What does it take to evolve behaviorally complex organisms?

What genotypic features explain the evolvability of organisms that have to accomplish many different tasks? The genotype of behaviorally complex organisms may be more likely to encode modular neural architectures because neural modules dedicated to distinct tasks avoid neural interference, i.e., the arrival of conflicting messages for changing the value of connection weights during learning. However, if the connection weights for the various modules are genetically inherited, this raises the problem of genetic linkage: favorable mutations may fall on one portion of the genotype encoding one neural module and unfavorable mutations on another portion encoding another module. We show that this can prevent the genotype from reaching an adaptive optimum. This effect is different from other linkage effects described in the literature and we argue that it represents a new class of genetic constraints. Using simulations we show that sexual reproduction can alleviate the problem of genetic linkage by recombining separate modules all of which incorporate either favorable or unfavorable mutations. We speculate that this effect may contribute to the taxonomic prevalence of sexual reproduction among higher organisms. In addition to sexual recombination, the problem of genetic linkage for behaviorally complex organisms may be mitigated by entrusting evolution with the task of finding appropriate modular architectures and learning with the task of finding the appropriate connection weights for these architectures

Numerical calculation of the complex berry phase in non-Hermitian systems

We numerically investigate topological phases of periodic lattice systems in tight-binding description under the influence of dissipation. The effects of dissipation are effectively described by $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric potentials. In this framework we develop a general numerical gauge smoothing procedure to calculate complex Berry phases from the biorthogonal basis of the system's non-Hermitian Hamiltonian. Further, we apply this method to a one-dimensional $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric lattice system and verify our numerical results by an analytical calculation.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, minor modifications in the final versio

Cell-type phylogenetics and the origin of endometrial stromal cells

SummaryA challenge of genome annotation is the identification of genes performing specific biological functions. Here, we propose a phylogenetic approach that utilizes RNA-seq data to infer the historical relationships among cell types and to trace the pattern of gene-expression changes on the tree. The hypothesis is that gene-expression changes coincidental with the origin of a cell type will be important for the function of the derived cell type. We apply this approach to the endometrial stromal cells (ESCs), which are critical for the initiation and maintenance of pregnancy. Our approach identified well-known regulators of ESCs, PGR and FOXO1, as well as genes not yet implicated in female fertility, including GATA2 and TFAP2C. Knockdown analysis confirmed that they are essential for ESC differentiation. We conclude that phylogenetic analysis of cell transcriptomes is a powerful tool for discovery of genes performing cell-type-specific functions

g factor of lithiumlike silicon 28Si11+

The g factor of lithiumlike 28Si11+ has been measured in a triple-Penning trap with a relative uncertainty of 1.1x10^{-9} to be g_exp=2.0008898899(21). The theoretical prediction for this value was calculated to be g_th=2.000889909(51) improving the accuracy to 2.5x10^{-8} due to the first rigorous evaluation of the two-photon exchange correction. The measured value is in excellent agreement with the state-of-the-art theoretical prediction and yields the most stringent test of bound-state QED for the g factor of the 1s^22s state and the relativistic many-electron calculations in a magnetic field

Quasi-Independence, Homology and the Unity of Type: A Topological Theory of Characters

In this paper Lewontin’s notion of “quasi-independence” of characters is formalized as the assumption that a region of the phenotype space can be represented by a product space of orthogonal factors. In this picture each character corresponds to a factor of a region of the phenotype space. We consider any region of the phenotype space that has a given factorization as a “type”, i.e. as a set of phenotypes that share the same set of phenotypic characters. Using the notion of local factorizations we develop a theory of character identity based on the continuation of common factors among different regions of the phenotype space. We also consider the topological constraints on evolutionary transitions among regions with different regional factorizations, i.e. for the evolution of new types or body plans. It is shown that direct transition between different “types” is only possible if the transitional forms have all the characters that the ancestral and the derived types have and are thus compatible with the factorization of both types. Transitional forms thus have to go over a “complexity hump” where they have more quasi-independent characters than either the ancestral as well as the derived type. The only logical, but biologically unlikely, alternative is a “hopeful monster” that transforms in a single step from the ancestral type to the derived type. Topological considerations also suggest a new factor that may contribute to the evolutionary stability of “types”. It is shown that if the type is decomposable into factors which are vertex irregular (i.e. have states that are more or less preferred in a random walk), the region of phenotypes representing the type contains islands of strongly preferred states. In other words types have a statistical tendency of retaining evolutionary trajectories within their interior and thus add to the evolutionary persistence of types

On the nature of thumbs

Differential Hox gene expression make the thumb specia

A reason for the occurrence of mass-transfer coefficients at silica surfaces

At silica surface exposed to a water vapour environment, there is a monotonously increasing water concentration observed that calls for a limited mass transfer from the humid environment to the surface. Such behaviour is characterized by a “mass transfer coefficient". We have demonstrated in several studies that silica glass surfaces may present a barrier to the diffusion of water into silica. We could interpret the experimental diffusion results of Oehler and Tomozawa (2004) and those of Helmich and Rauch (1993). Such a surface layer formed by diffusion and water reaction with the surface material, was studied by Mahadevan and Garofalini (2008). Compressive hydrostatic stresses in the surface layers reach a maximum value of σ$_{sw,h}$ = − 2.8GPa. Due to such high compressive stresses, the water diffusivity must be strongly reduced within this thin layer and, consequently, also the mass transfer coefficient. These effects will be considered in detail in this report

Golf von Neapel

In vielen mediterranen Küstenniederungen entstand infolge von Gebirgsentvölkerung, Infrastrukturausbau, neuer Gewerbe sowie illegaler Bautätigkeit ein Verstädterungsband. Am Golf von Neapel konnte dieser Landschaftswandel beobachtet und durch Vergleichsfotos, Kartierungen, Luft- und Satellitenbilder und Interviews dokumentiert werden