Standard survey designs drive bias in the mapping of upland swamp communities

Vegetation maps are critical biodiversity planning instruments, but the classification of vegetation for mapping can be strongly biased by survey design. Standardization of survey design across different vegetation types is therefore increasingly recommended for vegetation mapping programs. However, some vegetation types have complex small‐scale vegetation patterns that are important in characterizing these vegetation types, and standard designs will often not capture these patterns. The objective of this paper was to investigate the magnitude of potential map bias that results from survey design standardization and recommend approaches to deal with this bias. We surveyed upland swamps of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area Australia using two contrasting survey designs, including the standard 400 m² single quadrat design recommended and used by authorities. We then derived a classification for these swamps and tested the effect of survey design on this classification, species richness and the type of species detected (obligate or facultative swamp species). Species richness and species type were not significantly different among survey techniques. However, more than 40% of swamps clustered differently among survey designs. Thus, one of the 10 derived communities (which is floristically consistent with a previously mapped endangered community) was indistinct, and some individual swamps misclassified using the standard survey design. An effect of landscape position on swamp floristic patterns and a significant trend for high similarity scores among swamps surveyed with multiple small quadrats compared to the standard survey design was also determined. Australian upland swamps are classified at the global scale as shrub‐dominated wetlands, and complex floristic patterns have been recorded in shrub‐dominated wetlands in both northern and southern hemispheres. We therefore advocate either multiple survey designs or different survey standards for upland swamp communities and other vegetation types that have complex floristic patterns at small scales.     

Terrestrial fauna survey of Slipper Island (Whakahau)

We describe the history of Slipper Island (Whakahau) off northeastern New Zealand and report on a survey of the terrestrial fauna undertaken in December 2016. Results from this survey are compared with the last comprehensive survey in August 1973. The terrestrial habitat of the island is predominantly farmland and has changed little in extent over the past 50 years. As a result, the avifauna has remained remarkably consistent, although with some species turnover that reflects changes in the wider regional landscape, and some notable native species additions. Pacific rats were abundant across the island, and as a result reptiles are depauperate due to local extinctions. Bell frogs and Argentine ants are both recent arrivals on the island. On the nearby smaller native forested Penguin and Rabbit Islands the avifauna is predominantly native.     

Survey research

SUMMARY: Survey research is a unique methodology that can provide insight into individuals' perspectives and experiences and can be collected on a large population-based sample. Specifically, in plastic surgery, survey research can provide patients and providers with accurate and reproducible information to assist with medical decision-making. When using survey methods in research, researchers should develop a conceptual model that explains the relationships of the independent and dependent variables. The items of the survey are of primary importance. Collected data are only useful if they accurately measure the concepts of interest. In addition, administration of the survey must follow basic principles to ensure an adequate response rate and representation of the intended target sample. In this article, the authors review some general concepts important for successful survey research and discuss the many advantages this methodology has for obtaining limitless amounts of valuable information.     

What is “Biological Physics”? 1976 update to the resource letter

This resource letter is a continuation and updating of our 1973 letter. We attempt to further define the term “Biological Physics” — this time through attempting a definition of the characteristic training which biological physicists receive. Our primary objective in this letter is to correct some major omissions from the first effort and to again survey the field in such a way as to bring the 1973 survey up-to-date, approximately to December 1975.     

Fungal research in ASEAN countries

A preliminary survey on the mycological activities and areas of research in ASEAN countries was conducted. This survey was carried out through a literature search and correspondence with some ASEAN mycologists. The results of the survey showed that there is a high level and standard of mycological research in various ASEAN countries. These include research on fungal flora and taxonomy, physiology and development, biochemistry, molecular biology, genetics, fungal-plant interactions, bioconversion, biodeterioration, and edible mushrooms. Compilation and publication of works of ASEAN mycologists is important for the promotion of contacts and collaborative research. This short paper is a preliminary step towards this objective.     

Preclinical AIDS vaccine research: survey of SIV,SHIV, and HIV challenge studies in vaccinated nonhuman primates

This current supplementary and systematic survey of 237 preclinical AIDS vaccine challenge/protection studies in nonhuman primates enumerates and broadly describes the recent status of different vaccine strategies in macaque and chimpanzee experimental models. Published studies since the previous survey were compiled and categorized by their vaccine types, challenge parameters, and challenge results. These models have supportively verified that some prophylactic vaccine approaches, though rarely preventing infection (which is observed in these models with some passively administered antibody-based vaccines), can control to some degree primate lentivirus replication and disease development, and this is encouraging because it places more potentially effective immunogens on the precipice for early clinical studies. Many of these promising approaches may benefit from more testing in mucosal challenge models, and resources will be needed to follow more of these partially protected vaccinees for longer periods.     

Complete allocation sampling: an efficient and easily implemented adaptive sampling design

Adaptive sampling designs are becoming increasingly popular in environmental science, particularly for surveying rare and aggregated populations. An adaptive sample is one in which the survey design is modified, or adapted, in some way on the basis of information gained during the survey. There are many different adaptive survey designs that can be used to estimate animal and plant abundance. In adaptive cluster sampling, additional sample effort is allocated during the survey to the immediate neighborhood in which the species is found. In adaptive stratified sampling, additional sample effort is allocated during the survey to strata of high abundance. The appealing feature of these adaptive designs is that the field biologist gets to do what innately seems sensible when working with rare and aggregated populations—field effort is targeted around where the species is observed in the first wave of the survey. However, there are logistical challenges of applying this principle of targeted field effort while remaining in the framework of probability-based sampling. We propose a simplified adaptive survey design that incorporates both targeting field effort and being logistically feasible. We show with a case study population of rockfish that complete allocation stratified sampling is a very efficient design.     

THE DISTRIBUTION OF STRUCTURAL COLOURS AND UNUSUAL PIGMENTS IN THE CLASS AVES.

Structural colours in birds are surveyed systematically. From this survey, the common structural configurations in feathers, producing bright colours of the iridescent and non-iridescent types respectively, are seen to exclude one another
Feather pigments of unusual shades or chemical constitutions have been included in the survey, since some of them produce colour effects similar to structural colours of the non-iridescent type     

植物生态学方法在中药材质量研究中的应用与展望

中药材是植物在长期进化过程中 ,通过对环境的不断适应而形成的较为稳定的品系。由于气候、土壤、地形等的不同 ,一些地区非常适应某些药材生长 ,形成了传统的道地药材 ,如河南的怀地黄 ,四川的川连、川贝 ,宁夏的枸杞 ,广西的三七 ,甘肃的当归 ,吉林的人参等。随着中医药的不断发展 ,人们对中药材的质量问题越来越重视 ,其药材质量的生物学本质问题成为药材学研究的热点之一。在这一研究中 ,植物生态学的理论和方法 ,在药材研究的不同历史时期几乎都有渗透 ,格外引起人们的关注。本文将对此进行三个研究阶段的综述。1　朴素的本草描述研究…     

Nuclear Genome Sequence Survey of the Dinoflagellate Heterocapsa triquetra

ABSTRACT. Dinoflagellates have among the largest nuclear genomes known, but we know little about their contents or organisation. Given the interest in dinoflagellate ecology, cell biology, and evolutionary biology, there are many reasons to thoroughly investigate the contents of dinoflagellate genomes, but because of their large size the only thorough samples to date have relied on expressed sequence tag surveys to analyse cDNAs. To complement this, there are some studies of the physical properties of dinoflagellate chromosomes, but no direct survey of the nature of the sequences contained within them. To start to build a picture of the contents of these genomes, we have sequenced over 230,000 bp from the nuclear genome of Heterocapsa triquetra, which has been estimated to be 18–23 billion base pairs in total. The survey includes one putative gene with two relict spliced leaders, one putative pseudogene, and a small number of low‐complexity repeats, transposons, and other putative selfish elements, all of which account for about 5% of the survey. Another 5% of the survey was long, complex repeats, some highly represented. By far the greatest fraction of the survey (89.5%) is made up of non‐repeated sequence with no similarity to any other known sequence.     

A survey of consumer attitudes to the supply and use of human hepatocytes in the United Kingdom

Human hepatocytes are the model of choice for pharmacotoxicological studies, but their acquisition is often problematic due to ethical and logistical difficulties. The UK Human Tissue Bank is a not-for-profit organisation that acquires and processes human tissue, with a specialist interest in the isolation of human hepatocytes. A recent in-house survey of the processing of liver tissue over 1 year revealed that freshly isolated hepatocytes were underutilised due to mismatched consumer demand, despite the published need for them. We present the results of a telephone survey to investigate the reasons behind this paradox. This survey highlighted some problem areas, including "out of hours" availability of cells and personnel difficulties, but overall, demonstrated the value of such a service, with numerous researchers taking advantage of available good quality human hepatocytes. Although further work is required in optimising long-term storage protocols through cryopreservation, we have demonstrated that tissue handling of this type can be successful and beneficial to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.     

Microbiological monitoring of Guinea pigs reared conventionally at two breeding facilities in Korea.

In this study, microbiological monitoring of guinea pigs reared conventionally in two facilities was performed twice in 2004, with a three-month-interval between surveys. This study was based on the recommendations of the FELASA Working Group, with some modifications. In serological tests in the first survey, some animals from facility A showed positive results for Encephalitozoon cuniculi, Sendai virus, pneumonia virus of mice (PVM), and Reovirus-3 (Reo-3); facility B showed a positive result only for E. cuniculi. The results of the second survey were similar to the first, except for the presence of Sendai virus; all animals from the two facilities were Sendai virus-negative in the second experiment. No pathogenic bacteria were cultured in the organs of any of the animals in the first survey. However, in the second survey, Bordetella bronchiseptica was cultured from the lung tissue of two 10-week-old animals from facility A. Chlamydial infection was examined by the Macchiavello method, but no animal showed positive results. Tests using fecal flotation or the KOH wet mount method showed no infection of endoparasites, protozoa, ectoparasites, or dermatophytes in any animal in both surveys. However, in the histopathological examination, an infection of protozoa-like organisms was observed in the cecum of some animals from facility A. The present study revealed that microbiological contamination was present in guinea pigs reared conventionally in two facilities in Korea, suggesting that there is a need to improve environmental conditions in order to eradicate microbial contamination.     

Design‐based treatment of unit nonresponse in environmental surveys using calibration weighting

Unit nonresponse is often a problem in sample surveys. It arises when the values of the survey variable cannot be recorded for some sampled units. In this paper, the use of nonresponse calibration weighting to treat nonresponse is considered in a complete design‐based framework. Nonresponse is viewed as a fixed characteristic of the units. The approach is suitable in environmental and forest surveys when sampled sites cannot be reached by field crews. Approximate expressions of design‐based bias and variance of the calibration estimator are derived and design‐based consistency is investigated. Choice of auxiliary variables to perform calibration is discussed. Sen–Yates–Grundy, Horvitz–Thompson, and jackknife estimators of the sampling variance are proposed. Analytical and Monte Carlo results demonstrate the validity of the procedure when the relationship between survey and auxiliary variables is similar in respondent and nonrespondent strata. An application to a forest survey performed in Northeastern Italy is considered.     

Survey of Alimentary Radiology Findings in the North-east of Scotland Region (1967-70)

This report describes a survey of all barium contrast radiological examinations carried out in the years 1967-70 by the unit that serves 99% of the adult population of North-east Scotland. The survey method used yields useful estimates, not otherwise available, of the occurrence of some forms of alimentary lesions within a whole community. Rates of occurrence by age and sex were recorded for all lesions. The data on peptic ulceration, were compared with those from South-east and from North England, and this showed that duodenal, but not gastric, ulceration is much commoner in North-east Scotland. Occurrence rates for most lesions have been nearly unchanged throughout the four years of survey. The data provide a measure of the work load for these radiological examinations for a given population.     

Analysis of the status of subject recruitment in clinical trials in Shandong, China

Although subject recruitment for clinical trials in Shandong has been carried out with an awareness of international regulatory and ethical frameworks, there have been some defects in the recruitment process. The objective of this study is to analyze the current status of subject recruitment in Shandong. We conducted a survey among 198 principal investigators (PIs) and 543 subjects. The results were summarized and calculated as a percentage according to the responses to each question by PIs and subjects. This survey indicated that the ethics committee should strengthen the review of subject recruitment and enhance ethics training among board members. PIs should seek to improve the recruitment process.     

Enhancing estimation methods for integrating probability and nonprobability survey samples with machine-learning techniques. An application to a Survey on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain

Web surveys have replaced Face-to-Face and computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) as the main mode of data collection in most countries. This trend was reinforced as a consequence of COVID-19 pandemic-related restrictions. However, this mode still faces significant limitations in obtaining probability-based samples of the general population. For this reason, most web surveys rely on nonprobability survey designs. Whereas probability-based designs continue to be the gold standard in survey sampling, nonprobability web surveys may still prove useful in some situations. For instance, when small subpopulations are the group under study and probability sampling is unlikely to meet sample size requirements, complementing a small probability sample with a larger nonprobability one may improve the efficiency of the estimates. Nonprobability samples may also be designed as a mean for compensating for known biases in probability-based web survey samples by purposely targeting respondent profiles that tend to be underrepresented in these surveys. This is the case in the Survey on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain (ESPACOV) that motivates this paper. In this paper, we propose a methodology for combining probability and nonprobability web-based survey samples with the help of machine-learning techniques. We then assess the efficiency of the resulting estimates by comparing them with other strategies that have been used before. Our simulation study and the application of the proposed estimation method to the second wave of the ESPACOV Survey allow us to conclude that this is the best option for reducing the biases observed in our data.     

海洋激光雷达在渔业资源调查和生态环境监测中的应用

海洋激光雷达是最先进、最有效的海洋调查手段之一,激光雷达与海洋生物相关的应用主要体现在渔业资源调查和海洋生态环境监测两方面。前者常采用蓝绿脉冲光作为激发光源,通过对激光回波信号的识别提取以获得鱼群分布区域和密度信息,结合偏振特征分析可对鱼群种类进行识别;后者常采用海洋激光荧光雷达,通过对激光诱导目标物发射的荧光等光谱信号的探测分析以获得海洋浮游生物及叶绿素等物质的种类和浓度分布信息。本文对这两种海洋激光雷达的技术原理、国内外发展现状进行了详细的论述,并对今后的发展趋势进行了展望。     

Survey of research in the theory of homogeneous structures and their applications

This work presents some of the author's reflections, the purpose of which is to give an orientation on the present stage and recent developments in the investigations of the theory of homogeneous structures and their applications. This survey appears to be desirable at this time because a number of research workers in mathematical and theoretical biology are becoming interested in making contributions in the theory of homogeneous structures and their applications. It is hoped that this survey will provide a stimulus and some introduction to the subject. The choice of topics is dictated largely by my predilections, and in no way shall I attempt to illustrate the vast and rapidly increasing field of applications of mathematical techniques or even, more generally, the mathematical mode of thinking in the enormous variety of problems in the theory of homogeneous structures and its applications, including biology. Indeed, to present anything like a comprehensive picture would require bulky and manifold volumes of very heterogeneous contributions. However, I shall list a number of biological and engineering fields where techniques of homogeneous structures have been employed and give the reader a short indication of selected bibliographic aids.     

我国林蛙的研究概况和开展环渤海区域林蛙多样性研究的意义

林蛙是一个复杂多样的类群,我国现有13种,历来是两栖动物分类学和系统学研究的热点之一。本文简要概述了我国林蛙研究的历史及其近10年来的最新研究成果。同时,结合作者近年来的研究,提出环渤海区域是我围林蛙的一个分化中心和热点地区。开展该区域林蛙研究具有重要的科学意义。