dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaResilience reconsidered: Case histories from disease ecology
| Authors | Rodrick Wallace, Deborah Wallace |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | q-bio/0310009 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio/0310009 |
Abstract
We expand the current understanding of ecological resilience to include the nested hierarchy of cognitive submodules that particularly, if not uniquely, delineates human ecosystems. These modules, ranging from the immune system to the local social network, are embedded in a cultural milieu which, to take the perspective of the evolutionary anthropologist Robert Boyd, ''is as much a part of human biology as the enamel on our teeth''. We begin by extending recent treatments of cognitive process as associated with characteristic information sources to a certain class of ecosystems through a generalization of coarse-graining. In the spirit of the Large Deviations Program, we then import renormalization formalism via the Asymptotic Equipartition Theorem to obtain punctuated response to parameters of increasing habitat degradation. A Legendre transform of an appropriate joint information permits analysis away from critical points, and generates the expected quasi-stability in a highly natural manner. We interweave the discussion with applications to the public health impacts of the massive deurbanization and deindustrialization presently afflicting the United States.
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"abstract": "We expand the current understanding of ecological resilience to include the\nnested hierarchy of cognitive submodules that particularly, if not uniquely,\ndelineates human ecosystems. These modules, ranging from the immune system to\nthe local social network, are embedded in a cultural milieu which, to take the\nperspective of the evolutionary anthropologist Robert Boyd, \u0027\u0027is as much a part\nof human biology as the enamel on our teeth\u0027\u0027. We begin by extending recent\ntreatments of cognitive process as associated with characteristic information\nsources to a certain class of ecosystems through a generalization of\ncoarse-graining. In the spirit of the Large Deviations Program, we then import\nrenormalization formalism via the Asymptotic Equipartition Theorem to obtain\npunctuated response to parameters of increasing habitat degradation. A Legendre\ntransform of an appropriate joint information permits analysis away from\ncritical points, and generates the expected quasi-stability in a highly natural\nmanner. We interweave the discussion with applications to the public health\nimpacts of the massive deurbanization and deindustrialization presently\nafflicting the United States.",
"arxiv_id": "q-bio/0310009",
"authors": [
"Rodrick Wallace",
"Deborah Wallace"
],
"categories": [
"q-bio.NC",
"q-bio.PE"
],
"title": "Resilience reconsidered: Case histories from disease ecology",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio/0310009"
},
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