Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems
Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems

Author: John H. Holland

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 1992-04-29

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 9780262581110

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Genetic algorithms are playing an increasingly important role in studies of complex adaptive systems, ranging from adaptive agents in economic theory to the use of machine learning techniques in the design of complex devices such as aircraft turbines and integrated circuits. Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems is the book that initiated this field of study, presenting the theoretical foundations and exploring applications. In its most familiar form, adaptation is a biological process, whereby organisms evolve by rearranging genetic material to survive in environments confronting them. In this now classic work, Holland presents a mathematical model that allows for the nonlinearity of such complex interactions. He demonstrates the model's universality by applying it to economics, physiological psychology, game theory, and artificial intelligence and then outlines the way in which this approach modifies the traditional views of mathematical genetics. Initially applying his concepts to simply defined artificial systems with limited numbers of parameters, Holland goes on to explore their use in the study of a wide range of complex, naturally occuring processes, concentrating on systems having multiple factors that interact in nonlinear ways. Along the way he accounts for major effects of coadaptation and coevolution: the emergence of building blocks, or schemata, that are recombined and passed on to succeeding generations to provide, innovations and improvements.

Adaptation and Natural Selection
Adaptation and Natural Selection

Author: George Christopher Williams

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2018-10-30

Total Pages: 335

ISBN-13: 0691185506

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Biological evolution is a fact—but the many conflicting theories of evolution remain controversial even today. When Adaptation and Natural Selection was first published in 1966, it struck a powerful blow against those who argued for the concept of group selection—the idea that evolution acts to select entire species rather than individuals. Williams’s famous work in favor of simple Darwinism over group selection has become a classic of science literature, valued for its thorough and convincing argument and its relevance to many fields outside of biology. Now with a new foreword by Richard Dawkins, Adaptation and Natural Selection is an essential text for understanding the nature of scientific debate.

The Oxford Handbook of Adaptation Studies
The Oxford Handbook of Adaptation Studies

Author: Thomas M. Leitch

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 785

ISBN-13: 0199331006

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This collection of forty new essays, written by the leading scholars in adaptation studies and distinguished contributors from outside the field, is the most comprehensive volume on adaptation ever published. Written to appeal alike to specialists in adaptation, scholars in allied fields, and general readers, it hearkens back to the foundations of adaptation studies a century and more ago, surveys its ferment of activity over the past twenty years, and looks forward to the future. It considers the very different problems in adapting the classics, from the Bible to Frankenstein to Philip Roth, and the commons, from online mashups and remixes to adult movies. It surveys a dizzying range of adaptations around the world, from Latin American telenovelas to Czech cinema, from Hong Kong comics to Classics Illustrated, from Bollywood to zombies, and explores the ways media as different as radio, opera, popular song, and videogames have handled adaptation. Going still further, it examines the relations between adaptation and such intertextual practices as translation, illustration, prequels, sequels, remakes, intermediality, and transmediality. The volume's contributors consider the similarities and differences between adaptation and history, adaptation and performance, adaptation and revision, and textual and biological adaptation, casting an appreciative but critical eye on the theory and practice of adaptation scholars--and, occasionally, each other. The Oxford Handbook of Adaptation Studies offers specific suggestions for how to read, teach, create, and write about adaptations in order to prepare for a world in which adaptation, already ubiquitous, is likely to become ever more important.

Adaptation to Environment
Adaptation to Environment

Author: R. C. Newell

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2013-10-22

Total Pages: 554

ISBN-13: 1483162974

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Adaptation to Environment: Essays on the Physiology of Marine Animals contains a series of essays that is intended as a review of the special adaptations of marine organisms to the particular environmental conditions they are likely to encounter in the natural habitat. This book emphasizes developments in physiology of marine animals and on approaches to the study of the adaptations of marine organisms. This compilation also interprets the term "Physiology in its widest sense to include all aspects of the functioning of the organism from the behavior of animals to the mode of function of enzymes. For this reason, structural adaptations have been reviewed in detail only where their functional role is understood and where they constitute a specific adaptation to defined environmental conditions. This publication benefits students and individuals conducting research on the physiology of marine animals.

Climate Change Adaptation
Climate Change Adaptation

Author: Lisa Dale

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2022-07-05

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 0231552971

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Climate change policy has typically emphasized mitigation, calling for reducing emissions and shifting away from fossil fuels. Yet while these efforts have floundered, floods, wildfires, droughts, and other disasters are becoming more frequent and potent. As the risks escalate, we must ask how to adapt to a changing climate. How might farmers modify their practices to maximize food security? Can coastal cities protect their infrastructure from rising seas? Are there strategic ways for developing countries to combine climate resilience with economic growth and poverty reduction? For people and societies around the world, these questions are not theoretical: adaptation is already underway. This book offers a concise overview of climate adaptation governance. In clear, accessible language, Lisa Dale describes key strategies that governments, communities, and the private sector are now deploying. She presents the theory and practice that underlie climate adaptation efforts at local and global scales, providing illuminating case studies that foreground the problems facing developing countries. Dale analyzes the effectiveness of a range of policy interventions, drawing out principles of good governance and discussing how practitioners can navigate complex tradeoffs. She emphasizes equity and inclusion, considering how climate adaptation policy can account for the needs of historically disadvantaged groups. Written for a wide audience, this book is an invaluable introduction for all readers interested in how societies can meet the challenges of an altered climate.

Adaptation
Adaptation

Author: Charlie Kaufman

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 166

ISBN-13: 9781854597083

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'Adaptation' concerns Laroche, an eccentric collector of rare orchids (played by Chris Cooper), a journalist called Susan Orlean (played by Meryl Streep) who's writing his story and a screenwriter called Charlie Kaufman (played by Nicolas Cage), who, in adapting the resultant book, writes himself into the movie...

Theorizing Adaptation
Theorizing Adaptation

Author: Kamilla Elliott

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 377

ISBN-13: 0197511171

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From film and television theory to intertextuality, poststructuralism to queer theory, postcolonialism to meme theory, a host of contemporary theories in the humanities have engaged with adaptation studies. Yet theorizing adaptation has been deemed problematic in the humanities' theoretical and disciplinary wars, been charged with political incorrectness by both conservative and radical scholars, and declared outdated and painfully behind the times compared to other disciplines. And even separate from these problems of theorization is adaptation's subject matter - with many film adaptations of literature widely and simply declared "bad." In this thorough and groundbreaking study, author Kamilla Elliott works to detail and redress the problem of theorizing adaptation. She offers the first cross-disciplinary history of theorizing adaptation in the humanities, extending back in time to the sixteenth century - revealing that before the late eighteenth century, adaptation was valued and even celebrated for its contributions to cultural progress before its eventual - and ongoing - marginalization. Elliott also presents a discussion of humanities theorization as a process, arguing the need to rethink how theorization functions within humanities disciplines and configure a new relationship between theorization and adaptation, and then examines how rhetoric may work to repair this difficult relationship. Ultimately, Theorizing Adaptation seeks to find shared ground upon which adaptation scholars can dialogue and debate productively across disciplinary, cultural, and theoretical borders, without requiring theoretical assent or uniformity.

Managing Adaptation to Climate Risk
Managing Adaptation to Climate Risk

Author: Geoff O'Brien

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-07-24

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 1136866825

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Resilience has become the new buzz word - in Government, Health, Energy and Disaster Management sectors. Climate change is the single largest threat to sustainable development, and addressing climate risk is a challenge for all.This book calls for greater collaboration between climate communities and disaster development communities to tackle the challenges faced in addressing climate risk reduction. It evaluates approaches used by each community to reduce the adverse effects of climate change, and argues that adaptation focused on peoples' livelihoods, rather than technology, is the best way.

Adaptation Before Cinema
Adaptation Before Cinema

Author: Lissette Lopez Szwydky

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2023-01-19

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 3031095960

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Adaptation Before Cinema highlights a range of pre-cinematic media forms, including theater, novelization, painting and illustration, transmedia art, children’s media, and other literary and visual culture. The book expands the primary scholarly audience of adaptation studies from film and media scholars to literary scholars and cultural critics working across a range of historical periods, genres, forms, and media. In doing so, it underscores the creative diversity of cultural adaptation practiced before cinema came to dominate the critical conversation on adaptation. Collectively, the chapters construct critical bridges between literary history and contemporary media studies, foregrounding diverse practices of adaptation and providing a platform for innovative critical approaches to adaptation, appropriation, or transmedia storytelling popular from the Middle Ages through the invention of cinema. At the same time, they illustrate how these forms of adaptation not only influenced the cinematic adaptation industry of the twentieth century but also continue to inform adaptation practices in the twenty-first century transmedia landscape. Written by scholars with expertise in historical, literary, and cultural scholarship ranging from the medieval period through the nineteenth century, the chapters use discourses developed in contemporary adaptation studies to shed new lights on their respective historical fields, authors, and art forms.