Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Darwin'

Through sculpture and drawing, I create my own versions of natural specimens primarily based upon the visual unity of disparate organisms. Invented specimens are composed using a variety of processes employing a mixture of atypical materials following the (20th, 21st century) Postmodern shift away from formalist and traditional uses of any singular medium. As well as a variety of art materials, the specimens are hybrids of organic and biomorphic elements, blurring boundaries between botanical, animal, fungal, metal, and mineral. Is my approach perhaps like Charles Darwin, observant and studious naturalist, or am I more like Dr. Frankenstein, science fiction maker of monstrosities?

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas, Programa de Pós-graduação em Filosofia, Florianopolis, 2010
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Auto-intitulado o Buldogue de Darwin, Thomas Huxley ficou bastante conhecido como um fiel defensor do darwinismo, principalmente em âmbito não-especializado. Porém, sua advocacia nesse sentido teve como pano de fundo seu posicionamento filosófico, ao qual denominou cunhando o termo agnosticismo. Esse termo é comumente mal-interpretado e utilizado de forma inadequada, muitas vezes sendo entendido como um posicionamento religioso intermediário entre o deísmo e o ateísmo. Tal perspectiva está totalmente em desacordo com aquilo que Huxley tinha em mente quando cunhou o termo em uma reunião da extinta Metaphysical Society, onde, fortemente apoiado pelas filosofias de David Hume e Imannuel Kant, buscou exprimir sua posição perante os assuntos ali debatidos. O Agnosticismo é melhor compreendido como uma posição filosófica que defende a suspensão de juízo em relação a assuntos que transcendem à experiência, isto é, como uma reivindicação sobre as limitações e o escopo das faculdades cognitivas humanas. Ele deve ser utilizado como uma espécie de princípio de parcimônia epistemológico, que nega a validade a proposições sobre entidades que são em princípio inobserváveis. Obviamente um personagem que sustentava tal posição se sentiu bastante atraído por uma explicação totalmente naturalística acerca da história da vida na Terra, como aquela proposta por Charles Darwin em "A Origem das Espécies". Embora tivesse ressalvas sobre alguns pontos da teoria de Darwin, como o gradualismo e o mecanismo de seleção natural, Huxley, de um modo geral, estava em perfeita sintonia com a visão darwiniana. E Darwin, por sua vez, também estava em sintonia com o posicionamento filosófico de Huxley, e este servia perfeitamente como suporte para a aceitação de sua teoria, principalmente em relação ao público geral. Buscaremos portanto demonstrar a intrínseca relação existente entre o agnosticismo de Huxley e a teoria darwiniana da evolução. Embora fossem muito amigos, as defesas de Huxley à teoria darwiniana foram totalmente isentas de motivações extra-científicas. Será defendida também a ideia de que o agnosticismo, tal como Huxley o compreendia, enquanto um naturalismo epistemológico, leva inevitavelmente à uma visão evolutiva sobre a origem das espécies biológicas e as características apresentadas por elas. De modo semelhante, a revolução científica e cultural causada pela teoria darwiniana levou ao agnosticismo ser praticamente um axioma geral do pensamento científico a partir do século XX.
Self-titled Darwin's Bulldog, Thomas Huxley was well known as a staunch defender of Darwinism, primarily at the non-specialist. However, his advocacy in this direction was the background of his philosophical position, to which he coined the term agnosticism. This term is often misunderstood and used inappropriately, often being seen as a religious position intermediate between deism and atheism. This perspective is totally at odds with what Huxley had in mind when he coined the term in a reunion of the extinct Metaphysical Society, where he, strongly supported by the philosophy of David Hume and Imannuel Kant, sought to express its position on the issues there discussed. The agnosticism is best understood as a philosophical position that calls for suspension of judgment in respect of matters which transcend the experience, that is, as a claim about the limitations and scope of human cognitive faculties. It should be used as a kind of epistemological principle of parsimony, which denies the validity of the statements about entities that are unobservable in principle. Obviously a character who held such a position has felt very attracted to a completely naturalistic explanation about the history of life on Earth, like that proposed by Charles Darwin in "The Origin of Species". Although he had reservations about some points of Darwin's theory, such as gradualism and the mechanism of natural selection, Huxley, in general, he was in perfect harmony with the Darwinian view. And Darwin, in turn, was also in line with the philosophical position of Huxley, and it served well as support for the acceptance of his theory, especially in relation to the general public. Therefore, we seek to demonstrate the intrinsic relationship between the agnosticism of Huxley and Darwin's theory of evolution. Although they were good friends, the defenses of Huxley to Darwin's theory were completely free of extra-scientific motivations. We will also hold the idea that Huxley's agnosticism is like an epistemological naturalism, that leads inevitably to an evolutionary view on the origin of species and on the features presented by them. Similarly, the scientific and cultural revolution caused by Darwin's theory led to agnosticism is practically a general axiom of scientific thought from the twentieth century.

Den traditionella substantialistiska tolkningen av imago dei bygger på tanken att människan är väsenskiljd och unik i förhållande till övriga skapelsen i kraft av vissa kognitiva egenskaper. Darwins evolutionslära problematiserar denna antropologi. Detta ställer nya teologiska frågor kring mänsklig unicitet och hur imago dei, ska förstås.  I uppsatsen diskutterar och pekar jag på en riktning för hur ett nytt imago dei kan förstås. Jag argumenterar för valet av en relationell tolkning av ett (luthersk) imago dei.

A teoria da descendência com modificação de Darwin, que explica a origem de espécies através da seleção natural, é considerada um marco na história da ciência. A possibilidade de unificação de toda a biologia e a mudança que ela trouxe para nossos valores e para a nossa compreensão da posição da humanidade no universo ainda causam um grande impacto na sociedade e na relação entre ciência e filosofia. O objetivo do presente estudo é compreender alguns aspectos dos desenvolvimentos da ciência que antecederam essa teoria. Dois elementos foram estabelecidos como referências para essa análise: a teoria de Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, a mais importante a propor o conceito da transformação das espécies antes de Darwin e o problema científico da explicação da extinção. As várias teorias elaboradas para dar conta da diversidade de espécies na Terra, bem como para explicar o fenômeno da extinção são discutidas através das obras de Georges Cuvier, Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire e Richard Owen. Nessas teorias, as questões da adaptação e das noções teleológicas são destacadas devido à sua relação com o problema da extinção. A abordagem de Darwin para o problema da extinção é discutida em sua relação com o conceito de seleção natural e com o conceito de adaptação defendido pela teologia natural britânica.
Darwin\'s theory of descent with modification, which explains the origin of species by natural selection, is considered a milestone in the history of science. The possibility of unification of the entire field of biology and the changes that it brought to our values and to our understanding of the position of mankind in the universe are still causing great impact in society and in the relationship between science and philosophy. The aim of this study is to understand some aspects of the developments of science that preceded this theory. Two elements were established as references for this analysis: the theory of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, the most important work proposing the concept of transformation of species before Darwin, and the scientific problem of the explanation of extinction. The several theories elaborated to account for the diversity of species on Earth as well as to explain the phenomenon of extinction are discussed through the works of Georges Cuvier, Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire and Richard Owen. Within these theories, the issues of adaptation and teleological notions are stressed because of their connection to the problem of extinction. Darwin\'s approach to the problem of extinction is discussed for its relation to the concept of natural selection and to the concept of adaptation defended by the british natural theology.

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Erasmus Darwin (1731-1803) was a doctor, botanist, philosopher, inventor and poet. A closer look into his life and work unveils an active 18th-century English man of science, who had a significant role in the foundation of learned societies, such as Birmingham s Lunar Society. Mostly known in the present time as Charles Darwin and Francis Galton s grandfather, he was eventually attributed some anticipations of the former s ideas on evolution. However, Zoonomia was written to introduce the foundations of medical theory and practice to colleagues. According to Darwin, the laws of organic life corresponded to the operation of the faculties of the principle of motions, which he named as spirit of animation. Having resource to some of the ideas most prevalent in his time, he listed such faculties as being four: irritation, sensitivity, sensitivity, volition, and association. Consistently, in his nosology, Darwin applied Carl von Linné´s botanical taxonomy to those faculties to formulate a rational classification of disease, which could also serve as a therapeutic guide
Erasmus Darwin (1731-1803) foi médico, botânico, filósofo, inventor e poeta. Ao se estudar mais profundamente sua vida e sua obra, encontra-se um ativo homem de ciência na Inglaterra do século XVIII, tendo, inclusive, participado da fundação de sociedades de estudiosos, tais como a Lunar Society de Birmingham. Atualmente mais conhecido por ter sido o avô de Charles Darwin e Francis Galton, chegou-se, inclusive, a se atribuir a ele uma antecipação das ideias evolucionistas do primeiro. No entanto, Zoonomia é uma obra destinada a apresentar os fundamentos da teoria e da prática da medicina aos seus colegas. De acordo com Darwin, as leis da vida orgânica se resumem à operação das faculdades do princípio de movimento, que chama de espírito de animação e, com base nas ideias prevalentes na época, reduz à irritação, à sensação, à vontade e à associação. Na sua nosologia, aplica a taxonomia botânica de Carl Von Linné a essas faculdades, de modo a apresentar uma classificação racional das doenças que, ao mesmo tempo, serve como base à terapêutica

L'objectif de la mission spatiale Darwin de l'ESA est la détection directe, dans le domaine de l'infrarouge thermique, de planètes extra-solaires de type Terre autour d'étoiles proches et de rechercher des traces de vie dans l'atmosphère éventuelle via la spectroscopie.
L'un des points durs technologiques de réalisation de l'instrument est la maîtrise de l'interférométrie à frange noire, et en particulier la recombinaison de quatre ondes et l'introduction sur deux d'entre elles d'un déphasage de pi achromatique.
Ce manuscrit présente l'étude d'un système compact de recombinaison, répondant à ces deux exigences : la cascade de CIA.
Dans un premier temps, la contexte scientifique de la mission Darwin est décrit et l'état des lieux des avancées réalisées est dressé.
Dans un deuxième temps, le principe et l'étude de faisabilité de la cascade sont détaillés, comprenant l'analyse des contraintes que posent son application au mode coronographique de Darwin et l'établissement des spécifications instrumentales associées. L'apport d'un filtrage spatial des fronts d'onde est aussi étudié.
Dans un troisième temps, les technologies en développement, susceptibles d'apporter de nouvelles solutions aux obstacles technologiques rencontrés, et le projet GENIE, précurseur au sol de Darwin sont succinctement décrits.
Les spécifications instrumentales établies sont réalisables, à la vue des performances technologiques accessibles à ce jour. Au terme de l'étude, il apparaît donc que la cascade de CIA pourrait être une solution alternative au mode de recombinaison de la mission Darwin.

L’objectif de la mission spatiale Darwin de l’ESA est la détection directe, dans le domaine de l’infrarouge thermique, de planètes extrasolaires de type Terre autour d’étoiles proches et de rechercher des traces de vie dans l’atmosphère éventuelle via la spectroscopie. L’un des points durs technologiques de réalisation de l’instrument est la maîtrise de l’interférométrie à frange noire, et en particulier la recombinaison de quatre ondes et l’introduction sur deux d’entre elles d’un déphasage de π achromatique. Ce manuscrit présente l’étude d’un système compact de recombinaison, répondant à ces deux exigences : la cascade de CIA. Dans un premier temps, le contexte scientifique de la mission Darwin est décrit et l’état des lieux des avancées réalisées est dressé. Dans un deuxième temps, principe et l’étude de faisabilité de la cascade sont détaillés, comprenant l’analyse des contraintes que posent son application au mode coronographique de Darwin et l’établissement des spécifications instrumentales associées. L’apport d’un filtrage spatial des fronts d’onde est aussi étudié. Dans un troisième temps, les technologies en développement, susceptibles d’apporter de nouvelles solutions aux obstacles technologiques rencontrés, et le projet GENIE, précurseur au sol de Darwin, sont succinctement décrits. Les spécifications instrumentales établies sont réalisables, à la vue des performances technologiques accessibles à ce jour. Au terme de l’étude, il apparaît donc que la cascade de CIA pourrait être une solution alternative au mode de recombinaison de la mission Darwin
The main goal of the ESA Darwin mission is to archive, in the thermal infrared spectral domain, the direct detection of earth-like exo-planets around nearby stars and to analyse their atmosphere (if any) to search for spectral features of bio-markers, revealing the possible presence of life, as we know it. Using the technique of nulling interferometry induces two technological critical points : an optical system must combine four telescope beams and apply an achromatic π phase shift on two of them. This manuscript presents the study of dedicated optical system for beam combination, named “AIC cascade”. A first part summarizes the scientific context of the Darwin mission and the technological development currently planned. A second part describes the AIC cascade principle and its technical feasibility study. This one contains the analyse of instrumental constraints, induces by the Darwin nulling mode, and the resulting specifications assessment. A third part describes new technologies, potentially able to provide new solutions of technological hard points, and the Darwin groundbased demonstrator, called GENIE. The technical specifications are in accordance with current technological capabilities. In conclusion the AIC cascade could be an alternative solution for the Darwin nulling mode

This thesis explores Darwin's life in London in the context of the social relationships he formed there. Recent studies have highlighted the paradox between his speculative work, with its dangerous associations with political radicalism and infidelity, and his intense desire for social respectability, evidenced by his determination to shun controversy and by his retirement to the security of family life in the Kent countryside. How Darwin coped with the tension arising from this mismatch of intellectual radicalism and social conservatism has not been explained; it is widely assumed that it was a major factor in prompting his prolonged and frequent attacks of debilitating illness. The problem is addressed here by looking at the support Darwin drew from the friends he made in London. His experiences during the Beagle voyage had led him to focus on philosophical issues which had not previously troubled him. Having returned to England, he deliberately chose to surround himself with friends who were not afraid to adopt heterodox positions on religion and society; in their company his personal anxieties were assuaged and he could pursue new ideas with enthusiasm. These friends had specialist knowledge in subjects which had a close bearing on Darwin's theories. His relationship with them throws light on issues such as how the debate about religion influenced his evolutionary thinking, and the nature of the contribution made to it by Malthus. The esteem in which they were held, notwithstanding their intellectual radicalism, explains how Darwin was able to find in their company the self-confidence to develop his iconoclastic conclusions. His identification with them, and their contribution to the intellectual re-evaluation of the 1830s and 1840s, helps to account for the wide acceptance of Darwin's views, published twenty years later, when the social ideology being formulated in his youth had become the prevailing orthodoxy of mid-Victorian England.

Die vorliegende Arbeit behandelt die Embryonalentwicklung des Rankenfußkrebses Elminius modestus (Thecostraca: Cirripedia). Der Entwicklungsprozess wurde mithilfe unterschiedlicher Methoden wie 4D Mikroskopie, in vivo Einzelzellmarkierungen, Fluoreszenzhistochemie und konfokaler Laserscanningmikroskopie in Verbindung mit 3D Rekonstruktionen untersucht. Die Furchung von E. modestus ist total, inequal in Bezug auf die Dotterzelle und asynchron mit einem anterior-posterioren Gradienten. Der gesamte Prozess folgt einem strengen Teilungsmuster mit nur sehr geringer Variabilität. Eine davon stellt das Auftreten spiegelbildlicher Embryonen ab dem 4-Zell. Die Keimblattdifferenzierung wurde vor allem mittels in vivo Zellmarkierungen untersucht. Die Trennung der endodermalen und endomesodemalen Keimblätter erfolgt nach der vierten Furchungsteilung, die Trennung des Ectomesoderm nach der sechsten Teilung. Die Urkeimzellen sind aller Wahrscheinlichkeit nach ein Produkt der siebten Furchungsteilung der Dotterzellen (3Da und 3Dp). Im Zuge der Untersuchung konnte die Zelllinie jedes Keimblattes rekonstruiert werden, die Zellschicksale der Abkömmlinge der Quadranten wurde bis zum 16-Zell Stadium beschrieben. Das Ectoderm entspringt allen vier Quadranten, ebenso das Ectomesoderm (die letzten identifizierten Mesectoblasten sind 3A, 3B, 3C, 1drp und 1dlp). Endoderm und Endomesoderm entwickeln sich aus einzelnen Vorläuferzellen im 16-Zell Stadium (2D bzw. 2d). Das Auftreten nur eines einzelnen Endoblasten stellt eine mögliche Apomorphie aller Ecdysozoa dar. Das Vorhandensein eines einzelnen Mesendoblasten wird als mögliches Merkmal des Grundmusters aller Protostomia in Betracht gezogen.
The present work is devoted to the embryonic development of the thoracican barnacle Elminius modestus (Thecostraca: Cirripedia). The developmental process was investigated by means of different techniques like 4D microscopy, in vivo labelling, fluorescent histochemistry, and confocal laser scanning microscopy combined with 3D reconstructions. The cleavage of E. modestus is total, unequal with regards to the yolky cell, and asynchronous with an anterior-posterior gradient. The entire process appears to follow a strict pattern of divisions with very little variability, one of which includes the occurrence of mirror image embryos from the 4-cell stage on. The germ layer differentiation was mainly studied by means of in vivo labelling. The segregation of the endodermal and the endomesodemal germ layers are shown to happen after the fourth division, whereas the ectomesoderm segregates after the sixth division. The primordial germ cells are suggested to be a product of the seventh cleavage division of the yolky cells (3Da and 3Dp). During the research the cell lineage of each germ layer was established, the fates of the quadrant descendants are described up to the 16-cell stage. The ectoderm originates from four quadrants, as does the ectomesoderm (the last identified mesectoblasts are 3A, 3B, 3C, 1drp, and 1dlp). The endoderm and the endomesoderm develop from single precursors at the 16-cell stage (2D and 2d, respectively). The presence of only a single endoblastic cell, might represent an apomorphy for the entire group of Ecdysozoa. A singular mesendoblast is suggested to be a possible feature in the developmental ground pattern of all Protostomia.

Los Premios Darwin son otorgados de forma póstuma a personas que han realizado un acto estúpido y han perdido la vida como consecuencia de dicho acto, por lo que parte del supuesto que el ser humano menos dotado genéticamente, no sobrevive. Para ello, se hizo una revisión bibliográfica en internet (google académico y descriptor DeCS), debido a que no se encontró información en otras fuentes. Este premio ha despertado la curiosidad de los investigadores para explicar las razones por las que los hombres se exponen más que las mujeres a situaciones peligrosas, llegando a postular la “teoría de la idiotez masculina”.
The Darwin Awards are awarded posthumously to people who have performed a stupid act and have lost their lives as a result of that act, so part of the assumption that the human less endowed genetically, does not survive. To do this, a bibliographical review was made on the internet (Google Sscholar and descriptor DeCS), because no information was found in other sources. This award has aroused the curiosity of researchers to explain the reasons why men expose themselves more than women to dangerous situations, even postulating the “male idiocy theory”.

This M. Sc. thesis studies the statistical characteristics of convective storms in a monsoon regime in Darwin, northern Australia. It has been conducted with the use of radar. Enhanced knowledge of tropical convection is essential in studies of the global climate, and this study aims to bring light on some special characteristics of storms in a tropical environment. The observed behaviour of convective storms can be implemented in the parameterisation of these in cloud-resolving regional and global models. The wet season was subdivided into three regimes; build-up and breaks, the monsoon and the dry monsoon. Using a cell tracking system called TITAN, these regimes were shown to support different storm characteristics in terms of their temporal, spatial and height distributions. The build-up and break storms were seen to be more vigorous and particularly modulated diurnally by sea breezes. The monsoon was dominated by frequent but less intense and vertically less extensive convective cores. The explanation for this could be found in the atmospheric environment, with monsoonal convection having oceanic origins together with a mean upward motion of air through the depth of the troposphere. The dry monsoon was characterised by suppressed convection due to the presence of dry mid-level air. The effects of wind shear on convective line orientations were examined. The results show a diurnal evolution from low-level shear parallel orientations of convective lines to low-level shear perpendicular during build-up and breaks. The monsoon was dominated by complex orientations of convective lines. The thesis includes a study of merged and splitted cells, which have been separated from other storms, and mergers were shown to support more vigorous convection in terms of height distribution and reflectivity profiles. They were also seen to be the most long-lived category of storms as well as the most common type. Split storms were generally weaker, indicative of their general tendency to decay shortly after the split occurred.
En statistisk studie av konvektiva celler i en miljö som präglas av monsunförhållanden har utförts i Darwin, norra Australien, med hjälp av radar. En ökad förståelse for tropisk konvektion är nödvändig for att kunna studera klimatet globalt. Denna studie har bidragit till denna kunskapsbas genom att studera några viktiga parametrar hos konvektiva celler i en tropisk miljö. De observerade egenskaperna hos dessa celler kan implementeras i parametriseringen av högupplösta regionala och globala modeller. Regnperioden delades upp i tre olika regimer; uppbyggnad och avbrott, monsun och torr monsun. Genom att använda ett cellsökande system kallat TITAN, visade sig dessa regimer uppvisa olika karakteristika vad gäller tids- och rumsmässig samt vertikal distribution av konvektionsceller. Uppbyggnad- och avbrottsregimen dominerades av mäktiga och intensiva konvektionsceller, och modulerades av sjöbrisar på en daglig basis. Monsunen dominerades av talrika men mindre intensiva celler. Anledningen till detta kan finnas i atmosfäriska förhållanden, dar monsunen dominerades av konvektionsceller med oceanisk härkomst och allmän hävning genom större delen av troposfären. Den torra monsunen präglades av försvagad konvektion på grund av närvaron av mycket torr luft på medelhöga nivåer. Effekten av vindskjuvning på orienteringen av bylinjer undersöktes. Resultaten visar att en daglig övergång från en orientering som var parallell med vindskjuvningsvektorn till en vinkelrät orientering dominerade under uppbyggnad och avbrott. Monsunen präglades av komplexa orienteringar av bylinjer. Sammanväxande och splittrande celler separerades fran andra celler och undersöktes speciellt. De sammanväxande cellerna uppvisade mer intensiv konvektion och större vertikal maktighet. Denna kategori av celler, som var den vanligaste typen av ickeisolerade celler, levde också längre än andra celltyper. Splittrande celler var generellt svagare än andra celler, vilket indikerade den generella tendensen för denna celltyp att brytas ner strax efter det att en splittring ägt rum.

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Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
Since childhood Charles Darwin showed an interest for the natural world. In his youth he developed that passion into an object of study travelling around the world onboard of The Beagle. The contact with unique species like the ones found in Galapagos Islands, the fossils discovered in South America, the experiences he lived and a extensive reseach during more than twenty years after his return to England made him think about a common link between the species, that lead him to publish The origin of species in 1859 and The expression of emotions in man and animals in 1872, along with other works and articles on the most diverse subjects, such as Diary of a naturalist around the world. In The origin of species he stated that the species are mutable and linked by the proccess of communion of ascendancy , fruits from the same tree of life. Forging the recreation of human history and its relocation in the natural world, the essays in The expression of emotions in man and animals widened the statement about the evolution of species pointing that humans share emotions and feelings with other species of animals. The implosion of the concept of human initiated with the darwinian facts opened new horizons for sciences such as anthropology to rethink the trajectory of the living beings and the borderlines between culture and animality. Notwithstanding, go beyond frontiers and enrich the critic, scientific, ethic and poetic repertoire is a really dificult task. Despite the relevance of the Darwinian Works, the contact with them is through indirect ways: cartoons, films and fiction, whose contents rarely approach the issue in all its depth
Desde a infância, Charles Darwin demonstrou interesse pelo mundo natural. Na juventude, transformou essa paixão em objeto de estudo viajando ao redor do mundo no navio Beagle. O contato com espécies únicas como as encontradas nas Ilhas Galápagos; os fósseis achados na América do Sul; as experiências adquiridas, e uma extensa pesquisa realizada por mais de vinte anos após o retorno à Inglaterra, levaram-no a pensar na filiação comum das espécies, desdobrando no lançamento de A origem das espécies (1859) e A expressão das emoções no homem e nos animais (1872), além de outras obras e artigos sobre os mais variados assuntos, como o Diário de um naturalista à volta do mundo. Em A origem das espécies, enunciou que as espécies são mutáveis e vinculadas pelo processo da comunhão de descendência , frutos da mesma árvore da vida. Forjando a recriação da história humana e sua realocação no mundo natural, os estudos de A expressão das emoções no homem e nos animais ampliaram o enunciado sobre a evolução das espécies, indicando que humanos compartilham emoções e sentimentos com outras espécies animais. A implosão do conceito de humano iniciada com os fatos darwinianos abriu outros horizontes para as ciências, incluindo a antropologia, repensarem a trajetória dos seres vivos e as fronteiras entre cultura e animalidade. Contudo, transpor limiares e enriquecer o repertório crítico, científico, ético, poético, mostra-se tarefa deveras espinhosa. Apesar da relevância das obras darwinianas, o contato com elas dá-se por vias indiretas: charges, filmes, ficção, cujos conteúdos, raramente, as abordam em todo seu alcance

La premiere partie de ce travail est consacree a une analyse asymptotique des equations de maxwell, d'ou l'on tire le modele de darwin comme approximation d'ordre 2 par rapport au petit parametre v/c. Nous presentons ensuite un code numerique de resolution des equations de vlasov-darwin par une methode couplee, particulaire pour les equations de vlasov et elements finis pour les equations de darwin. La derniere partie est consacree a l'analyse de la stabilite asymptotique de ce couplage

Argues that, without the publication of Charles Darwin's "Origin of Species," Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula" and Oscar Wilde's novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray" would not have been written with their distinct style and themes, as evolution clashes with degeneration and female power (and the sexuality derived from that power) clashes with the new science. Stoker and Wilde combine the science of the late 19th century with the characters of their imaginations. Natural and sexual selection plays a part in these characters' core development. The mixture of sexuality, science and power in these two novels all combine to formulate what is known as Victorian sexology.

Deception evolved as a fundamental aspect of human social interaction. Although numerous studies have examined behavioural cues to deception, most have involved inconsequential lies and unmotivated liars in a laboratory context. With a novel paradigm, the present dissertation is the most comprehensive study to date of the behavioural consequences of extremely high-stakes, real-life deception relative to comparable real-life sincere displays using three communication channels: speech, body language, and emotional facial expressions. Televised footage of a large international sample of individuals (N = 78) emotionally pleading to the public for the return of a missing relative was meticulously coded frame by frame (30 frames per second, for a total of 98,393 coded frames). About half of the pleaders eventually were convicted of killing the missing person based on overwhelming evidence. Failed attempts to simulate sadness and leakage of happiness revealed deceptive pleaders’ covert emotions, as hypothesized based on observations by Charles Darwin and a contemporary understanding of human facial innervation. Specifically, full contraction of the frontalis (failed attempts to appear sad) muscles and subtle contraction of the zygomatic major (masking smiles) were more commonly identified in the faces of deceptive pleaders. In contrast, prototypical aspects of “grief,” as produced by the corrugator supercilli, and depressor anguli oris muscles were more often contracted in the faces of genuine than deceptive pleaders. In addition, liars used fewer words, but more tentative words than truth-tellers, likely relating to increased cognitive load and psychological distancing. Further, simultaneous attention to each of these cues – tapping emotional arousal, cognitive load, and psychological distancing theories of deceptive behaviour – discriminated 90% of pleaders correctly, supporting the multiple cue approach to deception detection. Findings further reveal the secrets of the human face and contribute to our understanding of human communication more generally.

Although in current practice many cultural institutions are collaborating, sharing and promoting their work on an international scale, visitor studies in internationally travelling exhibitions has been very limited. Performing audience research in the American Museum of Natural History’s travelling exhibition Darwin: The Evolution Revolution at two partner venues, the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto and the Natural History Museum London, the thesis establishes a new line of inquiry, addressing the cultural aspects of communication and learning through the exhibition medium within a novel context. Furthermore, the thesis focus on the influence of culture, worldview and perspectives in evolution learning and the evaluation of transformative learning in the museum required the creation of new methods of audience research. The empirical research of both museum staff and local adult audiences in London and Toronto demonstrated the critical influence of culture on communication and meaning-making in the context of internationally travelling exhibitions. The study also provided significant evidence of the interrelationship of culture, worldview, perspectives and assumptions and their vital role in transformative learning. Moreover, the evaluation of transformative learning served to establish that visitors had engaged in critical reflection as well as subjective reframing, which leads to perspective transformation. Further research is required in order to provide a basis of comparison and to build a significant body of knowledge on the influence of culture on museum communication and learning in order to effectively guide future practices. Although the thesis intentionally focuses on the analysis of transformative learning and perspective transformation in evolutionary biology, the approach to learning and research methods proposed have a much wider application in audience research of exhibits that present issues of significant social and cultural relevance such as difficult history, social equality, diversity and social justice, as well as in art, history and ethnography museums.

This thesis analyses the process of construction of linguistic meaning from a diachronic perspective. The analysis is based on the theories of intertextuality and social construction and applies a corpus analysis of collocations and paraphrases of key notions discussed in Darwin’s correspondence. In particular, the focus of the analysis is on the terms \(species\) and \(varieties\) with the aim to observe how the meanings of these terms are formed in a process of social negotiation. The thesis analyses the difference in the meanings of these terms, but also focuses on the diachronic dimension of their use in the correspondence, which allows for the observation of how different interpretations of meanings emerge in discourse. Thus far, diachronic studies in the field of corpus linguistics focused on comparing different historical corpora rather than observing the diachronic change of the immediate contextual environment of particular terms. The results presented in this thesis show that the meanings of terms are not only formed of different interpretations in discourse, but that these interpretations can be specific to particular temporal spans in discourse.

L’Origine des espèces à partir d’un ascendant commun par sélection naturelle (1859) de Charles Darwin (1809-1882), a introduit l’évolution, le temps infini et l’histoire dans le destin de l’homme, proposé la découverte du merveilleux dans le réel, et inspiré d’abord les romanciers réalistes, puis le roman préhistorique, d’aventure et de science-fiction. L’évolution est illustrée scientifiquement par Haeckel, Kupka, Brehm et Gosse. Elle stimule en France l’anthropologie préhistorique ; on représente ancêtres et chaînons manquants parmi les objets de fouille minutieusement copiés. Elle autorise pour Degas et Cormon la fluidité des corps et Duranty l’identifie dans les artefacts humains depuis la haute antiquité. Odilon Redon, puis Jean Carriès, transforme avec une fausse naïveté la faune observée par Darwin en un bestiaire imaginaire. L’Allemagne assimile le darwinisme à Goethe et au romantisme et s’oriente vers l’anthropologie des mythes ; Klinger illustre la lutte pour la vie humaine et animale. Bientôt la veine réaliste s’épuise dans la représentation ; le désenchantement s’installe en Europe, traduit par le symbolisme en peinture et dans l’Art Nouveau. L’évolution (qui ne conduit pas nécessairement au progrès et certainement jamais à la perfection) s’y intègre. Böcklin, Moreau, la Sécession viennoise, voient dans l’évolution la parenté entre les êtres et l’énergie vitale sans pré-détermination. Bon goût, beau idéal et sens moral de John Ruskin, volent en éclat devant « l’esthétique physiologique » évolutionnaire selon Grant Allen. Pour les architectes, l’évolution est une nécessité qui accompagne le fonctionnalisme. Le débat sur l’évolution comme ‘élément culturel nouveau’ ou ‘contre-culture’ fut présent tout au long du XIXe. La science l’avait depuis longtemps acceptée
On the Origin of Species by means of natural selection (1859) by Charles Darwin (1809-1882), introduced evolution, endless time and history in species destiny, seaked wonder in reality, and first inspired realistic, then prehistoric, adventure and finally science-fiction novel. Evolution was scientifically illustrated by Haeckel, Kupka, Brehm and Gosse. It boosted in France prehistoric anthropology ; ancestors and missing links were accurately represented among archaeological findings. It enabled Degas and Cormon to deal with body fluidity, and Duranty identified it in human artefacts since the most ancient antiquity. Odilon Redon, followed by Jean Carriès, shifted, with false ingenuity, the animalia observed by Darwin into an imaginary bestiary. Germany assimilated darwinism with Goethe and romanticism, and focused on myths anthropology ; Klinger illustrated human and animal struggle for life. Soon, the realistic vein in paintings and sculpture vanished; disenchantment settled in Europe, expressed by symbolism in painting and in Art Nouveau. Evolution (which does not necessarily lead to progress and certainly never to perfection) merges into then. In evolution, Böcklin, Moreau, as well as Viennese Secession, contemplate kindred beings and non-teleological vital energy. John Ruskin’s taste, ideal of beauty and moral sense, explode in front of evolutionnary « physiological aesthetics » according to Grant Allen. As to the architects, evolution was a pre-requisite, which accompanied functionalism. Debate on evolution as a ‘new cultural fact’ versus ‘a counter-culture’ was present along the whole second half of XIXth century. Science had, since long, accepted it

Tesis entregada a la Universidad de Chile en cumplimiento parcial de los requisitos para optar al grado de Doctor en Ciencias con mención en Ecología y Biología Evolutiva.
El presente estudio se propuso describir el sistema de comunicación en la ranita de Darwin (Rhinoderma darwinii), una especie en que los machos realizan cuidado parental incubando las larvas en el interior de su saco vocal. Observaciones naturalistas habían sugerido que la vocalización de los machos adultos consiste en cantos tonales de múltiples notas, que son emitidos para atraer la atención de las hembras, como en la mayoría de los anuros. En cautiverio las hembras han sido observadas emitiendo cantos de una sola nota durante el apareamiento. Frente a este fenómeno surge la interrogante de si los cantos de machos y hembras de R. darwinii son dimórficos en sus características bioacústicas y de qué manera son usados como señales de reconocimiento sexual en la interacción social de esta especie. Para este propósito se caracterizó la variabilidad de los cantos de machos de la especie usando grabaciones realizadas en distintas poblaciones. Posteriormente, comparamos las propiedades acústicas y la ocurrencia de cantos de anuncios de hembras y machos preñados y no preñados desde noviembre de 2015 hasta febrero de 2016 en la isla de Chiloé, Chile, además registramos duetos naturales entre los sexos y evaluamos su respuesta vocal evocada a estímulos de playback que consistían en cantos de cada estatus sexual. La tasa de cantos, los ángulos de fase, el nivel de presión de sonido, el número de cantos superpuestos y el retraso de los cantos superpuestos se midieron para determinar las respuestas diferenciales entre los duetos naturales y en los experimentos de playback. Finalmente, empleamos el análisis de redes sociales para evaluar la influencia de la similitud de cantos y la superposición del ámbito de hogar de R. darwinii. Encontramos que, la variación del canto de los machos entre poblaciones está relacionado con diferencias en el tamaño de longitud de los emisores y que los cantos son altamente variables a nivel individual. Además de los machos no reproductivos, las hembras y los machos que están preñados (incubando larvas) producen vocalizaciones en contexto de anuncio sexual (en solitario o en alternancia con conespecíficos) emitiendo un repertorio similar de una a seis notas, siendo más comúnmente emitido el canto de cuatro notas por los tres estatus sexuales. Además, los cantos de machos con distinto estatus reproductivo no difirieron en sus características acústicas, pero los cantos de las hembras difirieron por tener notas y cantos de mayor duración y una frecuencia dominante menor que la de los machos. En registros de duetos naturales, encontramos que los machos interactúan más frecuentemente con otros machos y las hembras pueden vocalizar en interacciones con machos, pero en ninguna ocasión fueron observadas interacciones vocales entre hembras. En los experimentos de respuesta evocada a playback encontramos que machos y hembras mantienen una tasa de canto similar ante los estímulos de los tres estatus sexuales. Sin embargo, encontramos que las hembras responden con menor presión de sonido frente a los estímulos de cantos de hembras y con mayor ángulo de fase frente al estímulo de machos preñados, en tanto que los machos preñados emitieron menor número de cantos superpuestos frente a estímulos de cantos de hembras. Además, encontramos que el solapamiento de cantos es una forma de interacción intrasexual que realizan machos preñados y hembras probablemente como un mecanismo de competencia vocal no agresiva. En la población estudiada en Chiloé, la rana de Darwin utiliza ámbitos de hogar estrechamente asociados con parches de musgo. Evaluando posibles factores que expliquen la estructura social, encontramos que ésta no está relacionada con la similitud de los cantos y el solapamiento de los ámbitos de hogar, sin embargo, utilizando datos empíricos sobre la probabilidad de movimiento entre parches de musgo de machos preñados, machos no preñados y hembras, encontramos mediante un modelo de redes que la estructura social es ligeramente afectada por estos movimientos en grupos de ~30 individuos. Las evidencias mostradas en este estudio respaldan la hipótesis de que ambos sexos pueden reconocer al otro sexo pese a las mínimas diferencias que existen entre los cantos de machos y hembras. Incluso, aunque nuestros análisis no mostraron diferencias entre las características de los cantos de machos preñados y no preñados, las hembras respondieron diferencialmente hacia los machos preñados. Esto sugiere que hay características en el canto de los machos con distinto estatus reproductivo que nuestro estudio no alcanzó a detectar. En conjunto, nuestros datos sugieren que los cantos permiten regular las interacciones sociales de la especie.
The present study aimed to describe the communication system in the Darwin frog (Rhinoderma darwinii), a species in which the males perform parental care incubating the larvae inside their vocal sac. Naturalistic observations had suggested that vocalization of adult males consists of tonal calls of multiple notes, which are emitted to attract the attention of females, as in most anurans. In captivity, females have been observed emitting calls of a single note during mating. An unresolved question around this phenomenon is whether male and female calls of R. darwinii are dimorphic in their bioacoustic characteristics and in the extent to which they are used as signals for sexual recognition in social interactions. To contribute to clarify these issues, the variability of male calls of the species was characterized using recordings conducted in different populations. Subsequently, we compared the acoustic properties and the occurrence of vocalization of pregnant and non-pregnant males and females from November 2015 to February 2016 on the island of Chiloé, Chile. We also recorded natural vocal duets and evaluated individual evoked vocal responses to playback stimuli that consisted of calls of each sexual status. Call rate, phase angles, sound pressure level, number of overlapping calls and overlapping delay of calls were measured to determine the differential responses in natural duets and in the playback experiments. Finally, we used social network analysis to evaluate the relationship among call similarity of individuals and the home range overlap of R. darwinii. We found that call variation of non-pregnant male calls between populations is related to differences in body size of call emitters and that their calls are highly variable at the individual level. In addition to non-pregnant males, females and pregnant males (males incubating larvae) produce vocalizations in the context of sexual advertisement alone or in alternation with conspecifics, having a similar repertoire of one to six notes, four-note calls being more commonly issued the by the three sexual status. In addition, calls of males with different reproductive status did not differ in their acoustic characteristics, but calls of females differed by having longer notes and calls duration, and a lower dominant frequency than that of both types of males. In recordings of natural duets, we found that males interact more frequently with other males than with females, but we did not observe vocal interactions among females. In the experiments of evoked responses to playbacks we found that males and females maintain a similar call rate in response to stimuli of the three sexual status. However, females respond with lower sound pressure level to the female stimuli and with a greater phase angle as compared to pregnant male stimuli, while pregnant males emitted a smaller number of overlapping calls in response to female stimuli. In addition, we propose that call overlap is a form of intra-sexual interaction performed by males and females in response to stimuli of their own sex probably as a non-aggressive vocal competition mechanism. In the population studied in Chiloé, we found that call similarity of the Darwin's frogs was not related to home range overlap. Using empirical data on the probability of movement of individuals between moss patches, we find through a network model that the social structure is slightly affected by larger individual’s movements between groups. Overall, our evidence supports the hypothesis that both sexes can recognize the other sex despite the minimal differences between male and female calls. Even though our analyses showed no differences between call characteristics of pregnant and non-pregnant males, females responded differentially to pregnant male stimuli. This suggests that there are characteristics in male calls that probably signalize the different sexual status of males that remained undetected in our study. Altogether, our data suggest that the calls allow to regulate social interactions in this frog species.
Becas para estudios de doctorado CONICyT (No. 63130134) y CONACyT (Nº 216705); Fondecyt Regular 1140014 1140540 y 1181758. Beca Fundación Guillermo Puelma y el apoyo de Conservation Leadership Programme. Vicerrectoría de Asuntos Académicos. Beca para Proyectos Estudiantiles organizar un Workshop sobre Animal social structures: An introduction to methods and models que impartió el Dr. Mauricio Cantor (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brasil) en la Facultad de Ciencias de la Universidad de Chile. Beca de pasantía en el extranjero que permitió asistir al Laboratorio del Dr. Damien Farine en el Instituto Max Planck (Konstanz, Alemania).

Den 26 maj 1982 påbörjas anfallet mot samhällena Darwin och Goose Green. Anfallande styrka är brittiska, 2 Paras, på plats och försvarsgrupperade är Taskforce Mercedes. Britterna vinner slutligen över en numerärt överlägsen och försvarsgrupperad argentinsk styrka. Hur kommer det sig att detta kan ske? Jag kommer, för att kunna besvara mina frågeställningar, i det här självständiga arbetet att med utgång i de grundläggande förmågorna, ledning, verkan, skydd, rörlighet, uthållighet och und/info, analysera slaget. Dessa frågeställningar är:

 -          Vilken av de grundläggande förmågorna var avgörande för 2 Paras seger?

-          Vilken av de grundläggande förmågorna var avgörande för Taskforce Mercedes förlust?

Jag har kommit fram till följande; britterna kunde tack vare en kombination av förmågorna ledning och verkan avgöra striden till deras fördel. För argentinarna var det förmågan ledning som bäddade för deras förlust. Vill du veta hur jag kommit fram till detta och varför uppmanar jag dig att läsa detta arbete.

My name is Nicklas Nilsson. I’m a cadet studying at the Swedish Land warfare Centre. As a part of becoming a commissioned officer I’m obligated to write an essay at fundamental level. I have written about the Battle for Darwin – Goose Green. A battle between 2 Para and Taskforce Mercedes. I have used (de grundläggande förmågorna) six fundamental abilities as an analysis instrument. The questions I am going to answer with this essay are:

 -What ability was decisive for 2 Para’s victory?

-What ability was decisive for Taskforce Mercedes defeat?

 Initially I will conduct a literature study, followed by a comparative case study.

I have come to the following conclusions:

The Argentines lost due to their lack of a good leadership and

The British won due to the abilities, better trained, better motivated and with more experience. They also, contrary to the Argentines, had leaders that was present and tried to resolve the situations they’ve gotten in to. If you want to read more about this and how I’ve come to these conclusions, please read this essay.

This thesis presents the analysis and results of aerosol physical and optical properties over Darwin, Australia, a coastal tropical site which is affected by smoke aerosols from biomass burning inland and sea salt aerosols brought in by the sea breeze. Continuous Multi Filter Rotating Shadow Radiometer (MFRSR) spectral measurements for the period March 2002 -June 2003, have been obtained from the Tropical Western Pacific facilities site in Darwin, part of the D.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program. Atmospheric optical thickness was obtained using the Langley regression analysis and aerosol optical thickness was then obtained by removing the molecular and ozone contributions from the total atmosphere optical thickness. A regression analysis was performed on the aerosol optical thickness and the Angstrom exponent to identify the trends in seasonality. It shows a strong seasonal cycle with low optical thickness in autumn and high optical thickness in spring, coinciding with the peak of the biomass burning season. The aerosol optical thickness data were inverted using the Constrained Linear Inversion technique to obtain the size distributions. A novel method, combining several different criteria, was used for classification of the size distribution into classes which could be related to biomass burning aerosols and sea salt aerosols. These classes showed variations with season and meteorological parameters. The wind diurnal cycle showed a significant signature on the aerosol size and loading, and the aerosol loading was also strongly linked to fire activity. The aerosols observed over Darwin reflected different proportions of biomass and sea salt and variations in size over the whole year. The seasonal pattern in the aerosol properties over Darwin is found to be owing to the location of Darwin in the Tropical Warm Pool and the variety of aerosol types: smoke particles produced by the dry season burning conditions, and the sea salt aerosols associated with the introduction of cleaner maritime westerly and northwesterly winds. Aerosols are also affected by the high rainfall rate during the wet season, which washes out the aerosols from the atmosphere.

The Darwin-Hatherton glacial system (DHGS) drains from the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) and through the Transantarctic Mountains (TAM) before entering the Ross Embayment. Large ice-free areas covered in glacial sediments surround the DHGS, and at least five glacial drift sheets mark the limits of previous ice extent. The glacier belongs to a group of slow-moving EAIS outlet glaciers which are poorly understood. Despite this, an extrapolation of a glacial drift sheet boundary has been used to determine the thickness of the EAIS and the advanced West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). In order to accurately determine the past and present contributions of the Antarctic ice sheets to sea level changes, these uncertainties should be reduced. This study aims to examine the present and LGM ice dynamics of the DHGS by combining newly acquired field measurements with a 3-D numerical ice sheet-shelf model. The fieldwork included a ground penetrating radar survey of ice thickness and surface velocity measurements by GPS. In addition, an extensive dataset of airborne radar measurements and meteorological recordings from automatic weather stations were made available. The model setup involved nesting a high-resolution (1 km) model of the DHGS within a lower resolution (20 km) all-Antarctic simulation. The nested 3-D modelling procedure enables an examination of the impact of changes of the EAIS and WAIS on the DHGS behaviour, and accounts for a complex glacier morphology and surface mass balance within the glacial system. The findings of this study illustrate the difference in ice dynamics between the Darwin and Hatherton Glaciers. The Darwin Glacier is up to 1500 m thick, partially warm-based, has high driving stresses (~150 kPa), and measured ice velocities increase from 20-30 m yr⁻¹ in the upper parts to ~180 m yr⁻¹ in the lowermost steepest regions, where modelled flow velocities peak at 330 m yr⁻¹. In comparison, the Hatherton Glacier is relatively thin (<900 m), completely cold-based, has low driving stresses (~85 kPa), and is likely to flow with velocities <10 m yr⁻¹ in most regions. It is inferred that the slow velocities with which the DHGS flows are a result of high subglacial mountains restricting ice flow from the EAIS, large regions of frozen basal conditions, low SMB and undulating bedrock topography. The model simulation of LGM ice conditions within the DHGS implies that the ice thickness of the WAIS has been significantly overestimated in previous reconstructions. Results show that the surface of the WAIS and EAIS away from the TAM would have been elevated 600-750 and 0-80 m above present-day levels, respectively, for the DHGS to reach what was inferred to represent the LGM drift sheet limit. Ultimately, this research contributes towards a better understanding of the dynamic behaviour of slow moving TAM outlet glaciers, and provides new insight into past changes of the EAIS and WAIS. This will facilitate more accurate quantifications of contributions of the WAIS and EAIS to changes in global sea level.

How does bodily matter become alive? Is the mind reducible to the brain? These questions became crucial in the emergent discipline of life science at the turn of the nineteenth century, when the term 'biology' was coined. The new scientific theories that arose at this time directly impinged on contemporary religious beliefs concerning the soul as the principle of immortality, and the mind as the divinely endowed basis for human morality. Through an interdisciplinary study of three episodes, all of which originated in 1816, this thesis examines the interface between science and religion with regard to souls, minds, and the living body, in the half-century before Darwin's Origin of Species. The first episode focuses on a series of controversies (1816-1822) surrounding William Lawrence, a professor at the Royal College of Surgeons. He postulated that life could emerge from matter, and that matter could generate thought and sensation. The express materialism in these views engendered strong scientific and religious opposition. This study argues that the scientific opposition to Lawrence's views was motivated largely by a desire to defend the institutional and professional standing of the surgeons rather than by a commitment to oppose Lawrence's materialism. In examining the religious opposition to Lawrence, this thesis concludes that ultimately it was a concern for a secure institutional basis for morality rather than a wish to defend the doctrine of the soul per se that was at stake. The second episode revolves around George Combe, the influential author of The Constitution of Man (1828). He was decried as an atheist because his phrenological science allegedly reduced the mind to the physical brain. This thesis offers a new interpretation of Combe's science as the means through which he framed a natural religion with a code of morality based on natural law. It was a religion that sought to recast the role of a more materialistic conception of the mind as the vehicle for morality, and to displace the reliance on an immortal soul and a future state for the enforcement of morals. The third episode centres on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818). Through studying the novel as the fable of its sub-title, The Modern Prometheus, I conclude that the power of Mary Shelley's moral vision lies in its inescapable warning that an absolute denial of the spiritual aspects of life is inimical to our humanity. Without being explicitly religious, Frankenstein encapsulates a new kind of secular humanist spirituality that denies outright materialism. In summary, this thesis argues that the interface between religion and biology, concerning the nature of the living body and the mind, despite initial appearances, were not primarily over the issues of materialism. The three episodes studied illustrate a spectrum of attitudes towards scientific materialism, and it is found that ultimately, it was the necessity for a secure basis of morality that shaped the responses.

Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) apresentou suas ideias evolutivas principalmente no fim do século XVIII. No entanto, elas não foram consideradas na época. Seu neto, Charles Darwin (1809-1882), na 6ª edição do Origin of species as avaliou de modo negativo, comparando-as às concepções equivocadas de Lamarck. O objetivo desta dissertação é inicialmente, descrever as concepções de hereditariedade e evolução de Erasmus, considerando o contexto de sua época. Além disso, procura esclarecer se o tratamento recebido se deveu a uma proposta fraca ou se ela mereceria uma maior consideração. Esta dissertação contém uma Introdução e quatro capítulos. O Capítulo 1 discute a vida, trabalhos e contexto em que Erasmus apresentou suas ideias. O Capítulo 2 lida com as concepções de herança e evolução presentes em Zoonomia. O Capítulo 3 discute sobre as concepções de Erasmus sobre a transformação das espécies nas plantas. O Capítulo 4 compara as concepções evolutivas de Erasmus com as de Lamarck. O Capítulo 5 procura responder às perguntas colocadas no início desta pesquisa e apresenta algumas considerações finais sobre o assunto discutido. Esta pesquisa leva à conclusão de que a transmutação das espécies não era o principal interesse de Erasmus. Ele não ofereceu uma fundamentação empírica para suas ideias. Este fato, juntamente com a situação sócio-político-religiosa da época, muito provavelmente contribuiu para a recepção sofrida. Além disso, embora existam algumas semelhanças entre as propostas de Erasmus e Lamarck, existem também grandes diferenças tais como a abrangência da pesquisa, o espaço dedicado à discussão das ideias, a fundamentação oferecida, dentre outras. Erasmus não propôs uma teoria coerente lidando com desde a origem da vida até o aparecimento do homem como Lamarck. Ele somente apresentou algumas ideias a esse respeito em obras dedicadas a outros assuntos.
Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) mainly presented his evolutionary views at the end of the 18th century. However, they were not considered carefully at that time. His grandson, Charles Darwin (1809-1882), in the 6th edition of Origin of species evaluated them in a negative way, comparing them to Lamarcks erroneous conceptions. The aim of this dissertation is firstly to describe Erasmus Darwins conceptions on heredity and evolution considering the context of his time. Besides that, it tries to elucidate the reception received by them was due to a weak proposal or whether they deserved greater consideration. This dissertation comprises an Introduction and five chapters. Chapter 1 discusses Erasmus Darwins life, work and the context in which he presented his ideas. Chapter 2 deals with the conceptions of inheritance and evolution which are present in Zoonomia. Chapter 3 discusses Erasmus view on the transmutation of species in plants. Chapter 4 compares Erasmuss evolutionary conceptions to Lamarcks ones. Chapter 5 tries to answer the questions proposed in the beginning of this research and presents some final remarks concerning the subject. This research leads to the conclusion that the transmutation of species was not the main Erasmus concern. He did not present any empirical foundation of his views related to the subject. This fact, together with the socio-political-religious situation, must have contributed to its reception. Besides that, although there were some similarities between Erasmuss and Lamarcks proposal there were also great differences such as the scope of the research, the space dedicated to its discussion, the foundation provided, among others. Erasmus did not provide a coherent theory of the transmutation of species dealing with since the origin of life to the rise of man, departing from a study of natural history such as Lamarck. In this respect, he only presented a few ideas in works dedicated to other subjects.

La mission darwin est un projet de l'agence spatiale europeenne qui devrait permettre, vers 2012, de rechercher des planetes extrasolaires et de faire l'analyse spectrale de leur eventuelle atmosphere dans la gamme 6-18 microns, afin d'y mettre en evidence differents gaz et notamment des traceurs de vie. Le principe de l'instrument est celui du coronographe interferometrique de bracewell. Il conjugue haute resolution angulaire et dynamique elevee. Ce concept, propose il y a plus de 20 ans n'a cependant jamais ete demontre experimentalement dans l'infrarouge thermique avec des taux d'extinction importants. Nous presentons dans ce manuscrit une experience de laboratoire monochromatique concue a cette fin. Un approche theorique et numerique de la question met l'accent sur une grosse difficulte : la necessite d'avoir des fronts d'onde tres propres et homogenes en intensite, phase et polarisation. Une approche interferometrique classique se revele insuffisante pour atteindre nos objectifs. Nous montrons theoriquement puis numeriquement que cette difficulte peut etre contournee en utilisant un filtrage optique des faisceaux qui interferent. Cette technique permet de diminuer fortement les specifications sur les optiques et d'envisager des contrastes interferometriques tres eleves avec des optiques commerciales. Nous presentons enfin un interferometre de laboratoire fonctionnant a 10. 6 microns et mettant en uvre differentes techniques de filtrage optique (trous filtrants et guides d'onde monomodes), sa realisation, ainsi que ses premiers resultats tres prometteurs. En particulier, nous presentons des mesures de visibilites superieures a 99. 9% soit un taux d'extinction superieur a 1000.

In spite of his denials Barth’s secular parables of truth were an example of natural theology. This thesis exploits them to provide a way of connecting theology from revelation to Darwinian science. Chapter one argues that natural science cannot provide truths about things in themselves. It does offer corrigible working hypotheses about the phenomena of the physical world. The chapter expands and illustrates David Fergusson’s five fold typology of natural theology. It argues that claims about humanity, ontological ones from revelation, phenomenological ones from science, can interact constructively provided we respect boundaries between the two. Chapter two recounts how Darwin and successors into the twenty-first century offer working hypotheses of life as a physical phenomenon of which Homo sapiens is one among several million examples. It argues, however, that humanity cannot be biologically or culturally defined. Chapter three summarizes Barth’s doctrine defining humanity as elect in Christ. It defends the doctrine against Clough’s extension to cover “all flesh”. The Spirit’s action constitutes the person as “the soul of his body”. Chapter four explains Barth’s understanding that natural science concerns phenomena, not things in themselves. It argues that problems in physics and cognitive science indicate that there is no guarantee of the world’s intelligibility. That reinforces Barth’s dismissal of grand narratives. But Barth wrongly parallels theological and scientific activity. However his theology can engage with a science that makes only empirical claims. Chapter five situates Barth in a twenty-first century context. It argues that the empirical truth claims of science and the ontological ones of theology from revelation can relate to each other using secular parables of the truth. It exemplifies such parables from Darwinian science. They point to truths that theology could know but neglects. Chapter six summarizes the argument, contextualizing a theology of revelation for late modernity. Life on earth and human life within it exhibit a unity of the whole and a distinctiveness of the individual. They form a complex of relationships that are finite in time and bounded by grace. The Darwinian narrative understands the human person as a thoroughly physical entity. Natural science cannot rewrite revelation. But empirical biology points to features of human ontology that theology must not ignore.

This dissertation recounts the commemoration of Charles Darwin in Britain from his death in 1882 to his birth centenary in 1909. As a broadly chronological and episodic history, individual memorials are considered in themselves, in relation to others, and in their national and local contexts. In this way, they are shown to have been informed by contemporary scientific and wider cultural developments, previous memorialisations, and – consonant with a more recent historiographical turn to ‘place’ – local imperatives alongside those arising further afield. Consequently, memorialisers and observers are shown to have acted not merely as unreflective publicists or passive consumers, but as interpreters of Darwin’s memory who brought their own concerns to his commemoration. Darwin’s funeral, at Westminster Abbey, was widely accepted as a national endorsement of his social respectability, and, by extension, that of a burgeoning scientific profession which organised it. Further to this first posthumous elevation, and appropriation, of Darwin, subsequent presentations were informed by contemporary literary developments, and particularly the sudden decline in the posthumous reputation of Thomas Carlyle, which reflected changing attitudes to long-established ‘heroic’ tradition. As such, the production, reception and mobilisation of Darwinian biography (primarily his Life and Letters and its subsequent editions and sequels) recognised these recent literary concerns and further contributed to Darwin’s elevation as a personal and scientific exemplar. The ways in which Darwin’s reputation was elaborated and used are recovered at a range of sites of Darwinian significance, most notably Edinburgh, Cambridge, Shrewsbury, Oxford and London. Encompassing metropolitan, provincial, institutional and civic commemoration, accompanying periodical reportage, commentary and memorialisation is also considered. Common to the majority of these productions, Darwin’s theory of natural selection was criticised, contradicted or ignored. Nevertheless, the esteem in which the celebrated naturalist was held was to grow in inverse proportion to the reputation of his famous theory. Against this background, an extended memorial season peaked in the summer of 1909 at the Darwin Celebration at the University of Cambridge. That grandiose occasion echoed and developed themes which were well recorded in preceding commemorations, both ceremonially and in the periodical press. Consequently, man and work were brought into closer relation with a widely-expressed interest in the origins of his apparently exceptional abilities and character. The great naturalist was celebrated as a hereditary, as well as a moral and intellectual, exemplar. This development was supported by the new findings of Mendelian biology and Darwin’s memorial association with advancing eugenic activism. For the first time attending to his early ‘afterlife’ in Britain, this account traces the interaction of Darwin’s commemoration not only with the emerging biological sciences, but also with wider preoccupations concerning secularisation, democratisation and reform across the decades either side of the turn of the twentieth century. Ultimately, Darwin’s early memorialisation can be apprehended as a scientific activity in itself, contributing to professional, disciplinary and theoretical developments in the biological sciences.

Nietzsche comme Darwin envisagent la morale de manière évolutive, comme l'héritage temporaire de diverses sédimentations successives. Nietzsche comme Darwin remettent à plat toute une tradition antérieure, philosophique pour l'un, biologique et naturaliste pour l'autre. Tous deux poussent à voir la morale, certes comme un ensemble de règles et d'interdits structurant une société, mais comme un ensemble relatif, déterminé par des contextes, des environnements, des physiologies extra-morales. Le philosophe, comme le scientifique, eux mêmes inscrits dans une histoire et une évolution toujours inachevée à l'heure actuelle, font exploser les normes et les catégories morales anciennes, qu'elles soient métaphysiques, révélées, éternelles, fixes et définitives. Et tous deux, en observant, expliquant et critiquant la morale,provoquent une interrogation sur ses marges et son dépassement, par-delà d'ailleurs la science et la philosophie : qu'est-ce que l'individu pour le troupeau, qu'est-ce que l'homme pour son espèce ?
Nietzsche as Darwin are considering morality in an evolutionary way, as the legacy of various, impermanent and successive layers. Nietzsche as Darwin take a new look at an earlier tradition, one philosophical for the former, one biological and naturalist for the latter. Both evoke morals, indeed as a set of rules and prohibitions structuring a society, but morals as relative, determined by contexts, environments, extra-moral physiologies. The philosopher, like the scientist, whoare themselves enrolled in history and evolution which is yet incomplete, burst standards and old moral categories, whether metaphysical, revealed, eternal, fixed and final. And both, observing, explaining and criticizing the morality, are questionning its margins and its limits, beyond science and philosophy: what does the individual to the herd, what is the man for his species?

I uppsatsen jämförs William Paleys Natural Theology : or, evidence of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, collected from the appearances of nature från 1802 med Michale J. Behes Darwin's black box : The biochemical challenge to evolution från 1996. Jämförelsen kontextualiseras med en skiss över evolutionsteorimotståndets historia under den mellanliggande perioden, som tillsammans med själva den vetenskapliga utvecklingen, antas förklara de skillnader i tilltal och val av argument som föreligger mellan de två verken. I fråga om grundläggande budskap, idéstruktur, syfte och religiositet befinns de två verken ligga varandra betydligt  närmare än vad som initialt kan tyckas vara fallet.

Des dels principis de la informàtica, s'ha intentat dotar als ordinadors de la capacitat per realitzar moltes de les tasques quotidianes de les persones. Un dels problemes més estudiats i encara menys entesos actualment és la capacitat d'aprendre a partir de les nostres experiències i generalitzar els coneixements adquirits.
Una de les tasques inconscients per a les persones i que més interès està despertant en àmbit científics des del principi, és el que es coneix com a reconeixement de patrons. La creació de models del món que ens envolta, ens serveix per a reconèixer objectes del nostre entorn, predir situacions, identificar conductes, etc. Tota aquesta informació ens permet adaptar-nos i interactuar amb el nostre entorn. S'ha arribat a relacionar la capacitat d'adaptació d'un ésser al seu entorn amb la quantitat de patrons que és capaç d'identificar.
Quan parlem de reconeixement de patrons en el camp de la Visió per Computador, ens referim a la capacitat d'identificar objectes a partir de la informació continguda en una o més imatges. En aquest camp s'ha avançat molt en els últims anys, i ara ja som capaços d'obtenir resultats "útils" en entorns reals, tot i que encara estem molt lluny de tenir un sistema amb la mateixa capacitat d'abstracció i tan robust com el sistema visual humà.
En aquesta tesi, s'estudia el detector de cares de Viola i Jones, un dels mètode més estesos per resoldre la detecció d'objectes. Primerament, s'analitza la manera de descriure els objectes a partir d'informació de contrastos d'il·luminació en zones adjacents de les imatges, i posteriorment com aquesta informació és organitzada per crear estructures més complexes. Com a resultat d'aquest estudi, i comparant amb altres metodologies, s'identifiquen dos punts dèbils en el mètode de detecció de Viola i Jones. El primer fa referència a la descripció dels objectes, i la segona és una limitació de l'algorisme d'aprenentatge, que dificulta la utilització de millors descriptors.
La descripció dels objectes utilitzant les característiques de Haar, limita la informació extreta a zones connexes de l'objecte. En el cas de voler comparar zones distants, s'ha d'optar per grans mides de les característiques, que fan que els valors obtinguts depenguin més del promig de valors d'il·luminació de l'objecte, que de les zones que es volen comparar. Amb l'objectiu de poder utilitzar aquest tipus d'informacions no locals, s'intenta introduir els dipols dissociats en l'esquema de detecció d'objectes.
El problema amb el que ens trobem en voler utilitzar aquest tipus de descriptors, és que la gran cardinalitat del conjunt de característiques, fa inviable la utilització de l'Adaboost, l'algorisme utilitzat per a l'aprenentatge. El motiu és que durant el procés d'aprenentatge, es fa un anàlisi exhaustiu de tot l'espai d'hipòtesis, i al ser tant gran, el temps necessari per a l'aprenentatge esdevé prohibitiu. Per eliminar aquesta limitació, s'introdueixen mètodes evolutius dins de l'esquema de l'Adaboost i s'estudia els efectes d'aquest canvi en la capacitat d'aprenentatge. Les conclusions extretes són que no només continua essent capaç d'aprendre, sinó que la velocitat de convergència no és afectada significativament.
Aquest nou Adaboost amb estratègies evolutives obre la porta a la utilització de conjunts de característiques amb cardinalitats arbitràries, el que ens permet indagar en noves formes de descriure els nostres objectes, com per exemple utilitzant els dipols dissociats. El primer que fem és comparar la capacitat d'aprenentatge del mètode utilitzant les característiques de Haar i els dipols dissociats. Com a resultat d'aquesta comparació, el que veiem és que els dos tipus de descriptors tenen un poder de representació molt similar, i depenent del problema en que s'apliquen, uns s'adapten una mica millor que els altres. Amb l'objectiu d'aconseguir un sistema de descripció capaç d'aprofitar els punts forts tant de Haar com dels dipols, es proposa la utilització d'un nou tipus de característiques, els dipols dissociats amb pesos, els quals combinen els detectors d'estructures que fan robustes les característiques de Haar amb la capacitat d'utilitzar informació no local dels dipols dissociats. A les proves realitzades, aquest nou conjunt de característiques obté millors resultats en tots els problemes en que s'ha comparat amb les característiques de Haar i amb els dipols dissociats.
Per tal de validar la fiabilitat dels diferents mètodes, i poder fer comparatives entre ells, s'ha utilitzat un conjunt de bases de dades públiques per a diferents problemes, tals com la detecció de cares, la detecció de texts, la detecció de vianants i la detecció de cotxes. A més a més, els mètodes també s'han provat sobre una base de dades més extensa, amb la finalitat de detectar senyals de trànsit en entorns de carretera i urbans.
Ever since computers were invented, we have wondered whether they might perform some of the human quotidian tasks. One of the most studied and still nowadays less understood problem is the capacity to learn from our experiences and how we generalize the knowledge that we acquire.
One of that unaware tasks for the persons and that more interest is awakening in different scientific areas since the beginning, is the one that is known as pattern recognition. The creation of models that represent the world that surrounds us, help us for recognizing objects in our environment, to predict situations, to identify behaviors... All this information allows us to adapt ourselves and to interact with our environment. The capacity of adaptation of individuals to their environment has been related to the amount of patterns that are capable of identifying.
When we speak about pattern recognition in the field of Computer Vision, we refer to the ability to identify objects using the information contained in one or more images. Although the progress in the last years, and the fact that nowadays we are already able to obtain "useful" results in real environments, we are still very far from having a system with the same capacity of abstraction and robustness as the human visual system.
In this thesis, the face detector of Viola & Jones is studied as the paradigmatic and most extended approach to the object detection problem. Firstly, we analyze the way to describe the objects using comparisons of the illumination values in adjacent zones of the images, and how this information is organized later to create more complex structures. As a result of this study, two weak points are identified in this family of methods: The first makes reference to the description of the objects, and the second is a limitation of the learning algorithm, which hampers the utilization of best descriptors.
Describing objects using Haar-like features limits the extracted information to connected regions of the object. In the case we want to compare distant zones, large contiguous regions must be used, which provokes that the obtained values depend more on the average of lighting values of the object than in the regions we are wanted to compare. With the goal to be able to use this type of non local information, we introduce the Dissociated Dipoles into the outline of objects detection.
The problem using this type of descriptors is that the great cardinality of this feature set makes unfeasible the use of Adaboost as learning algorithm. The reason is that during the learning process, an exhaustive search is made over the space of hypotheses, and since it is enormous, the necessary time for learning becomes prohibitive. Although we studied this phenomenon on the Viola & Jones approach, it is a general problem for most of the approaches, where learning methods introduce a limitation on the descriptors that can be used, and therefore, on the quality of the object description. In order to remove this limitation, we introduce evolutionary methods into the Adaboost algorithm, studying the effects of this modification on the learning ability. Our experiments conclude that not only it continues being able to learn, but its convergence speed is not significantly altered.
This new Adaboost with evolutionary strategies opens the door to the use of feature sets with an arbitrary cardinality, which allows us to investigate new ways to describe our objects, such as the use of Dissociated Dipoles. We first compare the learning ability of this evolutionary Adaboost using Haar-like features and Dissociated Dipoles, and from the results of this comparison, we conclude that both types of descriptors have similar representation power, but depends on the problem they are applied, one adapts a little better than the other. With the aim of obtaining a descriptor capable of share the strong points from both Haar-like and Dissociated Dipoles, we propose a new type of feature, the Weighted Dissociated Dipoles, which combines the robustness of the structure detectors present in the Haar-like features, with the Dissociated Dipoles ability to use non local information. In the experiments we carried out, this new feature set obtains better results in all problems we test, compared with the use of Haar-like features and Dissociated Dipoles.
In order to test the performance of each method, and compare the different methods, we use a set of public databases, which covers face detection, text detection, pedestrian detection, and cars detection. In addition, our methods are tested to face a traffic sign detection problem, over large databases containing both, road and urban scenes.

C'est a travers la science et par la science que l'Homme a pris conscience de son Evolution. L'Homme s'en est ensuite convaincu. La science demontre, en plus, que l'Evolution elle-meme est soutenue par un courant evolutif special qui se poursuit a travers la duree et l'espace. Elle est, cette Evolution, flexible, souple et tenace. Elle poursuit toujours son chemin et par En-Avant et par En-Haut. Rien ne peut l'en empecher. Elle continuera d'evoluer jusqu'au temps ou elle atteindra son point omega. L'Homme actuel peut couper le fil de l'Evolution bio-terrestre et meme rater le plus-etre de son Evolution. Mais pas celui de l'Evolution generale c'est-a-dire de l'Univers, car l'Evolution reussira malgre ces contre-coups. Ne nous attardons pas dans les dedales evolutifs. Qui nous dit que, seule, notre planete--Terre--soit un domaine d'intelligence? Attendons les nouvelles explorations ou les nouveaux signaux d'etres extra-terrestres$\sp1$! ftn$\sp1$cf. Teilhard de Chardin, Comment Je Crois, tome 10, "Une suite aux Problemes des Origines humaines: La Multiplicite des Mondes habites", 1953, p. 273.

The Darwin and Hatherton Glaciers form a major system that drains a significant portion of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) through the Transantarctic Mountains (TAM) into the Ross Sea. Flow lines along their length demonstrate that they connect back to Dome Cirque on the Polar Plateau. Very little is known about the way these outlet glaciers have drained the EAIS in the past. However, information on their previous behaviour in response to global climate change and EAIS activity is recorded in their geomorphology. An ice-free region adjacent to Lake Wellman contains a well preserved sequence of moraines that provides evidence of glacial ice fluctuation related to earlier climates. Consequently, this area has potential as an appropriate site for investigating past glacial movement and change. A study was therefore conducted in the Lake Wellman area in order to examine the drift material left behind as the Hatherton Glacier retreated. This was done to obtain information that would help explain the manner and timing of glacial recession. A geomorphology map was constructed using data obtained from a series of transects placed across the drift moraine material. The transects were located at different elevations ranging between 800 m and 1200 m a.s.l., and were at distances between 4 and 8 km from the present glacier edge near Lake Wellman. Field data were collected from clast material sampled at regular intervals along each transect. These records consisted of assessments and measurements of clast lithology type, average size, hardness measured with a Schmidt hammer, angularity or roundness, and degree of weathering. The field data demonstrated that for clasts of dolerite and sandstone, angularity decreased and roundness increased significantly with altitude. No such trend occurred with clasts of gabbro, granite or basalt. The field observations therefore indicated that clasts at higher elevations and greater distances from the present glacial ice had been freed from the receding ice earlier and hence exposed for longer periods to the effects of atmospheric weathering. This effect was more apparent on the less durable sandstone and dolerite lithologies. Rock samples were also collected in the field for subsequent Surface Exposure Dating (SED). These consisted of sandstone and granite rocks which contain a high level of quartz, and care was taken to ensure that the samples chosen had been transported by glacial ice. The rock samples were prepared in the laboratory at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. The processed samples were sent for cosmogenic dating at the Australian Nuclear Sciences Technology Organisation (ANSTO), in Sydney, Australia, using 10Be and 26Al isotope analysis. Difficulties were experienced with the removal of aluminium from the quartz during the processing of some samples with excessive levels of this element, which interferes with the dating process, possibly leading to an underestimation of the true age. Also, for some samples there were significant differences in the ages determined by the two isotopes. Data were only accepted if there was agreement between the two values and there was no technical or physical reason to doubt the age determined. These results confirmed those from the clast weathering data and clearly demonstrated the past retreat of the Hatherton Glacier over a period of 2 Ma from an elevation of 1600 m a.s.l. down to its present altitude of ca. 800 m a.s.l. in the vicinity of Lake Wellman. In general, there was a trend of increasing age of exposure with greater elevation and distance from the present glacial edge. Between 800 and 1000 m a.s.l., rocks had been exposed for 1-60 ka. Between 1000 and 1200 m a.s.l., rocks were dated within the range 75-400 ka before present (B.P.) and between 1200 and 1600 m a.s.l., ages ranged up to a maximum around 2 Ma B.P. The dates obtained in this study are generally greater than those recorded in an earlier published study from the same area in which a different dating technique was used. In particular there is a discrepancy in the position of the ice during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; 18-20 ka B.P.). Instead, the results of this study support an alternative modelling analysis that indicates a thinner Hatherton Glacier during the LGM. This conclusion implies a more rapid recession of the Ross Ice Shelf as a result of rising sea levels during an increasingly warmer climate. Suggested future work to refine the outcomes from this study would include the collection of more samples for SED dating, particularly in the region of the greatest extent of ice during the LGM.