Natural selection contributes to the myopia epidemic

The prevalence of myopia, or nearsightedness, has skyrocketed in the past few decades, creating a public health crisis that is commonly attributed to lifestyle changes. Here we report an overall increase in the frequencies of myopia-associated mutant alleles over 25 years among participants of the UK Biobank. Although myopia itself appears to be selected against, many of the mutant alleles are associated with reproductive benefits, suggesting that reproduction-related selection inadvertently contributes to the myopia epidemic. We estimate that, in the UK alone, natural selection adds more than 100 000 myopia cases per generation, and argue that antagonistic pleiotropy be broadly considered in explaining the spreads of apparently disadvantageous phenotypes in humans and beyond.     

Jurisprudence as performance: John Brown's enactment of natural law at Harper's Ferry

As members of the public and private sphere, we are constantly intrigued by the question of the nature, scope, and limitations of dramatic appeals that are made to a higher justice that appears to exist along side the established order and the “rule of law.” While as Americans we often view ourselves as constitutionalists, obedient citizens who acknowledge the legitimacy of the positive laws instantiated through the decisions of the government, at the same time we are mesmerized by the words and deeds of revolutionaries who have been willing to shed blood in the name of a higher law. Using the John Brown trial as a case example, the essay argues that our jurisprudential norms are co‐produced by both text writers and their audiences. By adapting a performative stance, we can perhaps gain a better understanding of the selectivity and inventiveness involved in legal decision making.     

Resources in Review

Abstract

Atomic Ghost: Poets Respond to the Nuclear Age , edited by John Bradley with an introduction by Terry Tempest Williams. Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press. 1995. 330 pages. Softbound, $15.95.     

¿Han sido seleccionados o se han acostumbrado? Ideas de estudiantes de biología sobre la selección natural y consistencia entre ellas

Resumen

Estudiantes universitarios de Biología, ante problemas de respuesta abierta sobre la selección natural, utilizan, en porcentajes alarmantes, interpretaciones que consideran la adaptación como cambios heredables en los individuos. Se encontró un cierto grado de consistencia entre las respuestas de cada sujeto a los problemas en diferentes contextos; pero hay también casos en que una persona empleó esquemas conceptuales diferentes. Se sugiere que una de las condiciones para promover el cambio conceptual es que los profesores tengan en cuenta las ideas de los estudiantes.     

Is ‘Closing the Gap’ Enough? Ngarrindjeri ontologies,reconciliation and caring for country

This article is concerned with Ngarrindjeri nation building in the ‘contact zone’ with the Australian settler state by decentring the colonizer within a range of bureaucratic regimes. Ngarrindjeri engagement with natural resource and cultural heritage management will be used to illustrate the relationship between globalization, community governance, education, sustaining ‘culture’, Indigenous well-being, and reconciliation and its links to the Australian government Closing the Gap initiatives. This article connects Ngarrindjeri lived experience to the theorization of processes for self-recovery and social transformation that open possibilities for broad-based local and global coalitions, which include political solidarity in the interests of just Indigenous ‘reinhabitation’ and decolonization.     

The Role of Education Redefined: 18th century British and French educational thought and the rise of the Baconian conception of the study of nature

The idea that science teaching in schools should prepare the ground for society's future technical and scientific progress has played an important role in shaping modern education. This idea, however, was not always present. In this article, I examine how this idea first emerged in educational thought. Early in the 17th century, Francis Bacon asserted that the study of nature should serve to improve living conditions for all members of society. Although influential, Bacon's idea was not easily assimilated by educational thinkers who remained committed to the traditional aims of teaching about nature. Yet in the second half of the 18th century a change has occurred; educational thinkers started to embrace Baconian ideas and therefore argued that science teaching should be oriented towards generating future scientific progress. Analysing the work of 18th century French and British educational thinkers, this article links the emergence of this new view to developments in the understanding of natural philosophy and to a rising interest in it. It is argued, however, that in themselves, these developments could not adequately explain why Baconian ideas started to influence educational theory in the time in which they did. It is maintained that the incorporation of Baconian ideas into educational thought resulted from a fundamental theoretical shift in the understanding of the role of education itself.     

Natural Acceleration: Supporting Creative Trajectories

Natural acceleration happens through an internal fire that burns to learn and may transcend school boundaries. Based on their passionate interests and connections with a domain, children who hunger for domain understandings outside school curricula require different types of acceleration, motivated by these interests. The lifeworks, domains, and interests of two eminent Brazilian brothers, Walter and Roberto Burle Marx, represent different creative trajectories. Examining childhood experiences that helped them accomplish their endeavors finds major differences in their early education. Both boys reported that their real education was through pursuit of their passions wherein they hungered for expertise, not through school. Though acceleration in school subjects certainly benefits some students, careful observation and honoring of young children's passions allows natural acceleration steered by the student, rather than school personnel, which may lead to greater possibilities of attaining high levels of creativity.     

通用产品配置系统中的知识表示及应用

针对目前产品配置系统大多为面向单一产品的配置,开发通用产品配置系统,意在实现软件重用.该系统将知识表示运用于系统开发,通过知识编辑器、知识编译器和知识执行器,实现产品配置规则的自动判别和产品实例的自动检测,为实现产品配置的智能化提供可行的途径.     

计算机辅助劳动定额制定与管理系统在东电的设计与实现

随着公司生产经营的不断发展,为使劳动定额的制定和管理适应现代企业管理和公司信息化管理的要求,设计实现了东电计算机辅助劳动定额制定与管理系统。该系统是以各种劳动定额计算模型为核心、以体系结构为框架、以各种规则及系数作为平衡劳动定额的手段来克服传统劳动定额制定与管理过程中定额平衡性差、劳动强度大、工作效率低等缺点。该系统的实施有助于提高企业定额的制定效率和管理水平,以满足企业现代化管理的需要。     

D-S理论中证据合成规则改进的研究

文章详细分析了D-S证据理论的证据合成原理。针对D-S证据理论的不足,对其合成规则进行了改进,基本原则是要求多种来源的概率分配函数的合成结果满足"少数服从多数"的思维习惯;在Yager合成规则的基础上,给出了一种新的证据理论合成规则,使冲突证据的合成更为合理。