Face Recognition and the Social Individual

Face recognition depends upon the uniqueness of each human face. This is accomplished by the patterns formed by the unique relationship among face features. Unique face-patterns are produced by the intrusion of random factors into the process of biological growth and development. Processes are described which enable a unique face-pattern to be represented as a percept in the visual sensory system. The components of the face recognition system are analyzed as is the manner in which the precept is connected through microcircuits to a memory file so that the history of a perceiver’s encounters with a familiar face enables the perceiver to access a memory store that is a record of the outcome of past encounters with the perceived. The importance of the face recognition system in enabling humans to individuate members the social group is discussed, as well as the importance of face recognition in the development of the individual’s social identity and ability to be a collaborative member of the social groups to which it belongs. The role of prosopagnosia—the inability to recognize familiar faces—in furthering an understanding of the face recognition system is examined, as is its importance in demonstrating the crucial nature of face recognition in human social functions. It is proposed that human face recognition is not a unique phenomenon but is an elaboration of processes existing in nonhuman primates as well as in lower animals.     

Natural cooperators: Food sharing in humans and other primates

The study of cooperation is rich with theoretical models and laboratory experiments that have greatly advanced our knowledge of human uniqueness, but have sometimes lacked ecological validity. We therefore emphasize the need to tie discussions of human cooperation to the natural history of our species and its closest relatives, focusing on behavioral contexts best suited to reveal underlying selection pressures and evolved decision rules. 1 - 3 Food sharing is a fundamental form of cooperation that is well‐studied across primates and is particularly noteworthy because of its central role in shaping evolved human life history, social organization, and cooperative psychology. 1 - 16 Here we synthesize available evidence on food sharing in humans and other primates, tracing the origins of offspring provisioning, mutualism, trade, and reciprocity throughout the primate order. While primates may gain some benefits from sharing, humans, faced with more collective action problems in a risky foraging niche, expanded on primate patterns to buffer risk and recruit mates and allies through reciprocity and signaling, and established co‐evolving social norms of production and sharing. Differences in the necessity for sharing are reflected in differences in sharing psychology across species, thus helping to explain unique aspects of our evolved cooperative psychology.     

Early Humans’ Egalitarian Politics

This paper proposes a model of human uniqueness based on an unusual distinction between two contrasted kinds of political competition and political status: (1) antagonistic competition, in quest of dominance (antagonistic status), a zero-sum, self-limiting game whose stake—who takes what, when, how—summarizes a classical definition of politics (Lasswell 1936), and (2) synergistic competition, in quest of merit (synergistic status), a positive-sum, self-reinforcing game whose stake becomes “who brings what to a team’s common good.” In this view, Rawls’s (1971) famous virtual “veil of ignorance” mainly conceals politics’ antagonistic stakes so as to devise the principles of a just, egalitarian society, yet without providing any means to enforce these ideals (Sen 2009). Instead, this paper proposes that human uniqueness flourished under a real “adapted veil of ignorance” concealing the steady inflation of synergistic politics which resulted from early humans’ sturdy egalitarianism. This proposition divides into four parts: (1) early humans first stumbled on a purely cultural means to enforce a unique kind of within-team antagonistic equality—dyadic balanced deterrence thanks to handheld weapons (Chapais 2008); (2) this cultural innovation is thus closely tied to humans’ darkest side, but it also launched the cumulative evolution of humans’ brightest qualities—egalitarian team synergy and solidarity, together with the associated synergistic intelligence, culture, and communications; (3) runaway synergistic competition for differential merit among antagonistically equal obligate teammates is the single politically selective mechanism behind the cumulative evolution of all these brighter qualities, but numerous factors to be clarified here conceal this mighty evolutionary driver; (4) this veil of ignorance persists today, which explains why humans’ unique prosocial capacities are still not clearly understood by science. The purpose of this paper is to start lifting this now-ill-adapted veil of ignorance, thus uncovering the tight functional relations between egalitarian team solidarity and the evolution of human uniqueness.     

Lipids and the ocular lens

The unusually high levels of saturation and thus order contribute to the uniqueness of human lens membranes. In addition, and unlike in most biomembranes, most of the lens lipids are associated with proteins, thus reducing their mobility. The major phospholipid of the human lens is dihydrosphingomyelin. Found in significant quantities only in primate lenses, particularly human ones, this lipid is so extremely stable that it was reported to be the only lipid remaining in a frozen mammoth 40,000 years after its death. Unusually high levels of cholesterol add peculiarity to the composition of lens membranes. Beyond the lateral segregation of lipids into dynamic domains known as rafts, the high abundance of cholesterol in the human lens leads to the formation of patches of pure cholesterol. Changes in human lens lipid composition with age and disease as well as differences among species are greater than those observed for any other biomembrane. The relationships among lens membrane composition, structure, and lipid conformation reviewed in this article are unique to the mammalian lens and offer exciting insights into lens membrane function. This review focuses on findings reported over the last two decades that demonstrate the uniqueness of mammalian lens membranes regarding their morphology and composition. Becaue the membranes of human lenses do undergo the most dramatic changes with age and cataractogenesis, the final sections of this review address our current knowledge of the unusual composition and organization of adult human lens membranes with and without opacification. Finally, the questions that still remain to be answered are presented.     

Genetic structure of endangered lake chubsucker Erimyzon sucetta in Canada reveals a differentiated population in a precarious habitat

We used mitochondrial DNA to assess the genetic structure of endangered lake chubsucker Erimyzon sucetta across its Canadian range. We found unique mitochondrial haplotypes in Lyons Creek, a tributary of the Niagara River that faces a strong potential for habitat deterioration. Lyons Creek may therefore serve as a reservoir of unique genetic diversity. The sensitivity of Lyons Creek, combined with the genetic uniqueness of its E. sucetta population, call for further investigation into whether this population should be considered a separate designatable unit for conservation purposes.     

Handedness in captive gorillas (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Gorilla gorilla</Emphasis>)

Species-level right handedness is frequently presented as a marker of human uniqueness. Handedness also has implications for the evolution of language and cognition. In this study, we examined handedness in 22 captive gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) across a range of behaviours that were part of their daily routine. Ten individuals showed no preferences for any of the behaviours performed, and the majority of the remaining individuals showed a preference for only one behaviour. These results lend support to the theory that species-level handedness is unique to humans. It is hoped that these results will contribute to investigations into the evolution of handedness, which can ultimately be used to further our understanding of the evolution of human language and cognition.     

Naturalizing cruelty

Cruelty is widely regarded to be a uniquely human trait. This follows from a standard definition of cruelty as involving the deliberate infliction of suffering together with the empirical claim that humans are unique in their ability to attribute suffering (or any mental state) to other creatures. In this paper I argue that this definition is not optimum for the purposes of scientific inquiry. I suggest that its intuitive appeal stems from our abhorrence of cruelty, and our corresponding desire to define cruelty in such a way that it is almost always morally wrong. Scientifically speaking this is an arbitrary condition that inhibits our attempt to study cruelty as a natural phenomenon. I propose a fully naturalized definition of cruelty, one that considerably expands the range of creatures and behaviors that may be conceived as cruel.     

Synthetic studies on breviones and structurally related natural products

Breviones, allelopathic agents that have been isolated from Penicillium sp., are structurally unique diterpenoid derivatives. Breviones have attracted attention due to their bioactivity, because their allelopathic activities may offer agricultural use as environmentally benign herbicides. On the other hand, their structural uniqueness is also remarkable, and construction of their unique structure is a challenge from the viewpoint of organic synthesis. This review summarizes synthetic studies on breviones and structurally related natural products.     

Species‐poor and low‐lying sites are more ecologically unique in a hyperdiverse Amazon region: Evidence from multiple taxonomic groups

Aim

We analysed beta‐diversity patterns of various biological groups simultaneously, from the perspective of site ecological uniqueness. We also investigated whether ecological uniqueness variation could be explained by variations in environmental conditions and spatial variables.

Data

Central Amazonia.

Methods

We estimated the total beta diversity and ecological uniqueness for 14 biological groups, including plants and animals, sampled at the same sites on a mesoscale in central Amazonia, Brazil. The uniqueness values for all biological groups were combined in a single matrix (multi‐taxa matrix of site uniqueness), which was then used as a response variable matrix in a partial redundancy analysis. We also investigated differences in the uniqueness patterns between plant and animal groups.

Results

In general, plants showed higher total beta diversity than animals. For plants, uniqueness was explained mainly by environmental conditions, while for animals, uniqueness was also related to spatial variables. Although variation in uniqueness was mainly related to soil clay content, it is difficult to determine a single major environmental variable underlying the variation in uniqueness because the topographical gradient influences many of them, including soil clay content.

Main Conclusion

The uniqueness values were higher in low‐lying areas, indicating that near‐stream sites were more ecologically unique. Despite the lower number of species in the lowlands, their unique biota contributed strongly to the maintenance of the total beta diversity of the area. This finding should be considered in conservation plans that aim to represent and preserve the regional biota. Our approach proved to be useful to analyse and compare the ecological uniqueness of multiple taxa.

     

On the evolution,life history,and proximate mechanisms of human male reproductive senescence

Reproductive senescence is a central and defining life‐history characteristic of every known mammal. Within the scope of human senescence research, attention has been mainly focused on females, particularly in reference to the uniqueness of menopause. However, consideration of the evolution of human male reproductive senescence has been minimal, primarily due to the assumption that male fertility, as compared to that of females, is relatively invariant with age. Moreover, theoretical development of our understanding of human male reproductive senescence has not been extensive despite increasing awareness of the importance of life‐history trade‐offs in association with aging. Emerging research now illustrates important aspects of male reproductive senescence, exhibit significant variation and phenotypic plasticity, while others are less malleable. Changes in hormone‐modulated somatic integrity with age also show important population differences, most likely as the result of reaction norms in response to environmental variation. Coupled with emerging ideas about the energetics of life‐history trade‐offs in human males, a new perspective is beginning to emerge. It suggests that human males exhibit potentially adaptive shifts in reproductive function in association with age.     

Experimental evidence that physical activity inhibits osteoarthritis: Implications for inferring activity patterns from osteoarthritis in archeological human skeletons

The genetic basis of human uniqueness remains one of the most enduring mysteries in biological anthropology. The goal of this research project was to identify, characterize, and infer the origin and function of novel elements in the human genome that are not functionally shared with other apes. Our approach toward this goal was to utilize a variety of genome alignment tools to discover islands of non-conserved DNA sequences, followed by theoretical and computational analysis of those regions using synteny sequence analysis. We discovered families of microRNA genes on human chromosome 21 with no detectable orthologs in the other African apes. We then developed a working model of their origin through repeated rounds of segmental duplication occurring within an array of rRNA genes. Target prediction reveals potential roles for these microRNA genes in the embryonic development of the central nervous system. We conclude that the 21p11 region of human chromosome 21 has undergone segmental duplication events that generated de novo microRNA genes from within a field of rRNA genes. These microRNA genes may have played a role in the unique evolutionary trajectory of the human lineage through their modulation of genes involved in embryonic development.     

Inhibition of the L-dopa transport system in human epidermal Langerhans cells by omeprazole and its analogues

Summary. L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-dopa) transport into human Langerhans cells (LC) occurs by a saturable mediation. This plasma membrane agency is, due to its characteristics, distinguishable from systems transporting other neutral, cationic and anionic amino acids into other cells and serves to catalyze the flow of L-dopa, only, into LC. The uphill operation of this L-dopa transport system is believed to occur by down-gradient countermigration of H⁺. Due to the uniqueness of the L-dopa transport system, the widely used analogue inhibition approach was not applicable. Instead we studied omeprazole and its analogues in our search for suitable inhibitory candidates. Omeprazole and most of its analogues were indeed inhibitory in the concentration range 1–100mol/L. Conspicuously, the compounds with strongest polarity were least inhibitory. The inhibitory pattern displayed by omeprazole and the other analogues on L-dopa uptake in LC corresponded to some extent to what has been observed previously for purified H⁺,K⁺-ATPase from tubulovesicles of the stomach. No effects of the inhibitors were registered on energy charge and lactate production of epidermal biopsies, nor were any gross alterations of ultrastructure of LC noticed.     

生态效益及其特性

生态效益从1980年代提出以来,在我国得到了广泛的应用。但到了1990年代,随着外来词—生态系统服务(功能)的引进,生态效益在生态学界的使用不像从前普遍。将探讨生态效益的定义、与生态系统服务的关系、形成机制和主要特征,为国家将落实生态效益纳入到社会经济发展评价指标体系提供理论基础。将生态效益定义为生态系统及其变化引起的人类生存和社会经济发展条件的改善程度,并指出了生态效益形成机制及其特性的范围,其中机制包括:生态系统功能发挥机制、生态系统内部稳定机制以及人与自然耦合机制;生态效益特性包括:生态系统介导性、人类福祉相关性、区域环境依赖性、持续再生性、多维性、跨尺度性、外部性、基础性和非市场性。这将为生态效益监测评价方法的建立和不同研究成果比较提供科学基础。     

Youth and personality formation--the world belongs to the strength of the young and to the wisdom of the elderly (a point of view of the communicologist)

It is known from the pedagogic, didactic and experience coordinates that a man doesn't become better by using words but by his actions. They are matchless examples for the self-apprehension process and the perception of the action itself as well as the only worthy and accurate offer for the assessment of the range and the significance of the achieved result. From the earliest stage of their life, from the childhood and then later on in different stages of their development and growth, the human being as a social being has a double need: to feel himself in the range of his "I" and to feel himself as a member of a group, a family and of the society in general. Satisfying the sense and the level of those needs doubtlessly depends on the examples given by the life itself and the circumstances of the living within the family, the school and finally the society, that is, the surroundings where the individual is affirming himself by his individual creative capability and skills with which he realizes himself as a subject on its own as well as within the social group he lives and works in. The conditions of the life and work of the elderly are necessary for this important and precious task in the development of a young man so that the applications of their experiences could ensure reliable guidelines for the harmony and success of the life and work of the young. On this bridge of generations the experience of the old is affirmed along with the need for its aimed, creative and fruitful offer to the young in the dynamic process of their development to the maturity and creativity.     

Synaptic function in the nervous system: A theory and its application

The objective of this paper is to present a new theory of synaptic function in the nervous system. The basis for this theory is the experimental demonstration that a nerve impulse assumes five different forms as it advances through the synaptic region, and that five basic mathematical operations have been identified as being involved in the transformation of one form into another form. As a result of these data, the synaptic region is regarded as a functional unit where information coming to it is unpacked, processed, stored, and retrieved for transit to another synaptic region or effector site. The data also suggests that a nerve impulse is a bolus of energy, therefore, without substance; that it contains information coded in its shape or form; that it is precisely described mathematically. Furthermore, the data suggests synaptic regions process these nerve impulses by applying mathematical operations to them; that function in the synaptic region is highly stereotyped (programmed); that chemical substances are associated with the mathematical operations. The basic approach of this theory is to regard a significant portion of the nervous system as an interface between the external universe and man himself. As an interface, the nervous system receives and processes information from both the external universe and man himself in a programmed manner. The interface functions by converting the information it receives into a bolus of energy, the nerve impulse, then processes the bolus by converting it into numbers or functions and applying mathematical operation to it.     

Mechanism of birth in chimpanzees: humans are not unique among primates

Researchers have argued that the process of human birth is unique among primates and mammals in that the infant emerges with its face oriented in the opposite direction from its mother (occiput anterior) and head rotation occurs in the birth canal. However, this notion of human uniqueness has not been substantiated, because there are few comparative studies of birth in non-human primates. This paper reports the mechanism of birth in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) based on the first clear, close-up video recordings of three chimpanzee births in captivity. In all three cases, the foetus emerged with an occiput anterior orientation, and the head and body rotated after the head had emerged. Therefore, these characteristics are not uniquely human. Furthermore, in two of the three cases, the chimpanzee newborns landed on the ground without being guided from the birth canal by the mother. The fact that the human newborn emerges with an occiput anterior orientation has thus far been taken as evidence for the necessity of midwifery in modern humans, but this view also needs revision. Our observations raise the need to reconsider the evolutionary scenario of human birth.     

企业生态创新的研究脉络、内涵澄清与测量

生态创新因具有"双重正外部性"而得到实践界和理论界的双重青睐,与此形成鲜明对照的是,现有研究对生态创新概念的适用层次、理论定位、内涵与测量等基本理论问题的理解模糊而缺乏一致性。回顾了企业社会责任、环境管理和创新管理三大领域的相关研究成果,辨析了企业生态创新的内涵特征与外延,进一步梳理了企业生态创新的维度划分与测量,对企业生态创新的未来研究给出了展望。     

Modularity, comparative cognition and human uniqueness

Darwin's claim 'that the difference in mind between man and the higher animals … is certainly one of degree and not of kind' is at the core of the comparative study of cognition. Recent research provides unprecedented support for Darwin's claim as well as new reasons to question it, stimulating new theories of human cognitive uniqueness. This article compares and evaluates approaches to such theories. Some prominent theories propose sweeping domain-general characterizations of the difference in cognitive capabilities and/or mechanisms between adult humans and other animals. Dual-process theories for some cognitive domains propose that adult human cognition shares simple basic processes with that of other animals while additionally including slower-developing and more explicit uniquely human processes. These theories are consistent with a modular account of cognition and the 'core knowledge' account of children's cognitive development. A complementary proposal is that human infants have unique social and/or cognitive adaptations for uniquely human learning. A view of human cognitive architecture as a mosaic of unique and species-general modular and domain-general processes together with a focus on uniquely human developmental mechanisms is consistent with modern evolutionary-developmental biology and suggests new questions for comparative research.