Extended Inclusive Fitness Theory bridges Economics and Biology through a common understanding of Social Synergy

Inclusive Fitness Theory (IFT) was proposed half a century ago by W.D. Hamilton to explain the emergence and maintenance of cooperation between individuals that allows the existence of society. Contemporary evolutionary ecology identified several factors that increase inclusive fitness, in addition to kin-selection, such as assortation or homophily, and social synergies triggered by cooperation. Here we propose an Extend Inclusive Fitness Theory (EIFT) that includes in the fitness calculation all direct and indirect benefits an agent obtains by its own actions, and through interactions with kin and with genetically unrelated individuals. This formulation focuses on the sustainable cost/benefit threshold ratio of cooperation and on the probability of agents sharing mutually compatible memes or genes. This broader description of the nature of social dynamics allows to compare the evolution of cooperation among kin and non-kin, intra- and inter-specific cooperation, co-evolution, the emergence of symbioses, of social synergies, and the emergence of division of labor. EIFT promotes interdisciplinary cross fertilization of ideas by allowing to describe the role for division of labor in the emergence of social synergies, providing an integrated framework for the study of both, biological evolution of social behavior and economic market dynamics.Comment: Bioeconomics, Synergy, Complexit

Repositório genealógico nacional: integração e consolidação de dados

Dissertação de Mestrado (Ciclo de Estudos Integrados Conducentes ao Grau de Mestre em Engenharia e Gestão de Sistemas de Informação)Desde há cerca de vinte anos que o Grupo de História das Populações (GHP) tem vindo a desenvolver, na Universidade do Minho, uma linha de investigação centrada no estudo de comunidades históricas numa perspetiva micro analítica. Estes trabalhos assentam em bases de dados paroquiais (BDP) constituídas a partir dos registos paroquiais (RP) de batismo, casamento e óbito, organizadas segundo uma metodologia desenvolvida por Maria Norberta Amorim (Amorim, 1991), que permite acompanhar o percurso de vida de cada residente da comunidade em encadeamento genealógico. Atualmente, estas BD, que se encontram isoladas - existe uma BD por paróquia - reúnem mais de 1 milhão de registos de indivíduos, com uma representação geográfica concentrada principalmente no Norte de Portugal e em duas ilhas do arquipélago dos Açores, para além de núcleos de menor dimensão nos distritos do Porto, Aveiro, Lisboa e Évora. Este volume de informação exige a concretização de um sistema centralizado que reúna os dados das diferentes comunidades e que possibilite ao investigador acompanhar o percurso dos indivíduos em áreas geográficas mais alargadas. Esta necessidade acentua-se nos estudos sobre espaços urbanos ao longo de vários séculos, considerando a elevada mobilidade dos indivíduos e das famílias. Para a concretização deste sistema centralizado torna-se necessário proceder à integração dos dados das diversas bases de dados locais numa base de dados central (BDC) que, com um modelo de dados unificado, permita a integração, consolidação e análise dos dados disponíveis e a reconstituição, por exemplo, de genealogias familiares. Na presente dissertação analisou-se, em primeira instância, o modelo de dados da BDP, tendo-se averiguado junto dos investigadores do GHP, as limitações que o mesmo apresenta. Com base na informação recolhida, estudou-se, propôs-se e implementou-se a BDC, cujo modelo de dados detém a capacidade de, por um lado, suprimir as limitações identificadas e, por outro, corresponder aos requisitos que a fusão das BDP exige. Idealizou-se e implementou-se, ainda, um conjunto de processos de extração, transformação e carregamento de dados, capaz de, em primeiro lugar, avaliar e tratar das inconsistências dos dados presentes em cada uma das BDP, procedendo depois às transformações de entidades e dados necessárias, para que correspondam aos formatos definidos na BDC. Estes processos realizam, de seguida, o carregamento dos dados para a BDC, garantindo a preservação de todos os registos e os atributos consistentes, presentes em cada uma das BDP. Criou-se ainda uma funcionalidade para a deteção de possíveis registos de indivíduos duplicados, ajustada ao presente contexto de dados e às necessidades do GHP que se revelou de elevada eficácia. A combinação destes elementos resulta na concretização da BDC e de um conjunto de procedimentos capazes de integrar e fundir cada uma das BDP para este repositório único, conforme o desejado pelos investigadores do GHP, para o desenvolvimento de pesquisas e análises mais abrangentes, possíveis apenas com esta realidade.For about twenty years, the Grupo de História das Populações (GHP) has been developing at the University of Minho a line of research focused on the study of historical communities in a micro-analytic perspective. The works developed from these investigations are based on parochial databases (PDB) built from parish registers (PR) of baptism, marriage and death. The organization of these data bases follows a methodology that was developed by Maria Norberta Amorim (Amorim, 1991). This approach allows to track the life path of each resident of a certain community with genealogical linkage. Currently, there are more than 1 million individuals in isolated databases (there is one data base for each parish), with a geographical representation mainly from the North of Portugal and two islands of the Azores archipelago. Other nucleus of a smaller dimension from the districts of Oporto, Aveiro, Lisbon and Évora are as well represented. This volume of information requires the creation of a central system able to gather data from different communities and to enable the researcher to follow the life path of the individuals, in wider geographical areas. This need is more noticeable in studies about urban areas over the centuries that comprises the high mobility from families and individuals. For the implementation of this centralized system it is necessary to integrate data from the multiple local databases in a central database (CDB) that, with a unified data model, allows the integration, consolidation and analysis of available data and the reconstruction, for example, of family genealogies. In this dissertation is has been studied, on the first place, the data model of the PDB. Also, the GHP researchers have been inquired about the limitations of this model. Based on the collected information, the CDB has been studied, proposed and implemented, with a data model that has the capacity to, on one hand, eliminate the identified limitations and, on the other hand, satisfy to the requirements that the merge of the PDB demands. A set of processes of extraction, transformation and loading of data, capable of, firstly, assess and deal with the inconsistencies of the existing data in each one of the PDB, proceeding then to the necessary transformations of the entities and the data, in order to match the formats defined in the CDB, have been conceived and implemented. In the subsequent phase, these processes load the resulting data to the BDC, guaranteeing the preservation of all the consistent records and attributes in each one of the PDB. Also, it has been developed a functionality for the detection of possible duplicate records, adjusted to the present data context and to the needs of the GHP which has proved to be of high efficiency. The combination of these elements results in the implementation of CDB and of a set of procedures able to integrate and merge each one of the PDB to this central repository, as sought by investigators of the GHP, for the development of more comprehensive research and analyses, possible only on this new reality

Evolutionary Computation

This book presents several recent advances on Evolutionary Computation, specially evolution-based optimization methods and hybrid algorithms for several applications, from optimization and learning to pattern recognition and bioinformatics. This book also presents new algorithms based on several analogies and metafores, where one of them is based on philosophy, specifically on the philosophy of praxis and dialectics. In this book it is also presented interesting applications on bioinformatics, specially the use of particle swarms to discover gene expression patterns in DNA microarrays. Therefore, this book features representative work on the field of evolutionary computation and applied sciences. The intended audience is graduate, undergraduate, researchers, and anyone who wishes to become familiar with the latest research work on this field

Semantic derivation of enterprise information architecture from riva-based business process architecture

Contemporary Enterprise Information Architecture (EIA) design practice in the industry still suffers from issues that hamper the investment in the EIA design. First and foremost of these issues is the shortcoming of EIA design research to bridge the gap between business and systems (or information) architectures. Secondly, contemporary developed business process architecture methods, and in particular object-based ones have not been fully exploited for EIA design and thus widening the gap between business processes and systems. In practice, knowledge-driven approaches have been thoroughly influencing EIA design. Thirdly, the lack of using knowledge representation methods adversely affected the automation (or semi-automation) of the EIA design process. Software Engineering (SE) technologies and Knowledge Representation using ontologies continue to prove instrumental in the design of domain knowledge. Finally, current EIA development methods have often resulted in complex designs that hampered both adopting and exploiting EIA in medium to large scale organisations.This research is aimed at investigating the derivation of the EIA from a given semantic representation of object-based Business Process Architecture (BPA), and in particular Riva-based BPA using the design science research-based methodology. The key design artefact of this research is the development of the BPAOntoEIA framework that semantically derives EIA from a semantic representation of Riva-based BPA of an enterprise. In this framework, EIA elements were derived from the semantic Riva BPA elements and associated business process models, with forward and backward traceability from/to the derived EIA to/from the original BPA. The BPAOntoEIA framework has been evaluated using the semantic Cancer Care and Registration BPA in Jordan. This framework has been validated using an authentic concern-based evaluation framework employing both static and dynamic validation approaches.The BPAOntoEIA framework contributes to bridging the gap between the business and systems world by providing a business/IT alignment through the EIA derivation process, and using the semantic knowledge of business processes within the resultant EIA. A major novel contribution is the introduction of new evaluation metrics for EIA design, which are quantitative, and are not only indicative of the quality of the semantic EIA derivation from the associated BPA but also the extent of utilisingbusiness process knowledge and traceability amongst EIA elements.Amongst other novel contributions is the semantic EIA derivation process that comprises a suite of the Semantic Web Rules Language (SWRL) rules applied on the semantic BPA elements. The derivation scheme utilises the generic EIA (gEIAOnt) ontology that was developed in this research and represents a semantic meta-model of EIA elements of a generic enterprise. The resultant EIA provides a highly coherent semantic information model that is in-line with the theory of EIA design, semantically enriched, and fully utilises the semantic knowledge of business processes.Benefits of this research to industry include the semantic EIA derivation process and a resultant information model that utilises the semantic information of business processes in the enterprise. Therefore, this enables the enterprise strategic management to plan for a single, secure and accessible information resource that is business process driven, and enabled in an agile environment. The semantic enrichment of the EIA is a starting point for a simplistic design of a domain-independent semantic enterprise architecture for the development of systems of systems in loosely coupled enterprises

Early growth technology analysis : case studies in solar energy and geothermal energy

Thesis (S.M. in Technology and Policy)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2010.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 85-87).Public and private organizations try to forecast the future of technological developments and allocate funds accordingly. Based on our interviews with experts from MIT's Entrepreneurship Center, Sloan School of Management, and IBM, and review of literature, we found out that this important fund allocation process is dominated by reliance on expert opinions, which has important drawbacks alongside its advantages. In this Thesis, we introduce a data-driven approach, called early growth technology analysis, to technology forecasting that utilizes diverse information sources to analyze the evolution of promising new technologies. Our approach is based on bibliometric analysis, consisting of three key steps: extraction of related keywords from online publication databases, determining the occurrence frequencies of these keywords, and identifying those exhibiting rapid growth. Our proposal goes beyond the theoretical level, and is embodied in software that collects the required inputs from the user through a visual interface, extracts data from web sites on the fly, performs an analysis on the collected data, and displays the results. Compared to earlier software within our group, the new interface offers a much improved user experience in performing the analysis. Although these methods are applicable to any domain of study, this Thesis presents results from case studies on the fields of solar and geothermal energy. We identified emerging technologies in these specific fields to test the viability of our results. We believe that data-driven approaches, such as the one proposed in this Thesis, will increasingly be used by policy makers to complement, verify, and validate expert opinions in mapping practical goals into basic/applied research areas and coming up with technology investment decisions.by Ayse Kaya Firat.S.M.in Technology and Polic

Proceedings of the Seventh Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education

International audienceThis volume contains the Proceedings of the Seventh Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education (ERME), which took place 9-13 February 2011, at Rzeszñw in Poland