Computer representation of human knowledge must be approached using the human ability to assign different meanings to information according to our perceptions, which at the same time are constructed and constitute the interpretative context in which possible meanings acquire varying degrees of validity. This work proposes that humans construct our perceptions based on the context of our past ex...

Applying the generalised extension principle within the area of Computing with Words typically leads to complex maximisation problems. If distributed quantities—such as, e.g., size distributions within human populations—are considered, density functions representing these distributions become involved. Very often the optimising density functions do not resemble those found in nature; for instan...

The diagnostic value of skin tests was assessed in 35 patients affected by bird breeder's disease by comparing the results with those obtained in a group of 27 symptomless breeders and 10 symptomless unexposed individuals. Sterilised and diluted serum and lyophilised extracts of faeces prepared from the breeder's own birds were injected intradermally. Skinprick tests using the same materials we...

While animal breeders largely focus on improvement using additive genetic variance, inbreeding and asexual reproduction allow plant breeders to at least partially exploit nonadditive genetic variance as well. We briefly review various approaches used by breeders to exploit dominance and epistatic variance, discuss their constraints and limitations, and examine what (if anything) can be done to ...

A trade-off between fecundity and life expectancy is fundamental to most theories on the evolution of life histories and ageing. In fact, sexual reproduction has been shown to reduce lifespan in a large number of species across all biological taxa [1]. The only exception known thus far are eusocial hymenopterans, with reproducing queens usually living much longer than the sterile workers [2]. H...