Phenotypic flexibility and the evolution of organismal design

Evolutionary biologists often use phenotypic differences between species and between individuals to gain an understanding of organismal design. The focus of much recent attention has been on developmental plasticity – the environmentally induced variability during development within a single genotype. The phenotypic variation expressed by single reproductively mature organisms throughout their life, traditionally the subject of many physiological studies, has remained underexploited in evolutionary biology. Phenotypic flexibility, the reversible within-individual variation, is a function of environmental conditions varying predictably (e.g. with season), or of more stochastic fluctuations in the environment. Here, we provide a common framework to bring the different categories of phenotypic plasticity together, and emphasize perspectives on adaptation that reversible types of plasticity might provide. We argue that better recognition and use of the various levels of phenotypic variation will increase the scope for phenotypic experimentation, comparison and integration.

Tau Be or not Tau Be? - A Perspective on Service Compatibility and Substitutability

One of the main open research issues in Service Oriented Computing is to propose automated techniques to analyse service interfaces. A first problem, called compatibility, aims at determining whether a set of services (two in this paper) can be composed together and interact with each other as expected. Another related problem is to check the substitutability of one service with another. These problems are especially difficult when behavioural descriptions (i.e., message calls and their ordering) are taken into account in service interfaces. Interfaces should capture as faithfully as possible the service behaviour to make their automated analysis possible while not exhibiting implementation details. In this position paper, we choose Labelled Transition Systems to specify the behavioural part of service interfaces. In particular, we show that internal behaviours (tau transitions) are necessary in these transition systems in order to detect subtle errors that may occur when composing a set of services together. We also show that tau transitions should be handled differently in the compatibility and substitutability problem: the former problem requires to check if the compatibility is preserved every time a tau transition is traversed in one interface, whereas the latter requires a precise analysis of tau branchings in order to make the substitution preserve the properties (e.g., a compatibility notion) which were ensured before replacement.Comment: In Proceedings WCSI 2010, arXiv:1010.233

Representation in Econometrics: A Historical Perspective

Measurement forms the substance of econometrics. This chapter outlines the history of econometrics from a measurement perspective - how have measurement errors been dealt with and how, from a methodological standpoint, did econometrics evolve so as to represent theory more adequately in relation to data? The evolution is organized in terms of four phases: 'theory and measurement', 'measurement and theory', 'measurement with theory' and 'measurement without theory'. The question of how measurement research has helped in the advancement of knowledge advance is discussed in the light of this history.Econometrics, History, Measurement error

Cultivating learning and social interaction in an international classroom through small group work; a quasi-experimental study

Globalisation demands graduates to be culturally adept: cross-cultural experiences within an international classroom are an important part of contemporary higher education agendas (Kimmel & Volet, 2012; Montgomery, 2009; Rienties, Johan, & Jindal-Snape, 2014). The opportunities for learning from other cultures is noted as one of the reasons for international students studying abroad (Merrick, 2004). Patterson, Carrillo, and Salinas (2012) documented that cross-cultural learning could bring a number of advantages for both host-national and international students, such as understanding and appreciation of the world, ability to think critically, integrate multiple perspectives, acquiring global knowledge and hence to be able to work effectively in a global world. While studying abroad is increasingly common (Brisset, Safdar, Lewis, & Sabatier, 2010; Montgomery, 2009), research consistently suggests that international students continue to face a number of transitional challenges (Rienties, Beausaert, Grohnert, Niemantsverdriet, & Kommers, 2012; Ye, 2006; Zhou, Jindal-Snape, Topping, & Todman, 2008)

A Conceptual Framework for Adapation

This paper presents a white-box conceptual framework for adaptation that promotes a neat separation of the adaptation logic from the application logic through a clear identification of control data and their role in the adaptation logic. The framework provides an original perspective from which we survey archetypal approaches to (self-)adaptation ranging from programming languages and paradigms, to computational models, to engineering solutions

A Conceptual Framework for Adapation

This paper presents a white-box conceptual framework for adaptation that promotes a neat separation of the adaptation logic from the application logic through a clear identification of control data and their role in the adaptation logic. The framework provides an original perspective from which we survey archetypal approaches to (self-)adaptation ranging from programming languages and paradigms, to computational models, to engineering solutions

A Conceptual Framework for Adapation

We present a white-box conceptual framework for adaptation. We called it CODA, for COntrol Data Adaptation, since it is based on the notion of control data. CODA promotes a neat separation between application and adaptation logic through a clear identification of the set of data that is relevant for the latter. The framework provides an original perspective from which we survey a representative set of approaches to adaptation ranging from programming languages and paradigms, to computational models and architectural solutions

Sourcing of Internal Auditing: An Empirical Study

In recent years, the scope of internal auditing has broadened considerably, increasing the importance of internal auditing as part of the organization’s management control structure. This expanding role has changed the demands being put on internal auditors. Their new role requires different skills and competencies, and many organizations now need to face the choice whether to develop these broader competencies internally or to outsource internalauditing to outside service providers.This paper studies the factors associated with organizations’ internal audit sourcing decisions, building from a previous study by Widener & Selto (1999; henceforth W&S). In their study, W&S used Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) to explain the organization of internal auditing. Our study seeks to replicate their results, using newly collected data from 66 companies headquartered in the Netherlands. Our findings are supportive of W&S. Like W&S, we find asset specificity and frequency (both individually and in interaction) to be significantly associated with sourcing decisions in a regression model that explains 65% (adjusted R2 = 0.63) of the variance in outsourced internal auditing. Additional analyses reinforce the importance of these TCE variables in explaining organizations’ internal auditing sourcing behaviour.transaction cost economics;internal auditing;make-or-buy decision

Predicting private and public helping behaviour by implicit attitudes and the motivation to control prejudiced reactions

The role of individual differences in implicit attitudes toward homosexuals and motivation to control prejudiced reactions (MCPR) in predicting private and public helping behaviour was investigated. After assessing the predictor variables, 69 male students were informed about a campaign of a local gay organization. They were provided with an opportunity to donate money and sign a petition in the presence (public setting) or absence (private setting) of the experimenter. As expected, more helping behaviour was shown in the public than in the private setting. But while the explicit cognitive attitude accounted for helping behaviour in both settings, an implicit attitude x MCPR interaction accounted for additional variability of helping in the public setting only. Three different mediating processes are discussed as possible causes of the observed effects