四川乐山市发现较大群的家燕及一例斑头雁留此越冬

2008年1月17日下午4时左右,笔者在四川乐山市水口镇大渡河边发现1只家燕正在河面低空飞行捕食.2008年1月25日西华师范大学杨志松博士在该市岷江边天池村及金灯村一带先后发现5小群家燕,分别为4只、1只、10只、1只和3只;同日,胡杰博士在该市青衣江边(金水湾至乐山高新区江段)也发现2小群家燕,分别为4只和6只.     

微生物在水环境污染物降解中的应用

每年有大量来自工业、农业、养殖业和城市污水处理厂的废水被排入到水环境中,因此,地球上的水环境面临大量来自生活废水、工农业废水、非法排放的废水及其它废水的污染物质(如抗生素、杀虫剂,除草剂、烃等)的严重挑战,特别是近年来随着集约化养殖的发展,废水污染问题日益突出,并且随着分析手段的进步,能够检测到被排入水环境中的化学污染物质也越来越多,这些化学污染物对水环境中的生物产生有害影响.但是,微生物在污染控制上具有许多重要的作用.因此,本文对微生物在水环境污染物降解中的应用进行了评论.结果表明微生物主要是应用在水产养殖水中,而在其它的水体系(如河、湖、海)的应用较少.     

Effects of environmental stressors on stem cells

Environmental toxicants are ubiquitous,and many are known to cause harmful health effects.However,much of what we know or think we know concerning the targets and long-term effects of exposure to environmental stressors is sadly lacking.Toxicant exposure may have health effects that are currently mischaracterized or at least mechanistically incompletely understood.While much of the recent excitement about stem cells(SCs)focuses on their potential as therapeutic agents,they also offer a valuable resource to give us insight into the mechanisms and risks of toxicant effects.Not only as a response to the increasing ethical pressure to reduce animal testing,SC studies allow us valuable insight into the true effects of human exposure to environmental stressors under controlled conditions.We present a review of the history of publications on the effects of environmental stressors on SCs,followed by a consolidation of the literature over the past five years on a subset of key environmental stressors of importance to human health and their effects on both embryonic and tissue SCs.The review will make constructive suggestions as to areas of toxicant research where further studies are needed,as well as making indications of the potential utility for advancing knowledge and directing research on environmental toxicology.     

莴苣授粉前后中央细胞中钙的分布(简报)

Ca2 作为植物生长发育过程中的必需元素之一,通过特定的时、空分布参与调控植物生长发育的诸多发育过程[1].中央细胞是胚囊中体积最大的细胞,与卵器共同构成雌性生殖单位.在被子植物双受精作用中,卵细胞与一个精细胞融合形成胚,中央细胞与另一个精细胞融合并发育成胚乳,为胚的发育提供营养.     

水果湖湾蓝藻水华的形成及其对东湖影响的评价

东湖是武汉市最重要的湖泊,位于湖北省武汉市武昌区,属中型浅水湖泊,它集饮用水源、旅游、疗养、气候调节、水产养殖和水上运动等多功能于一体[1].因此,东湖水质的好坏与武汉人民的生活密切相关.     

走进内蒙

2015年8月1日,我们每一个人收拾好行囊,整装待发,在邓涛老师带领下踏上了去往内蒙古的征程,拉开了探索灰色生命之旅的序幕. 队伍由两辆车、8人组成,我们早晨7点从中国科学院古脊椎动物与古人类研究所出发,披着清晨的阳光,摆脱城市的拥挤,缓缓地“逃离”了北京城.直到抵达张北之后我们的车子才能像矫健的马儿一样驰骋在广袤的公路上,沿途没有了城市的喧闹,没有了交通的堵塞,伴随我们的只有那一眼望去蓝蓝的天空、随风摆动的小草,以及那迷人的风景,偶尔打开车窗,一股凉爽的清风扑面而来,沁人心脾.经过一路的颠簸,我们在傍晚时刻到达锡林浩特,当地文物保护站的同志为我们安顿好了一切.     

例谈2007年高考"现代生物科技专题"

通过现代生物科技专题及相关高考试题的介绍与分析,以开拓学生视野,增强科技意识,激发学生探索生命奥妙和热爱生物科学的情感,为进一步学习现代生物学奠定基础.同时,借助现代生物科技专题作试题背景,具有能力的开放性和情境的新颖性,也有利于考查和培养学生独立获取新知识、收集和处理信息的能力.所选试题涉及现代生物科技前沿的领域有:基因工程、细胞工程、蛋白质工程、癌症和克隆技术等,均体现出对现代生物技术发展的关注.     

Formidable females redux:male social integration into female networks and the value of dynamic multilayer networks

The development of multilayer network techniques is a boon for researchers who wish to understand how different interaction layers might influence each other,and how these in turn might influence group dynamics.Here,we investigate how integration between male and female grooming and aggression interaction networks influences male power trajectories in vervet monkeys Chlorocebus pygerythrus.Our previous analyses of this phenomenon used a monolayer approach,and our aim here is to extend these analyses using a dynamic multilayer approach.To do so,we constructed a temporal series of male and female interaction layers.We then used a multivariate multilevel autoregression model to compare cross-lagged associations between a male's centrality in the female grooming layer and changes in male Elo ratings.Our results confirmed our original findings:changes in male centrality within the female grooming network were weakly but positively tied to changes in their Elo ratings.However,the multilayer network approach offered additional insights into this social process,identifying how changes in a male's centrality cascade through the other network layers.This dynamic view indicates that the changes in Elo ratings are likely to be short-lived,but that male centrality within the female network had a much stronger impact throughout the multilayer network as a whole,especially on reducing intermale aggression(i.e.,aggression directed by males toward other males).We suggest that multilayer social network approaches can take advantage of increased amounts of social data that are more commonly collected these days,using a variety of methods.Such data are inherently multilevel and multilayered,and thus offer the ability to quantify more precisely the dynamics of animal social behaviors.     

Plant infection by two different viruses induce contrasting changes of vectors fitness and behavior

Insect-vectored plant viruses can induce changes in plant phenotypes,thus influencing plant-vector interactions in a way that may promote their dispersal according to their mode of transmission (i.e.,circulative vs.noncirculative).This indirect vector manipulation requires host-virus-vector coevolution and would thus be effective solely in very specific plant-virus-vector species associations.Some studies suggest this manipulation may depend on multiple factors relative to various intrinsic characteristics of vectors such as transmission efficiency.In anintegrative study,we tested the effects of infection of the Brassicaceae Camelina sativa with the noncirculative Cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV)or the circulative Turnip yellows virus (TuYV)on the host-plant colonization of two aphid species differing in their virus transmission efficiency:the polyphagous Myzus persicae,efficient vector of both viruses,and the Brassicaceae specialist Brevicoryne brassicae,poor vector of TuYV and efficient vector of CaMV.Results confirmed the important role of virus mode of transmission as plant-mediated effects of CaMV on the two aphid species induced negative alterations of feeding behavior (i.e.,decreased phloem sap ingestion)and performance that were both conducive for virus fitness by promoting dispersion after a rapid acquisition.In addition,virus transmission efficiency may also play a role in vector manipulation by viruses as only the responses of the efficient vector to plant-mediated effects of TuYV,that is,enhanced feeding behavior and performances,were favorable to their acquisition and further dispersal.Altogether,this work demonstrated that vector transmission efficiency also has to be considered when studying the mechanisms underlying vector manipulation by viruses.Our results also re- inforce the idea that vector manipulation requires coevolution between plant,virus and vector.     

Stem cell therapy applied for digestive anastomosis: Current state and future perspectives

BACKGROUND Digestive tract resections are usually followed by an anastomosis.Anastomotic leakage,normally due to failed healing,is the most feared complication in digestive surgery because it is associated with high morbidity and mortality.Despite technical and technological advances and focused research,its rates have remained almost unchanged the last decades.In the last two decades,stem cells(SCs)have been shown to enhance healing in animal and human studies;hence,SCs have emerged since 2008 as an alternative to improve anastomoses outcomes.AIM To summarise the published knowledge of SC utilisation as a preventative tool for hollow digestive viscera anastomotic or suture leaks.METHODS PubMed,Science Direct,Scopus and Cochrane searches were performed using the key words“anastomosis”,“colorectal/colonic anastomoses”,“anastomotic leak”,“stem cells”,“progenitor cells”,“cellular therapy”and“cell therapy”in order to identify relevant articles published in English and Spanish during the years of 2000 to 2021.Studies employing SCs,performing digestive anastomoses in hollow viscera or digestive perforation sutures and monitoring healing were finally included.Reference lists from the selected articles were reviewed to identify additional pertinent articles.METHODS Given the great variability in the study designs,anastomotic models,interventions(SCs,doses and vehicles)and outcome measures,performing a reliable meta-analysis was considered impossible,so we present the studies,their results and limitations.RESULTS Eighteen preclinical studies and three review papers were identified;no clinical studies have been published and there are no registered clinical trials.Experimental studies,mainly in rat and porcine models and occasionally in very adverse conditions such as ischaemia or colitis,have been demonstrated SCs as safe and have shown some encouraging morphological,functional and even clinical results.Mesenchymal SCs are mostly employed,and delivery routes are mainly local injections and cell sheets followed by biosutures(sutures coated by SCs)or purely topical.As potential weaknesses,animal models need to be improved to make them more comparable and equivalent to clinical practice,and the SC isolation processes need to be standardised.There is notable heterogeneity in the studies,making them difficult to compare.Further investigations are needed to establish the indications,the administration system,potential adjuvants,the final efficacy and to confirm safety and exclude definitively oncological concerns.CONCLUSION The future role of SC therapy to induce healing processes in digestive anastomoses/sutures still needs to be determined and seems to be currently far from clinical use.     

Identification key for European strand-forming house-rot fungi

An identification key for 20 common strand-forming indoor wood decay fungi is given. The key is based on observations of material from affected buildings and on wood samples that have been incubated in the laboratory. The key is with macro- and microscopic photographs.     

Plant-Parasitic Nematodes of South Viet Nam

Between 1974 and 1978, 2,842 identifications of plant-parasitic nematodes were made from more than 1,700 soil and plant samples collected in eight provinces of South Viet Nam. Species in nine genera—Helicotylenchus, Criconemoides, Meloidogyne, Pratylenchus, Tylenchorhynchus, Hoplolaimus, Hirschmanniella, Xiphinema, and Rotylenchulus—comprised 96.1% of the identifications; the remaining 3.9% were species of 11 genera. Fourteen genera were associated with rice which was grown on about 2,500,000 ha in 1970. Of these, Ditylenchus, Hirschmanniella, and Meloidogyne were most important. Ditylenchus angustus caused severe damage to about 50,000 ha of flooded rice in the Mekong Delta in 1976. Hirschmanniella spp. were found in all samples examined from flooded rice fields. Meloidogyne spp. were common in rice seedbeds, upland rice, and rice not kept flooded continuously. Meloidogyne and Pratylenchus spp. were found in roots of 22 of the 32 crop plants sampled. Little or no attempt was made in South Viet Nam to control nematodes.     

Semicircular canal system in early primates

Mammals with more rapid and agile locomotion have larger semicircular canals relative to body mass than species that move more slowly. Measurements of semicircular canals in extant mammals with known locomotor behaviours can provide a basis for testing hypotheses about locomotion in fossil primates that is independent of postcranial remains, and a means of reconstructing locomotor behaviour in species known only from cranial material. Semicircular canal radii were measured using ultra high resolution X-ray CT data for 9 stem primates (“plesiadapiforms”; n = 11), 7 adapoids (n = 12), 4 omomyoids (n = 5), and the possible omomyoid Rooneyia viejaensis (n = 1). These were compared with a modern sample (210 species including 91 primates) with known locomotor behaviours. The predicted locomotor agilities for extinct primates generally follow expectations based on known postcrania for those taxa. “Plesiadapiforms” and adapids have relatively small semicircular canals, suggesting they practiced less agile locomotion than other fossil primates in the sample, which is consistent with reconstructions of them as less specialized for leaping. The derived notharctid adapoids (excluding Cantius) and all omomyoids sampled have relatively larger semicircular canals, suggesting that they were more agile, with Microchoerus in particular being reconstructed as having had very jerky locomotion with relatively high magnitude accelerations of the head. Rooneyia viejaensis is reconstructed as having been similarly agile to omomyids and derived notharctid adapoids, which suggests that when postcranial material is found for this species it will exhibit features for some leaping behaviour, or for a locomotor mode requiring a similar degree of agility.     

Unification of the genera Nonlabens, Persicivirga, Sandarakinotalea and Stenothermobacter into a single emended genus, Nonlabens, and description of Nonlabens agnitus sp. nov

Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that a bacterial isolate, designated JC2678(T), represents a distinct phyletic line within the suprageneric monophyletic clade containing the genera Nonlabens, Persicivirga, Stenothermobacter and Sandarakinotalea. The polyphasic data presented in this study demonstrated that the members belonging to the Nonlabens-like clade overall constitute a single genus. Therefore, it is proposed to transfer the members of genera Persicivirga O'Sullivan et al. 2006, Stenothermobacter Lau et al. 2006 and Sandarakinotalea Khan et al. 2006 to the genus Nonlabens Lau et al. 2005. Thus, P. dokdonensis (Yoon et al. 2006) Nedashkovskaya et al. 2009, P. ulvanivorans Barbeyron et al. 2010, P. xylanidelens O'Sullivan et al. 2006, Sandarakinotalea sediminis Khan et al. 2006 and Stenothermobacter spongiae Lau et al. 2006 should be transferred to Nonlabens dokdonensis comb. nov., Nonlabens ulvanivorans comb. nov., Nonlabens xylanidelens comb. nov., Nonlabens sediminis comb. nov. and Nonlabens spongiae comb. nov., respectively. In addition, strain JC2678(T) (=KACC 14155(T)=JCM 17109(T)) is proposed to constitute a novel species belonging to the genus Nonlabens with the name of Nonlabens agnitus sp. nov.     

Two common and problematic leucochrysine species – Leucochrysa (Leucochrysa) varia (Schneider) and L. (L.) pretiosa (Banks) (Neuroptera,Chrysopidae): redescriptions and synonymies

We dedicate this article to the memory of Sergio de Freitas, FCAV-UNESP, Jaboticabal, São Paulo, Brazil (deceased, 2012). He was an active and enthusiastic Neuropterist and the cherished mentor and friend of Francisco Sosa.Leucochrysa McLachlan is the largest genus in the Chrysopidae, yet it has received relatively little taxonomic attention. We treat two problematic and common Leucochrysa species – Leucochrysa (Leucochrysa) varia (Schneider, 1851) and Leucochrysa (Leucochrysa) pretiosa (Banks, 1910). Both are highly variable in coloration and were described before the systematic importance of chrysopid genitalia was recognized. Recent studies show that these species occur within a large complex of cryptic species and that they have accumulated a number of taxonomic problems. We identify new synonymies for each of the species–for Leucochrysa (Leucochrysa) varia: Leucochrysa (Leucochrysa) ampla (Walker, 1853), Leucochrysa internata (Walker, 1853), and Leucochrysa (Leucochrysa) walkerina Navás, 1913; for Leucochrysa (Leucochrysa) pretiosa: Leucochrysa (Leucochrysa) erminea Banks, 1946. The synonymy of Leucochrysa delicata Navás, 1925 with Leucochrysa (Leucochrysa) pretiosa is stabilized by the designation of a neotype. The following species, which were previously synonymized with Leucochrysa (Leucochrysa) varia or Leucochrysa (Leucochrysa) pretiosa, are reinstated as valid: Leucochrysa (Leucochrysa) phaeocephala Navás, 1929, Leucochrysa (Leucochrysa) angrandi (Navás, 1911), and Leucochrysa (Leucochrysa) variata (Navás, 1913). To help stabilize Leucochrysa taxonomy, lectotypes are designated for Allochrysa pretiosa and Allochrysa variata. Finally, Leucochrysa vegana Navás, 1917 is considered a nomen dubium.     

Annotated checklist of the recent and extinct pythons (Serpentes, Pythonidae), with notes on nomenclature, taxonomy, and distribution

McDiarmid et al. (1999) published the first part of their planned taxonomic catalog of the snakes of the world. Since then, several new python taxa have been described in both the scientific literature and non-peer-reviewed publications. This checklist evaluates the nomenclatural status of the names and discusses the taxonomic status of the new taxa, and aims to continue the work of McDiarmid et al. (1999) for the family Pythonidae, covering the period 1999 to 2010. Numerous new taxa are listed, and where appropriate recent synonymies are included and annotations are made. A checklist and a taxonomic identification key of valid taxa are provided.