From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Fri Aug 02 23:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!COSMAIL2.CTD.ORNL.GOV!ygl From: ygl@COSMAIL2.CTD.ORNL.GOV ("Lee E. Gunter") Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: population analysis of RAPDs Date: 3 Aug 1996 10:45:45 -0700 Organization: BIOSCI International Newsgroups for Molecular Biology Lines: 12 Sender: daemon@net.bio.net Distribution: world Message-ID: <904.ygl@cosmail2.ctd.ornl.gov_POPMail.PC_3.2.2> Reply-To: NNTP-Posting-Host: net.bio.net Can anyone give me an idea of which methods of population analyses using RAPDs are the most robust? It seems as though every paper I read uses a different method. Which are most informative indicators of within and among population differences? Which are the most widely accepted? I appreciate any and all comments. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Lee E. Gunter ygl@ornl.gov : e-mail Environmental Sciences Division (423) 576-7697 : phone Oak Ridge National Laboratory (423) 576-9939 : FAX P.O. Box 2008 Bldg 1506, Rm 128E Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6034 From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Mon Aug 05 23:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!bcm.tmc.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in3.uu.net!01-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!03-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!fstgal00.tu-graz.ac.at!not-for-mail From: guebitz@biote.tu-graz.ac.at (Dr. G.M. Guebitz) Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: SYMPOSIUM ON BIOFUEL FROM TROPICAL PLANTS Date: 5 Aug 1996 14:09:29 GMT Organization: TU Graz Austria Lines: 96 Message-ID: <4u4vap$5o9@fstgal00.tu-graz.ac.at> NNTP-Posting-Host: fbiotpc07.tu-graz.ac.at Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Newsreader: WinVN 0.93.11 SYMPOSIUM ON BIOFUEL FROM TROPICAL PLANTS INVITATION / INVITACION: (Please forward to prospective participants) JATROPHA 97 SYMPOSIUM ON BIOFUEL AND INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS FROM JATROPHA CURCAS AND OTHER TROPICAL OIL SEED PLANTS Managua / Nicaragua, 23 - 27 February 1997 TOPICS OF THE SYMPOSIUM: -Jatropha curcas as a plant with new industrial potential: - Cultivation in tropical and subtropical regions - Harvesting, processing and bulk products - Production of biodiesel - Special products (biologically active substances) - Ecological and economical aspects -Biodiesel from other tropical oil seed plants and by-products -Biomass to ethanol conversion in tropical countries -Politics of energy production in developing countries TEMAS DEL SIMPOSIO. - Jatropha curcas como un nuevo cultivo, con un potencial industrial: - Cultivo en regiones tropicales y sub-tropicales. - Cosecha, procesamiento y sub-productos. - Produccion de combustible vegetal. - Productos especiales (Substancias biologicamente activas). - Aspectos Ecologicos y Economicos. - - Combustible vegetal de otras plantas oleaginosas y sus sub-productos - Conversion de Biomasa en Ethanol en paises tropicales. - Politicas de la produccion de energia en paises en vias de desarrollo. JATROPHA 97 is an interdisciplinary event focusing primarily on Jatropha curcas, which became a very attractive tropical energy plant in the last few years. The plenary lectures of Jatropha 97 will emphasize new horizons, with critical appraisals of the opportunities offered by improved and complex technologies for the production of biofuel and a great variety of biologically active substances found in this plant. Furthermore an important goal of Jatropha 97 is to compare the potential of Jatropha curcas as a source for biofuel to other tropical plants and technologies such as the biomass to ethanol conversion process. The four day symposium consists of invited lectures with an overview of the main area, oral presentations on all the topics of the symposium structured in several sessions and a poster display.The symposium will be held at the Olof Palme Congress Center in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. Managua is centrally located near the beautiful cities of Leon and Granada, between the Carribean and Pacific Ocean in the largest and probably most virgin country of Central America. JATROPHA 97 es un foro interdisciplinario, enfocado principalmente en Jatropha curcas, que ha llegado a ser un cultivo atractivo para la produccion de bioenergia en paises tropicales en los ultimos anos. Las charlas magistrales van a abrir nuevos horizontes con una revision critica de las oportunidades ofrecidas por tecnologias nuevas y mejoradas para la produccion de combustible vegetal y una gran variedad de substancias biologicamente activas encontradas en esta planta. Ademas un objetivo importante del Congreso Jatropha 97, es la comparacion de los potenciales del Jatropha curcas como una fuente para combustible vegetal con otras plantas tropicales y tecnologias como el proceso de conversion de Biomasa en Ethanol. Este evento de tres dias, esta integrado por conferencistas invitados con una vista general del area principal e incluye presentaciones orales sobre los temas del simposio, estructurado en varias sesiones y en presentaciones de afiches. El Simposio, se realizara en el Centro de Conferencias y Convenciones "OLOF PALME",localizado en la ciudad de Managua, Capital de la Republica de Nicaragua. Managua esta situada cerca de las hermosas ciudades de Granada y Leon, entre el Caribe y el Pacifico, en el pais mas grande y probablemente el mas virgen de Centro America. CORRESPONDENCE / CORRESPONDENCIA Further information / Informacion aditional: Internet: http://www.cis.tu-graz.ac.at/biote Correspondence to / Correspondencia a: Keil Congress Service Fax: (++43) 316 / 347818 Georg M. Guebitz Tel: (++43) 316 / 873 / 8408 Auersperggasse 3, A-8010 Graz, Austria Email:guebitz@biote.tu-graz.ac.at Email:keil@email.kfunigraz.ac. From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Wed Aug 07 23:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!UCDAVIS.EDU!dehedgecock From: dehedgecock@UCDAVIS.EDU (D Hedgecock) Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: Meeting on Heterosis Date: 8 Aug 1996 14:09:05 -0700 Organization: BIOSCI International Newsgroups for Molecular Biology Lines: 107 Sender: daemon@net.bio.net Distribution: world Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: net.bio.net THE GENETIC AND PHYSIOLOGICAL BASES OF HETEROSIS The Bodega Marine Laboratory's Ninth Annual Colloquium, "The Genetic and Physiological Bases of Heterosis," to be held 12-14 September 1996, will focus on the fundamental causes of hybrid vigor in diverse natural and experimental populations of animals and plants. Poster presentations are invited; advanced graduate students and postdoctoral scholars should inquire about the availability of stipends. The names of speakers and titles are given below and the complete program may be viewed on the World Wide Web at http://www-bml.ucdavis.edu. Located in Bodega Bay on the Sonoma County coast, the Laboratory lies about 80 miles north of San Francisco; participants should plan on arriving Sept. 11 and departing Sept. 15. A registration packet may be obtained from: Missy Ragland Conference Coordinator Bodega Marine Laboratory P.O. Box 247 Bodega Bay CA 94923-0247 tel: (707) 875-2002 FAX: (707) 875-2009 mmragland@ucdavis.edu Speakers and titles, grouped by session topic, are as follows: HETEROSIS AND INBREEDING DEPRESSION IN NATURAL POPULATIONS Patrick Gaffney, University of Delaware Allozyme-Associated Heterosis in Marine Molluscs: Patterns across Taxa. David Houle, University of Toronto How Widespread Is Marker-Associated Heterosis? Yong-Bi Fu, University of British Columbia Multilocus Marker Analyses of Inbreeding Depression. Deborah Charlesworth, University of Chicago How Much Can Marker Loci Tell Us about the Genetic Basis of Inbreeding Depression and Heterosis? Grant Pogson, University of California, Santa Cruz Using DNA Heterozygosity To Test the Associative Overdominance Hypothesis: Further Insights from the Atlantic Cod, Gadus morhua. Phil Hedrick, Arizona State University Balancing Selection and the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) Alan Hastings, University of California, Davis Interaction between Selection and Spatial Structure. Eleftherios Zouros, Dalhousie University The Effect of Somatic Aneuploidy on Growth Rate in Oysters and Implications for Induced Polyploidization. HETEROSIS IN EXPERIMENTAL POPULATIONS Charles Stuber, North Carolina State University Evaluating and Enhancing Heterosis in a Maize Hybrid (The B73 x Mo17 Story). Jinhua Xiao, Cornell University Dominance: The Major Genetic Basis of Heterosis in Rice. Zhao-Bang Zeng, North Carolina State University Some Statistical Methods and Their Applications to Understanding the Architecture of QTL Effects. Daniel McGoldrick, University of California, Davis Mapping Heterosis QTL in the Pacific Oyster. Roy Danzmann, University of Guelph Chromosomal Segregation in Rainbow Trout: Are Non-QTL Allelic Affinities within Quantitative Distributions Sex-Biased? Andrew Clark, Pennsylvannia State University Selection and Apparent Selection Associated with P-Element Insertional Mutants of Drosophila. PHYSIOLOGICAL AND MOLECULAR MECHANISMS OF HETEROSIS Brian Bayne, Plymouth Marine Laboratory Heterosis of Physiological Traits Determining Growth in Bivalve Molluscs. Donal Manahan, University of Southern California Physiological Components of Heterosis during Larval Development (Molluscs). Tom Mitchell-Olds, University of Montana Molecular Evolution of Structural and Regulatory Genes Influencing Enzyme Activity in Plants. Dominique de Vienne, INRA Metabolic Fluxes and Pools As Model Traits for Analyzing QTL Detection, Epistasis and Heterosis. Athanasios Tsaftaris, Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki Genome Expression and Heterosis in Maize Parental Lines and Their Hybrids. Ben Bowen, Pioneer HiBred International Thinking about the Molecular Biology of Heterosis in Corn. From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Thu Aug 08 23:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!unitus.it!carpe From: carpe@unitus.it (carpe) Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: Appeal for WFS Date: 9 Aug 1996 00:24:19 -0700 Organization: Universit` della Tuscia Lines: 237 Sender: daemon@net.bio.net Distribution: world Message-ID: <302862C0.1042@unitus.it> NNTP-Posting-Host: net.bio.net ACCADEMIA NAZIONALE DELLE SCIENZE Detta Dei XL Il Presidente APPEAL TO CONCERNED SCIENTISTS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, FOR THE SAFE CONSERVATION AND OPTIMAL UTILIZATION OF BIODIVERSITY AND GENETIC RESOURCES FOR FOOD AND AGRICULTURE, AND THE FAIR AND EQUITABLE SHARING OF THE BENEFITS Rome, Italy 7 August 1996 ----------------------------------------------------- Biodiversity and genetic resources are crucial for assuring food security for the growing population of our planet. We, the Presidents of the Academies of Science of Italy and of India, therefore wish to present a strong appeal by scientists everywhere to the governments at the World Food Summit that will be convened by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome, Italy, from 13 to 17 November 1996. We wish to urge them to take immediate steps to put world food security upon a sounder footing, by promoting the secure conservation and optimal utilization of biological diversity of interest to food and agriculture, and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits derived from their utilization. As scientists, we have the responsibility and the duty of forming public opinion and policy. We therefore decided to launch the attached "Appeal to Concerned scientists throughout the World". We are asking you, as a scientist, to join us in the appeal to all governments. To register your support for the appeal, please send your name, title, institution, postal address, and e-mail address, before 5 November 1996, to: Prof. G.T. Scarascia Mugnozza Italian Academy of Sciences Villa Lontana, Via Cassia Antica, 35 00191 - Rome Fax: +39 6 36300057 E-mail: gtsm.ias@unitus.it This cover letter and the appeal con also be found at the following URL address: http://www.unitus.it/relcult/wfs-appeal.html Please forward this Appeal to your colleagues, with a request that they too join with us. Prof. Gian Tommaso Scarascia Mugnozza President National Academy of Sciences-Rome and Rector University of Tuscia-Viterbo, Italy M.S. Swaminathan President National Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Chairman of M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation-Madras, India --------------------------------------------- APPEAL TO CONCERNED SCIENTISTS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD We, scientists from many countries, both developing and developed, working with biological diversity and using genetic resources for food and agriculture; Aware of our moral responsibility, and our role in ensuring that all the world's citizens can effectively exercise their natural right to food and to peaceful development; Convinced of the absolute importance of conserving and using sustainably the agricultural genetic resources that countries have inherited from the skills, dedication and creativity of many millennia of their farmers, for the benefit not only of our generation, but of generations to come; Deeply concerned that these crucially important genetic resources for agriculture are being eroded and irreversibly lost; Convinced, moreover, that all countries depend and will continue to depend, for a very large part of their agriculture and food production, on genetic resources that have originated in other countries and on other continents, are interdependent, and must therefore collaborate fully in their common interest; Aware of the rapid progress that scientists throughout the world are making in agricultural science and in biotechnology in the fields of food and agriculture; Certain that, if we are to be able to assure food security for the growing population of our planet, and a just and equitable sharing of the benefits of agricultural biological diversity, the results of the work must be put at the service of farmers everywhere, in a true partnership between politicians, scientists, farmers and the public at large; Recalling the major commitments of countries in adopting the International Undertaking on Plant Genetic Resources, in adopting the Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCED, Rio de Janeiro, June 1992), in establishing the FAO Global System for the Conservation and Utilization of Plan Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, and in approving the Global Plan of Action for the Conservation and Sustainable Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture; Believing that it is the moral duty of all men and women of culture and science towards humanity to contribute to forming public policy, and to educating public opinion about the fundamental need to conserve biological diversity, to use its components sustainably, and to share fairly and equitably the benefits arising from the utilization of these resources; 1. Express our complete support for the objectives and aims of the World Food Summit being convened by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome, between 13 and 17 November 1996; 2. Appeal to our fellow scientists in all countries - particularly those of us with the responsibility of advising our governments on biological diversity, and on the implementation of Article 10 of the Convention on Biological Diversity, which foresees the need to "integrate consideration of the conservation and sustainable use of biological resources into national decision-making", to: - Join together in a strong movement of ideas to support the complete and expeditious application of the principles and rules of the Convention on Biological Diversity; - Express explicitly their willingness to put their knowledge and experience at the disposal of their fellow countrymen and women, their governments, and the United Nations, to strengthen the foundations of multilateral cooperation in this field, for the betterment of all peoples and the good of generations to come; - Work with governments, supranational and international agencies, the mass media and public opinion in general, to make a reality of the farsighted programmes initiated a long time ago by the United Nations and the Food and Agriculture Organization in favour of an equitable and sustainable use of biological diversity, which is the key element in the achievement of sustainable food and nutrition security; - Promote, in collaboration with national authorities in developing countries, and with scientific bodies and private industry, - the effective conservation in situ of the wild relatives of crops and agricultural animals and the development of in situ gene parks; - dynamic on-farm conservation strategies which aim both at ensuring the long-term conservation of agricultural genetic diversity, and at the economic and social development of the farmers themselves, and their farming communities; - the secure conservation of resources by completing ex situ collections, particularly of materials at risk, and also by bringing such collections to the International Network of ex situ collections under the auspices of FAO; - intensive evaluation of the immense reservoir of characteristics of agricultural genetic resources, for improving and extending utilization; - optimal utilization of agricultural genetic resources, through biotechnology in the service of the fundamental needs of humanity; - Ensure that farmer's rights are regarded as fundamental rights and that their past and on-going contributions to genetic resources cooperation and enhancement are recognized and employed. 3. Call for: - the full respect of the rights of the countries in which agricultural biodiversity is found, and of their farmers and farming communities, so as to avert the grave continuing danger of genetic erosion and the irreparable loss of these resources; - the rapid and effective completion of the revision of the International Undertaking and the strengthening of the FAO Global System for the Conservation and Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources, and the funding for the implementation of its Global Plan of Action; - the realization of Farmers' Rights within the context of the revision of the International Undertaking, and the development of mechanisms for its implementation. The revised International Undertaking may then become a protocol of the Conventions on Biological Diversity. 4. Remind that international, planetary cooperation is imperative without delay. If the danger is incumbent on all, the benefits of collaboration will also be for all. Prof. Gian Tommaso Scarascia Mugnozza President National Academy of Sciences-Rome and Rector University of Tuscia-Viterbo, Italy M.S. Swaminathan President National Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Chairman of M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation-Madras, India From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Thu Aug 08 23:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!agate!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!news-res.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!hunter.premier.net!news.thenet.net!uunet!in3.uu.net!news.compuserve.com!newsmaster From: <105050.1276@compuserve.com> Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: THE SOLUTION TO OVERPOPULATION Date: 9 Aug 1996 10:00:10 GMT Organization: CompuServe Incorporated Lines: 156 Message-ID: <4uf27a$mf3@hil-news-svc-3.compuserve.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: ad35-196.compuserve.com Content-Type: text/plain Content-length: 7270 X-Newsreader: AIR Mosaic (16-bit) version 4.00.08.32 THE SOLUTION TO OVERPOPULATION Written by: Gemini. Hello. The time has come.. to stop something. Something that is raging out of control and is a threat to everything that humans consider a part of their lives. This threat is OVERPOPULATION. And it must be stopped. There is one, and ONLY one solution to this.... read on. I basically became fully aware of the threat of overpopulation when I discovered The Church of Euthanasia. Yes, they also stand for the reduction of the human species, but their solutions are a little, err.. shall we say, unpractical. They give their solutions as: VOLUNTARY SUICIDE - Cool.. but how many can you convince to do it? SODOMY - Yep, that works, you can't get your spouse pregnant if you butt-fuck her. Heh. But again, how are you going to get everyone to do that? CANNIBALLISIM - Ummm.. nuff said. ABORTION - Abortion rules! It's a great way to reduce population. But again, you can't convince everyone to do that.. the religious freaks are going to keep having goddamn 12-kid families!! Now, I don't mean to bash on the CoE. They do a great job of raising awareness of overpopulation. Good job guys! Enough of that, heh. So how are we going to reduce population? Here's some other "possible" impractical methods: KILL PEOPLE - Umm.. er.. well it would work, but we want a peaceful world, don't we? MANDATORY ABORTION - This would work too... but impractical for obvious reasons. FORCED STERILIZATION - (Getting warmer!) This would work like a charm! But, as above, impractical. Be my guest to strap down billions of people to an operating table. heh. **** OK, FINALLY THE *ONLY* SOLUTION TO OVERPOPULATION IS: **** >>> INVOLUNTARY MASS STERILIZATION OF <<< >>> THE HUMAN POPULATION VIA A VIRUS OR A DRUG. <<< After examining every other possible solution, this is the ONLY solution. Before we discuss "How in the hell are we going to pull that off????", we will theorize on what it would do... In theory, if the entire human population was sterilized in one day, or even a whole year or two, human beings would disappear from the planet in only a little less or more than 100 YEARS! Let's theorize some more... After 20 years from the point of sterilization, the youngest person on the planet would be 20! After 40 years, 40! After 60 years, 60! You get the idea, think about it. It would make one hell of a sci-fi movie that's for sure! Without babies to replenish the population, humanity would become extinct from natural causes. But, do we want the human population to become extinct? Maybe..... Hey, there's some really cool people out there! But there's a lot of stupid assholes (criminals), and if there are less people, then it's easier to deal with them. I myself would like to see the population at only around 500 million. Therefore, we should sterilize MOST of the population. "The Solution" (as it will be called from now on), is the ONLY one. It's greatest benefit is that it lets the people who already exist live out their full natural lives, except most of them won't be able to have children. Sure they'll bitch and complain about not being able to reproduce, but fuck them!! They shouldn't be doing it anyways. This may be looked at as biological "terrorism" or "warfare". But hey, it's for OUR own good. Another benefit is that you can have all the sex you want without a condom, as long as you're not with someone who has STD or HIV. That's another thing.. with less people, we will be able to keep a tighter grip on HIV and STD's by placing those infected in isolation. You're still probably asking "HOW?!?!" are we going to pull this off.. Well let me first say that I am NOT a doctor, biologist, or a chemist. But I do have my whole life ahead of me, and I do have a few years of college in Engineering. My only hope is that this message is distributed massively enough that someone "out there" who is a scientist, and shares these views, will begin research on "The Solution", and when it is created, distribute it among the world population. Now we've reached another topic, DISTRIBUTION. Will The Solution be a virus or a drug? Let's discuss the pros and cons of each: VIRUS: This would have to be an extremely contagious virus, the best would be air-borne. It should do NOTHING EXCEPT STERILIZE a human being. What about MUMPS? Hmm... well Mumps can sterilize people, but most of the population has had a vaccine for Mumps.. maybe that could be a starting point.... (Like I said, I'm not a biologist). It's benefit would be that it would spread on it's own, but it's con would be the problem of stopping it before it sterilizes the entire human population. But if it does, so what... the people who already exist will still lead a long, full life (and think about all the stuff and buildings you could have and live in when you're 40 and almost half of the population has died off from old age!!!). What do we care if the human race continues after we're dead and gone. DRUG: Well.... this would have to be a substance, that when ingested, will cause sterilization. Obviously, you can't sneak a pill into everyone's food at the local McDonald's! haha.. But this substance would have to be created so that SMALL amounts will cause effective sterilization. The best way to distribute this would be to drop it into every city's water supply. Reservoirs are huge, barely guarded, and it's easy to throw something into them. From what I've heard, if someone threw only a pound of plutonium into a reservoir, it would kill everyone in the city that drank that water. But that's not what we're after... The pro of this would be, if distributed carefully, we could sterilize only most of the population, and it can be controlled. The obvious con of this is that we would have to travel all over the world throwing it into water supplies. Personally, I choose the virus! Now, I will vent some ANGER. As far as I'm concerned the most disgusting thing on this earth is a PREGNANT WOMAN! Personally, I'd like to see all pregnant women shot! (This is just wishful thinking heh). All they do is help overpopulate the world! Most of Humanity, in general, are a bunch of complete idiots that are cum loads that should've been swallowed! In closing, I wish to remain anonymous, for obvious reasons. This "manifesto" is bound to shake up a lot of people. Please feel free to distribute this as much as possible, in it's original intact form. Print this up and send it or email it to all the major news organizations. Their mindless hype-mentality will be a great tool to get this out to as many people as possible. This manifesto was first distributed on the Usenet, which is a part of the Internet. Hey, I'd like to have a slogan like the CoE: SAVE THE PLANET! STOP BIRTH! Peace, Humanity's worst nightmare and best friend. Gemini. From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Sat Aug 10 23:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!internet!biosci!not-for-mail From: biohelp (BIOSCI Administrator) Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: BIOSCI/bionet miniFAQ & Fundraiser Date: 11 Aug 1996 02:00:07 -0700 Organization: BIOSCI International Newsgroups for Molecular Biology Lines: 239 Sender: daemon@net.bio.net Distribution: world Message-ID: <199608110900.CAA25507@net.bio.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: net.bio.net (LAST REVISION: 30-JUL-95) This BIOSCI "miniFAQ" is designed to answer the questions that come up the *most frequently*. The main BIOSCI FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) is accessible on the World Wide Web at URL http://www.bio.net/. If you can not find an answer to your question in this or other documentation, the BIOSCI technical support staff answers e-mail queries sent to biosci-help@net.bio.net We can only answer questions about the use of the newsgroups and mailing lists. We unfortunately do not have the staff to do Internet information searches or answer scientific questions. Please post those to the appropriate BIOSCI/bionet newsgroups. Contents: -------- 0) BIOSCI NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT!! 1) Using the WWW to access the BIOSCI/bionet newsgroups. 2) What to do about "spams," i.e., junk mail, ads, etc. 3) Examples of subscribing and unsubscribing to the mailing lists. 4) The BIOSCI user address and research interest directory. 0) BIOSCI NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT!! ------------------------------ BIOSCI's government funding has been expended, and we are now operating solely from advertising revenue that we have raised from our Web site at http://www.bio.net/. We need just a few minutes of your time to help us serve you. You can do two important things which will take very little time for you individually and will immensely help us continue to help you. First, please use our WWW system at http://www.bio.net/ to access the archives. You can post or reply to messages via your Web browser as described in item #1 below. Your usage helps attract sponsors. If you contact any of our sponsors, please be sure to thank them for supporting BIOSCI. It is critical for them to get this feedback if they are to continue their sponsorship for the long term. Second, if you work for a company or organization that provides products or services of interest to the biology community, please pass this message on to your marketing or marketing communications department or other appropriate group. Please ask them to help support BIOSCI by sponsoring our Web site and explain the uses and benefits of the system to the biology community. If they are interested, they can then contact us for further information at our tech support address, biosci-help@net.bio.net. 1) Using the WWW to access the BIOSCI/bionet newsgroups. -------------------------------------------------------- As of 10 December 1995, all BIOSCI/bionet full newsgroups are accessible through the World Wide Web (WWW) at URL http://www.bio.net. One can read and reply publicly or privately to both recent postings and archived messages through one's Web browser if it is configured properly to send e-mail. Each newsgroup is equipped with its own WAIS index. The main BIOSCI home page also has access to the BIO-JOURNALS Table of Contents database WAIS index and the BIOSCI user address database described in another item further below. 2) What to do about "spams," i.e., junk mail, ads, etc. ------------------------------------------------------- BIOSCI is a set of parallel USENET newsgroups (the "bionet" groups), mailing lists, and a hypermail archive at URL http://www.bio.net/. The same postings are distributed on all media (except for a small number of mailing-list-only groups at net.bio.net). Unfortunately it is becoming a despicable practice on the Internet (by a few people out to make a fast buck) to do automated mass postings to thousands of newsgroups and mailing lists. These attempts to grab free advertising are refered to as "spams" in the usual, somewhat boneheaded, net terminology. USENET is more susceptible to this practice, and many spams originate on the USENET groups and then are passed on to the mailing lists. However, spammers also get lists of mailing addresses and hit these too, so neither medium is immune. What should you do personally if you get junk mail? --------------------------------------------------- Just delete it and move on without reading it further. Filing a protest is becoming increasingly useless because spammers are often disguising the addresses where the messages are sent from. Unless you really understand Internet mail systems, your attempt at protest by sending replies to the message will often end up being sent to the address of an innocent person that the spammer is victimizing. What can BIOSCI/bionet do to protect its newsgroups? ---------------------------------------------------- The only solution currently available is to moderate the newsgroup. If this newsgroup is already moderated, then you are in good shape. Moderation protects the USENET distribution from about 95% of the spams that are being sent to date and protects the mailing lists completely. Moderation means, however, that someone has to take the time to review each message before it goes out. We have set up software here that simply allows the moderator to forward to an address at net.bio.net messages that (s)he wishes to have distributed. This takes no more time than that needed to read the message and pass it on, say about 1 min. per message. Most newsgroups currently have a discussion leader who is responsible for their newsgroup. The discussions leaders and their e-mail addresses are listed in the BIOSCI Information Sheet which is available on the Web at http://www.bio.net/. If a newsgroup is being hit with too many junk postings, please contact the discussion leader for that group and see if there is interest in moderating the group. Please do not assume that by simply posting a complaint to the newsgroup itself, anyone on the BIOSCI staff will act on your complaint. With close to 100 newsgroups to run, the BIOSCI staff has to rely on the discussion leaders of each newsgroup to report problems directly to us at biosci-help@net.bio.net. We will moderate any of our newsgroups if the discussion leader tells us that the readership of the group wishes to do so and if a moderator is willing to do the work. For most BIOSCI/bionet groups, this entails only a few minutes of work each day. Moderating a newsgroup will resolve probably 95% of the junk postings on the USENET distribution. Unfortunately there are easy ways for determined spammers to override the moderation mechanism on USENET, but we can protect our e-mail subscribers from unwanted postings if the newsgroup is moderated. You can also access our newsgroups over the WWW at URL http://www.bio.net. While this Web interface will not stop spammers from trying to post to the groups, this will give you yet another way, besides using USENET news, to keep the junk out of your personal mail files. For those of you with local USENET news systems, the Web interface will also give you faster access to new newsgroups and recent postings. 3) Examples of subscribing and unsubscribing to the mailing lists. ------------------------------------------------------------------ PLEASE NOTE: The BIOSCI management does NOT act on subscription/unsubscription requests that are posted improperly to the newsgroups and mailing lists. People who do this only bother everyone on the lists to no avail. Please be sure to follow the proper procedures below. Gory details are in the BIOSCI Information sheets on the Web at http://www.bio.net. Below we give an example utilizing the METHODS-AND-REAGENTS list at both of our two BIOSCI sites: Users in the Americas and Pacific Rim countries who use the BIOSCI ------------------------------------------------------------------ node at computer net.bio.net: ---------------------------- A) Determine the "listname" which is the <=8 character mail address ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ for the group. These can be found in the BIOSCI Info. Sheet. For the METHODS-AND-REAGENTS group the mailing address is methods@net.bio.net. The listname is the portion of the address to the left of the @ sign, i.e., "methods". The listname is used with the "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" commands illustrated below. B) Mail all commands in the body of a mail message addressed to biosci-server@net.bio.net. Do NOT send commands to the newsgroup posting addresses! Leave the Subject: line blank, any text on it will be ignored. C) In the body of your message put one or more of the following commands with an "end" command on the last line, e.g., subscribe methods unsubscribe methods end Do NOT put your e-mail address or other text on these lines. The server only allows you to cancel your subscription if the address on your mail header matches the address on our mailing list. Please ask for help at biosci-help@net.bio.net if your address has changed, e.g., if you know you are on the list but the server tells you that you are not a member. Users in Europe, Africa, and Central Asia who use the BIOSCI node at -------------------------------------------------------------------- computer daresbury.ac.uk (also known as dl.ac.uk): ------------------------------------------------- To subscribe and unsubscribe to/from the BIOSCI lists, you need to specify the full USENET newsgroup name with "bionet-news." prepended. The USENET newsgroup names are listed in the BIOSCI Information sheet on the Web at http://www.bio.net/. For the METHODS-AND-REAGENTS list the USENET newsgroup name is bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts, thus the appropriate commands are sub bionet-news.bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts unsub bionet-news.bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts These commands are included in a message addressed to mxt@dl.ac.uk, NOT to the newsgroup mailing addresses. As usual, include the text in the body of the message as text on the Subject: line is ignored. To unsubscribe from all the lists at the UK node, use unsub bionet-news Please note that if the address in the list is different than the one in your mail message header, you will not be able to unsubscribe by this method. If you have problems, please mail biosci@daresbury.ac.uk. 4) The BIOSCI user address and research interest directory. ----------------------------------------------------------- Please take this opportunity to add your name, address, and research interest information to the BIOSCI User Address Database if you have not already done so. You can fill out the address form directly through our Web page at URL http://www.bio.net/adrform.html. The address database is reindexed nightly for WWW access (the URL is http://www.bio.net/). If you are not directly on the Internet but can reach it by e-mail, please use our waismail server to access the user directory. waismail use is described above. You can also request a user address form by e-mail from biosci-help@net.bio.net. Please check your database entry from time-to-time to see if your address information is still up-to-date. Because of our limited personnel resources, we ask that you resubmit a *complete* form to revise your entry; we only replace complete entries and do not have resources to edit old forms. Sincerely, Dave Kristofferson BIOSCI/bionet Manager biosci-help@net.bio.net From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Wed Aug 14 23:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!rutgers!uwm.edu!news.nap.net!nntp04.primenet.com!news.shkoo.com!nntp.primenet.com!mr.net!news.sgi.com!news.msfc.nasa.gov!newsfeed.internetmci.com!info.ucla.edu!agate!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!news1.ucsd.edu!usenet From: Filippo Menczer Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: Latent Energy Environments 2.0 software available Date: Wed, 14 Aug 1996 18:23:15 +0000 Organization: CSE Dept. 0114, U.C. San Diego Lines: 52 Message-ID: <32121993.2B9F@cs.ucsd.edu> Reply-To: fil@cs.ucsd.edu NNTP-Posting-Host: mingus.ucsd.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; x-mac-type="54455854"; x-mac-creator="74747874" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.01 (Macintosh; I; 68K) Content-Disposition: inline; filename="ANNOUNCE" ========================== Software announcement LEE release 2.0 Latent Energy Environments ========================== Release 2.0 of the LEE artificial life simulator is now available via FTP/WWW. Changes from previous versions include, among others, an option for reinforcement learning, a new motor type, a new and improved user interface, and a fat binary application for the Macintosh. You may download the software (Unix sources and/or Mac source and fat application, documentation, and a technical report) as follows: World Wide Web: http://www.cs.ucsd.edu/users/fil/lee/lee.html Anonymous FTP: ftp://cs.ucsd.edu/pub/LEE Authors: Richard Belew and Filippo Menczer. LEE is (c) 1993-1996 University of California, San Diego. You may freely copy/distribute the software, except for commercial purposes, and as long and the notices in the source headers are preserved. Filename Format Content ----------------------------------------------------------------- README ASCII general info lee.doc ASCII documentation pinep.ps.Z compressed PostScript paper about LEE model lee2.0.tar.Z compressed tar file LEE 2.0 Unix source lee2.0.sit.hqx binhexed stuffit archive LEE 2.0 for the Mac ----------------------------------------------------------------- Please see README file for a general introduction, and lee.doc for specific information on how to compile and/or run the program. For a complete list of related papers please see Filippo Menczer's homepage (URL below). =============================================== Filippo Menczer Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering, 0114 University of California, San Diego La Jolla, CA 92093-0114 USA Fax: +1 619 534-7029 Email: fil@cs.ucsd.edu Homepage: http://www.cs.ucsd.edu/users/fil/ =============================================== From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Thu Aug 15 23:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!rutgers!uwm.edu!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!newsfeed.internetmci.com!act.news.telstra.net!nsw.news.telstra.net!asstdc.scgt.oz.au!metro!metro!angis.su.oz.au!rbgs00 From: rbgs00@angis.su.oz.au (Royal Botanic Gardens) Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: Ginko genetic diversity Date: 16 Aug 1996 02:17:59 GMT Organization: ANGIS, The University of Sydney, Australia Lines: 28 Distribution: inet Message-ID: <4v0lon$l2a@metro.usyd.edu.au> Reply-To: rbgs00@angis.su.oz.au (Royal Botanic Gardens) NNTP-Posting-Host: morgan.angis.su.oz.au From: rbgs00@angis.su.oz.au (Royal Botanic Gardens) Path: angis.su.oz.au!rbgs00 Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: Ginko genetic diversity Expires: References: Sender: Reply-To: rbgs00@angis.su.oz.au (Royal Botanic Gardens) Followup-To: Distribution: Organization: ANGIS, The University of Sydney, Australia Keywords: Hi Folks does anyone know of any research having been done on genetic diversity (or lack thereof) in Ginko biloba, the ancient gymnosperm species which had a very lucky escape from extinction? Any info much appreciated. Adam Marchant Molecular Systematics Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney Australia From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Tue Aug 20 23:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!rutgers!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!news.swt.edu!newsmaster From: Ari Kahn Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: Phylogenetics/Cladistics Date: Tue, 20 Aug 1996 20:20:16 +0000 Organization: Southwest Texas State University Lines: 12 Message-ID: <321A1E00.EB3@swt.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: port12.modem1.cc.swt.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.0 (Macintosh; I; PPC) I am doing phylogentic/cladistic work on rice using PCR and sequencing methods. I have found this form very helpful before and thought I might pose some statistical molecular questions regarding PAUP and PHYLIP programs. I have prepared a summary of my work and would like to have some feedback on it. However, the summary is too large to post in this form. If you do this kind of work, please email me if you would be interested in helping me. Thanks, Ari Kahn ak01706@swt.edu From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Wed Aug 21 23:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!rutgers!mcrcr6!cmcl2!yale.edu!news.ycc.yale.edu!imci3!imci5!imci4!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in3.uu.net!netnews.worldnet.att.net!ix.netcom.com!news.compuserve.com!news.production.compuserve.com!news Newsgroups: bionet.neuroscience.amyloid,bionet.population-bio,bionet.toxicology,sci.anthropology,sci.bio.entomology.lepidoptera Subject: ACTIVITY METER FOR LAB ANIMALS Message-ID: <4vf4h5$mme$1@mhafn.production.compuserve.com> From: JAN CZEKAJEWSKI <75144.2413@CompuServe.COM> Date: 21 Aug 1996 13:55:49 GMT Organization: Columbus Instruments Lines: 23 Xref: biosci bionet.neuroscience.amyloid:554 bionet.population-bio:2009 bionet.toxicology:870 sci.anthropology:23117 sci.bio.entomology.lepidoptera:4965 The behavioral change in response to drug in laboratory animals can be assessed partly by monitoring through the "Auto-Track" animal Activity Meter. The system has an interface to IBMPC/AT compatible computers that provides complete automation of data collection. It also provides 'zoning' capability and monitors subject entries and latencies for up to multiple user-defined cage areas. The following features are very unique for Auto-Track. 1. Monitors upto 16 cages simultaneously. 2. Distance travelled and pattern of movement data. 3. Separates ambulatory activity from total activity. 4. Provides zone monitoring capability. 5. Can be optionally equipped for animal rotation monitor. 6. Computer storage of processed and raw data. 7. 15 infra-red photocell per axis. 8. Primary vertical sensor for rearing activity and secondary vertical sensor is for jumping. If you need further information, please e-mail your postal address. I will be happy to mail you all information. GHOSH Internet: 75144.2413@compuserve.com From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Wed Aug 21 23:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!daresbury!nntp-trd.UNINETT.no!nntp.uio.no!Norway.EU.net!EU.net!howland.erols.net!spool.mu.edu!caen!umass.edu!nic.umass.edu!wilde.oit.umass.edu!not-for-mail From: sree@wilde.oit.umass.edu (Sreekumar Govinda Pillai PILLA) Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: POINTER Date: 16 Aug 1996 12:54:51 GMT Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst Lines: 24 Message-ID: <4v1r2r$5h9@nic.umass.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: wilde.oit.umass.edu X-Newsreader: TIN [UNIX 1.3 950824BETA PL0] From sree Thu Aug 15 14:42:04 1996 Subject: s To: sree (Sreekumar Govinda Pillai PILLA) Date: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 14:42:04 -0400 (EDT) From: "Sreekumar G.Pillai" X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL25] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 202 Hi, I am looking for the doccumentaion for the Pointer program for complex segregation analysis. If anybody can get it for me it will be of great help Thanks Sreekumar Pillai Sree@vasci.umass.edu From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Sat Aug 24 23:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!bcm.tmc.edu!news.msfc.nasa.gov!news.sgi.com!enews.sgi.com!EU.net!main.Germany.EU.net!fu-berlin.de!news.th-darmstadt.de!hrz-ws11.hrz.uni-kassel.de!newsserver.rrzn.uni-hannover.de!news.rwth-aachen.de!news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de!rhein!bnc.net!ins.net!news.maz.net!cls.net!news From: NIELS-HOLGER.RAHM@kiel.netsurf.de (NIELS-HOLGER RAHM) Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: hydroacoustics Date: Sun, 25 Aug 1996 14:59:24 GMT Organization: commercial link systems Lines: 9 Message-ID: <4vpo03$bt9@freeside.cls.de> NNTP-Posting-Host: p010.kiel.netsurf.de X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.0.82 Hello, I am looking for the addresses and or homepages of enterprises selling echosounders for the estimation of e.g. fish density, biomass etc. Does anybody have a hint on how to contact SIMRAD, BIOSONICS or any other important companies? Thanks for the help :) From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Sat Aug 24 23:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!agate!howland.erols.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uwm.edu!news.cse.psu.edu!news.cc.swarthmore.edu!netnews.upenn.edu!cronkite.ocis.temple.edu!astro.ocis.temple.edu!jcautill From: Joseph Cautilli Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: merging ecology and psychology Date: Sun, 25 Aug 1996 14:18:13 -0400 Organization: Temple University, Academic Computer Services Lines: 8 Message-ID: References: <321A1E00.EB3@swt.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: astro.ocis.temple.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII In-Reply-To: <321A1E00.EB3@swt.edu> List for new enviromental science of conservation. To join the list. Send a message to listserv@sjuvm.stjohns.edu and in the body of the message put: subscribe ecopsychology Firstname Lastname Joe From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Mon Aug 26 23:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!scripps.edu!usenet From: George Plopper Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: Simple question? Date: Tue, 27 Aug 1996 11:16:14 +0100 Organization: The Scripps Research Institute Lines: 20 Message-ID: <3222CAE7.7E7A@scripps.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: lsd.scripps.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0 (Macintosh; I; PPC) I am currently trying to understand the models that describe change in gene frequencies that occur over time as a result of natural selection. One of these (see below) describes the change in frequency of an allele in one generation in terms of the selection coefficient s. This makes sense to me, but I don't understand how this equation is applied recursively to derive s when the data are collected over a time span longer than a single generation. For example, if the lifespan of an organism is one month and generations are non-overlapping, gene frequency data collected six months apart represents 6 generations, so that this equation must somehow be applied six times to arrive at s. My mathematics background is not strong enough to understand how this is accomplished: is the entire right side of the equation raised to the power n where n=number of generations?. Any help in solving this problem would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. The equation I am describing is: delta-p=(sp[q-squared])/(1-s[q-squared]) George Plopper, Ph.D. From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Tue Aug 27 23:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!rutgers!uwm.edu!lll-winken.llnl.gov!enews.sgi.com!news.sgi.com!news.msfc.nasa.gov!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in3.uu.net!news.u.washington.edu!evolution.genetics.washington.edu!wnn From: wnn@evolution.genetics.washington.edu (Wnn System Account) Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: Re: Simple question? Date: 28 Aug 1996 06:44:25 GMT Organization: University of Washington Genetics Lines: 45 Message-ID: <500ps9$i9h@nntp3.u.washington.edu> References: <3222CAE7.7E7A@scripps.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: evolution.genetics.washington.edu Summary: Answer is not so simple Keywords: gene frequency, selection, evolutionary genetics In article <3222CAE7.7E7A@scripps.edu>, George Plopper wrote: >One of these (see below) describes the change in frequency of an allele >in one generation in terms of the selection coefficient s. This makes >sense to me, but I don't understand how this equation is applied >recursively to derive s when the data are collected over a time span >longer than a single generation. ... >delta-p=(sp[q-squared])/(1-s[q-squared]) This is the equation for the change of gene frequency if there is a dominant allele whose frequency is p, and a recessive allele with frequency q, and the fitness of the recessive phenotype is 1-s relative to the dominant one. Given s and a starting value of p (and therefore of q = 1-p) oone simple computes delta-p each generation. That gives you the change in p. Then add that to p and that gives you the new value of p. Do this every generation (making sure you always use the current p and q in the equation). There is, however, no closed-form formula for the value of p that we will see t generations from now, except in the case s=1. You'd think there ought to be but this is perhaps the simplest case where there isn't. There are reasonable approximations but it is not necessary to use them as we can crank out all the gene frequencies we want on a computer anyway. You implied that you want to "derive" s. Do you mean estimate s? If so, the most straightforward way would be to choose a starting value of p, and a value of s, have a simple computer program predict the gene frequencies at all the times when you have observed them, and then compute the likelihood for the whole set of observations as the product of binomial formulas, one per observation. Then you or the program has to try other values of p0 and of s until you find the ones that make the likelihood as high as possible. The resulting values are the maximum likelihood estimates of p0 and s. This sounds tedious but is not too hard to do and has lots of statistical advantages, inlcuding not assuming that the gene frequency that is estimated in a sample is really the true population frequency at that time. -- Joe Felsenstein joe@genetics.washington.edu (IP No. 128.95.12.41) Dept. of Genetics, Univ. of Washington, Box 357360, Seattle, WA 98195-7360 USA From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Wed Aug 28 23:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!agate!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!uunet!in3.uu.net!grove.iup.edu!jake.esu.edu!galaxy.bloomu.edu!planetx.bloomu.edu!tndent Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: Re: Simple question? Message-ID: From: "Thomas N. Dentel" Date: Thu, 29 Aug 1996 15:58:44 -0400 References: <3222CAE7.7E7A@scripps.edu> Organization: Bloomsburg University NNTP-Posting-Host: planetx.bloomu.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII In-Reply-To: <3222CAE7.7E7A@scripps.edu> Lines: 46 On Tue, 27 Aug 1996, George Plopper wrote: > I am currently trying to understand the models that describe change in > gene frequencies that occur over time as a result of natural selection. > One of these (see below) describes the change in frequency of an allele > in one generation in terms of the selection coefficient s. This makes > sense to me, but I don't understand how this equation is applied > recursively to derive s when the data are collected over a time span > longer than a single generation. For example, if the lifespan of an > organism is one month and generations are non-overlapping, gene > frequency data collected six months apart represents 6 generations, so > that this equation must somehow be applied six times to arrive at s. My > mathematics background is not strong enough to understand how this is > accomplished: is the entire right side of the equation raised to the > power n where n=number of generations?. Any help in solving this problem > would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. > > The equation I am describing is: > > delta-p=(sp[q-squared])/(1-s[q-squared]) > I am no mathematician but I have taken a few theoretical mathematics coutses where we worked with sequences like that. I played around with your equation and I could not find any way to get a reasonable closed form expression for s. It gets real messy real quick. Even making approximations like q-fourth=0 does not seem to help much. raising the right hand side to the power n means that p(k) goes to p(0) as k goes to infinity, where k is the index for the generations. However, using the original equation I found that the equilibrium solutions are p=1 and p=0. This does not answer your question but maybe it helps to know that other people can not figure it out either. T.N. Dentel tndent@planetx.bloomu.edu Biology Dept. Bloomsburg University **************************************************************** I believe I've found the missing link between animal and civilized man. It is us. Konrad Lorenz **************************************************************** From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Thu Aug 29 23:00:00 1996 Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Path: biosci!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!munnari.OZ.AU!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!marlin.jcu.edu.au!news From: Perry Swanborough Subject: Power spectrum analysis of predator-prey model output Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Message-ID: <1996Aug30.051418.21086@marlin.jcu.edu.au> Sender: news@marlin.jcu.edu.au (USENET News System) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Organization: CRC-TREM Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Fri, 30 Aug 96 05:14:18 GMT X-Mailer: Mozilla 1.1N (Windows; I; 16bit) Lines: 32 I recently read the Letter to Nature by Joel Cohen entitled "Unexpected dominance of high frequencies in chaotic nonlinear population models" (Nature, Vol 378, 7 Dec.1995). As a biologist, I have next to no knowledge of power spectrum analysis or Fourier techniques generally, although I understand that this kind of analysis can determine whether long-term fluctuations in population size are larger or smaller than short-term fluctuations. I have output from a bounded, 3 dimensional, spatially-explicit predator-prey model that I am considering doing power-spectrum analysis on, but I have some questions : 1. Cohen applied this analysis to the chaotic output of 8 different models, but the outputs of runs of my model are not (as far as I can tell) chaotic. Is there anything to be gained by doing this kind of analysis on non-chaotic time series? and 2. Plots of the output show clearly that long-term amplitudes are generally larger than the amplitudes of short-term variation, i.e. the power spectra are obviously "red-shifted", as they are for real populations. Again, can the proposed power-spectrum analysis potentially tell me anything useful that I cannot obviously see already? I have access to Microsoft Excel, with its Fast Fourier Transform function. Using the function, I get a complex number for each value in the time series. What do I do with these results to do a power spectrum analysis? Thanks in advance for any advice offered. Perry Swanborough From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Thu Aug 29 23:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!gondor!newsfeeder.sdsu.edu!news.sgi.com!news.msfc.nasa.gov!bcm.tmc.edu!cs.utexas.edu!howland.erols.net!nntp04.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!ddsw1!news.mcs.net!in-news.erinet.com!bug.rahul.net!rahul.net!a2i!ns2.mainstreet.net!sloth.swcp.com!tesuque.cs.sandia.gov!SantaFe!usenet From: "Timothy H. Keitt" Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: Re: Power spectrum analysis of predator-prey model output Date: Fri, 30 Aug 1996 09:29:12 -0600 Organization: The Santa Fe Institute Lines: 53 Message-ID: <322708C8.205D@santafe.edu> References: <1996Aug30.051418.21086@marlin.jcu.edu.au> NNTP-Posting-Host: ultra04.santafe.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0b6Gold (X11; I; SunOS 5.5 sun4u) Cohen's results may be spurious: Fourier analysis of non-stationary and non-periodic signals will result in amplification of the high-frequency modes because basically you're trying to fit stationary, periodic spectral components (i.e., sin-curves) to the data. I haven't read Cohen's paper so I can't say if his data fit the assumptions of the anlysis, but it is something to be aware of. In your case, you probably want to plot the modulus of the Fourier coefficients versus the freqency (a so called "power spectrum"). Add together the square of the real and imaginary parts to get the modulus. Whether the power spectrum tells you anything new depends entirely on your question and analysis, but it does quantify certain aspects of the correlation structure of your data. Power-law scaling of the spectral density (power-spectrum) suggests chaotic dynamics, but its not a definitive test as certain kinds of stochastic noise can also give power-law Fourier scaling. If the variation among different frequency components of your data is intrinsic to your question, then Fourier analysis can be useful. Otherwise, I'd stick with other, more strait-foward characterizations of your results. Tim Perry Swanborough wrote: > > I recently read the Letter to Nature by Joel Cohen entitled "Unexpected > dominance of high frequencies in chaotic nonlinear population models" > (Nature, Vol 378, 7 Dec.1995). As a biologist, I have next to no > knowledge of power spectrum analysis or Fourier techniques generally, > although I understand that this kind of analysis can determine whether > long-term fluctuations in population size are larger or smaller than > short-term fluctuations. > > I have output from a bounded, 3 dimensional, spatially-explicit > predator-prey model that I am considering doing power-spectrum analysis > on, but I have some questions : > > 1. Cohen applied this analysis to the chaotic output of 8 different > models, but the outputs of runs of my model are not (as far as I can > tell) chaotic. Is there anything to be gained by doing this kind of > analysis on non-chaotic time series? > > and 2. Plots of the output show clearly that long-term amplitudes are > generally larger than the amplitudes of short-term variation, i.e. the > power spectra are obviously "red-shifted", as they are for real > populations. Again, can the proposed power-spectrum analysis potentially > tell me anything useful that I cannot obviously see already? > -- Timothy H. Keitt SFI Postdoctoral Fellow tkeitt@santafe.edu From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Sat Aug 31 23:00:00 1996 Newsgroups: bionet.plants,bionet.population-bio,sci.bio Path: biosci!agate!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!demos!satisfy.kiae.su!glukr!info.elvisti.kiev.ua!mailhost.ic-chernobyl.kiev.ua!news-server From: "Marina U. Alesina" Subject: advertisment Reply-To: amy@chescen.kiev.ua X-Return-Path: chescen!chescen.kiev.ua!root Sender: news-server@mailhost.ic-chernobyl.kiev.ua Lines: 32 Organization: unknown Message-ID: Date: Sun, 1 Sep 1996 15:17:00 GMT Xref: biosci bionet.plants:12401 bionet.population-bio:2018 Ministry of Chernobyl (Ukraine) Chernobyl Scientific & Technical Centre fÏÇ International Research Department of Radiation Biology and Medicine (DRBM) NEW STAGE OF RESEARCH (!) T O P I C A L PROBLEMS (O N L Y !!!): 1.To assess influence of ionizing radiation on hydrobionts, terrestrial vertebrates and experimental animals being under conditions of the exclusion zone at the population/organism/tissue/genetic levels. 2.To develop the methods for biological and pharmacological protection of living organisms against the injurious effects of ionizing radiation. SUPPORT of RESEARCH: we possess laboratories equipped at the level of international standards and š_experimental basesš. (š_the ChNPPš. š_water š_cooling pond, pontoon nurse-pond lines, incubation shop, vivaria for š_keeping laboratory rats and mice, shed for breeding of small mammals etcš_)š. being within 3 to 10km from the epicentre of the accident and has an exclusive right to take soil/water/vegetation/biology samples for carrying out the research. WE INVITE leading scientists in the sphere of radioecology, radiobiology, medical radiology and pharmacology TO CO-OPERATE in solving the a.m. problems & using scientific test grounds. DID YOU TAKE AN INTEREST IN IT ? - PLEASE send your proposition: E-mail: AMY @ CHESCEN.KIEV.UA; our fax:38-044-93-5-20-64/or...5-21-64/. Advertisement leaflets are made by means of WORD 6.0, with the help of ZIP archive program, and sent free of charge.