Interpretation Of Evolution Research Articles

Giovanni Galloni e l’esperienza dell’insegnamento del diritto agro-ambientale

The appeal to production needs, in a system linked to the enjoyment of property, matures in the teaching of Giovanni Galloni towards a development open to the territory through the redefinition of relations with social life, following a renewed attention to the environment. The support to the claim of a changed order is found in the rationality of the mode of production, together with the establishment of equitable relations, which an evolutionary interpretation of the Constitution promotes in the dimension of the person, to which a modern sustainable and competitive agriculture meets with the satisfaction of health and safety rights.

Proposed symptom-based model of the origins of schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is considered a severe mental illness and effects an estimated 1% of the world population. The evidence suggests that incidence rate has been and will continue to be stable over time. Here we adopt a symptomatology-focused evolutionary informed approach to discuss the possible biological adaptations of various presentations of schizophrenia. It is our contention that rather than thinking about schizophrenia as a single disorder, or even a spectrum of disorders, marked by social maladaptation and personal subjective distress, that an evolutionary interpretation based on adaptive nature of individual, or small clusters of, symptoms could prove to be more useful in better understanding the pathophysiology of schizophrenia and its relationship with other psychiatric diagnoses.

Brain anatomy of two-toed sloth (Choloepus didactylus, Linnaeus, 1758): A comparative gross anatomical study of extant xenarthrans.

The neural system plays an important role in understanding some features of animals. Anatomical complexity correlates with the increase of functional capacity. Xenarthrans include anteaters (Vermilingua), armadillos (Cingulata) and sloths (Folivora). This group is the base of eutherian mammals, and understanding the anatomy of its neural system could provide data for functional and evolutionary interpretations. The gross anatomy of the xenarthran brain is recorded. Four extant families of Pilosa and two families of Cingulata were sampled. Usual dissection procedures were used, and the brains were analysed macroscopically. The brain of two-toed sloth, three-toed sloth, six-banded armadillo, giant anteater and collared anteater are gyrencephalic. Pygmy anteater, nine-banded armadillo, great long-nosed armadillo, southern naked-tailed armadillo and giant armadillo are lissencephalic. In most species, the rhinal fissure presents two segments, rostral and caudal (except in Vermilingua and three-toed sloth). The diencephalon and brainstem present similar anatomy. The cerebellum is wide and presents four lobes (rostral, central, caudal and floccular). Its average volume is 12.16% (Folivora), 14.26% (Vermilingua) and 18.61% (Cingulata). Among these groups, there is a statistical difference between Folivora/Cingulata concerning the cerebellum average. The general pattern of the brain of the xenarthrans is similar to that of other mammals.

Osteology of the Asian narrow‐mouth toad Kaloula borealis (Amphibia, Anura, Microhylidae) with comments on its osteological adaptation to fossorial life

AbstractOsteology of vertebrates plays an indispensable role in taxonomy, form‐function evolution and ecological adaptations. The Asian narrow‐mouth toad genus Kaloula is an interesting group that is known for many species having a fossorial life. However, to date, there has been no comprehensive osteological account of Kaloula. Herein, we present the osteology of K. borealis with the help of micro‐CT scanning and double‐staining technologies, which is the first detailed osteological description of the genus. Osteological comparisons with other members of Microhylinae indicate that K. borealis is characterized by the following traits: skull obviously wider than long; suture between frontoparietals narrow; parasphenoid posterior to vomer; premaxilla, maxilla and vomer edentate; clavicles absent; procoracoids small; omosternum and sternum cartilaginous; crista femoris present and large; femur longer than tibiofibula; prehallux including one element. Remarkably, the species possesses a series of osteological specializations that probably are adaptations for the hindlimbs‐first burrowing and a fossorial life, including stout hindlimb, robust crista femoris, tibiofibula shorter than femur, enlarged prehallux, long anterior ramus of the pterygoid and branched bronchial processes of the cricoid. These findings will contribute to the systematics of microhylids and evolutionary interpretations of the osteological adaptation to fossorial life.

The Birth of the Idea of Perfectibility: From the Enlightenment to Transhumanism

Starting from the Age of Enlightenment, a person’s ability of self-improvement, or perfectibility, is usually seen as a fundamental human feature. However, this term, introduced into the philosophical vocabulary by J.-J. Rousseau, gradually acquired additional meaning – largely due to the works of N. de Condorcet, T. Malthus and C. Darwin. Owing to perfectibility, human beings are not only able to work on themselves: by improving their abilities, they are also able to change their environment (both social and natural) and create favorable conditions for their existence. It is no coincidence that perfectibility became the key concept of the idea of social progress proposed by French thinkers in the Age of Enlightenment, despite the fact that later it was criticized, above all, by English authors, who justified its organic and biological nature and gave a different evolutionary interpretation to this concept, without excluding perfectibility from the philosophical vocabulary. In this article, we address the opposition and mutual counterarguments of these two positions. Beyond that, we draw a parallel with some of the ideas of S. Kapitsa, who proved to be not only a critic of Malthusianism but also a direct disciple of Condorcet. In the modern age, the ideas of human self-improvement caused the development of transhumanist movement. Condorcet is more relevant than ever, and today his theory of the progress of the human mind, which influenced the genesis of modern historical science, needs a re-thinking in the newest perspective of improving the mental and physical human nature with the help of modern technologies.

The need to understand the cultural biographies of alpine and subalpine landscapes during Later Prehistory: Upland Archaeology in the Cantabrian Mountains

Current debates around the Anthropocene tend to focus on recent planetary-scale processes. However, regional and small-scale processes can be very telling about human agency in the shaping of landscapes overtime. Indeed, anthropogenic impacts of different intensities can be observed on landscapes since Prehistory – even in such remote and allegedly marginal areas as deserts, wetlands or mountains. In this article, I reflect on the long-term anthropization of alpine and subalpine areas in the western area of the Cantabrian Mountains (North-West of Iberia) in Later Prehistory. Studying the earlier anthropogenic pressure on upland environs in this period reminds us of the potential of landscape archaeology to enhance interdisciplinarity in debates about the Anthropocene. With the aim of emphasizing the role of archaeology as a mediating arena between social sciences, humanities and earth sciences, I analyse the scarce archaeological information available for upland landscapes of this study area to show how these datasets can nuance evolutionary interpretations of paleo-environmental sequences studied at natural deposits. Only through integrated and comprehensive discussions around the cultural and environmental traits of landscapes will we be able to fully understand the complex social contexts where agrarian labour and collective action shaped the alpine and subalpine areas in the Cantabrian Mountains since the spread of the Neolithic.

Towards a semantics representation framework for narrative images

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore a semantics representation framework for narrative images, conforming to the image-interpretation process.Design/methodology/approachThis paper explores the essential features of semantics evolution in the process of narrative images interpretation. It proposes a novel semantics representation framework, ESImage (evolution semantics of image) for narrative images. ESImage adopts a hierarchical architecture to progressively organize the semantic information in images, enabling the evolutionary interpretation under the support of a graph-based semantics data model. Also, the study shows the feasibility of this framework by addressing the issues of typical semantics representation with the scenario of the Dunhuang fresco.FindingsThe process of image interpretation mainly concerns three issues: bottom-up description, the multi-faceted semantics representation and the top-down semantics complementation. ESImage can provide a comprehensive solution for narrative image semantics representation by addressing the major issues based on the semantics evolution mechanisms of the graph-based semantics data model.Research limitations/implicationsESImage needs to be combined with machine learning to meet the requirements of automatic annotation and semantics interpretation of large-scale image resources.Originality/valueThis paper sorts out the characteristics of the gradual interpretation of narrative images and has discussed the major issues in its semantics representation. Also, it proposes the semantic framework ESImage which deploys a flexible and sound mechanism to represent the semantic information of narrative images.

The Link Between Human Menstruation and Placental Delivery: A Novel Evolutionary Interpretation: Menstruation and fetal placental detachment share common evolved physiological processes dependent on progesterone withdrawal.

A new interpretation of human menstruation is presented, resulting from a cross-disciplinary investigation of evolution, developmental biology, and physiology. A process evolutionarily associated with childbirth expresses itself as menstruation in women for whom frequent and continual failure to conceive has become the default situation. In humans and Old World primates, contractile uterine spiral arterioles evolved as the complement of the highly invasive hemochorionic placenta and is the selected phenotype. Placental progesterone withdrawal during the last stage of birth leads to arrested blood flow through maternal spiral arterioles, allowing detachment of the deciduous placenta with minimal maternal hemorrhage. In nonpregnant females, progesterone withdrawal from a degenerating corpus luteum initiates menstruation and stops blood flow through uterine spiral arterioles. Both events share similar physiological mechanisms and sequences. This explanation may improve our understanding of a recurrent event experienced by half of the human population and for a quarter of their adult reproductive life.

Genome Plasticity in Papillomaviruses and De Novo Emergence of E5 Oncogenes.

The clinical presentations of papillomavirus (PV) infections come in many different flavors. While most PVs are part of a healthy skin microbiota and are not associated to physical lesions, other PVs cause benign lesions, and only a handful of PVs are associated to malignant transformations linked to the specific activities of the E5, E6, and E7 oncogenes. The functions and origin of E5 remain to be elucidated. These E5 open reading frames (ORFs) are present in the genomes of a few polyphyletic PV lineages, located between the early and the late viral gene cassettes. We have computationally assessed whether these E5 ORFs have a common origin and whether they display the properties of a genuine gene. Our results suggest that during the evolution of Papillomaviridae, at least four events lead to the presence of a long noncoding DNA stretch between the E2 and the L2 genes. In three of these events, the novel regions evolved coding capacity, becoming the extant E5 ORFs. We then focused on the evolution of the E5 genes in AlphaPVs infecting primates. The sharp match between the type of E5 protein encoded in AlphaPVs and the infection phenotype (cutaneous warts, genital warts, or anogenital cancers) supports the role of E5 in the differential oncogenic potential of these PVs. In our analyses, the best-supported scenario is that the five types of extant E5 proteins within the AlphaPV genomes may not have a common ancestor. However, the chemical similarities between E5s regarding amino acid composition prevent us from confidently rejecting the model of a common origin. Our evolutionary interpretation is that an originally noncoding region entered the genome of the ancestral AlphaPVs. This genetic novelty allowed to explore novel transcription potential, triggering an adaptive radiation that yielded three main viral lineages encoding for different E5 proteins, displaying distinct infection phenotypes. Overall, our results provide an evolutionary scenario for the de novo emergence of viral genes and illustrate the impact of such genotypic novelty in the phenotypic diversity of the viral infections.

Uncoupled Aspiration Adaptation Dynamics Into the Core

Abstract Dynamics for play of transferable-utility cooperative games are proposed that require information regarding own payoff experiences and other players’ past actions, but not regarding other players’ payoffs. The proposed dynamics provide an evolutionary interpretation of the proto-dynamic ‘blocking argument’ (Edgeworth, 1881) based on the behavioral principles of ‘aspiration adaptation’ (Sauermann and Selten, 1962) instead of best response. If the game has a non-empty core, the dynamics are absorbed into the core in finite time with probability one. If the core is empty, the dynamics cycle infinitely through all coalitions.

Evolutionary physiology shows the need for an unprecedented study on sugar

Many experimental studies on sugar (sucrose) omitted its form of ingestion. Often their findings were mutually incompatible. A comparison of the results of the few studies that administered sugar in a single specified form suggests that the metabolic effects of sugar depend on its form of ingestion, because even 80% of calories as diluted sugar proved harmless, but only 30% of calories as undiluted sugar proved harmful. These opposite effects of sugar can be explained by the published hypothesis that evolution adapted genetically our ancestors to cope with sugar only in diluted forms, because prehistorically diluted sugar was available abundantly in fresh fruits, but undiluted sugar was inexistent. The purpose of this review, based mainly on the evolutionary interpretation of published data of physiology, is to encourage researchers to perform an unprecedented experimental study to compare the metabolic effects of diluted sugar with the effects of undiluted sugar. The data of physiology analyzed in this review suggest that the absorption of diluted sugar within the caloric range of total sugars diluted in fresh fruits is slow and calorie-constant, thus preserving blood glucose homeostasis, whereas the absorption of concentrated sugar exceeding that caloric range is rapid, which can disrupt blood glucose homeostasis. Dietary salt, which was unknown to prehistoric humans, unnaturally accelerates the absorption of sugars. This can explain the harmful effects attributed to sugar-sweetened beverages per se, because these drinks are generally co-ingested with foods containing salt, which partly yet unavoidably passes into those beverages, thereby unhealthily accelerating their absorption.

Biogeographical history constrains climatic niche diversification without adaptive forces driving evolution

AbstractAimTo evaluate the effect of biogeographical history on climatic niche diversification.LocationSimulated clades evolving in South America.MethodsWe modelled species evolution under neutral community dynamics and purposely assumed that climatic niche is an emergent property of species. This assumption allows us to better understand whether phylogenetic niche conservatism could be observed when climatic niche is only constrained by biogeographical processes of dispersal and speciation. We varied speciation and dispersal probability, calculating phylogenetic signal of niche overlap and distance between niche centroids for each emergent artificial biota. We then compared the phylogenetic signal of our model with the expectation of climatic niche evolution under Brownian motion (BM).ResultsWe found that phylogenetic signal of climatic niche in the spatially explicit neutral model is usually higher than expected by chance, but lower than expected by BM evolution. Because simulated climatic niches have lower phylogenetic signal than expected by BM evolution, standard ecological and evolutionary interpretation would suggest that climatic niche evolved with little variation over time caused by strong evolutionary constraints. However, our model assumes that climatic niche does not evolve by adaptive forces and is only a consequence of stochastic dispersal and speciation over space and time.Main conclusionsOur study reinforces the strong imprints of biogeographical processes on climatic niche evolution, even when no adaptive forces are driving niche diversification. Therefore, although testing phylogenetic signal is the most common approach in studies evaluating phylogenetic patterns in climatic niche conservatism, our results reinforce previous claims that these patterns alone are not capable of distinguishing the possible effect of space in the retention of climatic niche. Biogeographical processes alone can leave imprints in patterns of climatic niche overlap between related species. A careful evaluation of macroevolutionary models underlying phylogenetic patterns of niche variation among species is important to avoid pitfalls related to interpretation of mechanisms of niche diversification.

RETRACTED] Evolutionary, Dynamic or Contemporary Interpretation in WTO System?

Abstract The evolutionary interpretation of a norm presents a similar nature—even if obviously not identical—to the modification of the law, which is a process that follows an interpretative method that must be particularly careful not to be in contrast with the intention of the states concerned by the rule. Interpretation in practice, in speciem in the World Trade Organization becomes prescriptive to descriptive, since our aim will be to see the theme of evolutionary interpretation through the jurisprudence of the Organization.

Concepts of the last eukaryotic common ancestor.

Insight into the last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA) is central to any phylogeny-based reconstruction of early eukaryotic evolution. Increasing amounts of data enable such reconstructions, without necessarily providing further insight into what LECA actually was. We consider four possible concepts of LECA: an abstract phylogenetic state, a single cell, a population, and a consortium of organisms. We argue that the view most realistically underlying work in the field is that of LECA as a population. Drawing on recent findings of genomically heterogeneous populations in eukaryotes ('pangenomes'), we examine the evolutionary implications of a pangenomic LECA population. For instance, how does this concept affect standard expectations about the ecology, geography, fitness, and diversification of LECA? Does it affect evolutionary interpretations of LECA's cellular functions? Finally, we examine whether this novel pangenomic concept of LECA has implications for phylogenetic reconstructions of early eukaryote evolution. Our aim is to add to the conceptual toolkit for developing theories of LECA and interpreting genomic datasets.

Plastome Phylogenetics of Tribe Eriachneae and Evolution of C4 Photosynthesis in Subfamily Micrairoideae (Poaceae)

Abstract—Tribe Eriachneae in subfamily Micrairoideae is one of the least explored of the ca. 22 C4 lineages in the grass family (Poaceae). Whereas many C4 lineages are more species-rich, more morphologically disparate, and wider ranging than their C3 sisters, Eriachneae has fewer species, less disparity, and covers a far smaller geographical area than its C3 sister tribe Isachneae. Tribe Micraireae, which is C3 and sister to Eriachneae and Isachneae, occupies habitats more similar to C4 Eriachneae than C3 Isachneae. Evolutionary analyses within the subfamily are hindered by the lack of a phylogenetic framework for any substantial sample of species. Additionally, only a handful of members of Micrairoideae have been tested for photosynthetic pathway. This study presents the first well-resolved phylogeny of Eriachneae based on full plastome sequences from almost half of the species in the tribe. Photosynthetic pathway is tested for 47 species representing all three tribes of Micrairoideae using carbon isotopes to test the assumption that C4 is restricted to Eriachneae. Habitat preferences among the tribes are estimated using bioclimatic data, with multivariate analyses showing that habitats of Micraireae and Eriachneae are more similar to each other than either is to Isachneae, and the range of environments is greater in Isachneae than in Eriachneae. All measured Eriachneae are confirmed to be C4, and all Isachneae are C3. Evolutionary interpretation of these results is necessarily preliminary, and greater phylogenetic sampling in Isachneae is needed to estimate diversification rates and ancestral habitats, but subfamily Micrairoideae appears to be an interesting exception to general patterns of C4 evolution in grasses.

Disaster Risk Reduction and International Cultural Heritage Law: Moving Toward Cross-Fertilization

As the purpose of this panel is to explore the critical need for embedding international legal instruments within paradigms provided by disaster risk reduction (DRR), the area of international cultural heritage law could be a significant test-case in this regard. First, as experienced by several other branches of international law, it is possible to recognize an increasing attention paid by relevant specialized institutions, in this case the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), to challenges posed by DRR, and finally permitting to: (1) integrate DRR concerns in the institutional and lawmaking agenda of this international organization, in order to inform and guide activities to be carried out by member states who face threats posed by disasters against their cultural heritage; and (2) provide an evolutionary and contextual interpretation of the existing commitments in this area in light of DRR paradigms. Second, a cross-fertilization phenomenon could also be recognized, as for the emerging recognition of cultural concerns in the same DRR system, through a process which has subsequently permitted UNESCO to additionally foster action in this area.

Optimal sparse network topology under sparse control in Laplacian networks

Understanding the effect of network topology on its controllability or control performance helps to explain the emergence and evolution of different topological features in biological or social networks, and to provide principles of designing networked engineering systems. In natural and artificial systems, networks have sparse topology and are controlled by sparse feedback controllers. Therefore, the optimal network topology and controllers are specified by a trade-off between the control performance and the sparsity of the network and the controllers. In this work, by considering Laplacian networks and adopting an H2-optimal control framework that incorporates the network Laplacian matrix as an optimization variable and promotes the network sparsity and controller sparsity, we simultaneously optimize the network topology and the feedback gain matrix through the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM). We observe that with increasing sparsity, modular and hierarchical topological features emerge along with distributed and hierarchical control architectures, which is consistent with observations in biological networks and allows an evolutionary interpretation of their emergence.

ПРО СТАДІАЛЬНУ ТИПОЛОГІЮ ІНКОРПОРУЮЧИХ МОВ, РОЗРОБЛЕНУ РАННІМ І.І. МЄЩАНІНОВИМ: КОГНІТИВНО-ЕВОЛЮЦІЙНА ІНТЕРПРЕТАЦІЯ

У статті здійснюється когнітивно-еволюційна інтерпретація запропонованої раннім І.І. Мєщаніновим стадіальної типології інкорпоруючих мов. Основою когнітивно-еволюційного підходу є визнання існування когнітивно-еволюційного алгоритму «сприйняття → логічність мислення → логічність мови», де сприйняття може бути: 1) абсолютно правокульовим синкретичим, тобто цілісним, не таким, що дозволяє диференціювати ознаки; 2) значною мірою правокульовим поверхневим, тобто орієнтованим на найближчі, найбільш помітні, «такі, що лежать на поверхні», ознаки; 3) лівопівкульовим альтернативним, тобто орієнтованим на всі наявні ознаки. У статті підтверджується, що когнітивно-еволюційний підхід до стадіальної типології інкорпоруючих мов раннього І.І. Мєщанінова виявляє кореляції ступенів сприйняття з усіма чотирма стадіями, відображеними у цій типології. Перша – з аморфністю всього комплексу – стадія інкорпорування, за якої повністю відсутній будь-який його поділ, включаючи можливість появи хоча б якихось граматичних значень, корелює тільки з синкретизмом сприйняття без будь-яких проявів інших перцептивних ступенів. Друга стадія інкорпорування – зі зміною інкорпорованих комплексів за особою і часом – корелює в основному з синкретизмом і в деякій мірі з поверхневістю сприйняття, яка проявляється у найперших граматичних альтернаціях за суттєвими для дієслівності ознаками часу та особи. Третя стадія інкорпорування – з чітким синтаксичним поділом на два інкорпоруючі комплекси, групи підмета і присудка, але зі збереженням інкорпорації всередині цих груп – корелює з відносно меншою, ніж на попередній стадії, мірою поверховості сприйняття й відносно більшою, ніж на попередній стадії, мірою альтернативності сприйняття. Четверта стадія інкорпорування – з паралельним існуванням інкорпоруючих аналогів словосполучень у складі речень та повноцінних словосполучень при окремій згадці – корелює в малій мірі з синкретизмом і поверховостю сприйняття і значною мірою з альтернативністю сприйняття. Когнітивно-еволюційну обумовленість все більшої диференціації інкорпоруючого ладу на кожній з виділених І.І. Мєщаніновим стадії можна вважати цілком очевидною.

Conceptualising the complexity-reducing role of societal trust in transnational economic regulation - towards an interdisciplinary research methodology

Trust in the international economic legal order has been associated with an historic global expansion of trade and investment. That trust is at constant, if not imminent, risk of erosion, and may even, in the perception of some, already be in the process of erosion. The interaction between trust and the notion of complexity may hold the key to understanding that process, whether actual or potential. On the premise of that interaction, an evolutionary interpretation of the transnational regulation of economic private-public relationships as a complex adaptive system may indicate whether and how trust in this context should be restored. The paper sketches the contours of an interdisciplinary research agenda aimed at exploring and investigating the proposition that an evolutionary interpretation of complexity in transnational economic relations may help to situate and explain that complexity and, thereby, to better understand the practical importance of trust in transnational economic regulation.

Conceptualising the complexity-reducing role of societal trust in transnational economic regulation - towards an interdisciplinary research methodology

Trust in the international economic legal order has been associated with an historic global expansion of trade and investment. That trust is at constant, if not imminent, risk of erosion, and may even, in the perception of some, already be in the process of erosion. The interaction between trust and the notion of complexity may hold the key to understanding that process, whether actual or potential. On the premise of that interaction, an evolutionary interpretation of the transnational regulation of economic private-public relationships as a complex adaptive system may indicate whether and how trust in this context should be restored. The paper sketches the contours of an interdisciplinary research agenda aimed at exploring and investigating the proposition that an evolutionary interpretation of complexity in transnational economic relations may help to situate and explain that complexity and, thereby, to better understand the practical importance of trust in transnational economic regulation.