Genetic contributions of nine historically important ancestors and allelic diversity in the Japanese Thoroughbred population were examined by applying the gene dropping simulation to the foals produced from 1978 to 2005. Full pedigree records traced to ancestors (base animals) born around 1890 were used for the simulation. Alleles originated from some of the historically important ancestors wer...

All life must survive their corresponding viruses. Thus antiviral systems are essential in all living organisms. Remnants of virus derived information are also found in all life forms but have historically been considered mostly as junk DNA. However, such virus derived information can strongly affect host susceptibility to viruses. In this review, I evaluate the role viruses have had in the ori...

A two-types, discrete-time population model with finite, constant size is constructed, allowing for a general form of frequency-dependent selection and skewed offspring distribution. Selection is defined based on the idea that individuals first choose a (random) number of potential parents from the previous generation and then, from the selected pool, they inherit the type of the fittest parent...

We use 130 years of data on historical migrations to the United States to show a causal effect of the ancestry composition of US counties on foreign direct investment (FDI) sent and received by local firms. To isolate the causal effect of ancestry on FDI, we build a simple reduced-form model of migrations: migrations from a foreign country to a US county at a given time depend on (i) a push fac...

Humans have a skewed view of viruses because we only notice them if they cause disease. In reality, however, viruses are much more than pathogens. HIV and influenza cause frightening health threats, but 1019 HIV particles worldwide are basically nothing compared to 1033 total number of viruses on our planet. Viruses are present in every species and every ecological niche, and affect every organ...