A concept for the optimization of nonlinear functions using particle swarm methodology is introduced. The evolution of several paradigms is outlined, and an implementation of one of the paradigms is discussed. Benchmark testing of the paradigm is described, and applications, including nonlinear function optimization and neural network training, are proposed. The relationships between particle swarm optimization and both artificial life and genetic algorithms are described.

Particle swarm optimization

Conservationists are far from able to assist all species under threat, if only for lack of funding. This places a premium on priorities: how can we support the most species at the least cost? One way is to identify 'biodiversity hotspots' where exceptional concentrations of endemic species are undergoing exceptional loss of habitat. As many as 44% of all species of vascular plants and 35% of all species in four vertebrate groups are confined to 25 hotspots comprising only 1.4% of the land surface of the Earth. This opens the way for a 'silver bullet' strategy on the part of conservation planners, focusing on these hotspots in proportion to their share of the world's species at risk.

Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities

A concept for the optimization of nonlinear functions using particle swarm methodology is introduced The evolution of several paradigms is outlined, and an implementation of one of the paradigms is discussed Benchmark testing of the paradigm is described, and applications, including nonlinear function optimization and neural network training, are proposed The relationships between particle swarm optimization and both artificial life and genetic algorithms are described

/pdf/particle-swarm-optimization-r1hjpa7ad3.pdf

Cooperation in organisms, whether bacteria or primates, has been a difficulty for evolutionary theory since Darwin. On the assumption that interactions between pairs of individuals occur on a probabilistic basis, a model is developed based on the concept of an evolutionarily stable strategy in the context of the Prisoner's Dilemma game. Deductions from the model, and the results of a computer tournament show how cooperation based on reciprocity can get started in an asocial world, can thrive while interacting with a wide range of other strategies, and can resist invasion once fully established. Potential applications include specific aspects of territoriality, mating, and disease.

/pdf/the-evolution-of-cooperation-pwc4krac7e.pdf

The Evolution of Cooperation

Preface to the Princeton Landmarks in Biology Edition vii Preface xi Symbols Used xiii 1. The Importance of Islands 3 2. Area and Number of Speicies 8 3. Further Explanations of the Area-Diversity Pattern 19 4. The Strategy of Colonization 68 5. Invasibility and the Variable Niche 94 6. Stepping Stones and Biotic Exchange 123 7. Evolutionary Changes Following Colonization 145 8. Prospect 181 Glossary 185 References 193 Index 201

The Theory of Island Biogeography

Never before have the four great works of Charles Darwin-Voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle (1845), The Origin of Species (1859), The Descent of Man (1871), and The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals (1872)-been collected under one cover. Undertaking this challenging endeavor 123 years after Darwin's death, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Edward O. Wilson has written an introductory essay for the occasion, while providing new, insightful introductions to each of the four volumes and an afterword that examines the fate of evolutionary theory in an era of religious resistance. In addition, Wilson has crafted a creative new index to accompany these four texts, which links the nineteenth-century, Darwinian evolutionary concepts to contemporary biological thought. Beautifully slipcased, and including restored versions of the original illustrations, From So Simple a Beginning turns our attention to the astounding power of the natural creative process and the magnificence of its products.

From so simple a beginning: The four great books of Charles Darwin.

Chemical communication among workers of the fire ant Solenopsis saevissima (Fr. Smith) 3. The experimental induction of social responses

Two worker ants preserved in amber of Upper Cretaceous age have been found in New Jersey. They are the first undisputed remains of social insects of Mesozoic age, extending the existence of social life in insects back to approximately 100 million years. They are also the earliest known fossils that can be assigned with certainty to aculeate Hymenoptera. The species, Sphecomyrma freyi, is considered to represent a new subfamily (Sphecomyrminae), more primitive than any previously known ant group. It forms a near-perfect link between certain nonsocial tiphiid wasps and the most primitive myrmecioid ants.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/157/3792/1038.full.pdf

The First Mesozoic Ants

Although it has repeatedly been demonstrated that behavior is best understood as a function of the interrelatedness of nature and nurture, many social scientists persist in posing these determinants adversatively and then contend that genes and biology are, at best, minor determinants of behavior. Analysis in incest avoidance illustrates the inadequacy of efforts to reduce to irrelevance genetic determinants. Man and many other species exhibit strong tendencies to avoid incest. Conspecifics who are intimately associated during the infancy and childhood of one or both do not find each other sexually attractive if alternative mates are available. Migration shortly after puberty, usually by the male, is characteristics of social primates. Incest vere seldom occurs, and when it does the copulatory act differs markedly from normal mating. Incest within intact human families is rare. Inbreeding with other close relatives is inhibited by human awareness of inbreeding depression, not by any apparent genetic predi...

Incest Avoidance as a Function of Environment and Heredity [and Comments and Reply]

Of 37 genera and well-defined subgenera identified in the amber of the Dominican Republic (late Oligocene or early Miocene), 34 have survived somewhere in the New World tropics to the present, although the species studied thus far are extinct. Of the surviving genera and subgenera, 22 persist on Hispaniola. Fifteen genera and subgenera have colonized the island since amber times, restoring the number of genera and well-defined subgenera now present on Hispaniola to 37. A higher extinction rate has occurred in genera and subgenera that are either highly specialized or possess less colonizing ability, as evidenced by their restriction to the New World.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/229/4710/265.full.pdf

Edward O. Wilson

Papers

From so simple a beginning: The four great books of Charles Darwin.

Chemical communication among workers of the fire ant Solenopsis saevissima (Fr. Smith) 3. The experimental induction of social responses

The First Mesozoic Ants

Incest Avoidance as a Function of Environment and Heredity [and Comments and Reply]

Invasion and extinction in the west Indian ant fauna: evidence from the dominican amber.