Theory Of Biological Evolution Research Articles

Reproduction and longevity: A Mendelian randomization study of gonadotropin-releasing hormone and ischemic heart disease.

BackgroundAccording to well-established evolutionary biology theory there is a trade-off between reproduction and longevity, implying that upregulating the reproductive axis might drive major diseases. We assessed whether the central driver of reproduction gonadotropin-releasing hormone 1 (GnRH1) had a causal effect on the leading cause of global morbidity and mortality, i.e. ischemic heart disease (IHD). As a contrast we similarly examined the role of GnRH2 because it is more a driver of female sexual behavior.MethodsWe applied strong (p-value <5 × 10−6) and independent genetic predictors of GnRH1 and GnRH2 to an extensively genotyped IHD case (n = 76,014) - control (n = 264,785) study and combined the genetic variant specific Wald estimates using inverse variance weighting (IVW) with multiplicative random effects, and as a sensitivity analysis used weighted median, MR-Egger and MR-PRESSO estimates, and repeated the analysis only using genome wide significant genetic predictors.FindingsGnRH1, predicted by 11 genetic variants, was positively associated with IHD (IVW odds ratio (OR) 1.04 per effect size, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.01 to 1.08), but GnRH2, predicted by 15 genetic variants, was not (IVW OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.95 to 1.02). Estimates from sensitivity analysis were similar.InterpretationGnRH1 is a potential IHD genetic target. Apart from demonstrating a central tenet of evolutionary biology in humans, our study suggests that existing treatments and environmental factors targeting GnRH1, its drivers or consequences could be re-purposed to prevent and treat IHD. Given, the importance of reproduction to the human species, many such exposures likely exist.

ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF LABORATORY LESSONS IN THE COURSE “CONCEPTS OF MODERN NATURAL SCIENCE”

Methods of teaching the course “Concepts of modern natural science” are discussed. It is shown that real (not virtual) laboratory practical work is an important and necessary part of this discipline. The example of realization of such laboratory workshop is given in the article. This laboratory workshop consists of two parts, which can be called “physical” and “biological”. The laboratory works of the “physical” part of the workshop are selected in such a way as to demonstrate deep and universal physical concepts on simple examples. For example, the study of polarized light allows students to get acquainted with the concept of spin of a particle on a simple and understandable example. A simple experience with the Magdeburg hemispheres allows us to discuss the relationship between the continual and discrete approach to the theory of the structure of matter. The “biological” part of the workshop includes not only the fundamental problems of biology itself (for example, the problems of reproduction), but also the problems of mineralogy and paleontology. The study of mineralogical samples allows students to better understand the ideas of the evolution of the earth's surface, and the study of paleontology allows a better understanding of the ideas of the theory of biological evolution.

Pros and cons of using wavelets in conjunction with genetic programming and generalised linear models in statistical downscaling of precipitation

Among the regression techniques used in building statistical downscaling models, genetic programming (GP) which mimics Darwin’s theory of biological evolution possesses several pros such as it evolves explicit linear or non-linear relationships while identifying optimum predictors, and it discards irrelevant and redundant information in predictors. However, GP is known to simulate unphysically large outliers of predictands. In statistical downscaling, decomposition of predictand and predictor data into number of different time-frequency components with wavelet transform and modelling each component separately should better simulate the time-frequency properties of the predictand, in theory. Therefore, it is important to investigate pros and cons of using GP with wavelet transform in building downscaling models. In this study, wavelet and non-wavelet-based precipitation downscaling models were developed employing GP and generalised liner models (GLM) for 50 stations located in wet and dry climate, with 20CR and NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data, for the investigation of the above matter. It was found that regardless of the mother wavelet, vanishing moment and climate regime, with the increase in decomposition level, the wavelet-based downscaling models developed with GLM tended to show a distinct deterioration in performance in both calibration and validation unlike the wavelet-based downscaling models developed with GP. This was because GP is able to discard unnecessary/redundant information flowing into the model with the increase in the decomposition level through evolution. Furthermore, it was found that when GP is coupled with wavelet transform, the simulation of unphysically large values of the predictand increases significantly.

How Might Bromodomain and Extra-Terminal (BET) Inhibitors Operate in Cardiovascular Disease?

Bromodomain and extra-terminal (BET) inhibitors, acting via epigenetic mechanisms, have been developed recently as potential new treatments for cancer, including prostate cancer, and inflammatory conditions. Some BET inhibitors, such as RVX-208, also raise high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and apolipoprotein A-1 levels. A recent meta-analysis of three small trials (n = 798) found that RVX-208 protected against major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), raising the question as to whether this protective effect was an artefact, a chance finding, or mediated by HDL-C, anti-inflammatory pathways, or other factors. Notably, the effect of RVX-208 on MACE was largely driven by revascularizations, but fewer interventions in the treatment arm could have arisen accidently from favorable effects of RVX-208 on HDL-C and C-reactive protein influencing decisions about patient care. A larger (n = 2400) trial of RVX-208, BETonMACE (NCT02586155), with a more restricted definition of MACE, excluding hospitalizations, will shortly provide clarity. A successful BETonMACE trial would raise the question as to whether RVX-208 operates via lipids, inflammation, or other means, because several previous HDL-C modulators and anti-inflammatories have not provided effective means of treating cardiovascular disease and reducing overall mortality. Re-conceptualizing cardiovascular disease within the well-established evolutionary biology theory that growth and specifically reproduction trade-off against longevity might provide a more comprehensive explanation. Drivers of the gonadotropic axis, particularly androgens, suppress both HDL-C and the immune system while promoting ischemic heart disease and stroke. As such, any effects of RVX-208 on cardiovascular disease might be the result of reducing androgens, of which higher HDL-C and reduced inflammation are biomarkers. Notably, several other effective treatments for cardiovascular disease, such as statins and spironolactone, are known anti-androgens. Results of the BETonMACE trial, and corresponding insight about the mechanism of BET inhibitors in cardiovascular disease, are eagerly awaited.

Language Evolution in Biolinguistics from a Multi-Factor Perspective

Biolinguistics is an interdisciplinary subject derived from the interaction of biology and linguistics. In 1967, after the publication of Biological Foundations of Language by Lenneberg E.H., the vision of Language study has been introduced into the field of biology. Later, Chomsky proposed the term of language faculty and regarded language as “an organ of the body”. Different from traditional linguists’ description of the rules of language externalization, Chomsky focuses on the biological mechanism of internalized language. The challenge of theory of evolution in biology has also enriched the study of the origin and evolution of language. This thesis will begin with the mythological origin and philosophical foundation of language, chase the challenge of evolutionary theory, and discuss two groups of basic properties of language, which is unity and diversity, recursiveness and thinking, so as to further study the relation between language and its biological basis, that is, from language and speech organ, language and thought to language and gene, to analyze the uniqueness of human language competence.

A review on graphical evolutionary game for information diffusion on social networks

Purpose With the recent development of science and technology, research on information diffusion has become increasingly important. Design/methodology/approach To analyze the process of information diffusion, researchers have proposed a framework with graphical evolutionary game theory (EGT) according to the theory of biological evolution. Findings Through this method, one can study and even predict information diffusion. Originality/value This paper summarizes three existing works using graphical EGT to discuss how to obtain the static state and the dynamics of information diffusion in social network.

Kindergartens for civilisation: the intellectual origins of the St Louis public kindergarten

ABSTRACTThis article reexamines the intellectual history of the first public kindergartens, established in St Louis, Missouri, by William Torrey Harris and Elizabeth Blow in 1873. This piece argues that historians have overlooked a critical influence on the establishment of the first public kindergartens; namely, Harris and Blow’s conviction that children’s intellectual, psychological, and moral development recapitulated historical stages of human cultural and sociological evolution. This belief in cultural recapitulation deeply informed how they viewed the kindergarten curriculum and the role of public education—including the public kindergarten—in a liberal democratic society. Consequently, the first public kindergartens stand as a patent example, not of romantic reform, but of a late nineteenth-century state-centered liberalism grounded in Harris and Blow’s ethnocentric views of cultural and child development, as well as their Hegelian institutional idealism. Finally, this article illustrates how Harris and Blow transposed widely circulating theories of biological and cultural evolution, a belief in Western cultural superiority, and their vision of a civilised social order onto the biology and psychology of the child. As such, this paper illustrates how the metaphors and categories used to describe the stages of child development have made ethical claims with far-reaching implications.

Environmentally smart animal agriculture and integrated advisory services ameliorate the negative effects of climate change on production

The objective is to discern how Charles Darwin’s Origin of species (1859) and the theory of natural selection and evolutionary biology – ‘a grain in the balance will determine which individual shall live and which shall die’– are core to achieving environmentally and climate-smart, economically viable, sustainable animal agriculture in a changing climate. Darwin’s ‘survival of the fittest’ theory implies inherent comparative advantage of survivors over the succumbed in any given environment. An animal’s phenotype (P) results from interaction of its genotype (G) and the environment (E), expressed as P = G x E. Human migration has transferred livestock breeds from places of origin to distant continents and agro-ecological zones, far from where they have inherent comparative production advantage. For example, crossbreeds of Bos taurus and Bos indicus have higher average performance than median of either parent population. However, the heterotic effect of hybrids is associated with loss of environmental adaptation compared with parent populations. Indigenous breeds, their phenotypes and ecotypes thrive best in distinct environments, ceteris paribus . An environment is the sum total of conditions that influence animal productivity in the habitat. These include nutrition, genetics, disease, exposure to parasites, management practices, climate, rainfall, humidity, heat and cold stressors, and advisory services. Hybrids lose some adaptive capacity compared with parents, and require habitat modifications if they are to express their fullest genetic potential. In the light of this and of global warming challenges to livestock production, it is scientifically and technically prudent to exploit the inherent comparative production advantages of indigenous genotypes, phenotype and ecotypes, when mitigating climate change, more so in low-input animal agriculture systems of sub-Saharan Africa and at similar locations. Climate change poses multidisciplinary challenges that require integrated collaborative cross-discipline research, extension and training to provide holistic solutions. Keywords: Climate-smart, genotype, livestock production efficiency, global warming, indigenous breeds, mitigation strategies

Homo Forte: A Philosophical Tribute to Muscle

ABSTRACTIn this paper, I argue from a holistic standpoint for the intimate relationship between people and their muscles. While this stands as a direct tribute to muscle, it also serves as an acknowledgment of the work of Bill Morgan who championed multidisciplinary perspectives when analyzing philosophic issues. I honor and expand upon Morgan’s recommendations by discussing cultural, biological, and philosophical insights related to persons and their musculature. I review the ‘poor treatment’ typically accorded muscles and then rally an interdisciplinary apologetic—one that ranges from the body philosophy of Marcel and Merleau-Ponty to evolutionary biology and systems theory. I conclude with speculations about the uncertain future of muscle for human existence and well-being.

Freudarwin: Evolutionary Thinking as a Root of Psychoanalysis.

This essay synthesizes the place of biological evolutionism in the early history of psychoanalysis, and shows the implicit significance of German Darwinism in Sigmund Freud’s whole psychoanalytical works. In particular, Freud, together with Sándor Ferenczi (1873–1933), applied to mental disorders hypotheses inspired by August Pauly’s (1850–1914) psychological Lamarckism and Ernst Heckel (1834–1919) theory of recapitulation. Both of these theories rested upon the principle of inheritance of acquired characteristics, and were disproved by biological discoveries during the interwar period. However, despite these scientific progresses, Freud never gave up his idea of inherited unconscious memories, and we try here to sketch out what would have cost him a renunciation to such outdated biological principles. Notwithstanding, Sigmund Freud was the first to elaborate on evolutionary causes of mental syndromes, which makes of him the forerunner of current neo-Darwinian psychopathology, with few continuators to date within the psychoanalytic field. Nowadays, the extended neo-Darwinian synthesis and affective neuroscience may pave the way for a rational Darwinian approach to human mental disorders, which would take into account the whole neurological and psychological evolution of species, and be centered on emotions and their vicissitudes.

JSP Special Issue on Statistical Theory of Biological Evolution

JSP Special Issue on Statistical Theory of Biological Evolution

Views of Evolution Shaped by Knowledge.

The article discusses the relationship between scientific understanding of the theory of biological evolution and belief in the evolution, including through commenting on political identity and religion, referencing a study in the "BioScience" journal.

The Minimum Steiner Tree Problem Based on Genetic Algorithm

Genetic Algorithm is a method of searching the optimal solution by using computer to simulate Darwin's biological evolution theory based on natural selection and genetic principles of biological evolution process. This paper aims to solve the problem of the minimum Steiner tree by using genetic algorithm. First, it introduced the concept of genetic algorithm, minimum spanning tree and minimum Steiner tree briefly. Then, it described the application of genetic algorithm in the problem of minimum Steiner tree in detail and gave one method. Finally, this paper has attained the whole approximate root through solving one emulated experimentation emulated about communication network. The solution given in this paper is also applicable to other problems. Its versatility is better. Because of the narrowing of the search range, the search speed is faster and the number of iterations is less.

Darwinismus a ekologicky ušlechtilí divoši

Object of the paper is the relationship between Darwinism and nature protection in the context of discussion about ecologically noble savages. Main principles of the Darwin’s theory of biological evolution are intrascpecific competition and interspecific competition. Author argues that protectionist attitude to the nature can not be the part of the human nature shaped by the biological evolution. In the light of the theory of biological evolution are cooperation and altruism result of the selfish behavior of the individual organisms. Special attention is devoted to the idea of ecologically noble savages. Author illustrates that indigenous peoples are not always protectionists. The dichotomy of ecologically noble savages and ecologically pathological Euro-American civilization he found as false. It is not possible to work out typology of protectionist and non-protectionist cultures consistent with the typology of subsistence or societies. Author concludes that protectionist attitude to the nature rises as a cultural phenomenon, but is necessary to build programs of the nature protection according to the human nature.

Response: Queering Time

Response:Queering Time Deanna K. Kreisel (bio) There was an extraordinarily strong throughline to the papers at the 2017 NAVSA Conference in Banff. Perhaps it was due partly to the conference theme, "Victorian Preserves," partly to the breathtaking natural setting, and partly to our political moment that many of the presentations clustered around environmental and ecocritical themes. This striking thematic coherence made the job of a "NAVSA scout" with ecocritical interests both easy and difficult: easy in the sense that one could almost choose three papers at random and make a strong case for their interconnection, and difficult in the sense that it was very hard to choose from among the many excellent presentations on offer.1 In the end I selected the three papers in this cluster particularly because of the ways they speak to each other about a topic that has become of central interest to environmentalist criticism: the problem of futurity. While Fredric Jameson may be right that "Time and Space are at war in a Homeric combat," for literary critics it's hardly a fair fight (698). Every few years literature scholars are exhorted to execute a dialectical do-si-do and supplement their predominant way of reading with the putatively missing term: to reinvigorate their work with fresh approaches drawn from, for example, the study of geography, architecture, urban landscapes, and domestic interiors, or from the study of factory time, geological history, evolutionary biology, or classic narratological theory. Yet as that theory—from the Russian formalists to the work of Gérard Genette and Paul Ricoeur—has long shown, narrative is [End Page 236] fundamentally structured by time, is inherently a chronological, not a spatial, phenomenon. For Ricoeur, for example, "time becomes human time to the extent that it is organized after the manner of a narrative; narrative, in turn, is meaningful to the extent that it portrays the features of temporal experience" (3). While Jameson may have announced the "end of temporality" back in 2003, he did so by way of lamenting the eclipsing of literature by other art forms: "the rise of the intellectual stock of architecture accompanied the decline of belles lettres like a lengthening shadow" (696). But in the realm of the literary, space doesn't stand a chance. It is with some ambivalence, then, that I ask the readers of this cluster of papers to attend to questions of temporality before the most recent spatial turn has even completed its circuit around the dance floor. But Time, for better or worse, has bullied its way back into the spotlight—thanks in part to the efflorescence of ecocriticism, whose political project is both urgent and time-bound (from the vast temporal scales of geological change to the focus on our collective dys/utopian future as a planet), and in part to the extraordinary richness of the recent "temporal turn" in queer theory (particularly the work of Lee Edelman, Valerie Rohy, Jose Muñoz, Claire Colebrook, and Elizabeth Freeman). Two strains of this latter turn are particularly salient to the papers gathered here: the well-established interrogation of reproductive futurity and the more recent critique, from a queer perspective, of the regimentation of time under modernity. Dana Luciano has termed "chronobiopolitics" (9) the orchestrations of time through which people come to feel part of a collective, and Elizabeth Freeman has coined the term "chrononormativity" to refer to "the use of time to organize individual human bodies toward maximum productivity" (3). While only two of the three papers in this cluster are explicitly about queerness, and only one is about ecocriticism in a narrow sense, all three papers take fresh, surprising, and generative looks at the phenomenal and phenomenological category of time in ways that I think ultimately bear on ecocritial concerns, and thus pull together a significant thematic sub-thread of an already beautifully coherent conference. In her paper, "Saving Time: Nineteenth-Century Time Travel and the Temporal Logic of Late Capitalism," Sarah C. Alexander examines late-Victorian time travel narratives that describe temporal paradoxes, wherein a character travels to the past and alters events in a way that then affects the past, present, and future. Alexander focuses on the 1891 novel...

Cooperation in adversity: an evolutionary approach

Throughout the organic world cooperation provides mutual benefit but is vulnerable to exploitation from free-riders. Over the last 30 years work in evolutionary biology and game theory has provided understanding of the conditions necessary for the maintenance of cooperation, and advances in gene-culture coevolution theory have extended this understanding to our own species. After a preamble on the evolutionary analysis of behaviour I outline this work. I then consider how cooperation is influenced by environmental adversity and find that in non-human species it is enhanced under these circumstances in a range of taxa. In a sample of human cases the same result is found in a majority, but the opposite effect in some when socioeconomic position is the measure of quality. In anthropological studies of societies living in extremis, again the opposite effect is found. I propose a sigmoid shape for the relationship between adversity and fitness (or human well-being) and a consequent inverted-U shaped relationship between adversity and the benefit of cooperation. Most of the data presented on the relationship between adversity and cooperation are consistent with this proposal. I suggest further tests of the proposal and place the study of cooperation in the broader context of prosociality.

Warburg’s cultural psychology as a tool for understanding Internet memes

Abstract From a historical point of view, the idea of moving forces behind imagery opens up a new perspective on the spreadability and effectiveness of digital imagery today, especially in the form of Internet memes. Aby M. Warburg’s theory of Art History as collective memory is not only connected to the early theories of Evolutionary Biology by Richard Semon, but can also be interpreted as a parallel line of thought to Carl Jung’s psychological concept of archetype. The question of how cultural content was shared and received was deeply connected with Warburg’s theory of the ‘Pathosformel’ (pathos formula) or ‘Wanderstraße der Bilder’ (The Image in Motion).

The Gülen Movement in Turkey: The Politics of Islam, Science and Modernity

The Gülen Movement in Turkey: The Politics of Islam, Science and Modernity

A Reflection on the legacies of Charles Darwin

The biological theory of human evolution existed before Charles Darwin. His view on the origins of animals attracted much debate among scientists and Chris-tians since 1859. Darwin’s view on the causes of variation among species which led to the emergence of humans has contributed to the development of an ideology according to which he is the father of evolution. This research is a historical reflection on Darwin’s life and his theory of evolution. The author describes the views that existed and still exist as responses to Darwin's life and his theory of evolution. The research is aimed at appreciating Darwin’s legacies and his contribution to the development of the various schools of thoughts among Christians regarding the creation/evolution debate.

Text navigation in multiple source use

Drawing on theories in evolutionary biology, research on hypertext navigation has posited two profiles to capture how students navigate information sources: the satisficing and sampling approaches of text access. While students engaged in sampling work to identify an optimal source to exploit for information, students who adopt a satisficing approach to text use spend time on accessing the first text they visit that meets some threshold of acceptability. This study examines the manifestation of these profiles when students navigate multiple, non-hyperlinked texts, without time limitations. Evidence was found for a satisficing, but not a sampling, approach to multiple text navigation. Four sub-profiles of satisficing approaches were identified. Students in the limited navigation profile devoted little time to text access. Students in the primary profile devoted the bulk of access time to a single text. Those in the distributed profile visited the texts they accessed for fairly uniform periods of time. Students in the discriminating profile visited certain texts for substantial periods of time, while accessing other texts to a more limited extent. These four navigation profiles were found to be differentially associated with other metrics of text access (e.g., whether texts were revisited), ratings of text usefulness, and task performance.