...perspective. Weismann’s neo-Darwinian theory of evolution was further elaborated, most notably in a series of books by Theodosius Dobzhansky, Ernst Mayr, Julian Huxley and others. In this article we first summarize the history of life on Earth and provide recent evidence demonstrating that Darwin’s dilemma (the apparent missing Precambrian record of life) has been resolved. Next, the historical development and structure of the “modern synthesis” is described within the context of the following topics: paleobiology and rates of evolution, mass extinctions and species selection, macroevolution and punctuated equilibrium, sexual reproduction and recombination, sexual selection and altruism, endosymbiosis and eukaryotic cell evolution, evolutionary developmental biology, phenotypic plasticity, epigenetic inheritance and molecular evolution, experimental bacterial evolution, and computer simulations (in silico evolution of digital organisms). In addition, we discuss the expansion of the modern synthesis, embracing all branches of scientific disciplines. It is concluded that the basic tenets Dedicated to Prof. Dr. Dr. hc mult. Ernst Mayr on the occasion of his 100th birthday U. Kutschera ()) Institut für...
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...Open Access: Full open access to this and thousands of other papers at http://www.la-press.com. Evolutionary Bioinformatics Computational Identification of MicroRNAs from the Expressed Sequence Tags of Toxic Dinoflagellate Alexandrium Tamarense Dahai Gao1, limei Qiu1, Zhanhui Hou1, Qingchun Zhang2, Jianmin Wu3, Qiang Gao1 and linsheng song1 1 Key Laboratory of Experimental Marine Biology, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS), Qingdao, People’s Republic of China. 2Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS), Qingdao, People’s Republic of China. 3Institute of Genomic Medicine, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China. AbstrAct: Micro ribonucleic acids (miRNAs) represent a class of small noncoding RNAs that play important roles in multiple biological processes by degrading targeted mRNAs or by repressing mRNA translation. In the case of algal lineages, especially dinoflagellates, knowledge regarding the miRNA system is still limited and its regulatory role remains unclear. In the present study, a computational approach was employed to screen miRNAs from the expressed sequence tags (ESTs) of Alexandrium tamarense. A total of 18 potential miRNAs were identified according to a range of filtering criteria. In addition, unique evolutionary features, such as miRNA gene duplication and sequence similarity to metazoan miRNAs, implied that the...
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...COLLECTED VIEWS ON COMPLEXITY IN SYSTEMS JOSEPH M. SUSSMAN JR East Professor Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Systems Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, Massachusetts April 30, 2002 The term “complexity” is used in many different ways in the systems domain. The different uses of this term may depend upon the kind of system being characterized, or perhaps the disciplinary perspective being brought to bear. The purpose of this paper is to gather and organize different views of complexity, as espoused by different authors. The purpose of the paper is not to make judgments among various complexity definitions, but rather to draw together the richness of various intellectual perspectives about this concept, in order to understand better how complexity relates to the concept of engineering systems. I have either quoted directly or done my best to properly paraphrase these ideas, apologizing for when I have done so incorrectly or in a misleading fashion. I hope that this paper will be useful as we begin to think through the field of engineering systems. The paper concludes with some “short takes” -- pungent observations on complexity by various scholars -- and some overarching questions for subsequent discussion. AUTHOR A THEORY OF COMPLEX SYSTEMS Edward O. Wilson Herbert Simon SOURCE Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge “The Architecture of Complexity”, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 106, No. 6, December...
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...E-GOST TSER Contract of the European Union HPSE-CT-2002-50026 (Thematic Network) 1st workshop : April 3rd –4th, 2003 (Strasbourg) RESOURCES AND COMPETENCES PERSPECTIVES ON STRATEGY OF THE FIRM: A discussion of the central arguments F. Amesse, A. Avadikyan, P. Cohendet Introduction: In 1994, Wernerfelt received an award for the best paper of the decade in Strategic Management Review (A resource-based view of the firm, 1984). Considering the fortune of the article among practicing managers (Wernerfelt, 1995), he admitted that such a fortune had been leveraged by the 1990 article of Prahalad and Hamel in Harvard Business Review (“The Core Competence of the Corporation”). Directly addressed to people in management and strategy, this article was clearly prescriptive as to the best way to set winning strategies for the firm, especially as to diversification and the abusive use of SBUs (Strategic Business Units) in highly decentralized profit centres. “In the 1990s, top executives will be judged on their ability to identify, cultivate, and exploit the core competencies that make growth possible”. Since the 1990s, the resource based view (RBV) and the core competence approach (CCA) became very attractive for many researchers and consultants. Such interest was well supported by what seemed to be a clear and superior way of setting strategies by large Japanese groups which frequently served as a benchmark case of core competence management. The strong and pervasive trends...
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...Theory of Evolution Charles Darwin was a British Scientist who lived from 1809 to 1882. He laid down the foundation of modern evolutionary theory with his concept of the development of life through the slow working process of natural selection. Darwin started to make notes about this theory in 1836 and in 1838 he had arrived at a sketch of a theory of evolution through natural selection. It was not until 1858 that his theory was first published in a paper. Darwin’s theory states that as plants or animals spread to new areas, or as the conditions change different variations would be favored in different places. This would mean these variations would spread through the populations of the plants or animals. Over time this would finally lead to a development of new species. This theory was explained in the book ‘The Origin of Species’, which describes his studies on the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean. He noticed that the species on the islands varied slightly from each island and were adapted to local conditions. The reaction to this theory was immediate. Biologists argued that Darwin could not prove his hypothesis. Others criticized his ideas of variation and how he could not prove how these variations came about or how they were passed on. This part of his theory was not answered until the birth of modern genetics in the early 20th century. In fact many scientists had doubts about this theory for 50-80 years. The most publicized attacks came from religious opponents who...
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...NOTE: This PDF document has a handy set of “bookmarks” for it, which are accessible by pressing the Bookmarks tab on the left side of this window. ***************************************************** We are the last. The last generation to be unaugmented. The last generation to be intellectually alone. The last generation to be limited by our bodies. We are the first. The first generation to be augmented. The first generation to be intellectually together. The first generation to be limited only by our imaginations. We stand both before and after, balancing on the razor edge of the Event Horizon of the Singularity. That this sublime juxtapositional tautology has gone unnoticed until now is itself remarkable. We're so exquisitely privileged to be living in this time, to be born right on the precipice of the greatest paradigm shift in human history, the only thing that approaches the importance of that reality is finding like minds that realize the same, and being able to make some connection with them. If these books have influenced you the same way that they have us, we invite your contact at the email addresses listed below. Enjoy, Michael Beight, piman_314@yahoo.com Steven Reddell, cronyx@gmail.com Here are some new links that we’ve found interesting: KurzweilAI.net News articles, essays, and discussion on the latest topics in technology and accelerating intelligence. SingInst.org The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence: think tank devoted to increasing...
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...None of these 6. A biologist removes some bones of dinosaurs from a rock. He is studying: (a) Morphology (b) Paleontology (c) Ecology (d) None of these 7. Darwin sys, “man has formed from monkey”. He talked about (a) Fossil (b) Evolution (c) Taxonomy (d) None of these 8. Kangaroo lives in Australia but buffaloes lives in Pakistan. The study of this distribution of animals is called (a) Ecology (b) Environmental biology (c) Taxonomy (d) Zoogeography 9. The study of structure of molecule of starch is called: (a) Molecular biology (b) Biochemistry (c) Morphology (d) None 10. The study of Amoeba comes with in the branch of biology: (a) Taxonomy (b) Ecology (c) Microbiology (d) None 11. The study of affects of pollution comes within: (a) Environmental biology (b) Taxonomy (c) Physiology (d) Genetics 12. The study of organisms living in lake is called: (a) Marine biology (b) Taxonomy (c) Physiology (d) Fresh water biology 13. The study of amount salt, temperature etc of water of sea comes within: (a) Environmental biology (b) Taxonomy (c) Marine biology (d) None of the above...
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...ATHROPOLOGY OF GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT [HANTH 107] INTRODUCTION Defining Key Concepts Gender is not about women as most people think. Gender is about both men and women. Gender is a set of characteristics distinguishing between male and female, and is a result socio – cultural construction, it describes the characteristics that a society or culture delineates as masculine or feminine. Thus the term gender has social, cultural and attitudinal connotations. Gender is a set of characteristics distinguishing between male and female, and is a result socio – cultural construction, it describes the characteristics that a society or culture delineates as masculine or feminine. Thus the term gender has social, cultural and attitudinal connotations. Sex on the other hand refers to the biological differences in chromosomes, hormonal profiles as well as internal and external sexual organs or genitalia.The term sex since classical times has been used to designate matters related to biological and anatomical makeup of a person. Thus while ones’ sex as male or female is a biological and universal fact that is however not the same with gender since sex is tends to be similar across all cultures while gender varies one society to another. Sex relates to the biological characteristics that categorise someone as either female or male; whereas gender refers to the socially determined ideas and practices of what it is to be female or male. Patriarchy - Systemic societal structures that institutionalise...
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... Contents List of Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Design in Engineering and Architecture: Towards an Integrated Philosophical Understanding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Peter Kroes, Andrew Light, Steven A. Moore, and Pieter E. Vermaas Part I Engineering Design ix 1 Design, Use, and the Physical and Intentional Aspects of Technical Artifacts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Maarten Franssen Designing is the Construction of Use Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wybo Houkes The Designer Fallacy and Technological Imagination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Don Ihde Technological Design as an Evolutionary Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Philip Brey Deciding on Ethical Issues in Engineering Design . . . . . . . . ....
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...Is Childhood Disappearing? 2012 Brendan Dolman Sociology, Unit 3 5/1/2012 Abstract This is a report to look at the social construct of Childhood and whether it is disappearing. This report explores the history of childhood and current socio cultural influences on modern day childhood. Is Childhood disappearing? Introduction I am interested in this subject area because childhood is a social construct which seems to be diminishing from society. This is of particular interest to me because childhood as we know it has only been about for the last century but now it seems that it is once again diminishing from society. I say this because when looking at childhood from 50 years ago and comparing it to childhood today there is a huge difference. Today toys seem to be targeted at children of ages 1-10 years old but not for children above that age (Manhattan Institute for Policy Research). Children seem to be pushed into the spotlight of adult activities such as the fashion and glamour world in the case of beauty pageants (Daily Mail Online 2011). There also seems to be more of a focus on older children playing on computer consoles with violent games which depict realistic and gruesome actions. These computer games also depict real life situations such as the war in Afghanistan and give these older children the opportunity to play as a soldier in this scenario. Content What is childhood? Childhood is not to be confused with being a child, it is a completely different...
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...Electives 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Overview All students that expect to have passed four core courses and eight basic electives after completing the scheduled examinations in November, and also have or expect to pass their project/internship, will be entitled to commence their Advanced Electives in NUS Semester II 2014/2015, which starts on 12 January 2015. However, it should be noted that a student’s registration for the Advanced Electives will be withdrawn if they either: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Fail any elective examination in November. Do not successfully complete their project/internship. For SE/KE Students: Do not achieve a CAP of at least 2.8. For EBAC Students: Do not achieve a CAP of at least 3.0. Do not meet NUS Academic Standing rules. Note that the examination results will only be published in early January 2015. Hence students who do not meet the above criteria will be required to withdraw from any Advanced Elective...
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...JÖNKÖPING INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS SCHOOL JÖNKÖPING UNIVERSITY St r at egi c Under standi ng A Qualitative Study on Similarities and Differences in Perceptions of Strategy Bachelor Thesis within Business Administration Author: Florance Batamuriza Tobias Berg Tony Hatami Tutor: Jönköping Jens Hultman & Anna Jenkins June 2006 Strategic Understanding - A Qualitative Study On Similarities and Differences in Perceptions of Strategy A Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration by Batamuriza, Berg & Hatami - JIBS 2006 Acknowledgements Since the begging of the year of 2006 we have worked hard to complete this paper. It has been both fun and challenging. We would not have reached this far without the help of our tutors, Jens Hultman and Anna Jenkins, therefore we want to give them a special thanks for helping and guiding us through this struggle. At the same time we would also like to thank the other groups for their constructive criticism and ideas for improvements. In connection to this, another thanks to our anonymous proofreaders without whom this thesis would not look anything like it does. We also want to give big thanks to the company that offered their time, effort and their thoughts during the interviews; without it this paper would have been impossible to complete and for this we will be ever grateful. Last but certainly not least, we would like to thank our families and friends that put up with our never ending discussions about the paper, and for your ever lasting...
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...Part IV Emerging and Integrating Perspectives January-2007 MAC/ADSM Page-213 1403_985928_17_cha14 January-2007 MAC/ADSM Page-214 1403_985928_17_cha14 CHAPTER 14 Complexity Perspective Jean Boulton and Peter Allen Basic principles The notion that the world is complex and uncertain and potentially fast-changing is much more readily acceptable as a statement of the obvious than it might have been 30 years ago when complexity science was born. This emerging worldview sits in contradistinction to the view of the world as predictable, linear, measurable and controllable, indeed mechanical; it is the so-called mechanical worldview which underpins many traditional approaches to strategy development and general management theory (see Mintzberg, 2002 for an overview). The complexity worldview presents a new, integrated picture of the behaviour of organisations, marketplaces, economies and political infrastructures; these are indeed complex systems as we will explain below. Some of these behaviours are recognised in other theories and other empirical work. Complexity theory is unique in deriving these concepts through the lens of a coherent, self-consistent scientific perspective whilst nevertheless applying it to everyday, practical problems. These key principles can be summarised here: There is more than one possible future This is a very profound point. We are willing to accept the future may be too complicated to know, but the notion...
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...1 KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION SYLLABUS FOR PROVINCIAL MANAGEMENT SERVICE COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION The Syllabus and standard for the Competitive Examination for the Provincial Management Service shall be as under : 1. The Examination shall include compulsory and optional subjects, and every candidate shall take all the compulsory subjects and opt for three of the optional subjects carrying 600 marks in all but not more than 200 marks from a single group. 2. A candidate shall answer the language papers in the language concerned. The question paper in Islamiat is to be answered in Urdu or English. All other papers must be answered in English. Violation of this instruction shall incur cancellation of the concerned paper(s) and consequently award of Zero. 3. The compulsory and optional subjects and maximum marks fixed for each subject shall be as below: Sr. No. 1 2 3 COMPULSORY SUBJECTS Subjects English (Précis & Composition) English Essay General Knowledge (a) Current Affairs 100 (b) Every Day Science 100 (c) Pakistan Affairs 100 Islamiat Viva Voce Total Maximum Marks 100 100 300 100 300 900 600 120 4 5 Qualifying marks in the aggregate of written papers: Qualifying marks in the Viva Voce: The non-Muslim candidates will have the option to take Islamiat as a compulsory subject or otherwise Pakistan Affairs (General Knowledge PaperIII) will be treated of 200 marks and counted in lieu of Islamiat. A candidate who fails to appear in any of the compulsory...
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...GRADUATE DIPLOMA IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND DIPLOMACY STUDENT GUIDELINE NOTES GLOBAL POLITICAL ECONOMY MODULE Paste the notes here… Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government. Political economy originated in moral philosophy (e.g. Adam Smith was Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow), it developed in the 18th century as the study of the economies of states — polities, hence political economy. In late nineteenth century, the term "political economy" was generally replaced by the term economics, used by those seeking to place the study of economy upon mathematical and axiomatic bases, rather than the structural relationships of production and consumption (cf. marginalism, Alfred Marshall). History of the term Originally, political economy meant the study of the conditions under which production was organized in the nation-states. The phrase économie politique (translated in English as political economy) first appeared in France in 1615 with the well known book by Antoyne de Montchrétien: Traicté de l’oeconomie politique. French physiocrats, Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Karl Marx were some of the exponents of political economy. In 1805, Thomas Malthus became England's first professor of political economy, at the East India Company College, Haileybury, Hertfordshire. The world's first professorship in political economy was established...
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