410 research outputs found
Natural selection and asymmetry: the points of intersection
The vast majority of contemporary scientists resolve Wienner's dilemma "to know nothing about everything or to know everything about nothing" in favor of the second possibility. Avalanche-like increase of scientific knowledge urges scientists to operate with an enormous amount of information concentrated in such a narrow field that its area really tends to zero. Sadly as it may sound, the hyperbole "nothing about everything" is often relevant to all branches of their own discipline in whose investigation scientists are not directly engaged. In this respect biology does not make any exception. Several decades ago, it seemed that scientists who study the action of the natural selection and those dealing with cell biology have very little to tell to each other. Fortunately, trends appear in the last decades which permit to throw bridges between these areas. The application of DNA-sequences in examination of phylogenetic relationships is an example in this respect. We believe that asymmetry in man could be another example. Both the symmetry and its "alter ego", asymmetry, are undoubtedly results of the natural selection. On the other hand, the ontogenetic pathways towards bilateral symmetry and the extent of deviations from it are genetically determined at cell and molecular levels. Though complicated, this relationship is so regular that one kind of asymmetry became a measure for the intensity and effectiveness of one of the forms of natural selection.Biomedical Reviews 1992; 1: 63-68
A probabilistic model for gene content evolution with duplication, loss, and horizontal transfer
We introduce a Markov model for the evolution of a gene family along a
phylogeny. The model includes parameters for the rates of horizontal gene
transfer, gene duplication, and gene loss, in addition to branch lengths in the
phylogeny. The likelihood for the changes in the size of a gene family across
different organisms can be calculated in O(N+hM^2) time and O(N+M^2) space,
where N is the number of organisms, is the height of the phylogeny, and M
is the sum of family sizes. We apply the model to the evolution of gene content
in Preoteobacteria using the gene families in the COG (Clusters of Orthologous
Groups) database
Joint scaling laws in functional and evolutionary categories in prokaryotic genomes
We propose and study a class-expansion/innovation/loss model of genome
evolution taking into account biological roles of genes and their constituent
domains. In our model numbers of genes in different functional categories are
coupled to each other. For example, an increase in the number of metabolic
enzymes in a genome is usually accompanied by addition of new transcription
factors regulating these enzymes. Such coupling can be thought of as a
proportional "recipe" for genome composition of the type "a spoonful of sugar
for each egg yolk". The model jointly reproduces two known empirical laws: the
distribution of family sizes and the nonlinear scaling of the number of genes
in certain functional categories (e.g. transcription factors) with genome size.
In addition, it allows us to derive a novel relation between the exponents
characterising these two scaling laws, establishing a direct quantitative
connection between evolutionary and functional categories. It predicts that
functional categories that grow faster-than-linearly with genome size to be
characterised by flatter-than-average family size distributions. This relation
is confirmed by our bioinformatics analysis of prokaryotic genomes. This proves
that the joint quantitative trends of functional and evolutionary classes can
be understood in terms of evolutionary growth with proportional recipes.Comment: 39 pages, 21 figure
The peculiarities of perspective students selection mechanism by the future employers-enterprise
© 2015, Canadian Center of Science and Education. All rights reserved. The search of qualified staff is an up-to-date problem for all enterprises. In this regard the aim of the research is the development of perspective students selection mechanism by the future employers. One of the sub-stages of the algorithm is the formation of the resource and reserve groups of students by the enterprise representatives and by tutors of the faculty of professional educational institutions. The formation of the resource and reserve groups of students with flexible system of transition from one group into another according to the results of their progress, according to participation extracurricular life of the institute, participation at the international, All-Russian scientific and practical conferences, allow to intensify the process of their self-preparation by means of creation of the natural competitive environment in educational institution of professional education. It also helps to do the selection by employers and to distribute perspective students taking into account their potential opportunities and professional interests
The didactic construct of design technologies in the educational process of modern university
© 2015, Mediterranean Center of Social and Educational Research. All rights reserved. The relevance of the problem of arranging the educational process in modern university using design technology remains one of the most demanded in educating the future experts for modern production. Therefore, the objective of this article is to submit a scientific rationale for the didactic construct of design technologies in higher educational process as a productive educational model focused on educating a student's personality - a future professional demanded by today's job market. The paper submits theoretic and methodological foundations for designing and implementing project technologies into the university educational process, the nature and structure of the didactic construct of these technologies as a system category (the learning objectives, syllabus, the means of pedagogical partnership including motivation and teaching tools, arrangement of the educational process, the subjects of the learning process, the results of the activity and the level of professional proficiency). The article submissions may be useful for the teachers of educational institutions in the system of continuing professional education, young scientists, post graduate students, the university counselors, the attendants of the advanced training and retraining courses. It is also recommended for undergraduates and students participating in the research work
Search for the QCD critical point in nuclear collisions at the CERN SPS
Pion production in nuclear collisions at the SPS is investigated with the aim
to search, in a restricted domain of the phase diagram, for power-laws in the
behavior of correlations which are compatible with critical QCD. We have
analyzed interactions of nuclei of different size (p+p, C+C, Si+Si, Pb+Pb) at
158 GeV adopting, as appropriate observables, scaled factorial moments in a
search for intermittent fluctuations in transverse dimensions. The analysis is
performed for pairs with invariant mass very close to the two-pion
threshold. In this sector one may capture critical fluctuations of the sigma
component in a hadronic medium, even if the -meson has no well defined
vacuum state. It turns out that for the Pb+Pb system the proposed analysis
technique cannot be applied without entering the invariant mass region with
strong Coulomb correlations. As a result the treatment becomes inconclusive in
this case. Our results for the other systems indicate the presence of power-law
fluctuations in the freeze-out state of Si+Si approaching in size the
prediction of critical QCD.Comment: 31 pages, 11 figure
Inclusive production of charged pions in p+C collisions at 158 GeV/c beam momentum
The production of charged pions in minimum bias p+C interactions is studied
using a sample of 377000 inelastic events obtained with the NA49 detector at
the CERN SPS at 158 GeV/c beam momentum. The data cover a phase space area
ranging from 0 to 1.8 GeV/c in transverse momentum and from -0.1 to 0.5 in
Feynman x. Inclusive invariant cross sections are given on a grid of 270 bins
per charge thus offering for the first time a dense coverage of the projectile
hemisphere and of the cross-over region into the target fragmentation zone.Comment: 31 pages, 30 figures, submitted to European Journal of Physic
System-size and centrality dependence of charged kaon and pion production in nucleus-nucleus collisions at 40A GeV and158A GeV beam energy
Measurements of charged pion and kaon production are presented in centrality
selected Pb+Pb collisions at 40A GeV and 158A GeV beam energy as well as in
semi-central C+C and Si+Si interactions at 40A GeV. Transverse mass spectra,
rapidity spectra and total yields are determined as a function of centrality.
The system-size and centrality dependence of relative strangeness production in
nucleus-nucleus collisions at 40A GeV and 158A GeV beam energy are derived from
the data presented here and published data for C+C and Si+Si collisions at 158A
GeV beam energy. At both energies a steep increase with centrality is observed
for small systems followed by a weak rise or even saturation for higher
centralities. This behavior is compared to calculations using transport models
(UrQMD and HSD), a percolation model and the core-corona approach.Comment: 32 pages, 14 figures, 4 tables, typo table II correcte
Phase-space dependence of particle-ratio fluctuations in Pb+Pb collisions from 20A to 158A GeV beam energy
A novel approach, the identity method, was used for particle identification
and the study of fluctuations of particle yield ratios in Pb+Pb collisions at
the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS). This procedure allows to unfold the
moments of the unknown multiplicity distributions of protons (p), kaons (K),
pions () and electrons (e). Using these moments the excitation function of
the fluctuation measure [A,B] was measured, with A and
B denoting different particle types. The obtained energy dependence of
agrees with previously published NA49 results on the related
measure . Moreover, was found to depend
on the phase space coverage for [K,p] and [K,] pairs. This feature most
likely explains the reported differences between measurements of NA49 and those
of STAR in central Au+Au collisions
Measurement of event-by-event transverse momentum and multiplicity fluctuations using strongly intensive measures and in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron
Results from the NA49 experiment at the CERN SPS are presented on
event-by-event transverse momentum and multiplicity fluctuations of charged
particles, produced at forward rapidities in central Pb+Pb interactions at beam
momenta 20, 30, 40, 80, and 158 GeV/c, as well as in systems of
different size (, C+C, Si+Si, and Pb+Pb) at 158 GeV/c. This publication
extends the previous NA49 measurements of the strongly intensive measure
by a study of the recently proposed strongly intensive measures of
fluctuations and . In the explored kinematic
region transverse momentum and multiplicity fluctuations show no significant
energy dependence in the SPS energy range. However, a remarkable system size
dependence is observed for both and , with the
largest values measured in peripheral Pb+Pb interactions. The results are
compared with NA61/SHINE measurements in collisions, as well as with
predictions of the UrQMD and EPOS models.Comment: 12 pages, 14 figures, to be submitted to PR
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