Hampshire College

About: Hampshire College is a education organization based out in Amherst Center, Massachusetts, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Genetic programming & Population. The organization has 461 authors who have published 998 publications receiving 40827 citations.

Trade Flows, Exchange Rate Uncertainty, and Financial Depth: Evidence from 28 Emerging Countries

Abstract: This article investigates the effects of real exchange rate uncertainty on manufactures exports from 28 emerging economies, representing 82% of all developing country manufactures exports, and explores the sources of heterogeneity in the uncertainty effects by controlling for the direction of trade (south-north or south-south), and the level of financial development of the exporting country. The empirical results show that for more than half of the countries, the uncertainty effect is unidirectional, either south-south or south-north, and the median impact is negative. In addition, while we find that financial development augments trade, exchange rate shocks can negate this effect. Last but not least, trade among developing economies improves export growth under exchange rate shocks.

A Questionnaire on Materialisms

Abstract: Recent philosophical tendencies of “Actor-Network Theory,” “Object-Oriented Ontology,” and “Speculative Realism” have profoundly challenged the centrality of subjectivity in the humanities, and many artists and curators, particularly in the UK, Germany, and the United States, appear deeply influenced by this shift from epistemology to ontology. October editors asked artists, historians, and philosophers invested in these projects—from Graham Harman and Alexander R. Galloway to Armen Avanessian and Patricia Falguieres to Ed Atkins and Amie Siegel—to explore what the rewards and risks of assigning agency to objects may be, and how, or if, such new materialisms can be productive for making and thinking about art today.

What’s in an Evolved Name? The Evolution of Modularity via Tag-Based Reference

Abstract: Programming languages provide a variety of mechanisms to associate names with values, and these mechanisms play a central role in programming practice. For example, they allow multiple references to the same storage location or function in different parts of a complex program. By contrast, the representations used in current genetic programming systems provide few if any naming mechanisms, and it is therefore generally not possible for evolved programs to use names in sophisticated ways. In this chapter we describe a new approach to names in genetic programming that is based on Holland’s concept of tags. We demonstrate the use of tag-based names, we describe some of the ways in which they may help to extend the power and reach of genetic programming systems, and we look at the ways that tag-based names are actually used in an evolved program that solves a robot navigation problem.

The problem of the organic individual: Ernst Haeckel and the development of the biogenetic law.

Abstract: Une etude attentive des travaux de H. sur l'individualite montre que les idees de ses maitres A. Braun et J. Muller lui ont servi dans l'elaboration de sa loi biogenetique. Considerations biographiques et aspects de l'oeuvre de ces auteurs.

Potential Importance of Dissimilatory Fe(III)-Reducing Microorganisms in Hot Sedimentary Environments

Abstract: Fe(III) is available as an electron acceptor in many modern hot (80-110°C) sedimentary environments which hyperthermophilic microorganisms inhabit and Fe(III) may have been an important electron acceptor as microbial life evolved on hot, ancient Earth. Recent studies have demonstrated that the ability to reduce Fe(III) is a highly conserved characteristic of hyperthermophiles and that the metabolic capabilities of some hyperthermophiles are greatly expanded when Fe(III) is available as an electron acceptor. An increasing diversity of novel hyperthermophiles, including some that are known to be important in the environment from molecular studies, are being recovered from hot environments when Fe(III) oxide is used as the electron acceptor for enrichment and isolation. These include the first hyperthermophiles documented to anaerobically oxidize acetate, a key intermediate in anaerobic carbon and electron flow, as well aromatic compounds and long-chain fatty acids. This suggests that complex organic matter can be oxidized to carbon dioxide with Fe(III) serving as the sole electron acceptor in hot microbial ecosystems. In addition to reducing Fe(III), some hyperthermophiles can reduce a variety of other metals, including U(VI) and Au(III), providing a potential explanation for the deposition of metals in some hot environments. Although the study of Fe(III) reduction in hyperthermophiles is still in its infancy, it is clear that Fe(III) reduction is central to the metabolism of many hyperthermophiles and that when Fe(III) is available in hot, microbial ecosystems, it has the potential to be an important electron acceptor for the anaerobic oxidation of hydrogen and organic matter.