Survival value

Gutzke, 1999). The AOS of lower vertebrates seems to retain the ability to act as an early warning system in the avoidance of enemies and in the location of prey. This suggests that on land the basis for subsequent elaborations of social chemosignals could have been the simple proteins of immediate survival value. 

Natural selection increases or decreases allele frequencies, depending on their survival value (e.g., heterozygote advantage for the sickle cell mutation)... 

In vitro clonal tumor cell studies have demonstrated the severe cytotoxicity of a-particles delivered by At single exponential cell survival-dose curves were obtained, with (37% survival) values of 29-48 cGy and 57-73 cGy for Chinese hamster V-79 (5J ) and HEp2 cells, respectively (55). In both studies the oxygen enhancement ratio (OER) was found to be slightly greater than unity, probably resulting from the low-LET components of At decay (see Fig. 5). In biological systems, such a-particle emissions enable comparable cytotoxicities to be effected in both hypoxic and euoxic tumor cell populations. 

Aliens on worlds illuminated by a sun would have vision because of its survival value. On Earth, eyes of various kinds had evolved numerous times in different animal groups. Even certain one-celled organisms have eyelike structures called eyespots. In general, wherever a sense is vital to an animal, there is an accompanying, noticeable accouterment on the body surface. For example, if hearing is vital for an alien, I d expect some form of ear that may be able to swivel in the direction of sound. If the sense of smell is important, we would expect a nose, long proboscis, or forward-projecting snout. On the other hand, if these senses are diminished or unimportant, and an alien relies on a sense like the electrical sense of fish, we would expect the external accouterments to be smaller with less features—eyes, ears, and noses would be smaller. 

Our dreams are emotional, and something that psychologists term hyperassociative , because our brains are activated by cholinergic rather than aminergic chemicals. Thus, we restore the most fundamental aspects of our cognitive capability - the capacity to order our memories in a way that serves survival. Emotional salience or relevance is a general mnemonic rule. Our level of emotional competence has a high survival value and underlies the more precise information needed to function socially. In other words, we need, first and foremost, to know when to approach, when to mate, when to be afraid, and when to run for cover. These... 

Edmunds M, Dewhirst RA (1994) The survival value of countershading with wild birds as predators. Biol J Linn Soc 51 447 52... 

Furthermore, the unnatural -l configuration of the backbone glycerol would impart resistance to attack by phospholipases released by other organisms and would thus have a survival value for the archaebacteria. More specific functions of archaebacterial lipids will now be considered. 

The reason for the inefiiciency of these bacteria in utilizing amino acids is not definitely known however, it seems probable, as is the case with some of the carbohydrate-fermenting rumen bacteria (8, 33), that these materials are not transported effectively into the cell. It seems probable that, in their adaptation to the natural habitat, their abilities to utihze proteins and amino acids were of little survival value and were lost. It is well known that amino acids are present in very small amounts in extracellular fiuid of rumen contents while relatively high concentrations of ammonia and acetate and other volatile acids including 2-methylbutyrate are present (8). A similar condition probably exists in sludge although the volatile acids are usually present in lower concentration than in the rumen. 

The availability of an emergency supply of energy which is not dependent on insulin would have obvious survival value. It may be that amino acids which are immediately available after injury are a stimulus for growth hormone release which in turn increases the amount of available glucose for the emergency. 

Problem 33.5 The degree of unsaturation of the membrane lipids in the legs of reindeer is higher in cells near the hooves than in cells near the body. What survival value does this unsaturation gradient have ... 

Natural systems are in an accelerating state of metastasis and the ancient predator paradigms of Individualism, Nationalism and Exclusiveness have lost most of their relevance. No matter how much we prefer to deny it, such beliefs now have little survival value even for individuals, much less for societies. 

Western homage to the first world and repudiation of the second is an example of how a living belief-system (in this case scientific materialism) preserves itself by denying the psyche any function beyond a few narrowly defined limits. This single belief-complex has arguably caused our worst problems, and in its extreme manifestations no longer has survival value for either ourselves or our environment. 

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