Determination of standard zinc values in the intact tissues of mice by ICP spectrometry

The most commonly encountered difficulties for the quantitative measurement of zinc in biological samples are the limited sample amount, total and effective digestion of connective and fatty residues, and low zinc concentrations. These problems often lead to the determination of lower zinc values than actually present, so that the sample preparation, digestion, and analytical procedure deserve careful attention. In this short communication, a new method for microwave tissue disintegration is described. The authors have obtained consistent and reproducible results with tissue samples of 0.5 g or less.     

Cycles in insect populations: delayed density dependence or exogenous driving variables?

Summary Delayed density dependence, and the cycles in insect populations that it can generate, are often investigated using time-series analysis. Recently, several authors have raised concerns about the validity of using time-series analysis to detect density dependence. One particular concern is the suggestion that exogenous driving variables, such as cyclic weather patterns, can lead to the spurious detection of density dependence in natural populations.
Using non-biological data (the electricity bills of one of the authors), we show how easy it is to be misled by the results of time-series analysis. We then present 16 years' data on the gall-forming sawfly, Euura lasiolepis (Hymenoptera: Tenthredinidae), and show that cycles in weather, specifically winter precipitation, lead to the spurious detection of density dependence in time-series analysis. We conclude that time-series analysis cannot stand alone as a method for inferring the action of density dependence, and urge further investigation of the effects of apparent cycles in abiotic forces on insect populations.     

The Petersen–Lincoln Estimator and its Extension to Estimate the Size of a Shared Population

The Petersen–Lincoln estimator has been used to estimate the size of a population in a single mark release experiment. However, the estimator is not valid when the capture sample and recapture sample are not independent. We provide an intuitive interpretation for “independence” between samples based on 2 × 2 categorical data formed by capture/non‐capture in each of the two samples. From the interpretation, we review a general measure of “dependence” and quantify the correlation bias of the Petersen–Lincoln estimator when two types of dependences (local list dependence and heterogeneity of capture probability) exist. An important implication in the census undercount problem is that instead of using a post enumeration sample to assess the undercount of a census, one should conduct a prior enumeration sample to avoid correlation bias. We extend the Petersen–Lincoln method to the case of two populations. This new estimator of the size of the shared population is proposed and its variance is derived. We discuss a special case where the correlation bias of the proposed estimator due to dependence between samples vanishes. The proposed method is applied to a study of the relapse rate of illicit drug use in Taiwan. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

PDCoV、SADS-CoV与SVA三重RT-PCR检测方法的建立与应用

【背景】猪丁型冠状病毒(porcine deltacoronavirus,PDCoV)、新型猪急性腹泻综合征冠状病毒(swine acute diarrhea syndrome coronavirus,SADS-CoV)与塞内卡病毒A型(Seneca virus A,SVA)均为猪的新发病原,严重危害养猪业的发展。猪感染这3种新发病原难以根据临床症状诊断,因此亟须建立多重RT-PCR检测方法对疑似患病猪进行快速诊断,以降低经济损失。【目的】建立能同时检测PDCoV、SADS-CoV和SVA单一或混合感染的三重RT-PCR检测方法。【方法】参考GenBank中登录的PDCoV和SADS-CoV N基因、SVA L/P1基因保守区域,设计3对特异性引物,以温度梯度PCR法确定最适退火温度(T_m);采用方阵法优化其引物浓度;构建重组质粒PMD-PDCoV、PMD-SADS-CoV和PMD-SVA作为标准品确定最小检测量(limits of detection,LOD);以猪传染性胃肠炎病毒、猪流行性腹泻病毒、猪繁殖与呼吸综合征病毒等6种常见感染猪的病毒核酸样本为模板,确定三重RT-PCR法的特异性;以批间和批内实验验证其重复性;经检测疑似感染的临床样本并与已报道的检测方法进行比较,评估其临床应用效果。【结果】最佳退火温度为58.3℃;引物最佳浓度分别为0.5、0.25和0.25μmol/L;其敏感性高,PMD-PDCoV、PMD-SADS-CoV与PMD-SVA最低检测限分别为1、1和10copies/μL;其特异性强,仅对PDCoV、SADS-CoV和SVA有特异性条带,对其他病毒均无扩增条带;该方法重复性好,批间和批内实验检测结果均一致。经临床样本检测PDCoV、SADS-CoV和SVA的阳性率分别为65.85%、30.49%和57.32%,与已报道的检测方法一致。最后从13份PDCoV、SADS-CoV和SVA均为阳性的样品中随机选取5份样品进行测序,并做同源性及进化树分析,结果显示5份阳性病料的PCR扩增序列之间相似性较高,而且和参考序列之间也具有较高的相似性,均可达到96%以上。表明本研究建立的方法在应用于临床样品检测中具有较高的准确性和可靠性。【结论】建立了一种能够同时快速检测PDCoV、SADS-CoV和SVA的三重RT-PCR方法,为临床上检测上述3种病毒提供了技术支撑。     

Effects of Genotypes at the Unspecific Esterase (Est) and Leucine Aminopeptidase (Lap) Loci on the Temporal Dynamics of Morphological Variation in the Black Sea Mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis Lam.

In the Black Sea mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis Lam., the dependence of variation in 21 morphological characters of the shell on the genotype at the polymorphic loci encoding unspecific esterases and leucine aminopeptidase was estimated by means of ANOVA in 12 samples differing in age and belonging to different generations. The genotype at these loci was found to have no constant influence on the dynamics of variation in any morphological character. The effect of the parameters of polymorphism was ambiguous: a factor having a significant effect on a certain character in one sample might have no such effect (or produce an effect on a different character) in another sample. A directional change in the significant effect of genotypes during a certain period of generation's lifetime was revealed. The dependence of the effect of polymorphism at the studied loci on ecological conditions is discussed.     

Extinction risk under coloured environmental noise

Positively autocorrelated red environmental noise is characterized by a strong dependence of expected sample variance on sample length. This dependence has to be taken into account when assessing extinction risk under red and white uncorrelated environmental noise. To facilitate a comparison between red and white noise, their expected variances can be scaled to be equal, but only at a chosen time scale. We show with a simple one-dimensional population dynamics model that the different but equally reasonable choices of the time scale yield qualitatively different results on the dependence of extinction risk on the colour of environmental noise: extinction risk might increase as well as decrease when the temporal correlation of noise increases.     

Increased taxon sampling greatly reduces phylogenetic error

Several authors have argued recently that extensive taxon sampling has a positive and important effect on the accuracy of phylogenetic estimates. However, other authors have argued that there is little benefit of extensive taxon sampling, and so phylogenetic problems can or should be reduced to a few exemplar taxa as a means of reducing the computational complexity of the phylogenetic analysis. In this paper we examined five aspects of study design that may have led to these different perspectives. First, we considered the measurement of phylogenetic error across a wide range of taxon sample sizes, and conclude that the expected error based on randomly selecting trees (which varies by taxon sample size) must be considered in evaluating error in studies of the effects of taxon sampling. Second, we addressed the scope of the phylogenetic problems defined by different samples of taxa, and argue that phylogenetic scope needs to be considered in evaluating the importance of taxon-sampling strategies. Third, we examined the claim that fast and simple tree searches are as effective as more thorough searches at finding near-optimal trees that minimize error. We show that a more complete search of tree space reduces phylogenetic error, especially as the taxon sample size increases. Fourth, we examined the effects of simple versus complex simulation models on taxonomic sampling studies. Although benefits of taxon sampling are apparent for all models, data generated under more complex models of evolution produce higher overall levels of error and show greater positive effects of increased taxon sampling. Fifth, we asked if different phylogenetic optimality criteria show different effects of taxon sampling. Although we found strong differences in effectiveness of different optimality criteria as a function of taxon sample size, increased taxon sampling improved the results from all the common optimality criteria. Nonetheless, the method that showed the lowest overall performance (minimum evolution) also showed the least improvement from increased taxon sampling. Taking each of these results into account re-enforces the conclusion that increased sampling of taxa is one of the most important ways to increase overall phylogenetic accuracy.     

A two-compartment model for the dependence of a postsynaptic potential on a postsynaptic current, measured by the patch-clamp method

As known, the dependence of a postsynaptic potential (PSP)1 on a postsynaptic current (PSC) is not satisfactorily approximated by simple Ohm's law due to a significant role of electrotonic propagation of currents along dendrites. The present work shows that a two-compartment model of a neuron, conjointly solving the two problems of voltage and current clamping, gives quite precisely the PSP-on-PSC dependence, in spite of inaccurate reconstruction of currents on dendritic terminals. The two-compartment model is compared with the neuron model consisting of a distributed cylindrical dendrite and a concentrated soma.     

Raking Kappa: Describing Potential Impact of Marginal Distributions on Measures of Agreement

Several authors have noted the dependence of kappa measures of inter-rater agreement on the marginal distributions of contingency tables displaying the joint ratings. This paper introduces a smoothed version of kappa computed after raking the table to achieve pre-specified marginal distributions. A comparison of kappa with raked kappa for various margins can indicate the extent of the dependence on the margins, and can indicate how much of the lack of agreement is due to marginal heterogeneity.     

Modeling of the parametric dependence of the edge toroidal rotation

Modeling of the edge toroidal rotation and its dependence on the edge plasma parameters is performed by means of the B2SOPS5.0 transport code for ohmic shots both for MAST and ASDEX Upgrade configurations. The impact of plasma current, toroidal magnetic field, plasma density, and temperature is investigated. The connection between the toroidal rotation and edge radial electric field is also studied. The results of the simulation are consistent with the parametric dependence predicted analytically. Published in Russian in Fizika Plazmy, 2008, Vol. 34, No. 9, pp. 791–797. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Methods for investigating the neural components of insight

The authors describe how they have used visual-hemifield and event-related neuroimaging approaches to study their theory specifying some of the neural components of insight. A set of problems developed by the authors, and the use of solvers' self reports of insight, are presented to argue that advances in our understanding of insight are being unnecessarily stifled by over reliance on traditional insight problems and a widespread failure to determine whether insight has occurred on a solution-by-solution basis.     

A general approach to sample size determination for prevalence surveys that use dual test protocols

We develop a Bayesian simulation based approach for determining the sample size required for estimating a binomial probability and the difference between two binomial probabilities where we allow for dependence between two fallible diagnostic procedures. Examples include estimating the prevalence of disease in a single population based on results from two imperfect diagnostic tests applied to sampled individuals, or surveys designed to compare the prevalences of two populations using diagnostic outcomes that are subject to misclassification. We propose a two stage procedure in which the tests are initially assumed to be independent conditional on true disease status (i.e. conditionally independent). An interval based sample size determination scheme is performed under this assumption and data are collected and used to test the conditional independence assumption. If the data reveal the diagnostic tests to be conditionally dependent, structure is added to the model to account for dependence and the sample size routine is repeated in order to properly satisfy the criterion under the correct model. We also examine the impact on required sample size when adding an extra heterogeneous population to a study.     

Experience with the methodological guidance of the on-the-job training of epidemiology graduates

Seven-year experience in the methodological guidance of the post-graduate specialization of medical graduates specializing in epidemiology has made it possible for the authors to come to the conclusion on the positive role of the on-the-job training of young specialists for a year after graduation, which is manifested by a shorter time necessary for their professional formation, the development of their capacity for making scientifically grounded, active solutions of practical problems. At the same time some defects, difficulties, and unsolved problems of on-the-job training have been revealed. The authors propose to organize internship also for this category of medical specialists and to carry out the specialization of all sanitary inspectors on the basis of "clinical" sanitary and epidemiological stations.     

Dynamics of the First‐Order Metamagnetic Transition in Magnetocaloric La(Fe,Si)13: Reducing Hysteresis

The influence of dynamics and sample shape on the magnetic hysteresis in first‐order magnetocaloric metamagnetic LaFe_13–xSi_x with x = 1.4 is studied. In solid‐state magnetic cooling, reducing magnetic and thermal hysteresis is critical for refrigeration cycle efficiency. From magnetization measurements, it is found that the fast field‐rate dependence of the hysteresis can be attributed to extrinsic heating directly related to the thickness of the sample and the thermal contact with the bath. If the field is paused partway through the transition, the subsequent relaxation is strongly dependent on shape due to both demagnetizing fields and thermal equilibration; magnetic coupling between adjacent sample fragments can also be significant. Judicious shaping of the sample can both increase the onset field of the ferromagnetic–paramagnetic (FM–PM) transition but have little effect on the PM–FM onset, suggesting a route to engineer the hysteresis width by appropriate design. In the field‐paused state, the relaxation from one phase to the other slows with increasing temperature, implying that the process is neither thermally activated or athermal; comparison with the temperature dependence of the latent heat strongly suggests that the dynamics reflect the intrinsic free energy difference between the two phases.     

The characteristics of the realization of cytogenetic damage in mammalian and plant cells exposed to low doses of radiation]

A complicated character of the cytogenetic injury dependence upon radiation dose was revealed after low-level gamma irradiation of Vicia faba seedlings and Chinese hamster fibroblasts. The dependence was linear with low-level secondary exposure to 70 GeV protons. The authors discuss a threshold nature of induction of the cytogenetic damage repair responsible for a high outcome of damages under the effect of low-level gamma radiation.     

Animal death after exposure to ultra-high frequency waves in the dependence of power flux density and specific absorption rate

A comparative analysis and mathematical modeling of laboratory animal sensitivity (mice, rats, rabbits and dogs) to microwave exposure in the dependence of the power flux density (PFD) and the specific absorption rate (SAR) were carried out. The results obtained in our laboratory and some data published by other authors were presented as the dependence of the survival time of various animals during exposure both on PFD and SAR of microwave radiation (0.46; 2.4 and 7 GHz). It is shown that if PFD is used as a dosimetric parameter, the animal sensitivity to nonionizing electromagnetic ultrahigh frequency radiation increased with animal mass. If SAR was used as a dosimetric parameter, the arrangement of animals in accordance with their sensitivity to microwave became quite opposite. Mathematical equations describing the dependence of the survival time of laboratory animals on the duration and the intensity of microwave radiation were obtained. These equations describe the published experimental data and can be used to predict the animal death during the process of microwave irradiation.     

Fluorescence anisotropy and myelin structure. III. Effect of temperature changes on the orientation of dye molecules in nerve fibers]

The temperature dependence of fluorescence polarization of stained nerve fibres has been studied. As has been previously demonstrated by the authors, the dependence of fluorescence polarization on the angle between the electrical vector of exciting light and the fibre axis (azimuth characteristics) is associated with the molecular orientation of dyes adsorbed on the membranes of the myelin sheath. This permits an indirect conclusion to be made about the structure and structural changes of an adsorbent. The experiments with changing temperature show that the molecular orientation of dyes decreases with decline of temperature from the room temperature to the freezing point of the Ringer solution. The structure of myelin membranes is suggested to be stabilized through hydrophobic interaction.     

新媒体时代下医学生手机依赖与人际关系的相关性研究

目的:了解新媒体背景下的医学生手机依赖与人际关系现状及两者的相关性,为相关部门制定干预策略提供依据。方法:采取方便抽样的方法抽取样本,通过手机依赖和人际关系量表开展匿名问卷调查,SPSS19.0软件进行数据处理。结果:医学生中手机依赖阳性检出率为35.81%,人际交往敏感检出率为33.78%。手机依赖组的人际关系得分明显高于非手机依赖组(P0.05);同时,手机依赖量表与人际关系量表呈正相关(P0.05)。多元线性回归分析结果显示身体锻炼频率对手机依赖有反向预测作用,人际关系中的交际与交友维度对手机依赖有正向预测作用(P0.05)。结论:医学生手机依赖与人际交往情况形势严峻、不容乐观,社会各界应关注医学生手机依赖及其引发的系列公共卫生问题,多层面、多角度进行干预。     

Analysis of Repeated Measurements with Ante-Dependence Covariance Models

This paper considers the use of ante-dependence models in problems with repeated measures through time. These are conditional regression models which reflect the dependence of a measure on some of the previous observations from the same subject. We present maximum likelihood estimators of the covariance matrix and procedures for selecting the order of ante-degendence based on penalized like-lihoods. Extensions to missing data situations are discussed. We propose Wald-type test statistics and apply them in two situations common in experiments with repeated measures: one with pre-study observations and another one with small sample size relative to the number of time periods. In these examples, tests assuming ante-dependence find effects which are not detected using competing procedures.     

Comment arising from a paper by Wolda and Dennis: using and interpreting the results of tests for density dependence

We argue that tests for density dependence are useful in analyses of population dynamics and suggest guide lines for their use and interpretation of results which avoid many of the problems discussed by Wolda and Dennis (1993). Processes other than density dependence per se can cause statistical tests to indicate the presence of density dependence (Wolda and Dennis 1993 and unpublished simulations). Tests for density dependence cannot reveal the mechanism of regulation, but they do indicate the nature of long-term population dynamics. Tests for density dependence give misleading results if sampling is not at generation intervals; however, this problem is avoided if we only use tests on data collected in each generation (Holyoak 1993a). Similarly, species should be semelparous. Non-delayed density dependence should not be considered without looking for delayed density dependence, since the presence of delayed density dependence can lead to over-detection of non-delayed density dependence (Woiwod and Hanski 1992; Holyoak 1993b). The partial autocorrelation function and knowledge of life-history are more useful than tests for density dependence for indicating whether any density dependence is delayed or not (Royama 1992; Holyoak 1993b). Estimation error with a constant upper size limit causes tests for density dependence to overestimate the frequency of delayed density dependence; however we do not know whether estimation error is bounded in real populations. Work in progress suggests that 20–40 generations (depending on the nature of population dynamics) gives a moderate level of accuracy with tests for density dependence, and >40 generations are necessary for tests to be accurate in their assessment of the strength of density dependence. We conclude that tests are useful indicators of whether density dependence, or other feedback mechanisms are likely to be acting.