Local Interaction, Multilevel Selection, and Evolutionary Transitions

Group-structured and neighbor-structured populations are compared, especially in relation to multilevel selection theory and evolutionary transitions. I argue that purely neighbor-structured populations, which can feature the evolution of altruism, are not properly described in multilevel terms. The ability to “gestalt switch” between individualist and multilevel frameworks is then linked to the investigation of “major transitions” in evolution. Some explanatory concepts are naturally linked to one framework or the other, but a full understanding is best achieved via the use of both.Philosoph

Information in Biology

Philosoph

Models and fictions in science

Non-actual model systems discussed in scientific theories are compared to fictions in literature. This comparison may help with the understanding of similarity relations between models and real-world target systems. The ontological problems surrounding fictions in science may be particularly difficult, however. A comparison is also made to ontological problems that arise in the philosophy of mathematics.Philosoph

Octopus experience

The first part of this commentary attempts to get inside the octopus mind a little further than Mather does, drawing on her description of octopus cognition in many places but diverging in others. The second part outlines other disagreements with her account of the animals, especially in the area of social behavior

Pain in parallel

Key\u27s (2016) arguments against the view that fish feel pain can be shown to be fallacious by considering some damage-related behaviors in invertebrates. Pain may have different neural bases in different organisms, so the absence in fish of the cortical structures that might underlie pain in mammals does not settle the question of fish pain

Reconciling language anxiety and the ‘Montréal switch’: An autoethnography of learning French in Montréal and negotiating my Canadian identity through language

In this autoethnography, I explore and attempt to make sense of the tensions I experienced in negotiating my identity as an adult learner of French as an additional language in Montréal. I draw from critical sociolinguistics (Lamarre, 2013; Heller, 2007) and Norton’s (2013) definition of identity to discuss and analyse my experiences of the world beyond the language classroom. I explore how the ‘Montréal switch’, when speakers of French responded to me in English when I spoke to them in French, was a particular site of struggle. I discuss how notions of citizenship and belonging intersected with my feelings of language anxiety and the Montréal switch, and attempt to unpack my assumptions and (mis)perceptions of these experiences. My analyses bring additional light to Montréal’s complex sociolinguistic dynamic and the lived experiences of language learners

Dysregulation of cadherins in the intercalated disc of the spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rat

The structural integrity of cardiac cells is maintained by the Ca2+-dependent homophilic cell-cell adhesion of cadherins. N-cadherin is responsible for this adhesion under normal physiological conditions. The role of cadherins in adverse cardiac pathology is less clear. We studied the hearts of the stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive (SHRSP) rat as a genetic model of cardiac hypertrophy and compared them to Wistar-Kyoto control animals. Western blotting of protein homogenates from 12-week old SHRSP animals indicated that similar levels of [beta], [gamma]-, and [alpha]-catenin and T, N and R-cadherin were expressed in the control and SHRSP animals. However, dramatically higher levels of E-cadherin were detected in SHRSP animals compared to controls at 6, 12 and 18áweeks of age. This was confirmed by quantitative Taqman PCR and immunohistochemistry. E-cadherin was located at the intercalated disc of the myocytes in co-localisation with connexin 43. Adenoviral overexpression of E-cadherin in rat H9c2 cells and primary rabbit myocytes resulted in a significant reduction in myocyte cell diameter and breadth. E-cadherin overexpression resulted in re-localisation of [beta]-catenin to the cell surface particularly to cell-cell junctions. Subsequent immunohistochemistry of the hearts of WKY and SHRSP animals also revealed increased levels of [beta]-catenin in the intercalated disc in the SHRSP compared to WKY. Therefore, remodelling of the intercalated disc in the hearts of SHRSP animals may contribute to the altered function observed in these animal