scholarly journals The sequential loss of allelic diversity

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (A) ◽  
pp. 13-29
Author(s):  
Guillaume Achaz ◽  
Amaury Lambert ◽  
Emmanuel Schertzer

Abstract In this paper we give a new flavour to what Peter Jagers and his co-authors call `the path to extinction'. In a neutral population of constant size N, assume that each individual at time 0 carries a distinct type, or allele. Consider the joint dynamics of these N alleles, for example the dynamics of their respective frequencies and more plainly the nonincreasing process counting the number of alleles remaining by time t. Call this process the extinction process. We show that in the Moran model, the extinction process is distributed as the process counting (in backward time) the number of common ancestors to the whole population, also known as the block counting process of the N-Kingman coalescent. Stimulated by this result, we investigate whether it extends (i) to an identity between the frequencies of blocks in the Kingman coalescent and the frequencies of alleles in the extinction process, both evaluated at jump times, and (ii) to the general case of Λ-Fleming‒Viot processes.

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 106-112
Author(s):  
Anita Shrivastava ◽  
Andrea Burianova

This study aimed to explore the relationships between attachment styles, proximity, and relational satisfaction. This was achieved by assessing a distinct type of long distance romantic relationship of flying crews, compared with proximal (non-flying crew) romantic relationships. The responses of 139 expatriate professionals revealed significant associations between proximity and anxious and avoidant attachment dimensions. The role of the avoidant dimension in comparison with that of the anxious dimension was found to be a significant predictor of relational satisfaction. This study contributes significantly toward addressing the role of proximity and attachment in relational satisfaction in a new context of geographic separation.


1998 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 209-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianhua Lei ◽  
Sveinung Sægrov

This paper demonstrates the statistical approach for describing failures and lifetimes of water mains. The statistical approach is based on pipe inventory data and the maintenance data registered in the data base. The approach consists of data pre-processing and statistical analysis. Two classes of statistical models are applied, namely counting process models and lifetime models. With lifetime models, one can estimate the probability which a pipe will fail within a time horizon. With counting process models one can see the deteriorating (or improving) trend in time of a group of “identical” pipes and their rates of occurrence of failure (ROCOF). The case study with the data base from Trondheim municipality (Norway) demonstrates the applicability of the statistical approach and leads to the following results: 1). In the past 20 years, Trondheim municipality has experienced approximately 250 to 300 failures per year. However, the number of failures per year will significantly increase in the near future unless better maintenance practice is implemented now. 2). Unprotected ductile iron pipes have a higher probability of failures than other materials. The average lifetime of unprotected ductile iron pipes is approximately 30 to 40 years shorter than the lifetime of a cast iron pipe. 3). Pipes installed 1963 and 1975 are most likely to fail in the future; 4) The age of a pipe does not play a significant role for the remaining lifetime of the pipe; 5). After 2 to 3 failures, a pipe enters a fast-failure stage (i.e., frequent multiple between failures).


Author(s):  
Junshan Qiu ◽  
Dali Zhou ◽  
H.M. Jim Hung ◽  
John Lawrence ◽  
Steven Bai

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Rosenberg

Abstract Paul Valéry’s interest in the life sciences is an important yet little-studied aspect of his work. Although Valéry was known primarily as a reader of mathematics and physics, his fascination with the life sciences has often been ignored or regarded as mere curiosity. This article examines Valéry’s writing on the subject of biology by focusing on the unique status he accords to the notion of life. In both his theoretical and poetic writings, Valéry addresses the notion of life as a category endowed with distinct ontological attributes — as a phenomenon that encompasses a distinct type of order. Life, as an independent force, is capable of resisting and even reversing the principle of entropy, which Valéry regards as a universal tendency towards degradation and dispersion that affects all inanimate matter. Valéry’s thought thus exhibits a complicated yet clear affinity with the intellectual tradition known as vitalism. The article discusses this affinity by analysing the presence of vitalist ideas and imagery in Valéry’s corpus, giving special attention to his most expressly ‘biological’ work, the essay ‘L’Homme et la coquille’ (‘The Man and the Seashell’).


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fedor S. Sharko ◽  
Eugenia S. Boulygina ◽  
Svetlana V. Tsygankova ◽  
Natalia V. Slobodova ◽  
Dmitry A. Alekseev ◽  
...  

AbstractAnthropogenic activity is the top factor directly related to the extinction of several animal species. The last Steller’s sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) population on the Commander Islands (Russia) was wiped out in the second half of the 18th century due to sailors and fur traders hunting it for the meat and fat. However, new data suggests that the extinction process of this species began much earlier. Here, we present a nuclear de novo assembled genome of H. gigas with a 25.4× depth coverage. Our results demonstrate that the heterozygosity of the last population of this animal is low and comparable to the last woolly mammoth population that inhabited Wrangel Island 4000 years ago. Besides, as a matter of consideration, our findings also demonstrate that the extinction of this marine mammal starts along the North Pacific coastal line much earlier than the first Paleolithic humans arrived in the Bering sea region.


2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 656-693 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas M. Michelitsch ◽  
Alejandro P. Riascos

AbstractWe survey the ‘generalized fractional Poisson process’ (GFPP). The GFPP is a renewal process generalizing Laskin’s fractional Poisson counting process and was first introduced by Cahoy and Polito. The GFPP contains two index parameters with admissible ranges 0 < β ≤ 1, α > 0 and a parameter characterizing the time scale. The GFPP involves Prabhakar generalized Mittag-Leffler functions and contains for special choices of the parameters the Laskin fractional Poisson process, the Erlang process and the standard Poisson process. We demonstrate this by means of explicit formulas. We develop the Montroll-Weiss continuous-time random walk (CTRW) for the GFPP on undirected networks which has Prabhakar distributed waiting times between the jumps of the walker. For this walk, we derive a generalized fractional Kolmogorov-Feller equation which involves Prabhakar generalized fractional operators governing the stochastic motions on the network. We analyze in d dimensions the ‘well-scaled’ diffusion limit and obtain a fractional diffusion equation which is of the same type as for a walk with Mittag-Leffler distributed waiting times. The GFPP has the potential to capture various aspects in the dynamics of certain complex systems.


Author(s):  
Jennifer R Hodge ◽  
Yutong Song ◽  
Molly A Wightman ◽  
Analisa Milkey ◽  
Binh Tran ◽  
...  

Abstract Whether distantly related organisms evolve similar strategies to meet the demands of a shared ecological niche depends on their evolutionary history and the nature of form-function relationships. In fishes, the visual identification and consumption of microscopic zooplankters, selective zooplanktivory, is a distinct type of foraging often associated with a suite of morphological specialisations. Previous work has identified inconsistencies in the trajectory and magnitude of morphological change following transitions to selective zooplanktivory, alluding to the diversity and importance of ancestral effects. Here we investigate whether transitions to selective zooplanktivory have influenced the morphological evolution of marine butterflyfishes (family Chaetodontidae), a group of small-prey specialists well known for several types of high-precision benthivory. Using Bayesian ancestral state estimation, we inferred the recent evolution of zooplanktivory among benthivorous ancestors that hunted small invertebrates and browsed by picking or scraping coral polyps. Traits related to the capture of prey appear to be functionally versatile with little morphological distinction between species with benthivorous and planktivorous foraging modes. In contrast, multiple traits related to prey detection or swimming performance are evolving toward novel, zooplanktivore-specific optima. Despite a relatively short evolutionary history, general morphological indistinctiveness, and evidence of constraint on the evolution of body size, convergent evolution has closed a near significant amount of the morphological distance between zooplanktivorous species. Overall, our findings describe the extent to which the functional demands associated with selective zooplanktivory have led to generalisable morphological features among butterflyfishes and highlight the importance of ancestral effects in shaping patterns of morphological convergence.


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