Oxidative stress in broad bean (Vicia faba L.) induced by static magnetic field under natural radioactivity

The investigation was performed to evaluate the influence of the static magnetic field on oxidative stress in Vicia faba cultivated in soil from high background natural radioactivity in Iran. Soil samples were collected from Ramsar, Iran where the annual radiation absorbed dose from background radiation is substantially higher than 20 mSv/year. The soil samples were then divided into 2 separate groups including high and low natural radioactivity. The plants were continuously exposed to static magnetic field of 15 mT for 8 days, each 8h/day. The results showed that in the plants cultivated in soils with high background natural radioactivity and low background natural radioactivity the activity of antioxidant enzymes as well as flavonoid content were lower than those of the control. Treatment of plants with static magnetic field showed similar results in terms of lowering of antioxidant defense system and increase of peroxidation of membrane lipids. Accumulation of ROS also resulted in chromosomal aberration and DNA damage. This phenomenon was more pronounced when a combination of natural radiation and treatment with static magnetic field was applied. The results suggest that exposure to static magnetic field causes accumulation of reactive oxygen species in V. faba and natural radioactivity of soil exaggerates oxidative stress.     

国家公园自然资源保护分区研究——以北京长城国家公园体制试点区为例

合理的资源保护分区有助于提高国家公园自然资源保护措施的区域针对性,增强保护效果。以北京长城国家公园体制试点区为例,从"生态本底"、"资源特征"以及"人类干扰"三方面选取要素指标,构建了国家公园自然资源保护分区指标体系。将林小班作为分区单元,根据园区的生态本底特征将其划分为7个自然资源保护区,并以此作为国家公园开展资源调查和管理工作的基本区划单位;根据各区域具体的资源问题和保护需求将国家公园进一步细分为17种自然资源保护区域,形成了包含两个层次的自然资源保护分区方案,并基于各个保护区的保护目标提出了相应的保护措施。该分区方案避免了国家公园现存的各类用地空间布局交叉或错位所导致的难以协调问题,有利于实现国家公园自然资源保护分区方案的落地和自然资源的有效保护。     

Natural and released inoculum levels of entomopathogenic fungal biocontrol agents in soil in relation to risk assessment and in accordance with EU regulations

Entomopathogenic fungi being developed as biological control agents (BCAs) may have the potential to spread and become established in the environment. For registration purposes, the risks concerning their persistence have to be evaluated according to EU legislation which requires the decline of BCAs to acceptable background levels unless related risks are acceptable. In order to deal with this requirement, applicants of a BCA need to give information on its persistence and natural background levels. For risk assessors and registration authorities guidance on how to evaluate data on natural background levels of indigenously occurring species (=same species as the introduced BCA) is needed. For this purpose, an overview is presented on background levels of some indigenous fungi as well as persistence data of some applied fungal BCAs. Data were restricted to commerical species. It was found that for the species Metarhizium anisopliae, Beauveria bassiana and Beauveria brongniartii natural densities were relatively low and introduced strains of these fungi decreased gradually in time. Many factors were found in the literature, such as intrinsic, edaphic, biotic, climatic, and cultural factors, that could explain this decline.     

Natural background radiation: problem of radionuclide migration and biological effects

Natural radiation background is the main contributor to radiation dose delivered to plants, animals, and man. That is why its effects are of increasing interest in radiobiology, radioecology, and radiation hygiene. The following problems are discussed: migration of main natural radionuclides in biosphere, dose formation, biological role of natural radiation background on the Earth, standards for natural radiation background, and problems of natural radiation background and biosphere evolution. The tasks of further radiobiological research in evaluating the role of natural radiation background are outlined.     

Electromagnetic information in the phenomenon of life

The author's original experiments and ideas have been summarized, which concern the role of natural background radiation in maintenance of electromagnetic information essential for existence of the living organism as an integral whole.     

Extending and expanding the Darwinian synthesis: the role of complex systems dynamics

Darwinism is defined here as an evolving research tradition based upon the concepts of natural selection acting upon heritable variation articulated via background assumptions about systems dynamics. Darwin's theory of evolution was developed within a context of the background assumptions of Newtonian systems dynamics. The Modern Evolutionary Synthesis, or neo-Darwinism, successfully joined Darwinian selection and Mendelian genetics by developing population genetics informed by background assumptions of Boltzmannian systems dynamics. Currently the Darwinian Research Tradition is changing as it incorporates new information and ideas from molecular biology, paleontology, developmental biology, and systems ecology. This putative expanded and extended synthesis is most perspicuously deployed using background assumptions from complex systems dynamics. Such attempts seek to not only broaden the range of phenomena encompassed by the Darwinian Research Tradition, such as neutral molecular evolution, punctuated equilibrium, as well as developmental biology, and systems ecology more generally, but to also address issues of the emergence of evolutionary novelties as well as of life itself.     

Effect of low-dose gamma-irradiation of silkworm eggs on the development of the mulberry silkworm (Bombyx mori L.)

Chronic gamma-irradiation of an egg at a dose-rate 100, 1000 and 4000 times as high as that of the natural radiation background significantly accelerates the development of Bombyx mori L. The caterpillar development may also be stimulated by a single exposure of the egg to 2 Gy radiation. The acceleration of the caterpillar growth promotes the increase in the cocoon weight and the raw-silk mass.     

Changes Across Development Influence Visible and Cryptic Natural Variation of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Drosophila melanogaster</Emphasis> Olfactory Response

Relative to an equivalent source of variation that do not present a hidden state, cryptic genetic variation is likely to be an effective source for possible adaptations at times of atypical environmental conditions. In addition to environmental perturbations, it has also been proposed that genetic disturbances can generate release of cryptic genetic variation. The genetic basis and physiology of olfactory response in Drosophila melanogaster is being studied profusely, but almost no analysis has addressed the question if populations harbor cryptic genetic variation for this trait that only manifests when populations experiences a typical or novel conditions. We quantified olfactory responses to benzaldehyde in both larval and adult lifecycle stages among samples of chromosome two substitution lines extracted from different natural populations of Argentina and substituted into a common inbred background. We also evaluated whether an effect of genetic background change, occurred during chromosome substitution, affect larval and adult olfactory response in terms of release of cryptic genetic variation. Results indicate the presence of genetic variation among chromosome substitution lines in both lifecycle stages analyzed. The comparative analyses between chromosome 2 substitution lines and isofemale lines used to generate the chromosome 2 substitution lines shown that only adults exhibited decanalizing process for olfactory response to benzaldehyde in natural populations of D. melanogaster, i.e., release of hidden genetic variation. We propose that this release of hidden genetic variation in adult flies is a consequence of the shift in genetic background context that happens in chromosome 2 substitution lines, that implies the disruption of natural epistatic interactions and generation of novel ones. All in all, we have found that changes across D. melanogaster development influence visible and cryptic natural variation of olfactory behavior. In this sense, changes in the genetic background can affect gene-by-gene interactions (epistasis) generating different or even novel phenotypes as consequence of phenotypic outcome of cryptic genetic variation.     

Harmfulness of wheat leaf rust in the eastern part of forest-steppe of Ukraine

Abstract

The comparison of data obtained as a result of artificial inoculation in the period of leaf blade formation with the data received as a result of inoculating older plants in the natural infectious background shows that the drop in the weight of grains from a spike and the weight of 1000 grains depends on the degree of affect. It directly depends on the efficiency of resistance genes and on the stage of plants' development when the affect took place. So infection at an earlier stage of plants' development results in more harmful damage of the pathogen than infection at later stages. In the artificial infectious background (infection of plants in the early period of leaf flag formation) the decrease in grain weight from a spike is between 0.7–35%; weight of 1000 grain is between 0.5–13.9%. In the background of a later natural infection of the plants with a moderate development of the disease the indices of harmfulness in much lower and is between 0.9–14.5% and 0.1–5.5%, respectively. The decrease of 1000 grains weight is significantly lower as compared to the weight of grain from a spike which is obviously connected to the fact that in the lower and central deeply affected spikelets grain are not formed.     

Object detection in the fly during simulated translatory flight

Translatory movement of an animal in its environment induces optic flow that contains information about the three-dimensional layout of the surroundings: as a rule, images of objects that are closer to the animal move faster across the retina than those of more distant objects. Such relative motion cues are used by flies to detect objects in front of a structured background. We confronted flying flies, tethered to a torque meter, with front-to-back motion of patterns displayed on two CRT screens, thereby simulating translatory motion of the background as experienced by an animal during straight flight. The torque meter measured the instantaneous turning responses of the fly around its vertical body axis. During short time intervals, object motion was superimposed on background pattern motion. The average turning response towards such an object depends on both object and background velocity in a characteristic way: (1) in order to elicit significant responses object motion has to be faster than background motion; (2) background motion within a certain range of velocities improves object detection. These properties can be interpreted as adaptations to situations as they occur in natural free flight. We confirmed that the measured responses were mediated mainly by a control system specialized for the detection of objects rather than by the compensatory optomotor system responsible for course stabilization. Accepted: 20 March 1997     

Why are fruits colorful? The relative importance of achromatic and chromatic contrasts for detection by birds

The colors of fruits and flowers are traditionally viewed as an adaptation to increase the detectability of plant organs to animal vectors. The detectability of visual signals increases with increasing contrasts between target and background. Contrasts consist of a chromatic aspect (color) and an achromatic aspect (light intensity), which are perceived separately by animals. To evaluate the relative importance of fruits’ chromatic and achromatic contrasts for the detection by avian fruit consumers we conducted an experiment with artificial fruits of four different colors in a tropical forest. We displayed the fruits against two different backgrounds, an artificial background and a natural one, because they differed in achromatic properties. We found no effect of the type of background on fruit detection rates. Detection rates differed for the four fruit colors. The probability of detection was explained by the chromatic contrast between fruits and their background, not by the achromatic contrasts. We suggest that birds attend primarily to chromatic contrast probably because these are more reliably detected under variable light conditions. Consistent with this hypothesis, we found habitat-specific differences in the conspicuousness of natural fruit colors in the study area. Fruits of understory species that are subjected to the variable light conditions within a forest displayed higher chromatic contrasts than species growing in the open restinga forest with constant bright illumination. There was no such difference for achromatic contrasts. In sum, we suggest that fruit colors differ between habitats because fruit colors that have strong chromatic contrasts against background can increase plants’ reproductive success, particularly under variable light conditions.     

Genetic monitoring of natural Drosophila populations in radiation contaminated regions of Belarus

Genetic monitoring of natural Drosophila melanogaster populations inhabiting regions of Belarus with different radiation background (Vetka and Svetilovichi villages), radonuclide-contaminated after the Chernobyl accident, compared with populations from the Berezinsky biosphere reserve (the control area) were conducted. The dominant and recessive lethal mutation levels and genetic structure of the populations were analyzed for frequencies of F- and S-alleles of Adh (alcohol dehydrogenase) of Gpdh (glycerinophosphate dehydrogenase) and Sod (superoxide dismutase) loci. Populations inhabiting the regions with high radiation background exhibited higher frequency of lethal mutations and higher heterozygosity than those from the control area. Moreover, higher frequency of polymorphous Sod locus S-allele was detected in these populations. Apparently, Sod S-alleles are more adaptively valuable under conditions of high radiation background, because as is known, superoxide dismutase is an effective radioprotector at all levels molecular, cellular and organism. Adaptation of populations to stress impacts was analyzed, since 1998. Nonspecific adaptation of natural Drosophila melanogaster populations from Vetka and Svetilovichi villages of Gomel region was reveled. They are higher adapted than the control population from the Berezinsky biosphere reserve to both ionizing radiation effect and to chemical mutagen EMS. After laboratory cultivation within 6-8 generations without irradiation adaptation to radiation in the population from radiocontaminated regions remained. The content of samples from the control natural drosophila population in the laboratory conditions is an environmental stress that led to the formation of nonspecific adaptation within 6-8 generations to unfavorable factors, including ionizing radiation. It should be taken into account that the population adaptation is formed via death of sensitive genotypes at various ontogenesis stages.     

Results of irradiating chick embryos during incubation with very low doses of penetrating radiation

The weight of chick embryos and their organs increases and the mortality rate of embryos decreases under chronic gamma-irradiation during incubation with very low doses the dose-rate being 7.5 times as high as that of natural radiation background.     

鲁氏菊头蝠回避障碍时抗干扰能力的研究

实验在30只鲁氏菊头蝠(Rhinolcphus rouxi)中进行。使用障碍回避测定法,观察了白噪声和不同频率超声干扰对回避障碍能力的影响。发现宽频带白噪声不能干扰动物回避障碍的成功率。分别使用该动物的特征频率85kHz正弦波,以及相近的65kHz、75kHz、95kHz和105kHz的超声干扰信号,都不能影响障碍回避成功率。实验结果提示,食虫蝙蝠的生物声纳系统具有很强的抵抗白噪声和超声信号干扰的能力,以保证它们从周围环境中获取有意义的生物信息。     

Radioecological problems in coastal landscapes of the Sea of Azov

The features of the spatial distribution, of the migration, and of the accumulation of natural (232Th) and manmade (137Cs) radioactive nuclides in the coastal landscapes of the Sea of Azov are studied. It was shown, that the specific activity of 232Th in the accumulation of the so-called "black sands" was shown as high as 6000 Bq/kg, that increases the natural geochemical background in 200 times. The impact of aerial transfer of the "black sands" on 232Th migration and accumulation in the soil-plant system was clarified. The 232Th distribution down the soil profile suggests that the "black sands" are likely the product of the erosion of the coastal parent materials enriched by natural radionuclides. In general, the specific activity of 137Cs in the beach sand is not high and it is close to the background (global fallout) value. It was determined that 137Cs content in the coastal ecosystems is connected only by aerial pathway as a part of global and Chernobyl-born fallout.     

Prognostic role of natural killer cells in pediatric mixed cellularity and nodular sclerosing Hodgkin's disease

OBJECTIVE: To study natural killer cells' spontaneous cytotoxic capacity against tumor cells and their prognostic significance in classical Hodgkin's disease. STUDY DESIGN: Thirty-eight pediatric mixed cellularity and nodular sclerosing Hodgkin's disease patients were included in the study. Immunohistochemical staining was performed for natural killer cells in the background using the monoclonal antibody CD57 in serial sections of B5-formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue blocks. CD57-positive cells were counted with an immersion objective among 5,000 cells on representative areas of the tumors. The degree of natural killer cells was classified as low (<150 cells) or high (> or = 150 cells). Multivariate regression analysis was performed to determine the differences between patients with and without relapse. RESULT: The mean of CD57-positive cell numberfor all the cases was 173.42 +/- 117.34 (range, 20-500). CD57-positive cells were high in 21 cases and low in 17. The mean of CD57-positive cell numbers was 191.85 +/- 115.33 in the disease-free group and 84.44 +/- 57.90 in the relapsing group. Log rank analysis showed statistical significance between event-free survival and number of CD57-positive cells (P = .0207). CONCLUSION: In multivariate analysis, CD57 expression proved to be a prognostic factor independent from otherfactors. As a result, CD57 expression by background natural killer cells may be used as a prognostic parameter in mixed cellularity and nodular sclerosing Hodgkin's disease.     

黔中喀斯特城市遗存自然山体景观格局时空演变——以安顺市为例

城市遗存自然山体是山地城市中珍贵而脆弱的生态资源,对于维持城市生态系统稳定发挥着不可替代的作用,然而近年来高强度的城市建设对其产生严重的干扰和胁迫。以安顺市建成区为研究区域,在空间信息技术支持下,综合运用景观格局指数法和缓冲区分析法,分别从城市景观格局动态、城市遗存自然山体景观动态及城-山交互作用3个方面,对近10年快速城市化背景下,安顺市城市遗存自然山体景观格局时空演变进行定量化研究,旨在揭示其对城市扩张的响应规律。结果表明：1）城市整体景观破碎度递增,斑块丰富度密度递减,景观多样性、均匀度、优势度呈波动性变化;2）城市遗存自然山体斑块数量、类型面积、景观优势度递增,斑块形状趋于规则化,连通性递减,聚集度先减后增;3）城-山交互作用明显,主要表现为城市遗存自然山体因城市建设持续受损缩减及其吸引城市建设;4）城市遗存自然山体500 m缓冲区内平均城市建设用地占比及其平均城市人工园林绿地占比均与山体缓冲区距离呈显著负相关,且不同等级城市遗存自然山体斑块与缓冲区内城市建设用地相关程度表现为小型斑块 > 中型斑块 > 较大型斑块 > 大型斑块,与缓冲区内城市人工绿化相关程度表现为中型斑块最高、较大型斑块最低,城市遗存自然山体对城市建设及其人工绿化明显具有吸引作用。解析快速城市化背景下城市遗存自然山体景观动态变化规律及其与城市建设之间的交互作用关系,为城市遗存自然山体后续科学规划管理提供决策支持与理论依据,也可为今后进一步深入开展以其为研究对象的科研活动提供前期基础。     

Arsenic in Michigan Soil: Spatial Stratification for Environmental Regulatory Purposes

State environmental regulatory agencies in the U.S. often establish a default background standard for naturally occurring elements in the soil, water, and air. The background standard is determined and then used as a benchmark across the entire jurisdiction. A variety of statistical techniques are used to determine this standard, but often ignore any inherent spatial dependencies within the jurisdiction. If the analysis indicates a specific site exceeds the default standard, additional background sampling and analysis must usually be performed. Frequently, this additional sampling is found to be unnecessary simply because the natural background levels were elevated for this particular site. Conversely, potential contamination may be overlooked in areas where the natural background levels are much lower. Thus, a single default background standard seems inadequate within this context.

This paper proposes the use of dissimilarity coefficients based on kriging estimates as a means to regionalize background standards. Along with cluster analysis techniques, these dissimilarity coefficients provide a means to stratify the population into geographic sub-areas. A regulatory agency may now define multiple default background standards based on geographic location. To illustrate, this paper examines a case study concerning residential soil arsenic for 83 Michigan counties.     

Modeling signal and background components of electrosensory scenes

Weakly electric fish are able to detect and localize prey based on microvolt-level perturbations in the fishs self-generated electric field. In natural environments, weak prey-related signals are embedded in much stronger electrosensory background noise. To better characterize the signal and background components associated with natural electrolocation tasks, we recorded transdermal voltage modulations in restrained Apteronotus albifrons in response to moving spheres, tail bends, and large nonconducting boundaries. Spherical objects give rise to ipsilateral images with center-surround structure and contralateral images that are weak and diffuse. Tail bends and laterally placed nonconducting boundaries induce relatively strong ipsilateral and contralateral modulations of opposite polarity. We present a computational model of electric field generation and electrosensory image formation that is able to reproduce the key features of these empirically measured signal and background components in a unified framework. The model comprises an array of point sources and sinks distributed along the midline of the fish, which can conform to arbitrary body bends. The model is computationally fast and can be used to estimate the spatiotemporal pattern of activation across the entire electroreceptor array of the fish during natural behaviors.     

The Nature of Selection on Anhydrobiotic Capacityin Tardigrades

Tardigrades are well known for their capacity to enter an anhydrobiotic state, and remain ametabolic for several years. Yet the evolutionary background, and the forces of natural selection that act on anhydrobiotic capacity have remained unexplored. In this paper, I review the basic problem of anhydrobiosis and the phenotypic traits that may be the main targets of natural selection for improved anhydrobiotic capacity. I also make an attempt to put anhydrobiosis into a life history perspective, and discuss this life form in the perspective of energetic and genetic constraints.