ABSTRACT
Numerous varieties of life forms have filled the earth throughout evolution. Evolution consists of two processes: self-replication and interaction with the physical environment and other living things around it. Initiated by von Neumann et al. studies on self-replication in cellular automata have attracted much attention, which aim to explore the logical mechanism underlying the replication of living things. In nature, competition is a common and spontaneous resource to drive self-replications, whereas most cellular-automaton-based models merely focus on some self-protection mechanisms that may deprive the rights of other artificial life (loops) to live. Especially, Huang et al. designed a self-adaptive, self-replicating model using a greedy selection mechanism, which can increase the ability of loops to survive through an occasionally abandoning part of their own structural information, for the sake of adapting to the restricted environment. Though this passive adaptation can improve diversity, it is always limited by the loop's original structure and is unable to evolve or mutate new genes in a way that is consistent with the adaptive evolution of natural life. Furthermore, it is essential to implement more complex self-adaptive evolutionary mechanisms not at the cost of increasing the complexity of cellular automata. To this end, this article proposes new self-adaptive mechanisms, which can change the information of structural genes and actively adapt to the environment when the arm of a self-replicating loop encounters obstacles, thereby increasing the chance of replication. Meanwhile, our mechanisms can also actively add a proper orientation to the current construction arm for the sake of breaking through the deadlock situation. Our new mechanisms enable active self-adaptations in comparison with the passive mechanism in the work of Huang et al. which is achieved by including a few rules without increasing the number of cell states as compared to the latter. Experiments demonstrate that this active self-adaptability can bring more diversity than the previous mechanism, whereby it may facilitate the emergence of various levels in self-replicating structures.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown that personality traits are associated with self-harm (SH) in adolescents. However, the role of resilience in this association remains unclear. Our research aims to explore the hypothesized mediation effect of resilience in the relationship between personality traits and SH in Chinese children and adolescents. AIM: To evaluate resilience as a mediator of the association between personality traits and SH. METHODS: A population-based cross-sectional survey involving 4471 children and adolescents in Yunnan province in southwestern China was carried out. Relevant data were collected by self-reporting questionnaires. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were employed to identify associated factors of SH. A path model was used to assess the mediation effect of resilience with respect to personality traits and SH association. RESULTS: Among the 4471 subjects, 1795 reported SH, with a prevalence of 40.1% (95%CI: 34.4%-46.0%). All dimensions of personality traits were significantly associated with SH prevalence. Resilience significantly mediated the associations between three dimensions of personality (extroversion, neuroticism, psychoticism) and SH, accounting for 21.5%, 4.53%, and 9.65%, respectively, of the total associations. Among all dimensions of resilience, only emotional regulation played a significant mediation role. CONCLUSION: The results of the study suggest that improving emotion regulation ability might be effective in preventing personality-associated SH among Chinese children and adolescents.