Download or read book The Convergent Evolution of Agriculture in Humans and Insects written by Ted R Schultz and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2022-02-15 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contributors explore common elements in the evolutionary histories of both human and insect agriculture resulting from convergent evolution. During the past 12,000 years, agriculture originated in humans as many as twenty-three times, and during the past 65 million years, agriculture also originated in nonhuman animals at least twenty times and in insects at least fifteen times. It is much more likely that these independent origins represent similar solutions to the challenge of growing food than that they are due purely to chance. This volume seeks to identify common elements in the evolutionary histories of both human and insect agriculture that are the results of convergent evolution. The goal is to create a new, synthetic field that characterizes, quantifies, and empirically documents the evolutionary and ecological mechanisms that drive both human and nonhuman agriculture. The contributors report on the results of quantitative analyses comparing human and nonhuman agriculture; discuss evolutionary conflicts of interest between and among farmers and cultivars and how they interfere with efficiencies of agricultural symbiosis; describe in detail agriculture in termites, ambrosia beetles, and ants; and consider patterns of evolutionary convergence in different aspects of agriculture, comparing fungal parasites of ant agriculture with fungal parasites of human agriculture, analyzing the effects of agriculture on human anatomy, and tracing the similarities and differences between the evolution of agriculture in humans and in a single, relatively well-studied insect group, fungus-farming ants.

Download or read book Organizational Evolution and Strategic Management written by Rodolphe Durand and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2006-04-25 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: `I have no doubt this book will be read and used time and again by any scholar working within the evolutionary approach to organizations. I believe that it will also be of great interest to strategy scholars' - Management `Rodolphe Durand has a compelling message for the growing community of evolutionary researchers in organization studies. Evolutionary researchers need to attend more carefully to historical and contemporary debates in the biological sciences if they are to avoid false tracks and simplisitic analogies. Durand offers here the foundations of a distinctive and authentic evolutionary theory that takes organizations seriously for what they are' - Richard Whittington, Oxford University `This book fills an important gap in the study of organizations and strategy from an evolutionary perspective. It offers a synthetic approach to evolutionary analysis with grounded empirical examples that graduate students and seasoned scholars alike will find immensely useful. Durand's OES model, rooted in a critical examination of philosophical and scientific writings on evolution, is particularly promising and provides a valuable guidepost for future research on organizations and strategic management' - Michael Lounsbury, University of Alberta How is economic evolutionary theory, in which organisations evolve according to environmental selection, reconciled with evidence of strategic management? This book is the first of its kind to propose a solution to this theoretical puzzle and engage readers in a balanced understanding of organizational evolution. Rodolphe Durand embarks upon a fresh assessment of the literature. His discoveries provide the foundation for a new theory of organizational selection and an organizational evolution and strategy model that reconciles economic evolution with strategic intentionality. Chapters include an examination of the work by Lamarck, Darwin and Spencer; a constructive appraisal of evolutionary theory applied to organisations and a summary of how the organizational evolution and strategy model will affect future theory and research. - An associated web site with further information can be found at: http://studies.hec.fr/web/durand

Download or read book Directed Evolution of Selective Enzymes written by Manfred T. Reetz and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2016-12-19 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Authored by one of the world's leading organic chemists, this authoritative reference provides an overview of basic strategies in directed evolution and introduces common gene mutagenesis, screening and selection methods. Throughout the text, emphasis is placed on methodology development to maximize efficiency, reliability and speed of the experiments and to provide guidelines for efficient protein engineering. Professor Reetz highlights the application of directed evolution experiments to address limitations in the field of enzyme selectivity, substrate scope, activity and robustness. He critically reviews recent developments and case studies, takes a look at future applications in the field of organic synthesis, and concludes with lessons learned from previous experiments.

Download or read book The Edge of Evolution written by Michael J. Behe and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-06-17 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of Darwin's Black Box draws on new findings in genetics to pose an argument for intelligent design that refutes Darwinian beliefs about evolution while offering alternative analyses of such factors as disease, random mutations, and the human struggle for survival. Reprint. 40,000 first printing.

Download or read book The Structural Links between Ecology Evolution and Ethics written by Donato Bergandi and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-01-06 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evolutionary biology, ecology and ethics: at first glance, three different objects of research, three different worldviews and three different scientific communities. In reality, there are both structural and historical links between these disciplines. First, some topics are obviously common across the board. Second, the emerging need for environmental policy management has gradually but radically changed the relationship between these disciplines. Over the last decades in particular, there has emerged a need for an interconnecting meta-paradigm that integrates more strictly evolutionary studies, biodiversity studies and the ethical frameworks that are most appropriate for allowing a lasting co-evolution between natural and social systems. Today such a need is more than a mere luxury, it is an epistemological and practical necessity.​

Download or read book Research topics in software evolution and maintenance written by and published by . This book was released on with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Evolution of Human Consciousness and Linguistic Behavior written by Karen A. Haworth and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-09-22 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing from the disciplines of cognitive science, Paleolithic anthropology, art history, and semiotics, Karen A. Haworth and Terry J. Prewitt offer a novel discussion of the origins of language, based primarily in the distinction of holistic versus analytical cognitive processing. Also, by employing a refined view of human symboling capacities grounded in the writings of C. S. Peirce, they provide a short but comprehensive explanation of what the artifacts and art of the Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods suggest about language origins. Their interpretation supports a semiotic argument that “iconic and indexical logical modeling” precedes human elaboration of experience by symbolic reference in words or propositions, and ultimately in what Peirce called “the argument.” Further, they suggest that the use of symbols to model the world developed rapidly between about 20,000 and 10,000 years ago, and has the effect of giving emphasis to analytic thought as the dominant mode of human consciousness. Rather than seeing symbols as the impetus for human logic, they argue for presymbolic elements of logic in Peirce’s sign categories shared widely by humans and other animals. Intended readers are scholars in philosophy, anthropology, psychology, linguistics, and semiotics, as well as interested nonspecialists. The presentation is also complemented with brief personal narratives, intended to offer background that helps make a dense academic argument more accessible to the widest audience possible. The authors’ insights into the basis for language have ramifications for any number of other fields: education, psychology, philosophy, prehistory, and art, to name a few.

Download or read book Human Brain Evolution written by Stephen Cunnane and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010-06-01 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The evolution of the human brain and cognitive ability is one of the central themes of physical/biological anthropology. This book discusses the emergence of human cognition at a conceptual level, describing it as a process of long adaptive stasis interrupted by short periods of cognitive advance. These advances were not linear and directed, but were acquired indirectly as part of changing human behaviors, in other words through the process of exaptation (acquisition of a function for which it was not originally selected). Based on studies of the modem human brain, certain prerequisites were needed for the development of the early brain and associated cognitive advances. This book documents the energy and nutrient constraints of the modern brain, highlighting the significant role of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA) in brain development and maintenance. Crawford provides further emphasis for the role of essential fatty acids, in particular DHA, in brain development, by discussing the evolution of the eye and neural systems. This is an ideal book for Graduate students, post docs, research scientists in Physical/Biological Anthropology, Human Biology, Archaeology, Nutrition, Cognitive Science, Neurosciences. It is also an excellent selection for a grad student discussion seminar.

Download or read book Host and Microbe Adaptations in the Evolution of Immunity written by Larry J. Dishaw and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2019-12-31 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The evolution of metazoans has been accompanied by new interfaces with the microbial environment that include biological barriers and surveillance by specialized cell types. Increasingly complex organisms require increased capacities to confront pathogens, achieved by co-evolution of recognition mechanisms and regulatory pathways. Two distinct but interactive forms of immunity have evolved. Innate immunity, shared by all metazoans, is traditionally viewed as simple and non-specific. Adaptive immunity possesses the capacity to anticipate new infectious challenges and recall previous exposures; the most well-understood example of such a system, exhibited by lymphocytes of vertebrates, is based on somatic gene alterations that generate extraordinary specificity in discrimination of molecular structures. Our understanding of immune phylogeny over the past decades has tried to reconcile immunity from a vertebrate standpoint. While informative, such approaches cannot completely address the complex nature of selective pressures brought to bear by the complex microbiota (including pathogens) that co-exist with all metazoans. In recent years, comparative studies (and new technologies) have broadened our concepts of immunity from a systems-wide perspective. Unexpected findings, e.g., genetic expansions of innate receptors, high levels of polymorphism, RNA-based forms of generating diversity, adaptive evolution and functional divergence of gene families and the recognition of novel mediators of adaptive immunity, prompt us to reconsider the very nature of immunity. Even fundamental paradigms as to how the jawed vertebrate adaptive immune system should be structured for “optimal” recognition potential have been disrupted more than once (e.g., the discovery of the multicluster organization and germline joining of immunoglobulin genes in sharks, gene conversion as a mechanism of somatic diversification, absence of IgM or MHC II in certain teleost fishes). Mechanistically, concepts of innate immune memory, often referred to as “trained memory,” have been realized further, with the development of new discoveries in studies of epigenetic regulation of somatic lineages. Immune systems innovate and adapt in a taxon-specific manner, driven by the complexity of interactions with microbial symbionts (commensals, mutualists and pathogens). Immune systems are shaped by selective forces that reflect consequences of dynamic interactions with microbial environments as well as a capacity for rapid change that can be facilitated by genomic instabilities. We have learned that characterizing receptors and receptor interactions is not necessarily the most significant component in understanding the evolution of immunity. Rather, such a subject needs to be understood from a more global perspective and will necessitate re-consideration of the physical barriers that afford protection and the developmental processes that create them. By far, the most significant paradigm shifts in our understanding of immunity and the infection process has been that microbes no longer are considered to be an automatic cause or consequence of illness, but rather integral components of normal physiology and homeostasis. Immune phylogeny has been shaped not only by an arms race with pathogens but also perhaps by mutualistic interactions with resident microbes. This Research Topic updates and extends the previous eBook on Changing Views of the Evolution of Immunity and contains peer-reviewed submissions of original research, reviews and opinions.

Download or read book Grammatical Evolution written by Michael O'Neill and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Grammatical Evolution: Evolutionary Automatic Programming in an Arbitrary Language provides the first comprehensive introduction to Grammatical Evolution, a novel approach to Genetic Programming that adopts principles from molecular biology in a simple and useful manner, coupled with the use of grammars to specify legal structures in a search. Grammatical Evolution's rich modularity gives a unique flexibility, making it possible to use alternative search strategies - whether evolutionary, deterministic or some other approach - and to even radically change its behavior by merely changing the grammar supplied. This approach to Genetic Programming represents a powerful new weapon in the Machine Learning toolkit that can be applied to a diverse set of problem domains.

Download or read book 3G Evolution written by Erik Dahlman and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2010-07-27 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This very up-to-date and practical book, written by engineers working closely in 3GPP, gives insight into the newest technologies and standards adopted by 3GPP, with detailed explanations of the specific solutions chosen and their implementation in HSPA and LTE. The key technologies presented include multi-carrier transmission, advanced single-carrier transmission, advanced receivers, OFDM, MIMO and adaptive antenna solutions, advanced radio resource management and protocols, and different radio network architectures. Their role and use in the context of mobile broadband access in general is explained. Both a high-level overview and more detailed step-by-step explanations of HSPA and LTE implementation are given. An overview of other related systems such as TD SCDMA, CDMA2000, and WIMAX is also provided. This is a ‘must-have’ resource for engineers and other professionals working with cellular or wireless broadband technologies who need to know how to utilize the new technology to stay ahead of the competition. The authors of the book all work at Ericsson Research and are deeply involved in 3G development and standardisation since the early days of 3G research. They are leading experts in the field and are today still actively contributing to the standardisation of both HSPA and LTE within 3GPP. * Gives the first explanation of the radio access technologies and key international standards for moving to the next stage of 3G evolution: fully operational mobile broadband * Describes the new technologies selected by the 3GPP to realise High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) and Long Term Evolution (LTE) for mobile broadband * Gives both higher-level overviews and detailed explanations of HSPA and LTE as specified by 3GPP

Download or read book Microbial Phylogeny and Evolution written by Jan Sapp and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2005-03-03 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The birth of bacterial genomics since the mid-1990s brought withit several conceptual modifications and wholly new controversies. Working beyond the scope of the neo-Darwinian evolutionary synthesis, a group of leading microbial evolutionists addresses the following and related issues, often with markedly varied viewpoints: ? Did the eukaryotic nucleus, cytoskeleton and cilia also orginate from symbiosis? ? Do the current scenarios about he origin of mitochondria and plastids require revision? ? What is the extent of lateral gene transfer (between "species") among bacteria? ? Does the rDNA phylogenetic tree still stand in the age of genomics? ? Is the course of the first 3 billion years of evolution even knowable?

Download or read book Genome Evolution of Photosynthetic Bacteria written by and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2013-03-08 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Advances in Botanical Research publishes in-depth and up-to-date reviews on a wide range of topics in plant sciences. The series features a wide range of reviews by recognized experts on all aspects of plant genetics, biochemistry, cell biology, molecular biology, physiology and ecology. This thematic volume features reviews on genome evolution of photosynthetic bacteria. Publishes in-depth and up-to-date reviews on a wide range of topics in plant sciences Features a wide range of reviews by recognized experts on all aspects of plant genetics, biochemistry, cell biology, molecular biology, physiology and ecology This thematic volume features reviews on genome evolution of photosynthetic bacteria

Download or read book Book Review Digest written by and published by . This book was released on 1918 with total page 712 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Codon Evolution written by Gina M. Cannarozzi and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-02-23 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second part of the book focuses on codon usage bias.

Download or read book Mammalian Evolution Diversity and Systematics written by Frank Zachos and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2018-10-22 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are nearly 6,000 mammalian species, among them our own. Research on our evolutionary cousins has a long history, but the last 20 years have seen particularly rapid progress in disentangling the interrelationships and evolutionary history of mammals. The present volume combines up-to-date reviews on mammalian phylogenetics with paleontological, taxonomic and evolutionary chapters and also summarizes the historical development of our insights in mammalian relationships, and thus our own place in the Tree of Life. Our book places the present biodiversity crisis in context, with one in four mammal species threatened by extinction, and reviews the distribution and conservation of mammalian diversity across the globe. This volume is the introductory tome to the new Mammalia series of the Handbook of Zoology and will be essential reading for mammalogists, zoologists and conservationists alike.

Download or read book Unravelling the Evolution of Language written by Rudolf P. Botha and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-11-22 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What blocks the way to a better understanding of language evolution, it is widely held, is above all a paucity of factual evidence. Not so, argues Unravelling the Evolution of Language. This book finds the main obstacle, instead, in a poverty of a specific kind of theory—restrictive theory. It shows, too, that this poverty of restrictive theory is one of the root causes of the paucity of factual evidence. "Unravelling"...takes it that a theory of a thing T—for example, language—is restrictive if it gives us a basis for distinguishing T in a non-arbitrary way from all things that are in fact distinct from it, including those that happen to be related to it. The book then argues in detail that much of the recent work on language evolution proceeds from loose assumptions, rather than restrictive theories, about a number of crucial "things": The entities, prelinguistic or linguistic, that are believed to have undergone evolution; the processes by which these entities are believed to have evolved; the ways in which these (pre)linguistic entities link up with entities that are believed to be correlates of them; the sources of data that are believed to yield indirect evidence about the evolution of language; and the factors that add to or subtract from the scientific substance of accounts of language evolution. In support of its main argument, Unravelling the Evolution of Language puts forward detailed analyses of various recent accounts of language evolution, including co-optationist accounts by Noam Chomsky, Stephen Jay Gould, Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini and Lyle Jenkins preadaptationist accounts by Philip Lieberman, Wendy Wilkins, Jenny Wakefield, Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy, William Calvin and Derek Bickerton adaptationist accounts by Steven Pinker, Paul Bloom and others. This means that Unravelling...as it builds its main argument, also offers an appraisal of some significant contributions to recent work on language evolution.