Variation in Decision Making

publication-status: PublishedVariation in how organisms allocate their behavior over their lifetimes is key to determining Darwinian fitness, and thus the evolution of human and non-human decision making. In this chapter, we explore how decision making varies across biologically and societally significant scales and what role such variation plays when trying to understand decision making from an evolutionary perspective. In the process, we highlight the importance of explicitly considering variation both when attempting to predict economically and socially important patterns of behavior, and to obtain a deeper understanding of the fundamental biological processes involved. We conclude by identifying key elements of a framework for incorporating variation into a general theory of Darwinian decision making

Observation of second-harmonic generation induced by pure spin currents

Extensive efforts are currently being devoted to developing a new electronic technology, called spintronics, where the spin of electrons is explored to carry information. [1,2] Several techniques have been developed to generate pure spin currents in many materials and structures. [3-10] However, there is still no method available that can be used to directly detect pure spin currents, which carry no net charge current and no net magnetization. Currently, studies of pure spin currents rely on measuring the induced spin accumulation with optical techniques [5, 11-13] or spin-valve configurations. [14-17] However, the spin accumulation does not directly reflect the spatial distribution or temporal dynamics of the pure spin current, and therefore cannot monitor the pure spin current in a real-time and real-space fashion. This imposes severe constraints on research in this field. Here we demonstrate a second-order nonlinear optical effect of the pure spin current. We show that such a nonlinear optical effect, which has never been explored before, can be used for the non-invasive, non-destructive, and real-time imaging of pure spin currents. Since this detection scheme does not rely on optical resonances, it can be generally applied in a wide range of materials with different electronic bandstructures. Furthermore, the control of nonlinear optical properties of materials with pure spin currents may have potential applications in photonics integrated with spintronics.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures, supplementary discussion adde

Human cooperation in groups: variation begets variation

Many experiments on human cooperation have revealed that individuals differ systematically in their tendency to cooperate with others. It has also been shown that individuals condition their behaviour on the overall cooperation level of their peers. Yet, little is known about how individuals respond to heterogeneity in cooperativeness in their neighbourhood. Here, we present an experimental study investigating whether and how people respond to heterogeneous behaviour in a public goods game. We find that a large majority of subjects does respond to heterogeneity in their group, but they respond in quite different ways. Most subjects contribute less to the public good when the contributions of their peers are more heterogeneous, but a substantial fraction of individuals consistently contributes more in this case. In addition, we find that individuals that respond positively to heterogeneity have a higher general cooperation tendency. The finding that social responsiveness occurs in different forms and is correlated with cooperativeness may have important implications for the outcome of cooperative interactions

Identification of a protein encoded in the EB-viral open reading frame BMRF2

Using monospecific rabbit sera against a peptide derived from a potential antigenic region of the Epstein-Barr viral amino acid sequence encoded in the open reading frame BMRF2 we could identify a protein-complex of 53/55 kDa in chemically induced B95-8, P3HR1 and Raji cell lines. This protein could be shown to be membrane-associated, as predicted by previous computer analysis of the secondary structure and hydrophilicity pattern, and may be a member of EBV-induced membrane proteins in lytically infected cells

Classification and evolutionary history of the single-strand annealing proteins, RecT, Redβ, ERF and RAD52

BACKGROUND: The DNA single-strand annealing proteins (SSAPs), such as RecT, Redβ, ERF and Rad52, function in RecA-dependent and RecA-independent DNA recombination pathways. Recently, they have been shown to form similar helical quaternary superstructures. However, despite the functional similarities between these diverse SSAPs, their actual evolutionary affinities are poorly understood. RESULTS: Using sensitive computational sequence analysis, we show that the RecT and Redβ proteins, along with several other bacterial proteins, form a distinct superfamily. The ERF and Rad52 families show no direct evolutionary relationship to these proteins and define novel superfamilies of their own. We identify several previously unknown members of each of these superfamilies and also report, for the first time, bacterial and viral homologs of Rad52. Additionally, we predict the presence of aberrant HhH modules in RAD52 that are likely to be involved in DNA-binding. Using the contextual information obtained from the analysis of gene neighborhoods, we provide evidence of the interaction of the bacterial members of each of these SSAP superfamilies with a similar set of DNA repair/recombination protein. These include different nucleases or Holliday junction resolvases, the ABC ATPase SbcC and the single-strand-binding protein. We also present evidence of independent assembly of some of the predicted operons encoding SSAPs and in situ displacement of functionally similar genes. CONCLUSIONS: There are three evolutionarily distinct superfamilies of SSAPs, namely the RecT/Redβ, ERF, and RAD52, that have different sequence conservation patterns and predicted folds. All these SSAPs appear to be primarily of bacteriophage origin and have been acquired by numerous phylogenetically distant cellular genomes. They generally occur in predicted operons encoding one or more of a set of conserved DNA recombination proteins that appear to be the principal functional partners of the SSAPs

Mechanism of action of probiotics

The modern diet doesn't provide the required amount of beneficial bacteria. Maintenance of a proper microbial ecology in the host is the main criteria to be met for a healthy growth. Probiotics are one such alternative that are supplemented to the host where by and large species of Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium and Saccharomyces are considered as main probiotics. The field of probiotics has made stupendous strides though there is no major break through in the identification of their mechanism of action. They exert their activity primarily by strengthening the intestinal barrier and immunomodulation. The main objective of the study was to provide a deep insight into the effect of probiotics against the diseases, their applications and proposed mechanism of action

Inhibiting ERK Activation with CI-1040 Leads to Compensatory Upregulation of Alternate MAPKs and Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor-1 following Subtotal Nephrectomy with No Impact on Kidney Fibrosis

Extracellular-signal regulated kinase (ERK) activation by MEK plays a key role in many of the cellular processes that underlie progressive kidney fibrosis including cell proliferation, apoptosis and transforming growth factor β1-mediated epithelial to mesenchymal transition. We therefore assessed the therapeutic impact of ERK1/2 inhibition using a MEK inhibitor in the rat 5/6 subtotal nephrectomy (SNx) model of kidney fibrosis. There was a twentyfold upregulation in phospho-ERK1/2 expression in the kidney after SNx in Male Wistar rats. Rats undergoing SNx became hypertensive, proteinuric and developed progressive kidney failure with reduced creatinine clearance. Treatment with the MEK inhibitor, CI-1040 abolished phospho- ERK1/2 expression in kidney tissue and prevented phospho-ERK1/2 expression in peripheral lymphocytes during the entire course of therapy. CI-1040 had no impact on creatinine clearance, proteinuria, glomerular and tubular fibrosis, and α-smooth muscle actin expression. However, inhibition of ERK1/2 activation led to significant compensatory upregulation of the MAP kinases, p38 and JNK in kidney tissue. CI-1040 also increased the expression of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), a key inhibitor of plasmin-dependent matrix metalloproteinases. Thus inhibition of ERK1/2 activation has no therapeutic effect on kidney fibrosis in SNx possibly due to increased compensatory activation of the p38 and JNK signalling pathways with subsequent upregulation of PAI-1

Multiple reassortment events in the evolutionary history of H1N1 influenza A virus since 1918

The H1N1 subtype of influenza A virus has caused substantial morbidity and mortality in humans, first documented in the global pandemic of 1918 and continuing to the present day. Despite this disease burden, the evolutionary history of the A/H1N1 virus is not well understood, particularly whether there is a virological basis for several notable epidemics of unusual severity in the 1940s and 1950s. Using a data set of 71 representative complete genome sequences sampled between 1918 and 2006, we show that segmental reassortment has played an important role in the genomic evolution of A/H1N1 since 1918. Specifically, we demonstrate that an A/H1N1 isolate from the 1947 epidemic acquired novel PB2 and HA genes through intra-subtype reassortment, which may explain the abrupt antigenic evolution of this virus. Similarly, the 1951 influenza epidemic may also have been associated with reassortant A/H1N1 viruses. Intra-subtype reassortment therefore appears to be a more important process in the evolution and epidemiology of H1N1 influenza A virus than previously realized