98 research outputs found
Barriers to innovation and sustainability at universities around the world
This paper explores the link between innovation and sustainability in the context of higher education, with the purpose of investigating the fundamental barriers for innovation and sustainable development in universities around the world. The method used involves both a quantitative and a qualitative approach, gathering the views of 301 experts from 172 universities across all continents. The results show that there are similar barriers across different geographical regions that require greater support from university administrations and management. In particular, the willingness of leaders, policy makers and decision-makers to envisage a sustainable future inside universities is often missing. Yet, without the support of senior management within a university, bottom-up sustainable initiatives seem destined to fail in the longer term due to a lack of investment and administrative support. This study also identifies that in order to yield the anticipated benefits, barriers need to be tackled in an integrated way, and that closer cooperation between sustainability researchers, university administrations and students is needed
Accelerated inbreeding depression suggests synergistic epistasis for deleterious mutations in Drosophila melanogaster
Epistasis may have important consequences for a number of issues in quantitative genetics and evolutionary biology. In
particular, synergistic epistasis for deleterious alleles is relevant to the mutation load paradox and the evolution of sex and
recombination. Some studies have shown evidence of synergistic epistasis for spontaneous or induced deleterious mutations
appearing in mutation-accumulation experiments. However, many newly arising mutations may not actually be segregating
in natural populations because of the erasing action of natural selection. A demonstration of synergistic epistasis for naturally
segregating alleles can be achieved by means of inbreeding depression studies, as deleterious recessive allelic effects are
exposed in inbred lines. Nevertheless, evidence of epistasis from these studies is scarce and controversial. In this paper, we
report the results of two independent inbreeding experiments carried out with two different populations of Drosophila
melanogaster. The results show a consistent accelerated inbreeding depression for fitness, suggesting synergistic epistasis
among deleterious alleles. We also performed computer simulations assuming different possible models of epistasis and
mutational parameters for fitness, finding some of them to be compatible with the results observed. Our results suggest that
synergistic epistasis for deleterious mutations not only occurs among newly arisen spontaneous or induced mutations, but
also among segregating alleles in natural populationsWe acknowledge the support by Uvigo
Marine Research Centre funded by the âExcellence in Research
(INUGA)â Programme from the Regional Council of Culture, Education and Universities, with co-funding from the European Union
through the ERDF Operational Programme Galicia 2014-2020. This
work was funded by Agencia Estatal de InvestigacioÌn (AEI) (CGL2016-75904-C2-1-P), Xunta de Galicia (ED431C 2016-037) and
Fondos Feder: âUnha maneira de facer Europa.â SD was founded by a
predoctoral (FPI) grant from Ministerio de EconomĂa y
Competitividad, SpainS
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