative fitness of cooperative traits often depends upon population density, thus leading to the potential for bi-directional coupling between population density and the evolution of a cooperative trait. Despite the potential importance of these eco-evolutionary feedback loops in social species, they have not yet been demonstrated experimentally and their ecological implications are poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate the presence of a strong feedback loop between population dynamics and the evolutionary dynamics of a social microbial gene, SUC2, in laboratory yeast populations whose cooperative growth is mediated by the SUC2 gene. We directly visualize eco-evolutionary trajectories of hundreds of populations over 50-100 generations, allowing us to characterize the phase space describing the interplay of evolution and ecology in this system. Small populations collapse despite continual evolution towards increased cooperative allele frequencies; large populations with a sufficient number of cooperators "spiral" to a stable state of coexistence between cooperator and cheater strategies. The presence of cheaters does not significantly affect the equilibrium population density, but it does reduce the resilience of the population as well as its ability to adapt to a rapidly deteriorating environment. Our results demonstrate the potential ecological importance of coupling between evolutionary dynamics and the population dynamics of cooperatively growing organisms, particularly in microbes. Our study suggests that this interaction may need to be considered in order to explain intraspecific variability in cooperative behaviors, and also that this feedback between evolution and ecology can critically affect the

Speed in Acquisitions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Meglio, Olimpia; King, David R.; Risberg, Annette

2017-01-01

The advantage of speed is often invoked by academics and practitioners as an essential condition during post-acquisition integration, frequently without consideration of the impact earlier decisions have on acquisition speed. In this article, we examine the role speed plays in acquisitions across...... the acquisition process using research organized around characteristics that display complexity with respect to acquisition speed. We incorporate existing research with a process perspective of acquisitions in order to present trade-offs, and consider the influence of both stakeholders and the pre......-deal-completion context on acquisition speed, as well as the organization’s capabilities to facilitating that speed. Observed trade-offs suggest both that acquisition speed often requires longer planning time before an acquisition and that associated decisions require managerial judgement. A framework for improving...

NEW OPPORTUNITIES ON THE MARKET OF MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS FOR 2014

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alina MOLDOVAN-MADAN

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Mergers and acquisitions activity at global level could begin during 2014. Confidence in the economic environment, the availability of cash and credit, the restoration of confidence in local economies – all of these factors signals new opportunities on mergers and acquisitions market. However, caution still dominate this area and this is understandable, given the occurring of unprecedented economic crisis. In this context, the market remains very sensitive to geopolitical issues - any shock could extend short-term interruptions of the flow of transactions. However, while organic growth measures only provide diminishing returns, mergers and acquisitions activity may be the only practical way of increasing for companies.

Gender Inequality in Interaction--An Evolutionary Account

Science.gov (United States)

Hopcroft, Rosemary L.

2009-01-01

In this article I argue that evolutionary theorizing can help sociologists and feminists better understand gender inequality. Evolutionary theory explains why control of the sexuality of young women is a priority across most human societies both past and present. Evolutionary psychology has extended our understanding of male violence against…

Survival of the Fittest and the Sexiest: Evolutionary Origins of Adolescent Bullying.

Science.gov (United States)

Koh, Jun-Bin; Wong, Jennifer S

2015-07-09

The central idea of evolutionary psychology theory (EPT) is that species evolve to carry or exhibit certain traits/behaviors because these characteristics increase their ability to survive and reproduce. Proponents of EPT propose that bullying emerges from evolutionary development, providing an adaptive edge for gaining better sexual opportunities and physical protection, and promoting mental health. This study examines adolescent bullying behaviors via the lens of EPT. Questionnaires were administered to 135 adolescents, ages 13 to 16, from one secondary school in metro Vancouver, British Columbia. Participants were categorized into one of four groups (bullies, victims, bully/victims, or bystanders) according to their involvement in bullying interactions as measured by the Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire. Four dependent variables were examined: depression, self-esteem, social status, and social anxiety. Results indicate that bullies had the most positive scores on mental health measures and held the highest social rank in the school environment, with significant differences limited to comparisons between bullies and bully/victims. These results lend support to the hypothesis that youth bullying is derived from evolutionary development. Implications for approaching anti-bullying strategies in schools and directions for future studies are discussed. © The Author(s) 2015.

Differential Infection Patterns and Recent Evolutionary Origins of Equine Hepaciviruses in Donkeys

Science.gov (United States)

Walter, Stephanie; Rasche, Andrea; Moreira-Soto, Andrés; Pfaender, Stephanie; Bletsa, Magda; Corman, Victor Max; Aguilar-Setien, Alvaro; García-Lacy, Fernando; Hans, Aymeric; Todt, Daniel; Schuler, Gerhard; Shnaiderman-Torban, Anat; Steinman, Amir; Roncoroni, Cristina; Veneziano, Vincenzo; Rusenova, Nikolina; Sandev, Nikolay; Rusenov, Anton; Zapryanova, Dimitrinka; García-Bocanegra, Ignacio; Jores, Joerg; Carluccio, Augusto; Veronesi, Maria Cristina; Cavalleri, Jessika M. V.; Drosten, Christian; Lemey, Philippe

2016-01-01

ABSTRACT The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major human pathogen. Genetically related viruses in animals suggest a zoonotic origin of HCV. The closest relative of HCV is found in horses (termed equine hepacivirus [EqHV]). However, low EqHV genetic diversity implies relatively recent acquisition of EqHV by horses, making a derivation of HCV from EqHV unlikely. To unravel the EqHV evolutionary history within equid sister species, we analyzed 829 donkeys and 53 mules sampled in nine European, Asian, African, and American countries by molecular and serologic tools for EqHV infection. Antibodies were found in 278 animals (31.5%), and viral RNA was found in 3 animals (0.3%), all of which were simultaneously seropositive. A low RNA prevalence in spite of high seroprevalence suggests a predominance of acute infection, a possible difference from the mostly chronic hepacivirus infection pattern seen in horses and humans. Limitation of transmission due to short courses of infection may explain the existence of entirely seronegative groups of animals. Donkey and horse EqHV strains were paraphyletic and 97.5 to 98.2% identical in their translated polyprotein sequences, making virus/host cospeciation unlikely. Evolutionary reconstructions supported host switches of EqHV between horses and donkeys without the involvement of adaptive evolution. Global admixture of donkey and horse hepaciviruses was compatible with anthropogenic alterations of EqHV ecology. In summary, our findings do not support EqHV as the origin of the significantly more diversified HCV. Identification of a host system with predominantly acute hepacivirus infection may enable new insights into the chronic infection pattern associated with HCV. IMPORTANCE The evolutionary origins of the human hepatitis C virus (HCV) are unclear. The closest animal-associated relative of HCV occurs in horses (equine hepacivirus [EqHV]). The low EqHV genetic diversity implies a relatively recent acquisition of EqHV by horses

Differential Infection Patterns and Recent Evolutionary Origins of Equine Hepaciviruses in Donkeys.

Science.gov (United States)

Walter, Stephanie; Rasche, Andrea; Moreira-Soto, Andrés; Pfaender, Stephanie; Bletsa, Magda; Corman, Victor Max; Aguilar-Setien, Alvaro; García-Lacy, Fernando; Hans, Aymeric; Todt, Daniel; Schuler, Gerhard; Shnaiderman-Torban, Anat; Steinman, Amir; Roncoroni, Cristina; Veneziano, Vincenzo; Rusenova, Nikolina; Sandev, Nikolay; Rusenov, Anton; Zapryanova, Dimitrinka; García-Bocanegra, Ignacio; Jores, Joerg; Carluccio, Augusto; Veronesi, Maria Cristina; Cavalleri, Jessika M V; Drosten, Christian; Lemey, Philippe; Steinmann, Eike; Drexler, Jan Felix

2017-01-01

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major human pathogen. Genetically related viruses in animals suggest a zoonotic origin of HCV. The closest relative of HCV is found in horses (termed equine hepacivirus [EqHV]). However, low EqHV genetic diversity implies relatively recent acquisition of EqHV by horses, making a derivation of HCV from EqHV unlikely. To unravel the EqHV evolutionary history within equid sister species, we analyzed 829 donkeys and 53 mules sampled in nine European, Asian, African, and American countries by molecular and serologic tools for EqHV infection. Antibodies were found in 278 animals (31.5%), and viral RNA was found in 3 animals (0.3%), all of which were simultaneously seropositive. A low RNA prevalence in spite of high seroprevalence suggests a predominance of acute infection, a possible difference from the mostly chronic hepacivirus infection pattern seen in horses and humans. Limitation of transmission due to short courses of infection may explain the existence of entirely seronegative groups of animals. Donkey and horse EqHV strains were paraphyletic and 97.5 to 98.2% identical in their translated polyprotein sequences, making virus/host cospeciation unlikely. Evolutionary reconstructions supported host switches of EqHV between horses and donkeys without the involvement of adaptive evolution. Global admixture of donkey and horse hepaciviruses was compatible with anthropogenic alterations of EqHV ecology. In summary, our findings do not support EqHV as the origin of the significantly more diversified HCV. Identification of a host system with predominantly acute hepacivirus infection may enable new insights into the chronic infection pattern associated with HCV. The evolutionary origins of the human hepatitis C virus (HCV) are unclear. The closest animal-associated relative of HCV occurs in horses (equine hepacivirus [EqHV]). The low EqHV genetic diversity implies a relatively recent acquisition of EqHV by horses, limiting the time span for

Approaches to understanding the impact of life-history features on plant-pathogen co-evolutionary dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Jeremy J. Burdon; Peter H. Thrall; Adnane Nemri

2012-01-01

Natural plant-pathogen associations are complex interactions in which the interplay of environment, host, and pathogen factors results in spatially heterogeneous ecological and epidemiological dynamics. The evolutionary patterns that result from the interaction of these factors are still relatively poorly understood. Recently, integration of the appropriate spatial and...

Making evolutionary biology a basic science for medicine

Science.gov (United States)

Nesse, Randolph M.; Bergstrom, Carl T.; Ellison, Peter T.; Flier, Jeffrey S.; Gluckman, Peter; Govindaraju, Diddahally R.; Niethammer, Dietrich; Omenn, Gilbert S.; Perlman, Robert L.; Schwartz, Mark D.; Thomas, Mark G.; Stearns, Stephen C.; Valle, David

2010-01-01

New applications of evolutionary biology in medicine are being discovered at an accelerating rate, but few physicians have sufficient educational background to use them fully. This article summarizes suggestions from several groups that have considered how evolutionary biology can be useful in medicine, what physicians should learn about it, and when and how they should learn it. Our general conclusion is that evolutionary biology is a crucial basic science for medicine. In addition to looking at established evolutionary methods and topics, such as population genetics and pathogen evolution, we highlight questions about why natural selection leaves bodies vulnerable to disease. Knowledge about evolution provides physicians with an integrative framework that links otherwise disparate bits of knowledge. It replaces the prevalent view of bodies as machines with a biological view of bodies shaped by evolutionary processes. Like other basic sciences, evolutionary biology needs to be taught both before and during medical school. Most introductory biology courses are insufficient to establish competency in evolutionary biology. Premedical students need evolution courses, possibly ones that emphasize medically relevant aspects. In medical school, evolutionary biology should be taught as one of the basic medical sciences. This will require a course that reviews basic principles and specific medical applications, followed by an integrated presentation of evolutionary aspects that apply to each disease and organ system. Evolutionary biology is not just another topic vying for inclusion in the curriculum; it is an essential foundation for a biological understanding of health and disease. PMID:19918069

Contemporary issues in evolutionary biology

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

We are delighted to bring to the readers, a set of peer-reviewed papers on evolutionary biology, published as a special issue of the Journal of Genetics. These papers emanated from ruminations upon and discussions at the Foundations of. Evolutionary Theory: the Ongoing Synthesis meeting at Coorg, India, in February ...

Chaos and the (un)predictability of evolution in a changing environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Rego-Costa, Artur; Débarre, Florence; Chevin, Luis-Miguel

2018-02-01

Among the factors that may reduce the predictability of evolution, chaos, characterized by a strong dependence on initial conditions, has received much less attention than randomness due to genetic drift or environmental stochasticity. It was recently shown that chaos in phenotypic evolution arises commonly under frequency-dependent selection caused by competitive interactions mediated by many traits. This result has been used to argue that chaos should often make evolutionary dynamics unpredictable. However, populations also evolve largely in response to external changing environments, and such environmental forcing is likely to influence the outcome of evolution in systems prone to chaos. We investigate how a changing environment causing oscillations of an optimal phenotype interacts with the internal dynamics of an eco-evolutionary system that would be chaotic in a constant environment. We show that strong environmental forcing can improve the predictability of evolution by reducing the probability of chaos arising, and by dampening the magnitude of chaotic oscillations. In contrast, weak forcing can increase the probability of chaos, but it also causes evolutionary trajectories to track the environment more closely. Overall, our results indicate that, although chaos may occur in evolution, it does not necessarily undermine its predictability. © 2017 The Author(s). Evolution © 2017 The Society for the Study of Evolution.

Contribution to data acquisition software of Eurogram and Diamant multi detectors in an Unix/VXWorks environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Diarra, C.

1994-06-01

Questions on nuclear matter, need to have new performant equipments. Eurogram is a 4 PI gamma radiations multi detector and a precious tool in gamma spectroscopy, but it is necessary to use a charged particles detector and in this aim Diamant is an Eurogram partner. These two multi detectors needed special software data acquisition systems. The whole of acquisition control and management is based on sun stations with unix system. 56 figs., 64 refs

The environmental context of human evolutionary history in Eurasia and Africa.

Science.gov (United States)

Elton, Sarah

2008-04-01

This review has three main aims: (1) to make specific predictions about the habitat of the hypothetical last common ancestor of the chimpanzee/bonobo-human clade; (2) to outline the major trends in environments between 8-6 Ma and the late Pleistocene; and (3) to pinpoint when, and in some cases where, human ancestors evolved to cope with the wide range of habitats they presently tolerate. Several lines of evidence indicate that arboreal environments, particularly woodlands, were important habitats for late Miocene hominids and hominins, and therefore possibly for the last common ancestor of the chimpanzee/bonobo-human clade. However, as there is no clear candidate for this last common ancestor, and because the sampling of fossils and past environments is inevitably patchy, this prediction remains a working hypothesis at best. Nonetheless, as a primate, it is expected that the last common ancestor was ecologically dependent on trees in some form. Understanding past environments is important, as palaeoenvironmental reconstructions provide the context for human morphological and behavioural evolution. Indeed, the impact of climate on the evolutionary history of our species has long been debated. Since the mid-Miocene, the Earth has been experiencing a general cooling trend accompanied by aridification, which intensified during the later Pliocene and Pleistocene. Numerous climatic fluctuations, as well as local, regional and continental geography that influenced weather patterns and vegetation, created hominin environments that were dynamic in space and time. Behavioural flexibility and cultural complexity were crucial aspects of hominin expansion into diverse environments during the Pleistocene, but the ability to exploit varied and varying habitats was established much earlier in human evolutionary history. The development of increasingly complex tool technology facilitated re-expansion into tropical forests. These environments are difficult for obligate bipeds to

Value-informed space systems design and acquisition

Science.gov (United States)

Brathwaite, Joy

Investments in space systems are substantial, indivisible, and irreversible, characteristics that make them high-risk, especially when coupled with an uncertain demand environment. Traditional approaches to system design and acquisition, derived from a performance- or cost-centric mindset, incorporate little information about the spacecraft in relation to its environment and its value to its stakeholders. These traditional approaches, while appropriate in stable environments, are ill-suited for the current, distinctly uncertain, and rapidly changing technical and economic conditions; as such, they have to be revisited and adapted to the present context. This thesis proposes that in uncertain environments, decision-making with respect to space system design and acquisition should be value-based, or at a minimum value-informed. This research advances the value-centric paradigm by providing the theoretical basis, foundational frameworks, and supporting analytical tools for value assessment of priced and unpriced space systems. For priced systems, stochastic models of the market environment and financial models of stakeholder preferences are developed and integrated with a spacecraft-sizing tool to assess the system's net present value. The analytical framework is applied to a case study of a communications satellite, with market, financial, and technical data obtained from the satellite operator, Intelsat. The case study investigates the implications of the value-centric versus the cost-centric design and acquisition choices. Results identify the ways in which value-optimal spacecraft design choices are contingent on both technical and market conditions, and that larger spacecraft for example, which reap economies of scale benefits, as reflected by their decreasing cost-per-transponder, are not always the best (most valuable) choices. Market conditions and technical constraints for which convergence occurs between design choices under a cost-centric and a value

Archaeogenetics in evolutionary medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Bouwman, Abigail; Rühli, Frank

2016-09-01

Archaeogenetics is the study of exploration of ancient DNA (aDNA) of more than 70 years old. It is an important part of the wider studies of many different areas of our past, including animal, plant and pathogen evolution and domestication events. Hereby, we address specifically the impact of research in archaeogenetics in the broader field of evolutionary medicine. Studies on ancient hominid genomes help to understand even modern health patterns. Human genetic microevolution, e.g. related to abilities of post-weaning milk consumption, and specifically genetic adaptation in disease susceptibility, e.g. towards malaria and other infectious diseases, are of the upmost importance in contributions of archeogenetics on the evolutionary understanding of human health and disease. With the increase in both the understanding of modern medical genetics and the ability to deep sequence ancient genetic information, the field of archaeogenetic evolutionary medicine is blossoming.

MEGA5: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis Using Maximum Likelihood, Evolutionary Distance, and Maximum Parsimony Methods

Science.gov (United States)

Tamura, Koichiro; Peterson, Daniel; Peterson, Nicholas; Stecher, Glen; Nei, Masatoshi; Kumar, Sudhir

2011-01-01

Comparative analysis of molecular sequence data is essential for reconstructing the evolutionary histories of species and inferring the nature and extent of selective forces shaping the evolution of genes and species. Here, we announce the release of Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis version 5 (MEGA5), which is a user-friendly software for mining online databases, building sequence alignments and phylogenetic trees, and using methods of evolutionary bioinformatics in basic biology, biomedicine, and evolution. The newest addition in MEGA5 is a collection of maximum likelihood (ML) analyses for inferring evolutionary trees, selecting best-fit substitution models (nucleotide or amino acid), inferring ancestral states and sequences (along with probabilities), and estimating evolutionary rates site-by-site. In computer simulation analyses, ML tree inference algorithms in MEGA5 compared favorably with other software packages in terms of computational efficiency and the accuracy of the estimates of phylogenetic trees, substitution parameters, and rate variation among sites. The MEGA user interface has now been enhanced to be activity driven to make it easier for the use of both beginners and experienced scientists. This version of MEGA is intended for the Windows platform, and it has been configured for effective use on Mac OS X and Linux desktops. It is available free of charge from http://www.megasoftware.net. PMID:21546353

Mean-Potential Law in Evolutionary Games

Science.gov (United States)

Nałecz-Jawecki, Paweł; Miekisz, Jacek

2018-01-01

The Letter presents a novel way to connect random walks, stochastic differential equations, and evolutionary game theory. We introduce a new concept of a potential function for discrete-space stochastic systems. It is based on a correspondence between one-dimensional stochastic differential equations and random walks, which may be exact not only in the continuous limit but also in finite-state spaces. Our method is useful for computation of fixation probabilities in discrete stochastic dynamical systems with two absorbing states. We apply it to evolutionary games, formulating two simple and intuitive criteria for evolutionary stability of pure Nash equilibria in finite populations. In particular, we show that the 1 /3 law of evolutionary games, introduced by Nowak et al. [Nature, 2004], follows from a more general mean-potential law.

Is evolutionary psychology a metatheory for psychology? A discussion of four major issues in psychology from an evolutionary developmental perspective

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ploeger, A.; van der Maas, H.L.J.; Raijmakers, M.E.J.

2008-01-01

Evolutionary psychology has been proposed as a metatheoretical framework for psychology. We argue that evolutionary psychology should be expanded if it is to offer new insights regarding the major issues in psychology. Evolutionary developmental biology can provide valuable new insights into issues

Horizontal transfer of short and degraded DNA has evolutionary implications for microbes and eukaryotic sexual reproduction.

Science.gov (United States)

Overballe-Petersen, Søren; Willerslev, Eske

2014-10-01

Horizontal gene transfer in the form of long DNA fragments has changed our view of bacterial evolution. Recently, we discovered that such processes may also occur with the massive amounts of short and damaged DNA in the environment, and even with truly ancient DNA. Although it presently remains unclear how often it takes place in nature, horizontal gene transfer of short and damaged DNA opens up the possibility for genetic exchange across distinct species in both time and space. In this essay, we speculate on the potential evolutionary consequences of this phenomenon. We argue that it may challenge basic assumptions in evolutionary theory; that it may have distant origins in life's history; and that horizontal gene transfer should be viewed as an evolutionary strategy not only preceding but causally underpinning the evolution of sexual reproduction. © 2014 The Authors. BioEssays Published by WILEY Periodicals, Inc.

Evolutionary transitions between beneficial and phytopathogenic Rhodococcus challenge disease management.

Science.gov (United States)

Savory, Elizabeth A; Fuller, Skylar L; Weisberg, Alexandra J; Thomas, William J; Gordon, Michael I; Stevens, Danielle M; Creason, Allison L; Belcher, Michael S; Serdani, Maryna; Wiseman, Michele S; Grünwald, Niklaus J; Putnam, Melodie L; Chang, Jeff H

2017-12-12

Understanding how bacteria affect plant health is crucial for developing sustainable crop production systems. We coupled ecological sampling and genome sequencing to characterize the population genetic history of Rhodococcus and the distribution patterns of virulence plasmids in isolates from nurseries. Analysis of chromosome sequences shows that plants host multiple lineages of Rhodococcus , and suggested that these bacteria are transmitted due to independent introductions, reservoir populations, and point source outbreaks. We demonstrate that isolates lacking virulence genes promote beneficial plant growth, and that the acquisition of a virulence plasmid is sufficient to transition beneficial symbionts to phytopathogens. This evolutionary transition, along with the distribution patterns of plasmids, reveals the impact of horizontal gene transfer in rapidly generating new pathogenic lineages and provides an alternative explanation for pathogen transmission patterns. Results also uncovered a misdiagnosed epidemic that implicated beneficial Rhodococcus bacteria as pathogens of pistachio. The misdiagnosis perpetuated the unnecessary removal of trees and exacerbated economic losses.

Fixation Time for Evolutionary Graphs

Science.gov (United States)

Nie, Pu-Yan; Zhang, Pei-Ai

Evolutionary graph theory (EGT) is recently proposed by Lieberman et al. in 2005. EGT is successful for explaining biological evolution and some social phenomena. It is extremely important to consider the time of fixation for EGT in many practical problems, including evolutionary theory and the evolution of cooperation. This study characterizes the time to asymptotically reach fixation.

Obesity: lessons from evolution and the environment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Heitmann, B L; Westerterp, K R; Loos, R J F

2012-01-01

The 9th Stock Conference acknowledged the complex background of genetic, cultural, environmental and evolutionary factors of obesity. Gene-environment interactions underlie the flexibility in body-weight and body-fat regulation, illustrated by the hunter-gatherers' feast and famine lifestyle, the...

Evolutionary computation in zoology and ecology.

Science.gov (United States)

Boone, Randall B

2017-12-01

Evolutionary computational methods have adopted attributes of natural selection and evolution to solve problems in computer science, engineering, and other fields. The method is growing in use in zoology and ecology. Evolutionary principles may be merged with an agent-based modeling perspective to have individual animals or other agents compete. Four main categories are discussed: genetic algorithms, evolutionary programming, genetic programming, and evolutionary strategies. In evolutionary computation, a population is represented in a way that allows for an objective function to be assessed that is relevant to the problem of interest. The poorest performing members are removed from the population, and remaining members reproduce and may be mutated. The fitness of the members is again assessed, and the cycle continues until a stopping condition is met. Case studies include optimizing: egg shape given different clutch sizes, mate selection, migration of wildebeest, birds, and elk, vulture foraging behavior, algal bloom prediction, and species richness given energy constraints. Other case studies simulate the evolution of species and a means to project shifts in species ranges in response to a changing climate that includes competition and phenotypic plasticity. This introduction concludes by citing other uses of evolutionary computation and a review of the flexibility of the methods. For example, representing species' niche spaces subject to selective pressure allows studies on cladistics, the taxon cycle, neutral versus niche paradigms, fundamental versus realized niches, community structure and order of colonization, invasiveness, and responses to a changing climate.

Evolutionary accounts of human behavioural diversity

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Gillian R.; Dickins, Thomas E.; Sear, Rebecca; Laland, Kevin N.

2011-01-01

Human beings persist in an extraordinary range of ecological settings, in the process exhibiting enormous behavioural diversity, both within and between populations. People vary in their social, mating and parental behaviour and have diverse and elaborate beliefs, traditions, norms and institutions. The aim of this theme issue is to ask whether, and how, evolutionary theory can help us to understand this diversity. In this introductory article, we provide a background to the debate surrounding how best to understand behavioural diversity using evolutionary models of human behaviour. In particular, we examine how diversity has been viewed by the main subdisciplines within the human evolutionary behavioural sciences, focusing in particular on the human behavioural ecology, evolutionary psychology and cultural evolution approaches. In addition to differences in focus and methodology, these subdisciplines have traditionally varied in the emphasis placed on human universals, ecological factors and socially learned behaviour, and on how they have addressed the issue of genetic variation. We reaffirm that evolutionary theory provides an essential framework for understanding behavioural diversity within and between human populations, but argue that greater integration between the subfields is critical to developing a satisfactory understanding of diversity. PMID:21199836

Evolutionary games on graphs

Science.gov (United States)

Szabó, György; Fáth, Gábor

2007-07-01

Game theory is one of the key paradigms behind many scientific disciplines from biology to behavioral sciences to economics. In its evolutionary form and especially when the interacting agents are linked in a specific social network the underlying solution concepts and methods are very similar to those applied in non-equilibrium statistical physics. This review gives a tutorial-type overview of the field for physicists. The first four sections introduce the necessary background in classical and evolutionary game theory from the basic definitions to the most important results. The fifth section surveys the topological complications implied by non-mean-field-type social network structures in general. The next three sections discuss in detail the dynamic behavior of three prominent classes of models: the Prisoner's Dilemma, the Rock-Scissors-Paper game, and Competing Associations. The major theme of the review is in what sense and how the graph structure of interactions can modify and enrich the picture of long term behavioral patterns emerging in evolutionary games.

Sex Reversal in Reptiles: Reproductive Oddity or Powerful Driver of Evolutionary Change?

Science.gov (United States)

Holleley, Clare E; Sarre, Stephen D; O'Meally, Denis; Georges, Arthur

2016-01-01

Is sex a product of genes, the environment, or both? In this review, we describe the diversity of sex-determining mechanisms in reptiles, with a focus on systems that display gene-environment interactions. We summarise the field and laboratory-based evidence for the occurrence of environmental sex reversal in reptiles and ask whether this is a widespread evolutionary mechanism affecting the evolution of sex chromosomes and speciation in vertebrates. Sex determination systems exist across a continuum of genetic and environmental influences, blurring the lines between what was once considered a strict dichotomy between genetic sex determination and temperature-dependent sex determination. Across this spectrum, we identify the potential for sex reversal in species with clearly differentiated heteromorphic sex chromosomes (Pogona vitticeps, Bassiana duperreyi, Eremias multiocellata, Gekko japonicus), weakly differentiated homomorphic sex chromosomes (Niveoscincus ocellatus), and species with only a weak heritable predisposition for sex (Emys orbicularis, Trachemys scripta). We argue that sex reversal is widespread in reptiles (Testudines, Lacertidae, Agamidae, Scincidae, Gekkonidae) and has the potential to have an impact on individual fitness, resulting in reproductively, morphologically, and behaviourally unique phenotypes. Sex reversal is likely to be a powerful evolutionary force responsible for generating and maintaining lability and diversity in reptile sex-determining modes. © 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel.

A Note on Evolutionary Algorithms and Its Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Bhargava, Shifali

2013-01-01

This paper introduces evolutionary algorithms with its applications in multi-objective optimization. Here elitist and non-elitist multiobjective evolutionary algorithms are discussed with their advantages and disadvantages. We also discuss constrained multiobjective evolutionary algorithms and their applications in various areas.

Adapting to Population Growth: The Evolutionary Alternative to Malthus

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Axel Kristinsson

2016-06-01

Full Text Available A long-standing debate on the dynamics of population growth in human history has become polarized between a Malthusian stance and a Boserupian one. The former tends to view population growth as limited by carrying capacity, dependent on environment and technology, whereas the latter sees population growth itself as a major inducement to social, economic and technological developments. In this paper the authors experiment with approaching this debate by using recent developments in evolutionary theory. According to these, evolutionary principles, as expounded by Charles Darwin and subsequent evolutionary scientists, apply not only to biological evolution but also to social or cultural evolution. Here, the role of genes is taken over by culture and, since culture is much more pliable than our DNA, evolution speeds up. As the only organisms on Earth whose evolution relies as heavily on culture as on genes, humans have become extremely adaptable. Their hyper-adaptability suggest that humans, through their cultural evolution, have managed increasingly to adapt to their own growing population, thus succeeding in accommodating ever-growing numbers. This hypothesis fits the Boserupian approach to population very well but less so the Malthusian one, perhaps indicating a gradual shift from a Malthusian regime to a Boserupian one in human history. The hypothesis is discussed and examined through four case studies: The beginning of farming around Göbekli Tepe in southeast Turkey, the productive farming systems of Tiwanaku in South America, the population crisis of late medieval and early modern Iceland, and the ‘collapse’ of Rapa Nui (Easter Island.

A data acquisition computer for high energy physics applications DAFNE:- hardware manual

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barlow, J.; Seller, P.; De-An, W.

1983-07-01

A high performance stand alone computer system based on the Motorola 68000 micro processor has been built at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. Although the design was strongly influenced by the requirement to provide a compact data acquisition computer for the high energy physics environment, the system is sufficiently general to find applications in a wider area. It provides colour graphics and tape and disc storage together with access to CAMAC systems. This report is the hardware manual of the data acquisition computer, DAFNE (Data Acquisition For Nuclear Experiments), and as such contains a full description of the hardware structure of the computer system. (author)

Smart acquisition EELS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sader, Kasim; Schaffer, Bernhard; Vaughan, Gareth; Brydson, Rik; Brown, Andy; Bleloch, Andrew

2010-01-01

We have developed a novel acquisition methodology for the recording of electron energy loss spectra (EELS) using a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM): 'Smart Acquisition'. Smart Acquisition allows the independent control of probe scanning procedures and the simultaneous acquisition of analytical signals such as EELS. The original motivation for this work arose from the need to control the electron dose experienced by beam-sensitive specimens whilst maintaining a sufficiently high signal-to-noise ratio in the EEL signal for the extraction of useful analytical information (such as energy loss near edge spectral features) from relatively undamaged areas. We have developed a flexible acquisition framework which separates beam position data input, beam positioning, and EELS acquisition. In this paper we demonstrate the effectiveness of this technique on beam-sensitive thin films of amorphous aluminium trifluoride. Smart Acquisition has been used to expose lines to the electron beam, followed by analysis of the structures created by line-integrating EELS acquisitions, and the results are compared to those derived from a standard EELS linescan. High angle annular dark-field images show clear reductions in damage for the Smart Acquisition areas compared to the conventional linescan, and the Smart Acquisition low loss EEL spectra are more representative of the undamaged material than those derived using a conventional linescan. Atomically resolved EELS of all four elements of CaNdTiO show the high resolution capabilities of Smart Acquisition.

Smart acquisition EELS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sader, Kasim, E-mail: k.sader@leeds.ac.uk [SuperSTEM, J block, Daresbury Laboratory, Warrington, Cheshire, WA4 4AD (United Kingdom); Institute for Materials Research, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT (United Kingdom); Schaffer, Bernhard [SuperSTEM, J block, Daresbury Laboratory, Warrington, Cheshire, WA4 4AD (United Kingdom); Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow (United Kingdom); Vaughan, Gareth [Institute for Materials Research, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT (United Kingdom); Brydson, Rik [SuperSTEM, J block, Daresbury Laboratory, Warrington, Cheshire, WA4 4AD (United Kingdom); Institute for Materials Research, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT (United Kingdom); Brown, Andy [Institute for Materials Research, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT (United Kingdom); Bleloch, Andrew [SuperSTEM, J block, Daresbury Laboratory, Warrington, Cheshire, WA4 4AD (United Kingdom); Department of Engineering, University of Liverpool, Liverpool (United Kingdom)

2010-07-15

We have developed a novel acquisition methodology for the recording of electron energy loss spectra (EELS) using a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM): 'Smart Acquisition'. Smart Acquisition allows the independent control of probe scanning procedures and the simultaneous acquisition of analytical signals such as EELS. The original motivation for this work arose from the need to control the electron dose experienced by beam-sensitive specimens whilst maintaining a sufficiently high signal-to-noise ratio in the EEL signal for the extraction of useful analytical information (such as energy loss near edge spectral features) from relatively undamaged areas. We have developed a flexible acquisition framework which separates beam position data input, beam positioning, and EELS acquisition. In this paper we demonstrate the effectiveness of this technique on beam-sensitive thin films of amorphous aluminium trifluoride. Smart Acquisition has been used to expose lines to the electron beam, followed by analysis of the structures created by line-integrating EELS acquisitions, and the results are compared to those derived from a standard EELS linescan. High angle annular dark-field images show clear reductions in damage for the Smart Acquisition areas compared to the conventional linescan, and the Smart Acquisition low loss EEL spectra are more representative of the undamaged material than those derived using a conventional linescan. Atomically resolved EELS of all four elements of CaNdTiO show the high resolution capabilities of Smart Acquisition.

New data acquisition system for the lujan center

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nelson, R.; Bowling, P.S.; Cooper, G.M.; Kozlowski, T.

2001-01-01

To meet the data acquisition requirements for six new neutron scattering instruments at the Los Alamos Science Center (LANSCE), we are building systems using Web tools, commercial hardware and software, software developed by the controls community, and custom hardware developed by the neutron scattering community. To service these new instruments as well as seven existing instruments, our data acquisition system needs common software and hardware core capabilities and the means to flexibly integrate them while differentiating the needs of the diverse instrument suite. Neutron events are captured and processed in VXI modules while controls for sample environment and beam line setup are processed with PCs. Typically users access the system through web browsers. (author)

New data acquisition system for the lujan center

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nelson, R.; Bowling, P.S.; Cooper, G.M.; Kozlowski, T. [Los Alamos National Loboratory, Los Alamos, NM (United States)

2001-03-01

To meet the data acquisition requirements for six new neutron scattering instruments at the Los Alamos Science Center (LANSCE), we are building systems using Web tools, commercial hardware and software, software developed by the controls community, and custom hardware developed by the neutron scattering community. To service these new instruments as well as seven existing instruments, our data acquisition system needs common software and hardware core capabilities and the means to flexibly integrate them while differentiating the needs of the diverse instrument suite. Neutron events are captured and processed in VXI modules while controls for sample environment and beam line setup are processed with PCs. Typically users access the system through web browsers. (author)

Mergers and Acquisitions in India

OpenAIRE

Agarwal, Ankita

2009-01-01

From the past few decades, Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) have dominated the environment in which the companies operate. Whenever there is an announcement about a merger, there is an excitement and expectation among the shareholders. This expectation may or may not convert into an abnormal return. It is useful to have some kind of research activity on the performance of M&A, as both bidders and target firms will gain from it. The results have revealed that on average, the returns to the targ...

Applied evolutionary economics and economic geography

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Frenken, K.

2007-01-01

Applied Evolutionary Economics and Economic Geography" aims to further advance empirical methodologies in evolutionary economics, with a special emphasis on geography and firm location. It does so by bringing together a select group of leading scholars including economists, geographers and

Diversity-Guided Evolutionary Algorithms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ursem, Rasmus Kjær

2002-01-01

Population diversity is undoubtably a key issue in the performance of evolutionary algorithms. A common hypothesis is that high diversity is important to avoid premature convergence and to escape local optima. Various diversity measures have been used to analyze algorithms, but so far few...... algorithms have used a measure to guide the search. The diversity-guided evolutionary algorithm (DGEA) uses the wellknown distance-to-average-point measure to alternate between phases of exploration (mutation) and phases of exploitation (recombination and selection). The DGEA showed remarkable results...

Mitochondria and the evolutionary roots of cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Davila, Alfonso F; Zamorano, Pedro

2013-01-01

Cancer disease is inherent to, and widespread among, metazoans. Yet, some of the hallmarks of cancer such as uncontrolled cell proliferation, lack of apoptosis, hypoxia, fermentative metabolism and free cell motility (metastasis) are akin to a prokaryotic lifestyle, suggesting a link between cancer disease and evolution. In this hypothesis paper, we propose that cancer cells represent a phenotypic reversion to the earliest stage of eukaryotic evolution. This reversion is triggered by the dysregulation of the mitochondria due to cumulative oxidative damage to mitochondrial and nuclear DNA. As a result, the phenotype of normal, differentiated cells gradually reverts to the phenotype of a facultative anaerobic, heterotrophic cell optimized for survival and proliferation in hypoxic environments. This phenotype matches the phenotype of the last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA) that resulted from the endosymbiosis between an α-proteobacteria (which later became the mitochondria) and an archaebacteria. As such, the evolution of cancer within one individual can be viewed as a recapitulation of the evolution of the eukaryotic cell from fully differentiated cells to LECA. This evolutionary model of cancer is compatible with the current understanding of the disease, and explains the evolutionary basis for most of the hallmarks of cancer, as well as the link between the disease and aging. It could also open new avenues for treatment directed at reestablishing the synergy between the mitochondria and the cancerous cell. (paper)

Phylogenetic inference with weighted codon evolutionary distances.

Science.gov (United States)

Criscuolo, Alexis; Michel, Christian J

2009-04-01

We develop a new approach to estimate a matrix of pairwise evolutionary distances from a codon-based alignment based on a codon evolutionary model. The method first computes a standard distance matrix for each of the three codon positions. Then these three distance matrices are weighted according to an estimate of the global evolutionary rate of each codon position and averaged into a unique distance matrix. Using a large set of both real and simulated codon-based alignments of nucleotide sequences, we show that this approach leads to distance matrices that have a significantly better treelikeness compared to those obtained by standard nucleotide evolutionary distances. We also propose an alternative weighting to eliminate the part of the noise often associated with some codon positions, particularly the third position, which is known to induce a fast evolutionary rate. Simulation results show that fast distance-based tree reconstruction algorithms on distance matrices based on this codon position weighting can lead to phylogenetic trees that are at least as accurate as, if not better, than those inferred by maximum likelihood. Finally, a well-known multigene dataset composed of eight yeast species and 106 codon-based alignments is reanalyzed and shows that our codon evolutionary distances allow building a phylogenetic tree which is similar to those obtained by non-distance-based methods (e.g., maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood) and also significantly improved compared to standard nucleotide evolutionary distance estimates.

Micro-evolutionary diversification among Indian Ocean parrots: temporal and spatial changes in phylogenetic diversity as a consequence of extinction and invasion

OpenAIRE

Jackson, H; Jones, C G; Agapow, P-M; Tatayah, V; Groombridge, Jim J.

2015-01-01

Almost 90% of global bird extinctions have occurred on islands. The loss of endemic spe- cies from island systems can dramatically alter evolutionary trajectories of insular species biodiversity, resulting in a loss of evolutionary diversity important for species adaptation to changing environments. The Western Indian Ocean islands have been the scene of evolution for a large number of endemic parrots. Since their discovery in the 16th cen- tury, many of these parrots have become extinct or h...

Energy-Efficient Scheduling Problem Using an Effective Hybrid Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lvjiang Yin

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Nowadays, manufacturing enterprises face the challenge of just-in-time (JIT production and energy saving. Therefore, study of JIT production and energy consumption is necessary and important in manufacturing sectors. Moreover, energy saving can be attained by the operational method and turn off/on idle machine method, which also increases the complexity of problem solving. Thus, most researchers still focus on small scale problems with one objective: a single machine environment. However, the scheduling problem is a multi-objective optimization problem in real applications. In this paper, a single machine scheduling model with controllable processing and sequence dependence setup times is developed for minimizing the total earliness/tardiness (E/T, cost, and energy consumption simultaneously. An effective multi-objective evolutionary algorithm called local multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (LMOEA is presented to tackle this multi-objective scheduling problem. To accommodate the characteristic of the problem, a new solution representation is proposed, which can convert discrete combinational problems into continuous problems. Additionally, a multiple local search strategy with self-adaptive mechanism is introduced into the proposed algorithm to enhance the exploitation ability. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated by instances with comparison to other multi-objective meta-heuristics such as Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II, Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm 2 (SPEA2, Multiobjective Particle Swarm Optimization (OMOPSO, and Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithm Based on Decomposition (MOEA/D. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed LMOEA algorithm outperforms its counterparts for this kind of scheduling problems.

Language Acquisition without an Acquisition Device

Science.gov (United States)

O'Grady, William

2012-01-01

Most explanatory work on first and second language learning assumes the primacy of the acquisition phenomenon itself, and a good deal of work has been devoted to the search for an "acquisition device" that is specific to humans, and perhaps even to language. I will consider the possibility that this strategy is misguided and that language…

Evolutionary analyses of non-genealogical bonds produced by introgressive descent.

Science.gov (United States)

Bapteste, Eric; Lopez, Philippe; Bouchard, Frédéric; Baquero, Fernando; McInerney, James O; Burian, Richard M

2012-11-06

All evolutionary biologists are familiar with evolutionary units that evolve by vertical descent in a tree-like fashion in single lineages. However, many other kinds of processes contribute to evolutionary diversity. In vertical descent, the genetic material of a particular evolutionary unit is propagated by replication inside its own lineage. In what we call introgressive descent, the genetic material of a particular evolutionary unit propagates into different host structures and is replicated within these host structures. Thus, introgressive descent generates a variety of evolutionary units and leaves recognizable patterns in resemblance networks. We characterize six kinds of evolutionary units, of which five involve mosaic lineages generated by introgressive descent. To facilitate detection of these units in resemblance networks, we introduce terminology based on two notions, P3s (subgraphs of three nodes: A, B, and C) and mosaic P3s, and suggest an apparatus for systematic detection of introgressive descent. Mosaic P3s correspond to a distinct type of evolutionary bond that is orthogonal to the bonds of kinship and genealogy usually examined by evolutionary biologists. We argue that recognition of these evolutionary bonds stimulates radical rethinking of key questions in evolutionary biology (e.g., the relations among evolutionary players in very early phases of evolutionary history, the origin and emergence of novelties, and the production of new lineages). This line of research will expand the study of biological complexity beyond the usual genealogical bonds, revealing additional sources of biodiversity. It provides an important step to a more realistic pluralist treatment of evolutionary complexity.

The eco-evolutionary impacts of domestication and agricultural practices on wild species.

Science.gov (United States)

Turcotte, Martin M; Araki, Hitoshi; Karp, Daniel S; Poveda, Katja; Whitehead, Susan R

2017-01-19

Agriculture is a dominant evolutionary force that drives the evolution of both domesticated and wild species. However, the various mechanisms of agriculture-induced evolution and their socio-ecological consequences are not often synthetically discussed. Here, we explore how agricultural practices and evolutionary changes in domesticated species cause evolution in wild species. We do so by examining three processes by which agriculture drives evolution. First, differences in the traits of domesticated species, compared with their wild ancestors, alter the selective environment and create opportunities for wild species to specialize. Second, selection caused by agricultural practices, including both those meant to maximize productivity and those meant to control pest species, can lead to pest adaptation. Third, agriculture can cause non-selective changes in patterns of gene flow in wild species. We review evidence for these processes and then discuss their ecological and sociological impacts. We finish by identifying important knowledge gaps and future directions related to the eco-evolutionary impacts of agriculture including their extent, how to prevent the detrimental evolution of wild species, and finally, how to use evolution to minimize the ecological impacts of agriculture.This article is part of the themed issue 'Human influences on evolution, and the ecological and societal consequences'. © 2016 The Author(s).

Evolutionary perspectives on ageing.

Science.gov (United States)

Reichard, Martin

2017-10-01

From an evolutionary perspective, ageing is a decrease in fitness with chronological age - expressed by an increase in mortality risk and/or decline in reproductive success and mediated by deterioration of functional performance. While this makes ageing intuitively paradoxical - detrimental to individual fitness - evolutionary theory offers answers as to why ageing has evolved. In this review, I first briefly examine the classic evolutionary theories of ageing and their empirical tests, and highlight recent findings that have advanced our understanding of the evolution of ageing (condition-dependent survival, positive pleiotropy). I then provide an overview of recent theoretical extensions and modifications that accommodate those new discoveries. I discuss the role of indeterminate (asymptotic) growth for lifetime increases in fecundity and ageing trajectories. I outline alternative views that challenge a universal existence of senescence - namely the lack of a germ-soma distinction and the ability of tissue replacement and retrogression to younger developmental stages in modular organisms. I argue that rejuvenation at the organismal level is plausible, but includes a return to a simple developmental stage. This may exempt a particular genotype from somatic defects but, correspondingly, removes any information acquired during development. A resolution of the question of whether a rejuvenated individual is the same entity is central to the recognition of whether current evolutionary theories of ageing, with their extensions and modifications, can explain the patterns of ageing across the Tree of Life. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Post-Acquisition IT Integration

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Henningsson, Stefan; Yetton, Philip

2013-01-01

The extant research on post-acquisition IT integration analyzes how acquirers realize IT-based value in individual acquisitions. However, serial acquirers make 60% of acquisitions. These acquisitions are not isolated events, but are components in growth-by-acquisition programs. To explain how...... serial acquirers realize IT-based value, we develop three propositions on the sequential effects on post-acquisition IT integration in acquisition programs. Their combined explanation is that serial acquirers must have a growth-by-acquisition strategy that includes the capability to improve...... IT integration capabilities, to sustain high alignment across acquisitions and to maintain a scalable IT infrastructure with a flat or decreasing cost structure. We begin the process of validating the three propositions by investigating a longitudinal case study of a growth-by-acquisition program....

Evolutionary Game Dynamics in a Fitness-Dependent Wright-Fisher Process with Noise

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Quan Ji; Wang Xianjia

2011-01-01

Evolutionary game dynamics in finite size populations can be described by a fitness-dependent Wright-Fisher process. We consider symmetric 2x2 games in a well-mixed population. In our model, two parameters to describe the level of player's rationality and noise intensity in environment are introduced. In contrast with the fixation probability method that used in a noiseless case, the introducing of the noise intensity parameter makes the process an ergodic Markov process and based on the limit distribution of the process, we can analysis the evolutionary stable strategy (ESS) of the games. We illustrate the effects of the two parameters on the ESS of games using the Prisoner's dilemma games (PDG) and the snowdrift games (SG). We also compare the ESS of our model with that of the replicator dynamics in infinite size populations. The results are determined by simulation experiments. (general)

Interpreting Evolutionary Diagrams: When Topology and Process Conflict

Science.gov (United States)

Catley, Kefyn M.; Novick, Laura R.; Shade, Courtney K.

2010-01-01

The authors argue that some diagrams in biology textbooks and the popular press presented as depicting evolutionary relationships suggest an inappropriate (anagenic) conception of evolutionary history. The goal of this research was to provide baseline data that begin to document how college students conceptualize the evolutionary relationships…

Using Evolutionary Theory to Guide Mental Health Research.

Science.gov (United States)

Durisko, Zachary; Mulsant, Benoit H; McKenzie, Kwame; Andrews, Paul W

2016-03-01

Evolutionary approaches to medicine can shed light on the origins and etiology of disease. Such an approach may be especially useful in psychiatry, which frequently addresses conditions with heterogeneous presentation and unknown causes. We review several previous applications of evolutionary theory that highlight the ways in which psychiatric conditions may persist despite and because of natural selection. One lesson from the evolutionary approach is that some conditions currently classified as disorders (because they cause distress and impairment) may actually be caused by functioning adaptations operating "normally" (as designed by natural selection). Such conditions suggest an alternative illness model that may generate alternative intervention strategies. Thus, the evolutionary approach suggests that psychiatry should sometimes think differently about distress and impairment. The complexity of the human brain, including normal functioning and potential for dysfunctions, has developed over evolutionary time and has been shaped by natural selection. Understanding the evolutionary origins of psychiatric conditions is therefore a crucial component to a complete understanding of etiology. © The Author(s) 2016.

Evolutionary engineering of industrial microorganisms-strategies and applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Zhengming; Zhang, Juan; Ji, Xiaomei; Fang, Zhen; Wu, Zhimeng; Chen, Jian; Du, Guocheng

2018-06-01

Microbial cells have been widely used in the industry to obtain various biochemical products, and evolutionary engineering is a common method in biological research to improve their traits, such as high environmental tolerance and improvement of product yield. To obtain better integrate functions of microbial cells, evolutionary engineering combined with other biotechnologies have attracted more attention in recent years. Classical laboratory evolution has been proven effective to letting more beneficial mutations occur in different genes but also has some inherent limitations such as a long evolutionary period and uncontrolled mutation frequencies. However, recent studies showed that some new strategies may gradually overcome these limitations. In this review, we summarize the evolutionary strategies commonly used in industrial microorganisms and discuss the combination of evolutionary engineering with other biotechnologies such as systems biology and inverse metabolic engineering. Finally, we prospect the importance and application prospect of evolutionary engineering as a powerful tool especially in optimization of industrial microbial cell factories.

Democratizing evolutionary biology, lessons from insects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dunn, Robert Roberdeau; Beasley, DeAnna E.

2016-01-01

The engagement of the public in the scientific process is an old practice. Yet with recent advances in technology, the role of the citizen scientist in studying evolutionary processes has increased. Insects provide ideal models for understanding these evolutionary processes at large scales. This ...

Evolutionary public health: introducing the concept.

Science.gov (United States)

Wells, Jonathan C K; Nesse, Randolph M; Sear, Rebecca; Johnstone, Rufus A; Stearns, Stephen C

2017-07-29

The emerging discipline of evolutionary medicine is breaking new ground in understanding why people become ill. However, the value of evolutionary analyses of human physiology and behaviour is only beginning to be recognised in the field of public health. Core principles come from life history theory, which analyses the allocation of finite amounts of energy between four competing functions-maintenance, growth, reproduction, and defence. A central tenet of evolutionary theory is that organisms are selected to allocate energy and time to maximise reproductive success, rather than health or longevity. Ecological interactions that influence mortality risk, nutrient availability, and pathogen burden shape energy allocation strategies throughout the life course, thereby affecting diverse health outcomes. Public health interventions could improve their own effectiveness by incorporating an evolutionary perspective. In particular, evolutionary approaches offer new opportunities to address the complex challenges of global health, in which populations are differentially exposed to the metabolic consequences of poverty, high fertility, infectious diseases, and rapid changes in nutrition and lifestyle. The effect of specific interventions is predicted to depend on broader factors shaping life expectancy. Among the important tools in this approach are mathematical models, which can explore probable benefits and limitations of interventions in silico, before their implementation in human populations. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The evolutionary ecology of molecular replicators.

Science.gov (United States)

Nee, Sean

2016-08-01

By reasonable criteria, life on the Earth consists mainly of molecular replicators. These include viruses, transposons, transpovirons, coviruses and many more, with continuous new discoveries like Sputnik Virophage. Their study is inherently multidisciplinary, spanning microbiology, genetics, immunology and evolutionary theory, and the current view is that taking a unified approach has great power and promise. We support this with a new, unified, model of their evolutionary ecology, using contemporary evolutionary theory coupling the Price equation with game theory, studying the consequences of the molecular replicators' promiscuous use of each others' gene products for their natural history and evolutionary ecology. Even at this simple expository level, we can make a firm prediction of a new class of replicators exploiting viruses such as lentiviruses like SIVs, a family which includes HIV: these have been explicitly stated in the primary literature to be non-existent. Closely connected to this departure is the view that multicellular organism immunology is more about the management of chronic infections rather than the elimination of acute ones and new understandings emerging are changing our view of the kind of theatre we ourselves provide for the evolutionary play of molecular replicators. This study adds molecular replicators to bacteria in the emerging field of sociomicrobiology.

Multiobjective Multifactorial Optimization in Evolutionary Multitasking.

Science.gov (United States)

Gupta, Abhishek; Ong, Yew-Soon; Feng, Liang; Tan, Kay Chen

2016-05-03

In recent decades, the field of multiobjective optimization has attracted considerable interest among evolutionary computation researchers. One of the main features that makes evolutionary methods particularly appealing for multiobjective problems is the implicit parallelism offered by a population, which enables simultaneous convergence toward the entire Pareto front. While a plethora of related algorithms have been proposed till date, a common attribute among them is that they focus on efficiently solving only a single optimization problem at a time. Despite the known power of implicit parallelism, seldom has an attempt been made to multitask, i.e., to solve multiple optimization problems simultaneously. It is contended that the notion of evolutionary multitasking leads to the possibility of automated transfer of information across different optimization exercises that may share underlying similarities, thereby facilitating improved convergence characteristics. In particular, the potential for automated transfer is deemed invaluable from the standpoint of engineering design exercises where manual knowledge adaptation and reuse are routine. Accordingly, in this paper, we present a realization of the evolutionary multitasking paradigm within the domain of multiobjective optimization. The efficacy of the associated evolutionary algorithm is demonstrated on some benchmark test functions as well as on a real-world manufacturing process design problem from the composites industry.

Evolutionary heritage influences Amazon tree ecology

Science.gov (United States)

Coelho de Souza, Fernanda; Dexter, Kyle G.; Phillips, Oliver L.; Brienen, Roel J. W.; Chave, Jerome; Galbraith, David R.; Lopez Gonzalez, Gabriela; Monteagudo Mendoza, Abel; Pennington, R. Toby; Poorter, Lourens; Alexiades, Miguel; Álvarez-Dávila, Esteban; Andrade, Ana; Aragão, Luis E. O. C.; Araujo-Murakami, Alejandro; Arets, Eric J. M. M.; Aymard C, Gerardo A.; Baraloto, Christopher; Barroso, Jorcely G.; Bonal, Damien; Boot, Rene G. A.; Camargo, José L. C.; Comiskey, James A.; Valverde, Fernando Cornejo; de Camargo, Plínio B.; Di Fiore, Anthony; Erwin, Terry L.; Feldpausch, Ted R.; Ferreira, Leandro; Fyllas, Nikolaos M.; Gloor, Emanuel; Herault, Bruno; Herrera, Rafael; Higuchi, Niro; Honorio Coronado, Eurídice N.; Killeen, Timothy J.; Laurance, William F.; Laurance, Susan; Lloyd, Jon; Lovejoy, Thomas E.; Malhi, Yadvinder; Maracahipes, Leandro; Marimon, Beatriz S.; Marimon-Junior, Ben H.; Mendoza, Casimiro; Morandi, Paulo; Neill, David A.; Vargas, Percy Núñez; Oliveira, Edmar A.; Lenza, Eddie; Palacios, Walter A.; Peñuela-Mora, Maria C.; Pipoly, John J.; Pitman, Nigel C. A.; Prieto, Adriana; Quesada, Carlos A.; Ramirez-Angulo, Hirma; Rudas, Agustin; Ruokolainen, Kalle; Salomão, Rafael P.; Silveira, Marcos; ter Steege, Hans; Thomas-Caesar, Raquel; van der Hout, Peter; van der Heijden, Geertje M. F.; van der Meer, Peter J.; Vasquez, Rodolfo V.; Vieira, Simone A.; Vilanova, Emilio; Vos, Vincent A.; Wang, Ophelia; Young, Kenneth R.; Zagt, Roderick J.; Baker, Timothy R.

2016-01-01

Lineages tend to retain ecological characteristics of their ancestors through time. However, for some traits, selection during evolutionary history may have also played a role in determining trait values. To address the relative importance of these processes requires large-scale quantification of traits and evolutionary relationships among species. The Amazonian tree flora comprises a high diversity of angiosperm lineages and species with widely differing life-history characteristics, providing an excellent system to investigate the combined influences of evolutionary heritage and selection in determining trait variation. We used trait data related to the major axes of life-history variation among tropical trees (e.g. growth and mortality rates) from 577 inventory plots in closed-canopy forest, mapped onto a phylogenetic hypothesis spanning more than 300 genera including all major angiosperm clades to test for evolutionary constraints on traits. We found significant phylogenetic signal (PS) for all traits, consistent with evolutionarily related genera having more similar characteristics than expected by chance. Although there is also evidence for repeated evolution of pioneer and shade tolerant life-history strategies within independent lineages, the existence of significant PS allows clearer predictions of the links between evolutionary diversity, ecosystem function and the response of tropical forests to global change. PMID:27974517

Evolutionary heritage influences Amazon tree ecology.

Science.gov (United States)

Coelho de Souza, Fernanda; Dexter, Kyle G; Phillips, Oliver L; Brienen, Roel J W; Chave, Jerome; Galbraith, David R; Lopez Gonzalez, Gabriela; Monteagudo Mendoza, Abel; Pennington, R Toby; Poorter, Lourens; Alexiades, Miguel; Álvarez-Dávila, Esteban; Andrade, Ana; Aragão, Luis E O C; Araujo-Murakami, Alejandro; Arets, Eric J M M; Aymard C, Gerardo A; Baraloto, Christopher; Barroso, Jorcely G; Bonal, Damien; Boot, Rene G A; Camargo, José L C; Comiskey, James A; Valverde, Fernando Cornejo; de Camargo, Plínio B; Di Fiore, Anthony; Elias, Fernando; Erwin, Terry L; Feldpausch, Ted R; Ferreira, Leandro; Fyllas, Nikolaos M; Gloor, Emanuel; Herault, Bruno; Herrera, Rafael; Higuchi, Niro; Honorio Coronado, Eurídice N; Killeen, Timothy J; Laurance, William F; Laurance, Susan; Lloyd, Jon; Lovejoy, Thomas E; Malhi, Yadvinder; Maracahipes, Leandro; Marimon, Beatriz S; Marimon-Junior, Ben H; Mendoza, Casimiro; Morandi, Paulo; Neill, David A; Vargas, Percy Núñez; Oliveira, Edmar A; Lenza, Eddie; Palacios, Walter A; Peñuela-Mora, Maria C; Pipoly, John J; Pitman, Nigel C A; Prieto, Adriana; Quesada, Carlos A; Ramirez-Angulo, Hirma; Rudas, Agustin; Ruokolainen, Kalle; Salomão, Rafael P; Silveira, Marcos; Stropp, Juliana; Ter Steege, Hans; Thomas-Caesar, Raquel; van der Hout, Peter; van der Heijden, Geertje M F; van der Meer, Peter J; Vasquez, Rodolfo V; Vieira, Simone A; Vilanova, Emilio; Vos, Vincent A; Wang, Ophelia; Young, Kenneth R; Zagt, Roderick J; Baker, Timothy R

2016-12-14

Lineages tend to retain ecological characteristics of their ancestors through time. However, for some traits, selection during evolutionary history may have also played a role in determining trait values. To address the relative importance of these processes requires large-scale quantification of traits and evolutionary relationships among species. The Amazonian tree flora comprises a high diversity of angiosperm lineages and species with widely differing life-history characteristics, providing an excellent system to investigate the combined influences of evolutionary heritage and selection in determining trait variation. We used trait data related to the major axes of life-history variation among tropical trees (e.g. growth and mortality rates) from 577 inventory plots in closed-canopy forest, mapped onto a phylogenetic hypothesis spanning more than 300 genera including all major angiosperm clades to test for evolutionary constraints on traits. We found significant phylogenetic signal (PS) for all traits, consistent with evolutionarily related genera having more similar characteristics than expected by chance. Although there is also evidence for repeated evolution of pioneer and shade tolerant life-history strategies within independent lineages, the existence of significant PS allows clearer predictions of the links between evolutionary diversity, ecosystem function and the response of tropical forests to global change. © 2016 The Authors.

Evolutionary cell biology: two origins, one objective.

Science.gov (United States)

Lynch, Michael; Field, Mark C; Goodson, Holly V; Malik, Harmit S; Pereira-Leal, José B; Roos, David S; Turkewitz, Aaron P; Sazer, Shelley

2014-12-02

All aspects of biological diversification ultimately trace to evolutionary modifications at the cellular level. This central role of cells frames the basic questions as to how cells work and how cells come to be the way they are. Although these two lines of inquiry lie respectively within the traditional provenance of cell biology and evolutionary biology, a comprehensive synthesis of evolutionary and cell-biological thinking is lacking. We define evolutionary cell biology as the fusion of these two eponymous fields with the theoretical and quantitative branches of biochemistry, biophysics, and population genetics. The key goals are to develop a mechanistic understanding of general evolutionary processes, while specifically infusing cell biology with an evolutionary perspective. The full development of this interdisciplinary field has the potential to solve numerous problems in diverse areas of biology, including the degree to which selection, effectively neutral processes, historical contingencies, and/or constraints at the chemical and biophysical levels dictate patterns of variation for intracellular features. These problems can now be examined at both the within- and among-species levels, with single-cell methodologies even allowing quantification of variation within genotypes. Some results from this emerging field have already had a substantial impact on cell biology, and future findings will significantly influence applications in agriculture, medicine, environmental science, and synthetic biology.

Autonomous acquisition systems for TJ-II: controlling instrumentation with a fourth generation language

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sanchez, E.; Portas, A.B.; Vega, J.; Agudo, J.M.; McCarthy, K.J.; Ruiz, M.; Barrera, E.; Lopez, S.

2004-01-01

Recently, 536 new acquisition channels, made-up of three different channel types, have been incorporated into the TJ-II data acquisition system (DAQ). Dedicated software has also been developed to permit experimentalists to program and control the data acquisition in these systems. The software has been developed using LabView and runs under the Windows 2000 operating system in both personal computer (PC) and PXI controllers. In addition, LabView software has been developed to control TJ-II VXI channels from a PC using a MXI connection. This new software environment will also aid future integration of acquisition channels into the TJ-II remote participation system. All of these acquisition devices work autonomously and are connected to the TJ-II central server via a local area network. In addition, they can be remotely controlled from the TJ-II control-room using Virtual Network Computing (VNC) software

Urban land acquisition and social justice in Ethiopia | Mengie ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In this work, the author argues that the existing urban land acquisition system of Ethiopia has resulted in social injustice by denying the poor from access to urban land; and creating discriminatory environment while enforcing the new lease system. Keywords: access to land, land lease, social justice, tenure security, urban ...

How to Identify and Interpret Evolutionary Tree Diagrams

Science.gov (United States)

Kong, Yi; Anderson, Trevor; Pelaez, Nancy

2016-01-01

Evolutionary trees are key tools for modern biology and are commonly portrayed in textbooks to promote learning about biological evolution. However, many people have difficulty in understanding what evolutionary trees are meant to portray. In fact, some ideas that current professional biologists depict with evolutionary trees are neither clearly…

An agile acquisition decision-support workbench for evaluating ISR effectiveness

Science.gov (United States)

Stouch, Daniel W.; Champagne, Valerie; Mow, Christopher; Rosenberg, Brad; Serrin, Joshua

2011-06-01

The U.S. Air Force is consistently evolving to support current and future operations through the planning and execution of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. However, it is a challenge to maintain a precise awareness of current and emerging ISR capabilities to properly prepare for future conflicts. We present a decisionsupport tool for acquisition managers to empirically compare ISR capabilities and approaches to employing them, thereby enabling the DoD to acquire ISR platforms and sensors that provide the greatest return on investment. We have developed an analysis environment to perform modeling and simulation-based experiments to objectively compare alternatives. First, the analyst specifies an operational scenario for an area of operations by providing terrain and threat information; a set of nominated collections; sensor and platform capabilities; and processing, exploitation, and dissemination (PED) capacities. Next, the analyst selects and configures ISR collection strategies to generate collection plans. The analyst then defines customizable measures of effectiveness or performance to compute during the experiment. Finally, the analyst empirically compares the efficacy of each solution and generates concise reports to document their conclusions, providing traceable evidence for acquisition decisions. Our capability demonstrates the utility of using a workbench environment for analysts to design and run experiments. Crafting impartial metrics enables the acquisition manager to focus on evaluating solutions based on specific military needs. Finally, the metric and collection plan visualizations provide an intuitive understanding of the suitability of particular solutions. This facilitates a more agile acquisition strategy that handles rapidly changing technology in response to current military needs.

Evolutionary biology of bacterial and fungal pathogens

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Baquero, F

2008-01-01

... and Evolutionary Dynamics of Pathogens * 21 Keith A. Crandall and Marcos Pérez-Losada II. Evolutionary Genetics of Microbial Pathogens 4. Environmental and Social Influences on Infectious Disea...

Regional systems of innovation: an evolutionary perspective

OpenAIRE

P Cooke; M G Uranga; G Etxebarria

1998-01-01

The authors develop the concept of regional systems of innovation and relate it to preexisting research on national systems of innovation. They argue that work conducted in the 'new regional science' field is complementary to systems of innovation approaches. They seek to link new regional work to evolutionary economics, and argue for the development of evolutionary regional science. Common elements of interest to evolutionary innovation research and new regional science are important in unde...

Evolutionary mysteries in meiosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Lenormand, Thomas; Engelstädter, Jan; Johnston, Susan E; Wijnker, Erik; Haag, Christoph R

2016-10-19

Meiosis is a key event of sexual life cycles in eukaryotes. Its mechanistic details have been uncovered in several model organisms, and most of its essential features have received various and often contradictory evolutionary interpretations. In this perspective, we present an overview of these often 'weird' features. We discuss the origin of meiosis (origin of ploidy reduction and recombination, two-step meiosis), its secondary modifications (in polyploids or asexuals, inverted meiosis), its importance in punctuating life cycles (meiotic arrests, epigenetic resetting, meiotic asymmetry, meiotic fairness) and features associated with recombination (disjunction constraints, heterochiasmy, crossover interference and hotspots). We present the various evolutionary scenarios and selective pressures that have been proposed to account for these features, and we highlight that their evolutionary significance often remains largely mysterious. Resolving these mysteries will likely provide decisive steps towards understanding why sex and recombination are found in the majority of eukaryotes.This article is part of the themed issue 'Weird sex: the underappreciated diversity of sexual reproduction'. © 2016 The Author(s).

Cybersecurity:The Road Ahead for Defense Acquisition

Science.gov (United States)

2016-06-01

contested environment. Cybersecurity being treated as key “leader business ” is criti- cal to the overall cybersecurity posture of our DoD acquisi... Cybersecurity The Road Ahead for Defense Acquisition Steve Mills n Steve Monks Mills and Monks are professors of Program Management at the Defense...not only on adequate funding for leaps in technology but also on honing that technology to protect the capability against cybersecurity threats. The

The hybrid UNIX controller for real-time data acquisition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huesman, R.H.; Klein, G.J.; Fleming, T.K.

1996-01-01

The authors describe a hybrid data acquisition architecture integrating a conventional UNIX workstation with CAMAC-based real-time hardware. The system combines the high-level programming simplicity and user interface of a UNIX workstation with the low-level timing control available from conventional real-time hardware. They detail this architecture as it has been implemented for control of the Donner 600-Crystal Positron Tomograph (PET600). Low-level data acquisition is carried out in this system using eight LeCroy 3588 histogrammers, which together after derandomization, acquire events at rates up to 4 MHz, and two dedicated Motorola 6809 microprocessors, which arbitrate fine timing control during acquisition. A SUN Microsystems UNIX workstation is used for high-level control, allowing an easily extensible user interface in an X-Windows environment, as well as real-time communications to the low-level acquisition units. Communication between the high- and low-level units is carried out via a Jorway 73A SCSI-CAMAC crate controller and a serial interface. For this application, the hybrid configuration segments low from high-level control for ease of maintenance and provided a low-cost upgrade from dated high-level control hardware

Distributed data acquisition system for Pachmarhi array of Cverenkov telescopes

Science.gov (United States)

Upadhya, S. S.; Acharya, B. S.; Bhat, P. N.; Chitnis, V. R.; D'Souza, A. I.; Francis, P. J.; Gothe, K. S.; Joshi, S. R.; Majumdar, P.; Manogaran, M.; Nagesh, B. K.; Pose, M. S.; Purohit, P. N.; Rahman, M. A.; Rao, K. K.; Rao, S. K.; Sharma, S. K.; Singh, B. B.; Stanislaus, A. J.; Sudersanan, P. V.; Venkatesh Murthy, B. L.; Vishwanath, P. R.

2002-03-01

Pachmarhi Array of Cverenkov Telescopes consists of 25 Telescopes distributed within an area of 8000m2. The array was designed to detect and process faint Cverenkov light flashes that lasts for a few nanoseconds, produced in the atmosphere by celestial VHE ?-rays or cosmic rays. In this experiment, the arrival time and amplitude of fast tiny pulses have to be measured and recorded from each of 175 photo-tubes in a shortest possible time. In view of the complexity of the system, the entire array is divided into 4 sectors. A Distributed Data Acquisition System developed for the purpose consists of independent Sector Data Acquisition Systems and a Master Data Acquisition System. The distributed data acquisition and monitoring system are built using PC's which are networked through LAN. The entire software for DDAS was developed in-house in C language under LINUX environment. Also, most of the hardware barring a few fast digitization modules were designed and fabricated in-house. The design features, implementation strategy as well as the performance of the whole system are discussed.

The role of affordances in Libras acquisition as second language

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jéssica Puhl

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Libras is a visual-spatial language used by the Brazilian deaf community. Following the principles of spatiality and vision, the user of the sign language resorts more easily to stimuli from the environment than the user of the oral language. Thus, the hypothesis of this research is that the affordances (environmental properties that enable psychologically possible actions would be a facilitator element in the process of Libras acquisition. In this paper we use the narrative and interpretive-qualitative research to discuss the role of affordances in the listener perception, interpretation and action cycle in Libras acquisition as second language. Results show that the Libras’ iconic signs can be considered important affordances in the early stages of the acquisition. It is also observed the importance of the permanence in the niche where Libras is used for the sign language development.

Determining the Best Loci of Knowledge, Responsibilities and Decision Rights in Major Acquisition Organizations

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Dillard, John; Nissen, Mark E

2005-01-01

.... Our results reinforce Contingency Theory and suggest particular characteristics of different acquisition environments make one organizational form relatively more or less appropriate than another...

The data-acquisition and second level trigger system for the ZEUS calorimeter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lugt, H.J. van der.

1993-01-01

ZEUS and HERA are introduced in chapter 1 with emphasis on the ZEUS Calorimeter and the ZEUS trigger system. The analog and digital electronics developed for the readout of the Calorimeter signals, and the hardware for the Calorimeter Second Level Trigger and data-acquisition system, is described in chapter 2. Emphasis is put on the hardware developed at NIKHEF, which is based on the transputer as the main processing element. The ZEUS trigger and data-acquisition environment as well as the calibration procedures needed for the Calorimeter impose several requirements on the design of the data-acquisition system. The requirements, their implications for the design of the transputer network architecture and the design itself, are described in detail in chapter 3. The software developed for the Calorimeter data-acquisition is described in chapter 4. It includes both the software for the Calorimeter data-acquisition as that required for the calibration of the Calorimeter. First experiences with the CAL-SLT algorithms, obtained during the 1992 HERA running periods, are presented in chapter 5. Chapter 6 discusses the performance of the Calorimeter data-acquisition system. (orig.)

Adaptation to the aquatic environment: from penguin heart rates to cetacean brain morphology

OpenAIRE

Wright, Alexandra

2016-01-01

The evolutionary process of adaptation to the aquatic environment has dramatically modified the anatomy and physiology of secondarily-aquatic, air-breathing seabirds and marine mammals to address oxygen constraints and unique sensorimotor conditions. As taxa that have arguably undergone significant evolutionary transformations, deep-diving sphenisciforms (penguins) and obligatorily aquatic cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) provide an excellent opportunity to study such physiological...

Exercise, Affect, and Adherence: An Evolutionary Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Harold Lee

2016-08-01

Full Text Available The low rates of regular exercise and overall physical activity (PA in the general population represent a significant public health challenge. Previous research suggests that, for many people, exercise leads to a negative affective response and, in turn, reduced likelihood of future exercise. The purpose of this paper is to examine this exercise-affect-adherence relationship from an evolutionary perspective. Specifically, we argue that low rates of physical exercise in the general population are a function of the evolved human tendency to avoid unnecessary physical exertion. This innate tendency evolved because it allowed our evolutionary ancestors to conserve energy for physical activities that had immediate adaptive utility such as pursuing prey, escaping predators, and engaging in social and reproductive behaviors. The commonly observed negative affective response to exercise is an evolved proximate psychological mechanism through which humans avoid unnecessary energy expenditure. The fact that the human tendencies toward negative affective response to and avoidance of unnecessary physical activities are innate does not mean that they are unchangeable. Indeed, it is only because of human-engineered changes in our environmental conditions (i.e., it is no longer necessary for us to work for our food that our predisposition to avoid unnecessary physical exertion has become a liability. Thus, it is well within our capabilities to reengineer our environments to once again make PA necessary or, at least, to serve an immediate functional purpose. We propose a two-pronged approach to PA promotion based on this evolutionary functional perspective: First, to promote exercise and other physical activities that are perceived to have an immediate purpose, and second, to instill greater perceived purpose for a wider range of physical activities. We posit that these strategies are more likely to result in more positive (or at least less negative affective

Evolutionary impact assessment: accounting for evolutionary consequences of fishing in an ecosystem approach to fisheries management.

Science.gov (United States)

Laugen, Ane T; Engelhard, Georg H; Whitlock, Rebecca; Arlinghaus, Robert; Dankel, Dorothy J; Dunlop, Erin S; Eikeset, Anne M; Enberg, Katja; Jørgensen, Christian; Matsumura, Shuichi; Nusslé, Sébastien; Urbach, Davnah; Baulier, Loїc; Boukal, David S; Ernande, Bruno; Johnston, Fiona D; Mollet, Fabian; Pardoe, Heidi; Therkildsen, Nina O; Uusi-Heikkilä, Silva; Vainikka, Anssi; Heino, Mikko; Rijnsdorp, Adriaan D; Dieckmann, Ulf

2014-03-01

Managing fisheries resources to maintain healthy ecosystems is one of the main goals of the ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF). While a number of international treaties call for the implementation of EAF, there are still gaps in the underlying methodology. One aspect that has received substantial scientific attention recently is fisheries-induced evolution (FIE). Increasing evidence indicates that intensive fishing has the potential to exert strong directional selection on life-history traits, behaviour, physiology, and morphology of exploited fish. Of particular concern is that reversing evolutionary responses to fishing can be much more difficult than reversing demographic or phenotypically plastic responses. Furthermore, like climate change, multiple agents cause FIE, with effects accumulating over time. Consequently, FIE may alter the utility derived from fish stocks, which in turn can modify the monetary value living aquatic resources provide to society. Quantifying and predicting the evolutionary effects of fishing is therefore important for both ecological and economic reasons. An important reason this is not happening is the lack of an appropriate assessment framework. We therefore describe the evolutionary impact assessment (EvoIA) as a structured approach for assessing the evolutionary consequences of fishing and evaluating the predicted evolutionary outcomes of alternative management options. EvoIA can contribute to EAF by clarifying how evolution may alter stock properties and ecological relations, support the precautionary approach to fisheries management by addressing a previously overlooked source of uncertainty and risk, and thus contribute to sustainable fisheries.

Instrumentation, control and data acquisition system with multiple configurations for test in nuclear environment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Monti, Chiara, E-mail: chiara.monti@enea.it; Neri, Carlo; Pollastrone, Fabio

2015-10-15

Highlights: • ENEA developed and characterized a first prototype of the In-Vessel Viewing System (IVVS) probe for ITER. • Piezo motor technology to be used in IVVS probe was tested in neutrons, gamma radiations, high temperature, vacuum and high magnetic fields. • A general architecture of the Data Acquisition and Control System (DACS) was defined and then specialized for each test. • The test campaign has validated instrumentation solutions, which can be effectively used in final IVVS implementation or other ITER diagnostics or applications. - Abstract: The In-Vessel Viewing System is a 3D laser scanning system which will be used to inspect the blanket first wall in ITER. To make the IVVS probe design compatible with the harsh environmental conditions present in ITER, a test campaign was performed in 2012–2013 to verify the adequacy of the main components of the IVVS probe. The IVVS components inspected were an optical encoder, passive components and two customized ultrasonic piezoceramic motors that were instrumented with various sensors. A general architecture of the Data Acquisition and Control System (DACS) was defined and then specialized for each test. To be suitable for this test campaign, the DACS had to host various I/O modules and to properly interface the driver of the customized piezo motors, in order to permit the full control of the test and the acquisition of experimental data. This paper presents the instrumentation solutions designed and implemented for different facilities constraints and the related DACS developed in four specialized versions for the described test campaign.

The Evolutionary Logic of the Obsessive Trait Complex: Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder as a Complementary Behavioral Syndrome

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Steven Charles Hertler

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Freud noted that the obsessive traits of orderliness, parsimony, and obstinacy incontestably belonged together. This observation has been unfailingly justified, but unsatisfactorily explained. Being a highly heritable pattern essentially unaffected by parental influence, it is counterfactual to continue to explain the obsessive trait constellation as a pathological signature of harsh, authoritarian parenting. Alternatively, the present paper, building upon a previously promulgated evolutionary etiological model, describes how obsessive traits work in unison to enable survival within harsh northerly climates. What appears to be a loosely federated inventory of pathology, after the application of evolutionary reasoning, becomes a coherent behavioral package, adaptive suite, or behavioral syndrome. All three of these terms, taken from behavioral biology, suggest that traits strategically covary, such that the adaptive value of each trait is enhanced by the presence of the others. In this vein, the union of anxious tension and conscientiousness drives the obsessive personality to labor incessantly. The fruits of obsessive labor are then conserved through parsimoniousness, hoarding, vigilance, and niggardliness. And so, obsessive personality is a coherent behavioral package in that the drive to work towards the acquisition of necessities is paired with the drive to conserve and defend them.

Freud: the first evolutionary psychologist?

Science.gov (United States)

LeCroy, D

2000-04-01

An evolutionary perspective on attachment theory and psychoanalytic theory brings these two fields together in interesting ways. Application of the evolutionary principle of parent-offspring conflict to attachment theory suggests that attachment styles represent context-sensitive, evolved (adaptive) behaviors. In addition, an emphasis on offspring counter-strategies to adult reproductive strategies leads to consideration of attachment styles as overt manifestations of psychodynamic mediating processes, including the defense mechanisms of repression and reaction formation.

A Review of Multimedia Glosses and Their Effects on L2 Vocabulary Acquisition in CALL Literature

Science.gov (United States)

Mohsen, Mohammed Ali; Balakumar, M.

2011-01-01

This article reviews the literature of multimedia glosses in computer assisted language learning (CALL) and their effects on L2 vocabulary acquisition during the past seventeen years. Several studies have touched on this area to examine the potential of multimedia in a CALL environment in aiding L2 vocabulary acquisition. In this review, the…

Deletion of /T, D/ and the Acquisition of Linguistic Variation by Second Language Learners of English

Science.gov (United States)

Edwards, Jette G. Hansen

2011-01-01

This study investigated second language (L2) learners' acquisition of English /t, d/ deletion patterns in word-final consonant clusters, (a) focusing on how constraints such as grammatical conditioning and phonological environment affect deletion of /t, d/ in L2 acquisition and (b) determining the extent to which these L2 learners had acquired…

Collaborative Environment and Agile Development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bogdan GHILIC-MICU

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Over time, information and communications technology development has made a direct impact on human activity in the individual context as well as familial, economic and social. This has laid the premise for adoption of new and modern paradigms in individual and organizational activity management. The evolutionary climax of the social universe is called nowadays knowledge society. The knowledge society succeeds the information society, emphasizing the development of the opportunities brought by collaborative work environment and agile approach. In this paper we will highlight the use of collaborative environment in agile software development, as an instrument for managing organizations in knowledge society. Thus, we will emphasize the paradigms of agile testing, validation and verification in collaborative environment.

Accelerated evolutionary rates in tropical and oceanic parmelioid lichens (Ascomycota

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Blanco Oscar

2008-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The rate of nucleotide substitutions is not constant across the Tree of Life, and departures from a molecular clock have been commonly reported. Within parmelioid lichens, the largest group of macrolichens, large discrepancies in branch lengths between clades were found in previous studies. Using an extended taxon sampling, we test for presence of significant rate discrepancies within and between these clades and test our a priori hypothesis that such rate discrepancies may be explained by shifts in moisture regime or other environmental conditions. Results In this paper, the first statistical evidence for accelerated evolutionary rate in lichenized ascomycetes is presented. Our results give clear evidence for a faster rate of evolution in two Hypotrachyna clades that includes species occurring in tropical and oceanic habitats in comparison with clades consisting of species occurring in semi-arid and temperate habitats. Further we explore potential links between evolutionary rates and shifts in habitat by comparing alternative Ornstein-Uhlenbeck models. Conclusion Although there was only weak support for a shift at the base of a second tropical clade, where the observed nucleotide substitution rate is high, overall support for a shift in environmental conditions at cladogenesis is very strong. This suggests that speciation in some lichen clades has proceeded by dispersal into a novel environment, followed by radiation within that environment. We found moderate support for a shift in moisture regime at the base of one tropical clade and a clade occurring in semi-arid regions and a shift in minimum temperature at the base of a boreal-temperate clade.

Mergers and Acquisitions

OpenAIRE

Frasch, Manfred; Leptin, Maria

2000-01-01

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are booming a strategy of choice for organizations attempting to maintain a competitive advantage. Previous research on mergers and acquisitions declares that acquirers do not normally benefit from acquisitions. Targets, on the other hand, have a tendency of gaining positive returns in the few days surrounding merger announcements due to several characteristic on the acquisitions deal. The announcement period wealth effect on acquiring firms, however, is as cle...

A global evolutionary and metabolic analysis of human obesity gene risk variants.

Science.gov (United States)

Castillo, Joseph J; Hazlett, Zachary S; Orlando, Robert A; Garver, William S

2017-09-05

It is generally accepted that the selection of gene variants during human evolution optimized energy metabolism that now interacts with our obesogenic environment to increase the prevalence of obesity. The purpose of this study was to perform a global evolutionary and metabolic analysis of human obesity gene risk variants (110 human obesity genes with 127 nearest gene risk variants) identified using genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to enhance our knowledge of early and late genotypes. As a result of determining the mean frequency of these obesity gene risk variants in 13 available populations from around the world our results provide evidence for the early selection of ancestral risk variants (defined as selection before migration from Africa) and late selection of derived risk variants (defined as selection after migration from Africa). Our results also provide novel information for association of these obesity genes or encoded proteins with diverse metabolic pathways and other human diseases. The overall results indicate a significant differential evolutionary pattern for the selection of obesity gene ancestral and derived risk variants proposed to optimize energy metabolism in varying global environments and complex association with metabolic pathways and other human diseases. These results are consistent with obesity genes that encode proteins possessing a fundamental role in maintaining energy metabolism and survival during the course of human evolution. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

A Real-Time Image Acquisition And Processing System For A RISC-Based Microcomputer

Science.gov (United States)

Luckman, Adrian J.; Allinson, Nigel M.

1989-03-01

A low cost image acquisition and processing system has been developed for the Acorn Archimedes microcomputer. Using a Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) architecture, the ARM (Acorn Risc Machine) processor provides instruction speeds suitable for image processing applications. The associated improvement in data transfer rate has allowed real-time video image acquisition without the need for frame-store memory external to the microcomputer. The system is comprised of real-time video digitising hardware which interfaces directly to the Archimedes memory, and software to provide an integrated image acquisition and processing environment. The hardware can digitise a video signal at up to 640 samples per video line with programmable parameters such as sampling rate and gain. Software support includes a work environment for image capture and processing with pixel, neighbourhood and global operators. A friendly user interface is provided with the help of the Archimedes Operating System WIMP (Windows, Icons, Mouse and Pointer) Manager. Windows provide a convenient way of handling images on the screen and program control is directed mostly by pop-up menus.

Evolutionary primacy of sodium bioenergetics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wolf Yuri I

2008-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The F- and V-type ATPases are rotary molecular machines that couple translocation of protons or sodium ions across the membrane to the synthesis or hydrolysis of ATP. Both the F-type (found in most bacteria and eukaryotic mitochondria and chloroplasts and V-type (found in archaea, some bacteria, and eukaryotic vacuoles ATPases can translocate either protons or sodium ions. The prevalent proton-dependent ATPases are generally viewed as the primary form of the enzyme whereas the sodium-translocating ATPases of some prokaryotes are usually construed as an exotic adaptation to survival in extreme environments. Results We combine structural and phylogenetic analyses to clarify the evolutionary relation between the proton- and sodium-translocating ATPases. A comparison of the structures of the membrane-embedded oligomeric proteolipid rings of sodium-dependent F- and V-ATPases reveals nearly identical sets of amino acids involved in sodium binding. We show that the sodium-dependent ATPases are scattered among proton-dependent ATPases in both the F- and the V-branches of the phylogenetic tree. Conclusion Barring convergent emergence of the same set of ligands in several lineages, these findings indicate that the use of sodium gradient for ATP synthesis is the ancestral modality of membrane bioenergetics. Thus, a primitive, sodium-impermeable but proton-permeable cell membrane that harboured a set of sodium-transporting enzymes appears to have been the evolutionary predecessor of the more structurally demanding proton-tight membranes. The use of proton as the coupling ion appears to be a later innovation that emerged on several independent occasions. Reviewers This article was reviewed by J. Peter Gogarten, Martijn A. Huynen, and Igor B. Zhulin. For the full reviews, please go to the Reviewers' comments section.

Low-level-signal data acquisition for the MFTF superconducting-magnet system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Montoya, C.R.

1981-01-01

Acquisition of low level signals from sensors mounted on the superconducting yin-yang magnet in the Mirror Fusion Test Facility (MFTF) imposes very strict requirements on the magnet signal conditioning and data acquisition system. Of the various types of sensors required, thermocouples, strain gages, and voltage taps produce very low level outputs. These low level outputs must be accurately measured in the harsh environment of slowly varying magnetic fields, cryogenic temperatures, high vacuum, pulse power and 60 Hz electrical noise, possible neutron radiation, and high common mode voltage resulting from superconducting magnet quench. Successful measurements require careful attention to grounding, shielding, signal handling and processing in the data acquisition system. The magnet instrumentation system provides a means of effectively measuring both low level signals and high level signals from all types of sensors

Towards Behavior Control for Evolutionary Robot Based on RL with ENN

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jingan Yang

2012-03-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes a behavior-switching control strategy of anevolutionary robotics based on Artificial NeuralNetwork (ANN and Genetic Algorithms (GA. This method is able not only to construct thereinforcement learning models for autonomous robots and evolutionary robot modules thatcontrol behaviors and reinforcement learning environments, and but also to perform thebehavior-switching control and obstacle avoidance of an evolutionary robotics (ER intime-varying environments with static and moving obstacles by combining ANN and GA.The experimental results on thebasic behaviors and behavior-switching control have demonstrated that ourmethod can perform the decision-making strategy and parameters set opimization ofFNN and GA by learning and can escape successfully from the trap of a localminima and avoid \\emph{"motion deadlock" status} of humanoid soccer robotics agents,and reduce the oscillation of the planned trajectory betweenthe multiple obstacles by crossover and mutation. Some results of the proposed algorithmhave been successfully applied to our simulation humanoid robotics soccer team CIT3Dwhich won \\emph{the 1st prize} of RoboCup Championship and ChinaOpen2010 (July 2010 and \\emph{the $2^{nd}$ place}of the official RoboCup World Championship on 5-11 July, 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey.As compared with the conventional behavior network and the adaptive behavior method,the genetic encoding complexity of our algorithm is simplified, and the networkperformance and the {\\em convergence rate $\\rho$} have been greatlyimproved.

Evolutionary equations with applications in natural sciences

CERN Document Server

Mokhtar-Kharroubi, Mustapha

2015-01-01

With the unifying theme of abstract evolutionary equations, both linear and nonlinear, in a complex environment, the book presents a multidisciplinary blend of topics, spanning the fields of theoretical and applied functional analysis, partial differential equations, probability theory and numerical analysis applied to various models coming from theoretical physics, biology, engineering and complexity theory. The unique features of the book are: the first simultaneous presentation of two complementary approaches to fragmentation and coagulation problems, by weak compactness methods and by using semigroup techniques, comprehensive exposition of probabilistic methods of analysis of long term dynamics of dynamical systems, semigroup analysis of biological problems and cutting edge pattern formation theory. The book will appeal to postgraduate students and researchers specializing in applications of mathematics to problems arising in natural sciences and engineering.

The implement of java based GUI for data acquisition system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang Xiaoqing

2003-01-01

Web based technique have been used to produce a Graphic User Interface framework for small Data Acquisition System. A CORBA library used for the communication with the JRCS servers. The GUI was implemented by Java Swing. the integration between Java and CORBA provide a powerful independent distributed environment. (authors)

Effectiveness of Mobile Learning on Athletic Training Psychomotor Skill Acquisition

Science.gov (United States)

Davie, Emily; Martin, Malissa; Cuppett, Micki; Lebsack, Denise

2015-01-01

Context: Instruction of psychomotor skills is an important component of athletic training education. Accommodating the varied learning abilities and preferences of athletic training students can be challenging for an instructor initiating skill acquisition in a traditional face-to-face (F2F) environment. Video instruction available on mobile…

Declarative Knowledge Acquisition in Immersive Virtual Learning Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Webster, Rustin

2016-01-01

The author investigated the interaction effect of immersive virtual reality (VR) in the classroom. The objective of the project was to develop and provide a low-cost, scalable, and portable VR system containing purposely designed and developed immersive virtual learning environments for the US Army. The purpose of the mixed design experiment was…

Life as Thermodynamic Evidence of Algorithmic Structure in Natural Environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David A. Rosenblueth

2012-11-01

Full Text Available In evolutionary biology, attention to the relationship between stochastic organisms and their stochastic environments has leaned towards the adaptability and learning capabilities of the organisms rather than toward the properties of the environment. This article is devoted to the algorithmic aspects of the environment and its interaction with living organisms. We ask whether one may use the fact of the existence of life to establish how far nature is removed from algorithmic randomness. The paper uses a novel approach to behavioral evolutionary questions, using tools drawn from information theory, algorithmic complexity and the thermodynamics of computation to support an intuitive assumption about the near optimal structure of a physical environment that would prove conducive to the evolution and survival of organisms, and sketches the potential of these tools, at present alien to biology, that could be used in the future to address different and deeper questions. We contribute to the discussion of the algorithmic structure of natural environments and provide statistical and computational arguments for the intuitive claim that living systems would not be able to survive in completely unpredictable environments, even if adaptable and equipped with storage and learning capabilities by natural selection (brain memory or DNA.

Continual Online Evolutionary Planning for In-Game Build Order Adaptation in StarCraft

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Justesen, Niels Orsleff; Risi, Sebastian

2017-01-01

able to switch between predefined strategies, which makes it hard to adapt to new situations. This paper introduces an evolutionary-based method to overcome this challenge, called Continual Online Evolutionary Planning (COEP), which is able to perform in-game adaptive build-order planning. COEP......The real-time strategy game StarCraft has become an important benchmark for AI research as it poses a complex environment with numerous challenges. An important strategic aspect in this game is to decide what buildings and units to produce. StarCraft bots playing in AI competitions today are only...... was added to an open source StarCraft bot called UAlbertaBot and is able to outperform the built-in bots in the game as well as being competitive against a number of scripted opening strategies. The COEP augmented bot can change its build order dynamically and quickly adapt to the opponent’s strategy....

A Hybrid Chaotic Quantum Evolutionary Algorithm

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cai, Y.; Zhang, M.; Cai, H.

2010-01-01

A hybrid chaotic quantum evolutionary algorithm is proposed to reduce amount of computation, speed up convergence and restrain premature phenomena of quantum evolutionary algorithm. The proposed algorithm adopts the chaotic initialization method to generate initial population which will form a pe...... tests. The presented algorithm is applied to urban traffic signal timing optimization and the effect is satisfied....

Defense Acquisition Review Journal. Volume 16, Number 2

Science.gov (United States)

2009-07-01

acquisition workforce is reaching a point at which change— rapid, relentless change—will become the norm. The global marketplace and the billions of con...rapidly changing our professional and personal behavior. Oehlert works for the Research and Development Branch of the eLearning Technology Center at...arguably strategi- cally important conflicts emerged around the world. Put differently, the global security environment shifted dramatically during

Evolutionary Based Solutions for Green Computing

CERN Document Server

Kołodziej, Joanna; Li, Juan; Zomaya, Albert

2013-01-01

Today’s highly parameterized large-scale distributed computing systems may be composed  of a large number of various components (computers, databases, etc) and must provide a wide range of services. The users of such systems, located at different (geographical or managerial) network cluster may have a limited access to the system’s services and resources, and different, often conflicting, expectations and requirements. Moreover, the information and data processed in such dynamic environments may be incomplete, imprecise, fragmentary, and overloading. All of the above mentioned issues require some intelligent scalable methodologies for the management of the whole complex structure, which unfortunately may increase the energy consumption of such systems.   This book in its eight chapters, addresses the fundamental issues related to the energy usage and the optimal low-cost system design in high performance ``green computing’’ systems. The recent evolutionary and general metaheuristic-based solutions ...

Determining the Best Loci of Knowledge, Responsibilities and Decision Rights in Major Acquisition Organizations

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Dillard, John; Nissen, Mark E

2005-01-01

.... Building upon prior research of acquisition centralization and knowledge dynamics we employ computational methods to assess the behavior and performance of different organizational designs in varying environments...

Evolutionary medicine: its scope, interest and potential.

Science.gov (United States)

Stearns, Stephen C

2012-11-07

This review is aimed at readers seeking an introductory overview, teaching courses and interested in visionary ideas. It first describes the range of topics covered by evolutionary medicine, which include human genetic variation, mismatches to modernity, reproductive medicine, degenerative disease, host-pathogen interactions and insights from comparisons with other species. It then discusses priorities for translational research, basic research and health management. Its conclusions are that evolutionary thinking should not displace other approaches to medical science, such as molecular medicine and cell and developmental biology, but that evolutionary insights can combine with and complement established approaches to reduce suffering and save lives. Because we are on the cusp of so much new research and innovative insights, it is hard to estimate how much impact evolutionary thinking will have on medicine, but it is already clear that its potential is enormous.

Temporal knowledge and autobiographical memory: an evolutionary perspective

OpenAIRE

Skowronski, John J.; Sedikides, Constantine

2007-01-01

Section I: Philosophical issues 1. Evolutionary pyschology in the round , Robin Dunbar & Louise Barrett 2. The power of culture , Henry Plotkin 3. Evolution and psychology in philosophical perspective , Matteo Mameli 4. Niche construction, human behavioural ecology and evolutionary psychology , Kevin N Laland 5. Group level evolutionary processes , David Sloan Wilson Section II: The comparative Approach 6. Homologizing the mind , Drew Rendall, Hugh Nottman & John ...

Evolutionary Game Theory: A Renaissance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jonathan Newton

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Economic agents are not always rational or farsighted and can make decisions according to simple behavioral rules that vary according to situation and can be studied using the tools of evolutionary game theory. Furthermore, such behavioral rules are themselves subject to evolutionary forces. Paying particular attention to the work of young researchers, this essay surveys the progress made over the last decade towards understanding these phenomena, and discusses open research topics of importance to economics and the broader social sciences.

Biodiversity, Extinction, and Humanity’s Future: The Ecological and Evolutionary Consequences of Human Population and Resource Use

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patrick L. Hindmarsh

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Human actions have altered global environments and reduced biodiversity by causing extinctions and reducing the population sizes of surviving species. Increasing human population size and per capita resource use will continue to have direct and indirect ecological and evolutionary consequences. As a result, future generations will inhabit a planet with significantly less wildlife, reduced evolutionary potential, diminished ecosystem services, and an increased likelihood of contracting infectious disease. The magnitude of these effects will depend on the rate at which global human population and/or per capita resource use decline to sustainable levels and the degree to which population reductions result from increased death rates rather than decreased birth rates.

Mergers and acquisitions: some implications of cultural change.

Science.gov (United States)

Cavanaugh, S J

1996-01-01

A result of recent National Health Service reforms is the need to investigate, and possibly change, the culture of the professional working relationship between members of staff and their employer. This is particularly the case in situations of mergers and acquisitions where staff working from different cultural environments must work together. Mergers are becoming a feature of health service provision, perhaps this becomes most obvious with the recent moves by colleges of nursing and midwifery into the higher education sector and amalgamations of some purchasing authorities. Mergers highlight the practical issues of bringing together different organizational and work cultures to deliver a high quality service. This article discusses some aspects of the nature of organizational culture, the human impact of mergers and acquisitions and offers strategies for managing these events.

Agricultural land acquisitions: a lens on Southeast Asia

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Polack, Emily

2012-04-15

Recent years have seen 'land grabbing' emerge as a big issue in media houses across the world, with reporters quick to write about deals involving millions of hectares, particularly within Africa. Yet large-scale land acquisitions are not a purely African phenomenon. Other parts of the world are also subject to the global land rush. Home to emerging economies with profit potential, Southeast Asia has become ever more appealing to investors from both within and beyond the region seeking to include agriculture in their portfolios. Regional agribusiness companies are booming. And rapid change in land ownership and use is already taking place. Set against a backdrop of insecure rights and weak land governance, land acquisitions here are posing significant threats to local livelihoods and environments alike.

Reactor Emergency Action Level Monitor: Knowledge acquisition experiences

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Touchton, R.A.

1987-01-01

This paper presents the Knowledge Acquisition experiences in developing the Reactor Emergency Action Level Monitor (REALM) Expert System Prototype. REALM is an expert system which interprets plant sensor data and provides advice on the proper emergency classification. The REALM project is being funded by the Electric Power Research Institute, Consolidated Edison is serving as the host utility, and the effort is being conducted by Technology Applications, Inc. REALM is being designed to provide expert assistance in the identification of a nuclear power plant emergency situation and the determination of its severity, ultimately operating in a real-time, on-line processing environment. The paper discusses briefly the direct knowledge acquisition techniques used by the project team (who are themselves power industry engineers), to extract relevant knowledge from plant specifications and procedures

EFFECTIVE SCHEMES OF FINANCING MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS OF INTERNATIONAL CORPORATIONS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vladimir Momot

2013-10-01

Full Text Available The article considers the question of a choice of the optimum scheme of financing mergers and acquisitions (M&As in the environment of international corporations. Methods and ways of financing integration transactions are considered and key factors and system processes of realization of these transactions are defined.

Selection of energy source and evolutionary stable strategies for power plants under financial intervention of government

Science.gov (United States)

Hafezalkotob, Ashkan; Mahmoudi, Reza

2017-09-01

Currently, many socially responsible governments adopt economic incentives and deterrents to manage environmental impacts of electricity suppliers. Considering the Stackelberg leadership of the government, the government's role in the competition of power plants in an electricity market is investigated. A one-population evolutionary game model of power plants is developed to study how their production strategy depends on tariffs levied by the government. We establish that a unique evolutionary stable strategy (ESS) for the population exists. Numerical examples demonstrate that revenue maximization and environment protection policies of the government significantly affect the production ESS of competitive power plants. The results reveal that the government can introduce a green energy source as an ESS of the competitive power plants by imposing appropriate tariffs.

Remote control of data acquisition devices by means of message oriented middleware

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sanchez, E.; Portas, A.; Pereira, A.; Vega, J.; Kirpitchev, I.

2007-01-01

The TJ-II autonomous acquisition systems are computers running dedicated applications for programming and controlling data acquisition channels and also integrating acquired data into the central database. These computers are located in the experimental hall and have to be remotely controlled during plasma discharges. A remote control for these systems has been implemented by taking advantage of the message-oriented middleware recently introduced into the TJ-II data acquisition system. Java Message Service (JMS) is used as the messaging application program interface. All the acquisition actions that are available through the system console of the data acquisition computers (starting or aborting an acquisition, restarting the system or updating the acquisition application) can now be initiated remotely. Command messages are sent to the acquisition systems located in the experimental hall close to the TJ-II device by using the messaging software, without having to use a remote desktop application that produces heavy network traffic and requires manual operation. Action commands can be sent to only one or to several/many acquisition systems at the same time. This software is integrated into the TJ-II remote participation system and the acquisition systems can be commanded from inside or outside the laboratory. All this software is integrated into the security framework provided by PAPI, thus preventing non-authorized users commanding the acquisition computers. In order to dimension and distribute messaging services some performance tests of the message oriented middleware software have been carried out. Results of the tests are presented. As suggested by the tests results different transport connectors are used: TCP transport protocol is used for the local environment, while HTTP protocol is used for remote accesses, thereby allowing the system performance to be optimized

Remote control of data acquisition devices by means of message oriented middleware

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sanchez, E. [Asociacion EURATOM/CIEMAT para Fusion, Madrid (Spain)], E-mail: edi.sanchez@ciemat.es; Portas, A.; Pereira, A.; Vega, J.; Kirpitchev, I. [Asociacion EURATOM/CIEMAT para Fusion, Madrid (Spain)

2007-10-15

The TJ-II autonomous acquisition systems are computers running dedicated applications for programming and controlling data acquisition channels and also integrating acquired data into the central database. These computers are located in the experimental hall and have to be remotely controlled during plasma discharges. A remote control for these systems has been implemented by taking advantage of the message-oriented middleware recently introduced into the TJ-II data acquisition system. Java Message Service (JMS) is used as the messaging application program interface. All the acquisition actions that are available through the system console of the data acquisition computers (starting or aborting an acquisition, restarting the system or updating the acquisition application) can now be initiated remotely. Command messages are sent to the acquisition systems located in the experimental hall close to the TJ-II device by using the messaging software, without having to use a remote desktop application that produces heavy network traffic and requires manual operation. Action commands can be sent to only one or to several/many acquisition systems at the same time. This software is integrated into the TJ-II remote participation system and the acquisition systems can be commanded from inside or outside the laboratory. All this software is integrated into the security framework provided by PAPI, thus preventing non-authorized users commanding the acquisition computers. In order to dimension and distribute messaging services some performance tests of the message oriented middleware software have been carried out. Results of the tests are presented. As suggested by the tests results different transport connectors are used: TCP transport protocol is used for the local environment, while HTTP protocol is used for remote accesses, thereby allowing the system performance to be optimized.

VESPA: Very large-scale Evolutionary and Selective Pressure Analyses

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrew E. Webb

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Background Large-scale molecular evolutionary analyses of protein coding sequences requires a number of preparatory inter-related steps from finding gene families, to generating alignments and phylogenetic trees and assessing selective pressure variation. Each phase of these analyses can represent significant challenges, particularly when working with entire proteomes (all protein coding sequences in a genome from a large number of species. Methods We present VESPA, software capable of automating a selective pressure analysis using codeML in addition to the preparatory analyses and summary statistics. VESPA is written in python and Perl and is designed to run within a UNIX environment. Results We have benchmarked VESPA and our results show that the method is consistent, performs well on both large scale and smaller scale datasets, and produces results in line with previously published datasets. Discussion Large-scale gene family identification, sequence alignment, and phylogeny reconstruction are all important aspects of large-scale molecular evolutionary analyses. VESPA provides flexible software for simplifying these processes along with downstream selective pressure variation analyses. The software automatically interprets results from codeML and produces simplified summary files to assist the user in better understanding the results. VESPA may be found at the following website: http://www.mol-evol.org/VESPA.

Evolutionary Computation and Its Applications in Neural and Fuzzy Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Biaobiao Zhang

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Neural networks and fuzzy systems are two soft-computing paradigms for system modelling. Adapting a neural or fuzzy system requires to solve two optimization problems: structural optimization and parametric optimization. Structural optimization is a discrete optimization problem which is very hard to solve using conventional optimization techniques. Parametric optimization can be solved using conventional optimization techniques, but the solution may be easily trapped at a bad local optimum. Evolutionary computation is a general-purpose stochastic global optimization approach under the universally accepted neo-Darwinian paradigm, which is a combination of the classical Darwinian evolutionary theory, the selectionism of Weismann, and the genetics of Mendel. Evolutionary algorithms are a major approach to adaptation and optimization. In this paper, we first introduce evolutionary algorithms with emphasis on genetic algorithms and evolutionary strategies. Other evolutionary algorithms such as genetic programming, evolutionary programming, particle swarm optimization, immune algorithm, and ant colony optimization are also described. Some topics pertaining to evolutionary algorithms are also discussed, and a comparison between evolutionary algorithms and simulated annealing is made. Finally, the application of EAs to the learning of neural networks as well as to the structural and parametric adaptations of fuzzy systems is also detailed.

Mergers and Acquisitions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Risberg, Annette

Introduction to the study of mergers and acquisitions. This book provides an understanding of the mergers and acquisitions process, how and why they occur, and also the broader implications for organizations. It presents issues including motives and planning, partner selection, integration......, employee experiences and communication. Mergers and acquisitions remain one of the most common forms of growth, yet they present considerable challenges for the companies and management involved. The effects on stakeholders, including shareholders, managers and employees, must be considered as well...... by editorial commentaries and reflects the important organizational and behavioural aspects which have often been ignored in the past. By providing this in-depth understanding of the mergers and acquisitions process, the reader understands not only how and why mergers and acquisitions occur, but also...

The integration of Darwinism and evolutionary morphology: Alexej Nikolajevich Sewertzoff (1866-1936) and the developmental basis of evolutionary change.

Science.gov (United States)

Levit, George S; Hossfeld, Uwe; Olsson, Lennart

2004-07-15

The growth of evolutionary morphology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was inspired by the work of Carl Gegenbaur (1826-1903) and his protégé and friend Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919). However, neither of them succeeded in creating and applying a strictly Darwinian (selectionist) methodology. This task was left to the next generation of evolutionary morphologists. In this paper we present a relatively unknown researcher, Alexej Nikolajevich Sewertzoff (1866-1936) who made important contributions towards a synthesis of Darwinism and evolutionary morphology. Copyright 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Islamic medicine and evolutionary medicine: a comparative analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Saniotis, Arthur

2012-01-01

The advent of evolutionary medicine in the last two decades has provided new insights into the causes of human disease and possible preventative strategies. One of the strengths of evolutionary medicine is that it follows a multi-disciplinary approach. Such an approach is vital to future biomedicine as it enables for the infiltration of new ideas. Although evolutionary medicine uses Darwinian evolution as a heuristic for understanding human beings' susceptibility to disease, this is not necessarily in conflict with Islamic medicine. It should be noted that current evolutionary theory was first expounded by various Muslim scientists such as al-Jāḥiẓ, al-Ṭūsī, Ibn Khaldūn and Ibn Maskawayh centuries before Darwin and Wallace. In this way, evolution should not be viewed as being totally antithetical to Islam. This article provides a comparative overview of Islamic medicine and Evolutionary medicine as well as drawing points of comparison between the two approaches which enables their possible future integration.

Evolutionary engineering for industrial microbiology.

Science.gov (United States)

Vanee, Niti; Fisher, Adam B; Fong, Stephen S

2012-01-01

Superficially, evolutionary engineering is a paradoxical field that balances competing interests. In natural settings, evolution iteratively selects and enriches subpopulations that are best adapted to a particular ecological niche using random processes such as genetic mutation. In engineering desired approaches utilize rational prospective design to address targeted problems. When considering details of evolutionary and engineering processes, more commonality can be found. Engineering relies on detailed knowledge of the problem parameters and design properties in order to predict design outcomes that would be an optimized solution. When detailed knowledge of a system is lacking, engineers often employ algorithmic search strategies to identify empirical solutions. Evolution epitomizes this iterative optimization by continuously diversifying design options from a parental design, and then selecting the progeny designs that represent satisfactory solutions. In this chapter, the technique of applying the natural principles of evolution to engineer microbes for industrial applications is discussed to highlight the challenges and principles of evolutionary engineering.

Handbook of differential equations evolutionary equations

CERN Document Server

Dafermos, CM

2008-01-01

The material collected in this volume discusses the present as well as expected future directions of development of the field with particular emphasis on applications. The seven survey articles present different topics in Evolutionary PDE's, written by leading experts.- Review of new results in the area- Continuation of previous volumes in the handbook series covering Evolutionary PDEs- Written by leading experts

Attachment within life history theory: an evolutionary perspective on individual differences in attachment.

Science.gov (United States)

Szepsenwol, Ohad; Simpson, Jeffry A

2018-03-15

In this article, we discuss theory and research on how individual differences in adult attachment mediate the adaptive calibration of reproductive strategies, cognitive schemas, and emotional expression and regulation. We first present an integration of attachment theory and life history theory. Then, we discuss how early harsh and/or unpredictable environments may promote insecure attachment by hampering parents' ability to provide sensitive and reliable care to their children. Finally, we discuss how, in the context of harsh and/or unpredictable environments, different types of insecure attachment (i.e. anxiety and avoidance) may promote evolutionary adaptive reproductive strategies, cognitive schemas, and emotional expression and regulation profiles. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The evolutionary ecology of cytonuclear interactions in angiosperms.

Science.gov (United States)

Caruso, Christina M; Case, Andrea L; Bailey, Maia F

2012-11-01

Interactions between cytoplasmic and nuclear genomes have significant evolutionary consequences. In angiosperms, the most common cytonuclear interaction is between mitochondrial genes that disrupt pollen production (cytoplasmic male sterility, CMS) and nuclear genes that restore it (nuclear male fertility restorers, Rf). The outcome of CMS/Rf interactions can depend on whether Rf alleles have negative pleiotropic effects on fitness. Although these fitness costs are often considered to be independent of the ecological context, we argue that the effects of Rf alleles on fitness should be context dependent. Thus, measuring the cost of restoration across a range of environments could help explain geographic and phylogenetic variation in the distribution of Rf alleles and the outcome of CMS/Rf interactions. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Convergent Metabolic Specialization through Distinct Evolutionary Paths in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Science.gov (United States)

La Rosa, Ruggero; Johansen, Helle Krogh; Molin, Søren

2018-04-10

Evolution by natural selection under complex and dynamic environmental conditions occurs through intricate and often counterintuitive trajectories affecting many genes and metabolic solutions. To study short- and long-term evolution of bacteria in vivo , we used the natural model system of cystic fibrosis (CF) infection. In this work, we investigated how and through which trajectories evolution of Pseudomonas aeruginosa occurs when migrating from the environment to the airways of CF patients, and specifically, we determined reduction of growth rate and metabolic specialization as signatures of adaptive evolution. We show that central metabolic pathways of three distinct Pseudomonas aeruginosa lineages coevolving within the same environment become restructured at the cost of versatility during long-term colonization. Cell physiology changes from naive to adapted phenotypes resulted in (i) alteration of growth potential that particularly converged to a slow-growth phenotype, (ii) alteration of nutritional requirements due to auxotrophy, (iii) tailored preference for carbon source assimilation from CF sputum, (iv) reduced arginine and pyruvate fermentation processes, and (v) increased oxygen requirements. Interestingly, although convergence was evidenced at the phenotypic level of metabolic specialization, comparative genomics disclosed diverse mutational patterns underlying the different evolutionary trajectories. Therefore, distinct combinations of genetic and regulatory changes converge to common metabolic adaptive trajectories leading to within-host metabolic specialization. This study gives new insight into bacterial metabolic evolution during long-term colonization of a new environmental niche. IMPORTANCE Only a few examples of real-time evolutionary investigations in environments outside the laboratory are described in the scientific literature. Remembering that biological evolution, as it has progressed in nature, has not taken place in test tubes, it is not

Clustered data acquisition for the CMS experiment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gutleber, J.; Antchev, G.; Cano, E.; Csilling, A.; Cittolin, S.; Gigi, D.; Gras, P.; Jacobs, C.; Meijers, F.; Meschi, E.; Oh, A.; Orsini, L.; Pollet, L.; Racz, A.; Samyn, D.; Schwick, C.; Zangrando, L.; Erhan, S.; Gulmini, M.; Sphicas, P.; Ninane, A.

2001-01-01

Powerful mainstream computing equipment and the advent of affordable multi-Gigabit communication technology allow us to tackle data acquisition problems with clusters of inexpensive computers. Such networks typically incorporate heterogeneous platforms, real-time partitions and custom devices. Therefore, one must strive for a software infrastructure that efficiently combines the nodes to a single, unified resource for the user. Overall requirements for such middleware are high efficiency and configuration flexibility. Intelligent I/O (I 2 O) is an industry specification that defines a uniform messaging format and executing model for processor-enabled communication equipment. Mapping this concept to a distributed computing environment and encapsulating the details of the specification into an application-programming framework allow us to provide run-time support for cluster operation. The authors give a brief overview of a framework, XDAQ that we designed and implemented at CERN for the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment's prototype data acquisition system

Evolutionary algorithms for mobile ad hoc networks

CERN Document Server

Dorronsoro, Bernabé; Danoy, Grégoire; Pigné, Yoann; Bouvry, Pascal

2014-01-01

Describes how evolutionary algorithms (EAs) can be used to identify, model, and minimize day-to-day problems that arise for researchers in optimization and mobile networking. Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), vehicular networks (VANETs), sensor networks (SNs), and hybrid networks—each of these require a designer’s keen sense and knowledge of evolutionary algorithms in order to help with the common issues that plague professionals involved in optimization and mobile networking. This book introduces readers to both mobile ad hoc networks and evolutionary algorithms, presenting basic concepts as well as detailed descriptions of each. It demonstrates how metaheuristics and evolutionary algorithms (EAs) can be used to help provide low-cost operations in the optimization process—allowing designers to put some “intelligence” or sophistication into the design. It also offers efficient and accurate information on dissemination algorithms topology management, and mobility models to address challenges in the ...

Evolutionary change in physiological phenotypes along the human lineage.

Science.gov (United States)

Vining, Alexander Q; Nunn, Charles L

2016-01-01

Research in evolutionary medicine provides many examples of how evolution has shaped human susceptibility to disease. Traits undergoing rapid evolutionary change may result in associated costs or reduce the energy available to other traits. We hypothesize that humans have experienced more such changes than other primates as a result of major evolutionary change along the human lineage. We investigated 41 physiological traits across 50 primate species to identify traits that have undergone marked evolutionary change along the human lineage. We analysed the data using two Bayesian phylogenetic comparative methods. One approach models trait covariation in non-human primates and predicts human phenotypes to identify whether humans are evolutionary outliers. The other approach models adaptive shifts under an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model of evolution to assess whether inferred shifts are more common on the human branch than on other primate lineages. We identified four traits with strong evidence for an evolutionary increase on the human lineage (amylase, haematocrit, phosphorus and monocytes) and one trait with strong evidence for decrease (neutrophilic bands). Humans exhibited more cases of distinct evolutionary change than other primates. Human physiology has undergone increased evolutionary change compared to other primates. Long distance running may have contributed to increases in haematocrit and mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration, while dietary changes are likely related to increases in amylase. In accordance with the pathogen load hypothesis, human monocyte levels were increased, but many other immune-related measures were not. Determining the mechanisms underlying conspicuous evolutionary change in these traits may provide new insights into human disease. The Author(s) 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Foundation for Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health.

Design and development of a data acquisition system for photovoltaic modules characterization

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Belmili, Hocine [Unite de Developpement des Equipements Solaires (UDES), Route Nationale No11, Bou-Isamil BP 365, Tipaza 42415, Algerie; Ait Cheikh, Salah Med; Haddadi, Mourad; Larbes, Cherif [Ecole Nationale Polytechnique, Laboratoire de Dispositifs de Communication et de Conversion Photovoltaique (LDCCP), 10 Avenue Hassen Badi, El Harrach 16200 Alger (Algeria)

2010-07-15

Testing photovoltaic generators performance is complicated. This is due to the influence of a variety of interactive parameters related to the environment such as solar irradiation and temperature in addition to solar cell material (mono-crystalline, poly-crystalline, amorphous and thin films). This paper presents a computer-based instrumentation system for the characterization of the photovoltaic (PV) conversion. It based on a design of a data acquisition system (DAQS) allowing the acquisition and the drawing of the characterization measure of PV modules in real meteorological test conditions. (author)

Human genomic disease variants: a neutral evolutionary explanation.

Science.gov (United States)

Dudley, Joel T; Kim, Yuseob; Liu, Li; Markov, Glenn J; Gerold, Kristyn; Chen, Rong; Butte, Atul J; Kumar, Sudhir

2012-08-01

Many perspectives on the role of evolution in human health include nonempirical assumptions concerning the adaptive evolutionary origins of human diseases. Evolutionary analyses of the increasing wealth of clinical and population genomic data have begun to challenge these presumptions. In order to systematically evaluate such claims, the time has come to build a common framework for an empirical and intellectual unification of evolution and modern medicine. We review the emerging evidence and provide a supporting conceptual framework that establishes the classical neutral theory of molecular evolution (NTME) as the basis for evaluating disease- associated genomic variations in health and medicine. For over a decade, the NTME has already explained the origins and distribution of variants implicated in diseases and has illuminated the power of evolutionary thinking in genomic medicine. We suggest that a majority of disease variants in modern populations will have neutral evolutionary origins (previously neutral), with a relatively smaller fraction exhibiting adaptive evolutionary origins (previously adaptive). This pattern is expected to hold true for common as well as rare disease variants. Ultimately, a neutral evolutionary perspective will provide medicine with an informative and actionable framework that enables objective clinical assessment beyond convenient tendencies to invoke past adaptive events in human history as a root cause of human disease.

Comparing Evolutionary Strategies on a Biobjective Cultural Algorithm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carolina Lagos

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Evolutionary algorithms have been widely used to solve large and complex optimisation problems. Cultural algorithms (CAs are evolutionary algorithms that have been used to solve both single and, to a less extent, multiobjective optimisation problems. In order to solve these optimisation problems, CAs make use of different strategies such as normative knowledge, historical knowledge, circumstantial knowledge, and among others. In this paper we present a comparison among CAs that make use of different evolutionary strategies; the first one implements a historical knowledge, the second one considers a circumstantial knowledge, and the third one implements a normative knowledge. These CAs are applied on a biobjective uncapacitated facility location problem (BOUFLP, the biobjective version of the well-known uncapacitated facility location problem. To the best of our knowledge, only few articles have applied evolutionary multiobjective algorithms on the BOUFLP and none of those has focused on the impact of the evolutionary strategy on the algorithm performance. Our biobjective cultural algorithm, called BOCA, obtains important improvements when compared to other well-known evolutionary biobjective optimisation algorithms such as PAES and NSGA-II. The conflicting objective functions considered in this study are cost minimisation and coverage maximisation. Solutions obtained by each algorithm are compared using a hypervolume S metric.

Research on IoT-based water environment benchmark data acquisition management

Science.gov (United States)

Yan, Bai; Xue, Bai; Ling, Lin; Jin, Huang; Ren, Liu

2017-11-01

Over the past more than 30 years of reform and opening up, China’s economy has developed at a full speed. However, this rapid growth is under restrictions of resource exhaustion and environmental pollution. Green sustainable development has become a common goal of all humans. As part of environmental resources, water resources are faced with such problems as pollution and shortage, thus hindering sustainable development. The top priority in water resources protection and research is to manage the basic data on water resources, and determine what is the footstone and scientific foundation of water environment management. By studying the aquatic organisms in the Yangtze River Basin, the Yellow River Basin, the Liaohe River Basin and the 5 lake areas, this paper puts forward an IoT-based water environment benchmark data management platform which can transform parameters measured to electric signals by way of chemical probe identification, and then send the benchmark test data of the water environment to node servers. The management platform will provide data and theoretical support for environmental chemistry, toxicology, ecology, etc., promote researches on environmental sciences, lay a solid foundation for comprehensive and systematic research on China’s regional environment characteristics, biotoxicity effects and environment criteria, and provide objective data for compiling standards of the water environment benchmark data.

Evolutionary rescue and local adaptation under different rates of temperature increase: a combined analysis of changes in phenotype expression and genotype frequency in Paramecium microcosms.

Science.gov (United States)

Killeen, Joshua; Gougat-Barbera, Claire; Krenek, Sascha; Kaltz, Oliver

2017-04-01

Evolutionary rescue (ER) occurs when populations, which have declined due to rapid environmental change, recover through genetic adaptation. The success of this process and the evolutionary trajectory of the population strongly depend on the rate of environmental change. Here we investigated how different rates of temperature increase (from 23 to 32 °C) affect population persistence and evolutionary change in experimental microcosms of the protozoan Paramecium caudatum. Consistent with theory on ER, we found that those populations experiencing the slowest rate of temperature increase were the least likely to become extinct and tended to be the best adapted to the new temperature environment. All high-temperature populations were more tolerant to severe heat stress (35, 37 °C), indicating a common mechanism of heat protection. High-temperature populations also had superior growth rates at optimum temperatures, leading to the absence of a pattern of local adaptation to control (23 °C) and high-temperature (32 °C) environments. However, high-temperature populations had reduced growth at low temperatures (5-9 °C), causing a shift in the temperature niche. In part, the observed evolutionary change can be explained by selection from standing variation. Using mitochondrial markers, we found complete divergence between control and high-temperature populations in the frequencies of six initial founder genotypes. Our results confirm basic predictions of ER and illustrate how adaptation to an extreme local environment can produce positive as well as negative correlated responses to selection over the entire range of the ecological niche. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

A Flexible Microcontroller-Based Data Acquisition Device

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Darko Hercog

2014-06-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a low-cost microcontroller-based data acquisition device. The key component of the presented solution is a configurable microcontroller-based device with an integrated USB transceiver and a 12-bit analogue-to-digital converter (ADC. The presented embedded DAQ device contains a preloaded program (firmware that enables easy acquisition and generation of analogue and digital signals and data transfer between the device and the application running on a PC via USB bus. This device has been developed as a USB human interface device (HID. This USB class is natively supported by most of the operating systems and therefore any installation of additional USB drivers is unnecessary. The input/output peripheral of the presented device is not static but rather flexible, and could be easily configured to customised needs without changing the firmware. When using the developed configuration utility, a majority of chip pins can be configured as analogue input, digital input/output, PWM output or one of the SPI lines. In addition, LabVIEW drivers have been developed for this device. When using the developed drivers, data acquisition and signal processing algorithms as well as graphical user interface (GUI, can easily be developed using a well-known, industry proven, block oriented LabVIEW programming environment.

A flexible microcontroller-based data acquisition device.

Science.gov (United States)

Hercog, Darko; Gergič, Bojan

2014-06-02

This paper presents a low-cost microcontroller-based data acquisition device. The key component of the presented solution is a configurable microcontroller-based device with an integrated USB transceiver and a 12-bit analogue-to-digital converter (ADC). The presented embedded DAQ device contains a preloaded program (firmware) that enables easy acquisition and generation of analogue and digital signals and data transfer between the device and the application running on a PC via USB bus. This device has been developed as a USB human interface device (HID). This USB class is natively supported by most of the operating systems and therefore any installation of additional USB drivers is unnecessary. The input/output peripheral of the presented device is not static but rather flexible, and could be easily configured to customised needs without changing the firmware. When using the developed configuration utility, a majority of chip pins can be configured as analogue input, digital input/output, PWM output or one of the SPI lines. In addition, LabVIEW drivers have been developed for this device. When using the developed drivers, data acquisition and signal processing algorithms as well as graphical user interface (GUI), can easily be developed using a well-known, industry proven, block oriented LabVIEW programming environment.

Study on the evolutionary optimization of the topology of network control systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhou, Z.; Chen, B.; Wang, H.

2010-01-01

Computer networks have been very popular in enterprise applications. However, optimisation of network designs that allows networks to be used more efficiently in industrial environment and enterprise applications remains an interesting research topic. This article mainly discusses the topology...... control network are considered in the optimisation process. In respect to the evolutionary algorithm design, an improved arena algorithm is proposed for the construction of the non-dominated set of the population. In addition, for the evaluation of individuals, the integrated use of the dominative...

Effects of Help Options in a Multimedia Listening Environment on L2 Vocabulary Acquisition

Science.gov (United States)

Mohsen, Mohammed Ali

2016-01-01

Several types of help options have been incorporated into reading and listening comprehension activities to aid second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition. Textbook authors, teachers, and sometimes even students may pick and choose which help options they wish to use. In this paper, I investigate the effects of two help options in a multimedia…

Citizen science reveals unexpected continental-scale evolutionary change in a model organism.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jonathan Silvertown

2011-04-01

Full Text Available Organisms provide some of the most sensitive indicators of climate change and evolutionary responses are becoming apparent in species with short generation times. Large datasets on genetic polymorphism that can provide an historical benchmark against which to test for recent evolutionary responses are very rare, but an exception is found in the brown-lipped banded snail (Cepaea nemoralis. This species is sensitive to its thermal environment and exhibits several polymorphisms of shell colour and banding pattern affecting shell albedo in the majority of populations within its native range in Europe. We tested for evolutionary changes in shell albedo that might have been driven by the warming of the climate in Europe over the last half century by compiling an historical dataset for 6,515 native populations of C. nemoralis and comparing this with new data on nearly 3,000 populations. The new data were sampled mainly in 2009 through the Evolution MegaLab, a citizen science project that engaged thousands of volunteers in 15 countries throughout Europe in the biggest such exercise ever undertaken. A known geographic cline in the frequency of the colour phenotype with the highest albedo (yellow was shown to have persisted and a difference in colour frequency between woodland and more open habitats was confirmed, but there was no general increase in the frequency of yellow shells. This may have been because snails adapted to a warming climate through behavioural thermoregulation. By contrast, we detected an unexpected decrease in the frequency of Unbanded shells and an increase in the Mid-banded morph. Neither of these evolutionary changes appears to be a direct response to climate change, indicating that the influence of other selective agents, possibly related to changing predation pressure and habitat change with effects on micro-climate.

The four cornerstones of Evolutionary Toxicology.

Science.gov (United States)

Bickham, John W

2011-05-01

Evolutionary Toxicology is the study of the effects of chemical pollutants on the genetics of natural populations. Research in Evolutionary Toxicology uses experimental designs familiar to the ecotoxicologist with matched reference and contaminated sites and the selection of sentinel species. It uses the methods of molecular genetics and population genetics, and is based on the theories and concepts of evolutionary biology and conservation genetics. Although it is a relatively young field, interest is rapidly growing among ecotoxicologists and more and more field studies and even controlled laboratory experiments are appearing in the literature. A number of population genetic impacts have been observed in organisms exposed to pollutants which I refer to here as the four cornerstones of Evolutionary Toxicology. These include (1) genome-wide changes in genetic diversity, (2) changes in allelic or genotypic frequencies caused by contaminant-induced selection acting at survivorship loci, (3) changes in dispersal patterns or gene flow which alter the genetic relationships among populations, and (4) changes in allelic or genotypic frequencies caused by increased mutation rates. It is concluded that population genetic impacts of pollution exposure are emergent effects that are not necessarily predictable from the mode of toxicity of the pollutant. Thus, to attribute an effect to a particular contaminant requires a careful experimental design which includes selection of appropriate reference sites, detailed chemistry analyses of environmental samples and tissues, and the use of appropriate biomarkers to establish exposure and effect. This paper describes the field of Evolutionary Toxicology and discusses relevant field studies and their findings. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011

Applied evolutionary economics and economic geography

OpenAIRE

Peter Sunley

2008-01-01

Applied Evolutionary Economics and Economic Geography aims to further advance empirical methodologies in evolutionary economics, with a special emphasis on geography and firm location. It does so by bringing together a select group of leading scholars including economists, geographers and sociologists, all of whom share an interest in explaining the uneven distribution of economic activities in space and the historical processes that have produced these patterns.

Vibrio Iron Transport: Evolutionary Adaptation to Life in Multiple Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Mey, Alexandra R.; Wyckoff, Elizabeth E.

2015-01-01

SUMMARY Iron is an essential element for Vibrio spp., but the acquisition of iron is complicated by its tendency to form insoluble ferric complexes in nature and its association with high-affinity iron-binding proteins in the host. Vibrios occupy a variety of different niches, and each of these niches presents particular challenges for acquiring sufficient iron. Vibrio species have evolved a wide array of iron transport systems that allow the bacteria to compete for this essential element in each of its habitats. These systems include the secretion and uptake of high-affinity iron-binding compounds (siderophores) as well as transport systems for iron bound to host complexes. Transporters for ferric and ferrous iron not complexed to siderophores are also common to Vibrio species. Some of the genes encoding these systems show evidence of horizontal transmission, and the ability to acquire and incorporate additional iron transport systems may have allowed Vibrio species to more rapidly adapt to new environmental niches. While too little iron prevents growth of the bacteria, too much can be lethal. The appropriate balance is maintained in vibrios through complex regulatory networks involving transcriptional repressors and activators and small RNAs (sRNAs) that act posttranscriptionally. Examination of the number and variety of iron transport systems found in Vibrio spp. offers insights into how this group of bacteria has adapted to such a wide range of habitats. PMID:26658001

On economic applications of evolutionary game theory

OpenAIRE

Daniel Friedman

1998-01-01

Evolutionary games have considerable unrealized potential for modeling substantive economic issues. They promise richer predictions than orthodox game models but often require more extensive specifications. This paper exposits the specification of evolutionary game models and classifies the possible asymptotic behavior for one and two dimensional models.

On the Evolutionary Stability of Bargaining Inefficiency

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Poulsen, Anders

This paper investigates whether 'tough' bargaining behavior, which gives rise to inefficiency, can be evolutionary stable. We show that in a two-stage Nash Demand Game tough behavior survives. Indeed, almost all the surplus may be wasted. We also study the Ultimatum Game. Here evolutionary select...

Evolutionary Robotics: What, Why, and Where to

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephane eDoncieux

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Evolutionary robotics applies the selection, variation, and heredity principles of natural evolution to the design of robots with embodied intelligence. It can be considered as a subfield of robotics that aims to create more robust and adaptive robots. A pivotal feature of the evolutionary approach is that it considers the whole robot at once, and enables the exploitation of robot features in a holistic manner. Evolutionary robotics can also be seen as an innovative approach to the study of evolution based on a new kind of experimentalism. The use of robots as a substrate can help address questions that are difficult, if not impossible, to investigate through computer simulations or biological studies. In this paper we consider the main achievements of evolutionary robotics, focusing particularly on its contributions to both engineering and biology. We briefly elaborate on methodological issues, review some of the most interesting findings, and discuss important open issues and promising avenues for future work.

Capturing the real value in high-tech acquisitions.

Science.gov (United States)

Chaudhuri, S; Tabrizi, B

1999-01-01

Eager to stay ahead of fast-changing markets, more and more high-tech companies are going outside for competitive advantage. Last year in the United States alone, there were 5,000 high-tech acquisitions, but many of them yielded disappointing results. The reason, the authors contend, is that most managers have a shortsighted view of strategic acquisitions--they focus on the specific products or market share. That focus might make sense in some industries, where those assets can confer substantial advantages, but in high tech, full-fledged technological capabilities--tied to skilled people--are the key to long-term success. Instead of simply following the "buzz," successful acquires systematically assess their own capability needs. They create product road maps to identify holes in their product line. While the business group determines if it can do the work in-house, the business development office scouts for opportunities to buy it. Once business development locates a candidate, it conducts an expanded due diligence, which goes beyond strategic, financial, and legal checks. Successful acquires are focused on long-term capabilities, so they make sure that the target's products reflect a real expertise. They also look to see if key people would be comfortable in the new environment and if they have incentives to stay on board. The final stage of a successful acquisition focuses on retaining the new people--making sure their transition goes smoothly and their energies stay focused. Acquisitions can cause great uncertainty, and skilled people can always go elsewhere. In short, the authors argue, high-tech acquisitions need a new orientation around people, not products.

CAMAC data acquisition system based on micro VAXII

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yin Xijin; Shen Cuihua; Bai Xiaowei; Li Weisheng

1993-01-01

The CAMAC data acquisition system based on Micro VAXII Computer provides high-speed, Zero-suppressed, and 256-parameter CAMAC acquisition. It consists of three parts: control logic unit, CAMAC readout system and host computer system. When the control logical unit is triggered by external electronic selection signal, it produces a pilot signal to keep all of the parameters of a particular event together. Event-model data have been collected by using a CAMAC Fast Crate controller. The host computer system, in hard environment, is equipped with certain peripheral device. It includes the following: 1. at least two M990 GCR, 6250B/inch, magnetic tape driver operating at 75 inches per second or faster; 2. a Tektronix 4014 storage scope; 3. a laser printer, LND3-AE or copier which is capable of making hard-copies of Tektronix 4014 screen; 4. a control console device and a line printer; 5. x-press color graphics terminal; 6. DEC network. When the system is in real-time acquisition, it is able, on-line, to handle and analyse data stream, to monitor and control experiment and to display dynamically spectra on the Tektronix 4014

Evolutionary ethics from Darwin to Moore.

Science.gov (United States)

Allhoff, Fritz

2003-01-01

Evolutionary ethics has a long history, dating all the way back to Charles Darwin. Almost immediately after the publication of the Origin, an immense interest arose in the moral implications of Darwinism and whether the truth of Darwinism would undermine traditional ethics. Though the biological thesis was certainly exciting, nobody suspected that the impact of the Origin would be confined to the scientific arena. As one historian wrote, 'whether or not ancient populations of armadillos were transformed into the species that currently inhabit the new world was certainly a topic about which zoologists could disagree. But it was in discussing the broader implications of the theory...that tempers flared and statements were made which could transform what otherwise would have been a quiet scholarly meeting into a social scandal' (Farber 1994, 22). Some resistance to the biological thesis of Darwinism sprung from the thought that it was incompatible with traditional morality and, since one of them had to go, many thought that Darwinism should be rejected. However, some people did realize that a secular ethics was possible so, even if Darwinism did undermine traditional religious beliefs, it need not have any effects on moral thought. Before I begin my discussion of evolutionary ethics from Darwin to Moore, I would like to make some more general remarks about its development. There are three key events during this history of evolutionary ethics. First, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of the Species (Darwin 1859). Since one did not have a fully developed theory of evolution until 1859, there exists little work on evolutionary ethics until then. Shortly thereafter, Herbert Spencer (1898) penned the first systematic theory of evolutionary ethics, which was promptly attacked by T.H. Huxley (Huxley 1894). Second, at about the turn of the century, moral philosophers entered the fray and attempted to demonstrate logical errors in Spencer's work; such errors were alluded

Workshop on data acquisition and trigger system simulations for high energy physics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1992-12-31

This report discusses the following topics: DAQSIM: A data acquisition system simulation tool; Front end and DCC Simulations for the SDC Straw Tube System; Simulation of Non-Blocklng Data Acquisition Architectures; Simulation Studies of the SDC Data Collection Chip; Correlation Studies of the Data Collection Circuit & The Design of a Queue for this Circuit; Fast Data Compression & Transmission from a Silicon Strip Wafer; Simulation of SCI Protocols in Modsim; Visual Design with vVHDL; Stochastic Simulation of Asynchronous Buffers; SDC Trigger Simulations; Trigger Rates, DAQ & Online Processing at the SSC; Planned Enhancements to MODSEM II & SIMOBJECT -- an Overview -- R.; DAGAR -- A synthesis system; Proposed Silicon Compiler for Physics Applications; Timed -- LOTOS in a PROLOG Environment: an Algebraic language for Simulation; Modeling and Simulation of an Event Builder for High Energy Physics Data Acquisition Systems; A Verilog Simulation for the CDF DAQ; Simulation to Design with Verilog; The DZero Data Acquisition System: Model and Measurements; DZero Trigger Level 1.5 Modeling; Strategies Optimizing Data Load in the DZero Triggers; Simulation of the DZero Level 2 Data Acquisition System; A Fast Method for Calculating DZero Level 1 Jet Trigger Properties and Physics Input to DAQ Studies.

Workshop on data acquisition and trigger system simulations for high energy physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1992-01-01

This report discusses the following topics: DAQSIM: A data acquisition system simulation tool; Front end and DCC Simulations for the SDC Straw Tube System; Simulation of Non-Blocklng Data Acquisition Architectures; Simulation Studies of the SDC Data Collection Chip; Correlation Studies of the Data Collection Circuit ampersand The Design of a Queue for this Circuit; Fast Data Compression ampersand Transmission from a Silicon Strip Wafer; Simulation of SCI Protocols in Modsim; Visual Design with vVHDL; Stochastic Simulation of Asynchronous Buffers; SDC Trigger Simulations; Trigger Rates, DAQ ampersand Online Processing at the SSC; Planned Enhancements to MODSEM II ampersand SIMOBJECT -- an Overview -- R.; DAGAR -- A synthesis system; Proposed Silicon Compiler for Physics Applications; Timed -- LOTOS in a PROLOG Environment: an Algebraic language for Simulation; Modeling and Simulation of an Event Builder for High Energy Physics Data Acquisition Systems; A Verilog Simulation for the CDF DAQ; Simulation to Design with Verilog; The DZero Data Acquisition System: Model and Measurements; DZero Trigger Level 1.5 Modeling; Strategies Optimizing Data Load in the DZero Triggers; Simulation of the DZero Level 2 Data Acquisition System; A Fast Method for Calculating DZero Level 1 Jet Trigger Properties and Physics Input to DAQ Studies

Investigation of Evolutionary Pheromone Communication Based on External Measurement and Emergence of Swarm Intelligence

OpenAIRE

川村, 秀憲; 山本, 雅人; 大内, 東

2001-01-01

In this paper, we focus on the emergence phenomenon related with artificial pheromone communication and swarm intelligence among many agents in Ants War environment, in which two colonies of artificial ant agents compete for the limited number of food items in order to survive in evolutionary process. The purpose of this research is to clarify the emerging process of communication and the relationship between communication and swarm intelligence. For investigation of communication, we introdu...

Evolutionary Consequence of a Trade-Off between Growth and Maintenance along with Ribosomal Damages.

Science.gov (United States)

Ying, Bei-Wen; Honda, Tomoya; Tsuru, Saburo; Seno, Shigeto; Matsuda, Hideo; Kazuta, Yasuaki; Yomo, Tetsuya

2015-01-01

Microorganisms in nature are constantly subjected to a limited availability of resources and experience repeated starvation and nutrition. Therefore, microbial life may evolve for both growth fitness and sustainability. By contrast, experimental evolution, as a powerful approach to investigate microbial evolutionary strategies, often targets the increased growth fitness in controlled, steady-state conditions. Here, we address evolutionary changes balanced between growth and maintenance while taking nutritional fluctuations into account. We performed a 290-day-long evolution experiment with a histidine-requiring Escherichia coli strain that encountered repeated histidine-rich and histidine-starved conditions. The cells that experienced seven rounds of starvation and re-feed grew more sustainably under prolonged starvation but dramatically lost growth fitness under rich conditions. The improved sustainability arose from the evolved capability to use a trace amount of histidine for cell propagation. The reduced growth rate was attributed to mutations genetically disturbing the translation machinery, that is, the ribosome, ultimately slowing protein translation. This study provides the experimental demonstration of slow growth accompanied by an enhanced affinity to resources as an evolutionary adaptation to oscillated environments and verifies that it is possible to evolve for reduced growth fitness. Growth economics favored for population increase under extreme resource limitations is most likely a common survival strategy adopted by natural microbes.

The effects of stress and sex on selection, genetic covariance, and the evolutionary response.

Science.gov (United States)

Holman, L; Jacomb, F

2017-10-01

The capacity of a population to adapt to selection (evolvability) depends on whether the structure of genetic variation permits the evolution of fitter trait combinations. Selection, genetic variance and genetic covariance can change under environmental stress, and males and females are not genetically independent, yet the combined effects of stress and dioecy on evolvability are not well understood. Here, we estimate selection, genetic (co)variance and evolvability in both sexes of Tribolium castaneum flour beetles under stressful and benign conditions, using a half-sib breeding design. Although stress uncovered substantial latent heritability, stress also affected genetic covariance, such that evolvability remained low under stress. Sexual selection on males and natural selection on females favoured a similar phenotype, and there was positive intersex genetic covariance. Consequently, sexual selection on males augmented adaptation in females, and intralocus sexual conflict was weak or absent. This study highlights that increased heritability does not necessarily increase evolvability, suggests that selection can deplete genetic variance for multivariate trait combinations with strong effects on fitness, and tests the recent hypothesis that sexual conflict is weaker in stressful or novel environments. © 2017 European Society For Evolutionary Biology. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2017 European Society For Evolutionary Biology.

Evolutionary Biology Today

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Hindi and English. Port 1. Resonance, Vo1.7 ... they use. Of course, many evolutionary biologists do work with fossils or DNA, or both, but there are also large numbers of ... The first major division that I like to make is between studies focussed ...

The Computer Book of the Internal Medicine Resident: competence acquisition and achievement of learning objectives.

Science.gov (United States)

Oristrell, J; Oliva, J C; Casanovas, A; Comet, R; Jordana, R; Navarro, M

2014-01-01

The Computer Book of the Internal Medicine resident (CBIMR) is a computer program that was validated to analyze the acquisition of competences in teams of Internal Medicine residents. To analyze the characteristics of the rotations during the Internal Medicine residency and to identify the variables associated with the acquisition of clinical and communication skills, the achievement of learning objectives and resident satisfaction. All residents of our service (n=20) participated in the study during a period of 40 months. The CBIMR consisted of 22 self-assessment questionnaires specific for each rotation, with items on services (clinical workload, disease protocolization, resident responsibilities, learning environment, service organization and teamwork) and items on educational outcomes (acquisition of clinical and communication skills, achievement of learning objectives, overall satisfaction). Associations between services features and learning outcomes were analyzed using bivariate and multivariate analysis. An intense clinical workload, high resident responsibilities and disease protocolization were associated with the acquisition of clinical skills. High clinical competence and teamwork were both associated with better communication skills. Finally, an adequate learning environment was associated with increased clinical competence, the achievement of educational goals and resident satisfaction. Potentially modifiable variables related with the operation of clinical services had a significant impact on the acquisition of clinical and communication skills, the achievement of educational goals, and resident satisfaction during the specialized training in Internal Medicine. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier España, S.L. All rights reserved.

A Test of Evolutionary Policing Theory with Data from Human Societies

Science.gov (United States)

Kümmerli, Rolf

2011-01-01

In social groups where relatedness among interacting individuals is low, cooperation can often only be maintained through mechanisms that repress competition among group members. Repression-of-competition mechanisms, such as policing and punishment, seem to be of particular importance in human societies, where cooperative interactions often occur among unrelated individuals. In line with this view, economic games have shown that the ability to punish defectors enforces cooperation among humans. Here, I examine a real-world example of a repression-of-competition system, the police institutions common to modern human societies. Specifically, I test evolutionary policing theory by comparing data on policing effort, per capita crime rate, and similarity (used as a proxy for genetic relatedness) among citizens across the 26 cantons of Switzerland. This comparison revealed full support for all three predictions of evolutionary policing theory. First, when controlling for policing efforts, crime rate correlated negatively with the similarity among citizens. This is in line with the prediction that high similarity results in higher levels of cooperative self-restraint (i.e. lower crime rates) because it aligns the interests of individuals. Second, policing effort correlated negatively with the similarity among citizens, supporting the prediction that more policing is required to enforce cooperation in low-similarity societies, where individuals' interests diverge most. Third, increased policing efforts were associated with reductions in crime rates, indicating that policing indeed enforces cooperation. These analyses strongly indicate that humans respond to cues of their social environment and adjust cheating and policing behaviour as predicted by evolutionary policing theory. PMID:21909429

A test of evolutionary policing theory with data from human societies.

Science.gov (United States)

Kümmerli, Rolf

2011-01-01

In social groups where relatedness among interacting individuals is low, cooperation can often only be maintained through mechanisms that repress competition among group members. Repression-of-competition mechanisms, such as policing and punishment, seem to be of particular importance in human societies, where cooperative interactions often occur among unrelated individuals. In line with this view, economic games have shown that the ability to punish defectors enforces cooperation among humans. Here, I examine a real-world example of a repression-of-competition system, the police institutions common to modern human societies. Specifically, I test evolutionary policing theory by comparing data on policing effort, per capita crime rate, and similarity (used as a proxy for genetic relatedness) among citizens across the 26 cantons of Switzerland. This comparison revealed full support for all three predictions of evolutionary policing theory. First, when controlling for policing efforts, crime rate correlated negatively with the similarity among citizens. This is in line with the prediction that high similarity results in higher levels of cooperative self-restraint (i.e. lower crime rates) because it aligns the interests of individuals. Second, policing effort correlated negatively with the similarity among citizens, supporting the prediction that more policing is required to enforce cooperation in low-similarity societies, where individuals' interests diverge most. Third, increased policing efforts were associated with reductions in crime rates, indicating that policing indeed enforces cooperation. These analyses strongly indicate that humans respond to cues of their social environment and adjust cheating and policing behaviour as predicted by evolutionary policing theory.

A test of evolutionary policing theory with data from human societies.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rolf Kümmerli

Full Text Available In social groups where relatedness among interacting individuals is low, cooperation can often only be maintained through mechanisms that repress competition among group members. Repression-of-competition mechanisms, such as policing and punishment, seem to be of particular importance in human societies, where cooperative interactions often occur among unrelated individuals. In line with this view, economic games have shown that the ability to punish defectors enforces cooperation among humans. Here, I examine a real-world example of a repression-of-competition system, the police institutions common to modern human societies. Specifically, I test evolutionary policing theory by comparing data on policing effort, per capita crime rate, and similarity (used as a proxy for genetic relatedness among citizens across the 26 cantons of Switzerland. This comparison revealed full support for all three predictions of evolutionary policing theory. First, when controlling for policing efforts, crime rate correlated negatively with the similarity among citizens. This is in line with the prediction that high similarity results in higher levels of cooperative self-restraint (i.e. lower crime rates because it aligns the interests of individuals. Second, policing effort correlated negatively with the similarity among citizens, supporting the prediction that more policing is required to enforce cooperation in low-similarity societies, where individuals' interests diverge most. Third, increased policing efforts were associated with reductions in crime rates, indicating that policing indeed enforces cooperation. These analyses strongly indicate that humans respond to cues of their social environment and adjust cheating and policing behaviour as predicted by evolutionary policing theory.

The evolutionary rate dynamically tracks changes in HIV-1 epidemics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Maljkovic-berry, Irina [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Athreya, Gayathri [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Daniels, Marcus [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Bruno, William [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Korber, Bette [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Kuiken, Carla [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Ribeiro, Ruy M [Los Alamos National Laboratory

2009-01-01

Large-sequence datasets provide an opportunity to investigate the dynamics of pathogen epidemics. Thus, a fast method to estimate the evolutionary rate from large and numerous phylogenetic trees becomes necessary. Based on minimizing tip height variances, we optimize the root in a given phylogenetic tree to estimate the most homogenous evolutionary rate between samples from at least two different time points. Simulations showed that the method had no bias in the estimation of evolutionary rates and that it was robust to tree rooting and topological errors. We show that the evolutionary rates of HIV-1 subtype B and C epidemics have changed over time, with the rate of evolution inversely correlated to the rate of virus spread. For subtype B, the evolutionary rate slowed down and tracked the start of the HAART era in 1996. Subtype C in Ethiopia showed an increase in the evolutionary rate when the prevalence increase markedly slowed down in 1995. Thus, we show that the evolutionary rate of HIV-1 on the population level dynamically tracks epidemic events.

Reducing acquisition risk through integrated systems of systems engineering

Science.gov (United States)

Gross, Andrew; Hobson, Brian; Bouwens, Christina

2016-05-01

In the fall of 2015, the Joint Staff J7 (JS J7) sponsored the Bold Quest (BQ) 15.2 event and conducted planning and coordination to combine this event into a joint event with the Army Warfighting Assessment (AWA) 16.1 sponsored by the U.S. Army. This multipurpose event combined a Joint/Coalition exercise (JS J7) with components of testing, training, and experimentation required by the Army. In support of Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology (ASA(ALT)) System of Systems Engineering and Integration (SoSE&I), Always On-On Demand (AO-OD) used a system of systems (SoS) engineering approach to develop a live, virtual, constructive distributed environment (LVC-DE) to support risk mitigation utilizing this complex and challenging exercise environment for a system preparing to enter limited user test (LUT). AO-OD executed a requirements-based SoS engineering process starting with user needs and objectives from Army Integrated Air and Missile Defense (AIAMD), Patriot units, Coalition Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (CISR), Focused End State 4 (FES4) Mission Command (MC) Interoperability with Unified Action Partners (UAP), and Mission Partner Environment (MPE) Integration and Training, Tactics and Procedures (TTP) assessment. The SoS engineering process decomposed the common operational, analytical, and technical requirements, while utilizing the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Distributed Simulation Engineering and Execution Process (DSEEP) to provide structured accountability for the integration and execution of the AO-OD LVC-DE. As a result of this process implementation, AO-OD successfully planned for, prepared, and executed a distributed simulation support environment that responsively satisfied user needs and objectives, demonstrating the viability of an LVC-DE environment to support multiple user objectives and support risk mitigation activities for systems in the acquisition process.

2017 NAIP Acquisition Map

Data.gov (United States)

Farm Service Agency, Department of Agriculture — Planned States for 2017 NAIP acquisition and acquisition status layer (updated daily). Updates to the acquisition seasons may be made during the season to...

Conceptual apparatus of analysis of the national economy institutional environment

OpenAIRE

Ляховець, О. О.

2017-01-01

In the paper the sense of the notions «institutional environment», «institutional framework», «institutional structure» is revealed. The difference between these notions is determined. The structural elements of institutional environment classified by the theoretical approaches criterion are considered. The origins of approaches are: 1) the scientific direction of economic theory (institutional economics, neoinstitutionsl economic theory, evolutionary economic theory, political economy); 2) t...