scholarly journals Hornets and Honey Bees: A Coevolutionary Arms Race between Ancient Adaptations and New Invasive Threats

Insects ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 1037
Author(s):  
Federico Cappa ◽  
Alessandro Cini ◽  
Laura Bortolotti ◽  
Juliette Poidatz ◽  
Rita Cervo
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bees ◽  
Invasive Alien Species ◽  
Defense Responses ◽  
Arms Race ◽  
Behavioral Strategies ◽  
Physiological Mechanisms ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Collective Defense ◽  
History Of ◽  
Coevolutionary Arms Race

Hornets and honey bees have a long history of coevolution resulting in a plethora of captivating adaptations and counteradaptations between predator and prey. From simple physiological mechanisms to complex behavioral strategies, some Vespa hornets have specialized in hunting honey bees, while the latter have put in place effective defenses to counteract their attack. Both hornets and honey bees have evolved the ability to detect the odors and the pheromones emitted by the other to locate the prey or to spot foraging predators. Hornets often rely on their bigger size, heavily armored body and destructive attacks, while honey bees differentiated collective defense responses finely coordinated to deter or kill the hornet menace. However, when new species of hornets and honey bees come into contact, the absence of coevolution can have a heavy impact on the defenseless bees. The evolutionary arms race between hornets and honey bees provides not only compelling examples of adaptations and counteradaptations between predator and prey, but could also represent a starting point for the development of effective and sustainable strategies to protect honey bees and beekeeping activities and to control invasive alien species of hornets.

scholarly journals Coevolution between primates and venomous snakes revealed by α-neurotoxin susceptibility

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard J. Harris ◽  
K. Anne-Isola Nekaris ◽  
Bryan G. Fry
Keyword(s):  
Brain Size ◽  
Arms Race ◽  
Arms Races ◽  
Venomous Snakes ◽  
Weak Binding ◽  
Snake Detection ◽  
History Of ◽  
Species Being ◽  
Geographical Locations ◽  
Coevolutionary Arms Race

AbstractEvidence suggests venomous snakes and primates have evolved certain traits in response to a coevolutionary arms-race. In both clades, evolved traits include an increase in brain size and enhanced vision. Lineage specific traits include in primates an inherent fear of snakes, while cobras have evolved defensive toxins, hooding, aposematism and venom spitting. To strengthen the claims of coevolution between venomous snakes and primates, more evidence of coevolved traits is needed to highlight the importance of this arms-race. We report a significantly reduced susceptibility of snake venom α-neurotoxins toward the α-1 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor orthosteric site within the catarrhine primates. This trait is particularly amplified within the clade Homininae. This relationship is supported by post-synaptic neurotoxic symptoms of envenoming relative to prey species being much lower humans due to weak binding of α-neurotoxins to human nicotinic receptors. Catarrhines are sympatric with many species of large, diurnal, neurotoxically venomous snakes and as such are likely to have had a long history of interaction with them. Conversely, the Lemuriformes and Platyrrhini are highly susceptible to binding of α-neurotoxins, which is consistent with them occupying geographical locations either devoid of venomous snakes or areas with neurotoxic snakes that are small, fossorial, and nocturnal. These data are consistent with the snake detection theory in that they follow a similar pattern of evolved traits within specific primate clades that are sympatric with venomous snakes. These results add new strong evidence in support of snakes and primates coevolving through arms-races that shaped selection pressures for both lineages.Significance StatementWe have discovered a pattern of primate susceptibility towards α-neurotoxins that supports the theory of a coevolutionary arms-race between venomous snakes and primates.

The Effect of Owning Animals on Perceived Vulnerability to, and Avoidance of, Parasitic Diseases in Humans

2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 129-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pavol Prokop ◽  
Jana Fančovičová
Keyword(s):  
Immune System ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Close Contact ◽  
Race Model ◽  
Behavioral Strategies ◽  
Perceived Vulnerability ◽  
History Of ◽  
Perceived Vulnerability To Disease ◽  
Coevolutionary Arms Race

The evolutionary history of humans has always been influenced by pathogens because of their ability to cause both morbidity and mortality. Natural selection should favor behavioral strategies that minimize disease transmission and consequently increase human survival. Collectively such strategies are referred to as the behavioral immune system, which is thought to be more often activated in individuals with an impaired immune system who are most vulnerable to pathogens and infectious diseases. We investigated the associations between an individual’s perceived vulnerability to disease, whether they own any animals, and whether they carry out behavioral tactics to avoid parasite transmission. A sample of 285 Slovakian students participated in a questionnaire study. As predicted, antipathogen behavior was activated in individuals with a high perceived vulnerability to disease. Females showed higher antiparasitic scores than males especially when behaviors were most likely to transmit disease. Individuals who owned animals perceived themselves as less vulnerable to disease as well as less vulnerable to the perceptions of those who did not own any animals. Moreover, among animal owners scores for parasite-avoiding behaviors relevant to being in close contact with an animal (such as removing animal feces and worming animals) were higher than for parasite-transmitting behaviors relevant to being in close contact with an animal (such as allowing animals to lick). We discuss the results, further taking into account both the model of natural selection and the coevolutionary arms race model.

The Modernities of H. Lawrence Freeman

2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 719-779
Author(s):  
David Gutkin
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
New York ◽  
Reception History ◽  
Black Press ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
White Press ◽  
Grand Opera

H. Lawrence Freeman's “Negro Jazz Grand Opera,” Voodoo, was premiered in 1928 in Manhattan's Broadway district. Its reception bespoke competing, racially charged values that underpinned the idea of the “modern” in the 1920s. The white press critiqued the opera for its allegedly anxiety-ridden indebtedness to nineteenth-century European conventions, while the black press hailed it as the pathbreaking work of a “pioneer composer.” Taking the reception history of Voodoo as a starting point, this article shows how Freeman's lifelong project, the creation of what he would call “Negro Grand Opera,” mediated between disparate and sometimes apparently irreconcilable figurations of the modern that spanned the late nineteenth century through the interwar years: Wagnerism, uplift ideology, primitivism, and popular music (including, but not limited to, jazz). I focus on Freeman's inheritance of a worldview that could be called progressivist, evolutionist, or, to borrow a term from Wilson Moses, civilizationist. I then trace the complex relationship between this mode of imagining modernity and subsequent versions of modernism that Freeman engaged with during the first decades of the twentieth century. Through readings of Freeman's aesthetic manifestos and his stylistically syncretic musical corpus I show how ideas about race inflected the process by which the qualitatively modern slips out of joint with temporal modernity. The most substantial musical analysis examines leitmotivic transformations that play out across Freeman's jazz opera American Romance (1924–29): lions become subways; Mississippi becomes New York; and jazz, like modernity itself, keeps metamorphosing. A concluding section considers a broader set of questions concerning the historiography of modernism and modernity.

An Introduction to Nonlinear Chemical Dynamics

1998 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irving R. Epstein ◽  
John A. Pojman
Keyword(s):  
Flow Reactor ◽  
Chemical Dynamics ◽  
Design Data ◽  
Chemical Oscillators ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Undergraduate Laboratory ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mechanistic Basis ◽  
Nonlinear Chemical Dynamics

Just a few decades ago, chemical oscillations were thought to be exotic reactions of only theoretical interest. Now known to govern an array of physical and biological processes, including the regulation of the heart, these oscillations are being studied by a diverse group across the sciences. This book is the first introduction to nonlinear chemical dynamics written specifically for chemists. It covers oscillating reactions, chaos, and chemical pattern formation, and includes numerous practical suggestions on reactor design, data analysis, and computer simulations. Assuming only an undergraduate knowledge of chemistry, the book is an ideal starting point for research in the field. The book begins with a brief history of nonlinear chemical dynamics and a review of the basic mathematics and chemistry. The authors then provide an extensive overview of nonlinear dynamics, starting with the flow reactor and moving on to a detailed discussion of chemical oscillators. Throughout the authors emphasize the chemical mechanistic basis for self-organization. The overview is followed by a series of chapters on more advanced topics, including complex oscillations, biological systems, polymers, interactions between fields and waves, and Turing patterns. Underscoring the hands-on nature of the material, the book concludes with a series of classroom-tested demonstrations and experiments appropriate for an undergraduate laboratory.

Presbyterians and Ethics

2019 ◽  
pp. 525-537
Author(s):  
Mark Douglas
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Great Awakening ◽  
Reformed Theology ◽  
Second Great Awakening ◽  
World War ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
History Of Ethics ◽  
Presbyterian Church ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
History Of

The history of ethics in the Presbyterian Church has been shaped by the theological commitments of Reformed theology, the church’s ecumenical and interreligious encounters, its interactions with the wider cultures in which it functions, and its global scope. Consequently, Presbyterian ethics have become increasingly diverse, culturally diffused, ecumenically directed, and frequently divisive. That said, its history can helpfully be divided into three lengthy periods. In the first (roughly from the church’s origins in 1559 to the Second Great Awakening in the early nineteenth century), theology, ethics, and politics are so interwound that distinguishing one from the others is difficult. In the second (roughly from the Second Great Awakening to the end of World War II), moral concerns emerge as forces that drive the church’s theology and polity. And in the third (for which proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 might be a heuristically helpful starting point), ethics increasingly functions in ways that are only loosely tethered to either Reformed theology or polity. The strength of the church’s social witness, the consistency of its global engagements, and the failings of its internecine strife are all evident during its five-hundred-year history.

scholarly journals Comparing Survival of Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus Infection among Stocks of U.S. Honey Bees

Insects ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 60
Author(s):  
Shilpi Bhatia ◽  
Saman S. Baral ◽  
Carlos Vega Melendez ◽  
Esmaeil Amiri ◽  
Olav Rueppell
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bee ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Virus Infections ◽  
Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus ◽  
Immune Genes ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Bee Health ◽  
Honey Bee Health ◽  
Survival Differences ◽  
Paralysis Virus

Among numerous viruses that infect honey bees (Apis mellifera), Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV) can be linked to severe honey bee health problems. Breeding for virus resistance may improve honey bee health. To evaluate the potential for this approach, we compared the survival of IAPV infection among stocks from the U.S. We complemented the survival analysis with a survey of existing viruses in these stocks and assessing constitutive and induced expression of immune genes. Worker offspring from selected queens in a common apiary were inoculated with IAPV by topical applications after emergence to assess subsequent survival. Differences among stocks were small compared to variation within stocks, indicating the potential for improving honey bee survival of virus infections in all stocks. A positive relation between worker survival and virus load among stocks further suggested that honey bees may be able to adapt to better cope with viruses, while our molecular studies indicate that toll-6 may be related to survival differences among virus-infected worker bees. Together, these findings highlight the importance of viruses in queen breeding operations and provide a promising starting point for the quest to improve honey bee health by selectively breeding stock to be better able to survive virus infections.

scholarly journals Getting ahead of the Arms Race: Hothousing the Coevolution of VirusTotal with a Packer

Entropy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 395
Author(s):  
Héctor D. Menéndez ◽  
David Clark ◽  
Earl T. Barr
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Evolutionary Computation ◽  
Malware Detection ◽  
Cloud Service ◽  
False Positives ◽  
Arms Race ◽  
System Calls ◽  
A New Technique ◽  
Coevolutionary Arms Race

Malware detection is in a coevolutionary arms race where the attackers and defenders are constantly seeking advantage. This arms race is asymmetric: detection is harder and more expensive than evasion. White hats must be conservative to avoid false positives when searching for malicious behaviour. We seek to redress this imbalance. Most of the time, black hats need only make incremental changes to evade them. On occasion, white hats make a disruptive move and find a new technique that forces black hats to work harder. Examples include system calls, signatures and machine learning. We present a method, called Hothouse, that combines simulation and search to accelerate the white hat’s ability to counter the black hat’s incremental moves, thereby forcing black hats to perform disruptive moves more often. To realise Hothouse, we evolve EEE, an entropy-based polymorphic packer for Windows executables. Playing the role of a black hat, EEE uses evolutionary computation to disrupt the creation of malware signatures. We enter EEE into the detection arms race with VirusTotal, the most prominent cloud service for running anti-virus tools on software. During our 6 month study, we continually improved EEE in response to VirusTotal, eventually learning a packer that produces packed malware whose evasiveness goes from an initial 51.8% median to 19.6%. We report both how well VirusTotal learns to detect EEE-packed binaries and how well VirusTotal forgets in order to reduce false positives. VirusTotal’s tools learn and forget fast, actually in about 3 days. We also show where VirusTotal focuses its detection efforts, by analysing EEE’s variants.

scholarly journals 335 - BEHÇET DISEASE PRESENTING WITH ACUTE PSYCHOSIS

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (S1) ◽  
pp. 94-94
Author(s):  
A.M. Carvalheiro ◽  
A.R. Fonseca ◽  
J. Maia
Keyword(s):  
Psychiatric Symptoms ◽  
Retinal Vasculitis ◽  
Posterior Uveitis ◽  
Neurological Involvement ◽  
Behçet Disease ◽  
Acute Psychosis ◽  
Behcet Disease ◽  
Persecutory Delusions ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
History Of

ObjectivesUsing as a starting point a clinical case, the authors performed a literature review to clarify the relationship between Behçet disease and acute psychosis.MethodsAnalysis of the patient's clinical process and brief review of the latest available literature on the subject, published in PubMed/Medline databases.ResultsMale patient, 55 years old, brought to the emergency room by fever, headache, hetero-aggressive behavior, disinhibited behavior, mood swings, euphoria, persecutory delusions and insomnia, in the last 4 days. He had no insight into his illness. There was no personal or family history of psychiatric illness and toxicological habits were irrelevant. Due to the personal history of posterior uveitis with bilateral macular edema, retinal vasculitis, genital aphthosis, papulo-vesicular lesions and recurrent bipolar aphthosis, the hypothesis of neuro-behçet was raised.ConclusionsBehçet's disease can present with neurological involvement - neuro -behçet - and can manifest itself with several psychiatric symptoms (euphoria, lack of insight, disinhibited behavior, agitation or psychomotor retardation, persecutory delusions, obsessive thoughts, anxiety, depression, insomnia or memory changes). Fever and headache usually appear in the prodromal stage and can be signs of onset or recurrence of the disease. The prevalence of neuro-behçet ranges from 2 to 50% and usually occurs 1 to 10 years after the first symptoms of the disease. Since it appears as the first manifestation of the disease in only 3% of cases, it is difficult to diagnose. The literature suggests that symptoms are generally resistant to treatment with conventional psychotropic drugs and so it is an important cause of morbidity and mortality.”

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