175 research outputs found
Niche inheritance: a cooperative pathway to enhance cancer cell fitness though ecosystem engineering
Cancer cells can be described as an invasive species that is able to
establish itself in a new environment. The concept of niche construction can be
utilized to describe the process by which cancer cells terraform their
environment, thereby engineering an ecosystem that promotes the genetic fitness
of the species. Ecological dispersion theory can then be utilized to describe
and model the steps and barriers involved in a successful diaspora as the
cancer cells leave the original host organ and migrate to new host organs to
successfully establish a new metastatic community. These ecological concepts
can be further utilized to define new diagnostic and therapeutic areas for
lethal cancers.Comment: 8 pages, 1 Table, 4 Figure
Baldwinian accounts of language evolution
Since Hinton & Nowlan published their seminal paper (Hinton & Nowlan 1987), the
neglected evolutionary process of the Baldwin effect has been widely acknowledged.
Especially in the field of language evolution, the Baldwin effect (Baldwin 1896d,
Simpson 1953) has been expected to salvage the long-lasting deadlocked situation of
modern linguistics: i.e., it may shed light on the relationship between environment
and innateness in the formation of language.However, as intense research of this evolutionary theory goes on, certain robust
difficulties have become apparent. One example is genotype-phenotype correlation.
By computer simulations, both Yamauchi (1999, 2001) and Mayley (19966) show
that for the Baldwin effect to work legitimately, correlation between genotypes and
phenotypes is the most essential underpinning. This is due to the fact that this type
of the Baldwin effect adopts as its core mechanism Waddington's (1975) "genetic
assimilation". In this mechanism, phenocopies have to be genetically closer to the
innately predisposed genotype. Unfortunately this is an overly naiive assumption
for the theory of language evolution. As a highly complex cognitive ability, the
possibility that this type of genotype-phenotype correlation exists in the domain of
linguistic ability is vanishingly small.In this thesis, we develop a new type of mechanism, called "Baldwinian Niche
Construction (BNC), that has a rich explanatory power and can potentially over¬
come this bewildering problem of the Baldwin effect. BNC is based on the theory
of niche construction that has been developed by Odling-Smee et al. (2003). The
incorporation of the theory into the Baldwin effect was first suggested by Deacon
(1997) and briefly introduced by Godfrey-Smith (2003). However, its formulation
is yet incomplete.In the thesis, first, we review the studies of the Baldwin effect in both biology
and the study of language evolution. Then the theory of BNC is more rigorously
developed. Linguistic communication has an intrinsic property that is fundamentally described in the theory of niche construction. This naturally leads us to the
theoretical necessity of BNC in language evolution. By creating a new linguistic
niche, learning discloses a previously hidden genetic variance on which the Baldwin
'canalizing' effect can take place. It requires no genetic modification in a given
genepool. There is even no need that genes responsible for learning occupy the
same loci as genes for the innate linguistic knowledge. These and other aspects of
BNC are presented with some results from computer simulations
The role of visual adaptation in cichlid fish speciation
D. Shane Wright (1) , Ole Seehausen (2), Ton G.G. Groothuis (1), Martine E. Maan (1) (1) University of Groningen; GELIFES; EGDB(2) Department of Fish Ecology & Evolution, EAWAG Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Biogeochemistry, Kastanienbaum AND Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Aquatic Ecology, University of Bern.In less than 15,000 years, Lake Victoria cichlid fishes have radiated into as many as 500 different species. Ecological and sexual sel ection are thought to contribute to this ongoing speciation process, but genetic differentiation remains low. However, recent work in visual pigment genes, opsins, has shown more diversity. Unlike neighboring Lakes Malawi and Tanganyika, Lake Victoria is highly turbid, resulting in a long wavelength shift in the light spectrum with increasing depth, providing an environmental gradient for exploring divergent coevolution in sensory systems and colour signals via sensory drive. Pundamilia pundamila and Pundamilia nyererei are two sympatric species found at rocky islands across southern portions of Lake Victoria, differing in male colouration and the depth they reside. Previous work has shown species differentiation in colour discrimination, corresponding to divergent female preferences for conspecific male colouration. A mechanistic link between colour vision and preference would provide a rapid route to reproductive isolation between divergently adapting populations. This link is tested by experimental manip ulation of colour vision - raising both species and their hybrids under light conditions mimicking shallow and deep habitats. We quantify the expression of retinal opsins and test behaviours important for speciation: mate choice, habitat preference, and fo raging performance
“Economic man” in cross-cultural perspective: Behavioral experiments in 15 small-scale societies
Researchers from across the social sciences have found consistent deviations from the predictions of the canonical model of self-interest in hundreds of experiments from around the world. This research, however, cannot determine whether the uniformity results from universal patterns of human behavior or from the limited cultural variation available among the university students used in virtually all prior experimental work. To address this, we undertook a cross-cultural study of behavior in ultimatum, public goods, and dictator games in a range of small-scale societies exhibiting a wide variety of economic and cultural conditions. We found, first, that the canonical model – based on self-interest – fails in all of the societies studied. Second, our data reveal substantially more behavioral variability across social groups than has been found in previous research. Third, group-level differences in economic organization and the structure of social interactions explain a substantial portion of the behavioral variation across societies: the higher the degree of market integration and the higher the payoffs to cooperation in everyday life, the greater the level of prosociality expressed in experimental games. Fourth, the available individual-level economic and demographic variables do not consistently explain game behavior, either within or across groups. Fifth, in many cases experimental play appears to reflect the common interactional patterns of everyday life
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