Evolution of reversed sexual size dimorphism and role partitioning among predatory birds, with a size scaling of flight performance

To explain the adaptive significance of sex role partitioning and reversed sexual size dimorphism among raptors, owls and skuas, where females are usually larger than males, we combine several previous hypotheses with some new ideas. Owing to their structural and behavioural adaptations for prey capture, predatory birds have better prospects than other birds of defending their offspring against nest predators. This makes sex role partitioning advantageous; one parent guards the offspring while the other forages for the family. Further, among predators hunting alert prey such as vertebrates, two mates because of interference may not procur much more food than would one mate hunting alone. By contrast, two mates feeding on less alert prey may together obtain almost twice as much food as one mate hunting alone. For these reasons, partitioning of breeding labours might be adaptive only in predatory birds. An initial imbalance favours female nest guarding and male foraging: the developing eggs might be damaged if the female attacks prey; their mass might reduce her flight performance; she must visit the nest to lay; and the male feeds her before she lays (‘courtship feeding’). Increased female body size should enhance egg production, incubation, ability to tear apart prey for the young, and, in particular, offspring protection in predatory birds. Efficient foraging during the breeding period then becomes most important for the male. This imposes great demands on aerial agility in males, particularly among predators of agile prey. Flight performance decreases with increasing size in five of six aspects explored. The male must therefore not be too large in relation to the most important prey. For these reasons, he should be smaller than the female. Among predatory birds, size dimorphism increases with the proportion of birds in the diet, which may be explained as follows. Adult birds have mainly one type of predators: other predatory birds. Because almost only these specialists exploit adult birds, they carry out most of the cropping of this prey. A predator of easier prey competes with many other kinds of predators, which considerably reduce prey abundance in its territory. This is not so for predators of adult birds. Further, because birds are extremely agile, the specialized predator can hunt efficiently only within a limited size range of birds, whose flight skill it can match. Increased size dimorphism among these predators therefore should be particularly important for enlarging the combined food base of the pair. A bird specialist may consume much of the available prey in the suitable size range during the breeding period. When the predator's young are large enough to defend themselves, the female aids better by hunting than by guarding the chicks. It is advantageous among bird specialists if she hunts prey of other sizes than does the male, who has by then reduced prey abundance in his prey size class. But among predatory birds hunting easier prey the female gains little by hunting outside the male's prey spectrum, because other kinds of predators will have reduced the prey abundance outside as well as inside the male's preferred size range. Intra-pair food separation through large sexual size dimorphism therefore should be particularly advantageous among predators of birds. This may be the main reason why the degree of size dimorphism increases with the dietary proportion of birds.     

Limits on ecosystem trophic complexity: insights from ecological network analysis

Articulating what limits the length of trophic food chains has remained one of the most enduring challenges in ecology. Mere counts of ecosystem species and transfers have not much illumined the issue, in part because magnitudes of trophic transfers vary by orders of magnitude in power‐law fashion. We address this issue by creating a suite of measures that extend the basic indexes usually obtained by counting taxa and transfers so as to apply to networks wherein magnitudes vary by orders of magnitude. Application of the extended measures to data on ecosystem trophic networks reveals that the actual complexity of ecosystem webs is far less than usually imagined, because most ecosystem networks consist of a multitude of weak connections dominated by a relatively few strong flows. Although quantitative ecosystem networks may consist of hundreds of nodes and thousands of transfers, they nevertheless behave similarly to simpler representations of systems with fewer than 14 nodes or 40 flows. Both theory and empirical data point to an upper bound on the number of effective trophic levels at about 3–4 links. We suggest that several whole‐system processes may be at play in generating these ecosystem limits and regularities.     

西太湖湖滨带已恢复与受损芦苇湿地环境功能比较

对西太湖湖滨带部分地段受损芦苇（Phragmites australis）湿地进行修复的基础上,开展了修复后湿地和相邻受损湿地内植物生物量,湿地水体与泥积物中氮、磷含量,底泥有机质含量,底泥氮循环微生物种类和数量以及底泥重金属种类和含量等湿地环境功能方面的比较研究。结果表明：（1）受损湿地内近20m宽的陆向辐射带均为水蓼（Polygonum hydropiper）、红蓼（Polygonum orientale）、水莎草（Juncellus serotinus）以及人工种植的苏丹草、苦荚菜和黑麦草等鱼食青饲料所取代。与修复后湿地相比,每1m^2植物生物量较少了37％～60％。（2）两类湿地中的氮、磷营养盐浓度沿水向辐射带、水位变幅带到陆向辐射带依次呈递增趋势,且修复后湿地内水体中的无机氮浓度分别比受损湿地增加了25．36％,89．39％和2562．30％,其中以NH4^＋-N为主,反硝化作用在已修复湿地中占主导地位。（3）两种湿地内的水向辐射带和水位变幅带底泥氮、磷含量均较低,陆向辐射带内较高,磷含量分别比受损湿地同一水位梯度高3．19,2．62、2．25倍和1．74倍;氮含量分别比受损湿地同一水位梯度高1．84,6．08、2．09倍和2．46倍。（4）两种湿地内的水位变幅带和陆向辐射带中的底泥有机质含量较高,其中已恢复湿地底泥有机质含量达到4．13％-5．65％。水向辐射带含量均较低,一般在0．65％-0．8％之间。（5）水位变幅带和陆向辐射带底泥有机质含量较高,其中已修复湿地泥积物有机质含量达到42．17％～56．5％。水向辐射带有机质含量均较低,一般在1．65％．8．03％之间;（5）受损湿地内的陆向辐射区和水位变幅区硝化细菌数量分别比反硝化细菌高3．73倍和1．73倍,水向辐射区底泥中的硝化细菌和反硝化细菌数基本相当;在已修复湿地内的陆向辐射区和水位变幅区反硝化细菌数量分别是硝化细菌数量的10．69倍和8．24倍,反硝化作用占绝对优势;在水向辐射区及开阔湖体,湖水的频繁交换作用,硝化细菌数量相对较多,硝化作用较强。（6）在湿地水位变辐区和陆向辐射区沉积物Mn含量较高,含量在800—1000mg／g之间。Cu、Zn、Pb等重金属污染元素含量分别为35．80．78．95μg／g,53．76—154．50μg／g和48．06—108．88μg／g,重金属污染对该区域水环境无明显影响。     

Bifidogenic effect and in vitro immunomodulatory roles of melibiose-derived oligosaccharides produced by the acceptor reaction of glucansucrase E81

Glucansucrases are responsible for the production of α-glucans using sucrose as the substrate. Glucansucrases may also produce different oligosaccharides by transferring the glucose moiety from sucrose to a variety carbohydrates acting as acceptor nucleophile. In this study, melibiose-derived oligosaccharides were produced by the glucansucrase from Lactobacillus reuteri E81 expressed without the N-terminal region (GtfA-ΔN). The reaction products were characterized by TLC, LC-MS and NMR analysis and it was found that GtfA-ΔN synthesized melibiose-derived oligosaccharides (DP3 and DP4) by adding glucose units through alpha 1->3 or 1->6 glycosidic bond. The functional characteristics of these melibiose-derived oligosaccharides were determined by testing the immune-modulatory functions in HT-29 cells and testing their growth promoting effects for important probiotic and pathogenic strains. The melibiose-derived oligosaccharides triggered the production of anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 and pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-α depending on their concentrations. Finally, melibiose-derived oligosaccharides showed bifidogenic effect as potential prebiotics.     

Polyandry as a mediator of sexual selection before and after mating

The Darwin–Bateman paradigm recognizes competition among males for access to multiple mates as the main driver of sexual selection. Increasingly, however, females are also being found to benefit from multiple mating so that polyandry can generate competition among females for access to multiple males, and impose sexual selection on female traits that influence their mating success. Polyandry can reduce a male''s ability to monopolize females, and thus weaken male focused sexual selection. Perhaps the most important effect of polyandry on males arises because of sperm competition and cryptic female choice. Polyandry favours increased male ejaculate expenditure that can affect sexual selection on males by reducing their potential reproductive rate. Moreover, sexual selection after mating can ameliorate or exaggerate sexual selection before mating. Currently, estimates of sexual selection intensity rely heavily on measures of male mating success, but polyandry now raises serious questions over the validity of such approaches. Future work must take into account both pre- and post-copulatory episodes of selection. A change in focus from the products of sexual selection expected in males, to less obvious traits in females, such as sensory perception, is likely to reveal a greater role of sexual selection in female evolution.     

Factor analysis of teacher professional development in Chinese military medical universities

Background and purpose: Teacher professional development potentially enhances teachers’ professional morale, knowledge, skills and autonomy, which helps improve the quality of education. The military medical university is an important medical education institution in China; however, studies of teacher professional development within military medical universities are still lacking. This study aimed to explore the factors that influence teacher professional development in Chinese military medical universities. Methods: We interviewed 19 experts from China’s Third Military Medical University to identify factors that affect teacher professional development and used these factors to prepare a questionnaire. The data were collected through a random, anonymous questionnaire survey of 371 teachers at three military universities in China, analysed by exploratory factor analysis and verified by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Results: We obtained five main factors, which explained 66.691% of the total variance and were found to have a good data fitting according to the CFA results. Conclusions: Teaching experience, shared vision, policy and material security, professional competence and psychological motivation primarily affect teacher professional development in Chinese military medical universities. We can only achieve teacher professional development goals through comprehensive consideration, coordinated arrangement and content improvement of these five factors.     

Predicting the direction of sexual selection

Our current understanding of the operation of sexual selection is predicated on a sex difference in parental investment, which favours one sex becoming limiting and choosy over mates, the other competitive and nonchoosy. This difference is reflected in the operational sex ratio (OSR), the ratio of sexually receptive males to females, considered to be of fundamental importance in predicting the direction of sexual selection. Difficulties in measuring OSR directly have led to the use of the potential reproductive rates (PRR) as a measure of the level of investment in offspring of males and females. Several recent studies have emphasized that other factors, such as variation in mate quality and sex differences in mortality patterns, also influence the direction of sexual selection. However, as yet there has been no attempt to form a comprehensive theory of sex roles. Here we show that neither OSR nor PRR is the most fundamentally important determinant of sex roles, and that they are not interchangeable. Instead, the cost of a single breeding attempt has a strong direct effect on competition and choosiness as well as consistent relationships to both OSR and PRR. Our life history based approach to mate choice also yields simple, testable predictions on lack of choice in either sex and on mutual mate choice.     

论我国国家植物园体系建设: 以任务带学科构建国家植物园迁地保护综合体系

植物园诞生的原初是“皇家”或“国家”意志的产物, 植物园的概念从公元前2,800年我国的“神农本草园”起源, 至今已历经沧桑巨变, 而西方文艺复兴后演替出了现代植物园。科研、保护、教育与示范四大功能始终是植物园的主线。植物园作为专门从事野生植物收集、科学研究、引种驯化和保护利用的专业研究机构, 始终肩负着国家的重要使命。本文系统综述了植物园的起源与演变, 并对世界各国的国家植物园与国家植物园体系进行了系统梳理和分析。在对我国植物园历史与发展概况总结的基础上, 论述了我国国家植物园体系建设的定位与目标、区域布局、科学研究、人才队伍、基础设施等五个方面的思考, 以任务带学科构建我国国家植物园迁地保护综合体系。     

Disifin (Sodium tosylchloramide) and Toll-like receptors (TLRs): evolving importance in health and diseases

Disifin has emerged as a unique and very effective agent used in disinfection of wounds, disinfection of surfaces, materials and water, and other substances contaminated with almost every type of pathogenic microorganism ranging from viruses, bacteria, fungi and yeast, and, very possibly, protozoan parasites, as well. The major active component of Disifin is tosylchloramide sodium (chloramine T). However, the mechanism by which Disifin suppresses the activities of pathogenic microbial agents remains enigmatic. The molecular mechanisms, and the receptors and the signal transducing pathways responsible for the biological effects of Disifin are largely unknown. Despite considerable advances, enormous investigative efforts and large resources invested in the research on infectious diseases, microbial infection still remains a public health problem in many parts of the world. The exact nature of the pathogenic agents responsible for many infectious diseases, and the nature of the receptors mediating the associated inflammatory events are incompletely understood. Recent advances in understanding the molecular basis for mammalian host immune responses to microbial invasion suggest that the first line of defense against microbes is the recognition of pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) by a family of transmembrane pattern-recognizing and signal transducing receptor proteins called Toll-like receptors (TLRs). The TLR family plays an instructive role in innate immune responses against microbial pathogens, as well as the subsequent induction of adaptive immune responses. TLRs mediate recognition and inflammatory responses to a wide range of microbial products and are crucial for effective host defense by eradication of the invading pathogens. Now, recent updates demonstrated the ability of Disifin-derived products, Disifin-Animal and Disifin-Pressant to effectively suppress the progression and activities of Chikungunya fever and that of avian influenza A virus [A/cardialis/Germany/72, H7N1: the agent of a highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI)] infection, respectively. Overall, the above findings led me to suggest that Disifin and TLRs may mechanistically overlap in the processes of executing their functions against pathogenic microbial organisms. Thus, elucidating and better understanding of the molecular underpinnings responsible for the biochemical effects of Disifin-products, and the nature and mode of the interaction(s) of Disifin with TLRs in the process of exerting their biological effects may open a novel dimension in the research of infectious diseases, which may provide novel therapeutic targets for the prevention and treatment of a wide range of infectious diseases.