Prehistoric Transpacific Contact and the Theory of Culture Change

Employing genetic theory as an analog, the paper argues that when the concept of culture is separated from the concept of society, anthropology can be shown to have depended for culture-change theory on a genetic model, which predicts pre-Columbian contact between the Old and New World, a prediction which is supported by a growing list of cultural parallels . [prehistoric transpacific contact, culture, society, culture change, scientific explanation]     

Phenotypic Novelty in EvoDevo: The Distinction Between Continuous and Discontinuous Variation and Its Importance in Evolutionary Theory

The introduction of novel phenotypic structures is one of the most significant aspects of organismal evolution. Yet the concept of evolutionary novelty is used with drastically different connotations in various fields of research, and debate exists about whether novelties represent features that are distinct from standard forms of phenotypic variation. This article contrasts four separate uses for novelty in genetics, population genetics, morphology, and behavioral science, before establishing how novelties are used in evolutionary developmental biology (EvoDevo). In particular, it is detailed how an EvoDevo-specific research approach to novelty produces insight distinct from other fields, gives the concept explanatory power with predictive capacities, and brings new consequences to evolutionary theory. This includes the outlining of research strategies that draw attention to productive areas of inquiry, such as threshold dynamics in development. It is argued that an EvoDevo-based approach to novelty is inherently mechanistic, treats the phenotype as an agent with generative potential, and prompts a distinction between continuous and discontinuous variation in evolutionary theory.     

集合生态系统研究15年回顾与展望

集合生态系统(meta-ecosystem)由法国的Loreau教授等于2003年提出,是指"由跨生态系统边界的物质流、能量流和生物体流所连接起来的一系列生态系统的集合",是对只关注生物体(organism)迁移交换的集合种群(meta-population)和集合群落(meta-community)概念的外推,也是为了给生态系统空间异质性研究提供一个重要的分析路径,对研究和理解生态系统的结构、过程、功能和异质性具有重要意义。通过对相关文献的梳理分析,简述了集合生态系统研究的基本状况,分析了对集合生态系统概念的狭义和广义两种理解,指出了探讨集合生态系统结构的两个方向,构建了分析集合生态系统研究的六维整体框架,综述了研究集合生态系统的两类方法,探讨了经验化的集合生态系统(empirical meta-ecosystem)的3种空间结构和两种构建路径。将集合生态系统概念和理论引入流域复合生态系统(integrated watershed ecosystem)的分析,为流域生态学研究提供新的概念框架。     

Host-limited dynamics of autoparasitoids

Patrick Suppes' slogan that "to axiomatize a theory is to present a set-theoretical predicate" was used in the synthetic theory of evolution. The system presented here extends the axiomatics of the evolutionary theory presented by M. Williams to encompass aspects of genetics. Some biological implications of the system are discussed, including the relationship between the Darwinian concept of fitness, as applied to organisms, and the concept of fitness as applied to genotypes, as it is normally used in population genetics. This paper should be viewed as an adjunct to the speculations on the logical-mathematical foundations of biological sciences.     

Towards a simple logic in the determination of biological groups: the species and supraspecific groups

In this paper we discuss about the utility of the species concept as real definition, particularly the Mayr concept. We propose a method for the logical separation of taxa based in the statements of the logical mathematics and the application of the sets theory to the concepts in systematic. We attempt to provide an objective methodology for the interpretation of natural groups in biology including the species as a basic group in evolution. We introduce the concept of the hypothetical ancestor as a mathematical possibility derived from the use of matrix calculations for non square matrix.     

'Type' in morphology and phylogeny

Comparative morphologists, developmental biologists, as well as paleontologists, recognize the existence of 'types,' or 'Baupl?ne,' in nature, marked out by a certain 'sameness' of structure that prevails through all variation in shape and function. The 'sameness' that marks out 'types' is one of structural correspondence (topology and connectivity), which is believed to be causally rooted in ontogeny (developmental constraints). In an evolutionary context, the structural relations that mark out 'types' are explained as relations of homology. The use of concepts such as 'type' or 'Bauplan' has been criticized from a 'populational thinking' point of view as being incompatible with current evolutionary theory. The present article explores the contrasting viewpoints, and concludes that current evolutionary theory can accommodate the concept of a 'type' in the sense of a 'homeostatic property cluster natural kind.' The 'homeostatic property cluster natural kind' is a nonessentialistic concept that allows the kind to be historically delimited.     

Principal/agent theory and decision making in health care

Principal/agent theory, an economics concept that defines an agency relationship as "a contract under which one or more persons engage another person (the agent) to perform some service on their behalf which involves delegating some decision-making authority to the agent," is held to be applicable to the patient/physician relationship, in contrast to the view that this is a fiduciary relationship, not a contractual one. The distinction between fiduciary and contractual relationships is illuminated in the process of evaluating objections to the application of the principal/agent theory to the patient/physician relationship. The ability of the principal/agent theory to reveal important features of advance directives, understood as public documents rather than as confidential instructions from patient to physician, is also examined.     

Moral Darwinism: Ethical evidence for the descent of man

Could an ethical theory ever play a substantial evidential role in a scientific argument for an empirical hypothesis? InThe Descent of Man, Darwin includes an extended discussion of the nature of human morality, and the ethical theory which he sketches is not simply developed as an interesting ramification of his theory of evolution, but is used as a key part of his evidence for human descent from animal ancestors. Darwin must rebut the argument that, because of our moral nature, humans are essentially different in kind from other animals and so had to have had a different origin. I trace his causal story of how the moral sense could develop out of social instincts by evolutionary mechanisms of group selection, and show that the form of Utilitarianism he proposes involves a radical reduction of the standard of value to the concept of biological fitness. I argue that this causal analysis, although a weakness from a normative standpoint, is a strength when judged for its intended purpose as part of an evidential argument to confirm the hypothesis of human descent.     

The theory of organism and the culturalist foundation of biology

Summary After the disappearance of organism was diagnosed, the discussion about the role of a theory of organism in biology is characterised by a significant contradiction. On the one hand, the importance of a theory of organism is stated. Particularly developmental biology demands organism-centred approaches as a basis for conceptual integration. On the other hand, several modern biological disciplines such as genetics and molecular biology simply don’t need a theory of organism for their work. Consequently, the determination of the status of the organism and its relevance for biology at all is an unsolved problem. In order to clarify the methodological status of the organism in biology we start with the reconstruction of three important propositions. A life oriented approach and a hierarchy concept - which both are from a neo-Darwinian origin - are confronted with a structuralist approach of organism, that can be characterised as a non-Darwinist approach. Our own attempt for the solution of the organism problem applies the tools of culturalist methodology. In accordance to this pragmatic approach, the term organism is introduced as a concept of notion. A constructional morphological case study exemplifies the applicability of this concept. From the culturalist point of view a methodological foundation of biology can be achieved, that provides a consistent basis for a comprehensive integration of biological knowledge.     

“And then a miracle occurs” — weak links in the chain of argument from punctuation to hierarchy

Weak links, in the form of inadequacies in both reasoning and supporting evidence, exist at several critical steps in the derivation of an hierarchical concept of evolution from punctuated equilibria. Punctuation itself is predicated on a distorted reading of phyletic change as phyletic gradualism, and of allopatric speciation as the instantaneous formation of unchanging typological taxa. The concept of punctuation is further confounded by the indescriminate employment of the same term to denote both a causal explanation for evolutionary change and an outcome of substantiated evolutionary processes. Even when the intended usage for the term is specified, each denotation of punctuation entails respective drawbacks. As a causal explanation, punctuation clearly belongs to the class of quantum theories with all their attendant impedimenta, including special salsatory non-adaptive mechanisms of evolutionary change. Redefinition of punctuation as a pattern of morphologic change reduces it to one possible outcome of known microevolutioanry processes, thus obviating any need for an hierarchical explanation of macroevolution. While vacillation between usages has preserved the term in the literature, the end result of this obfuscation has been a circle of faulty reasoning in which the pattern of punctuation is invoked as its own proof. Widespread confusion concerning what constitutes an adequate test of punctuation is directly attributable to imprecision in both the original and revised formulations of the concept.The argument for species-level selection is based on the typological and philosphically flawed premise of species as individuals, and further requires the hypothesis of heritable emergent properties, for which empirical evidence is lacking.Extrapolation of hierarchy to higher taxonomic levels depends on the unproven assumption that mass extinction constitutes a causal mechanism for macroevolution which is qualitatively distinct from, and not reducible to, the causes of microevolution.Because key elements of hierarchical theory depend upon misrepresentations of the synthetic theory, semantic circumvention, and questionable reasoning, and because its central assertions remain unsubstantiated by empirical evidence, the derivation of an hierarchical theory of evolution from punctuation constitutes an exercise an futility and should be abandoned.     

The eco‐evolutionary consequences of interspecific phenological asynchrony – a theoretical perspective

The timing of biological events (phenology) is an important aspect of both a species’ life cycle and how it interacts with other species and its environment. Patterns of phenological change have been given much scientific attention, particularly recently in relation to climate change. For pairs of interacting species, if their rates of phenological change differ, then this may lead to asynchrony between them and disruption of their ecological interactions. However it is often difficult to interpret differential rates of phenological change and to predict their ecological and evolutionary consequences. We review theoretical results regarding this topic, with special emphasis on those arising from life history theory, evolutionary game theory and population dynamic models. Much ecological research on phenological change builds upon the concept of match/mismatch, so we start by putting forward a simple but general model that captures essential elements of this concept. We then systematically compare the predictions of this baseline model with expectations from theory in which additional ecological mechanisms and features of species life cycles are taken into account. We discuss the ways in which the fitness consequences of interspecific phenological asynchrony may be weak, strong, or idiosyncratic. We discuss theory showing that synchrony is not necessarily an expected evolutionary outcome, and how population densities are not necessarily maximized by adaptation, and the implications of these findings. By bringing together theoretical developments regarding the eco‐evolutionary consequences of phenological asynchrony, we provide an overview of available alternative hypotheses for interpreting empirical patterns as well as the starting point for the next generation of theory in this field.     

A Maturity-Time Representation for Cell Populations

A maturity-time representation for the study of cell populations is introduced, which differs from the age-time representation suggested by von Foerster. A significant feature of the theory is the concept of maturation velocity. A solution to the fundamental equations of the theory is presented in terms of the individual generations which make up the population at any time. The problem of variability of generation time is considered from the differing viewpoints of the two representations, as well as that of an alternate theory due to Stuart and Merkle. The experimental observations of Prescott concerning the generation time distribution and population growth of Tetrahymena geleii HS cells appear to support best the theoretical formulation of the maturity-time representation. In particular, they suggest that memory of the maturation velocity or generation time of a given cell tends to persist from parent to daughter for several generations at least.     

The organism and its double: An approach to the individual

The individual is certainly the most complex entity that we know until now. Current research converges on a triad-like understanding of the biological individual as an interface of a mechanism and an ecosystem. The present article wants to propose a more generic concept of individual by integrating the functional role of its qualitative characteristics. Modules-problems ensuing from this generic model will serve as a matrix in the elaboration of a future integral biomathics, while category theory will be its syntactic base.     

Biorheology and fluid flux in swelling tissues. I. Bicomponent theory for small deformations, including concentration effects

A theory for the rheological behavior and fluid flux in swelling tissues under small deformations is presented. Tissues are considered as bicomponent solid-fluid mixtures. Concentration effects are included. The driving forces (body, surface and interactive), are discussed and their constitutive relationships to the tissue's deformation are specified. Mass and momentum balance equations are developed for each component and for the tissue as a whole. The concept of swelling stress emerges from the theory as an anisotropic generalization of the commonly used swelling pressure. It is shown to be a measure of the total chemical potential combining both mechanical and concentration effects. The theory shows that concentration effects modify the tissue's bulk stiffness in a manner consistent with experimental observations.     

Gene mobility and the concept of relatedness

Cooperation is rife in the microbial world, yet our best current theories of the evolution of cooperation were developed with multicellular animals in mind. Hamilton’s theory of inclusive fitness is an important case in point: applying the theory in a microbial setting is far from straightforward, as social evolution in microbes has a number of distinctive features that the theory was never intended to capture. In this article, I focus on the conceptual challenges posed by the project of extending Hamilton’s theory to accommodate the effects of gene mobility. I begin by outlining the basics of the theory of inclusive fitness, emphasizing the role that the concept of relatedness is intended to play. I then provide a brief history of this concept, showing how, over the past fifty years, it has departed from the intuitive notion of genealogical kinship to encompass a range of generalized measures of genetic similarity. I proceed to argue that gene mobility forces a further revision of the concept. The reason in short is that, when the genes implicated in producing social behaviour are mobile, we cannot talk of an organism’s genotype simpliciter; we can talk only of an organism’s genotype at a particular stage in its life cycle. We must therefore ask: with respect to which stage(s) in the life cycle should relatedness be evaluated? For instance: is it genetic similarity at the time of social interaction that matters to the evolution of social behaviour, or is it genetic similarity at the time of reproduction? I argue that, strictly speaking, it is neither of these: what really matters to the evolution of social behaviour is diachronic genetic similarity between the producers of fitness benefits at the time they produce them and the recipients of those benefits at the end of their life-cycle. I close by discussing the implications of this result. The main payoff is that it makes room for a possible new mechanism for the evolution of altruism in microbes that does not require correlated interaction among bearers of the genes for altruism. The importance of this mechanism in nature remains an open empirical question.     

An Efficient Soft Set-Based Approach for Conflict Analysis

Conflict analysis has been used as an important tool in economic, business, governmental and political dispute, games, management negotiations, military operations and etc. There are many mathematical formal models have been proposed to handle conflict situations and one of the most popular is rough set theory. With the ability to handle vagueness from the conflict data set, rough set theory has been successfully used. However, computational time is still an issue when determining the certainty, coverage, and strength of conflict situations. In this paper, we present an alternative approach to handle conflict situations, based on some ideas using soft set theory. The novelty of the proposed approach is that, unlike in rough set theory that uses decision rules, it is based on the concept of co-occurrence of parameters in soft set theory. We illustrate the proposed approach by means of a tutorial example of voting analysis in conflict situations. Furthermore, we elaborate the proposed approach on real world dataset of political conflict in Indonesian Parliament. We show that, the proposed approach achieves lower computational time as compared to rough set theory of up to 3.9%.     

Buffon, Darwin, and the Non-Individuality of Species – A Reply to Jean Gayon

Gayon's recent claim that Buffon developed a concept of species as physical individuals is critically examined and rejected. Also critically examined and rejected is Gayon's more central thesis that as a consequence of his analysis of Buffon's species concept, and also of Darwin's species concept, it is clear that modern evolutionary theory does not require species to be physical individuals. While I agree with Gayon's conclusion that modern evolutionary theory does not require species to be physical individuals, I disagree with his reasons and instead provide logical rather than historical reasons for the same conclusion.     

Darwin after 100 years. 1983.]

The triumph of Darwinism, together with the rise of Genetics, produced the virtual abandonment of the problem of form in Biology. The statement that any adaptive theory is tautological is however poor, the adaptation concept having an evident intuitive content. As in Geometrical Optics, a ray of light is, among the crowd of continuous curves uniting two points, the one requiring the minimum time for the light to go from one point to the other, so actual evolution, among the crowd of virtual evolutions between two forms, is the one best fitted to face 'selective pressure' in a given environment. The effect of selective pressure on the genome is unfortunately a merely theoretical not quantifiable concept. Most biological forms are forced by their internal stability to an essential fixity, so that the leap from one type-form to another should be abrupt-catastrophic. A good theory of evolution depends on a proper understanding of specific form stability. Biology must eventually return to the concept of ideal structure, the Goethian 'Urbild'.     

The Cell and Protoplasm as Container,Object, and Substance, 1835–1861

This article revisits the development of the protoplasm concept as it originally arose from critiques of the cell theory, and examines how the term “protoplasm” transformed from a botanical term of art in the 1840s to the so-called “living substance” and “the physical basis of life” two decades later. I show that there were two major shifts in biological materialism that needed to occur before protoplasm theory could be elevated to have equal status with cell theory in the nineteenth century. First, I argue that biologists had to accept that life could inhere in matter alone, regardless of form. Second, I argue that in the 1840s, ideas of what formless, biological matter was capable of dramatically changed: going from a “coagulation paradigm” (Pickstone, 1973) that had existed since Theophrastus, to a more robust conception of matter that was itself capable of movement and self-maintenance. In addition to revisiting Schleiden and Schwann’s original writings on cell theory, this article looks especially closely at Hugo von Mohl’s definition of the protoplasm concept in 1846, how it differed from his primordial utricle theory of cell structure two years earlier. This article draws on Lakoff and Johnson’s theory of “ontological metaphors” to show that the cell, primordial utricle, and protoplasm can be understood as material container, object, and substance, and that these overlapping distinctions help explain the chaotic and confusing early history of cell theory.