Deflating trees: Improving bayesian branch-length estimates using informed priors

© 2015 © The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the Society of Systematic Biologists. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: [email protected]. Prior distributions can have a strong effect on the results of Bayesian analyses. However, no general consensus exists for how priors should be set in all circumstances. Branch-length priors are of particular interest for phylogenetics, because they affect many parameters and biologically relevant inferences have been shown to be sensitive to the chosen prior distribution. Here, we explore the use of outside information to set informed branch-length priors and compare inferences from these informed analyses to those using default settings. For both the commonly used exponential and the newly proposed compound Dirichlet prior distributions, the incorporation of relevant outside information improves inferences for data sets that have produced problematic branch- and tree-length estimates under default settings. We suggest that informed priors are worthy of further exploration for phylogenetics

Adaptive locomotion of artificial microswimmers

Bacteria can exploit mechanics to display remarkable plasticity in response to locally changing physical and chemical conditions. Compliant structures play a striking role in their taxis behavior, specifically for navigation inside complex and structured environments. Bioinspired mechanisms with rationally designed architectures capable of large, nonlinear deformation present opportunities for introducing autonomy into engineered small-scale devices. This work analyzes the effect of hydrodynamic forces and rheology of local surroundings on swimming at low Reynolds number, identifies the challenges and benefits of utilizing elastohydrodynamic coupling in locomotion, and further develops a suite of machinery for building untethered microrobots with self-regulated mobility. We demonstrate that coupling the structural and magnetic properties of artificial microswimmers with the dynamic properties of the fluid leads to adaptive locomotion in the absence of on-board sensors

The Aesthetics of Rape, and the Rape of Aesthetics

Study of the aesthetic representation of sexual violence and its deconstruction in the fiction of María de Zayas

The Performance of Justice: Good Natured Rule Breaking in Calderón's 'El Alcalde de Zalamea'

This essay argues that the existence of a written canon of legal precedents concerning the rape of lower class women by nobles (Barahona), framed by a confusing matrix of competing juridical procedures and rituals (Susan Byrne), offers Calderón the opportunity to reimagine juridical practices and the role of the letrado in their interpretation and use. As such, Pedro Crespo may be viewed as Calderón’s authorial avatar, one who models a witty mimetic praxis in the interest of creating a legitimate social and, more importantly, juridical space for his peasant family. This enterprise—empresa, in emblematic terms—is, in turn, analogous to efforts by early modern writers and painters to assemble honourable occupations out of what traditionally were considered to be artisanal activities. My primary theoretical tools for carrying out this analysis are Catherine Bell’s notions of ritual agency and redemptive hegemony, which provide useful concepts for identifying and analyzing Calderón’s authorial performance and its aesthetic and historical implications. The paper ends with a reflection on the implications of this reading for current debates concerning José Antonio Maravall’s notion of baroque guided culture

Perverse Currency

Response to an essay by Justin Butler on the Jesuit philosopher Baltasar Gracián, in which the author reads Gracián's response to modernity through Neal Stephenson's Baroque Trilogy