Strategies for farmers and policy makers to control nitro-gen losses whilst maintaining crop production

The nitrogen (N) cycle is essentially 'leaky'. The losses of small amounts of nitrate to waters and of ammonia and nitrous oxide to the atmosphere are a part of the global biogeo-chemical N cycle. However, intensive agricultural production, industry and vehicle use have more than doubled the amount of 'reactive' N in the environment, resulting in eutrophication, ecosystem change and health concerns. Research has identified agricultural practices that cause large losses of N and, in some cases, developed solutions. This paper discusses the problems of maintaining productivity while reducing N losses, compares conventional with low input (integrated) and organic farming systems, and discusses wider options. It also looks at the need to integrate studies on N with other environmental impacts, set in the context of the whole farm system, to provide truly sustainable agricultural systems.     

追溯山茱萸科植物的性状进化和生物地理学历史——方法选择的影响?

This study compares results on reconstructing the ancestral state of characters and ancestral areas of distribution in Cornaceae to gain insights into the impact of using different analytical methods. Ancestral character state reconstructions were compared among three methods (parsimony, maximum likelihood, and stochastic character mapping) using MESQUITE and a full Bayesian method in BAYESTRAITS and inferences of ancestral area distribution were compared between the parsimony-based dispersal-vicariance analysis (DIVA) and a newly developed maximum likelihood (ML) method. Results indicated that among the six inflorescence and fruit characters examined, "perfect" binary characters (no homoplasy, no polymorphism within terminals, and no missing data) are little affected by choice of method, while homoplasious characters and missing data are sensitive to methods used. Ancestral areas at deep nodes of the phylogeny are substantially different between DIVA and ML and strikingly different between analyses including and excluding fossils at three deepest nodes. These results, while raising caution in making conclusions on trait evolution and historical biogeography using conventional methods, demonstrate a limitation in our current understanding of character evolution and biogeography. The biogeographic history favored by the ML analyses including fossils suggested the origin and early radiation of Cornus likely occurred in the late Cretaceous and earliest Tertiary in Europe and intercontinental disjunctions in three lineages involved movements across the North Atlantic Land Bridge (BLB) in the early and mid Tertiary. This result is congruent with the role of NALB for post-Eocene migration and in connecting tropical floras in North America and Africa, and in eastern Asia and South America. However, alternative hypotheses with an origin in eastern Asia and early Trans-Beringia migrations of the genus cannot be ruled out.     

离子通道递质受体大家族:每种受体所特有的变构调制中心在神经药理学中的重要性

美国飞迪亚-乔治城神经科学研究所所长、美国科学院院士E.Costa博士,1989年1月10日来北京接受北京医科大学授予名誉教授衔。Costa教授在该仪式上所作的报告指出了当前神经递质研究的新方向,具有重要的学术意义。特予介绍,以飨读者。     

肠抑胃肽对胃酸分泌抑制作用的研究

下面是他在1986年12月访华期间在北京协和医院所作学术报告的主要内容,由柯美云整理出来,以飨读者。     

НОВЫЙ ВИД РОДА NOTOPYGOS(AMPHINOMID AE,POLYCHAETA)ИЗ ЮЖНО-КИТАЙСКОГО МОРЯ С ОСТРОВОВ СИШАЦЮНЬДАО(ПАРАСЕЛЬСКИЕ ОСТРОВА)

1956—58.     

不同生长期内马铃薯块茎中酶作用下的淀粉转变之研究

在这篇论文中,引用了在不同生长期内马铃薯块茎提取液水解作用与磷酸化作用以及合成酶与磷酸葡萄糖变位酶活性的研究材料。用马铃薯块茎製备提取液,在两个时期来研究该提取液:第一次是在七月,即马铃薯开花的时候,那时马铃薯具有小的块茎;第二次是在收穫之後,与测定磷酸化酶和磷酸葡萄糖变位酶的活性的同时,测定块茎中澱粉含量,而且在提取液中测定还原性物质的含量。试验是用三个马铃薯品种进行的,即“劳尔赫”、“普列斯库里斯基”和“十月儿童”。对块茎提取液磷酸解作用的研究表明:块茎提     

Aphid populations showing differential levels of virulence on Capsicum accessions

The green peach aphid,Myzus persicae,is one of the most threatening pests in pepper cultivation and growers would benefit from resistant varietices.Previously,we identified two Capsicum acessions as susceptible and three as resistant to M.persicae using an aphid population originating from the Netherlands(NL).Later on we identified an aphid population originating from a diferent gcographical region(Switserland,SW)that was virulent on all tested Capsicum acessions.The objeetive of the current work is to describe in detail diferent aspects of the interaction between two aphid populations and two sclected Capsicum acessions(one that was susceptible[PB2013046]and one that was resistant[PB2013071]to population NL),including biochemical processes involved.Electrical penetration graph(EPG)recordings showed similar feeding activities for both aphid populations on PB2013046.On acession PB2013071 the aphid population sw was able to devote significantly more time to phloem ingestion than population NL.We also studied plant defense response and found that plants of acession PB2013046 could not induce an accumulation of reactive oxygen species and callose formation after infestation with either aphid population.However,plants of PB2013071 induced a stronger defense response after infestation by population NL than after infestation by population SW.Based on these results,population SW of M.persicae seems to have overcome the resistance of PB2013071 that prevented feeding of aphids from NL population.The potential mechanism by which SW population overcomes the resistance is discussed.     

Influence of visual targets and landmarks on honey bee foraging and waggle dancing

Animals use diverse sensory stimuli to navigate their environment and to recognize rewarding food sources.Honey bees use visual atributes of the targeted food source,such as its color,shape,size,direction and distance from the hive,and the landmarks around it to navigate during foraging.They transmit the location information of the food source to other bees if it is highly rewarding.To investigate the relative importance of these attributes,we trained bees to feeders in two different experiments.In the first experiment,we asked whether bees prefer to land on(a)a similar feeder at a different distance on the same heading or on(b)a visually distinct feeder located at the exact same location.We found that,within a short foraging range,bees relied heavily on the color and the shape of the food source and to a lesser extent on its distance from the hive.In the second experiment,we asked if moving the main landmark or the feeder(visual target)influenced recruitment dancing for the feeder.We found that foragers took longer to land and danced fewer circuits when the location of the food source,or a major landmark associated with it,changed.These results demonstrate that prominent visual atributes of food sources and landmarks are evidently more reliable than distance information and that foraging bees heavily utilize these visual cues at the later stages of their journey.     

伤寒杆菌营养缺陷型活菌苗

<正> 一般公认,使用弱毒沙门氏菌活菌苗来抵御沙门氏菌的全身感染,其保护作用要比注射死菌苗好。 有证据表明,对于人的伤寒以及各种家畜的沙门氏菌感染来说情况也是如此。通过引入1个或1个以上分子特性已知的突变,导致机理清楚的毒力丢失而形成的无毒株作为活菌苗,似要比一些机理不清楚或不完全清楚而减毒了的菌株好得多。获得此类菌株的方法之一是诱发对一些代谢物有依赖性的不可逆突变。本实验室已经构建了好几株这样的伤寒杆菌突变株,其中的一株541Ty及其Vi-阴性变异株543Ty已进行了志愿者试验。下面介绍涉及使用营养缺陷型菌苗的一些原则以及对所构建的鼠伤寒沙门氏和都柏林沙门氏芳香簇依赖株的结果,即其效果能