Blogging Evolution

A weblog (“blog”) is an publication on the WorldWideWeb in which brief entries are displayed in date order, much like a diary or journal. I describe the general characteristics of blogs, contrasting blogs with other of WWW formats for self-publishing. I describe four categories for blogs about evolutionary biology: “professional,” “amateur,” “apostolic,” and “imaginative.” I also discuss blog networks. I identify paradigms of each category. Throughout, I aim to illuminate blogs about evolutionary biology from the point of view of a user looking for information about the topic. I conclude that blogs are not the best type of source for systematic and authoritative information about evolution, and that they are best used by the information-seeker as a way of identifying what issues are of interest in the community of evolutionists and for generating research leads or fresh insights on one’s own work.

The strategy of “The strategy of model building in population biology”

In this essay, I argue for four related claims. First, Richard Levins’ classic “The Strategy of Model Building in Population Biology” was a statement and defense of theoretical population biology growing out of collaborations between Robert MacArthur, Richard Lewontin, E. O. Wilson, and others. Second, I argue that the essay served as a response to the rise of systems ecology especially as pioneered by Kenneth Watt. Third, the arguments offered by Levins against systems ecology and in favor of his own methodological program are best construed as “pragmatic”. Fourth, I consider limitations of Levins’ arguments given contemporary population biology.

The normalised difference vegetation index obtained from agrometeorological standard radiation sensors: a comparison with ground-based multiband spectroradiometer measurements during the phenological development of an oat canopy

Following the methodology of K. F. Huemmrich and colleagues [Huemmrich et al. (1999) J Geophys Res 104:27,935–27,944], agrometeorological standard radiation sensors, i.e. two photosynthetically active radiation sensors and an albedometer, were used to measure the broadband visible and optical–infrared reflectance of an oat plot during its whole growth period. From these reflectance data – recorded as 15-min averages and pooled to daily means – the seasonal cycle of the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) was calculated. In addition, a ground-based multi-channel spectroradiometer was used as a reference to estimate narrowband “green” and “red” NDVIs at weekly intervals near noon. The narrowband “green” NDVI was shown to be consistent with the simultaneous broadband 15-min NDVI. This shows that the configuration of agrometeorological radiation sensors is suitable to adequately track phenological crop dynamics.

Language and Emotional Knowledge: A Case Study on Ability and Disability in Williams Syndrome

Williams Syndrome provides a striking test case for discourses on disability, because the characteristics associated with Williams Syndrome involve a combination of “abilities” and “disabilities”. For example, Williams Syndrome is associated with disabilities in mathematics and spatial cognition. However, Williams Syndrome individuals also tend to “have a unique strength in their expressive language skills”, and are socially outgoing and unselfconscious when meeting new people. Children with Williams are said to be “typically unafraid of strangers and show a greater interest in contact with adults than with their peers.” This apparently keen social knowledge is a counterexample to the discussion of disability among academic philosophers, especially philosophers in the early modern period. Locke infamously used the example of disability to claim that Descartes’ arguments in favor of innate ideas were incorrect. On the contrary, Williams Syndrome may stand as an example of innate social knowledge; something that could benefit current discourse in philosophy, disability theory, and medical ethics.

Mutual Gains and Distributive Ideologies in South Africa: Theorizing Negotiations between Communities and Protected Areas

With the rise of joint management of protected areas, community representatives are increasingly involved in formal negotiations with state officials, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and other actors. Policy recommendations have commonly idealized “win-win” scenarios. Theoretical work on negotiation from psychology and management studies, however, points to identifiable circumstances under which the goal of a mutually beneficial “win-win” situation may limit the strategies, and ultimately the benefits, available to communities. Instead, an antagonistic, “distributive” approach to negotiations may be more compatible with the pressures on and strategies available to community representatives. The tensions between a “mutual gains” and “distributive” approach to negotiations are evident in two land claims on protected areas in South Africa: the Dwesa-Cwebe Nature Reserves, and the Pafuri Triangle, a portion of Kruger National Park. In each, NGOs that operated with a “mutual gains” strategy, espousing a “win-win” scenario, came to be perceived as collaborating with conservation agencies. Meanwhile, as negotiation theory would suggest, community representatives inclined towards a “distributive” strategy and allied with a second set of explicitly advocatory NGOs. Expecting that communities should embrace a “win-win” scenario from the outset is unrealistic and likely to reduce communities’ power in negotiations.

Forty Years of ‘The Strategy’: Levins on Model Building and Idealization

This paper is an interpretation and defense of Richard Levins’ “The Strategy of Model Building in Population Biology,” which has been extremely influential among biologists since its publication 40 years ago. In this article, Levins confronted some of the deepest philosophical issues surrounding modeling and theory construction. By way of interpretation, I discuss each of Levins’ major philosophical themes: the problem of complexity, the brute-force approach, the existence and consequence of tradeoffs, and robustness analysis. I argue that Levins’ article is concerned, at its core, with justifying the use of multiple, idealized models in population biology.

Personal Experience of Schizophrenia and the Role of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Danwei</Emphasis>: A Case Study in 1990s Beijing

Danwei as a cornerstone of Chinese urban society has received great research attention. The relationship between the Danwei and psychiatric patients, however, remains unclear. This article aims to shed light on the subject with an integrated micro–macro approach. It introduces a historical understanding of mental health in urban China under the “economic state in transition” framework. A detailed case study in clinical sociology is provided to reveal the many social factors affecting the experience of a schizophrenic patient and his significant others. A changing role of the Danwei is hypothesized and validated with qualitative data. The Danwei was shown to have changed significantly before the mid-1990s, yet it still played a major role in urban workers’ lives, including those of psychiatric patients, and even more so in people’s expectations. This lends support to the need for a more responsive public policy to address various social issues brought about by economic reform, with the learning of worldwide experiences including “community care,” “social support” and “social rehabilitation.” Implications for social research, policymaking and professional practice are discussed.

The Construction of “Cultural Difference” and Its Therapeutic Significance in Immigrant Mental Health Services in France

Since the early 1970s, the French public health system has been accorded considerable responsibility for immigrants identified by the educational, judicial or social service authorities as psychologically distressed or socially disruptive. In this paper we discuss three models of healing embedded in constructs of “cultural difference” and addressed at specialized mental health-care centers catering to immigrants in Paris: “cultural mediation,” transcultural psychiatry/ethnopsychiatry and clinical medical anthropology. Based on observations and interviews at three specialized mental health centers in Paris, we explore how these clinical approaches address migrant wellbeing and seek to resolve crises in migrant families, especially those of West African origin. We suggest that the prevalent approaches to therapy creatively blend concepts and practices of anthropology, psychiatry and psychology but, at the same time, confront challenges inherent in the use of a generic “African” healing modality. Cases studies demonstrate that in order for such interventions to be perceived as effective by patients, “cultural difference” must be acknowledged but also situated in broader social, political and economic contexts.

Nano-intentionality: a defense of intrinsic intentionality

I suggest that most discussions of intentional systems have overlooked an important aspect of living organisms: the intrinsic goal-directedness inherent in the behaviour of living eukaryotic cells. This goal directedness is nicely displayed by a normal cell’s ability to rearrange its own local material structure in response to damage, nutrient distribution or other aspects of its individual experience. While at a vastly simpler level than intentionality at the human cognitive level, I propose that this basic capacity of living things provides a necessary building block for cognition and high-order intentionality, because the neurons that make up vertebrate brains, like most cells in our body, embody such capacities. I provisionally dub the capacities in question “nano-intentionality”: a microscopic form of “aboutness”. The form of intrinsic intentionality I propose is thoroughly materialistic, fully compatible with known biological facts, and derived non-mysteriously through evolution. Crucially, these capacities are not shared by any existing computers or computer components, and thus provide a clear, empirically-based distinction between brains and currently existing artificial information processing systems. I suggest that an appreciation of this aspect of living matter provides a potential route out of what may otherwise appear to be a hopeless philosophical quagmire confronting information-processing models of the mind.

Organ and tissue safety workshop 2007: advances and challenges

A workshop in June 2005 (“Preventing Organ and Tissue Allograft-Transmitted Infection: Priorities for Public Health Intervention”) identified gaps in organ and tissue safety in the US. Participants developed a series of allograft safety initiatives. “The Organ and Tissue Safety Workshop 2007: Advances and Challenges” assessed progress and identified priorities for future interventions. Awareness of the challenges of allograft-associated disease transmission has increased. The Transplantation Transmission Sentinel Network will enhance communication surrounding allograft-associated disease transmission. Other patient safety initiatives have focused on adverse event reporting and microbiologic screening technologies. Despite progress, improved recognition and prevention of donor-derived transmission events is needed. This requires systems integration across the organ and tissue transplantation communities including organ procurement organizations, eye and tissue banks, and transplant infectious disease experts. Commitment of resources and improved coordination of efforts are required to develop essential tools to enhance safety for allograft recipients.

Hierarchical Categorical Perception in Sensing and Cognitive Processes

This article considers categorical perception (CP) as a crucial process involved in all sort of communication throughout the biological hierarchy, i.e. in all of biosemiosis. Until now, there has been consideration of CP exclusively within the functional cycle of perception–cognition–action and it has not been considered the possibility to extend this kind of phenomena to the mere physiological level. To generalise the notion of CP in this sense, I have proposed to distinguish between categorical perception (CP) and categorical sensing (CS) in order to extend the CP framework to all communication processes in living systems, including intracellular, intercellular, metabolic, physiological, cognitive and ecological levels. The main idea is to provide an account that considers the heterarchical embeddedness of many instances of CP and CS. This will take me to relate the hierarchical nature of categorical sensing and perception with the equally hierarchical issues of the “binding problem”, “triadic causality”, the “emergent interpretant” and the increasing semiotic freedom observed in biological and cognitive systems.

The neurodynamics underlying attentional control in set shifting tasks

In this work we address key phenomena observed with classical set shifting tasks as the “Wisconsin Card Sorting Test” or the “Stroop” task: Different types of errors and increased response times reflecting decreased attention. A component of major importance in these tasks is referred to as the “attentional control” thought to be implemented by the prefrontal cortex which acts primarily by an amplification of task relevant information. This mode of operation is illustrated by a neurodynamical model developed for a new kind of set shifting experiment: The Wisconsin-Delayed-Match-to-Sample task combines uninstructed shifts as investigated in Wisconsin-like tasks with a Delayed-Match-to-Sample paradigm. These newly developed WDMS experiments in conjunction with the neurodynamical simulations are able to explain the reason for decreased attention in set shifting experiments as well the different consequences of decreased attention in tasks requiring bivalent yes/no responses compared to tasks requiring multivalent responses. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi: ) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The rise and fall of the adaptive landscape?

The discussion of the adaptive landscape in the philosophical literature appears to be divided along the following lines. On the one hand, some claim that the adaptive landscape is either “uninterpretable” or incoherent. On the other hand, some argue that the adaptive landscape has been an important heuristic, or tool in the service of explaining, as well as proposing and testing hypotheses about evolutionary change. This paper attempts to reconcile these two views.

Skunkworks in the Embers of the Cedar Fire: Enhancing Resilience in the Aftermath of Disaster

A coalition of environmental activists and professionals created the San Diego Fire Recovery Network (SDFRN) while the largest wildfire in California history was still burning at the city’s edge in October 2003. Acting quickly while the citizenry questioned governmental ability to protect their rapidly growing region, SDFRN proposed to reduce fire risk in a way that altered residential knowledge practices and identity while reshaping governance relationships. While this effort stalled after governmental agencies restored public confidence through massive fire prevention initiatives, SDFRN’s efforts may not have been in vain. Retained within collective memory, SDFRN contributed to community resilience by diversifying possible responses to environmental change and uncertainty. In this way, flexible, informal learning organizations such as SDFRN may serve as “skunkworks,” seizing on disaster in order to incubate social–ecological relationships that might avert greater tragedies to come.

Capacity-Building for Natural Resource Management: Lessons from the Health Sector

This paper examines capacity-building measures used by the health sector relevant to natural resource management (NRM) using the delivery of two programs in Australia through its recently formalized 56 community-based regional NRM Boards as a reference point. The delivery of NRM outcomes through devolved governance arrangements has been hampered by inadequate capacity in other countries (e.g., New Zealand, Canada). The inherent complexities of NRM, coupled with professional “comfort zones,” often limit actors from looking to other sectors confronting similar issues. This paper summarizes findings from ∼70 sources in health reviewing nine major capacity-building measures. The outcomes of research evaluating the relative benefits and disbenefits of applying these measures are discussed. The paper identifies several opportunities to trial some of these measures in NRM.

Conflict Nightmares and Trauma in Aceh

In both the Acehnese and Indonesian languages, there is no single lexical term for “nightmare.” And yet findings from a large field research project in Aceh that examined post traumatic experience during Aceh’s nearly 30-year rebellion against the Indonesian state and current mental distress revealed a rich variety of dream narratives that connect directly and indirectly to respondents’ past traumatic experiences. The results reported below suggest that even in a society that has a very different cultural ideology about dreams, where “nightmares” as such are not considered dreams but rather the work of mischievous spirits called jin, they are still a significant part of the trauma process. We argue that it is productive to distinguish between terrifying and repetitive dreams that recreate the traumatic moment and the more ordinary varieties of dreams that Acehnese reported to their interviewers. Nightmares that refer back to conflict events do not appear as an elaborated feature of trauma as the condition is understood by people in Aceh, but when asked further about their dreams, respondents who reported symptoms suggestive of PTSD were more likely to report PTSD-like dreams, memory intrusions that repeat the political violence of the past.

Liberal and Conservative Protestant Denominations as Different Socioecological Strategies

It is common to portray conservative and liberal Protestant denominations as “strong” and “weak” on the basis of indices such as church attendance. Alternatively, they can be regarded as qualitatively different cultural systems that coexist in a multiple-niche environment. We integrate these two perspectives with a study of American teenagers based on both one-time survey information and the experience sampling method (ESM), which records individual experience on a moment-by-moment basis. Conservative Protestant youth were found to be more satisfied, family-oriented, and sociable than liberal Protestant youth, but also more dependent on their social environment, which is reflected in a deterioration of their mood when they are alone. Liberal Protestant youth appear to have internalized values that remain constant whether in the presence or absence of others. We relate these results to the social scientific literature on liberalism and conservatism and to evolutionary theory as a framework for explaining cultural systems as adaptations to multiple-niche environments.

Psychoontogeny and psychophylogeny: Bernhard Rensch’s (1900–1990) selectionist turn through the prism of panpsychistic identism

Toward the end of the 1930s, Bernhard Rensch (1900–1990) turned from Lamarckism and orthogenesis to selectionism and became one of the key figures in the making of the Synthetic Theory of Evolution (STE). He contributed to the Darwinization of biological systematics, the criticism of various anti-Darwinian movements in the German lands, but more importantly founded a macroevolutionary theory based on Darwinian gradualism. In the course of time, Rensch’s version of the STE developed into an all-embracing metaphysical conception based on a kind of Spinozism. Here we approach Rensch’s “selectionist turn” by outlining its context, and by analyzing his theoretical transformation. We try to reconstruct the immanent logic of Rensch’s evolution from a “Lamarckian Synthesis” to a “Darwinian Synthesis”. We will pay close attention to his pre-Darwinian works, because this period has not been treated in detail in English before. We demonstrate an astonishing continuity in topics, methodology, and empirical generalizations despite the shift in Rensch’s views on evolutionary mechanisms. We argue that the continuity in Rensch’s theoretical system can be explained, at last in part, by the guiding role of general methodological principles which underlie the entire system, explicitly or implicitly. Specifically, we argue that Rensch’s philosophy became an asylum for the concept of orthogenesis which Rensch banned from evolutionary theory. Unable to explain the directionality of evolution in terms of empirically based science, he “pre-programmed” the occurrence of human-level intelligence by a sophisticated philosophy combined with a supposedly naturalistic evolutionary biology.

Where There is no Patient: An Anthropological Treatment of a Biomedical Category

This work anthropologically applies the concept of ‘personhood’ to the Western biomedical patient role, and through cross-cultural comparisons with wellness-seeker roles (e.g. among the Maya of Guatemala and others) it seeks to discern the implications for global healthcare of assuming the universality of the “patient” role. Here, particular ethnographic attention is given to the presumption of the “patient” role in places and situations where, because of cultural and linguistic variation in local wellness-seeker roles and practices, there may be no “patient.” It is hoped that establishing the biomedical patient role (with the clinical expectations, communicative and comportment practices that prefigure it) as acquired rather than intuitive, will help redirect cultural competence to the acquisition of patienthood, broadening it from an endless accrual of cultural inventories by physicians. Also it aims to shift existing biomedical associations of cultural variations in wellness-seeking away from a priori assessments of clinical defiance towards deeper understandings of the kinds of cultural differences that may make the difference treatment outcomes.