Replication strategies and the evolution of cooperation by exploitation

Introducing the concept of replication strategies this paper studies the evolution of cooperation in populations of agents whose offspring follow a social strategy that is determined by a parent's replication strategy. Importantly, social and replication strategies may differ, thus allowing parents to construct their own social niche, defined by the behaviour of their offspring. We analyse the co-evolution of social and replication strategies in well-mixed and spatial populations. In well-mixed populations, cooperation-supporting equilibria can only exist if the transmission processes of social strategies and replication strategies are completely separate. In space, cooperation can evolve without complete separation of the timescales at which both strategy traits are propagated. Cooperation then evolves through the presence of offspring exploiting defectors whose presence and spatial arrangement can shield clusters of pure cooperators

The impacts of human activity on mammals in a community forest near the Dja Biosphere Reserve in Cameroon

Human activity in African tropical rainforests continues to threaten wild mammals. Many rural communities are dependent on hunting, yet there is a widespread lack of baseline data on ecology and the sustainability of hunting. We investigated the impacts of human activity on mammal species composition and distributions within a community forest surrounding a village in the buffer zone of the Dja Biosphere Reserve in south-east Cameroon. We conducted a camera-trap survey in August–November 2017 and detected 24 mammal species, including Critically Endangered western lowland gorilla Gorilla gorilla gorilla, Endangered central African chimpanzee Pan troglodytes troglodytes and Endangered tree pangolin Phataginus tricuspis. We used occupancy analysis to explore relationships between indicators of human activity (distance to a road and the Reserve), habitat quality (distance to the river and tree cover) and the distributions of species. We found that the local distribution of threatened mammals was not apparently limited by human activity, and proximity to the road did not negatively influence occupancy for any species. However, most of the Reserve's large species were not detected, including the African forest elephant Loxodonta cyclotis and the largest ungulates, and the occupancy of two species commonly hunted for wild meat was positively correlated with distance from the village, indicating hunting may be unsustainable. Our results show that the community forest provides habitat for threatened species outside the Reserve and in close proximity to people. However, effective conservation management will require continued monitoring and research to determine whether current rates of hunting are sustainable

Comparing interview methods with camera trap data to inform occupancy models of hunted mammals in forest habitats

Few studies explicitly assess the robustness and practicality of occupancy analysis informed by local inhabitants, compared to estimates from conventional monitoring methods within different contexts. This study evaluates the efficacy and robustness of occupancy models based on camera trap data, and two locally informed methods: seasonal interviews and hunter diaries, for monitoring 13 hunted mammal species in south-eastern Cameroon. We triangulate estimates of detectability and occupancy to assess the precision and comparability of their estimates for different species, and their cost. Camera trap estimates are comparable with estimates from locally informed methods in 7 of 11 available cases, but produced the lowest detection probabilities for all species in both villages. While camera traps provide robust estimates for abundant species with a high detection probability, locally informed methods can provide estimates of occupancy comparable to camera trap estimates, but at significantly less cost. They are particularly useful where camera trap detection rates (p) are too low to produce robust occupancy model estimates, notably for rare or cryptic species. The methods, survey effort and animals that can be monitored robustly vary between villages. As such, consideration should be given before monitoring commences to ensure that the most effective and informative approach is used

Rank Statistics in Biological Evolution

We present a statistical analysis of biological evolution processes. Specifically, we study the stochastic replication-mutation-death model where the population of a species may grow or shrink by birth or death, respectively, and additionally, mutations lead to the creation of new species. We rank the various species by the chronological order by which they originate. The average population N_k of the kth species decays algebraically with rank, N_k ~ M^{mu} k^{-mu}, where M is the average total population. The characteristic exponent mu=(alpha-gamma)/(alpha+beta-gamma)$ depends on alpha, beta, and gamma, the replication, mutation, and death rates. Furthermore, the average population P_k of all descendants of the kth species has a universal algebraic behavior, P_k ~ M/k.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Setting things straight: a comparison of measures of saccade trajectory deviation

In eye movements, saccade trajectory deviation has often been used as a physiological operationalization of visual attention, distraction, or the visual system’s prioritization of different sources of information. However, there are many ways to measure saccade trajectories and to quantify their deviation. This may lead to noncomparable results and poses the problem of choosing a method that will maximize statistical power. Using data from existing studies and from our own experiments, we used principal components analysis to carry out a systematic quantification of the relationships among eight different measures of saccade trajectory deviation and their power to detect the effects of experimental manipulations, as measured by standardized effect size. We concluded that (1) the saccade deviation measure is a good default measure of saccade trajectory deviation, because it is somewhat correlated with all other measures and shows relatively high effect sizes for two well-known experimental effects; (2) more generally, measures made relative to the position of the saccade target are more powerful; and (3) measures of deviation based on the early part of the saccade are made more stable when they are based on data from an eyetracker with a high sampling rate. Our recommendations may be of use to future eye movement researchers seeking to optimize the designs of their studies

“Bibliostory—Educational Comic Stories.” A Social Constructivist Approach to Media and Information Literacy Education for Children and Adolescents

Our paper presents a theoretical background for a Polish comic book “Bibliostory—educational comic stories” (Pl. Bibliostory—edukacyjne historie komiksowe). The comic targets children between 9 and 12 years of age and youths from 13 to 16 years of age. Each story illustrates one issue, such as information searching, organization of information, plagiarism, and information problem solving strategy. Bibliostory is based on two constructivist pedagogical concepts: the zone of proximal development (ZPD) and case-based learning/teaching. These concepts, on application level, are first of all associated with designing educational situations and relationships between teachers and students (educators and learners). The aim of our paper is to present the possibilities of application of these concepts in the educational comic books. We describe the general assumptions of two concepts, then we focus on elements applied in Bibliostory project. We also provide a review of literature on the educational potential of comic books.Zuza Wiorogórska’s work was carried out during her stay as the visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, thanks to a scholarship from the Kosciuszko Foundation. Ewa Rozkosz’s work was carried out thanks to the grant awarded by the Faculty of Education of the University of Lower Silesia for the project “Społeczno-kulturowe podejście w projektowaniu materiałów edukacyjnych na potrzeby edukacji medialnej I inforamacyjnej dzieci i młodzieży na przykładzie »Bibliostory«” (nr 05/ WGW/dok/2016)

Evolutionary connectionism: algorithmic principles underlying the evolution of biological organisation in evo-devo, evo-eco and evolutionary transitions

The mechanisms of variation, selection and inheritance, on which evolution by natural selection depends, are not fixed over evolutionary time. Current evolutionary biology is increasingly focussed on understanding how the evolution of developmental organisations modifies the distribution of phenotypic variation, the evolution of ecological relationships modifies the selective environment, and the evolution of reproductive relationships modifies the heritability of the evolutionary unit. The major transitions in evolution, in particular, involve radical changes in developmental, ecological and reproductive organisations that instantiate variation, selection and inheritance at a higher level of biological organisation. However, current evolutionary theory is poorly equipped to describe how these organisations change over evolutionary time and especially how that results in adaptive complexes at successive scales of organisation (the key problem is that evolution is self-referential, i.e. the products of evolution change the parameters of the evolutionary process). Here we first reinterpret the central open questions in these domains from a perspective that emphasises the common underlying themes. We then synthesise the findings from a developing body of work that is building a new theoretical approach to these questions by converting well-understood theory and results from models of cognitive learning. Specifically, connectionist models of memory and learning demonstrate how simple incremental mechanisms, adjusting the relationships between individually-simple components, can produce organisations that exhibit complex system-level behaviours and improve the adaptive capabilities of the system. We use the term “evolutionary connectionism” to recognise that, by functionally equivalent processes, natural selection acting on the relationships within and between evolutionary entities can result in organisations that produce complex system-level behaviours in evolutionary systems and modify the adaptive capabilities of natural selection over time. We review the evidence supporting the functional equivalences between the domains of learning and of evolution, and discuss the potential for this to resolve conceptual problems in our understanding of the evolution of developmental, ecological and reproductive organisations and, in particular, the major evolutionary transitions

Supporting Children with Disabilities in Low- and Middle- Income Countries: Promoting Inclusive Practice within Community-Based Childcare Centres in Malawi through a Bioecological Systems Perspective

RLOsGiven the narrow scope and conceptualisation of inclusion for young children with disabilities in research within low- and middle income countries (LMICs) contexts, we draw on a bioecological systems perspective to propose the parameters for a broader unit of analysis. This perspective situates human development within a specific cultural context in which family, peers and schooling are regarded as key in responding to young children with disabilities in a given setting. We outline a new bioecological model to illustrate the proximal and distal factors that can influence inclusive early development for children with disabilities within LMICs. To illustrate the relevance of this model to early child development research, we consider its application, as a conceptual framework, with reference to a research study in Malawi. The study was designed to promote greater inclusive practice for young children with disabilities in Community-Based Childcare Centres (CBCCs) with a particular focus on the role of the CBCC volunteer ‘caregiver’ in rural Malawi. It has significance for educators, service providers and researchers concerned with facilitating inclusive early development across national boundaries and contexts.ESRC-DFI

Multimodal augmented reality tangible gaming

This paper presents tangible augmented reality gaming environment that can be used to enhance entertainment using a multimodal tracking interface. Players can interact using different combinations between a pinch glove, a Wiimote, a six-degrees-of-freedom tracker, through tangible ways as well as through I/O controls. Two tabletop augmented reality games have been designed and implemented including a racing game and a pile game. The goal of the augmented reality racing game is to start the car and move around the track without colliding with either the wall or the objects that exist in the gaming arena. Initial evaluation results showed that multimodal-based interaction games can be beneficial in gaming. Based on these results, an augmented reality pile game was implemented with goal of completing a circuit of pipes (from a starting point to an end point on a grid). Initial evaluation showed that tangible interaction is preferred to keyboard interaction and that tangible games are much more enjoyable