arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to S. Moss de Oliveira.
The idea of this review is to connect the different models of evolution to those of biological ageing through Darwin's theory. We start with the Eigen model of quasispecies for microevolution, then introduce the Bak-Sneppen model for macroevolution and, finally, present the Penna model for biological ageing and some of its most important results. We also explore the concept of coevolution using this model.
We introduce fidelity into the bit-string Penna model for biological ageing and study the advantage of this fidelity when it produces a higher survival probability of the offspring due to paternal care. We attribute a lower reproduction rate to the faithful males but a higher death probability to the offspring of non-faithful males that abandon the pups to mate other females. The fidelity is considered as a genetic trait which is transmitted to the male offspring (with or without error). We show that nature may prefer a lower reproduction rate to warrant the survival of the offspring already born.
We introduce a square lattice into the Penna bit-string model for biological ageing and study the evolution of the spatial distribution of the population considering different strategies of child-care. Two of the strategies are related to the movements of a whole family on the lattice: in one case the mother cannot move if she has any child younger than a given age, and in the other case if she moves, she brings these young children with her. A stronger condition has also been added to the second case, considering that young children die with a higher probability if their mothers die, this probability decreasing with age. We show that a highly non uniform occupation can be obtained when child-care is considered, even for an uniform initial occupation per site. We also compare the standard survival rate of the model with that obtained when the spacial lattice is considered (without any kind of child-care).
We present a model for biological aging that considers the number of individuals whose (inherited) genetic charge determines the maximum age for death: each individual may die before that age due to some external factor, but never after that limit. The genetic charge of the offspring is inherited from the parent with some mutations, described by a transition matrix. The model can describe different strategies of reproduction and it is exactly soluble. We applied our method to the bit-string model for aging and the results are in perfect agreement with numerical simulations.
We succeeded in obtaining exact results of the bit-string model of biological aging for populations whose individuals breed only once. These results are in excellent agreement with those obtained through computer simulations. In addition, we obtain an expression for the minimum birth needed to avoid mutational meltdown.
The bit-string model of biological aging is used to simulate the catastrophic senescence of Pacific Salmon. We have shown that reproduction occuring only once and at a fixed age is the only ingredient needed to explain the catastrophic senescence according the mutation accumulation theory. Several results are presented, some of them with up to $10^8$ fishes, showing how the survival rates in catastrophic senescence are affected by changes in the parameters of the model.
Using the Finite Size Scaling Renormalisation Group we obtain the two-dimensional flow diagram of the Blume-Capel model, for S = 1 and S = 3/2. In the first case our results are similar to those of Mean Field Theory, which predicts the existence of first and second order transitions whith a tricritical point. In the second case, however, our results are different. While we obtain, as in the S = 1 case, a phase diagram presenting a multicritical point, the Mean Field approach predicts only a second order transition and a critical end point.