Object-Oriented Genetic Improvement for Improved Energy Consumption in Google Guava

In this work we use metaheuristic search to improve Google’s Guava library, finding a semantically equivalent version of com.google.common.collect.ImmutableMultimap with reduced energy consumption. Semantics-preserving transformations are found in the source code, using the principle of subtype polymorphism. We introduce a new tool, Opacitor, to deterministically measure the energy consumption, and find that a statistically significant reduction to Guava’s energy consumption is possible. We corroborate these results using Jalen, and evaluate the performance of the metaheuristic search compared to an exhaustive search - finding that the same result is achieved while requiring almost 200 times fewer fitness evaluations. Finally, we compare the metaheuristic search to an independent exhaustive search at each variation point, finding that the metaheuristic has superior performance

Social foraging data

Social foraging data of individuals

Exploration data

Raw data used to calculate exploration scores of individuals

Data from: Personality and social foraging tactic use in free-living Eurasian tree sparrows (Passer montanus)

Group-foraging individuals often use alternative behavioral tactics to acquire food: some individuals, the producers, actively search for food, while others, the scroungers, look for opportunities to exploit the finders’ discoveries. Although the use of social foraging tactics is partly flexible, yet some individuals tend mainly to produce, while others largely prefer to scrounge. This between-individual variation in tactic use closely resembles the phenomenon of animal personality, however the connection between personality and social foraging tactic use has rarely been investigated in wild animals. Here, we studied this relationship in free-living Eurasian tree sparrows (Passer montanus) during two winters. We found that in females, but not in males, social foraging tactic use was predicted by personality: more exploratory (i.e. more active in a novel environment) females scrounged more. Regardless of sex, the probability of scrounging increased with the density of individuals foraging on feeders and the time of feeding within a foraging bout, that is, the later the individual foraged within a foraging bout the higher the probability of scrounging was. Our results demonstrate that consistent individual behavioral differences are linked, in a sex-dependent manner, to group-level processes in the context of social foraging in free-living tree sparrows, suggesting that individual behavioral traits have implications for social evolution

Individual data

Sex and phenotypic data of individuals recorded during social foraging

Morphoelectric and transcriptomic divergence of the layer 1 interneuron repertoire in human versus mouse neocortex

Neocortical layer 1 (L1) is a site of convergence between pyramidal-neuron dendrites and feedback axons where local inhibitory signaling can profoundly shape cortical processing. Evolutionary expansion of human neocortex is marked by distinctive pyramidal neurons with extensive L1 branching, but whether L1 interneurons are similarly diverse is underexplored. Using Patch-seq recordings from human neurosurgical tissue, we identified four transcriptomic subclasses with mouse L1 homologs, along with distinct subtypes and types unmatched in mouse L1. Subclass and subtype comparisons showed stronger transcriptomic differences in human L1 and were correlated with strong morphoelectric variability along dimensions distinct from mouse L1 variability. Accompanied by greater layer thickness and other cytoarchitecture changes, these findings suggest that L1 has diverged in evolution, reflecting the demands of regulating the expanded human neocortical circuit.</p