Evolutionary Regularities Research Articles

Становление речи и сознания в антропогенезе: эволюционные драйверы и социально-психологические механизмы

<p>The work is aimed at the theoretical reconstruction of the genesis of articulate speech and main abilities of consciousness based on evolutionary regularities and socio-psychological mechanisms. The basic concepts of the conceptual apparatus of reconstruction are presented: “abilities”, “attitudes”, “interiorization”, “interactive ritual”, “niches”, “social orders”, group and individual “concerns”, “communicative concerns”, “supporting structures”, including "magic wands" with a special potential for flexibility and multifunctionality. In ontogeny, human attitudes and abilities are formed through the mechanisms of interiorization (according to Leo Vygotsky) and interactive ritual (according to E. Durkheim, E. Goffman, R. Collins). To reconstruct human traits folding in anthropogenesis is to represent a regular stepwise transformation of the most ancient hominids’ initial ingredients, probably like the apes’ features. Particular attention is paid to pre-rituals that form the internal and behavioral attitudes of apes, as well as their abilities for sign communication and learning new signs. It is shown what sequence of challenges and responses, new concerns and supporting structures led hominids to the formation of joint intentionality (M. Tomasello), self-domestication (D. K. Belyaev, R. Wrangham), normative rituals, the first group rules and internal normative attitudes (C. Lovejoy, D. Dor et al.). This complex phenomenon of normativity, the corresponding social orders and renewed communicative concerns became the main drivers of articulate speech development and closely associated with it consciousness abilities.</p>

Modeling of the intercivilization fault effect on the conflict intensity throughout the world

Using the mathematical apparatus of the multifactor regression analysis, the concept of faults between civilizations is verified, formalized and refined. The ethnocultural civilizational distribution of the countries is specified on the basis of the fuzzy cluster method. The mathematical model of fault lines between civilizations is elaborated, which affords the opportunity to estimate and analyze the quantitative values of these faults. Formally, the developed model offers the way to determine evolutionary regularities, systematize and econometrically verify the defining characteristics of actual civilizational clashes. The results of an analysis and comparison of modeling data of intercivilizational faults in 2008 and 2018 revealed the tendencies of individual civilizations to unite and clash, and the effect of these faults on the global conflict as well. The dependence of global threats on the proliferation of weapons and their individual components is assessed. The conflict effect on the socio-economic indicators of clashing civilizations is determined. The correspondence of the modeling outcomes to the real state of intercivilizational faults is verified by comparison with actual historical data. The results of the study encourage to form a comprehensive vision of the nature of modern clashes, whose emergence is caused by the faults between civilizations, and to determine their formal characteristics and regularities of their course.

Bayesian optimization with evolutionary and structure-based regularization for directed protein evolution

BackgroundDirected evolution (DE) is a technique for protein engineering that involves iterative rounds of mutagenesis and screening to search for sequences that optimize a given property, such as binding affinity to a specified target. Unfortunately, the underlying optimization problem is under-determined, and so mutations introduced to improve the specified property may come at the expense of unmeasured, but nevertheless important properties (ex. solubility, thermostability, etc). We address this issue by formulating DE as a regularized Bayesian optimization problem where the regularization term reflects evolutionary or structure-based constraints.ResultsWe applied our approach to DE to three representative proteins, GB1, BRCA1, and SARS-CoV-2 Spike, and evaluated both evolutionary and structure-based regularization terms. The results of these experiments demonstrate that: (i) structure-based regularization usually leads to better designs (and never hurts), compared to the unregularized setting; (ii) evolutionary-based regularization tends to be least effective; and (iii) regularization leads to better designs because it effectively focuses the search in certain areas of sequence space, making better use of the experimental budget. Additionally, like previous work in Machine learning assisted DE, we find that our approach significantly reduces the experimental burden of DE, relative to model-free methods.ConclusionIntroducing regularization into a Bayesian ML-assisted DE framework alters the exploratory patterns of the underlying optimization routine, and can shift variant selections towards those with a range of targeted and desirable properties. In particular, we find that structure-based regularization often improves variant selection compared to unregularized approaches, and never hurts.

Evolutionary game analysis of government supervision and private sector ecological technology innovation behavior for water environment treatment PPP projects on the basis of public participation

Ecological technology innovation with environmental benefits as the core has become an inevitable choice for water environment treatment PPP projects (WETP-PPP), and government supervision and public participation are essential driving factors for eco-technological innovation. To explore the influence of public participation on the behavior of the government and private sector in the WETP-PPP, this study constructed an asymmetric evolutionary game model of government supervision and private sector ecological technology innovation behavior under public participation. The main contribution of this study is to explore the mutual evolutionary regularity of the private sector and government supervision department and the influence of public participation level on public and private behavior in different scenarios. The results showed that the government can reduce the supervision cost by increasing the public’s active participation and improving environmental regulation measures to achieve a win-win situation of economic and environmental performance.

Evolutionary Regularities of the “Act of Giving” across Neo-Piagetian Adult Development Stages and the Transformative Power of Contemplative Prayer

In times of unpredictability and large-scale socioeconomic changes, we need to bring novel concepts and phenomena like solidarity and the act of giving under the focus of leadership, management, and spirituality studies. In this enclosed paper, we address how the interpretations and expectations of the act of giving evolve across the levels of consciousness, also referred as stages of adult development. We apply neo-Piagetian constructive view on the human development. To unpack these regularities, we use a mixed-method research design. The research findings reveal that the interpretations and expectations of the act of giving evolve across the stages of adult development. They exhibit the tendency to move to less conditional, self-serving, and transactional interpretations and expectations behind the act of giving. Because the movement of the adult across stages (levels of consciousness) is a slow pace process - the paper also explores possible interventions that could make people more prone to the less conditional, self-serving, and transactional act of giving regardless of the stage of development. Thus, we study the impact of contemplative prayer on the change in the interpretations and expectations of the act of giving. The impact of contemplative prayer is such that it seems that a person moves to one stage higher when it comes to the interpretations and expectations behind the act of giving.

The Overlooked Genetic Diversity in the Dryland Soil Surface-Dwelling Cyanobacterium Nostoc flagelliforme as Revealed by the Marker Gene wspA.

Biodiversity is recognized to be relatively low in the dryland ecosystem. However, we might overlook the accumulating genetic variation in those dryland micro-populations, which should eventually increase the dryland biodiversity. In the xeric steppes of western and northwestern China, there are two soil surface-dwelling and genetically close cyanobacterial species, Nostoc commune and Nostoc flagelliforme. They respectively exhibit lamellate and filamentous colony shapes. Their individual colony is consisted of hundreds of trichomes and the common exopolysaccharide matrix.N. flagelliforme is exclusively distributed in the dryland and supposed to be evolved from N. commune. We previously reported that the morphological diversity of N. flagelliforme colonies was very limited, being either cylindrical or strip-like. In this communication, we performed single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis of the marker gene wspA as well as phylogenetic analysis of the WspA protein in N. flagelliforme colonies to gain insights into its genetic diversity. SNP analysis suggested that there existed plentiful nucleotide variations in the individual colonies and meanwhile these variations shared certain evolutionary regularity. Phylogenetic analysis of the deduced proteins from the cloned wspA sequences suggested that the relatively regular variations were possibly dispersed in the N. flagelliforme populations of different regions. Thus, these results presented a scenario of the underestimated genetic diversity hidden behind the limited morphotype of dryland cyanobacteria. Maybe, we can consider the individual cyanobacterial colony as a potential biodiversity pool in the drylands.

Regional eco-efficiency evaluation and spatial pattern analysis of the Yangtze River Economic Zone

The environmental ecology of the Yangtze River Economic Zone (YREZ) faces ecological function decline, deterioration and degradation under intense human activities, long-term development and utilization and its economy has developed rapidly over recent decades. Eco-efficiency is considered as a measure of coordinated development of economy, resources, environment and ecology, and is currently considered a very important issue. In this paper, based on the slack-based measure and data envelope analysis model, we take 129 prefecture-level cities of the YREZ as the study unit and measure the eco-efficiency of the YREZ in 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015, which considers undesired output. The evaluation of the status quo of the regional eco-efficiency development was carried out at provincial, prefectural and city scales. The spatial autocorrelation test model and standard deviation ellipse were used to analyze the spatially distributed characteristics and the evolutionary regularity of eco-efficiency. Our study suggested that the eco-efficiency value varied significantly at different spatiotemporal scales and the overall distribution presented an “N-shaped” pattern, the value is the largest downstream and the smallest upstream. Regional eco-efficiency presented certain volatility in growth and a clear spatial positive agglomeration trend from 2000 to 2015. The spatial distribution of each agglomeration area was also significantly different, forming some high-high agglomeration areas at the center of the shaft with Shanghai and surrounding cities, and some low-low agglomeration areas at the center with middle reaches and upstream cities. The low-high over-aggregation and high-low polarization clusters were fewer. At the same time, with the change of the research period, the degree of positive agglomeration became increasingly pronounced and the eco-efficiency gap of the neighborhood unit reduced. The regional eco-efficiency value of the YREZ presented a spatial distribution pattern in the northeast-southwest axis and the evolutionary pattern of the regional eco-efficiency similarly showed a northeast-southwest orientation.

On the Phase Associations and Crystal-Chemical Inheritance of Be–Mg–Al Silicates during Subsolidus Crystallization

During the solid-phase synthesis of Be–Mg–Al silicates, i.e., beryllian indialite (BI), the crystal-chemical proximity is due to the transfer of elements of chemical and structural inheritance. BI crystallization from a gel is carried out via the structural adaptation of multicomponent metastable phases transforming into BI, which is implemented in two stages: diffusion and the formation of microcrystallites fed by a melt film. During the sintering of dry oxides, parageneses are transferred from a previous temperature stage to the subsequent one so that several phases of the former stage are retained and the fraction of stable phases increases because of the consumption of intermediate phases. Phase transformations whereby BI is crystalized in the subsolidus region are interpreted from the viewpoint of the evolutionary regularities of mineralogenesis.

Analysis of Storage Sludge Composition Characteristics and Evolutionary Regularity in the Hunhe River Basin

With the acceleration of urbanization, the accumulation of storage sludge in the Hunhe River Basin has increased year by year, creating a potential and long-term threat to the environment. In order to realize the resource-saving and harmless treatment of storage sludge, the composition of storage sludge and the evolvement rule were analyzed and researched. The basic physicochemical properties (water content, pH, volatile organic compounds (VS), and total alkalinity), nutrient index (TC, TN, C/N, TK, and TP), microbial composition, and heavy metal contents and fraction were analyzed. The results showed the VS and various nutrient element contents decreased with the prolongation of storage time, and changes in water content were not obvious, which was independent of the storage time and only relevant to natural conditions. The pH was maintained at around 7, and the bacteria predominated in microorganisms, accounting for about 90%. The content of anaerobic microorganisms increased. The contents and fractions of Cu, Zn, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cd, As, and Hg did not change significantly, but the content of Cu was higher than the Chinese standard for agricultural utilization (GB 4284-1984). Therefore, there is a larger risk of storage sludge for agricultural use. Therefore, the analysis of the composition and evolution of storage sludge in the Hunhe River Basin is of great significance for further resource treatment of sludge.

Research on the growth orientation of pyrite grains in the colloform textures in Baiyunpu Pb–Zn polymetallic deposit, Hunan, China

A large number of colloform-textured pyrites were found in Baiyunpu Pb–Zn ore bodies in Xinshao County, Hunan, China. This study investigates the growth orientation of the pyrite grains in these structures by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), in situ micro X-ray diffraction (μXRD) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). The growth proceeded from micro-crystalline cores in the colloform textures. Moreover, the pyrite layers were discrete and separated by locally significant quantities of galena and calcite. The μXRD results suggested clear crystalline characteristics and weakly preferred orientations of the colloform textures. EBSD confirmed that the pyrite grains exist preferred orientations or in the layered zones. According to the crystal growth theory, the formation and variation of crystal preferred orientations (CPOs) in pyrite are mainly restricted by the internal crystal structure of the pyrite and depends on the external environment conditions, such as trace element concentrations and the supersaturation degree. We inferred the evolutionary regularity of lattice planes with different indices in the pyrite crystal structure from morphological, compositional and growth orientation information, which reflect the crystal growth history of the colloform pyrite. This study will advance our understanding of the growth processes of colloform pyrite and environmental evolution in the Baiyunpu Pb–Zn polymetallic deposits.

Evolutionary Game Analysis of the Supervision Behavior for Public-Private Partnership Projects with Public Participation

The public can directly or indirectly participate in the PPP (public-private partnership) projects and then has an impact on the project profit and public or private behavior. To explore the influence of the public participation of the PPP projects supervision behavior, this paper analyzes the mutual evolutionary regularity of the private sector and government supervision department and the influence of public participation level on public and private behavior based on evolutionary game theory. The results show that the supervision strategy is not chosen when the supervision cost of government supervision department is greater than the supervision benefit; it can make private sector consciously provide the high-quality public products/services with the improvement of public participation level. Therefore, the government should reduce the cost of public participation and improve the public participation level and influence through the application of the Internet, big data, and other advanced technologies, in order to restrain the behavior of the private sector and improve the supervision efficiency.

Evolution Analysis of Simple Sequence Repeats in Plant Genome.

Simple sequence repeats (SSRs) are widespread units on genome sequences, and play many important roles in plants. In order to reveal the evolution of plant genomes, we investigated the evolutionary regularities of SSRs during the evolution of plant species and the plant kingdom by analysis of twelve sequenced plant genome sequences. First, in the twelve studied plant genomes, the main SSRs were those which contain repeats of 1–3 nucleotides combination. Second, in mononucleotide SSRs, the A/T percentage gradually increased along with the evolution of plants (except for P. patens). With the increase of SSRs repeat number the percentage of A/T in C. reinhardtii had no significant change, while the percentage of A/T in terrestrial plants species gradually declined. Third, in dinucleotide SSRs, the percentage of AT/TA increased along with the evolution of plant kingdom and the repeat number increased in terrestrial plants species. This trend was more obvious in dicotyledon than monocotyledon. The percentage of CG/GC showed the opposite pattern to the AT/TA. Forth, in trinucleotide SSRs, the percentages of combinations including two or three A/T were in a rising trend along with the evolution of plant kingdom; meanwhile with the increase of SSRs repeat number in plants species, different species chose different combinations as dominant SSRs. SSRs in C. reinhardtii, P. patens, Z. mays and A. thaliana showed their specific patterns related to evolutionary position or specific changes of genome sequences. The results showed that, SSRs not only had the general pattern in the evolution of plant kingdom, but also were associated with the evolution of the specific genome sequence. The study of the evolutionary regularities of SSRs provided new insights for the analysis of the plant genome evolution.

Molecular characterization and expression analysis of the critical floral genes in hickory (Carya cathayensis Sarg.)

The full ORFs of three floral genes in hickory (Carya cathayensis Sarg.), CcAGL24 (the AGAMOUS-LIKE24 homolog), CcSOC1 (the SUPPRESSOR OF OVEREXPRESSION OF CONSTANS1 homolog) and CcAP1 (the APETALA1 homolog) are derived using a 5' RACE PCR protocol. Through sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis, it is demonstrated that the three genes belong to the MADS-Box family. According to the evolutionary trees of the three genes, the homologous genes from the same family cluster well together, while those from different orders doesn't match evolutionary regularity of individual organisms. The result of Quantitative RT-PCR analysis shows that the transcriptional levels of the three genes are up-regulated in early stage and down-regulated in late stage in pistillate floral development. However, it takes different time to reach respective expression peak among the three genes. In staminate floral development, the transcription trend of the three genes is up-regulated, subsequently down-regulated, and then up-regulated again. Nevertheless, those trajectories, peaks, expression levels, inflection points are different in pistillate floral development. The result suggests that their functions are different in between pistillate and staminate floral development. The probable ordinal site of the three genes in the flowering network from top down is CcAGL24, CcSOC1, and CcAP1, which is identical to that in herbaceous plants. Moreover, several adverse environmental factors trigger several negative genes and then confine the development of staminate floral buds. Our results suggest the possible relationship among the three critical floral genes and their functions throughout the floral development in hickory.

Evolutionary regularities of development of somatic polyploidy in salivary glands of gastropod mollusks: V. Subclasses Opisthobranchia and Pulmonata

Salivary glands of 25 species of Opisthobranchia and Pulmonata gastropod mollusks were studied with the use of histochemical methods and cytophotometry of DNA in cellular nuclei. In the secretory epithelium, cells of three main types are identified: granular cells (with granular glycoprotein inclusions), mucocytes-I (containing sulphatized acid mucopolysaccharides), and mucocytes-II (containing neutral and acid nonsulphatized polysaccharides and protein), as well as epithelial ciliated cells and cells of ducts. It is shown that the salivary gland secretory cells of all studied mollusk species are polyploidized, but to different degree. In most species, the maximal degree of polyploidy estimated by the DNA content amounts to 64–128c. Giant polyploidy—up to 4096c—is revealed in salivary gland cells of Tritonia diomedea. The functional properties due to the peculiarities of nutrition of different molluscan species and phylogenetic tendencies of development of somatic polyploidy in the class of Gastropoda are discussed. The high degree of obligatory polyploidization revealed in salivary gland cells of the opisthobranchian and pulmonate mollusks is considered as a peculiar cytological arogenesis as compared with allogenic, facultative, and slight manifestations of polyploidy in prosobranchian gastropod mollusks. The probable causes of such differences are due to the euthyneural type of organization of the central nervous system and to the giant neuronal polyploidy in opisthobranchian and pulmonate mollusks. The causes, mechanisms, and significance of such correlations are so far unclear.

Source identification based on regularization and evolutionary computing in biomagnetism

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a source reconstruction technique, applied to a case study in biomagnetism, using both evolutionary optimization and regularization techniques.Design/methodology/approach – The magnetic field, produced by a current dipole in a spheroidal domain modeling the head, is calculated. Although the model is very simple, the magnetic effect of a brain source is appropriately simulated. In order to solve the source identification problem, the following approaches have been implemented: a single‐objective minimization of a residual function, based on an evolutionary algorithm, is applied first; then, the L‐curve criterion for regularization is implemented by means of an iterative search.Findings – A variable number of unknown parameters, defining direction and magnitude of the current dipole, have been considered. As a consequence, several optimization problems are solved: a technique based on the use of the lead field matrix identifies the source with the smallest e...

A Rain-Rate Retrieval Algorithm for Attenuated Radar Measurements

Abstract A dynamic regularization scheme for rain-rate retrievals from attenuated radar measurements is presented. Most regularization techniques, including the optimal estimation method, use the state-space parameters to regularize the problem, which will always lead to a bias in the solution. To avoid this problem the authors introduce an evolutionary regularization technique, which is based on the spatial derivative of the measured reflectivity profile and allows for a bias-free global solution. The regularization strength is determined by the quadratic eigenvalue solution using the regularized total least squares method. With the new method, the authors perform a retrieval of rain-rate profiles from simulated measurements of a nadir-pointing W-band (94 GHz) radar, in a configuration similar to the cloud radar employed on CloudSat. The simulations assume that multiple scattering is negligible and only liquid hydrometeors are taken into account. The authors compare the results of this method with the outcome of an optimal estimation method and demonstrate that their method is superior in terms of reliability, correlation coefficient, and dispersion to the optimal estimation method for layers experiencing high values of attenuation; therefore, the a priori bias typical for optimal estimation solutions is avoided.

Finding of low-contrast formations in the solar corona using a low contrast method

Coronal holes, bright coronal points, filaments, and prominences are among the initial factors responsible for variability of the space weather conditions. Radioheliographic data on low-contrast formations contain valuable information necessary for studying conditions of origination, peculiarities of evolution, and prediction of solar-terrestrial relations. It is important to identify these formations on the solar disk when physical properties of coronal holes are revealed. The algorithm based on the Wiener-Tikhonov filter modification with controlled parameters and a high-frequency contrast filter was developed in order to isolate low-contrast formations in the solar corona brightness distributions obtained at a wavelength of 5.2 cm from the Siberian solar radio telescope observations. In this case low-contrast sources are isolated in two main stages: (1) HF noise smoothing based on an evolutionary filter with controlled parameters and (2) contrasting of sources using an HF filter. The evolutionary filter regularization parameters and the dimensions of an HF contrast filter mask are selected depending on the signal-to-noise ratio and dimensions of the studied region based on the results of preliminary data processing. The corresponding software has been developed in order to identify low-contrast objects on the Sun’s radio images using this method. The algorithm is used to isolate filaments and coronal holes and the results of this usage are presented in this work.

Evolutionary aspects of interaction of sleep and stress: Phylo- and ontogenetic approach

This work considers comparative behavioral, somatoautonomic, and neurophysiological characteristics of three forms of passive defensive behavior included in the amphibian wakefulness-sleep cycle and their dynamics in the ascending vertebrate series. Considered in parallel is sleep formation in early postnatal ontogenesis of mature-and immature-born mammals-from undifferentiated sleep to the mature sleep divided into two phases as well as of stress-reaction. Comparative phylo-and ontogenetic analysis of several aspects of stress-reactions, sleep, and immobility phenomenon of the catalepsy type allows concluding that the immobility state of the catalepsy type in amphibians and reptiles can be considered the preadaptive behavior type that underlies the homoiothermal stress-reaction. It is the genetically programmed to the poikilothermal state characterized by a relatively high animal alertness, a freezing of the animal in the immobile, but active posture, with a possibility of a fast exit into the wakefulness state, which, alongside with other somatoautonomic and neurophysiological characteristics, which determines the entire subsequent complex of evolutionary morphofunctional changes of neuroregulatory and hormonal changes in the homoiothermal organism. In poikilothermal animals, this in many aspects unspecific behavioral adaptive reaction is realized at the corresponding hormonal and neurological levels of development of the organism and promotes fast mobilization and stabilization of constancy of the internal medium. At the higher evolutionary ladder levels, on the background of maturation of most neurotransmitter systems of brain and the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal system, the leading role in the stress-reaction regulation begins to be played predominantly by hormones, and only in the phase of the stress-reaction alertness, there are observed elements of activation of extrapyramidal systems of regulation of locomotor activity, which is manifested as the cataleptic freezing reaction. Thus, stress as the general adaptational syndrome reflects evolutionary regularities of development of specific functions supporting the total homeostasis. A scheme of evolutionary development of the wakefulness-sleep cycle in the vertebrate subtype is presented; according to it, the immobility state of the catalepsy type, on one hand, is considered as a part of wakefulness providing mainly specific elements of the stress-reaction, while, on the other hand,—as a certain step of the process of inhibition in CNS for subsequent involvement of the sleep-regulatory systems of compensation and maintenance of recovery reactions.

An End to Endless Forms: Epistasis, Phenotype Distribution Bias, and Nonuniform Evolution

Studies of the evolution of development characterize the way in which gene regulatory dynamics during ontogeny constructs and channels phenotypic variation. These studies have identified a number of evolutionary regularities: (1) phenotypes occupy only a small subspace of possible phenotypes, (2) the influence of mutation is not uniform and is often canalized, and (3) a great deal of morphological variation evolved early in the history of multicellular life. An important implication of these studies is that diversity is largely the outcome of the evolution of gene regulation rather than the emergence of new, structural genes. Using a simple model that considers a generic property of developmental maps—the interaction between multiple genetic elements and the nonlinearity of gene interaction in shaping phenotypic traits—we are able to recover many of these empirical regularities. We show that visible phenotypes represent only a small fraction of possibilities. Epistasis ensures that phenotypes are highly clustered in morphospace and that the most frequent phenotypes are the most similar. We perform phylogenetic analyses on an evolving, developmental model and find that species become more alike through time, whereas higher-level grades have a tendency to diverge. Ancestral phenotypes, produced by early developmental programs with a low level of gene interaction, are found to span a significantly greater volume of the total phenotypic space than derived taxa. We suggest that early and late evolution have a different character that we classify into micro- and macroevolutionary configurations. These findings complement the view of development as a key component in the production of endless forms and highlight the crucial role of development in constraining biotic diversity and evolutionary trajectories.

Effortful control, explicit processing, and the regulation of human evolved predispositions.

This article analyzes the effortful control of automatic processing related to social and emotional behavior, including control over evolved modules designed to solve problems of survival and reproduction that were recurrent over evolutionary time. The inputs to effortful control mechanisms include a wide range of nonrecurrent information--information resulting not from evolutionary regularities but from explicit appraisals of costs and benefits. Effortful control mechanisms are associated with the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the ventral anterior cingulated cortex. These mechanisms are largely separate from mechanisms of cognitive control (termed executive function) and working memory, and they enable effortful control of behavior in the service of long range goals. Individual differences in effortful control are associated with measures of conscientiousness in the Five Factor Model of personality. Research in the areas of aggression, ethnocentrism, sexuality, reward seeking, and emotion regulation is reviewed indicating effortful control of automatic, implicit processing based on explicit appraisals of the context. Evidence is reviewed indicating that evolutionary pressure for cooperation may be a critical adaptive function accounting for the evolution of explicit processing.