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Biologically Inspired Near Extinct System Reconstruction
Recovery software system operations from a state of extensive damage without human intervention is a challenging problem as it may need to be based on a different infrastructure from the one that the system was originally designed for and deployed on (i.e., computational and communication devices) and significant reorganization of system functionalities. In this paper, we introduce a bio-inspired approach for reconstructing nearly extinct complex software systems. Our approach is based on encoding a computational DNA (co-DNA) of a system and computational analogues of biological processes to enable the transmission of co-DNA over computational devices and, through it, the transformation of these devices into system cells that can realise chunks of the system functionality, and spread further its reconstruction process
Paleomimetics: A Conceptual Framework for a Biomimetic Design Inspired by Fossils and Evolutionary Processes
In biomimetic design, functional systems, principles, and processes observed in nature are
used for the development of innovative technical systems. The research on functional features is
often carried out without giving importance to the generative mechanism behind them: evolution.
To deeply understand and evaluate the meaning of functional morphologies, integrative structures,
and processes, it is imperative to not only describe, analyse, and test their behaviour, but also to
understand the evolutionary history, constraints, and interactions that led to these features. The
discipline of palaeontology and its approach can considerably improve the efficiency of biomimetic
transfer by analogy of function; additionally, this discipline, as well as biology, can contribute to the
development of new shapes, textures, structures, and functional models for productive and generative
processes useful in the improvement of designs. Based on the available literature, the present
review aims to exhibit the potential contribution that palaeontology can offer to biomimetic processes,
integrating specific methodologies and knowledge in a typical biomimetic design approach,
as well as laying the foundation for a biomimetic design inspired by extinct species and evolutionary
processes: Paleomimetics. A state of the art, definition, method, and tools are provided, and
fossil entities are presented as potential role models for technical transfer solutions
Paleomimetics: A Conceptual Framework for a Biomimetic Design Inspired by Fossils and Evolutionary Processes
In biomimetic design, functional systems, principles, and processes observed in nature are
used for the development of innovative technical systems. The research on functional features is
often carried out without giving importance to the generative mechanism behind them: evolution.
To deeply understand and evaluate the meaning of functional morphologies, integrative structures,
and processes, it is imperative to not only describe, analyse, and test their behaviour, but also to
understand the evolutionary history, constraints, and interactions that led to these features. The
discipline of palaeontology and its approach can considerably improve the efficiency of biomimetic
transfer by analogy of function; additionally, this discipline, as well as biology, can contribute to
the development of new shapes, textures, structures, and functional models for productive and
generative processes useful in the improvement of designs. Based on the available literature, the
present review aims to exhibit the potential contribution that palaeontology can offer to biomimetic
processes, integrating specific methodologies and knowledge in a typical biomimetic design approach,
as well as laying the foundation for a biomimetic design inspired by extinct species and evolutionary
processes: Paleomimetics. A state of the art, definition, method, and tools are provided, and fossil
entities are presented as potential role models for technical transfer solutions
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Functional Morphology in Paleobiology: Origins of the Method of 'Paradigms'.
This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-017-9478-7From the early nineteenth century, the successful use of fossils in stratigraphy oriented paleontology (and particularly the study of fossil invertebrates) towards geology. The consequent marginalising of biological objectives was countered in the twentieth century by the rise of 'Paläobiologie', first in the German cultural area and only later, as 'paleobiology', in the anglophone world. Several kinds of paleobiological research flourished internationally after the Second World War, among them the novel field of 'paleoecology'. Within this field there were attempts to apply functional morphology to the problematical cases of fossil organisms, for which functions cannot be observed directly. This article describes the origins of the kind of functional inference for fossils that I proposed in 1961 as the method of 'paradigms' (a year before Thomas Kuhn made that word more widely familiar with a quite different meaning). Here I summarize some of my 'worked exemplars', which were intended to show the paradigm method in action. These case-studies were all taken from the paleontologically important phylum of the Brachiopoda, but the method was claimed to have much wider implications for the interpretation of the fossil record in terms of adaptive evolution. This article takes the history of the paradigm method as far as the late 1960s. I hope to trace, in a sequel, its ambivalent fate during the 1970s and beyond, when for example Gould's critique of 'the adaptationist programme' and the rise of computer-based quantitative methods for the evolutionary interpretation of the fossil record led to the relative eclipse of functional morphology in paleontology
World polity: anatomy of and arguments for regional and global integration
This article is inspired by taking sort of a medical view on the international political world2. A medical view here means that first we need to understand the anatomy of the organism that we observe, i.e. the world. Secondly, we need to make some diagnoses and prognoses about possible threats to the functioning of this organism as well as how to restore health. In Political Science terms this means identifying threats to security, peace, survival and wellbeing of states, nations, and individuals, as well as the whole, and to identify possible political solutions to these threats. The first part of this article will present the history of global integration and why it is necessary to prevent war and to facilitate peace at the example of Europe. Europe is here regarded a greenhouse for global integration. This part describes the attempts at integration before the major wars in Europe in the last centuries, the reasons for these wars as the failures or lack of integration, and the way it was overcome. The second part of this article will present an ideal type global political anatomy. This will be illustrated with graphics, which are thought to make the global political system better understood by visualising key aspects of it. The third part of this paper will discuss the nature of reality, which is important to understand conflicts in today’s world, as ‘virtual’, material, social and cultural. It will present a challenge to Alexander Wendt’s recent idea of reality as a hologram and discuss how civilizational conflicts, as described by Samuel Huntington, can possibly be resolved by creating a global demos (polity) by establishing a global parliament. As the basis for the latter argument, finally, this paper will present and analyse the results from the survey on global citizenship. Global demos here refer to the idea of a global polity, or identification of the global population with the global, or to say it alternatively: as global citizens. It is argued that, if we would have a global demos, this would facilitate global integration, which is necessary for peace. For example, further global integration towards a world state with a world parliament, is thought to be only possible and sensible if there is a reasonable global demos to build this entity on.For this reason, this article presents results from a survey run at the University of Hull in 2016 intended to measure global citizenship
Evolution of pathogen mutation probabilities
Recent biomathematical literature has suggested that, under the assumption of a trade-off between replication speed and fidelity, a pathogen can evolve to more than one optimal mutation rate. O'Fallon (2011) presents a particularly compelling case grounded in simulation. In this thesis, we treat the subject analytically, approaching it through the lens of adaptive dynamics. We formulate a within-host model of the pathogen load starting from assumptions at the genomic level, explicitly accounting for the fact that most mutations are deleterious and stunt growth. We single out the pathogen's mutation probability as the evolving trait that distinguishes strains from one another. Our between-host dynamics take the form of an SI model, first without superinfection and later with two types of non-smooth superinfection function. The pathogen's virulence and transmission rate are functions of the within-host equilibrium pathogen densities. In the case of our mechanistically defined superinfection function, we uncover evolutionary branching in conjunction with two transmission functions, one a caricatural (expansion) example, the other a more biologically realistic (logistic) one. Because of the non-smoothness of the mechanistic superinfection function, our branching points are actually one-sided ESSs à la Boldin and Diekmann (2014). When branching occurs, two strains with different mutation probabilities both ultimately persist on the evolutionary timescale
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