3,633 research outputs found
A benign juvenile environment reduces the strength of antagonistic pleiotropy and genetic variation in the rate of senescence
The environment can play an important role in the evolution of senescence because the optimal allocation between somatic maintenance and reproduction depends on external factors influencing life expectancy.
The aims of this study were to experimentally test whether environmental conditions during early life can shape senescence schedules, and if so, to examine whether variation among individuals or genotypes with respect to the degree of ageing differs across environments.
We tested life-history plasticity and quantified genetic effects on the pattern of senescence across different environments within a reaction norm framework by using an experiment on the three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus, Linnaeus) in which F1 families originating from a wild annual population experienced different temperature regimes.
Male sticklebacks that had experienced a more benign environment earlier in life subsequently reduced their investment in carotenoid-based sexual signals early in the breeding season, and consequently senesced at a slower rate later in the season, compared to those that had developed under harsher conditions. This plasticity of ageing was genetically determined. Both antagonistic pleiotropy and genetic variation in the rate of senescence were evident only in the individuals raised in the harsher environment.
The experimental demonstration of genotype-by-environment interactions influencing the rate of reproductive senescence provides interesting insights into the role of the environment in the evolution of life histories. The results suggest that benign conditions weaken the scope for senescence to evolve and that the dependence on the environment may maintain genetic variation under selection
The homotopy fixed point theorem and the Quillen-Lichtenbaum conjecture in hermitian K-theory
Let X be a noetherian scheme of finite Krull dimension, having 2 invertible
in its ring of regular functions, an ample family of line bundles, and a global
bound on the virtual mod-2 cohomological dimensions of its residue fields. We
prove that the comparison map from the hermitian K-theory of X to the homotopy
fixed points of K-theory under the natural Z/2-action is a 2-adic equivalence
in general, and an integral equivalence when X has no formally real residue
field. We also show that the comparison map between the higher
Grothendieck-Witt (hermitian K-) theory of X and its \'etale version is an
isomorphism on homotopy groups in the same range as for the Quillen-Lichtenbaum
conjecture in K-theory. Applications compute higher Grothendieck-Witt groups of
complex algebraic varieties and rings of 2-integers in number fields, and hence
values of Dedekind zeta-functions.Comment: 17 pages, to appear in Adv. Mat
Quantification of coarse-graining error in Langevin and overdamped Langevin dynamics
In molecular dynamics and sampling of high dimensional Gibbs measures
coarse-graining is an important technique to reduce the dimensionality of the
problem. We will study and quantify the coarse-graining error between the
coarse-grained dynamics and an effective dynamics. The effective dynamics is a
Markov process on the coarse-grained state space obtained by a closure
procedure from the coarse-grained coefficients. We obtain error estimates both
in relative entropy and Wasserstein distance, for both Langevin and overdamped
Langevin dynamics. The approach allows for vectorial coarse-graining maps.
Hereby, the quality of the chosen coarse-graining is measured by certain
functional inequalities encoding the scale separation of the Gibbs measure. The
method is based on error estimates between solutions of (kinetic) Fokker-Planck
equations in terms of large-deviation rate functionals
Note: Minnesota’s Proposed Same-sex Marriage Amendment: A Flamingly Unconstitutional Violation of Full Faith and Credit, Due Process, and Equal Protection
This note examines the constitutionality of Minnesota’s proposed marriage amendment. The note begins with a description of the recent national events leading up to the amendment’s proposal, followed by a discussion of the history of marriage in Minnesota, including passage of the Defense of Marriage Act in May 1997. Next, the note examines the language of Minnesota’s proposed marriage amendment and briefly addresses the process of amending state constitutional provisions. It then analyzes the proposed amendment’s constitutionality under the Full Faith and Credit Clause, the Due Process Clause, and the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. Finally, the note discusses Congress’s proposal of a Marriage Protection Act and the implications this would have on federal courts’ ability to review same-sex marriage controversies
Formation of Kuiper Belt Binaries
The discovery that a substantial fraction of Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs)
exists in binaries with wide separations and roughly equal masses, has
motivated a variety of new theories explaining their formation. Goldreich et
al. (2002) proposed two formation scenarios: In the first, a transient binary
is formed, which becomes bound with the aid of dynamical friction from the sea
of small bodies (L^2s mechanism); in the second, a binary is formed by three
body gravitational deflection (L^3 mechanism). Here, we accurately calculate
the L^2s and L^3 formation rates for sub-Hill velocities. While the L^2s
formation rate is close to previous order of magnitude estimates, the L^3
formation rate is about a factor of 4 smaller. For sub-Hill KBO velocities (v
<< v_H) the ratio of the L^3 to the L^2s formation rate is 0.05 (v/v_H)
independent of the small bodies' velocity dispersion, their surface density or
their mutual collisions. For Super-Hill velocities (v >> v_H) the L^3 mechanism
dominates over the L^2s mechanism. Binary formation via the L^3 mechanism
competes with binary destruction by passing bodies. Given sufficient time, a
statistical equilibrium abundance of binaries forms. We show that the frequency
of long-lived transient binaries drops exponentially with the system's lifetime
and that such transient binaries are not important for binary formation via the
L^3 mechanism, contrary to Lee et al. (2007). For the L^2s mechanism we find
that the typical time, transient binaries must last, to form Kuiper Belt
binaries (KBBs) for a given strength of dynamical friction, D, increases only
logarithmically with D. Longevity of transient binaries only becomes important
for very weak dynamical friction (i.e. D \lesssim 0.002) and is most likely not
crucial for KBB formation.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ, correction of
minor typo
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