Evolutionary change

Dayhoff M 01978. A Model of Evolutionary Change. In Dayhoff M O (Editor) Proteins in A Has of F Sequence and Structure Volume 5 Supplement 3. Georgetown University Medical Center, Na Biomedical Research Foundation, pp. 345-358. 

Further improvements in system efficiency will be difficult to achieve with evolutionary changes. Following are some of the more promising areas of development ... 

The treatment approach to RA has undergone a major evolutionary change in recent years with a move away from predominantly symptomatic treatment approaches towards much earlier intervention with diseasemodifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD) therapy and... 

The second issue, which is more relevant to the focus of this chapter, concerns the evolutionary basis of the profound influences living organisms have on Earth s atmosphere. In part this debate continues because of a widespread failure to appreciate limitations on the mechanisms of evolutionary change. For adaptive evolutionary change to happen, an allele must confer benefits to its possessors when the allele is present in only a tiny fraction of members of a population. In other words, an allele must be able to increase in frequency when it is rare. 

Effective utilization of a critical technology requires a much closer collaboration throughout the whole chain in which the material is used. Critical technologies evolve and develop over a long period, and so they can support a broad industrial base. This relationship creates a certain inertia with respect to revolutionary change, but it certainly indicates that it is very important to stimulate and maintain evolutionary change. 

With increases in group size and social complexity, and the consequent expansion of diversity in communication, there is presumably selection pressure for unambiguous signals. Over time, evolutionary change may reduce unwanted complexity and act to refine specificity. Whether this results in reliance on the properties of a single component rather than those of the pattern provided by a complex mixture is conjectural. A reasonable expectation is that emitted semiochemical(s) can be reliably produced, and that their contents are acted upon by selection. The improvements in control which can thus be attained are seen in the operation of stereospecificity (Miiller-Schwarze et al, 1976). 

This procedure led to a substitution matrix for aligning disordered protein that was different from the commonly used substitution matrices, such as BLOSUM62 (Fig. 4). The matrix for disordered protein is generally better than order-based matrices for aligning disordered proteins whose sequence identities are between 20 and 50%. These results indicate that disordered and ordered protein can be distinguished by their patterns of evolutionary change. 

The processes of evolution have been remarkably successful in creating animals that are well adapted to their environment. By continually adjusting the population through genetic mutation, evolutionary change works toward the perfect individual to fill a particular environmental niche. Not every new individual is well suited to its environment, of course, and the fitness of new individuals is repeatedly tested as the animals try to survive, prosper, and reproduce. 

Natural selection is not the only mode of evolutionary change... 

Darwin was a pluralist. He was very careful to state that natural selection is not the only motor of evolutionary change. He invented the concept of sexual selection, the only addition to natural selection which evolutionary psychology theorists are prepared to include in their pantheon. We need not be Lamarckian to accept that other processes are at work. The existence of neutral mutations, founder effects, genetic drift, exaptations and adoptations (Dover, 2000) all enrich the picture. 

Fig. 9.4 Evolutionary change in the zones of vertebrate brains. Note that the figures are related here to the cerebrum cortex so that in man the hindbrain appears twisted downwards to allow for human upright stance.

Everyone who is involved with the potential of modern techniques is surely fascinated by the unbelievable developments that have taken place in this particular sector within the last 100 years. Knowledge, abilities and the possibilities for mankind as a whole, and specifically the individual, have also seen dramatic evolutionary changes over the last few decades and reached a level our ancestors would never have even dreamed of. So from the present point of view, it is only a question of time before our future technology will be that which today s science fiction authors are writing about. 

King, J.E. and Forbes, J.L. (1974) Evolutionary changes in primate sensory capacities. J. Human Evol., 3, 435—443. 

Sales staffers will now work through a Sales Client component (see Figure 10.28). This is an evolutionary change the other components will stay exactly as they are. The Sales Client provides a single user interface to all the components used by the sales staff. It implements some of the cross-component business rules such as the Account-Order tie-up, eliminating that area of human error. 

Carroll W, Grimes R (1995) Evolutionary Change in Product Management Experiences in the Car Rental Industry. Interfaces 25 (5) 84-104... 

Figure 3-5 Evolutionary Changes in PEFCs Performance [(a) H2/O2, (b) Reformate...

---