The use of frozen semen to minimize inbreeding in small populations

In this study, we compared the average coancestry and inbreeding levels for two genetic conservation schemes in which frozen semen from a gene bank is used to reduce the inbreeding in a live population. For a simple scheme in which only semen of generation-0 (G0) sires is used, the level of inbreeding asymptotes to 1/(2N), where N is the number of newborn sires in the base generation and rate of inbreeding goes to zero. However, when only sires of G0 are selected, all genes will eventually descend from the founder sires and all genes from the founder dams are lost. We propose an alternative scheme in which N sires from generation 1 (G1), as well as the N sires from G0, have semen conserved, and the semen of G0 and G1 sires is used for dams of odd and even generation numbers, respectively. With this scheme, the level of inbreeding asymptotes to 1/(3N) and the genes of founder dams are also conserved, because 50% of the genes of sires of G1 are derived from the founder dams. A computer simulation study shows that this is the optimum design to minimize inbreeding, even if semen from later generations is available

The phenomenological road to Cognitive Semiotics

[Abstract] Like M. Jordan, who discovered in his old age that he had always been talking prose, I realized a few years ago that I have been doing cognitive semiotics my whole life. In my 1978 dissertation I argued for an «integral linguistics», meaning both that linguistic theory should be conceived within a wider semiotic framework, and that we should abandon the «autonomy postulate», according to which theoretical models must be independent of empirical findings, which dominated both linguistics and semiotics at the time. When you build theory with the help of a phenomenological method, there is a much shorter distance between theory and experience, because phenomenology is empirical attention to consciousness. Much later I became acquainted with Paul Bouissac’s description of semiotics as «meta-analysis», which «consists in reading through a large number of specialised scientific publications/…/ in one or several domains of inquiry, and of relating the partial results within a more encompassing model». Cognitive science is for the most part also a kind of meta-analysis. Nevertheless, semiotics has interest in adopting the practice of cognitive science that consists in submitting its own questions to empirical study. The essential difference between cognitive science and semiotics, however, resides elsewhere, in the point of view taken in the construction of the encompassing model. In semiotics, the point of view that determines the construction of the model is meaning in the widest sense of the term. In cognitive science it is cognition, but in a sense itself redefined by the approach, first, during the reign of the computer metaphor, as everything in the mind which may be simulated on a computer, and then, with the later brain model, as everything which can be detected as occurring in the brain. Semiotics, on the other hand, has generated its own reductionist models from within, most notoriously those of Saussure and Peirce. To avoid reductionism, it will be argued, Husserlean phenomenology, rather than the Peircean brand, is a more suitable method to employ in the study of meanin

Las estadísticas comerciales de Puerto Rico: aplicación y precisión, 1828-1870

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Early testing of adaptedness to temperature and water availability in Pinus sylvestris and Picea abies

Long-term climate changes have been evident in the past. In the future an increase in the rate of climate change is predicted owing to man-made emissions. Studies of adaptedness to different climatic conditions are of great importance for the design of appropriate breeding and gene conservation programmes. This thesis presents studies of adaptedness to temperature and water availability in Pinus sylvestris and Picea abies and explores the possibilities of utilising differences in adaptedness to obtain juvenile-mature (J-M) correlations strong enough for efficient early testing. Offspring from clones in two Swedish Pinus sylvestris seed orchards and one Picea abies seed orchard were grown in growth chambers for one and two growth periods respectively. Two temperature regimes and two irrigation regimes were applied in a factorial design. Both species expressed high phenotypic plasticity and additive variance for height growth and biomass traits. This implies that these populations should be able to adapt both to short-term and to long-term climate changes. Genotype by environment (GxE) interaction indicated strong differences in adaptedness to temperature and lower differences in adaptedness to water availability. Parent rank changes between treatments indicated that climate change could seriously alter the ranking of clones in breeding populations and thus decrease the genetic gain obtained in previous selections. Differences in stability among parents suggested that culling of unstable genotypes could be a way to reduce the negative effects of GxE interaction. Genetic correlations between growth chamber and 14-30 year old field progeny trials with the same parents were mainly weak for both species. The correlations were improved by the drought treatment in the Picea abies experiment suggesting that further development of early testing methods for this species should include treatments with limiting water availability

Kognityvinės semiotikos pagrindimas ženklų ir reikšmių fenomenologija

Kognityvinė semiotika, pastaruoju metu įvairiose terpėse pristatoma kaip nauja humanitarinių ir socialinių mokslų paradigma, siekia sujungti kognityvinius mokslus su semiotika. Išplėsdami kognicijos sąvoką taip, kad ji aprėptų didžiąją dalį psichinio gyvenimo (o kartais – ir daugelį „subasmeninių“ [subpersonal] aspektų), kognityviniai mokslai ne kažin kiek vietos paskyrė reikšmės fenomenams ir jų savitumui. Kita vertus, semiotika ar bent jau kai kurios jos apraiškos, ypač įkvėptosios Peirce’o, turi polinkį bene viską aiškinti kaip ženklų konsteliacijas. Abi šios tendencijos veda į konceptualinę miglą ir sąmyšį. Epistemologiniu požiūriu, kognityvinės semiotikos užduotis – susieti šiuodvi vieno ir to paties akiračio tendencijas, sąmonę [mind] padedant ten, kur jai ir vieta, o ženklus – į jiems skirtą vietą. Šio straipsnio pirmoje dalyje aptariamas fenomenologinis metodas ir jo taikymas suvokimui [perception]. Konkrečiai aptarsime, ar ir kokia apimtimi galima sakyti, kad suvokime esama propozicijų [propositions]. Antroje dalyje bus pristatomas ženklas kaip elementari kognityvinės semiotikos sąvoka, didžiąja dalimi išvesta iš aprezentacijos apibrėžties fenomenologijoje, bet taip pat sudaroma pasinaudojant kai kuriomis [Jeano] Piaget idėjomis. Užuot visas reikšmės prieigas [vehicles] tapatinus su ženklais, šiame straipsnyje ženklo sąvoka susiaurinama iki labai konkrečių reikšmės atvejų, kurie skiriasi nuo kitokių reikšmės tipų, kai reikšmė labiau tiesiogiai duota suvokime. Galiausiai trečioje dalyje imsimės neograisiškos [neo-Gricean] reikšmės analizės ir tvirtinsime, kad įprasčiausiais atvejais šio pobūdžio reikšmę apims ženklo sąvoka, tačiau kai kuriais atskirais atvejais ir tam tikruose kontekstuose vis tiek prireiks graisiško tipo reikšmės sąvokos

De la métaphore à l'allégorie dans la sémiotique écologique

Si l'allégorie est une métaphore filée, comme disent les classiques, il faut commencer par étudier cette dernière. Le système du Groupe µ, dont nous avons donné ailleurs une version revue et corrigée, esquive cette terminologie traditionnelle, mais si l'on veut appliquer un tel système à la rhétorique langagière, il est nécessaire d'en trouver les corrélations. Or, tandis que la métaphore de l'image, à la différence de la métaphore verbale, relève presque complètement de l'iconicité primaire, l'allégorie ne peut pas être fondée, dans les deux cas, que sur une iconicité secondaire. Nous utilisons le terme d'iconicité primaire pour désigner les cas où la ressemblance précède et détermine la fonction du signe, et nous l'opposons à l'iconicité secondaire, où la similitude ne devient perceptible que grâce à la fonction du signe. Néanmoins, nous allons voir que, dans l'image, l'allégorie a plus de chance de devenir « symbole », dans le sens où les romantiques opposaient ce dernier à l'allégorie. Pour le montrer, nous nous fondons sur notre interprétation, dans les termes de la sémiotique moderne, de l'opposition entre les deux modes de représentations caractérisées par Lessing.If allegory is an extended metaphor, as classical rhetoric would have it, we should have to start by studying it. The system of the µ group, which I have elsewhere examined and tried to amend, steers clear of this traditional terminology ; however, should such a system still be relevant to linguistic rhetoric, correlations must be found. While pictorial metaphors, contrary to verbal metaphors, are almost entirely a kind of primary iconicity, the allegory must, in both cases, be based on secondary iconicity. The expression primary iconicity is used to describe the case in which similarity precedes and determines the sign function, as opposed to secondary iconicity, used when similarity can only be perceived thanks to the sign function. Nevertheless, I will try to show that, in the case of pictures, allegory may more easily turn into " symbol ", in the sense in which this term was opposed to allegory by the Romantics. My argument is based on the distinction made by Lessing between two modes of representation reconceived in terms of modern semiotics

From mimicry to mime by way of mimesis: Reflections on a general theory of iconicity

Practically all theories of iconicity are denunciations of its subject matter (for example, those of Goodman, Bierman and the early Eco). My own theory of iconicity was developed in order to save a particular kind of iconicity, pictoriality, from such criticism. In this interest, I distinguished pure iconicity, iconic ground, and iconic sign, on one hand, and primary and secondary iconic signs, on the other hand. Since then, however, several things have happened. The conceptual tools that I created to explain pictoriality have been shown by others to be relevant to linguistic iconicity. On the other hand, semioticians with points of departure different from mine have identified mimicry as it is commonly found in the animal world as a species of iconicity. In the evolutionary semiotics of Deacon, iconicity is referred to in such a general way that it seems to be emptied of all content, while in the variety invented by Donald the term mimesis is used for a particular phase in the evolution of iconic meaning. The aim of this article is to consider to what extent the extension of iconicity theory to new domains will necessitate the development of new models

Beyond methods and models. Semiotics as a distinctive discipline and an intellectual tradition

 Such familiar characterisations of semiotics as being a method, a model, an interdisciplinary perspective, or a philosophical movement are inadequate, because semiotics itself comprehends many models, methods, and philosophical perspectives, and it is just one of the many enterprises which may be seen as occupying a space intermediate to the traditional sciences. Semiotics must be considered a science in its own right, defined by a particular point of view, rather than a domain of reality. As such it is in many ways comparable to cognitive science. A distinct advantage of cognitive science is being by definition a confluence of different research traditions, whereas semiotics has long been hampered by the autonomy postulate. On the other hand, cognitive science still seems to be stuck in an epistemological impasse, just as semiotics was at the time of structuralism. Cognitive semiotics could be a promising way out of both quandaries. 

Bildens yta och djup - Grunder för en bildsemiotik

 Man kan urskilja två ursprung till bildsemiotiken, dels ur försöker att avleda en modell ur studiet av enskilda bilder, som växer fram ur kritiken av Barthes första, enligt alla kompetenta bedömare ganska misslyckade försök med utgångspunkt i en reklambild; och dels ur kritiken av Peirces ikonicitetsbegrepp hos Bierman, Lindekens och Eco och av det vardagliga bildbegreppet grundat på likhet hos Goodman, som också bygger på många missförstånd. I denna artikel diskuteras i viss mån den första traditionen, men huvuddelen ägnas åt den andra. En ny teori på fenomenologisk grundval angående den speciella form av ikonicitet som förekommer i bilder lägges fram, och denna ikonicitet kontrasteras med andra typer. En allmän indelning i primär och sekundär ikonicitet föreslages