共查询到20条相似文献,搜索用时 15 毫秒
1.
Gillian Barker 《Biology & philosophy》2008,23(1):1-25
Two critiques of simple adaptationism are distinguished: anti-adaptationism and extended adaptationism. Adaptationists and
anti-adaptationists share the presumption that an evolutionary explanation should identify the dominant simple cause of the
evolutionary outcome to be explained. A consideration of extended-adaptationist models such as coevolution, niche construction
and extended phenotypes reveals the inappropriateness of this presumption in explaining the evolution of certain important
kinds of features—those that play particular roles in the regulation of organic processes, especially behavior. These biological
or behavioral ‘levers’ are distinctively available for adaptation and exaptation by their possessors and for co-optation by
other organisms. As a result they are likely to result from a distinctive and complex type of evolutionary process that conforms
neither to simple adaptationist nor to anti-adaptationist styles of explanation. Many of the human features whose evolutionary
explanation is most controversial belong to this category, including the female orgasm.
相似文献
Gillian BarkerEmail: |
2.
Causal Explanation of Indonesian Forest Fires: Concepts, Applications, and Research Priorities 总被引:1,自引:0,他引:1
Andrew P. Vayda 《Human ecology: an interdisciplinary journal》2006,34(5):615-635
Problems with studies, claims, and assumptions that have been made about the causes of fires in Indonesia's tropical moist forests are identified, and the kinds of concepts, methods, prioritizing, and data needed to resolve the problems are discussed. Separate sections are devoted to studying ignitions, studying fire susceptibility and fire behavior, and using the goal of causal explanation to guide interdisciplinary research.
相似文献
Andrew P. VaydaEmail: |
3.
4.
Sub-Antarctic Marion Island has had a permanent research station for 50 years and the islands Wandering Albatrosses have been intensively studied for 20 years. The reactions of breeding birds to approaches by a human on foot were recorded. Three response variables were calculated: intensity of vocal reaction (IVR), intensity of non-vocal reaction (INR) and overall response index (ORI). At 5 m from the nest, twice as many birds stood and/or vocalised as at 15 m. Nearest neighbour distance, age and gender did not explain individual variability of responses. Study colony birds had higher IVR scores than non-study colony birds; birds at colonies closest to the station had the highest ORI scores. A better breeding record was associated with lower IVR and ORI scores, but a causative relationship remains to be demonstrated. A minimum viewing distance of 25 m is recommended for breeding Wandering Albatrosses.
相似文献
Marienne S. de VilliersEmail: Fax: +27-21-6503434 |
John CooperEmail: |
Peter G. RyanEmail: |
5.
Douglas Medin Norbert Ross Douglas Cox Scott Atran 《Human ecology: an interdisciplinary journal》2007,35(3):315-329
There is a continuing controversy over Native American fishing and hunting rights. We show that Native American (Menominee)
and European American fish experts have a common knowledge base and share values and attitudes associated with fishing practices
(though organized around different ethical principles). Nonetheless, perceived group differences are dramatic (especially European American perceptions of Native Americans). Cultural differences in models
of nature and associated inference processes appear to mediate these stereotypes and may hold the key to reducing intergroup
conflict over resources.
相似文献
Douglas MedinEmail: |
6.
Roger Sansom 《Biology & philosophy》2009,24(4):441-459
One current version of the internalism/externalism debate in evolutionary theory focuses on the relative importance of developmental
constraints in evolutionary explanation. The received view of developmental constraints sees them as an internalist concept
that tend to be shared across related species as opposed to selective pressures that are not. Thus, to the extent that constraints
can explain anything, they can better explain similarity across species, while natural selection is better able to explain
their differences. I challenge both of these aspects of the received view and propose a hierarchical view of constraints.
相似文献
Roger SansomEmail: |
7.
8.
9.
The recent contribution by Jarmila Kukalová-Peck on Hennigian phylogenetics and hexapod limb evolution is critically evaluated.
相似文献
Michael S. Engel (Corresponding author)Email: |
10.
Gérard Battail 《Biosemiotics》2008,1(2):221-238
This paper is intended to complement our previous works on the necessary existence of error-correcting codes endowing genomes
with the ability of being regenerated, not merely copied. It sketchily recalls some fundamental definitions and results of
information theory and error-correcting codes; provides an overview of our research; shows that the disjunction of replication
and regeneration enlightens the divide between germinal and somatic cells; suggests that some phenomena referred to as epigenetic
may possibly find an explanation within the framework of error-correcting codes; points out some difficulties, especially
those related to sexual reproduction; criticizes the template-replication paradigm, and prompts geneticists to become familiar
with information theory.
相似文献
Gérard BattailEmail: |
11.
Threatened species and the spatial concentration of humans 总被引:1,自引:1,他引:0
Public policies that encourage high-density human living arrangements have been predicated explicitly on the assumption that
certain spatial distributions of a fixed-size human population are less environmentally damaging than others. We examine the
empirical validity of this assumption across 127 countries by analyzing whether the concentration of human presence in each
country is related statistically to the percentage of species that were on the IUCN Red List in 2004. Our findings indicate
that concentration of the human population is associated with reduced imperilment among amphibians but increased imperilment
among reptiles, and birds.
相似文献
Ram PanditEmail: |
12.
Peter Godfrey-Smith 《Biology & philosophy》2007,22(3):429-437
Jablonka and Lamb's claim that evolutionary biology is undergoing a ‘revolution’ is queried. But the very concept of revolutionary
change has uncertain application to a field organized in the manner of contemporary biology. The explanatory primacy of sequence
properties is also discussed.
相似文献
Peter Godfrey-SmithEmail: |
13.
Terry Harmer 《Cluster computing》2007,10(3):277-285
Gridcast is an R&D project investigating grid ideas and technologies in the broadcasting technical infrastructure. In this
paper I discuss the business and technical issues in building infrastructures to support broadcasters and outline the structure
of the Gridcast grid-based service oriented architecture for broadcasting playout support.
相似文献
Terry HarmerEmail: |
14.
A key point in the analysis of dynamical models of biological systems is to handle systems of relatively high dimensions.
In the present paper we propose a method to hierarchically organize a certain type of piecewise affine (PWA) differential
systems. This specific class of systems has been extensively studied for the past few years, as it provides a good framework
to model gene regulatory networks. The method, shown on several examples, allows a qualitative analysis of the asymptotic
behavior of a PWA system, decomposing it into several smaller subsystems. This technique, based on the well-known strongly
connected components decomposition, is not new. However, its adaptation to the non-smooth PWA differential equations turns
out to be quite relevant because of the strong discrete structure underlying these equations. Its biological relevance is
shown on a 7-dimensional PWA system modeling the gene network responsible for the carbon starvation response in Escherichia coli.
相似文献
Laurent Tournier (Corresponding author)Email: |
Jean-Luc GouzéEmail: |
15.
16.
Roger Sansom 《Biology & philosophy》2008,23(4):475-491
I show that gene regulation networks are qualitatively consistent and therefore sufficiently similar to linearly seperable
connectionist networks to warrant that the connectionist framework be applied to gene regulation. On this view, natural selection
designs gene regulation networks to overcome the difficulty of development. I offer some general lessons about their evolvability
that can be learned by examining the generic features of connectionist networks.
相似文献
Roger SansomEmail: |
17.
William C. Wimsatt 《Biology & philosophy》2006,21(5):667-702
Richard Levins’ distinction between aggregate, composed and evolved systems acquires new significance as we recognize the
importance of mechanistic explanation. Criteria for aggregativity provide limiting cases for absence of organization, so through
their failure, can provide rich detectors for organizational properties. I explore the use of failures of aggregativity for
the analysis of mechanistic systems in diverse contexts. Aggregativity appears theoretically desireable, but we are easily
fooled. It may be exaggerated through approximation, conditions of derivation, and extrapolating from some conditions of decomposition
illegtimately to others. Evolved systems particularly may require analyses under alternative complementary decompositions.
Exploring these conditions helps us to better understand the strengths and limits of reductionistic methods.
相似文献
William C. WimsattEmail: |
18.
U. Kutschera 《Evolution》2008,1(1):84-86
In a widely cited essay published in the journal Science (Aug. 2006), it was stated that in Germany a large majority of adults are convinced of evolution. Based on a new poll, I
document that this conclusion is questionable. In Sept. 2005, 60.9% of the German population accepted naturalistic evolution,
whereas 37.7% were creationists or adherents of intelligent design. Because among Christians of both confessions the percentage
of anti-evolutionists is much larger than among atheists, I suggest that religious indoctrination of children may in part
be responsible for the rejection of the concept of evolution, notably in the western part of Germany.
相似文献
U. KutscheraEmail: |
19.
The competitiveness of online algorithms is measured based on the correctness of the results produced and processing time
efficiency. Traditionally evolutionary algorithms are not favored in online paradigms because of the large number of iterations
involved in the algorithm which translates directly into processing time overhead. In this paper we describe MARS (Management
Architecture for Resource Services) online scheduling algorithm which uses Simulated Annealing and concepts from Tabu Search
to drastically decrease the processing time of the algorithm. The paper outlines the concepts behind MARS, the components
involved and scheduling methodology used. In addition we also identify the time consuming bottlenecks in the performance of
the system and how evolutionary algorithms help us soar past them.
相似文献
Hesham El-RewiniEmail: |
20.
Event-related brain potentials (ERP) are important neural correlates of cognitive processes. In the domain of language processing,
the N400 and P600 reflect lexical-semantic integration and syntactic processing problems, respectively. We suggest an interpretation
of these markers in terms of dynamical system theory and present two nonlinear dynamical models for syntactic computations
where different processing strategies correspond to functionally different regions in the system’s phase space.
相似文献
Peter beim GrabenEmail: |