scholarly journals Evolution, heritable risk, and skewness loving

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 403-424
Author(s):  
Yuval Heller ◽  
Arthur Robson

Our understanding of risk preferences can be sharpened by considering their evolutionary basis. The existing literature has focused on two sources of risk: idiosyncratic risk and aggregate risk. We introduce a new source of risk—heritable risk—in which there is a positive correlation between the fitness of a newborn agent and the fitness of her parent. Heritable risk was plausibly common in our evolutionary past and it leads to a strictly higher growth rate than the other sources of risk. We show that the presence of heritable risk in the evolutionary past may explain the tendency of people to exhibit skewness loving today.

2009 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z.G. Zhang ◽  
X.F. Wang ◽  
Q.Q. Tian ◽  
C.L. Yu

Highly ordered bismuth silicate micro-crystals have been grown by sintering method at 800?C for the first time. The samples were characterized for structural and surface morphological properties by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM). The result shows that a pure cubic phase (Bi4Si3O12) was obtained. The Bi4Si3O12 grains always distribute in pairs on both sides and arrange grain lines. There are two types of grain size trend along with the growth direction of the grain line. One trend is gradually increased or decreased and the other trend is basically unchanged. In most cases the grain size trends on both sides of one line are approximately consistent and there is a highly positive correlation between the grain growth rates on both sides of one line. The highly positive correlation analysis indicates a relationship between grain growth rates on both sides, such as when the value for one grain growth rate increases, the value for the other grain growth rate in pairs also increases. If the grain size trends on both sides are thoroughly inconsistent and there is a nonlinear relationship between grain growth rates on both sides in one line, these two trends may belong to two types respectively.


2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Naresh Singla ◽  
Mamandeep Kaur

The growth of agriculture and allied sectors is critical for the Indian economy as about 49 percent of the population is directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture. During the last decade and so, the agriculture sector has undergone profound changes resulting in sharp deceleration in its growth. The study has attempted to analyze growth and performance of the agriculture sector in India since 1980-81 and tries to comprehend some of the factors responsible for the deceleration in growth. The study has shown that agriculture sector has been able to show tremendous improvement in expansion of area and production of food grain and non-food grain crops. However, there are so many underlying factors responsible for slowdown of the agricultural growth. Some of the factors identified include: Increase in area under non-agriculture uses, excessive dependence on rain fed farming, increase in number of agricultural labourers, reducing size of the operation holdings, over use of agri-inputs, inequity in the distribution of agriculture credit along with sharp deceleration in public gross capital formation in agriculture etc. The study pointed in order to achieve higher growth rate, there is a need to enhance the gross capital formation in agriculture sector particularly on irrigation so that more area can be brought under assured irrigation. Bringing equity in distribution of agricultural credit coupled with judicious and need-based agricultural inputs are some of the other recommendations drawn based upon the study.


1988 ◽  
Vol 53 (12) ◽  
pp. 2995-3013
Author(s):  
Emerich Erdös ◽  
Jindřich Leitner ◽  
Petr Voňka ◽  
Josef Stejskal ◽  
Přemysl Klíma

For a quantitative description of the epitaxial growth rate of gallium arsenide, two models are proposed including two rate controlling steps, namely the diffusion of components in the gas phase and the surface reaction. In the models considered, the surface reaction involves a reaction triple - or quadruple centre. In both models three mechanisms are considered which differ one from the other by different adsorption - and impact interaction of reacting particles. In every of the six cases, the pertinent rate equations were derived, and the models have been confronted with the experimentally found dependences of the growth rate on partial pressures of components in the feed. The results are discussed with regard to the plausibility of individual mechanisms and of both models, and also with respect to their applicability and the direction of further investigations.


Chromosoma ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 130 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-25
Author(s):  
Phuong T. N. Hoang ◽  
Jean-Marie Rouillard ◽  
Jiří Macas ◽  
Ivona Kubalová ◽  
Veit Schubert ◽  
...  

AbstractDuckweeds represent a small, free-floating aquatic family (Lemnaceae) of the monocot order Alismatales with the fastest growth rate among flowering plants. They comprise five genera (Spirodela, Landoltia, Lemna, Wolffiella, and Wolffia) varying in genome size and chromosome number. Spirodela polyrhiza had the first sequenced duckweed genome. Cytogenetic maps are available for both species of the genus Spirodela (S. polyrhiza and S. intermedia). However, elucidation of chromosome homeology and evolutionary chromosome rearrangements by cross-FISH using Spirodela BAC probes to species of other duckweed genera has not been successful so far. We investigated the potential of chromosome-specific oligo-FISH probes to address these topics. We designed oligo-FISH probes specific for one S. intermedia and one S. polyrhiza chromosome (Fig. 1a). Our results show that these oligo-probes cross-hybridize with the homeologous regions of the other congeneric species, but are not suitable to uncover chromosomal homeology across duckweeds genera. This is most likely due to too low sequence similarity between the investigated genera and/or too low probe density on the target genomes. Finally, we suggest genus-specific design of oligo-probes to elucidate chromosome evolution across duckweed genera.


Genes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 661
Author(s):  
Hanna Isaksson ◽  
Peter L. Conlin ◽  
Ben Kerr ◽  
William C. Ratcliff ◽  
Eric Libby

Early multicellular organisms must gain adaptations to outcompete their unicellular ancestors, as well as other multicellular lineages. The tempo and mode of multicellular adaptation is influenced by many factors including the traits of individual cells. We consider how a fundamental aspect of cells, whether they reproduce via binary fission or budding, can affect the rate of adaptation in primitive multicellularity. We use mathematical models to study the spread of beneficial, growth rate mutations in unicellular populations and populations of multicellular filaments reproducing via binary fission or budding. Comparing populations once they reach carrying capacity, we find that the spread of mutations in multicellular budding populations is qualitatively distinct from the other populations and in general slower. Since budding and binary fission distribute age-accumulated damage differently, we consider the effects of cellular senescence. When growth rate decreases with cell age, we find that beneficial mutations can spread significantly faster in a multicellular budding population than its corresponding unicellular population or a population reproducing via binary fission. Our results demonstrate that basic aspects of the cell cycle can give rise to different rates of adaptation in multicellular organisms.


1977 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 651-658 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. H. Aafjes ◽  
J. C. M. van der Vijver ◽  
R. Docter ◽  
P. E. Schenck

ABSTRACT In 210 subfertile men there existed a significant positive correlation between serum FSH and LH (0.41). No correlation was observed between the gonadotrophin levels and testosterone. In contrast to this FSH as well as LH were negatively correlated with the natural logarithm (In) of the sperm count/ml ejaculate (−0.44 and −0.18, respectively). When the positive correlation which existed between FSH and LH was used to calculate partial correlation coefficients, the coefficient between FSH and ln sperm count did hardly change (−0.41) the coefficient between LH and ln sperm count on the other hand became insignificant (−0.05). This suggests that spermatogenesis influences FSH serum levels in subfertile men by a decreased suppression when sperm production is diminished. Testicular biopsies taken from 97 of these patients were used to determine biopsy scores. These scores showed a significant negative correlation with FSH (−0.34) and a positive one with ln sperm count/ml ejaculate (0.45). Interestingly the biopsy score of 16 patients who fertilized their wives, was found to be higher compared with the score of the other patients who did not fertilize. The number of sperm/ml ejaculate and the FSH values of these 2 groups of biopsied patients were, however, not significantly different. This leads to the conclusion that the biopsy score is a better parameter for the evaluation of oligospermic men than either sperm count or FSH serum values.


1997 ◽  
Vol 467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fumio Yoshizawa ◽  
Kunihiro Shiota ◽  
Daisuke Inoue ◽  
Jun-ichi Hanna

ABSTRACTPolycrystalline SiGe (poly-SiGe) film growth by reactive thermal CVD with a gaseous mixture of Si2H6 and GeF4 was investigated on various substrates such as Al,Cr, Pt, Si, ITO, ZnO and thermally grown SiO2.In Ge-rich film growth, SEM observation in the early stage of the film growth revealed that direct nucleation of crystallites took place on the substrates. The nucleation was governed by two different mechanisms: one was a heterogeneous nucleation on the surface and the other was a homogeneous nucleation in the gas phase. In the former case, the selective nucleation was observed at temperatures lower than 400°C on metal substrates and Si, where the activation of adsorbed GeF4 on the surface played a major role for the nuclei formation, leading to the selective film growth.On the other hand, the direct nucleation did not always take place in Si-rich film growth irrespective of the substrates and depended on the growth rate. In a growth rate of 3.6nm/min, the high crystallinity of poly-Si0.95Ge0.05in a 220nm-thick film was achieved at 450°C due to the no initial deposition of amorphous tissue on SiO2 substrates.


2015 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
E.M. Mostafa ◽  
A.M.A. Hassan

Exposure ofAzollaplants to UV-B radiation for 6 h resulted in a decrease in biomass and relative growth rate (RGR), which coincided with an increase in doubling time (DT) as compared with the control. Also, the protein content decreased. On the other hand, hydrogen peroxyde (H2O2) and malondialdehyde (MDA) accumulated significantly in UV-treatedAzollaplants. Conversely, the addition of selenium (Se) at 1 ppm resulted in a significant increase in biomass and protein content of untreated and UV-treatedAzollaplants, and a significant reduction in both H2O2and MDA. Moreover, the addition of Se to UV-treated and untreatedAzollaplants resulted in a significant increase in total ascorbate and total glutathione (GSH) contents compared with the control and UV-stressedAzollaplants. Also, glutathione redox potential (GSH/TG) increased significantly in UV-treatedAzollaplants in the presence of Se. There also was a significant increase (38%) in ascorbate peroxidase (APX) activity in UV-treated plants compared with the control. APX activity in the presence of Se did not change significantly compared with the control. Glutathione reductase (GR) activity increased significantly in UV-treatedAzolla, while glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX) activity did not. On the other hand, both GSH-PX and GR activity in untreated and UV-treatedAzollaplants were significantly enhanced by the application of Se to the nutrient media at a concentration of 1 ppm. Therefore, we can conclude that Se protectsAzollaplants from UV-B stress.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-91
Author(s):  
F Yasmin ◽  
MR Amin ◽  
M Afroz ◽  
MAH Swapon ◽  
MM Hossain

The tropical vegetable, brinjal is cultivated throughout the year in Bangladesh but the crop is infested by a number of insects including jassid. This study investigated the effects of different biophysical and biochemical characteristics of twelve brinjal germplasms on the abundance and infestation of jassid. The experiment was conducted during September 2018 to March 2019 in Gazipur, Bangladesh with twelve brinjal germplasms namely BD-7320, BD-7328, BD-9952, BD-10154, BD-10158, BARI Begun-1, BARI Begun-4, BARI Begun-5, BARI Begun- 6, BARI Begun-7, BARI Begun-8 and BARI Begun-9. The incidence of jassid was recorded from 3rd December to 26th March, and the lowest population was found on BARI Begun- 6. Among the biophysical traits, plant height, number of branch and leaf per plant, and leaf area exerted significant positive correlation; whereas trichome on lower and upper surfaces of leaf, spine per stem and leaf showed significant negative correlation with the abundance of jassid. On the other hand, moisture, reducing sugar, total sugar and protein content of the leaves and fruits, chlorophyll content of the leaves exerts significant positive correlation but ash and pH contents of the leaves and fruits were negatively correlated with the abundance of jassid. Jassids showed the lowest level of leaf infestation on BARI Begun-6, which could be for further analysis to develop jassid resistant brinjal. SAARC J. Agric., 19(1): 81-91 (2021)


2010 ◽  
Vol 23 (01) ◽  
pp. 28-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Cachon ◽  
D. Remy ◽  
C. Carozzo ◽  
E. Viguier ◽  
P. Maitre ◽  
...  

SummaryIn order to look for phenotypic correlation between hip (HD) and elbow (ED) dysplasia, we used radiographic scoring obtained from 1,411 dogs of different breeds, which were evaluated for authoritative grading of both conditions. In this population, we found that the risk ratio for an animal to be simultaneously affected by HD and ED is 1.67. For a dog with ED, the risk ratio to be affected by HD increases as the ED grade increases. Similarly, for a dog affected by HD, the risk ratio to be affected by ED increases as the HD grade increases. In a dog affected by HD or ED, the clinician should look for the second condition in the same animal. Due to the low, yet positive correlation, selection against one trait will not affect the other trait sufficiently. Therefore selection has to be conducted at reduction of HD as well as reduction of ED.


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