253 research outputs found
Hidden genetic variation in plasticity provides the potential for rapid adaptation to novel environments
No full text: Rapid environmental change is forcing populations into environments where plasticity will no longer maintain fitness. When populations are exposed to novel environments, evolutionary theory predicts that genetic variation in fitness will increase and should be associated with genetic differences in plasticity. If true, then genetic variation in plasticity can increase adaptive potential in novel environments, and population persistence via evolutionary rescue is more likely. To test whether genetic variation in fitness increases in novel environments and is associated with plasticity, we transplanted 8149 clones of 314 genotypes of a Sicilian daisy (Senecio chrysanthemifolius) within and outside its native range, and quantified genetic variation in fitness, and plasticity in leaf traits and gene expression. Although mean fitness declined by 87% in the novel environment, genetic variance in fitness increased threefold and was correlated with plasticity in leaf traits. High fitness genotypes showed greater plasticity in gene expression, but lower plasticity in most leaf traits. Interestingly, genotypes with the highest fitness in the novel environment had the lowest fitness at the native site. These results suggest that standing genetic variation in plasticity could help populations to persist and adapt to novel environments, despite remaining hidden in native environments
Progressive levels of trait divergence along a 'speciation transect' in the Lake Victoria cichlid fish Pundamilia
No full textEcological niche models and coalescent analysis of gene flow support recent allopatric isolation of parasitoid wasp populations in the Mediterranean.
No full textThe integration of multiple complementary approaches is a powerful way to understand the processes of diversification and speciation. The parasitoid wasp Aphidius transcaspicus Telenga (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) is a parasitoid of Hyalopterus aphids across a wide geographic range. This species shows a remarkable degree of genetic structure among western, central, and eastern Mediterranean population clusters. In this paper we attempt to better characterize this genetic structure.We use a Bayesian coalescent analysis of gene flow under the Isolation with Migration model using mitochondrial and microsatellite markers together with climate-based ecological niche models to better understand the genetic structure of A. transcaspicus in the Mediterranean. The coalescent analysis revealed low levels of migration among western and eastern Mediterranean populations (Nm<1) that were not statistically distinguishable from zero. Niche models showed that localities within population clusters each occupy areas of continuously high environmental suitability, but are separated from each other by large regions of completely unsuitable habitat that could limit dispersal. Overall, environmental characteristics were similar among the population clusters, though significant differences did emerge.These results support contemporary allopatric isolation of Mediterranean populations of A. transcaspicus, which together with previous analyses indicating partial behaviorally mediated reproductive isolation, suggest that the early stages of cryptic speciation may be in progress
On the <i>New Dark Age</i> by James Bridle
No full textThis year AST published The New Dark Age the first ever translation into Russian of James Bridle, contemporary British writer, artist, and computer technology expert. Sprinkling a fascinating narrative with interesting and often frightening facts from various fields and references to philosophy, the author created a convincing and sobering picture of the world in which we live, not even suspecting its ever-growing complexity and inhumanity. Despite the modern trend on cultural literacy, Bridle focuses on our blindness and arrogance regarding pervasive technological systems. Bridle encourages his readers to engage in critical thinking, see the reality for what it is and embrace it in its overwhelming complexity and fragility. Questioning the linearity of progress, he posits that we might have already passed our peak knowledge. It means that ongoing calculations and the resulting additional data only make the world a less understandable place to live in. Instead of an elegant and working picture of the world, we are surrounded by darkness, pervasive chaos under the guise of calculated order. Bridle’s zeal to trace back the hard basis of cyber reality takes him on a journey from the electric cables in the depths of the ocean to the contrails-lined sky. Electricity, unpredictable weather and climate change, the first computers and secret inventions, the works of great mathematicians and stock market crashes, satellite maps, world aviation, Concordes and short-term turbulence, unsuccessful GPS journeys, computer games, social networks and entertainment videos on the Internet, scientific research errors caused by a variety of factors from measuring instrument deficiency to dubious publishing ethics in the modern scientific community, permafrost, history and time machine, biodiversity and plague... Technology is a black box and it clouds our vision. With more data available (and increasingly hard to digest) we are less apt to good decision-making and are likely to be taking a leap of faith in the dark of the black box of omnipresent technologies. Are we standing at the edge of an abyss? In this fascinating read, Bridle invites us to admit and possibly bridge the gap between our understanding of reality and the reality
Adaptive divergence generates distinct plastic responses in two closely related Senecio species
No full textThe evolution of plastic responses to external cues allows species to maintain fitness in response to the environmental variations they regularly experience. However, it remains unclear how plasticity evolves during adaptation. To test whether distinct patterns of plasticity are associated with adaptive divergence, we quantified plasticity for two closely related but ecologically divergent Sicilian daisy species (Senecio, Asteraceae). We sampled 40 representative genotypes of each species from their native range on Mt. Etna and then reciprocally transplanted multiple clones of each genotype into four field sites along an elevational gradient that included the native elevational range of each species, and two intermediate elevations. At each elevation, we quantified survival and measured leaf traits that included investment (specific leaf area), morphology, chlorophyll fluorescence, pigment content, and gene expression. Traits and differentially expressed genes that changed with elevation in one species often showed little changes in the other species, or changed in the opposite direction. As evidence of adaptive divergence, both species performed better at their native site and better than the species from the other habitat. Adaptive divergence is, therefore, associated with the evolution of distinct plastic responses to environmental variation, despite these two species sharing a recent common ancestor
The Internet of Living Things
No full textStructured in three parts, I Was Raised on the Internet features critical essays, provocations, and manifestos, as well as images of new commissions for the accompanying exhibition. The book functions independently of the exhibition as a contribution to the knowledge of art and technology studies. Esteemed authors and creative practitioners-including Monira Al Qadiri, Jeremy Bailey, Zach Blas, James Bridle, Michael Connor, Lauren Cornell, Aria Dean, Simon Denny, DIS, Orit Gat, Omar Kholeif, Cadence Kinsey, Olia Lialina, Joanne McNeil, Trevor Paglen, Heather Phillipson, Jared Quinton, Martine Syms, Jon Thomson and Alison Craighead, and Nina Wexelblatt-use the book as a jumping-off point to broaden the critical debate on art that engages with continually evolving digital technologies
Still life in bridle of a stereotype : Zbigniew Herbert’s visions of Dutch art and the issue of their reception
No full textIn this paper the author deals with the book by a Polish poet, Zbigniew Herbert Martwa natura z wędzidłem (Still Life with a Bridle: Essays and Apocryphas), first published in 1993, which had a tremendous impact upon the reception of the 17th century Dutch painting in Poland and formed the crucial basis for its powerful, long-lasting understanding. Moreover, Herbert’s book has been commonly read as almost an academic, unquestionable work. The author attempts to show that Herbert’s vivid narration is only a literary, very subjective poetical vision of Dutch art, deeply rooted in the 19th century perception of the Netherlandish painting and so called "Hollandism" - a cultural and artistic myth of Holland, unusually popular in Europe at that time. Herbert, choosing to rely on the outdated writings (e.g. Eugène Fromentin, Théophile Thoré-Bürger, and Hyppolyte Taine), greatly misinterprets the phenomenon of the 17th century Dutch art and culture. His un-heroic visions of the Dutch painting, interpretations and comments upon Johannes Torrentius’s Emblematic Still Life with Flagon, Glass, Jug and Bridle, and, finally, the description of the famous tulipmania of 1637, do not find much support in present academic research and should be refuted. However, it has to be strongly emphasised that Herbert’s book belongs to literature, not art history, and its author cannot be blamed for any academic misconceptions and the way in which his work was wrongly perceived later on
Bridle sets with plaques in the form of fish from Sara burial mound № 4 in the eastern Orenburg region
No full textФёдоров Виталий Кимович, кандидат исторических наук, доцент кафедры общенаучных дисциплин, Восточная экономико-юридическая гуманитарная академия (Академия ВЭГУ), г. Уфа. Автор более 70 работ в области археологии. E-mail: [email protected]
Васил ьев Виталий Николаевич, сотрудник LoCom Medien Akademie Europäisches Bildungsinstitut (Бонн, Федеративная Республика Германия), кандидат исторических наук, Dr. (RUS), автор более 40 работ, в том числе двух монографий в области археологии. E-mail: [email protected]
V. K. Fedorov, East Economics and Law Humanities, Ufa, Russian Federation,
[email protected]
V. N. Vasil’ev, LoCom Medien Akademie Europäisches Bildungsinstitut, Die
Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn, Federal Republic of Germany,
[email protected]Статья посвящена уздечному набору, украшенному плоскими металлическими бляхами в виде рыб, обнаруженному во впускном погребении кургана № 4 могильника Сара. Публикуются все предметы погребального инвентаря, включающие, помимо уздечного набора колчан со стрелами и меч. Рассматриваются все известные аналогии данному погребению – в могильниках Ак-Булак, Акоба II и Переволочан. Во всех случаях уздечные наборы лежали в могилах вместе с колчанами. Все бляхи-рыбки вырезаны из зеркал. Бляхи гладкие, за исключением одной — из Сары, на которой тонкой гравировкой показаны анатомические особенности рыбы — рот, глаз, жаберная щель, средняя линия и плавники. Ее декор находит ближайшие параллели в изображениях рыб на золотых накладках деревянных сосудов из могильника Филипповка. Погребения с уздечными наборами, имеющие в своем составе бляхи в виде рыб, образуют группу «переходных» от савроматской эпохи к раннепрохоровской и датируются
рубежом V—IV вв. до н. э. The article focuses on bridle sets decorated with the flat metal plaques in the form of fish found in the Sara inlet burial mound № 4. The author describes all the grave goods including bridle sets and a quiver with arrows and a sword. The author considers all known analogies of such burial mounds in Ak-Bulak, Akoba II and Perevolochan. In all these cases bridle sets are lying in the graves together
with quivers. All fish-like plaques are cut out of mirrors. The plaques are smooth except the one from the Sara burial which has a fine engraving showing anatomic features of a fish - a mouth, an eye, a gillslit, middle line and fins. Analogies of these decoration are found on the gold lining of the wooden vessels from the Philipovka mound. Burials with bridle sets having fish- like plaques form a transitional group from the Sauromatian to the Early Prohorov era and date from the 5th to the 4th centuries BC
Dynamic modelling of a flexible kite for power generation: Coupling a fluid-structure solver to a dynamic particle system
No full textThis thesis investigates the dynamic modelling of a kite power system. The goal was to create a model that is able to capture the complex flight dynamic behaviour of a kite. A proof-of-concept already existed. From that work the steady fluid-structure interaction (FSI) module, using finite elements (FE), was used and coupled to a bridle and tether model. The bridle and tether model is based on an existing tether model that used spring-dampers. The tether model was then extended to include the full bridle system and steering due to line deflection. The focus thus lies in their coupling. An interface was created to couple the two models, such that the dynamic bridle model calls the FSI model at the end of every time step. For stability reasons the ends of the bridles were included in the FE model, so that high forces perpendicular to the bridle lines are avoided. In addition, spring-dampers with a low stiffness but high damping were placed between the bridle boundary points. Yet, due to a lack of aerodynamic damping in the FSI module, the kite proved to be unstable. Therefore artificial damping was implemented, based on the differential between the bridle particles' individual velocity and the wing's overall velocity. This resulted in a model capable of simulating the dynamic flight behaviour of a kite power system. This was compared to the empirical turn rate law, which was tuned to KitePower's technology demonstrator. It was found that the turn rate of the simulation matched qualitatively, but not quantitatively, due to the inevitable need for artificial damping.Aerospace EngineeringWind Energ
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