Logical operators for ontological modeling

We show that logic has more to offer to ontologists than standard first order and modal operators. We first describe some operators of linear logic which we believe are particularly suitable for ontological modeling, and suggest how to interpret them within an ontological framework. After showing how they can coexist with those of classical logic, we analyze three notions of artifact from the literature to conclude that these linear operators allow for reducing the ontological commitment needed for their formalization, and even simplify their logical formulation

The evolutionary ecology of interactive synchronism: The illusion of the optimal phenotype

In this article, we discuss some ecological-evolutionary strategies that allow synchronization of organisms, resources, and conditions. Survival and reproduction require synchronization of life cycles of organisms with favourable environmental and ecological features and conditions. This interactive synchronization can occur directly, through pairwise or diffuse co-evolution, or indirectly, for example, as a result of actions of ecosystem engineers and facilitator species. Observations of specific interactions, especially those which have coevolved, may give the false impression that evolution results in optimal genotypes or phenotypes. However, some phenotypes may arise under evolutionary constraints, such as simultaneous evolution of multiple traits, lack of a chain of fit transitional forms leading to an optimal phenotype, or by limits inherent in the process of selection, set by the number of selective deaths and by interference between linked variants. Although there are no optimal phenotypes, optimization models applied to particular species may be useful for a better understanding of the nature of adaptations. The evolution of adaptive strategies results in variable life histories. These strategies can minimize adverse impacts on the fitness of extreme or severe environmental conditions on survival and reproduction, and may include reproductive strategies such as semelparity and iteroparity, or morphological, physiological, or behavioural traits such as diapause, seasonal polyphenism, migration, or bet-hedging. However, natural selection cannot indefinitely maintain intra-population variation, and lack of variation can ultimately extinguish populations

Adaptation of Organisms by Resonance of RNA Transcription with the Cellular Redox Cycle

Sequence variation in organisms differs across the genome and the majority of mutations are caused by oxidation, yet its origin is not fully understood. It has also been shown that the reduction-oxidation reaction cycle is the fundamental biochemical cycle that coordinates the timing of all biochemical processes in the cell, including energy production, DNA replication, and RNA transcription. We show that the temporal resonance of transcriptome biosynthesis with the oscillating binary state of the reduction-oxidation reaction cycle serves as a basis for non-random sequence variation at specific genome-wide coordinates that change faster than by accumulation of chance mutations. This work demonstrates evidence for a universal, persistent and iterative feedback mechanism between the environment and heredity, whereby acquired variation between cell divisions can outweigh inherited variation

Thomas Hardy's Impulse: Context and the Counterfactual Imagination

Focusing on the impulsive act, this essay analyzes the relationship between the temporality of decision making and the determination of social context in Hardy’s A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873), The Woodlanders (1887), and Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891). While critics often note the entrapment of Hardy’s characters in contexts such as social class and gender, this article contends that the impulsive act can only be explained contextually after it has already occurred. The irreducibility of the impulsive act to a rational explanation (social or natural determinism, historical necessity) gives rise to a counterfactual imagination that feeds off the contingency of a decision that might have been made differently or not at all. The power of these counterfactuals attests to a shift in the centre of agency away from the urgency of decision making to the more reflective, imaginative rewriting of a past that could have been. By doing so, Hardy’s characters exhibit the most agency when they act like authors, viewing themselves as fictional characters that can be written or rewritten

Becoming-Bertha: virtual difference and repetition in postcolonial 'writing back', a Deleuzian reading of Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea

Critical responses to Wide Sargasso Sea have seized upon Rhys’s novel as an exemplary model of writing back. Looking beyond the actual repetitions which recall Brontë’s text, I explore Rhys’s novel as an expression of virtual difference and becomings that exemplify Deleuze’s three syntheses of time. Elaborating the processes of becoming that Deleuze’s third synthesis depicts, Antoinette’s fate emerges not as a violence against an original identity. Rather, what the reader witnesses is a series of becomings or masks, some of which are validated, some of which are not, and it is in the rejection of certain masks, forcing Antoinette to become-Bertha, that the greatest violence lies

Analysis of direct and indirect genetic effects in fighting sea anemones

Abstract Theoretical models of animal contests such as the Hawk-Dove game predict that variation in fighting behavior will persist due to mixed evolutionarily stable strategies (ESS) under certain conditions. However, the genetic basis for this variation is poorly understood and a mixed ESS for fighting can be interpreted in more than one way. Specifically, we do not know whether variation in aggression within a population arises from among-individual differences in fixed strategy (determined by an individual’s genotype—direct genetic effects [DGEs]), or from within-individual variation in strategy across contests. Furthermore, as suggested by developments of the original Hawk-Dove model, within-individual variation in strategy may be dependent on the phenotype and thus genotype of the opponent (indirect genetic effects—IGEs). Here we test for the effect of DGEs and IGEs during fights in the beadlet sea anemone Actinia equina. By exploiting the unusual reproductive system of sea anemones, combined with new molecular data, we investigate the role of both additive (DGE + IGE) and non-additive (DGE × IGE) genetic effects on fighting parameters, the latter of which have been hypothesized but never tested for explicitly. We find evidence for heritable variation in fighting ability and that fight duration increases with relatedness. Fighting success is influenced additively by DGEs and IGEs but we found no evidence for non-additive IGEs. These results indicate that variation in fighting behavior is driven by additive indirect genetic effects (DGE + IGE), and support a core assumption of contest theory that strategies are fixed by DGEs.</jats:p