Understanding agriculture within the frameworks of cumulative cultural evolution, gene-culture co-evolution, and cultural niche construction

This is the author accepted manuscriptSince its emergence around 12,000 years ago, agriculture has transformed our species, other species, and the planet on which we all live. Here we argue that the emergence and impact of agriculture can be understood within new theoretical frameworks developing within the evolutionary human sciences. First, the improvement and diversification of agricultural knowledge, practices, and technology is a case of cumulative cultural evolution, with successive modifications accumulated over multiple generations to exceed what any single person could create alone. We discuss how the factors that permit, facilitate, and hinder cumulative cultural evolution might apply to agriculture. Second, agriculture is a prime example of gene-culture co-evolution, where culturally transmitted agricultural practices generate novel selection pressures for genetic evolution. While this point has traditionally been made for the human genome, we expand the concept to include genetic changes in domesticated plants and animals, both via traditional breeding and molecular breeding. Third, agriculture is a powerful niche-constructing activity that has extensively transformed the abiotic, biotic, and social environments. We examine how agricultural knowledge and practice shapes, and are shaped by, social norms and attitudes. We discuss recent biotechnology and associated molecular breeding techniques and present several case studies, including golden rice and stress resistance. Overall, we propose new insights into the co-evolution of human culture and plant genes and the unprecedented contribution of agricultural activities to the construction of unique agriculture-driven anthropogenic biomes

Challenges for biomedical research workforce development

Thesis (S.M. in Technology and Policy)-- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2012.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 63-66).The U.S. government doubled NIH appropriations between 1998 and 2003, aiming to significantly foster research activities in biomedicine. However, several indicators demonstrate not only that the impact of the budget increase fell short of expectations; in many cases it resulted in unintended negative effects. Compared to pre-doubling conditions, researchers now spend significantly more time writing grant proposals, impacting their ability to carry out research. Paradoxically, the probability with which a grant proposal is accepted for funding deteriorated sharply after the doubling and continues to fall. The average age of first-time NIH grant recipients has increased by almost a decade since the early 70's, while the percentage of biomedical doctorates securing tenured or tenure-track positions relentlessly drops. These trends represent a threat to the quality, stability, and availability of the U.S. biomedical research workforce. This thesis takes a system dynamics approach to test the hypothesis that a sudden and temporary increase in research funds can result in unintended long-term effects hampering research discoveries and workforce development. A simulation model is therefore developed using the available literature and calibrated to replicate historical trends. The model is then used to perform experiments that test the effects of changes in certain parameters or policies. The outcomes of these experiments provide policy insights that can help improve the effectiveness of NIH funding and its impact on the workforce.by Mauricio Gomez Diaz.S.M.in Technology and Polic

Harnessing the Science of Social Marketing and Behaviour Change for Improved Water Quality in the GBR: background review of the literature

This document is intended to provide an extensive review of the existing literature relating to behaviour change, either directly in the agri-environment context, or from wider contexts where findings may then be applied to agri-environmental issues. A specific focus is placed on the use of social marketing approaches, acknowledging the complex range of influences on behaviours and pressures, such as climate change and extreme weather events that are beyond the control of land managers

Harnessing the Science of Social Marketing and Behaviour Change for Improved Water Quality in the GBR: background review of the literature

This document is intended to provide an extensive review of the existing literature relating to behaviour change, either directly in the agri-environment context, or from wider contexts where findings may then be applied to agri-environmental issues. A specific focus is placed on the use of social marketing approaches, acknowledging the complex range of influences on behaviours and pressures, such as climate change and extreme weather events that are beyond the control of land managers

Resource assignment in short life technology intensive (SLTI) new product development (NPD)

Enterprises managing multiple concurrent New Product Development (NPD) projects face significant challenges assigning staff to projects in order to achieve launch schedules that maximize financial returns. The challenge is increased with the class of Short Life Technology Intensive (SLTI) products characterized by technical complexity, short development cycles and short revenue life cycles. Technical complexity drives the need to assign staffing resources of various technical disciplines and skill levels. SLTI products are rapidly developed and launched into stationary market windows where the revenue life cycle is short and decreasing with any time-to-market delay. The SLTI-NPD project management decision is to assign staff of varying technical discipline and skill level to minimize the revenue loss due to product launch delays across multiple projects. This dissertation considers an NPD organization responsible for multiple concurrent SLTI projects each characterized by a set of tasks having technical discipline requirements, task duration estimates and logical precedence relationships. Each project has a known potential launch date and potential revenue life cycle. The organization has a group of technical professionals characterized by a range of skill levels in a known set of technical disciplines. The SLTI-NPD resource assignment problem is solved using a multi-step process referred to as the Resource Assignment and Multi-Project Scheduling (RAMPS) decision support tool. Robust scheduling techniques are integrated to develop schedules that consider variation in task and project duration estimates. A valuation function provides a time-value linkage between schedules and the product revenue life cycle for each product. Productivity metrics are developed as the basis for prioritizing projects for resources assignment. The RAMPS tool implements assignment and scheduling algorithms in two phases; (i) a constructive approach that employs priority rule heuristics to derive feasible assignments and schedules and (ii) an improvement heuristic that considers productivity gains that can be achieved by interchanging resources of differing skill levels and corresponding work rates. An experimental analysis is conducted using the RAMPS tool and simulated project and resource data sets. Results show significant productivity and efficiency gains that can be achieved through effective project and resource prioritization and by including consideration of skill level in the assignment of technical resources

Vision 2010

https://scholarworks.umt.edu/vision/1007/thumbnail.jp