Coevolution

Trade-offs between behavioural traits promoting high life-history productivity and mortality may fuel the evolution of animal personalities. We propose that parasites, including pathogens, impose fitness costs comparable to those from predators, and influence the adaptiveness of personality traits associated with productivity (PAPs). Whether personality traits are adaptive or not may also depend on individual immunological capacity. We illustrate this using a conceptual example in which the optimal level of PAPs depends on predation, parasitism and host compensation (resistance and tolerance) of parasitismÕs negative effects. We assert that inherent differences in host immune function can produce positive feedback loops between resource intake and compensation of parasitismÕs costs, thereby providing variation underlying the evolution of stable personalities. Our approach acknowledges the condition dependence of immune function and co-evolutionary dynamics between hosts and parasites.

Mutualisms are of fundamental importance in all ecosystems but their very existence poses a series of challenging evolutionary questions. Recently, the application of molecular analyses combined with theoretical advances have transformed our understanding of many specific systems, thereby contributing to the possibility of a more general understanding of the factors that influence mutualisms.

Predatory fishes, such as tunas, billfishes, and sharks, coexist in pelagic regions of the tropical oceans. In situ experiments have revealed horizontal and vertical movement patterns for different pelagic species, but the influence of the biotic environment on movement behaviour has not been studied. In this paper, we propose a simple model in which the movement behaviour of these fishes is driven entirely by the biotic environment, without implementing physiological constraints. We explore this concept via computer simulations based on the Latent Energy Environments model [Menczer, F., Belew, R.K., 1996a. From complex environments to complex behaviors. Adapt. Behav. 4(3/4), 317-63]. In our model, multiple behaviours for artificial fishes evolve in a three-dimensional environment where spatial and temporal distributions of prey are patterned after hydroacoustic data taken during ultrasonic telemetry experiments on tunas in the open ocean in French Polynesia. Interactions among individuals are modeled through their shared prey resources. Movement patterns of the adapted individuals are analyzed to: (i) compare artificial individuals with real fishes (three species of tuna, three species of billfishes, and one species of shark) observed by ultrasonic telemetry; and (ii) examine how the artificial fishes exploit their environment. Most of the individuals evolved vertical patterns virtually identical to those exhibited by fishes in the wild. The agreement between our simple model and the ethological data validates the use of computational models for studies of the characteristics of multiple species inhabiting a common ecosystem.

Restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLP) were used to assess genetic diversity of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) among 184 isolates of Fusarium proliferatum recovered from maize, asparagus, palms and reed. All strains were cross-fertile with standard mating type tester strains of Gibberella intermedia. Sixteen mitochondrial haplotypes were identified following digestion of DNAs with HaeIII, with seven, seven, five and six different haplotypes from maize, asparagus, palms and reed, respectively. Four haplotypes (I, III, IV and VII) were found on more than one host. Of these four, haplotype I was dominant on maize, representing 71% of the isolates. The banding patterns for haplotypes III and IV were >90% similar to the banding pattern of haplotype I. Haplotypes I, III and IV accounted for 87% of the isolates from maize, but were less common on the other hosts, accounting for 70%, 52% and 33% of the isolates from asparagus, palms and reed, respectively. Thirteen of the 16 haplotypes were recovered from only a single host plant species. When comparing the banding patterns and frequencies of these haplotypes, at least five were recovered at a higher frequency from one host relative to the others. Our results suggest that mtDNA RFLP analysis is a useful indicator of genetic divergence in Fusarium proliferatum.

The topic of evolution in interacting species was interpreted to focus upon predator-prey coevolution. This would enable a sound theoretical basis to be constructed for the analysis of evolution in larger systems, such as food webs. As a result all the systems explored in the project were predator-prey systems.
The use of analytical, numerical, and simulation models to study predator­ prey coevolution has shown that there occur a variety of consequences for the ecological dynamics of evolving predator-prey systems.  Evolutionary change can result in a wide range of dynamical behaviour, from stable equilibria to chaos.  The consequences of natural selection need not be stability, as some single-species models and experiments have suggested.  However, ecological dynamic stability is not required for evolutionary persistence.
The results obtained support arguments for the misleading nature of local asymptotic stability as a measure of the dynamics of ecological systems. However, it was not found possible to use permanence as an alternative to local asymptotic stability, as had been the original intention.
Results from the simulation models showed that convergence to ecological equilibrium was not necessarily to be expected in systems of evolving interacting species, in contrast to many models of community assembly and evolution.  The size of the potential parameter space of the simulation models meant that not all the dynamical behaviour of these models could be explored in the time scale of the project.
The analytical models I developed enabled an exploration of evolutionary and ecological dynamics more thoroughly than the simulation models, and compensated for the limited understanding of the simulation systems.  A wide range of evolutionary dynamics, such as ESSs and Red Queen coevolution, were seen to be produced from very simple systems, implying that more complex systems, such as food webs, would have much more interesting evolutionary consequences.  The use of "phenotype space" based techniques enabled a more global understanding of the evolutionary and ecological dynamics of predator-prey interactions than had previously been possible.
In general, the results supported the contentions that both ecological and evolutionary dynamics need to be taken into consideration when studying the evolution of interacting species; and that ecological interactions need to be considered in evolutionary models. The techniques I used to address these questions have potential applications in future research.

The article addresses the environmental question by critiquing the anthropocentric vision, still alive in the design debate and practice, as a remnant of the underlying dualism humanity/environment. It opposes the co-evolutionist and New Realism theses re-elaborated in the light of a new metalanguage (Digital Mathema) capable of ‘giving voice’ to the multitude of agents and to activate forms of collaborative intelligence (Computational Intelligences), enabling design explorations beyond established norms and the already known. Following is a description of Parametric and Generative Design and the Mailab research laboratory’s experiences. The conclusion is an invitation to reflect on the possible side effects that could arise from digital marking and from an excessive emphasis on the ‘know-how’.

This paper describes and simulates the way in which the growth rate and specialisation coevolve in an export-led growth model of Kaldorian type. The feedback from growth to exports is based on the causal chain 'growth-profits-technology-income elasticity of exports'. The strength of this feedback differs among sectors, which are heterogeneous. Given the feedback from growth to the income elasticity of exports, growth and specialisation coevolve: sector specialisation determines aggregate growth, while aggregate growth modifies sector specialisation. An economic system converges towards a medium-period macro equilibrium where the rate of growth and sector specialisation are constant. After a certain period endogenous structural changes emerge, the system changes its growth regime and shifts towards another equilibrium. The result is strongly path and time dependent.

Genes and culture represent two streams of inheritance that for millions of years have flowed down the generations and interacted. Genetic propensities, expressed throughout development, influence what cultural organisms learn. Culturally transmitted information, expressed in behaviour and artefacts, spreads through populations, modifying selection acting back on populations. Drawing on three case studies, I will illustrate how this gene-culture coevolution has played a critical role in human evolution. These studies explore (i) the evolution of handedness, (ii) sexual selection with a culturally transmitted mating preference, and (iii) cultural niche construction and human evolution. These analyses shed light on how genes and culture shape each other, and on the significance of feedback mechanisms between biological and cultural processes.

The evolution of plant–animal interactions goes back to the Early Archean, when the first signals of photosynthesis may have been detected in the Isua Peninsula in Greenland, a phenomenon that is related to the isotopic anomalies of carbon. The first evidence of reliable fossils of photosynthetic microorganisms has been identified by micropaleontologists in the Late Archean and Early Proterozoic. A closely related topic in this geologic time interval is the evolution of trophic relations and metabolic diversification in the microbial world. In the context of the three domains of life, Archea, Bacteria, and Eucarya, the bifurcation of multicellular organisms into plants and animals becomes evident only during the Paleozoic. Cell evolution also leads up to the unicellular dichotomy of autotrophs and heterotrophs. Symbiosis has a strong role to play in the transition to plants and animals in the Phanerozoic. It is timely to focus on the details of evolution in the Cretaceous and Tertiary, where detailed pathways of evolution have been gathered in many geographical regions, including the Karst region of northern Italy. Various experimental techniques have contributed to elucidate the coevolution of plants and animals. A special case of plant–animal interaction is the evolution and dispersal of hominins, including their impact on the ecosystems. A significant development in understanding the evolution of plant–animal interactions is based on the possibility of identifying reliable biomarkers that can characterize its different stages, from the earliest microbes to the extant plants and animals. Such identification of biomarkers labeling different stages of evolution may orient the search for life in the exploration of the Solar System.

In this chapter, we review empirical evidence for stronger allelopathic effects of exotic European invaders on North American natives than on other European species. We argue that this evidence provides critical insights into the impor- tance of coevolutionary relationships within plant communities. We discuss how the disruption of these and other biochemical coevolutionary relation- ships may lead to the success

Existing mathematical models suggest that gene-culture coevolution favours a conformist bias in social learning, that is, a psychological mechanism to preferentially acquire the most common cultural variants. Here we show that this conclusion relies on specific assumptions that seem unrealistic, such as that all cultural variants are known to every individual. We present two models that remove these assumptions, showing that: 1) the rate of cultural evolution and the adaptive value of culture are higher in a population in which individuals pick cultural variants at random (Random strategy) rather than picking the most common one (Conform strategy); 2) in genetic evolution the Random strategy out-competes the Conform strategy, unless cultural evolution is very slow, in which case Conform and Random usually coexist; 3) the individuals' ability to evaluate cultural variants is a more important determinant of the adaptive value of culture than frequency-based choice strategies. We also review existing empirical literature and game-theoretic arguments for conformity, finding neither strong empirical evidence nor a strong theoretical expectation for a general conformist bias. Our own vignette study of social learning shows that people may indeed use different social learning strategies depending on context.

This essay presents an aesthetic theory based on the coevolution of the biological and cultural elements of the human nervous system. If the evolution of our sense of beauty is a nonlinear feedback between cultural and biological determinants, recent developments in the theory of chaos, nonlinear processes, and self-organizing systems can point the way to a better understanding of aesthetics. The experience of beauty is redescribed as a reward analogous to the neurochemical rewards for other adaptive activities such as eating and sex. Beauty itself is broadly redefined as an objective property of the fundamental generative processes of the universe—thus as possessing a real, not just a subjective, existence. Like our eyes, our aesthetic sense is designed to perceive objects that are actually out there: systems which show promise for emergent forms of order. The ability to recognize such systems would have adaptive significance. The “natural classical” genres or “neurocharms” of the arts, such as poetic meter and visual pattern, are techniques for controlling and creating such emergence-promising systems, and are culturally universal. A new theory of meaning is proposed, using recent developments in the theory of chaotically-oscillating neural circuits in the brain. Words do not indicate the absence of their referents, as in poststructuralist theory; instead, as emergent strange attractors in the brain, they participate in complex nonlinear physical feedback relationships with their referents.

Cophylogenetic studies examine the relationship between host and parasite evolution. One aspect of cophylogenetic studies that has had little modern discussion is parasites with multiple definitive hosts. Parasite species with multiple host species are anomalous as, under a codivergence paradigm, speciation by the hosts should cause speciation of their parasites. We discuss situations such as cryptic parasite species, recent host switching or failure to speciate that may generate multi-host parasites. We suggest methods to identify which of the mechanisms have led to multi-host parasitism. Applying the suggested methods may allow multi-host parasites to be integrated more fully into cophylogenetic studies. q

Economists' principal explanations of the subprime crisis differ from those developed by noneconomists in that the latter see it as rooted in the US legacy of racial/ethnic inequality, and especially in racial residential segregation, whereas the former ignore race. This paper traces this disjuncture to two sources. What is missing in the social science view is any attention to the market mechanisms involved in subprime lending; and economists, on their side, have drawn too tight a boundary for "the economic," focusing on market mechanisms per se, to the exclusion of the households and community whose resources and outcomes these mechanisms affect. Economists' extensive empirical studies of racial redlining and discrimination in credit markets have, ironically, had the effect of making race analytically invisible. Because of these explanatory lacunae, two defining aspects of the subprime crisis have not been well explained. First, why were borrowers that had previously been excluded from equal access to mortgage credit instead super included in subprime lending? Second, why didn't the flood of mortgage brokers that accompanied the 2000s housing boom reduce the proportion of minority borrowers who were burdened with costly and ultimately unpayable mortgages? This paper develops a mesoanalysis to answer the first of these questions. This analysis traces the coevolution of banking strategies and client communities, shaped by and reinforcing patterns of racial/ethnic inequality. The second question is answered by showing how unequal power relations impacted patterns of subprime lending. Consequences for gender inequality in credit markets are also briefly discussed.

Herpesviruses comprise an abundant, widely distributed group of large DNA viruses of humans and other vertebrates, and overall are among the most extensively studied large DNA viruses. Many herpesvirus genome sequences have been determined, and interpreted in terms of gene contents to give detailed views of both ubiquitous and lineage-specific functions. Availability of gene sequences has also enabled evaluations of evolutionary relationships. For herpesviruses of mammals, a robust phylogenetic tree has been constructed, which shows many features characteristic of synchronous development of virus and host lineages over large evolutionary timespans. It has also emerged that three distinct groupings of herpesviruses exist: the first containing viruses with mammals, birds and reptiles as natural hosts; the second containing viruses of amphibians and fish; and the third consisting of a single invertebrate herpesvirus. Within each of the first two groups, the genomes show clear evidence of descent from a common ancestor, but relationships between the three groups are extremely remote. Detailed analyses of capsid structures provide the best evidence for a common origin of the three groups. At a finer level, the structure of the capsid shell protein further suggests an element of common origin between herpesviruses and tailed DNA bacteriophages.

New technologies, notably service oriented architectures and Web services, are enabling a third wave of business process management (BPM). Supporters claim that BPM is informed by complexity theory and that business processes can evolve and adapt to changing business circumstances. It is suggested by BPM adherents that the business/IT divide will be obliterated through a process-centric approach to systems development. The evolution of BPM and its associated technologies are explored and then coevolutionary theory is used to understand the business/IT relationship. Specifically, Kauffman's NKC model is applied to a business process ecosystem to bring out the implications of coevolution for the theory and practice of BPM and for the relationship between business and IT. The paper argues that a wider view of the business process ecosystem is needed to take account of the social perspective as well as the human/non-human dimension.

Social Legal Theory (SLT) has been heralded as the “third pillar” of jurisprudence, offering a social scientific alternative to the rational relativity of legal positivism and the moral determinism of natural law. Yet recently SLT’s most ardent champion, Professor Brian Tamanaha, appears to have broken ranks. Assuming a “holistic” perspective, Tamanaha now contends that law “emerges” from both social and naturalistic influences. This move not only undermines SLT, it seemingly transforms that view into the existing theory of jurisilience, which uses the holistic epistemology of consilience to provide a bio-socio-cultural account of law’s essence.

Despite outward appearances, however, these approaches are far from identical. Unlike the revamped version of SLT, which is ontologically constrained and conflicted, jurisilience explains law’s emergence through systems science and cutting-edge sociology. It shows that law is not a simple assemblage of social and/or natural forces. Instead, it is a complex information network of interdependent “jurisystems.” Grounded in our natural need for homeostasis, human legality originates in our genetic and neurobiological systems, scales up to our normative social systems, and becomes externalized as a supreme system of formal law. Once entrenched, law does not remain stagnant, but continuously coordinates human conflicts, relieves social stress, and reinforces social bonds. Over time, law’s dynamism changes social behavior and cultural memory, initiating a cycle of epigenetics and gene-culture coevolution that renews our biological disposition for legality. Given law’s systemic nature, any socio-centric jurisprudence now seems obsolete. The fact is, jurisilience and jurisystems do not just systematize SLT; they systematize SLT right out of existence.

1. Deceptive species are a characteristic trait of insect–plant mutualisms. Deception of pollinators is essential for reproduction in diverse plant species; however, mimicry in seed dispersal is almost unknown. Myrmecochory, the dispersal of diaspores by ants, is a mutualism in which the elaiosome, a lipid-rich seed appendage, works as an ant reward. This coevolved interaction may be exploited by cheating, non-rewarding diaspores that mimic elaiosomes.2. Our study assesses the impact of the morphology and fatty acid composition of diaspores on ant dispersal in rewarding and cheating myrmecochores and non-myrmecochorous species. Four elaiosome types (defined by Sernander 1906) were included in our research: the ‘Viola odorata type’, with a clearly defined elaiosome, the similar but diplochorous ‘Euphorbia type’ with an additional ballistic dispersal of diaspores, and the ‘Puschkinia’ and ‘Hepatica’ types, which we classify as ‘cheaters’ as they mimic ant rewards by chemical cues.3. We tested the influence of morphology, chemical composition of diaspores and presence of rewards on removal rates of diaspores, dummies impregnated with seed extracts and pure fatty acids and scent-standardized diaspores in a population of Formica polyctena ants with 10 European spring ephemerals, mostly Ranunculaceae. The main free fatty acids of diaspores were identified by gas chromatography and mass spectrometric analysis.4. Removal rates of diaspores and dummies treated with seed extracts were significantly influenced by their fatty acid composition. Discriminant function analysis confirmed oleic acid as the main trigger substance eliciting seed-removal behaviour by ants in most species. Oleic acid content and removal rates differed among elaiosome types and were highest in rewarding myrmecochores, lower in cheaters and smallest in non-myrmecochorous seeds. Removal rates of scent-standardized diaspores did not differ among mutualists and cheaters suggesting a selective pressure for morphological adaptation and were lowest in non-myrmecochorous species, thus corroborating an influence of diaspore morphology on ant-removal patterns.5. For the first time, we demonstrate chemical mimicry in myrmecochory as a means of seed dispersal. Evolutionary stability of the ant–seed mutualism is maintained by the ability of ants to discriminate between certain types of rewards and to respond with differential diaspore distribution rates.

This paper evaluates the differences between Norgaard's and Winder et al.'s approach to socio-environmental coevolution. Winder et al. emphasize the evolutionary dynamics of coevolutionary change. These were omnipresent in Norgaard's work but they have not been adequately explored by other ecological economists. I argue that Winder et al.'s definition of coevolution is in essence the same as Norgaard's and that their real differences are, how they see coevolution applied and how far they are willing to draw a priori a line between evolutionary and non-evolutionary socio-environmental dynamics. My thesis is that at this stage a more open approach to evolutionary dynamics and coevolution a la Norgaard is a wiser strategy than Winder et al.'s narrower approach.

Traditionally, economics has regarded institutions, notably norms and regulations, as fixed or exogenous. Surprisingly few insights on institutional evolution from natural and social sciences have made their way into economics. This article gives an overview of evolutionary theories of institutions in biology, sociology, anthropology and economics. These theories are subsequently compared with non-evolutionary theories of institutions. Next, the insights and approaches are integrated into a framework for analysis of institutions based on the notion of coevolution.

We investigated (1) the importance of chemical cues for predator detection by the nocturnal, rock-dwelling velvet gecko, Oedura lesueurii, and (2) how the lizards' responses to snake odour may have exerted selection on the foraging behaviours of a nocturnal elapid snake. This snake species (broadheaded snake, Hoplocephalus bungaroides) feeds primarily on velvet geckos, and does so by means of a distinctive foraging behaviour: the snakes remain sedentary in rock crevices for days or weeks, waiting to ambush geckos. Behavioural assays showed that geckos that are sympatric with this sedentary 'ambush' predator can detect and respond to the scent of the snake. Retreat-site selection experiments showed that geckos are less likely to enter crevices if the snake's scent is distributed over the entire rock surface, rather than localized to a central portion. Together, these data support the notion that the 'ambush' predator benefits by remaining sedentary within a retreat-site for long periods, because it thereby minimizes the extent to which it spreads its scent over the rocks forming the crevice. Geckos from a population sympatric with the 'ambush' predator responded strongly to the snake scent, but those from an allopatric population did not. Additionally, geckos from sympatric populations were able to detect the scent of a nocturnal snake that does not eat geckos (small-eyed snake, Rhinoplocephalus nigrescens), but did not modify their retreat-site selection or locomotory behaviours in response to this cue. Lizards from allopatric populations apparently did not detect the scent of small-eyed snakes. Collectively, our findings support an interpretation of predator-prey coevolution in the present system, and emphasize the importance of chemosensory cues to these rock-dwelling reptiles.

In the debate on canine domestication, researchers have identified a lot of valid information regarding the time, the region and the ancestor of the dog. But researchers are still figuring out, why and how this process started. The scavenging hypothesis, first proposed 2001 by Ray and Lorna Coppinger, proclaims the first human waste dumps as the ecological niche for the self-domestication-process of dogs. Many scientists refer to that model, sometimes partly modified. The scavenging hypothesis is broadcasted by most public media as the commonly accepted model of dog's domestication. Thus, we have to deal with that popular model. Based on a broad multidisciplinary approach like human evolution, archaeology, palaeogenetics, psychology and neurobiology, we will look for evidence. Investigating nine assumptions of the scavenging hypothesis we did not find any evidence. Dog's domestication started thousands of years before the advent of food waste dumps. The scavenging hypothesis cannot explain why only wolves and never foxes nor jackals have been domesticated. Paleolithic people and ancient wolves were living together closely in the same ecological niche hunting the same prey with the same cooperative methods. It is likely that they met very often and knew each other very well. We have some hints, that ancient wolves and people treated each other with respect cooperatively. We have hints for an active cooperation from humans and dogs starting in the Upper Paleolithic period long before it would have even been possible scavenging human waste. We have hints for emotional bonds between ancient people and dogs. Emotional bonds would have been unlikely for an animal hanging around human settlements while scavenging carrion and feces, like the scavenging hypothesizes describe. Looking at recent dogs and humans we have evidence for strong unique similarities in the psychological and neurobiological structures eventually allowing interspecific bonding, communication and working. Interspecific cooperation decreased the level of the stress axis of both species in the Paleolithic period and even does so today, what improves our social and cognitive abilities. We propose that dogs domestication could be understand as an active social process of both sides. Further investigations need a closely networked multidisciplinary approach.

The Mediterranean region is characterised by a high diversity mainly due to the integration between natural (land heterogeneity) and human (stewardship) processes. Cultural landscapes are the results of such coevolutive processes. A better understanding of the mechanisms that have assured along the millennia, the maintenance of biological as well as ecological processes seems of extreme importance for our future survival. In North America, a frontier mentality persists in the cultural mindset and rich biodiversity is associated only with remote areas, reflecting a model of an empty world in which human development is completely isolated from the natural (wild) processes. This vision is in contrast with the full world vision of the Mediterranean dwellings. Plasticity, adaptation to disturbance, and the persisting of biological refugia can be considered the most relevant factors responsible for the Mediterranean dynamics. These factors are rare or impossible to find in the North America context from which the dominance of the economic capital over the natural and cultural ones is a very popular model exported worldwide. In this commentary the full world paradigm is presented as an extension of the concept of resilience and ascendancy to propose a new grammar that incorporates self-organisation of natural and human dominated systems into a process of diffuse globalisation of economics and human behaviour. #

We examine patterns of community richness among intestinal parasitic helminth communities in fishes, herptiles, birds and mammals with respect to the comparative number of component species in a host population. We show that terrestrial hosts have, on average, fewer component species than aquatic hosts. We also show that the mean number of component species in aquatic hosts increases from fishes through herptiles to birds before declining slightly in mammals. For terrestrial hosts, the mean number of component species increases from herptiles, through birds, reaching a maximum in mammals. We conclude that: (i) habitat of the host is more important in determining community richness than is host phylogeny; (ii) the phenomenon of 'host capture' may be largely responsible for increased species richness in some host groups; (iii) aquatic birds harbour the richest intestinal helminth communities; and (iv) as we interpret them, our data refute the time hypothesis, which would predict that fishes as the oldest lifestyle should have the richest helminth communities.

Garden flowers can be valuable to wildlife if they produce nectar, pollen and\or seeds. To provide information needed by gardeners to select wildlife-friendly plants, we investigated nectar production and insect visits to Tropaeolum majus, Consolida sp., Antirrhinum majus, Violaiwittrockiana, Tagetes patula and Alcea rosea, in each case comparing a nearoriginal flower type with a cultivar that had spurless, doubled, peloric or enlarged flowers. All species showed high secretion rates and standing crops of nectar. In most cases the horticultural modifications affected the numbers or species composition of the assemblage of insect visitors, and they generally reduced the value of the floral reward to insects, often affecting accessibility. Effects on seed yield were not investigated directly here, but are likely to further reduce the wildlife value of modified variants.

This editorial introduces a special section of the journal on ecological economics: The next 30 years consisting of 20 different articles from a broad range of contributors. It explores common themes from the articles including uncertainty, the normative goals of sustainable scale and just distribution, collective action, co-evolution, transdisciplinarity and the need for radical systemic change. Drawing on our own vision for the next 30 years of EE, we use multi-level selection theory (MLS) to help understand how these themes are connected, to offer insights into how we might promote collective action at the scale required to achieve a socially just sustainability transition, and to reassess the distinction between normative and positive science. We conclude that ecological economists are united primarily by the recognition that economics must be built from biophysical foundations and by our shared normative values that prioritize the common good over self-interested individual preferences

A significant fraction of human cancers is associated with infections by different papillomaviruses (PVs). In other vertebrates, the presence of specific PVs is also associated with different neoplasias. The popular view of PVs conceives them to be largely static and relies on generalized assumptions that have rarely been rigorously tested such as: virus-host codivergence, strict tissue tropism and host-specificity, their very low mutation rate and the absence of recombination. Here, we want to stress the need and the medical importance of understanding the evolutionary history and present-day dynamics of PVs. Understanding the way that PV genomes have evolved will clarify the link between a given genotype and the phenotypic and clinical outcome of the corresponding viral infection.Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The apple (Malus domestica [Suckow] Borkh.) is one of the most economically and culturally significant fruits in the world today, and it is grown in all temperate zones. With over a thousand landraces recognized, the modern apple provides a unique case study for understanding plant evolution under human cultivation. Recent genomic and archaeobotanical studies have illuminated parts of the process of domestication in the Rosaceae family. Interestingly, these data seem to suggest that rosaceous arboreal crops did not follow the same pathway toward domestication as other domesticated, especially annual, plants. Unlike in cereal crops, tree domestication appears to have been rapid and driven by hybridization. Apple domestication also calls into question the concept of centers of domestication and human intentionality. Studies of arboreal domestication also illustrate the importance of fully understanding the seed dispersal processes in the wild progenitors when studying crop origins. Large fruits in Rosaceae evolved as a seed-dispersal adaptation recruiting megafaunal mammals of the late Miocene. Genetic studies illustrate that the increase in fruit size and changes in morphology during evolution in the wild resulted from hybridization events and were selected for by large seed dispersers. Humans over the past three millennia have fixed larger-fruiting hybrids through grafting and cloning. Ultimately, the process of evolution under human cultivation parallels the natural evolution of larger fruits in the clade as an adaptive strategy, which resulted in mutualism with large mammalian seed dispersers (disperser recruitment).

Lasius fuliginosus sp. DI KAWASAN HUTAN DESA JATINEGARA, TEGAL, JAWA TENGAH M uha mma d Fa kh ri Fa uza n, G it a Su li sty a ni ng ru m, Nu rna w a ti , D ea H er ma d ia nt i, Ri z kia H a n da y a n i J ur u sa n B io lo g i, FMIP A, U ni v er si ta s N e ger i J a k arta

BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

Verbal and nonverbal communication are seen in terms of interacting streams of spontaneous and symbolic communication, and posed "pseudo-spontaneous" displays. Spontaneous communication is defined as the nonintentional communication of motivational-emotional states based upon biologically shared nonpropositional signal systems, with information transmitted via displays. Symbolic communication is the intentional communication, using learned, socially shared signal systems, of propositional information transmitted via symbols. Pseudospontaneous communication involves the intentional and strategic manipulation of displays. An original meta-analysis demonstrates that, like verbal symbolic communication, nonverbal analogic (pantomimic) communication is related to left hemisphere cerebral processing. In contrast, spontaneous communication is related to the right hemisphere.

Che è "vita"? Quali sono i suoi confini? Quando un corpo muore? Quando la materia diventa vita? Che significato hanno termini come "intelligenza", "consapevolezza", "coscienza"? Per affrontare questo intreccio di domande abbiamo deciso di adottare una prospettiva particolare: quella del mondo vegetale.