scholarly journals Mutualists construct the ecological conditions that trigger the transition from parasitism

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leo Ledru ◽  
Jimmy Garnier ◽  
Matthias Rohr ◽  
Camille Nous ◽  
Sebastien Ibanez

The evolution of mutualism between hosts and initially parasitic symbionts represents a major transition in evolution. Although vertical transmission of symbionts during host reproduction and partner control both favour the stability of mutualism, these mechanisms require specifically evolved features that may be absent during the transition. Therefore, the first steps of the transition from parasitism to mutualism are not fully understood. Spatial structure might be the key to this transition. We explore this hypothesis using a spatially explicit agent-based model. We demonstrate that, starting from a parasitic system with global dispersal, the coevolution between mutualistic effort and local dispersal of hosts and symbionts leads to a stable coexistence between parasites and mutualists. The local dispersal evolution mimics vertical transmission and triggers the formation of mutualistic clusters, counteracting the individual selection level of parasites that maintain global dispersal. However, the transition also requires competition between hosts in order to occur. Indeed, the transition occurs when mutualistic symbionts increase the density of hosts, which strengthens competition between hosts and disfavours parasitic host/symbiont pairs: mutualists create ecological conditions that allow their own spread. Therefore, the transition to mutualism may come from an eco-evolutionary feedback loop involving spatially structured population dynamics.

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Ermanno Catullo ◽  
Federico Giri ◽  
Mauro Gallegati

The paper presents an agent-based model reproducing a stylized credit network that evolves endogenously through the individual choices of firms and banks. We introduce in this framework a financial stability authority in order to test the effects of different prudential policy measures designed to improve the resilience of the economic system. Simulations show that a combination of micro- and macroprudential policies reduces systemic risk but at the cost of increasing banks’ capital volatility. Moreover, the agent-based methodology allows us to implement an alternative meso regulatory framework that takes into consideration the connections between firms and banks. This policy targets only the more connected banks, increasing their capital requirement in order to reduce the diffusion of local shocks. Our results support the idea that the mesoprudential policy is able to reduce systemic risk without affecting the stability of banks’ capital structure.


Methodology ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 142-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pere J. Ferrando

In the IRT person-fluctuation model, the individual trait levels fluctuate within a single test administration whereas the items have fixed locations. This article studies the relations between the person and item parameters of this model and two central properties of item and test scores: temporal stability and external validity. For temporal stability, formulas are derived for predicting and interpreting item response changes in a test-retest situation on the basis of the individual fluctuations. As for validity, formulas are derived for obtaining disattenuated estimates and for predicting changes in validity in groups with different levels of fluctuation. These latter formulas are related to previous research in the person-fit domain. The results obtained and the relations discussed are illustrated with an empirical example.


Information ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 103
Author(s):  
Casey C. Bennett

This paper discusses the creation of an agent-based simulation model for interactive robotic faces, built based on data from physical human–robot interaction experiments, to explore hypotheses around how we might create emergent robotic personality traits, rather than pre-scripted ones based on programmatic rules. If an agent/robot can visually attend and behaviorally respond to social cues in its environment, and that environment varies, then idiosyncratic behavior that forms the basis of what we call a “personality” should theoretically be emergent. Here, we evaluate the stability of behavioral learning convergence in such social environments to test this idea. We conduct over 2000 separate simulations of an agent-based model in scaled-down, abstracted forms of the environment, each one representing an “experiment”, to see how different parameters interact to affect this process. Our findings suggest that there may be systematic dynamics in the learning patterns of an agent/robot in social environments, as well as significant interaction effects between the environmental setup and agent perceptual model. Furthermore, learning from deltas (Markovian approach) was more effective than only considering the current state space. We discuss the implications for HRI research, the design of interactive robotic faces, and the development of more robust theoretical frameworks of social interaction.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-244
Author(s):  
W. John Thrasher ◽  
Michael Mascagni

AbstractIt has been shown that when using a Monte Carlo algorithm to estimate the electrostatic free energy of a biomolecule in a solution, individual random walks can become entrapped in the geometry. We examine a proposed solution, using a sharp restart during the Walk-on-Subdomains step, in more detail. We show that the point at which this solution introduces significant bias is related to properties intrinsic to the molecule being examined. We also examine two potential methods of generating a sharp restart point and show that they both cause no significant bias in the examined molecules and increase the stability of the run times of the individual walks.


2020 ◽  
Vol 96 (2) ◽  
pp. 419-437
Author(s):  
Xiangfeng Yang

Abstract Ample evidence exists that China was caught off guard by the Trump administration's onslaught of punishing acts—the trade war being a prime, but far from the only, example. This article, in addition to contextualizing their earlier optimism about the relations with the United States under President Trump, examines why Chinese leaders and analysts were surprised by the turn of events. It argues that three main factors contributed to the lapse of judgment. First, Chinese officials and analysts grossly misunderstood Donald Trump the individual. By overemphasizing his pragmatism while downplaying his unpredictability, they ended up underprepared for the policies he unleashed. Second, some ingrained Chinese beliefs, manifested in the analogies of the pendulum swing and the ‘bickering couple’, as well as the narrative of the ‘ballast’, lulled officials and scholars into undue optimism about the stability of the broader relationship. Third, analytical and methodological problems as well as political considerations prevented them from fully grasping the strategic shift against China in the US.


2003 ◽  
Vol 69 (7) ◽  
pp. 4012-4018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariel Maoz ◽  
Ralf Mayr ◽  
Siegfried Scherer

ABSTRACT The temporal stability and diversity of bacterial species composition as well as the antilisterial potential of two different, complex, and undefined microbial consortia from red-smear soft cheeses were investigated. Samples were collected twice, at 6-month intervals, from each of two food producers, and a total of 400 bacterial isolates were identified by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and 16S ribosomal DNA sequence analysis. Coryneform bacteria represented the majority of the isolates, with certain species being predominant. In addition, Marinolactobacillus psychrotolerans, Halomonas venusta, Halomonas variabilis, Halomonas sp. (106 to 107 CFU per g of smear), and an unknown, gram-positive bacterium (107 to 108 CFU per g of smear) are described for the first time in such a consortium. The species composition of one consortium was quite stable over 6 months, but the other consortium revealed less diversity of coryneform species as well as less stability. While the first consortium had a stable, extraordinarily high antilisterial potential in situ, the antilisterial activity of the second consortium was lower and decreased with time. The cause for the antilisterial activity of the two consortia remained unknown but is not due to the secretion of soluble, inhibitory substances by the individual components of the consortium. Our data indicate that the stability over time and a potential antilisterial activity are individual characteristics of the ripening consortia which can be monitored and used for safe food production without artificial preservatives.


Author(s):  
JEN-YANG CHEN

In this paper, a fuzzy sliding mode controller (FSMC), which is synthesized by a collection of linguistic control rules whose membership functions of THEN-part is adapted, is proposed. Both the membership functions of IF-part and THEN-part are arranged symmetrically and distributed equally in the individual universe of discourse. In particular, the membership functions of the THEN-part can be adapted via one parameter adaptation to meet the required system specification. The proposed direct adaptive FSMC can be synthesized through the following stages. First, the control rules are constructed according to the concepts of SMC, and the fuzzy sets whose membership functions are symmetrically covered in state space. Then, the derived adaptive law is used to adjust the membership functions of the THEN-part. The FSMC is employed to approximate the equivalent control of SMC without knowing the mathematical model of the controlled system. Third, a hitting control is developed to guarantee the stability of the control system. Finally, we apply this FSMC to control a nonlinear inverted pendulum system for confirming the validity of the proposed approach.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (8) ◽  
pp. 170344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thiago Mosqueiro ◽  
Chelsea Cook ◽  
Ramon Huerta ◽  
Jürgen Gadau ◽  
Brian Smith ◽  
...  

Variation in behaviour among group members often impacts collective outcomes. Individuals may vary both in the task that they perform and in the persistence with which they perform each task. Although both the distribution of individuals among tasks and differences among individuals in behavioural persistence can each impact collective behaviour, we do not know if and how they jointly affect collective outcomes. Here, we use a detailed computational model to examine the joint impact of colony-level distribution among tasks and behavioural persistence of individuals, specifically their fidelity to particular resource sites, on the collective trade-off between exploring for new resources and exploiting familiar ones. We developed an agent-based model of foraging honeybees, parametrized by data from five colonies, in which we simulated scouts, who search the environment for new resources, and individuals who are recruited by the scouts to the newly found resources, i.e. recruits. We varied the persistence of returning to a particular food source of both scouts and recruits and found that, for each value of persistence, there is a different optimal ratio of scouts to recruits that maximizes resource collection by the colony. Furthermore, changes to the persistence of scouts induced opposite effects from changes to the persistence of recruits on the collective foraging of the colony. The proportion of scouts that resulted in the most resources collected by the colony decreased as the persistence of recruits increased. However, this optimal proportion of scouts increased as the persistence of scouts increased. Thus, behavioural persistence and task participation can interact to impact a colony's collective behaviour in orthogonal directions. Our work provides new insights and generates new hypotheses into how variations in behaviour at both the individual and colony levels jointly impact the trade-off between exploring for new resources and exploiting familiar ones.


2018 ◽  
Vol 857 ◽  
pp. 398-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chamkor Singh ◽  
Arup K. Das ◽  
Prasanta K. Das

The central theme of this work is that a stable levitation of a denser non-magnetizable liquid droplet, against gravity, inside a relatively lighter ferrofluid – a system barely considered in ferrohydrodynamics – is possible, and exhibits unique interfacial features; the stability of the levitation trajectory, however, is subject to an appropriate magnetic field modulation. We explore the shapes and the temporal dynamics of a plane non-magnetizable droplet levitating inside a ferrofluid against gravity due to a spatially complex, but systematically generated, magnetic field in two dimensions. The coupled set of Maxwell’s magnetostatic equations and the flow dynamic equations is integrated computationally, utilizing a conservative finite-volume-based second-order pressure projection algorithm combined with the front-tracking algorithm for the advection of the interface of the droplet. The dynamics of the droplet is studied under both the constant ferrofluid magnetic permeability assumption as well as for more realistic field-dependent permeability described by Langevin’s nonlinear magnetization model. Due to the non-homogeneous nature of the magnetic field, unique shapes of the droplet during its levitation, and at its steady state, are realized. The complete spatio-temporal response of the droplet is a function of the Laplace number $La$ , the magnetic Laplace number $La_{m}$ and the Galilei number $Ga$ ; through detailed simulations we separate out the individual roles played by these non-dimensional parameters. The effect of the viscosity ratio, the stability of the levitation path and the possibility of existence of multiple stable equilibrium states is investigated. We find, for certain conditions on the viscosity ratio, that there can be developments of cusps and singularities at the droplet surface; we also observe this phenomenon experimentally and compare with the simulations. Our simulations closely replicate the singular projection on the surface of the levitating droplet. Finally, we present a dynamical model for the vertical trajectory of the droplet. This model reveals a condition for the onset of levitation and the relation for the equilibrium levitation height. The linearization of the model around the steady state captures that the nature of the equilibrium point goes under a transition from being a spiral to a node depending upon the control parameters, which essentially means that the temporal route to the equilibrium can be either monotonic or undulating. The analytical model for the droplet trajectory is in close agreement with the detailed simulations.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clare Sutherland ◽  
Gillian Rhodes ◽  
Nichola Burton ◽  
Andrew Young

Influential facial impression models have repeatedly shown that trustworthiness, youthful-attractiveness and dominance dimensions subserve a wide variety of first impressions formed from strangers’ faces, suggestive of a shared social reality. However, these models are built from impressions aggregated across observers. Critically, recent work has now shown that inter-observer agreement in facial impressions is less than perfect, raising the important question of whether these dimensional models are meaningful at the individual-observer level. We addressed this question using a novel case series approach, building individual models of facial impressions for different observers. Strikingly, three dimensions of trustworthiness, youthful/attractiveness and competence/dominance appeared across the majority of individual observer models, demonstrating that the dimensional approach is indeed meaningful at the individual level. Nonetheless, we also found striking differences in the stability of the competence/dominance dimension across observers. Taken together, results suggest that individual differences in impressions arise in the context of a largely common structure that supports a shared social reality.


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