Harnessing Phenotypic Diversity towards Multiple Independent Objectives

This work was funded by EPSRC through the Media and Arts Technology Programme, an RCUK Doctoral Training Centre EP/G03723X/1. Computational facilities were provided by the MidPlus Regional Centre of Excellence for Computational Science, Engineering and Mathematics, under EPSRC grant EP/K000128/1

The Emergence of Canalization and Evolvability in an Open-Ended, Interactive Evolutionary System

Natural evolution has produced a tremendous diversity of functional organisms. Many believe an essential component of this process was the evolution of evolvability, whereby evolution speeds up its ability to innovate by generating a more adaptive pool of offspring. One hypothesized mechanism for evolvability is developmental canalization, wherein certain dimensions of variation become more likely to be traversed and others are prevented from being explored (e.g. offspring tend to have similarly sized legs, and mutations affect the length of both legs, not each leg individually). While ubiquitous in nature, canalization almost never evolves in computational simulations of evolution. Not only does that deprive us of in silico models in which to study the evolution of evolvability, but it also raises the question of which conditions give rise to this form of evolvability. Answering this question would shed light on why such evolvability emerged naturally and could accelerate engineering efforts to harness evolution to solve important engineering challenges. In this paper we reveal a unique system in which canalization did emerge in computational evolution. We document that genomes entrench certain dimensions of variation that were frequently explored during their evolutionary history. The genetic representation of these organisms also evolved to be highly modular and hierarchical, and we show that these organizational properties correlate with increased fitness. Interestingly, the type of computational evolutionary experiment that produced this evolvability was very different from traditional digital evolution in that there was no objective, suggesting that open-ended, divergent evolutionary processes may be necessary for the evolution of evolvability.Comment: SI can be found at: http://www.evolvingai.org/files/SI_0.zi

Graph design by graph grammar evolution

Singapor

The Immune System: the ultimate fractionated cyber-physical system

In this little vision paper we analyze the human immune system from a computer science point of view with the aim of understanding the architecture and features that allow robust, effective behavior to emerge from local sensing and actions. We then recall the notion of fractionated cyber-physical systems, and compare and contrast this to the immune system. We conclude with some challenges.Comment: In Proceedings Festschrift for Dave Schmidt, arXiv:1309.455

Development and implementation of genomic predictions in beef cattle

peer-reviewedBeef production represents a considerable contribution to local and global economies and food security but also the environmental footprint of agricultural production systems. The development of accurate genomic evaluations in beef populations are more difficult than in dairy populations for reasons including the presence of multiple breeds, poor extent of phenotyping, lack of artificial insemination, and beef systems being generally a lower-margin business of poorer adopters of technology. Several options exist to minimize or overcome the limitations of developing accurate genomic evaluations for beef cattle

Delivering new sorghum and finger millet innovations for food security and improving livelihoods in Eastern Africa

ILRI works with partners worldwide to help poor people keep their farm animals alive and productive, increase and sustain their livestock and farm productivity, and find profitable markets for their animal products. ILRI’s headquarters are in Nairobi, Kenya; we have a principal campus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and 14 offices in other regions of Africa and Asia. ILRI is part of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (www.cgiar.org), which works to reduce hunger, poverty and environmental degradation in developing countries by generating and sharing relevant agricultural knowledge, technologies and policies

CGIAR Strategy and Results Framework 2016-2025

SRF, strategy and results framework, strateg

Foliar fungal diversity related to Myrtle rust (Austropuccinia psidii) antagonism and its implications for pathogen resistance in the endangered Hawaiian Nioi (Eugenia koolauensis)

M.S.M.S. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 201