Cultural Replication Theory and Law

Does law itself evolve? It has been widely suggested that culturally transmitted behavioral information exhibits a Darwinian evolutionary dynamic. The argument is straightforward. Darwinian evolution has three basic elements: (i) replicative descent with (ii) variation, subject to (iii) a form of selection. Bundles of cultural information as diverse as language, religious practices, and how to bake bread pass with imperfect fidelity from generation to generation. Some of the variants created by these imperfections are passed, non-randomly, to the next generation with greater frequency.

Developing an e-Curriculum: Reflections on the Future of Legal Education and on the Importance of Digital Expertise

Legal education is in the midst of significant change, where much of how and what we have taught is under scrutiny. As we reform our curriculums in this moment of change, we should be guided by considerations of value added, values added, economic sustainability. It is no longer enough for our programs to target bar passage, doctrinal coverage, a shared language of argument, and skills and perspectives, important as these may be. Practice in the foreseeable future requires us to add new knowledge and competencies. Law and technology is an area that is ripe for expansion, with the possibility of satisfying all of these criteria. It also provides ample room for scholarly examination. Creating opportunities for learning how technology is shaping legal practice should be a priority for any school looking to provide a useful education for the lawyers of the present, let alone the future

Developing an e-Curriculum: Reflections on the Future of Legal Education and on the Importance of Digital Expertise

Legal education is in the midst of significant change, where much of how and what we have taught is under scrutiny. As we reform our curriculums in this moment of change, we should be guided by considerations of value added, values added, economic sustainability. It is no longer enough for our programs to target bar passage, doctrinal coverage, a shared language of argument, and skills and perspectives, important as these may be. Practice in the foreseeable future requires us to add new knowledge and competencies. Law and technology is an area that is ripe for expansion, with the possibility of satisfying all of these criteria. It also provides ample room for scholarly examination. Creating opportunities for learning how technology is shaping legal practice should be a priority for any school looking to provide a useful education for the lawyers of the present, let alone the future

Assessing the accuracy of free automated plant identification applications

1. Widely available and inexpensive mobile phone applications offer users, whether professional ecologists or interested amateurs, the potential for simple and rapid automated identification of species, without the need to use field guides and identification keys. The increasing accuracy of machine learning is well established, but it is currently unclear if, and under what circumstances, free-to-use mobile phone applications are accurate for identifying plants to species level in real-world field conditions. 2. We test five popular and free identification applications for plants using 857 professionally identified images of 277 species from 204 genera. Across all applications, 85% of images were identified correctly in the top five suggestions, and 69% were correct with the first suggestion. Plant type (woody, forbs, grasses, rushes/sedges, ferns/horsetails) was a significant determinant of identification performance for each application. For some applications, image saliency was also important; exposure and focus were not significant. 3. Applications performed well, with at least one of the three best-performing applications identifying 96% of images correctly as their first suggestion. We conclude that, subject to some caveats, free phone-based plant identification applications are valid and useful tools for those wanting rapid identification and for anyone wanting to engage with the natural world

Determinants of response to a parent questionnaire about development and behaviour in 3 year olds: European multicentre study of congenital toxoplasmosis.

Background: We aimed to determine how response to a parent-completed postal questionnaire measuring development, behaviour, impairment, and parental concerns and anxiety, varies in different European centres. Methods: Prospective cohort study of 3 year old children, with and without congenital toxoplasmosis, who were identified by prenatal or neonatal screening for toxoplasmosis in 11 centres in 7 countries. Parents were mailed a questionnaire that comprised all or part of existing validated tools. We determined the effect of characteristics of the centre and child on response, age at questionnaire completion, and response to child drawing tasks. Results: The questionnaire took 21 minutes to complete on average. 67% (714/1058) of parents responded. Few parents (60/1058) refused to participate. The strongest determinants of response were the score for organisational attributes of the study centre (such as direct involvement in follow up and access to an address register), and infection with congenital toxoplasmosis. Age at completion was associated with study centre, presence of neurological abnormalities in early infancy, and duration of prenatal treatment. Completion rates for individual questions exceeded 92% except for child completed drawings of a man (70%), which were completed more by girls, older children, and in certain centres. Conclusion: Differences in response across European centres were predominantly related to the organisation of follow up and access to correct addresses. The questionnaire was acceptable in all six countries and offers a low cost tool for assessing development, behaviour, and parental concerns and anxiety, in multinational studies

A repeat protein links Rubisco to form the eukaryotic carbon-concentrating organelle.

Biological carbon fixation is a key step in the global carbon cycle that regulates the atmosphere's composition while producing the food we eat and the fuels we burn. Approximately one-third of global carbon fixation occurs in an overlooked algal organelle called the pyrenoid. The pyrenoid contains the CO2-fixing enzyme Rubisco and enhances carbon fixation by supplying Rubisco with a high concentration of CO2 Since the discovery of the pyrenoid more that 130 y ago, the molecular structure and biogenesis of this ecologically fundamental organelle have remained enigmatic. Here we use the model green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii to discover that a low-complexity repeat protein, Essential Pyrenoid Component 1 (EPYC1), links Rubisco to form the pyrenoid. We find that EPYC1 is of comparable abundance to Rubisco and colocalizes with Rubisco throughout the pyrenoid. We show that EPYC1 is essential for normal pyrenoid size, number, morphology, Rubisco content, and efficient carbon fixation at low CO2 We explain the central role of EPYC1 in pyrenoid biogenesis by the finding that EPYC1 binds Rubisco to form the pyrenoid matrix. We propose two models in which EPYC1's four repeats could produce the observed lattice arrangement of Rubisco in the Chlamydomonas pyrenoid. Our results suggest a surprisingly simple molecular mechanism for how Rubisco can be packaged to form the pyrenoid matrix, potentially explaining how Rubisco packaging into a pyrenoid could have evolved across a broad range of photosynthetic eukaryotes through convergent evolution. In addition, our findings represent a key step toward engineering a pyrenoid into crops to enhance their carbon fixation efficiency

Tectonic controls on post-subduction granite genesis and emplacement : the late Caledonian suite of Britain and Ireland

Rates of magma emplacement commonly vary as a function of tectonic setting. The late Caledonian granites of Britain and Ireland are associated with closure of the Iapetus Ocean and were emplaced into a varying regime of transpression and transtension throughout the Silurian and into the early Devonian. Here we evaluate a new approach for examining how magma volumes vary as a function of tectonic setting. Available radiometric ages from the late Caledonian granites are used to calculate probability density functions (age spectra), with each pluton weighted by outcrop area as a proxy for its volume. These spectra confirm an absence of magmatic activity during Iapetus subduction between c. 455 Ma and 425 Ma and a dominance of post-subduction magmas between c. 425 Ma and 380 Ma. We review possible reasons why, despite the widespread outcrop of the late Caledonian granites, magmatism appears absent during Iapetus subduction. These include shallow angle subduction or extensive erosion and tectonic removal of the arc. In contrast to previous work we find no strong difference in the age or major element chemistry of post-subduction granites across all terranes. We propose a common causal mechanism in which the down-going Iapetus oceanic slab peeled back and detached beneath the suture following final Iapetus closure. The lithospheric mantle was delaminated beneath the suture and for about 100 km back beneath the Avalonian margin. While magma generation is largely a function of gravitationally driven lithosphere delamination, strike-slip dominated kinematics in the overlying continental crust is what modulated granitic magma emplacement. Early Devonian (419–404 Ma) transtension permitted large volumes of granite emplacement, whereas the subsequent Acadian (late Early Devonian, 404–394 Ma) transpression reduced and eventually suppressed magma emplacement