Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Human evolutional'
To see the other types of publications on this topic, follow the link: Human evolutional.
Create a spot-on reference in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other styles
Consult the top 50 dissertations / theses for your research on the topic 'Human evolutional.'
Next to every source in the list of references, there is an 'Add to bibliography' button. Press on it, and we will generate automatically the bibliographic reference to the chosen work in the citation style you need: APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.
You can also download the full text of the academic publication as pdf and read online its abstract whenever available in the metadata.
Browse dissertations / theses on a wide variety of disciplines and organise your bibliography correctly.
1
Oesch, Nathaniel Tillman. "The adaptive significance of human language : function, form and social evolution." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:134cde61-703b-4ff4-8ba0-a921fa287775.
Full textAbstract:
Language is arguably one of the most salient features that distinguish humans from other animal species. However, despite the existence of a large body of relevant theoretical and empirical research, there is currently no consensus as to why language emerged exclusively in the human species or how it evolved its unique communicative structure. In this thesis, I therefore take a multi-pronged approach to analysing and testing several different hypotheses for the biological function and evolution of language. In Chapter I, I review the evidence and theoretical arguments for each of these proposals and provide, in place, a synthetic perspective which integrates or eliminates each of these ostensibly competing hypotheses for the biological function of language. In Chapter II, I employ the first experimental test of the interdependence hypothesis: the unique proposal offered to explain the emergence and potential coevolution of language and cooperation in the human species. In pursuit of this experiment, I employed a cooperative social foraging task using small and large groups to determine what factors enable individuals to make sense of information from others and converge upon a group consensus. In Chapter III, I take an experimental approach to determine whether aspects of human language can be characterised in terms of honest signalling theory. In this respect, I test several different proposals predicted by the sexual selection and deception hypotheses for human language function. In Chapter IV, I divert attention away from biological function to focus more closely on language structure. More specifically, I take an experimental approach to the problem of how and indeed whether recursive syntax evolved to be a consistent feature of human language. In pursuit of this experiment, I utilized the Imposing Memory Task (IMT) and a recursive syntax measure, to determine relative performance on each of these cognitive tasks, thereby testing whether recursive syntax may have evolved in tandem with higher-order intentionality (also known as embedded mindreading). Finally, in Chapter V, I discuss the results and implications of these experiments, and possible suggestions for future studies.
2
Whittle, Patrick Michael. "Why egalitarians should embrace Darwinism: a critical defence of Peter Singer's a Darwinian left." Thesis, University of Canterbury. Social and Political Sciences, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/8036.
Full textAbstract:
Despite most educated people now accepting Darwinian explanations for human physical evolution, many of these same people remain reluctant to accept similar accounts of human behavioural or cognitive evolution. Leftists in particular often assume that our evolutionary history now has little bearing on modern human social behaviour, and that cultural processes have taken over from the biological imperatives at work elsewhere in nature.
The leftist view of human nature still largely reflects that of Karl Marx, who believed that our nature is moulded solely by prevailing social and cultural conditions, and that, moreover, our nature can be completely changed by totally changing society.
Ethical philosopher Peter Singer challenges this leftist view, arguing that the left must replace its non-Darwinian view of an infinitely malleable human nature with the more accurate scientific account now made possible by modern Darwinian evolutionary science. Darwinism, Singer suggests, could then be used as a source of new ideas and new approaches that could revive and revitalise the egalitarian left.
This thesis defends and develops Singer’s arguments for a Darwinian left. It shows that much modern leftist opposition to evolutionary theory is misguided, and that Darwinism does not necessarily have the egregious political implications so often assumed by the egalitarian left – even in such controversial areas as possible ‘biological’ differences between the sexes or between different human populations.
3
Ásmundsdóttir, Ragnheidur Diljá. "Effect of ascertainment bias on calculations of sex-biased admixture in Southern Africa." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för biologisk grundutbildning, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-447738.
Full textAbstract:
Southern African populations harbour great genetic diversity enhanced by population migration to the area in the last two millennia. Africa is perhaps the least studied continent in regards to population genetics and is often underrepresented in global studies. Studying sex-biased admixture in admixed populations is a great tool to understand population demographic history as well as sex-biased admixture from past events. Various studies on sex-biased admixture in Southern Africa have shown male sex-biased admixture from the incoming Bantu-speaking populations. One study by Hollfelder (2018) shows female Bantu-speaking sex-biased admixture. Here I will try to determine if ascertainment bias is the cause of the unexpected results in Hollfelder (2018). I will do this by comparing the original results, genotyped using the Illumina Omni 2.5M Array, to overlapping SNPs in two different arrays, the Affymetrix Human Origin Array and the Infinium H3Africa Consortium Array. Additionally, I will use whole genome data containing same individuals and individuals from similar populations to form a hypothesis on how the sex-biased admixture should look like without ascertainment. Then extracting variants from the whole genome data to two array SNP panels, the Illumina 2.5M Array and the Infinium H3Africa Consortium Array. For both parts in my project a method by Goldberg and Rosenberg (2015) will be used to calculate female and male contribution from admixture proportions of the X-chromosome and the autosomes estimated using the software ADMIXTURE. The results obtained could not determine if ascertainment bias was the sole factor skewing the results. The overlap with the Affymetrix Human Origin Array showed results closest to expected results based on previous studies, suggesting that ascertainment bias likely affects the results. The results attained using the whole genome indicated that the genotype calls of individuals present in both parts of the study did not fully match and that was confirmed using a principal component analysis. Unfortunatly the data used and analytical limitations in this project did not yield answers to how ascertainment bias affects calculations on sex-biased admixture. The X-chromosome is difficult to work with, especially when using data from multiple publications, as there is no standard common best-practice pipeline available on how to process the data leading to different data sets having been treated differently, which possibly affects downstream analysis when combining data sets.
4
Sefcek, Jon Adam. "A Life-History Model of Human Fitness Indicators." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/194693.
Full textAbstract:
Recent adaptationist accounts of human mental and physical health have reinvigorated the debate over the evolution of human intelligence. In the tradition of strong inference the current study was developed to determine which hypothesis; Rushton’s (2000) differential K theory, or Miller’s (2000a) fitness indicator model (F), better accounts for general intelligence ('g') in an undergraduate university population (N = 194). Due to the lengthy administration time of the test materials a newly developed 18-item short form of the Ravens Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM-18; Sefcek, Miller, & Figueredo, 2007) was used. There was a significant positive relationship between K and F (r = .31, p < .001), however no significant relationships were found between 'g' and either K or F (for each, r = -.06, p ≥ .05). While contrary to both hypotheses, these results may be explained in relation to antagonistic pleiotropy and a potential failure to derive within species comparisons directly from between species comparisons.
5
Gers, Matt. "Human culture and cognition : a thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Philosophy /." ResearchArchive@Victoria e-Thesis, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10063/320.
Full text
6
Ingman, Max. "Mitochondria and Human Evolution." Doctoral thesis, Uppsala University, Department of Genetics and Pathology, 2003. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-3580.
Full textAbstract:
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has been a potent tool in studies of the evolution of modern humans, human migrations and the dynamics of human populations over time. The popularity of this cytoplasmic genome has largely been due to its clonal inheritance (in Man) allowing the tracing of a direct genetic line. In addition, a comparatively high rate of nucleotide substitution facilitates phylogenetic resolution among relatively closely related individuals of the same species.
In this thesis, a statistically supported phylogeny based on complete mitochondrial genome sequences is presented which, for the first time, unambiguously places the root of modern human mitochondrial lineages in Africa in the last 200 thousand years. This conclusion provides strong support for the “recent African origin” hypothesis. Also, the complete genome data underline the problematic nature of traditional approaches to analyses of mitochondrial phylogenies.
The dispersal of anatomically modern humans from the African continent is examined through single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and sequence data. These data imply an expansion from Africa about 57 thousand years ago and a subsequent population dispersal into Asia. The dispersal coincides with a major population division that may be the result of multiple migratory routes to East Asia.
Also investigated is the question of a common origin for the indigenous peoples of Australia and New Guinea. Previous studies have been equivocal on this question with some presenting evidence for a common genetic origin and other proposing separate histories. Our data reveals an ancient genetic link between Australian Aborigines and the peoples of the New Guinea highlands.
7
Medeiros, André Luís dos Santos. "Tendências na mortalidade por batida de carro em três grandes cidades do Brasil e a Síndrome do macho jovem." Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, 2012. http://www.bdtd.uerj.br/tde_busca/arquivo.php?codArquivo=3853.
Full textAbstract:
Vários estudos encontraram maiores taxas de mortalidade por batidas no trânsito entre homens do que entre mulheres e entre homens jovens do que entre homens mais velhos. No entanto, há uma lacuna quanto a explicações para essas diferenças. Esse estudo, diferentemente dos antecessores, parte de hipóteses postuladas a priori, sobre como devem variar as taxas de mortalidade por batidas no trânsito, de acordo com sexo e idade. Espera-se encontrar a presença e ausência de certas associações e interações, com base na teoria moderna da seleção sexual aplicada ao estudo do comportamento humano, especificamente, a síndrome do macho jovem. O objetivo do presente estudo é comparar tendências nas taxas de
mortalidade por batida de carro e moto segundo sexo e idade. Trata-se de um estudo ecológico com Estado como unidade geográfica de análise e o ano calendário como unidade temporal de análise. A população do estudo foi composta por homens e mulheres de 18 a 60 anos residentes no Estado do Rio de Janeiro, entre 2004 e 2010, e no Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, entre os anos de 2001 e 2010. Os resultados mostraram que o número de mortes por batida de carro e de moto, considerando o número de habilitados para guiar tais veículos, foi maior em
homens do que em mulheres e em indivíduos mais jovens do que mais velhos. Além dessa interessante congruência entre os resultados encontrados e as hipóteses postuladas, descobrimos uma intrigante exceção: no Estado do Rio de Janeiro, a taxa de mortalidade por batida de moto foi consideravelmente maior em mulheres do que em homens. As tendências nas taxas de mortalidade por batida de carro e moto no Estado do Rio de Janeiro vêm apresentando uma queda nos últimos anos. No
Rio Grande do Sul, as taxas de mortalidade por batida de moto também vêm caindo ao longo dos anos, enquanto que as taxas de mortalidade por batida de carro vêm apresentando aumento. Tais resultados levam a concluir que a Síndrome do Macho Jovem parece ser uma potente e promissora teoria para ajudar a postular hipóteses sobre o risco de morte no trânsito.Several studies have found higher rates of mortality in traffic crash among men than among women and among young men than among older men. However, there is a gap concerning explanations for these differences. In this study, unlike predecessors, hypotheses were postulated a priori, on how rates of mortality due to crashes in traffic should vary, according to sex and age. We expected to find the presence and absence of certain associations and interactions, based on the modern theory of sexual selection applied to the study of human behavior, specifically, the "young male syndrome." The aim of this study is to compare trends in mortality rates from car and motorcycle crashes according to sex and age. It is an ecological study with the state as the geographical unit of analysis and the calendar year as the temporal unit of analysis. The study population was composed of 18-60 years old men and women residing in the State of Rio de Janeiro, between 2004 and 2010, and in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, between the years 2001 and 2010. The results have shown that the number of deaths from car and motorcycle crashes considering the number of qualified people to drive such vehicles was higher in men than in women and in younger than older people. In addition to the interesting congruence between the findings and hypotheses postulated, we discovered an intriguing exception: at the state of Rio de Janeiro, the mortality rate from motorcycle crash was considerably higher in women than in men. Trends in mortality rates from car and motorcycle crashes in the state of Rio de Janeiro have shown a decline in recent years. In Rio Grande do Sul, the mortality rates from motorcycle crashes have also been falling over the years, while mortality rates from car crashes have increased. These results lead to conclude that the "Young Male Syndrome" seems to be a powerful and promising theory to help postulating hypotheses about the risk of death in traffic.
8
El, Mouden Claire M. "The evolution of cooperation, especially in humans." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2011. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:2ebc0b15-d745-48d8-bb5a-a4d83b3304ed.
Full textAbstract:
I develop social evolution theory to study the evolution of cooperation as follows: (1) Many organisms undergo a dispersal phase prior to breeding; I demonstrate that knowing ones dispersal status aids the evolution of helping (by non-dispersers) and harming (by dispersers). (2) Policing driven by group-benefits may be selected to enforce cooperation in human and animal societies. I extend existing theory to show that policing may be harder to evolve that previously thought, but that it is maintained more readily than it evolves. (3) Archeological and anthropological evidence suggests that warfare was prevalent during our evolution. I show that, contrary to previous suggestions, between-group competition can favour any social behaviour (pro-social or anti-social) so long as it helps the group compete, and that such traits can be altruistic or mutually beneficial. (4) Reproductive leveling is analogous to policing; in the human literature there is doubt as to whether it can evolve. I extend my previous work to consider the coevolution of culturally and genetically inherited traits for reproductive leveling and selfishness. I find that cooperation can evolve between non-kin if they share the same culture. (5) Monogamy is thought to favour the evolution of cooperative breeding. I show that in the simplest case, because of the cost of competition between non-dispersing siblings, the level of promiscuity has little or no effect on the evolution of cooperation. (6) Spatial structure (limited dispersal) is thought to favour the evolution of inter-specific mutualisms as it aligns the partners’ interests. I consider the case of plant-fungi mutualisms and show that spatial structure can disfavour cooperation if it limits the potential fungal partners available to the plant.
9
Giner, Delgado Carla. "Large-scale evolutionary analysis of polymorphic inversions in the human genome." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/459114.
Full textAbstract:
Les inversions cromosòmiques són variants estructurals on un fragment de genoma s'inverteix sense canviar-ne el contingut, i durant anys, els seus efectes subtils però importants han fascinat els biòlegs evolutius. De fet, les inversions van ser descobertes per primer cop fa cent anys en mosques de la fruita, i aviat es va fer evident la seva associació a processos evolutius com l'adaptació local i l'especiació. Tot i així, en el moment en què vivim de la genòmica i el big data, les inversions tendeixen a quedar fora de l'abast de les tecnologies més comunes i encara se sap poc d'elles. Durant els últims anys, el Projecte InvFEST ha tingut com a objectiu ampliar el nostre coneixement sobre les inversions humanes mitjançant la validació i genotipació d'una gran part de les inversions predites. En concret, aquest projecte ha generat un recurs molt útil format per 45 inversions comunes (d'entre 83 pb i 415 kpb) amb genotips d'alta qualitat per a un total de 550 individus de set poblacions diverses. En aquesta tesi s'utilitzen les dades poblacionals generades, junt amb les seqüències del Projecte 1000 Genomes, per a realitzar la primera anàlisi detallada de les propietats evolutives de les inversions polimòrfiques humanes. Per aconseguir-ho, s'han fet servir diferents mètodes que combinen models teòrics, simulacions i comparacions amb altres tipus de mutacions. A part d'obtenir una caracterització completa de les dades, els resultats confirmen que hi ha diferències importants entre inversions generades per diferents mecanismes. La distribució de freqüències de les 21 inversions creades per mecanismes no homòlegs (NH) és semblant a l'esperada per a variants neutres si es controlen els biaixos en la detecció, indicant que no es troben sota una forta selecció negativa. La recombinació s'inhibeix en tota la longitud de la inversió, sense que s'observi cap intercanvi de variants entre orientacions, i la inhibició podria estendre's alguna kilobase més enllà dels punts de trencament. Com a resultat, els nivells de variació genòmica es veuen força afectats per les inversions NH, tal i com prediuen les simulacions realitzades. Mentre que les inversions antigues i a freqüències intermèdies augmenten la variació nucleotídica, les inversions més recents poden crear l'efecte contrari. En canvi, la majoria de les inversions creades per recombinació homòloga no al·lèlica (NAHR) (19/24) han aparegut múltiples vegades de manera independent en diferents haplotips de la mostra. Els elevats nivells de recurrència es reflecteixen en diferents mesures: aquestes inversions estan enriquides en freqüències intermèdies, comparteixen polimorfismes nucleotídics entre orientacions, i es troben en baix desequilibri de lligament amb variants properes, dificultant-ne la seva detecció indirecta amb variants correlacionades. Finalment, per tal de trobar aquelles inversions candidates a tenir efectes funcionals, s'han explorat diverses senyals de selecció natural a partir de freqüències, diferenciació poblacional i patrons de variació nucleotídica. S'han identificat deu inversions candidates, tres d'elles de més de 1.5 milions d'anys i mantingudes a freqüències intermèdies, possiblement per selecció equilibradora, una d'elles també es troba a genomes d'hominins antics. Altres candidates sembla que han augmentat ràpidament de freqüència en algunes poblacions, que és consistent amb selecció positiva. Cal destacar que més de la meitat de candidates estan situades en regions gèniques, el qual suggereix que poden tenir un efecte funcional. Per tant, aquest treball ofereix una visió global de la dinàmica de les inversions i el seu paper com modificadors genòmics, obrint noves línies d'investigació.Chromosomal inversions are structural variants that invert a fragment of the genome without usually modifying its content, and their subtle but powerful effects in natural populations have fascinated evolutionary biologists for a long time. Discovered a century ago in fruit flies, their association with different evolutionary processes, such as local adaptation and speciation, was soon evident in several species. However, in the current era of genomics and big data, inversions frequently escape the grasp of current technologies and remain largely overlooked in humans. During the last few years, the InvFEST Project has aimed to address the missing knowledge about human inversions by validating and genotyping a large fraction of predicted polymorphisms. In particular, it has generated one of the most useful data sets on human inversions, consisting of 45 common inversions (with sizes from 83 bp to 415 kbp) genotyped at high-quality in 550 individuals of seven populations of diverse ancestry. This thesis takes advantage of the available population-scale information, combined with whole-genome sequences available from the 1000 Genomes Project, to carry out the first detailed analysis of the evolutionary properties of human polymorphic inversions. The methods used combine theoretical models, simulations and empirical comparisons with other mutation types. Besides the complete characterization of the data set, the results confirm fundamental differences between inversions created by different mechanisms. The frequency distribution of the 21 inversions originated by non-homologous mechanisms (NH) is similar to that expected for neutral variants when controlling for detection biases, which indicates that they are not subjected to strong negative selection. Recombination is completely inhibited across the whole inversion length, with no clear genetic exchange found, and possibly over a few kbp beyond the breakpoints. As a result, NH inversions strongly affect local genome variation levels, as predicted by computer simulations, with older inversions increasing total nucleotide diversity, while younger ones at very high frequency could have the opposite effect. In contrast, most inversions created by non-allelic homologous recombination (NAHR) (19/24) have appeared independently in different haplotypes in the sample. These high recurrence levels are reflected in several measures: they are enriched in intermediate frequencies, share multiple nucleotide polymorphisms between orientations, and have little linkage disequilibrium with neighbouring variants, which limits their detection by tag SNP strategies. Finally, in order to find inversions that are functional candidates, different signatures of selection on inversions were explored based on their frequencies, population differentiation and sequence variation patterns. Ten candidates were revealed, with three of them found to be >1.5 million years old and maintained at intermediate frequencies, possibly by balancing selection. One of these was also found in archaic hominins. Other candidates seem to have reached high frequencies in a short period of time in some populations, consistent with positive selection. Notably, over half of the candidates are located within gene regions, which suggests that they may have functional effects. Thus, this work offers an overview of inversion dynamics and their role as genomic modifiers, opening interesting avenues of investigation.
10
Starkman, Sofie Elisabeth. "The molecular evolution and origins of hepatitis B virus in humans and non-human primates." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/30784.
Full textAbstract:
The main aim of this thesis is to investigate the molecular evolution of human and non-human primate HBV to gain further insights into the origin of HBV in these species. This investigation was carried out in three main sections. The first comprised an extensive and detailed genetic analysis of the distribution of human HBV genotypes in HBV endemic areas in sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia. In the second section complete genome sequences of HBV variants were analysed for recombination between different HBV genotypes. This analysis included the use of a novel method based on the calculation of association scores for phylogenetic groups, an approach that helps resolve much of the uncertainties and difficulties of interpretation of results arising from conventional methods, such as SimPlot. The third section investigated the frequencies of BHV infection in non-human primates, and the relationship between HBV genotype, primate species and geographical range. In my survey, HBV infection was confined to African and Asian apes, and uniformly absent from a wide range of African monkey species. Phylogenetic analysis of chimpanzee-, gibbon- and orang-utan-derived HBV variants indicated that a geographical rather than a species correlation with genotypes, implying the co-circulation and cross-species transmission of HBV between species of overlapping habitats. However, in no cases were primate-associated HBV variants found in humans, nor human genotypes in non-human primates. These findings and the interspersed nature of human and non-human primate HBV genotypes deepens the mystery of HBV origins and evolution in humans. The findings, however, provide a context for ongoing studies of HBV biological variability and genotype-associated differences in pathogenicity and outcomes of infection.
11
Steele, Thomas James Moncrieff. "Primate perspectives on human evolution." Thesis, University of Southampton, 1993. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.238893.
Full text
12
Warnefors, Anna Maria Linne´a. "Evolution of human gene expression." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2011. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/6979/.
Full textAbstract:
During evolution, biological differences between species can arise not only due to structural differences between genes, but also following changes in how, where and when genes are active. However, we know much less about this second aspect, because large-scale comparative transcriptomics only became feasible relatively recently. In this thesis, I will therefore investigate several aspects of gene expression evolution, with emphasis on our own species. A first step to understanding regulatory evolution is to determine how variation in gene expression is created. Transposable elements (TEs) are genomic parasites that can affect their host genome in a number of ways, including gene expression. In Chapter 2, I investigate to what extent transposable elements (TEs) have contributed to expression differences between humans and chimpanzees. Once expression variation has been established, a combination of selection and drift will decide which variants are passed on to future generations. It is of particular interest to identify changes that were established through positive selection, as these are adaptive. In Chapter 3, I describe a new method to detect positive selection acting on gene expression and apply it to data from humans and chimpanzees. Human gene expression is regulated through several mechanisms associated with transcription and post-transcriptional processing. In Chapter 4, I consider the long-term evolution of the human genome and investigate whether genes have reached their maximum capacity in terms of regulatory complexity. Finally, in Chapter 5, I explore the relationship between gene regulation and sequence conservation by identifying and analysing extremely conserved elements in the genome of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster.
13
McGinsky, Elizabeth Ann. "Analyses of Sex Ratios among Residents of the Khumbu of Nepal Support the Trivers-Willard Hypothesis." Master's thesis, Temple University Libraries, 2011. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/120545.
Full textAbstract:
AnthropologyM.A.
The Trivers-Willard hypothesis predicts a sex ratio bias contingent on maternal condition in species characterized by variation in male reproductive success. A male-biased sex ratio among mothers in good condition, and a female-biased sex ratio among mothers in poor condition is expected. Studies in humans have thus far provided mixed answers to the question of whether or not sex ratio is affected by maternal condition. The present study assessed whether or not the introduction of a western cash economy influenced the observed secondary sex ratio in Nepal's Khumbu region. Because acculturated villages provided better access to the cash economy and to health facilities, residence in an acculturated village was used as a proxy for "good" maternal condition. I analyzed demographic data gathered by survey in 1971 and 1982. The sample included 734 children from the 1971 survey and 1598 children from the 1982 survey. Using Poisson regression I analyzed the extent to which the sex ratios in age-stratified groups differed between the acculturated and unacculturated villages. In the 1971 dataset, the younger women in the acculturated villages displayed a significantly higher (p=.014) proportion of male offspring. It is likely that older women were subjected to minimal acculturation effects during their child-bearing years and among these data there was a lack of significant deviation between acculturated and unacculturated post-menopausal women. The rapid overall increase in acculturation between 1971 and 1982 likely made conditions in the two sets of villages much more similar by 1982. The results of this study underscore the impact that the transition to a market economy had on women in Nepal's Khumbu region.
Temple University--Theses
14
Bean, Sarah. "Evolution education in Canada's museums: where is human evolution?" Thesis, McGill University, 2011. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=103470.
Full textAbstract:
While an interest in the origin of human beings may be a cultural universal, there are various views and beliefs about how this event took place. In Canada, a recent (2010) Angus Reid survey revealed that only 61% of Canadians accepted that humans evolved over millions of years; 39% of the population either believed in creationism or did not accept evolution as a scientific fact. These statistics suggest that human evolution education is a topic that needs to be addressed.This thesis investigates the role of museums in public education about human evolution. Prior to this study, the number of Canadian museums with exhibits about this topic was unknown. Sixteen Canadian museums participated in this study, and the results demonstrated that only two had permanent exhibits on human evolution, and one creationist museum presented a biblically-based account of human origins. Here, it is argued that more of Canada's museums should consider incorporating human evolution education into their mandates.Bien que l'intérêt envers les origines de l'Homme soit un universel culturel, plusieurs points de vue et croyances divergent au sujet du commencement de l'humanité. Au Canada, un récent sondage (2010) de la firme Angus Reid a révélé que seulement 61% des Canadiens acceptent le fait que l'humain ait évolué sur une période de millions d'années, et 39% croient plutôt au créationnisme ou ne considèrent pas l'évolution comme un fait scientifique. Ces statistiques suggèrent que l'évolution de l'homme soit un sujet qui doit être abordé. Cette thèse étudiera le rôle que jouent les musées dans l'éducation de la population à propos de l'évolution de l'homme. Le nombre de musées canadiens présentant une exposition sur le sujet n'était pas encore connu avant la réalisation de cette étude. Selon les résultats de celle-ci, seuls deux des seize musées canadiens qui y ont pris part consacraient une exposition permanente à l'évolution de l'homme, et un autre musée, créationniste, proposait une version biblique des origines de l'homme. Cette thèse démontre que davantage de musées canadiens devraient envisager d'avoir pour objectif l'éducation de la population sur l'évolution humaine.
15
Hernando, Herráez Irene 1985. "Evolutionary insights into human DNA methylation." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/392140.
Full textAbstract:
DNA methylation is a crucial epigenetic modification involved in numerous biological processes. However, despite its functional importance, the evolutionary history of this modification and the mechanisms diving such changes are poorly understood. The aim of this thesis is to provide a better understanding of DNA methylation in the context of human recent evolution. We identified and described hundreds of regions presenting a human-specific DNA methylation pattern compared to great apes. We also analyzed for the first time the relationship between DNA methylation changes and sequence evolution at both nucleotide and protein level. In summary, this research reveals new insights into the evolutionary properties of DNA methylation and the interpretation of inter-species non-coding variationLa metilación del ADN es una modificación epigenética implicada en numerosos procesos biológicos. Sin embargo, a pesar de su relevancia funcional, se sabe muy poco sobre su historia evolutiva y los mecanismos que generan estos cambios. El objetivo de esta tesis es proporcionar una mejor compresión de la metilación del ADN en el contexto de la evolución humana reciente. Hemos identificado y descrito cientos de regiones que presentan un patrón de metilación especifico de humanos. Así mismo, hemos analizado por primera vez la relación entre los cambios en metilación y la evolución de la secuencia tanto a nivel nucleotídico como proteico. En resumen, esta investigación revela nuevos conocimientos sobre las propiedades evolutivas de la metilación del ADN y la interpretación de la variación no codificante entre especies.
16
Huang, Yong. "An evolutionary study of human microRNAs." [Ames, Iowa : Iowa State University], 2010. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3403803.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Iowa State University, 2010.Title from PDF title page (ProQuest website, viewed on July 15, 2010) Includes supplemental gene sequences, tables, data files and scripts. Includes bibliography.
17
Hirnstein, Marco. "Evolutionary advantages of human hemispheric asymmetries." Thesis, Durham University, 2009. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/2147/.
Full textAbstract:
Hemispheric asymmetries are a basic principle of human brain organization. Once thought to be unique to humans, hemispheric asymmetries have meanwhile been documented in a wide range of species, suggesting they contain an evolutionary advantage. However, there are a few theories as to why asymmetry confers such an advantage and, moreover, there is a paucity of empirical work which is chiefly limited to a small number of animal studies. The present thesis is concerned with directly testing theories about potential evolutionary advantages in humans. Because it is widely believed that hemispheric asymmetries generally enhance cognitive processing, the first study Investigated the general relationship between functional lateralization and cognitive performance using two visual half-field paradigms. The second study employed the same paradigms to test the notion that hemispheric asymmetries specifically enhance parallel processing. The final study tested the notion that high degrees of lateralization (determined with a dichotic listening test) are associated with enhanced left-right discrimination. It was hypothesized that in all studies highly lateralized participants would outperform less lateralized participants. In contrast to our hypotheses however, highly lateralized participants were consistently outperformed by less lateralized participants. Less lateralized participants showed higher cognitive performance and excelled at parallel processing and left-right discrimination. The results of the present thesis thus challenge a) the general notion that high degrees of lateralization are associated with enhanced cognitive processing, b) the specific notions that lateralization enhances parallel processing and left-right discrimination and c) the idea that hemispheric asymmetries are advantageous for cognitive processing per se. Taken together with previous studies, it is argued that advantages of hemispheric asymmetries depend on the degree of lateralization and situational requirements. That is, high, low and intermediate degrees of lateralization of the brain are each associated with distinct advantages (and disadvantages), depending on the demands placed upon it.
18
Currie, T. E. "The evolutionary ecology of human groups." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2009. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/17272/.
Full textAbstract:
I argue that thinking about human cultures as similar to biological species is a productive way to investigate human cultural diversity. I apply theory and methods from evolutionary biology to tackle questions about the evolution of human political organisation and the diversity of ethnolinguistic groups. Phylogenetic comparative methods developed in biology have been applied to cultural systems. The use of such methods has been criticized because of the ability of cultural traits to be transmitted horizontally. I conducted simulations that revealed that under realistic scenarios horizontal transmission does not increase the chances of inferring false relationships between cultural traits in phylogenetic co-evolutionary analyses. Debates rage as to whether or not there have been regularities across cultures in the pattern and process of the evolution of human political organization. I used linguistic and ethnographic data from a sample of Austronesian-speaking societies and employed a phylogenetic comparative method to test different models of the evolution of political complexity. The data support the hypothesis that societies pass through stages of political organization in a particular order in the direction of increasing complexity. Decreases in complexity are also possible but may not follow a regular sequence. There is no evidence that the increase in political complexity over time in Austronesian societies is the result of a driving force. I also used phylogenetic comparative methods to investigate the coevolution of intensive agriculture and political organization. I found that in Austronesian societies changes to complex chiefdoms and states are less likely unless agriculture has first been intensified. As with biological species there is a latitudinal gradient in the diversity human ethnolinguistic groups. I constructed a database that integrates language, ethnographic, and environmental data to test various hypotheses concerning the present day distribution of ethnolinguistic groups. Political complexity was found to be an important predictor of the area a language covers.
19
Giuliani, Cristina <1986>. "Evolutionary epigenetics of modern human populations." Doctoral thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2015. http://amsdottorato.unibo.it/6890/.
Full textAbstract:
Epigenetic variability is a new mechanism for the study of human microevolution, because it creates both phenotypic diversity within an individual and within population. This mechanism constitutes an important reservoir for adaptation in response to new stimuli and recent studies have demonstrated that selective pressures shape not only the genetic code but also DNA methylation profiles.
The aim of this thesis is the study of the role of DNA methylation changes in human adaptive processes, considering the Italian peninsula and macro-geographical areas. A whole-genome analysis of DNA methylation profile across the Italian penisula identified some genes whose methylation levels differ between individuals of different Italian districts (South, Centre and North of Italy). These genes are involved in nitrogen compound metabolism and genes involved in pathogens response. Considering individuals with different macro-geographical origins (individuals of Asians, European and African ancestry) more significant DMRs (differentially methylated regions) were identified and are located in genes involved in glucoronidation, in immune response as well as in cell comunication processes. A "profile" of each ancestry (African, Asian and European) was described. Moreover a deepen analysis of three candidate genes (KRTCAP3, MAD1L and BRSK2) in a cohort of individuals of different countries (Morocco, Nigeria, China and Philippines) living in Bologna, was performed in order to explore genetic and epigenetic diversity.
Moreover this thesis have paved the way for the application of DNA methylation for the study of hystorical remains and in particular for the age-estimation of individuals starting from biological samples (such as teeth or blood). Noteworthy, a mathematical model that considered methylation values of DNA extracted from cementum and pulp of living individuals can estimate chronological age with high accuracy (median absolute difference between age estimated from DNA methylation and chronological age was 1.2 years).
20
Debove, Stéphane. "The evolutionary origins of human fairness." Thesis, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 2015. http://www.theses.fr/2015PA05T040/document.
Full textAbstract:
L'Homme attache de l'importance à l'équité et est prêt à aller jusqu'à subir des pertes financières pour la défense de l'équité. Cet attachement coûteux à l'équité constitue un paradoxe pour les théories de l'évolution. Récemment, certains auteurs ont proposé de voir le sens de l'équité comme une adaptation psychologique évoluée pour résoudre le problème du partage des coûts et bénéfices de la coopération. Quand il est possible de choisir avec qui coopérer, partager les coûts et bénéfices d'une manière impartiale aide à être choisi comme partenaire social et procure des bénéfices directs en terme de valeur sélective. Dans cette théorie, le choix du partenaire est donc le mécanisme central permettant l'évolution du sens de l'équité. Ici, nous proposons une étude interdisciplinaire de l'équité pour mettre cette théorie à l'épreuve. Après une revue des théories en compétition pour expliquer l'équité (Article 1, en cours de revue), nous développons des modèles de théorie des jeux et des simulations individu-centrées pour savoir si le choix du partenaire permet d'expliquer deux éléments-clés de l'équité: le refus de profiter de sa force pour exploiter les plus faibles (Article 2, Evolution), et l'attrait des distributions dans lesquelles la rétribution est proportionnelle à la contribution (Article 3, en cours de revue). Nous montrons que le choix du partenaire permet d'expliquer ces deux caractéristiques. Nous produisons également des simulations plus réalistes et prenant mieux en compte les mécanismes d'évolution en essayant de faire évoluer des robots qui se comportent de manière équitable. Nous testons ensuite la théorie de façon empirique, et montrons que le choix du partenaire crée des distributions équitables dans une expérience comportementale (Article 4, Proceedings of the Royal Society B). Nous développons un jeu vidéo collaboratif pour estimer l'importance de la variabilité interculturelle de l'équité dans des situations de justice distributive, et présentons des résultats obtenus sur un échantillon de sujets occidentaux (Article 5, en préparation). Nous passons en revue les expériences cherchant de l'équité chez les animaux non-humains, et discutons pourquoi un sens de l'équité aurait eu plus de chances de se développer chez l'Homme que dans une autre espèce, alors que le choix du partenaire est loin d'être un mécanisme évolutionnaire restreint à l'Homme. Enfin, nous discutons trois malentendus classiques sur la théorie du choix du partenaire et identifions des directions de recherche intéressantes pour le futurHumans care about fairness and are ready to suffer financial losses for the sake of it. The existence of such costly preferences for fairness constitutes an evolutionary puzzle. Recently, some authors have argued that human fairness can be understood as a psychological adaptation evolved to solve the problem of sharing the costs and benefits of cooperation. When people can choose with whom they want to cooperate, sharing the costs and benefits in an impartial way helps to be chosen as a partner and brings direct fitness benefits. In this theory, partner choice is thus the central mechanism allowing the evolution of fairness. Here, we offer an interdisciplinary study of fairness to put this theory to the test. After a review of competing theories (Paper 1, in review), we build game-theoretical models and agent-based simulations to investigate whether partner choice can explain two key aspects of human fairness: the wrongness to take advantage of one's strength to exploit weaker people (Paper 2, Evolution), and the appeal of distributions where the reward is proportional to the contribution (Paper 3, in review). We show that partner choice succeeds at explaining these two characteristics. We also go towards more realistic and mechanism-oriented simulations by trying to evolve fair robots controlled by simple neural networks. We then test the theory empirically, and show that partner choice creates fairness in a behavioral experiment (Paper 4, Proceedings of the Royal Society B). We develop a collaborative video game to assess the cross-cultural variation of fairness in distributive situations, and present results coming from a Western sample (Paper 5, in preparation). We review the experiments looking for fairness in non-human animals, and discuss why fairness would have been more prone to evolve in humans than in any other species, despite partner choice being an evolutionary mechanism far from restricted to the human species. Finally, we discuss three common misunderstandings about the partner choice theory and identify interesting directions for future research
21
Opie, Christopher Francis. "The evolution of social systems in human and non-human primates." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:572277ae-73cc-42f5-bffb-f49502379688.
Full textAbstract:
From a Darwinian perspective, both history and environment are causal factors for change in animal social behaviour. Because behaviour leaves no fossil evidence researchers have focused on how social systems help animals and humans adapt to their current environments and have only been able to make tentative suggestions about how such systems may have evolved. However, a new theoretical framework, based on Darwin’s insights, allows phylogenetic relatedness to be incorporated into comparative analyses to discover the ancestral states of social behaviour and the ultimate drivers of change in human and primate societies. This thesis uses these new methods to investigate the history and drivers of change in human and primate sociality and proposes a new model of primate social evolution. Analyses of mating systems suggest that social monogamy in humans and other primates is the result of infanticide risk brought about by life history changes. These methods were also able to reveal how changes in inheritance rules to matriliny among Bantu-speaking societies, contributed to a switch to matrilocal residence, which in turn contributed to a change from polygynous marriage to monogamy. Cultural history effects change in both descent and residence patterns, while geographical proximity also affects descent, but residence and environmental factors drive changes in marriage. This approach may provide a way for the various schools for the study of human and primate social behaviour to collaborate more closely and provide ultimate answers to the drivers of change in human society.
22
Langford, Cordelia F. "Karyopyte evolution : evolutionary chromosome rearrangements in material homologous to human chromosome 22q studied in the dog and gibbon." Thesis, Open University, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.402334.
Full text
23
James, Hannah Victoria Arnison. "Becoming human : the emergence of modern human behaviour within South Asia." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.609772.
Full text
24
Reversi, Luiz Felipe [UNESP]. "Síntese estendida: uma investigação histórico-filosófica." Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/11449/132673.
Full textAbstract:
Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-13T13:27:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0
Previous issue date: 2015-03-09. Added 1 bitstream(s) on 2016-01-13T13:33:02Z : No. of bitstreams: 1
000852390.pdf: 1120449 bytes, checksum: 5f72e719c4a6d0bd04673f70d8f8f36b (MD5)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)
Atualmente diversas questões emergentes vêm questionando a validade e abrangência da atual moldura conceitual da biologia evolutiva, conhecida como Síntese Moderna, e expansãoes desta mesma moldura tem sido debatidas, levando a um novo quadro conceitual denominado Síntese Estendida, uma vez que prentende expandir ao invés de refutar a Síntese Moderna. Estas discussões também têm levantado questões acerca da epistemologia e da natureza histórica da biologia evolutiva, neste sentido buscamos um referencial teórico que pudesse interpretar epistemologicamente o desenvolvimento das idéias e teorias evolutivas e transformistas na história da biologia assim como explicitar o atual processo de expansão da teoria sintética da evolução. Desta forma realizamos uma análise filosóficada históra da biologia evolutiva por meio de um referencial bachelardiano e observamos um progressivo racionalismo na mesma, sendo condizente com o modelo de perfil epistemológico proposto por Bachelard. Após esta análise buscamos investigar como ela poderia contribuir para o ensino de evolução, uma vez que a evolução biológica desempenha um papel central tanto para a biologia quanto para seu ensino, articulando suas diferentes áreas e conferindo-lhes sentido. Tambéma a teoria dos perfis epistemológicos de Bachelard possui a capacidade sui generis de relacionar intimamente o desenvolvimento histórico-filosófico de um conceito com o desenvolvimento psicológico do mesmo conceito em seu processo de ensino-aprendizagem. Identificamos que o ensino de evolução possui diversos problemas como - Dificuldades dos professores em lidar com as concepções religiosas dos alunos; Visões finalistas e teleológicas da evolução tanto pelos alunos quanto pelos professores; Ensino fragmentado e estanque dos conteúdos de biologia; Falta de bases teóricas por parte dos professores para trabalhar a história da ciência e para se utilizar a evolução como...
Currently several emerging issues are questioning the validity and scope of the current conceptual framework of evoluationary biology, known as Modern Synthesis, and expansions of this frame are being discussed, leading to a new conceptual framework called Extended Synthesis, since it seeks to expand rather than refute the Modern Synthesis. There discussions have also raised questions about the epistemology and the historical nature of evolutionary biology, in this sense we seek a theoretical framework that could philosophically the development of evolutionary ideas and theories in the history of biology as well as explain the current process of expandion of the Modern Synthesis. Thus, we performed a philosophical analysis of the history of the evolutionary biology through a Bachelardian referential, and we observed a progressive rationalism in this historical process, being consistent with the epistemological profile model proposed by Bachelard. After this analysis we seek to investigate how it could contribute to the teaching of evolution plays a central role both for biology and for his teaching, combining their different areas and giving them direction. Also the bachelardian theory of epistemological profiles has the unique ability to closely relate the historical and philosophical development of a concept to the psychological development of the same concept in it's teaching-learning process. We found that the teaching of evoluation has several problems such as - Teachers difficulties in dealing with religious conceptions of the students; Finalists and Teleological views of evolution brought by students and teachers as well; Fragmented teaching of biology content; Lack of theoretical bases for teachers to work with the history of science and to use evolution as an integrating axis; Strictly genecentric conception of biological evolution; Teaching of evolution restricted to Lamarck's and Darwin's ideas and opposition between them - Most...
25
Reversi, Luiz Felipe. "Síntese estendida : uma investigação histórico-filosófica /." Bauru, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/11449/132673.
Full textAbstract:
Orientador: João Jozé CaluziBanca: Ana Maria de Andrade Caldeira
Banca: Fernanda da Rocha Brando Fernandez
Resumo: Atualmente diversas questões emergentes vêm questionando a validade e abrangência da atual moldura conceitual da biologia evolutiva, conhecida como Síntese Moderna, e expansãoes desta mesma moldura tem sido debatidas, levando a um novo quadro conceitual denominado Síntese Estendida, uma vez que prentende expandir ao invés de refutar a Síntese Moderna. Estas discussões também têm levantado questões acerca da epistemologia e da natureza histórica da biologia evolutiva, neste sentido buscamos um referencial teórico que pudesse interpretar epistemologicamente o desenvolvimento das idéias e teorias evolutivas e transformistas na história da biologia assim como explicitar o atual processo de expansão da teoria sintética da evolução. Desta forma realizamos uma análise filosóficada históra da biologia evolutiva por meio de um referencial bachelardiano e observamos um progressivo racionalismo na mesma, sendo condizente com o modelo de perfil epistemológico proposto por Bachelard. Após esta análise buscamos investigar como ela poderia contribuir para o ensino de evolução, uma vez que a evolução biológica desempenha um papel central tanto para a biologia quanto para seu ensino, articulando suas diferentes áreas e conferindo-lhes sentido. Tambéma a teoria dos perfis epistemológicos de Bachelard possui a capacidade sui generis de relacionar intimamente o desenvolvimento histórico-filosófico de um conceito com o desenvolvimento psicológico do mesmo conceito em seu processo de ensino-aprendizagem. Identificamos que o ensino de evolução possui diversos problemas como - Dificuldades dos professores em lidar com as concepções religiosas dos alunos; Visões finalistas e teleológicas da evolução tanto pelos alunos quanto pelos professores; Ensino fragmentado e estanque dos conteúdos de biologia; Falta de bases teóricas por parte dos professores para trabalhar a história da ciência e para se utilizar a evolução como...
Abstract: Currently several emerging issues are questioning the validity and scope of the current conceptual framework of evoluationary biology, known as Modern Synthesis, and expansions of this frame are being discussed, leading to a new conceptual framework called Extended Synthesis, since it seeks to expand rather than refute the Modern Synthesis. There discussions have also raised questions about the epistemology and the historical nature of evolutionary biology, in this sense we seek a theoretical framework that could philosophically the development of evolutionary ideas and theories in the history of biology as well as explain the current process of expandion of the Modern Synthesis. Thus, we performed a philosophical analysis of the history of the evolutionary biology through a Bachelardian referential, and we observed a progressive rationalism in this historical process, being consistent with the epistemological profile model proposed by Bachelard. After this analysis we seek to investigate how it could contribute to the teaching of evolution plays a central role both for biology and for his teaching, combining their different areas and giving them direction. Also the bachelardian theory of epistemological profiles has the unique ability to closely relate the historical and philosophical development of a concept to the psychological development of the same concept in it's teaching-learning process. We found that the teaching of evoluation has several problems such as - Teachers difficulties in dealing with religious conceptions of the students; Finalists and Teleological views of evolution brought by students and teachers as well; Fragmented teaching of biology content; Lack of theoretical bases for teachers to work with the history of science and to use evolution as an integrating axis; Strictly genecentric conception of biological evolution; Teaching of evolution restricted to Lamarck's and Darwin's ideas and opposition between them - Most...
Mestre
26
Arias, Martorell Júlia. "The glenohumeral joint of hominoid primates: locomotor correlates, anatomical variation and evolution." Doctoral thesis, Universitat de Barcelona, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/286192.
Full textAbstract:
The Doctoral Thesis entitled "the glenohumeral joint of hominoid primates: locomotor Correlates, anatomical variation and evolution" is about the anatomical adaptations in the shoulder joint (glenohumeral joint) of hominoid primates. The action of the forces exerted during locomotion model the shape of the joint determining the range of motion animals can achieve. The hominoid primates stand out as having very mobile joints, with the ability to raise the arm above the shoulder enabling the use of suspensory locomotion, such as brachiation. Here, the morphological characters related to the types of locomotion of extant hominoid primates in the proximal humerus and the glenoid cavity of the scapula were identified. These morphological characters were used to identify locomotor capacities in extinct hominoid taxa and basal Miocene catarrhines, as well as hominins (Plio-Pleistocene human ancestors). Several taxa of basal Miocene catarrhines might have acquired suspensor locomotion without first acquiring an upright body plan (orthogrady), and Plio-Pleistocene hominins showed affinities with extant hominoids but also generalized taxa such as the woolly monkeys (New World primate). Thus hominins Plio-Plesitocene mezcaldas presented (mosaic) morphological affinities, thus supporting the notion that the common ancestor between humans and chimpanzees, as well as many of the ancestral nodes in the hominoid lineage, presented fairly generalized arboreal features, instead of a derived morphology as found in African great apes, in turn related to the use of knuckle-walking locomotion. Thus, knuckle-walking may be a result of convergent evolution gorillas and chimpanzees. Importantly, the PhD provided evidence of decoupling between orthograde characters (upright trunk) and suspensory locomotion. The consequences of this finding regarding the evolutionary history of hominoids is that orthogrady and suspension have been independently acquired by a number hominoid taxa, and is at least result of evolutionary convergence between hylobatids and great apes.La Tesis Doctoral con título "the glenohumeral joint of hominoid primates: locomotor correlates, anatomical variation and evolution" trata sobre las adaptaciones anatómicas en la articulación del hombro (articulación glenohumeral) de los primates hominoideos. La acción de las fuerzas ejercidas durante la locomoción modelan la forma de la articulación, determinado el rango de movimientos que los animales pueden alcanzar. Los primates hominoideos destacan por tener articulaciones muy móviles, con la capacidad de elevar el brazo por encima del hombro para desplazarse con usando tipos de locomoción suspensora extrema como a braquiación. En esta tesis, se identificaron los caracteres morfológicos relacionados con los tipos de locomoción de los primates hominoideos actuales en el húmero proximal y la cavidad glenoides de la escápula. Estos caracteres morfológicos se usaron para identificar capacidades locomotoras en taxones hominoideos i catarrinos basales extintos del Mioceno así como homininos (ancestros de los humanos del Plio-Pleistoceno). Varios taxones de catarrinos basales del Mioceno podrían haber adquirido locomoción suspensoria sin adquirir primero un plano corporal erecto (ortogradía), y los homininos del Plio-Pleistoceno mostraron afinidades con los gropus de hominoideos actuales pero también con taxones generalizados (morfológicamente y de uso de locomoción) como la mona lanuda platirrina (primate del nuevo mundo). Así, los homininos del Plio-Plesitoceno presentaron afinidades morfológicas mezcaldas (mosaico), respaldando así la noción de que el ancestro común entre humanos y chimpanzés, así como muchos de los nodos ancestrales en el linage hominoideo, pudo presentar unas caracteristicas arborícolas bastante generalizadas, en vez de una morfología derivada como la que se encuentra en los grandes simios africanos, a su vez relacionada con el uso del tipo de locomoción knuckle-walking. Así, este tipo de locomoción puede ser resultado de evolución convergente en estos dos taxones (gorilas y chimpancés). Otro resultado destacable es la evidencia de de disociación entre caracteres ortógrados (tronco erecto) y el tipo de locomoción suspensora, ya que en esta tesis se presentan evidencias de primates no ortógrados actuales (mona lanuda) y catarrinos no hominoideos extintos que presentan adaptaciones a la suspensión sin presentar un cambio de patrón corporal de (pronógrado a ortógrado). Las consecuencias de este hallazgo respecto a la historia evolutiva del los hominoideos es que, junto con las evidencias de la tendéncia contrária (presencia de caracteres ortógrados sin adaptaciones a la suspensión) implican que la ortogradia y la suspensión pudieron haber sido adquiridas independientemente por un número de taxones hominoideos, siendo al menos resultado de convergencia evolutiva entre hilobátidos y grandes simios. A su vez, el hecho de que taxones de tamaño pequeño como los pliopitécidos o la mona lanuda puedan hacer uso de la locomoción suspensora sin exhibir a la vez caracteres ortógrados da pie a pensar que los ancestros de los hilobátidos puedieron haber sido primates de pronógrados de tamaño pequeño, no siendo el tamaño corporal pequeño de los hilóbatidos resultado de enanismo des de un ancestro común ortógrado y de tamaño grande.
27
Gordon, David Stuart. "Shadow of the Leviathan : the role of dominance in the evolution of costly punishment." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/15664.
Full textAbstract:
Costly ‘altruistic’ punishment, where an individual intervenes to punish someone for behaving unfairly towards another or for violating a social norm, seems to be vital for large-scale cooperation. However, due to the costs involved, the evolution of this behaviour has remained a puzzle. The thesis initially describes why punishment is costly and explains why current theories do not sufficiently explain its evolution in the context of these costs. The thesis then offers a solution to this puzzle in the form of a dominance-based theory of the evolution of punishment. The theoretical underpinnings of this theory are discussed in reference to the previous literature, specifically how a dominant position provides sufficient heterogeneity in the cost and benefits of punishment to allow the behaviour to evolve at the individual-level of selection. Across 10 studies, the thesis empirically investigates the role dominance is theorised to play in costly punishment behaviour. First, the judgements observers make about punishers are investigated. It is demonstrated that punishers are perceived as dominant but, unlike individuals who engage in other aggressive behaviours, punishers are also well liked. While successful punishers are judged to be of the highest rank in a social group, the wider social judgements of punishers are dependent on the attempt at punishment only; successful and unsuccessful punishers are seen as equally dominant and well liked, suggesting that the willingness to attempt punishment can honestly signal both dominance and ones pro-sociality. However, additional studies show that observers a) perceive subordinate punishers will face a great deal of retaliation, b) show surprise when subordinates attempt to punish, and c) expect that dominants will punish and be successful, whereas subordinates are expected to never punish. Thus, while there are reputational benefits from punishment, only dominant individuals can actually access them. Second, the effect of a dominant position on punishment behaviour is investigated. Two studies sought to simulate the greater access to resources that dominants enjoy, and demonstrate that individuals who receive more resources from group-level cooperation will punish free-riding more frequently and more severely than those who receive less resources. Moreover, individuals who are in a stable dominant position, i.e. who can continually benefit to a greater degree than others from group cooperation, punish even more frequently and severely than when individuals receive additional resources alone. The results show that individuals only punish when it is cheap for them to do so and when investment in the public good (by punishing) can produce higher future returns for them. A dominant position provides the opportunity for both of these. Further studies demonstrate that individuals at the centre of a social network, an example of a ‘real life’ informal dominant position, are more sensitive to unfairness when making punishment decisions compared to those at the periphery of a group. However, when punishment decisions are public, and there are no economic incentives to punish, individuals behave in a similar manner regardless of social position. Taken together, the results of the empirical studies support the proposed dominance-theory of costly punishment. The theoretical implications of the dominance-theory of punishment are discussed in reference to both the proximate occurrence of punishment and its evolutionary origins in dominance and dominant behaviours. The practical implications of this theory will also be discussed, specifically in regard to when and why individuals will act in defence of the public good. While further investigation is necessary, a dominance-theory of punishment explains both results of this thesis and the findings of the wider literature, and as such provides a coherent and compelling explanation for the evolution of costly punishment and its associated emotions.
28
Katzourakis, Aris. "The evolution of human endogenous retroviruses." Thesis, Imperial College London, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.497642.
Full text
29
Rogers, Emma Jayne. "Haplotype evolution and human genetic diversity." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.342507.
Full text
30
Goidts, Violaine. "Identification of large-scale DNA copy number differences between human and non-human primate genomes and their role in mediating evolutionary rearrangements." [S.l. : s.n.], 2006. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:289-vts-56317.
Full text
31
MacLean, Evan L. "Unraveling the evolution of uniquely human cognition." NATL ACAD SCIENCES, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/621350.
Full textAbstract:
A satisfactory account of human cognitive evolution will explain not only the psychological mechanisms that make our species unique, but also how, when, and why these traits evolved. To date, researchers have made substantial progress toward defining uniquely human aspects of cognition, but considerably less effort has been devoted to questions about the evolutionary processes through which these traits have arisen. In this article, I aim to link these complementary aims by synthesizing recent advances in our understanding of what makes human cognition unique, with theory and data regarding the processes of cognitive evolution. I review evidence that uniquely human cognition depends on synergism between both representational and motivational factors and is unlikely to be accounted for by changes to any singular cognitive system. I argue that, whereas no nonhuman animal possesses the full constellation of traits that define the human mind, homologies and analogies of critical aspects of human psychology can be found in diverse nonhuman taxa. I suggest that phylogenetic approaches to the study of animal cognition-which can address questions about the selective pressures and proximate mechanisms driving cognitive change-have the potential to yield important insights regarding the processes through which the human cognitive phenotype evolved.
32
Mesoudi, Alex. "The transmission and evolution of human culture." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/13955.
Full textAbstract:
'Culture' is defined as information, such as knowledge, beliefs, skills, attitudes or values, that is passed from individual to individual via social (or cultural) transmission and expressed in behaviour or artifacts. 'Cultural evolution' holds that this cultural inheritance system is governed by the same Darwinian processes as gene-based biological evolution. In Part A of this thesis it is argued that as compelling a case can now be made for a Darwinian theory of cultural evolution as Darwin himself presented in The Origin Of Species for biological evolution, If culture does indeed evolve, then it follows that the structure of a science of cultural evolution should broadly resemble that of the science of biological evolution. Hence Part A concludes by outlining a unified science of cultural evolution based on the sub-disciplines of evolutionary biology. Parts B and C comprise original empirical and theoretical work constituting two branches of this science of cultural evolution. Part B describes a series of experiments testing for a number of hypothesised biases in cultural transmission. Evidence was found for a 'social bias' that acts to promote information concerning third-party social relationships over equivalent non-social information, and a 'hierarchical bias' that acts to transform knowledge of everyday events from low-level actions into higher-level goals. Three other hypothesised biases concerning status, anthropomorphism and neoteny were not supported, although each gave rise to potential, future work using this methodology. Part C presents a theoretical investigation into the coevolution of the genetic bases of human mating behaviour and culturally inherited folk beliefs regarding paternity. Gene-culture coevolution and agent-based models suggested that beliefs in 'partible paternity' (that more than one man can father a child) create a new more polygamous form of society compared with beliefs in singular paternity (that only one man can father a child).
33
Vaughan, Amanda Elaine. "An evolutionary perspective of human female rape." Thesis, University of Central Lancashire, 2002. http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/1747/.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis assessed whether rape is an adaptive mating strategy. which was naturally selected for in our ancestral past. It investigated a number of constructs. namely: fertility value; victim-offender relationship; socio-economic status; rape proclivity; actual sexual aggression; and sociosexual orientation. There were two types of studies: studies 1-3 involved archival data, e.g. the use of criminal statistics. and studies 4-7 assessed participant data, e.g. rape attitudes. Study 1 found that fertility value (FV) was related to rape prevalence, as was reproductive value (RV). In addition, offenders with a nonreproductive sexual preference tended to rape a victim with a low FV. and offenders who committed a secondary offence tended to rape a victim with high FV. Study 2 found that there was a smaller number of offences committed against strangers and partners, and a larger number committed against step-relatives and acquaintances. More rapes were committed by low status than high status men. even when the base rate was accounted for. Study 3, showed that there was a relationship between the population gender ratio and rape prevalence. However. the covariable population density was positively related to rape prevalence. Study 4- found that there was more disapproval of a depicted rape committed by a low status offender. A low status offender who raped a victim with low RV attracted more disapproval. Study 5 showed that marital rape was disapproved of more than both stranger and acquaintance rape. Individuals with a short-term mating strategy disapproved of rape more than those with a long-term strategy, and a long-term strategist disapproved of a marital rape less than a short-term strategist. Study 6 found that those who possessed a promiscuous ideology perceived their future life to be limited, in particular the likelihood of being happily married. There was no relationship found between perceived future life and sexual aggression. In study 7. it was found that those who had a more unrestricted sociosexual orientation were more likely to have asymmetrical bodily traits (e.g. ear height. finger length). and that the right hand 20:40 digit ratio (a measure of prenatal testosterone)was significantly related to actual sexual aggression. Overall. there was partial support for rape as an adaptive mechanism. but the studics wcre also consistent with a by-product explanation of rape.
34
Zhao, Shijie Ph D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Evolutionary dynamics of the human gut microbiome." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2019. https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122423.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Biology, 2019Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 156-168).
The composite members of the human gut microbiome encounter a myriad of selective pressures from the host environment and other microbial members in the ecosystem. Understanding the evolutionary dynamics of microbial species in the gut microbiome requires sequencing information that differentiates strains and even single cells. In this thesis, I present efforts that investigate the evolution of bacterial strains in their complex natural environments. In the first project, I discover that a commensal species, Bacteroides fragilis, undergoes within-person adaptive evolution in the absence of antibiotics. Combining culture-based whole genome sequencing with metagenomes, I uncover genes important to B. fragilis survival in the human gut microbiome and describe evolutionary dynamics within individuals and across populations. In the second project, I developed a strain-tracking method that predicts personal microbiomes. Using this method to track closely-related strains, I discover signals of adaptive evolution for Bacteroidetes strains, potentially over decades of colonization in adult twins. In the final project, this strain-tracking method is applied to advance the analysis of microbial transmission within social networks of Fiji islanders. These projects demonstrate the power of genome-resolved and strain-resolved methods in revealing insights of evolutionary dynamics of the gut microbiome. Future studies are expected to further investigate other taxonomical groups in depth and technical breakthroughs are needed to improve the throughput of evolutionary studies of complex systems like the gut microbiome.
by Shijie Zhao.
Ph. D.
Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Biology
35
Hsieh, PingHsun. "Model-Based Population Genetics in Indigenous Humans: Inferences of Demographic History, Adaptive Selection, and African Archaic Admixture using Whole-Genome/Exome Sequencing Data." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/612540.
Full textAbstract:
Reconstructing the origins and evolutionary journey of humans is a central piece of biology. Complementary to archeology, population genetics studying genetic variation among individuals in extant populations has made considerable progress in understanding the evolution of our species. Particularly, studies in indigenous humans provide valuable insights on the prehistory of humans because their life history closely resembles that of our ancestors. Despite these efforts, it can be difficult to disentangle population genetic inferences because of the interplay among evolutionary forces, including mutation, recombination, selection, and demographic processes. To date, few studies have adopted a comprehensive framework to jointly account for these confounding effects. The shortage of such an approach inspired this dissertation work, which centered on the development of model-based analysis and demonstrated its importance in population genetic inferences. Indigenous African Pygmy hunter-gatherers have been long studied because of interest in their short stature, foraging subsistence strategy in rainforests, and long-term socio-economic relationship with nearby farmers. I proposed detailed demographic models using genomes from seven Western African Pygmies and nine Western African farmers (Appendix A). Statistical evidence was shown for a much deeper divergence than previously thought and for asymmetric migrations with a larger contribution from the farmers to Pygmies. The model-based analyses revealed significant adaption signals in the Pygmies for genes involved in muscle development, bone synthesis, immunity, reproduction, etc. I also showed that the proposed model-based approach is robust to the confounding effects of evolutionary forces (Appendix A). Contrary to the low-latitude African homeland of humans, the indigenous Siberians are long-term survivors inhabiting one of the coldest places on Earth. Leveraging whole exome sequencing data from two Siberian populations, I presented demographic models for these North Asian dwellers that include divergence, isolation, and gene flow (Appendix B). The best-fit models suggested a closer genetic affinity of these Siberians to East Asians than to Europeans. Using the model-based framework, seven NCBI BioSystems gene sets showed significance for polygenic selection in these Siberians. Interestingly, many of these candidate gene sets are heavily related to diet, indicating possible adaptations to special dietary requirements in these populations in cold, resource-limited environments. Finally, I moved beyond studying the history of extant humans to explore the origins of our species in Africa (Appendix C). Specifically, with statistical analyses using genomes only from extant Africans, I rejected the null model of no archaic admixture in Africa and in turn gave the first whole-genome evidence for interbreeding among human species in Africa. Using extensive simulation analyses under various archaic admixture models, the results suggest recurrent admixture between the ancestors of archaic and modern Africans, with evidence that at least one such event occurred in the last 30,000 years in Africa.
36
McIntyre, Chloe Leanne. "Epidemiology, classification and evolution of human rhinoviruses." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/8197.
Full textAbstract:
Human rhinoviruses (HRV) are extremely common human respiratory pathogens, most commonly associated with mild upper respiratory tract infections. The three known species of HRV (HRV-A, -B and –C) are members of the family Picornaviridae and genus Enterovirus. In contrast to the enterovirus (EV-A-D) species that commonly infect the gut, HRV are generally thought to be acid labile with replication restricted to the respiratory tract. Investigations of the clinical correlations of HRV infections detected on diagnostic screening of respiratory specimens demonstrated no specific association between HRV variant and clinical presentation. For example, similar species distributions were observed in patients admitted to the ITU and those discharged with minor illness. Unexpectedly, screening of stool specimens for HRV showed a prevalence of 10% with viral loads similar to EV infections. These findings suggested that a reappraisal of HRV tropism and disease associations may be warranted. HRV-A and -B isolates were originally classified into 100 serotypes by serological neutralisation properties. As HRV-C is difficult to isolate, no attempt had been previously made to classify the wealth of available HRV-C sequences. To facilitate definition of novel HRV types and classification of HRV-C, a system was devised to divide HRV sequences into genotypically defined types. Pairwise VP1 nucleotide p-distance analysis revealed distinct thresholds between inter- and intra- type divergence and available sequences were classified into 77 HRV-A, 29 -B and 51 -C types. This provides a standardised basis for type definition and identification, allowing consistency in studies of genetic diversity, epidemiology and evolution. It has been adopted by the ICTV Picornavirus Study Group for classification of HRV. Although the occurrence of recombination has been documented within the coding region of EV, analysis of dated HRV sequences revealed an overall lack of intra-species recombination between three coding regions of HRV-B and -C. In contrast, full HRV-A type groups appeared to have been subject to a large number of recombination events, suggesting extensive recombination during the period of its diversification into types. Putative recombination breakpoints localised to the non-structural region. Within HRV-A and HRV-B, recombination within the 5ˈUTR was infrequent. However, over 60% of analysed HRV-C strains grouped within the HRV-A clade and two recombination hotspots were identified. An additional interspecies recombination event was detected between HRV-A/C in the 2A coding region, with putative breakpoints mapping to the boundaries of the C-terminal domain of the proteinase. The studies within this thesis provide evidence for a broadened understanding of the clinical significance of HRV. In addition, the assignment of HRV sequences into genotypically defined types allowed description of the observed genetic diversity and completion of analysis which reaffirmed the sporadic nature of recombination within the coding region of HRV.
37
Kratzer, James Timothy. "Reengineering a human-like uricase for the treatment of gout." Diss., Georgia Institute of Technology, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/52149.
Full textAbstract:
There is an unmet medical need in the treatment of gout. This type of inflammatory arthritis can be efficiently alleviated by the enzyme uricase. This enzyme breaks down uric acid, the causative agent of gout, so it can be flushed from the body. In humans and the other great apes, uricase is a pseudogene and as such is inactive. Research on therapeutic uricases has focused on using enzymes from naturally occurring sources; however, these foreign proteins can be very antigenic and present a potentially life-threatening safety risk to patients. We address the challenges of developing a safer uricase therapeutic by exploiting evidence that, while inactive, the human pseudogene is expressed in the human body and may be recognized as self by the immune system. To develop a ﾓhuman-likeﾔ? uricase we apply the hybrid computational and experimental approach of Ancestral Sequence Reconstruction to search functional sequence space of uricase proteins to engineer an enzyme with high sequence identity to the human pseudogene, and possessing therapeutic levels of activity for the breakdown of uric acid. This dissertation describes the development and characterization of several uricase leads. The most active ancestral uricase possesses both enhanced in vitro and in vivo stability (in healthy rats) when assayed head-to-head Pegloticase, the only FDA approved uricase for the treatment of gout.
38
Linardopoulou, Elena. "Structure, function and evolution of human subtelomeres /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/8120.
Full text
39
Mathias, Neal. "Y chromosome DNA polymorphisms and human evolution." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1993. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.333355.
Full text
40
Gellatly, Corry. "The genetics of human sex ratio evolution." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10443/902.
Full textAbstract:
This study examined the hypothesis that natural selection exerts control of the human sex ratio via allelic variation in an autosomal gene that is phenotypically expressed in the male reproductive system. The hypothesis was supported by results from an analysis of a large genealogical dataset, in which inheritance of sex ratio variation by male but not female offspring was found. A series of simulations with a population genetic model showed that equality of the sex ratio may be maintained in a dynamic equilibrium by frequency dependent selection acting on such a gene. These simulations also suggest that long-term oscillations and autocorrelation between years in annual human sex ratio data may be explained by the hypothesis. A further set of simulations showed that an episode of increased male mortality - in a population with a sex ratio determined by the proposed gene - may result in a sudden increase in male births, provided the mortality is limited to a narrow cohort of males and that families with a greater tendency to have male offspring tend to be larger than those with a tendency to produce equal male and female offspring. To explore whether this could provide an explanation for significant increases in male births observed during periods of war, military service records and genealogical data were examined to determine the age structure of recruits to the British Army in the First World War and the typical age of fatherhood at the time. It was found that the cohort of men lost to the war were younger than men who typically became fathers. It was also found that families with offspring of a single sex tend to be larger than those with both sexes. As such, this work supports the hypothesis that the loss of young men in war results in a relative increase in male births, due to increased fatherhood by men from families with more male offspring (i.e. men with more brothers than sisters), because these men are most likely to have inherited a greater tendency to produce male offspring.
41
McGrew, William Clement. "Chimpanzee material culture : implications for human evolution." Thesis, University of Stirling, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/2016.
Full textAbstract:
The chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes, Pongidae) among all other living species, is our closest relation, with whom we last shared a common ancestor less than five million years ago. These African apes make and use a rich and varied kit of tools. Of the primates, and even of the other Great Apes, they are the only consistent and habitual tool-users. Chimpanzees meet the criteria of working definitions of culture as originally devised for human beings in socio-cultural anthropology. They show sex differences in using tools to obtain and to process a variety of plant and animal foods. The technological gap between chimpanzees and human societies living by foraging (hunter-gatherers) is surprisingly narrow, at least for food-getting. Different communities of chimpanzees have different tool-kits, and not all of this regional and local variation can be explained by the varied physical and biotic environments in which they live. Some differences are likely customs based on non-functionally derived and symbolically encoded traditions. Chimpanzees serve as heuristic, referential models for the reconstruction of cultural evolution in apes and humans from an ancestral hominoid. However, chimpanzees are not humans, and key differences exist between them, though many of these apparent contrasts remain to be explored empirically and theoretically.
42
Naxerova, Kamila. "Tracing human cancer evolution with hypermutable DNA." Thesis, Harvard University, 2013. http://dissertations.umi.com/gsas.harvard:11253.
Full textAbstract:
Metastasis is the main cause of cancer morbidity and mortality. Despite its clinical significance, several fundamental questions about the metastatic process in humans remain unsolved. Does metastasis occur early or late in cancer progression? Do metastases emanate directly from the primary tumor or give rise to each other? How does heterogeneity in the primary tumor relate to the genetic composition of secondary lesions? Addressing these questions in representative patient populations is crucial, but has been difficult so far. Here we present a simple, scalable PCR assay that enables the tracing of tumor lineage in patient tissue specimens. Our methodology relies on somatic variation in highly mutable polyguanine (poly-G) repeats located in non-coding genomic regions. We show that poly-G mutations are present in a variety of human cancers. Using colon carcinoma as an example, we demonstrate an association between patient age at diagnosis and tumor mutational burden, suggesting that poly-G variants accumulate during normal division in colonic stem cells. We further show that poorly differentiated colon carcinomas have fewer mutations than well-differentiated tumors, possibly indicating a shorter mitotic history of the founder cell in these cancers. We collect multiple spatially separated samples from primary carcinomas and their metastases and use poly-G fingerprints to build well-supported phylogenetic trees that illuminate each patient's path of progression. Our results imply that levels of intra-tumor heterogeneity vary significantly among patients.
43
Lee-Six, Henry. "Somatic evolution in human blood and colon." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2019. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/289819.
Full textAbstract:
All cancers were once normal cells. They became cancerous through the chance acquisition of particular somatic mutations that gave them a selective advantage over their neighbours. Thus, the mutations that initiate cancer occur in normal cells, and the normal clonal dynamics of the tissue determine a mutant cell's ability to establish a malignant clone; yet these remain poorly understood in humans. One tissue was selected for the exploration of each of these two facets of somatic evolution: blood for clonal dynamics; colon for mutational processes. Blood presents an opportunity to study normal human clonal dynamics, as clones mix spatially and longitudinal samples can be taken. We isolated 140 single haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells from a healthy 59 year-old and grew them in vitro into colonies that were whole genome sequenced. Population genetics approaches were applied to this dataset, allowing us to elucidate for the first time the number of active haematopoietic stem cells, the rate at which clones grow and shrink, and the cellular output of stem cell clones. Colonic epithelium is organised into crypts, at the base of which sit a small number of stem cells. All cells in a crypt ultimately share an ancestor in one stem cell that existed recently, and consequently share the mutations that were present in this ancestor. We exploited this natural clonal unit, isolating single colonic crypts through laser capture microdissection. 570 colonic crypts from 42 individuals were whole genome sequenced. We describe the burden and pattern of somatic mutations in these genomes and their variability across and within different people, identifying some mutational processes that are ubiquitous and others that are sporadic. Targeted sequencing of an additional 1,500 crypts allowed us to quantify the frequency of driver mutations in normal human colon. Together, these two studies inform on the somatic evolution of normal tissues, describing new biology in human tissue homeostasis and providing a window into the processes that govern cancer incidence.
44
Myhrvold, Conor L. (Conor Lachlan). "Embodied cognition in robots and human evolution." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/76142.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (S.M. in Science Writing)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Humanities, Graduate Program in Science Writing, 2012.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 44).
This thesis investigates the notion of embodied cognition in humans using the research of former University of Washington researcher William Calvin and robots using the research of former MIT professor Rodney Brooks. The idea is that the feedback from the physicality of humans is a precognition to our intelligence. The choice example I use for our physicality is the motion of throwing, particularly the javelin throw. For robotics, I focus on the development of 'eyes' in Brooks' robot Cog and show how it demonstrated behavior we deem to be intelligent using the feedback gleaned from 'seeing'. Altogether, I present evidence for and against the notion that we are who we are, cognitively speaking, because of the sensory feedback of our physical bodies, and what that may mean going forward in the future for our intelligence.
by Conor L. Myhrvold.
S.M.in Science Writing
45
Dearlove, Bethany Lorna. "Genome evolution and epidemiology of human pathogens." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:af385d35-ca1a-4f4c-ae1a-0ad954cab928.
Full textAbstract:
Understanding the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases is important to well-informed public health policy, responsive infection control and individual patient management. The on-going revolution in whole-genome sequencing provides unprecedented resolution for detecting evidence of recent transmission and characterising population-level transmission dynamics. In this thesis, I develop and apply evolutionary approaches to investigating transmission, focusing on three globally important pathogens. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause of liver disease affecting 150 million people and killing 350,000 annually. I conducted a meta-analysis of twentieth-century HCV epidemics, finding that the age of the epidemic can be predicted by genetic diversity. Using the coalescent, I fitted classic susceptible-infected (SI), susceptible-infected-susceptible (SIS) and susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) epidemiological models. Most epidemics showed signatures of SI dynamics, but three, from Argentina, Hong Kong and Thailand, revealed complex SIR dynamics. Norovirus is the leading viral cause of diarrhoea, estimated to cost the NHS around £115 million annually. I analysed whole norovirus genomes via a stochastic transmission model, finding that up to 86% of hospital infection was attributable to transmission from another patient in the hospital. In contrast, the rate of new introductions to hospital by infected patients was extremely low (<0.0001%), underlining the importance of ward management during outbreaks. Campylobacter is the most commonly identified cause of bacterial gastroenteritis worldwide. I developed a zoonotic transmission model based on phylogeography approaches to test whether three strains previously associated with multiple host species were in fact aggregates of strongly host-restricted sub-strains, or genuine generalists. Members of the same strain isolated from different host species were often more closely related than those isolated from the same host species. I estimated 419, 389 and 31 zoonotic transmissions in ST-21, ST-45 and ST-828 respectively, strongly supporting the hypothesis that these strains are adapted to a generalist lifestyle.
46
Li, Sen. "Inferring Evolutionary Processes of Humans." Doctoral thesis, Uppsala universitet, Evolutionsbiologi, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-183517.
Full textAbstract:
More and more human genomic data has become available in recent years by the improvement of DNA sequencing technologies. These data provide abundant genetic variation information which is an important resource to help us to understand the evolutionary history of humans. In this thesis I evaluated the performance of the Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) approach for inferring demographic parameters for large-scale population genomic data. According to simulation results, I can conclude that the ABC approach will continue to be a useful tool for analysing realistic genome-wide population-genetic data in the post-genomic era. Secondly, I implemented the ABC approach to estimate the pre-historic events connected with the “Bantu-expansion”, the spread of peoples from West Africa. The analysis based on genetic data with a large number of loci support a rapid population growth in west Africans, which lead to their concomitant spread to southern and eastern Africa. Contrary to hypotheses based on language studies, I found that Bantu-speakers in south Africa likely migrated directly from west Africa, and not from east Africa. Thirdly, I evaluated Thomson's estimator of the time to most recent common ancestor (TMRCA). It is robust to different recombination rates and the least-biased compared to other commonly used approaches. I used the Thomson estimator to infer the genome-wide distribution of TMRCA for complete human genome sequence data in various populations from across the world and compare the result to simulated data. Finally, I investigated and analysed the effects of selection and demography on genetic polymorphism patterns. In particular, we could detect a clear signal in the distribution of TMRCA caused by selection for a constant-size population. However, if the population was growing, the signal of selection will be difficult to detect under some circumstances. I also discussed and gave a few suggestions that might lead to a more realistic path of successful identification of genes targeted by selection in large-scale genomic data.
47
Xu, Ke. "Comparative genomic and epigenomic analyses of human and non-human primate evolution." Diss., Georgia Institute of Technology, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/52935.
Full textAbstract:
Primates are one of the best characterized phylogenies with vast amounts of comparative data available, including genomic sequences, gene expression, and epigenetic modifications. Thus, they provide an ideal system to study sequence evolution, regulatory evolution, epigenetic evolution as well as their interplays. Comparative studies of primate genomes can also shed light on molecular basis of human-specific traits. This dissertation is mainly composed of three chapters studying human and non-human primate evolution. The first study investigated evolutionary rate difference between sex chromosome and autosomes across diverse primate species. The second study developed an unbiased approach without the need of prior information to identify genomic segments under accelerated evolution. The third study investigated interplay between genomic and epigenomic evolution of humans and chimpanzees.
Research advance 1: evolutionary rates of the X chromosome are predicted to be different from those of autosomes. A theory based on neutral mutation predicts that the X chromosome evolves slower than autosomes (slow-X evolution) because the numbers of cell division differ between spermatogenesis and oogenesis. A theory based on natural selection predicts an opposite direction (fast-X evolution) because newly arising beneficial mutations on the autosomes are usually recessive or partially recessive and not exposed to natural selection. A strong slow-X evolution is also predicted to counteract the effect of fast-X evolution. In our research, we simultaneously studied slow-X evolution, fast-X evolution as well as their interaction in a phylogeny of diverse primates. We showed that slow-X evolution exists in all the examined species, although their degrees differ, possibly due to their different life history traits such as generation times. We showed that fast-X evolution is lineage-specific and provided evidences that fast-X evolution is more evident in species with relatively weak slow-X evolution. We discussed potential contribution of various degrees of slow-X evolution on the conflicting population genetic inferences about human demography.
Research advance 2: human-specific traits have long been considered to reside in the genome. There has been a surge of interest to identify genomic regions with accelerated evolution rate in the human genome. However, these studies either rely on a priori knowledge or sliding windows of arbitrary sizes. My research provided an unbiased approach based on previously developed “maximal segment” algorithm to identify genomic segments with accelerated lineage-specific substitution rate. Under this framework, we identified a large number of human genomic segments with clustered human-specific substitutions (named “maximal segments” after the algorithm). Our identified human maximal segments cover a significant amount of previously identified human accelerated regions and overlap with genes enriched in developmental processes. We demonstrated that the underlying evolutionary forces driving the maximal segments included regionally increased mutation rate, biased gene conversion and positive selection.
Research advance 3: DNA methylation is one of the most common epigenetic modifications and plays a significant role in gene regulation. How DNA methylation status varies on the evolutionary timescale is not well understood. In this study, we investigated the role of genetic changes in shaping DNA methylation divergence between humans and chimpanzees in their sperm and brain, separately. We find that for orthologous promoter regions, CpG dinucleotide content difference is negatively correlated with DNA methylation level difference in the sperm but not in the brain, which may be explained by the fact that CpG depleting mutations better reflect germline DNA methylation levels. For the aligned sites of orthologous promoter regions, sequence divergence is positively correlated with methylation divergence for both tissues. We showed that the evolution of DNA methylation can be affected by various genetic factors including transposable element insertions, CpG depleting mutations and CpG generating mutations.
48
Cooksey, Christy Edmondson. "Questioning the role of evolution in understanding ourselves a critical discourse analytic study of scientific articles in Time magazine /." Auburn, Ala., 2007. http://repo.lib.auburn.edu/2007%20Spring%20Theses/COOKSEY_CHRISTY_44.pdf.
Full text
49
Forrest, Graham Robert. "Human endogenous retrovirus 3 : evolutionary conservation and function." Thesis, Imperial College London, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.312093.
Full text
50
Itan, Y. "The evolutionary role of human-specific genomic events." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2010. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/19207/.
Full textAbstract:
In the short evolutionary time since the human-chimpanzee divergence, approximately 6.6 million years ago, humans have acquired a range of traits that are unique among primates. These include tripling brain size, enhanced cognitive abilities, complex culture, descended larynx structure that enables spoken language, longevity, specific diseases, inferior olfaction, and (in some human populations) adult lactase persistence. These traits were likely to have evolved through various genomic mechanisms, among them gene duplications and gene-culture co-evolution. Several studies have estimated the dates for some of these human lineage genomic events. However, no study to date has performed a genomewide estimate of the dates of all human gene duplications. Moreover, as many of these traits were likely to have evolved via gene-culture coevolutionary mechanisms, investigating the evolution of one of these human-specific traits – lactase persistence – provides a model example for in-depth future investigations of specific human phenotypes. In this study I have investigated an important class of human-specific genomic events – gene duplications (otherwise known as human inparalogues). I have developed a new bioinformatics approach for detecting human lineage-specific inparalogues and the duplication dates for those genes. I show that human-specific inparalogues are non-randomly distributed among biological function classes, and their duplication event dates are non-randomly distributed on a timeline between the date of the human-chimpanzee split and the present. I have also investigated the evolution of the human-specific polymorphic trait – lactase persistence. I have performed a worldwide correlation analysis comparing frequency data on all currently known lactase persistence-associated alleles and the distribution of the lactase persistence phenotype in different human populations. I have also performed a gene-culture co-evolution analysis, employing spatially explicit simulation and Approximate Bayesian Computation to condition simulations on genetic and archaeological data, in order to make inferences on the evolution of lactase persistence and dairying in Europe.