Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Integrating Development And Evolution In Psychology: Looking Back, Moving Forward, David S. Moore

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

This work is the editorial for a special edition of New Ideas in Psychology titled Integrating Development and Evolution in Psychology.

Individuals And Populations: How Biology's Theory And Data Have Interfered With The Integration Of Development And Evolution, David S. Moore

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

Research programs in quantitative behavior genetics and evolutionary psychology have contributed to the widespread belief that some psychological characteristics can be “inherited” via genetic mechanisms. In fact, molecular and developmental biologists have concluded that while genetic factors contribute to the development of all of our traits, non-genetic factors always do too, and in ways that make them no less important than genetic factors. This insight demands a reworking of the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis, a theory that defined evolution as a process involving changes in the frequencies of genes in populations, and that envisioned no role for experiential factors now known …

Towards Self-Organizing, Smart Business Networks: Let’S Create ‘Life’ From Inert Information, David Bray, Benn Konsynski

David A. Bray

We review three different theories that can inform how researchers can determine the performance of smart business networks, to include: (1) the Theory of Evolution, (2) the Knowledge-Based Theory of the Firm, and (3) research insights into computers and cognition. We suggest that each of these theories demonstrate that to be generally perceived as smart, an organism needs to be self-organizing, communicative, and tool-making. Consequentially, to determine the performance of a smart business network, we suggest that researchers need to determine the degree to which it is self-organizing, communicative, and tool-making. We then relate these findings to the Internet and …

The Evolution Of Decision And Experienced Utilities, Arthur Robson, Larry Samuelson

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Psychologists report that people make choices on the basis of “decision utilities” that routinely overestimate the “experienced utility” consequences of these choices. This paper argues that this dichotomy between decision and experienced utilities may be the solution to an evolutionary design problem. We examine a setting in which evolution designs agents with utility functions that must mediate intertemporal choices, and in which there is an incentive to condition current utilities on the agent’s previous experience. Anticipating future utility adjustments can distort intertemporal incentives, a conflict that is attenuated by separating decision and experienced utilities.

A Darwinist View Of The Living Constitution, Scott Dodson

Scott Dodson

The metaphor of a “living" Constitution imports terms from biology into law and, in the process, relies on biology for its meaning. A proper understanding of biology is therefore central to understanding living constitutionalism. Yet despite its rampant use by both opponents and proponents of living constitutionalism, and despite the current fervent debate over whether biology can be useful to the law, no one has evaluated the metaphor from a biological perspective.

This Essay begins that inquiry in an interdisciplinary study of law, science, and philology. The Essay first evaluates the metaphor as it is currently used and concludes that …

10th Annual International Global Business & Technology Association Conference | Madrid, Spain, Patrick Flanagan

Patrick Flanagan

At this annual international meeting of the Global Business and Technology Association held in Madrid, Spain, Patrick Flanagan co-authored two papers with Frank P. Le Veness, Department of Government and Politics, St. John's University, Queens, NY (www.stjohns.edu) and served as a discussant for one concurrent session.

From Brothers To Partners: The Evolution Of China's Foreign Policy To The Middle East (1949-2008), Shuang Wen

Archived Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the evolution of the People's Republic of China's (PRC) foreign policy to the Middle East from 1949 to 2008. Using a historical analysis approach, it argues that in the past fifty nine years, the policy has changed from ideology orientated to economic oriented, from idealistic to pragmatic, and from reactive to pro-active. The reasons behind these changes are mainly due to the changing situations within and without the PRC. It concludes that in the near future, the PRC may not confront the US's policy in the region, but instead will actively engage with Middle East countries with …

The Evolution In Coal Mine Gas Extraction - A Response To Economic, Environmental And Community Pressures, Dennis John Black, Naj Aziz

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Effective gas management is vital to the success of the longwall mines operating in the Bulli seam, located in the Southern Sydney Basin, Australia. High gas emissions are characteristic of the region with specific gas emissions typically in the order of 30-45 m3/t. The mines that operate in this area have, since 1980, relied on the use of extensive underground to inseam (UIS) drilling to drain gas both ahead of advancing roadway development and following longwall coal extraction. With the ever increasing production capacity of modern mining machinery the UIS methods are struggling to drain sufficient gas from the coal …

An Agent-Oriented Approach To Support Change Propagation In Software Evolution, Hoa K. Dam

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Software maintenance and evolution is arguably a lengthy and expensive phase in the life cycle of a software system. A critical issue at this phase is change propagation: given a set of primary changes that have been made to software, what additional secondary changes are needed? Although many approaches have been proposed, automated change propagation is still a significant technical challenge in software maintenance and evolution. This paper presents a Ph.D. research in the final stages of developing and evaluating a novel, agent-based, framework to support semi-automated change propagation in evolving software systems.

Evolution Analysis Of Low-Cost Iterative Equalization In Coded Linear Systems With Cyclic Prefixes, Xiaojun Yuan, Qinghua Guo, Xiaodong Wang, Li Ping

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

This paper is concerned with the low-cost iterative equalization/detection principles for coded linear systems with cyclic prefixes. Turbo frequency-domain-equalization (FDE) is applied to systems that may contain the joint effect of multiple-access interference (MAI), cross-antenna interference (CAI) and inter-symbol interference (ISI). We develop an SNK-variance evolution technique for the performance evaluation of the proposed systems. Numerical results in various channel environments demonstrate excellent agreement between the predicted and simulated system performance. © 2008 IEEE.

Measuring Knowledge Of Natural Selection: A Comparison Of The C.I.N.S., An Open-Response Instrument, And An Oral Interview, Ross Nehm, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

Growing recognition of the central importance of fostering an in-depth understanding of natural selection has, surprisingly, failed to stimulate work on the development and rigorous evaluation of instruments that measure knowledge of it. We used three different methodological tools, the Conceptual Inventory of Natural Selection (CINS), a modified version of Bishop and Anderson's (Bishop and Anderson [1990] Journal of Research in Science Teaching 27: 415-427) open-response test that we call the Open Response Instrument (ORI), and an oral interview derived from both instruments, to measure biology majors' understanding of and alternative conceptions about natural selection. We explored how these instruments …