What does body size mean,from the “plant's eye view”?

Alternative metrics exist for representing variation in plant body size, but the vast majority of previous research for herbaceous plants has focused on dry mass. Dry mass provides a reasonably accurate and easily measured estimate for comparing relative capacity to convert solar energy into stored carbon. However, from a “plant's eye view”, its experience of its local biotic environment of immediate neighbors (especially when crowded) may be more accurately represented by measures of “space occupancy” (S–O) recorded in situ—rather than dry mass measured after storage in a drying oven. This study investigated relationships between dry mass and alternative metrics of S–O body size for resident plants sampled from natural populations of herbaceous species found in Eastern Ontario. Plant height, maximum lateral canopy extent, and estimated canopy area and volume were recorded in situ (in the field)—and both fresh and dry mass were recorded in the laboratory—for 138 species ranging widely in body size and for 20 plants ranging widely in body size within each of 10 focal species. Dry mass and fresh mass were highly correlated (r² > .95) and isometric, suggesting that for some studies, between‐species (or between‐plant) variation in water content may be unimportant and fresh mass can therefore substitute for dry mass. However, several relationships between dry mass and other S–O body size metrics showed allometry—that is, plants with smaller S–O body size had disproportionately less dry mass. In other words, they have higher “body mass density” (BMD) — more dry mass per unit S–O body size. These results have practical importance for experimental design and methodology as well as implications for the interpretation of “reproductive economy”—the capacity to produce offspring at small body sizes—because fecundity and dry mass (produced in the same growing season) typically have a positive, isometric relationship. Accordingly, the allometry between dry mass and S–O body size reported here suggests that plants with smaller S–O body size—because of higher BMD—may produce fewer offspring, but less than proportionately so; in other words, they may produce more offspring per unit of body size space occupancy.     

Results of the introduction of Coregonids to Lake Vashozero

The results of the introduction of coregonids—the whitefish Coregonus lavaretus and the European cisco C. albula—to Lake Vashozero are considered. It is shown that a positive result was obtained from the introduction of the European cisco; it has naturalized in the lake and successfully reproduces. The biology of the European cisco in a water body new for it was studied, and it was compared to its initial form from Onega Lake. The structure of trophic relations in the water body has changed with the introduction of the European cisco. Previously there was one flow of matter and energy in the lake: benthos—benthophagous fish—carnivorous fish. Now, however, another flow has been added: plankton—European cisco—carnivorous fish.     

Reproducibility of Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry Measurements in Prepubertal Girls

Objective : Regulation of growth and development, clinical assessment, and obesity are among the areas of nutritionrelated research, wherein accurate assessment of body composition is important. We want to test the hypothesis that dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) measurements are reproducible in healthy girls. Research Methods and Procedures : We determined total body composition measurements in healthy prepubertal girls using DXA twice, 6 weeks apart. Results : We studied 61 healthy, normal-weight, prepubertal girls, aged 4.8 years to 10.3 years. The girls' DXA-derived mean weight between visits 1 and 2 significantly increased (27.14 kg vs. 27.80 kg, P<0.0001). The increased weight was due to significant increases in total body fat-free mass (FFM) (19.53 kg vs. 19.89 kg,P<O.001), total body bone mass (1.05 kg vs. 1.07 kg, P<0.0001), and total body fat mass (7.61 kg vs. 7.91 kg,P<0.03). The girls' DXA-derived mean total trunk mass between visits 1 and 2 significantly increased (11.23 kg vs. 11.63 kg, p<<0.0001), as did total leg mass (9.33 kg vs. 9.53 kg, p<<0.001), although no significant differences were observed in total arm mass (2.52 kg vs. 2.54 kg, p< = 0.37). The Pearson coefficient of correlation (r) and total coefficient of variation (CV) for intraindividual measurements by DXA were: weight—r = 0.99, CV= 1.97%; total body FFM—r = 0.96, CV = 2.30%; total body bone mass—r = 0.99, CV = 2.08%; total body fat mass—r = 0.96, CV = 6.55%; percentage total body fat— r = 0.91, CV = 5.69%; total trunk mass—r = 0.96, CV = 3.59%; total arm mass—r = 0.95, CV = 4.09%; and total leg mass—r = 0.99, CV = 2.75%. Discussion : Total body FFM, total body bone mass, total body fat mass, percentage of total body fat mass, as well as regional mass determinations by DXA, were highly reproducible in healthy, normal-weight, prepubertal girls. We highly recommend the use of DXA for total body composition studies in girls aged 5 years to 10 years.     

禁食对胭脂鱼幼鱼游泳能力、热耐受能力和自发运动的影响

为了考察1—2周禁食对胭脂鱼(Myxocyprinus asiaticus)幼鱼游泳能力、热耐受能力和自发运动的影响,以胭脂鱼幼鱼[体质量(3.26±0.64) g,体长(5.32±0.32) cm]为实验对象,将其随机分成对照组、1周禁食组和2周禁食组测定其有氧运动能力及其代谢、热耐受能力和自发运动行为相关参数。结果发现:1周禁食组和2周禁食组的静止代谢和临界游泳速度与对照组没有显著性差异,但其最大代谢率、代谢空间、单位位移能量消耗、头高/头长及体高/体长显著低于对照组(P<0.05); 1周禁食组和2周禁食组的临界低温和致死低温与对照组没有显著性差异,但其临界高温和致死高温显著高于对照组(P<0.05); 1周禁食组和2周禁食组的运动总距离、平均运动速度和运动时间百分比与对照组没有显著性差异。综上所述:胭脂鱼幼鱼采取有氧运动能力和自发运动行为的维持策略应对1—2周禁食胁迫,这可能有利于维持其日常的觅食活动。此外,尽管对低温耐受没有显著影响,但1—2周的禁食显著提高了胭脂鱼幼鱼的高温耐受能力。     

Dynamics of Social Hierarchy in a Dairy Herd*

Factors which lead to social rank tension and dynamics of social hierarchy were analysed in a herd of dairy cattle. Socioethological characteristics were evaluated by means of the Dominance Value (DV) and the Index of Aggression (IA) which were computed for each animal of the herd. The analysis of interrelationships between DV—IA—seniority—body weight—individual pecularities elucidated some impulses of social rank dynamics.     

Geographical patterns of body mass distribution are robust even when inserting uncertainty in average estimates of species body mass

Pardiñas, Valenzuela, and Salazar‐Bravo (2017) are concerned that eventual differences in species mean body masses and in the phylogenetic hypothesis used in Maestri et al. (2016)—compared with those available on other potential sources—could affect the results of our original article. Here, we used a new phylogenetic hypothesis to conduct the same analyses of the original article, and we randomly sampled 1000 values of body mass within approximately 35% upper and lower intervals around the mean body mass for each species included in our database. We show that our previous results and conclusions are robust and valid, and they persist despite uncertainty in mean body mass estimation. We argue that sampling variation and uncertainty in both species mean body mass estimation and phylogenetic hypothesis are to be expected and should not always be confused with inaccuracies.     

单脏科吸虫二新种

鮻单脏吸虫,新种Haplosplanchnus lizae sp. nov. 和巨卵希氏单脏吸虫,新种Schikhobalotrema megaovus sp. nov. 检获于厦门集美附近海域棱鮻Liza carinatus肠道.鮻单脏吸虫,新种Haplosplanchnus lizae sp. nov与该属已知种的双腺单脏吸虫H. bivitellosus Zhukov,1971最为相似,它们都具有2列卵黄腺,但在卵黄腺的组成和虫卵大小方面存在明显差别;巨卵希氏单脏吸虫,新种Schikhobalotrema megaovus sp. nov. 与该属已知种的区别在于其虫卵0.130-0.12×0.096-0.120(0.133×0.108)特别大.       

Increased body size along urbanization gradients at both community and intraspecific level in macro‐moths

Urbanization involves a cocktail of human‐induced rapid environmental changes and is forecasted to gain further importance. Urban‐heat‐island effects result in increased metabolic costs expected to drive shifts towards smaller body sizes. However, urban environments are also characterized by strong habitat fragmentation, often selecting for dispersal phenotypes. Here, we investigate to what extent, and at which spatial scale(s), urbanization drives body size shifts in macro‐moths—an insect group characterized by positive size‐dispersal links—at both the community and intraspecific level. Using light and bait trapping as part of a replicated, spatially nested sampling design, we show that despite the observed urban warming of their woodland habitat, macro‐moth communities display considerable increases in community‐weighted mean body size because of stronger filtering against small species along urbanization gradients. Urbanization drives intraspecific shifts towards increased body size too, at least for a third of species analysed. These results indicate that urbanization drives shifts towards larger, and hence, more mobile species and individuals in order to mitigate low connectivity of ecological resources in urban settings. Macro‐moths are a key group within terrestrial ecosystems, and since body size is central to species interactions, such urbanization‐driven phenotypic change may impact urban ecosystem functioning, especially in terms of nocturnal pollination and food web dynamics. Although we show that urbanization's size‐biased filtering happens simultaneously and coherently at both the inter‐ and intraspecific level, we demonstrate that the impact at the community level is most pronounced at the 800 m radius scale, whereas species‐specific size increases happen at local and landscape scales (50–3,200 m radius), depending on the species. Hence, measures—such as creating and improving urban green infrastructure—to mitigate the effects of urbanization on body size will have to be implemented at multiple spatial scales in order to be most effective.     

The relationship between individual seed quality and maternal plant body size in crowded herbaceous vegetation

Aims In most natural plant populations, there is a strong right-skewed distribution of body sizes for reproductive plants—i.e. the vast majority are relatively small, suppressed weaklings that manage not just to survive effects of crowding/competition and other hazards but also to produce offspring. Recent research has shown that because of their relatively large numbers, these relatively small resident plants collectively contribute most of the seed offspring production available for the population in the next generation. However, the success of these offspring will depend in part on their quality, e.g. reflected by seed size and resource content. Accordingly, in the present study, we used material from natural populations of herbaceous species to test the null hypothesis that there is no significant relationship between body size variation in resident plants—resulting from between-site variation in the intensity of crowding/competition—and variation in the mass or N content of their individual seeds.Methods Using populations of 56 herbaceous species common in eastern Ontario, total above-ground dry plant mass, mean mass per seed and mean nitrogen (N) content per seed were recorded for a sample of the largest resident plants and also for the smallest reproductive plants growing in local neighbourhoods with the most severe crowding/competition from near neighbours.Important findings Mass per seed was numerically smaller from the smallest resident plants for most study species, but with few exceptions, this was not significantly different (P> 0.05) from mass per seed from the largest resident plants. The results therefore showed no general effect of maternal plant body size on individual seed mass, or N content. This suggests that the reproductive output of the smaller half of the resident plant size distribution within these populations is likely to contribute not just most of the seed production available for the next generation but also seed offspring that are just as likely—on a per individual basis—to achieve seedling/juvenile recruitment success as the seed offspring produced by the largest resident plants. This conflicts with the traditional 'size-advantage' hypothesis for predicting plant fitness under severe competition, and instead supports the recent 'reproductive-economy-advantage' hypothesis, where competitive fitness is promoted by capacity to produce offspring that—despite severe body size suppression imposed by neighbour effects—in turn have capacity to produce grand-offspring.     

草鱼种无机盐需要量之研究

应用正交法设计进行了三批草鱼种对钙、磷、镁、铁等无机盐元素需要量饲养试验.在此基础上又设计进行了两批以三池平行为一组的鉴别试验.经数理统计分析,获得了草鱼种饲料适宜混合无机盐含量,草鱼种对钙、磷等13种无机盐元素的适宜需要量,以及适宜比例.取得了比哈尔佛Halver氏鱼类营养盐(美国药典U.S.P.Ⅻ.No.2营养盐加哈尔佛微量元素)更适于草鱼种生长需要的新型混合无机盐.试验表明,对草鱼种生长影响比较大的无机盐元素是钙、磷、铁、硫、镁和钴.适宜的混合无机盐对草鱼种生长具有显著的促进作用,不适宜的混合无机盐或缺乏无机盐则草鱼种食欲差,生长缓慢,蛋白质效率低,出现营养缺乏症状.草鱼种对无机盐的需要表明,它不同于已有报道的大鳞大马哈鱼、斑点叉尾鮰、虹鳟、鲤、红海鲷、日本鳗、溪红点鲑,以及非鲫等.所作鱼体背肌、脊柱和血液的生化成分分析表明,第四、五批试验所养草鱼种与常规用草饲养的草鱼种基本一致.       

南方大口鲇幼鱼发育的初步研究

南方大口鲇的人工孵化鱼苗在11日龄时卵黄消失,转入营外生性营养的仔鱼阶段;23—26日龄仔鱼的主要外部器官分化完毕,转入稚鱼阶段;40—43日龄稚鱼除存在第二下颌须外,其余外形特征与成鱼相似,稚鱼阶段结束. 5月上旬在嘉陵江中采获到的当年幼鱼已发育到稚鱼阶段结束时期的水平;6—7月的当年幼鱼,当体长为151—177毫米时,第二下颌须消失.当年幼鱼体重和体长的关系为: W=e-10.87062L2.74257(N=77,r=0.9952)根据尾形、体色和须的数量的差异,可以区别南方大口鲇和鲇的当年幼鱼.       

Cardiac electric field at the period of depolarization and repolarization of the frog heart ventricle

Multichannel mapping of electrical field on heart ventricle epicardium and the body surface in frogs Rana esculenta and Rana temporaria was performed at periods of the ventricular myocardium depolarization and repolarization. The zone of the epicardium early depolarization is located on epicardium of the ventricle base posterior wall, while the late depolarization zone—on its apex and on the base anterior wall. The total vector of sequence of the ventricle epicardium depolarization is directed from the base to the apex. The zone of the early repolarization is located in the apical area, while that of the late one—in the area of the base. On the frog body surface the cardioelectric field with the cranial zone of negative and the caudal zone of positive potentials is formed before the appearance of the QRS complex on ECG. At the period of the heart ventricle repolarization the zone of the cardioelectric field negative potentials is located in the cranial, while that of the positive ones—in the body surface caudal parts. The cardioelectric field on the frog body surface at the periods of depolarization and repolarization of the ventricle myocardium reflects adequately the projection of sequence of involvement with excitation and of distribution of potentials on epicardium.     

Estimating body size of fossil sirenians

Estimates of fossil sirenian body size are important for understanding niche partitioning among possibly sympatric species. Because of the paucity of complete fossil skeletons, we explored the utility of three morphometric predictors of body size: (condylobasal skull length [BSL]; occipital condyle width [OCW]; and foramen magnum width [FMW]) in extant sirenians—Florida manatees (Trichechus manatus latirostris) and dugongs (Dugong dugon)—and then applied these to obtain estimates of body size in extinct sirenian taxa. Condylobasal length of the skull is a more accurate predictor of body size in extant Florida manatees and dugongs than are width of the occipital condyles or width of the foramen magnum. Body length (BL) is predicted more accurately than is body weight (BW) for all three morphometric predictors. For our sample of fossil sirenians, BSL, OCW, and FMW were used to generate predicted BLs and BWs. Preliminary assessments of fossil sirenian faunas from Florida and India suggest that body mass could have been one of several possible important morphological parameters accounting for feeding niche separation.     

Body size and abundance of benthic animals in Mirror Lake, New Hampshire

1. There is a strong negative correlation between body mass and population density for 192 species from the zoobenthos of Mirror Lake, a small, oligotrophic lake. This correlation spans seven—nine orders of magnitude in body mass. 2. The slopes of both the regression and the upper bound on the distribution of data points are significantly shallower than -0.75, the slope that has been suggested to imply that metabolic constraints limit animal abundance. 3. The regressions for individual taxonomic groups (i.e. classes, phyla) do not conform closely to the overall regression line. 4. It is suggested that metabolic constraints on community structure need not be expressed by a slope of -0.75 for regressions (or upper bounds) on body mass—abundance functions.     

我国淡水优质草食性鱼类的营养和能量学研究 Ⅱ.草鱼、团头鲂对七种水生高等植物的最大摄食量和消化率的测定

作者采用常规生化分析法测定草食性鱼类天然食料(七种水生高等植物)的生化成分和能值。在实验室特定条件下测定了草鱼和团头鲂的系列体重组对七种水生高等植物的最大摄食量和消化率。1.七种水生高等植物的生化成分的含量和能值的分析结果表明,菹草、黄丝草、聚草、苦草、小茨草、轮叶黑藻和紫背浮萍的水分百分含量范围为80.85—92.72%、蛋白质为1.69—4.96%、脂肪为0.35—1.09%、灰分为0.98—2.6%、纤维素为0.66—2.17%、无氮浸出物为2.3—9.95%。七种水生植物的蛋白质均含有常见十七种氨基酸,包括鱼体必需氨基酸九种和非必需氨基酸八种。其中菹草的氨基酸含量最高(36.63mg/g 湿重)、苦草最低(12.92mg/g 湿重);菹草的能值最高(3.36KJ/g 湿重)、小茨藻最低(1.28KJ/g 湿重)。2.草鱼、团头鲂对七种水生植物的最大摄食量(Y,g/24h)及消化率(Y,%)与鱼体重(X,g)相关显著,关系式为 Y=aX~b。从结果表明,随着鱼体重的增加,鱼对七种食料的相对摄食量下降(绝对摄食量上升),消化率提高。草鱼的最大摄食量一般比团头鲂高,而消化率一般比团头鲂低。       

Body composition and cardiometabolic health across the menopause transition

Every year, 2 million women reach menopause in the United States, and they may spend 40% or more of their life in a postmenopausal state. In the years immediately preceding menopause—known as the menopause transition (or perimenopause)—changes in hormones and body composition increase a woman’s overall cardiometabolic risk. In this narrative review, we summarize the changes in weight, body composition, and body fat distribution, as well as the changes in energy intake, energy expenditure, and other cardiometabolic risk factors (lipid profile, glucose metabolism, sleep health, and vascular function), that occur during the menopause transition. We also discuss the benefits of lifestyle interventions in women in the earlier stages of menopause before these detrimental changes occur. Finally, we discuss how to include perimenopausal women in research studies so that women across the life-span are adequately represented.     

Technologies of immortality: the brain on ice

One of the first envatted brains, the most cyborgian element of J. D. Bernal’s 1929 futuristic manifesto, The world, the flesh and the the devil, proposed a technological solution to the dreary certainty of mortality. In Bernal’s scenario the brain is maintained in an ‘out of body’ but ‘like-body’ environment—in a bath of cerebral–spinal fluid held at constant body temperature. In reality, acquiring prospective immortality requires access to very different technologies—those that allow human organs and tissues to be preserved in a quite ‘inhuman’ life-world—the cryogenic storage chamber. Like Bernal, today’s cryonicists consider that immortality can be secured through preservation of the brain alone. In this article I trace attempts to preserve or suspend life, and especially brain function, through the application of new ‘technologies of immortality’. Drawing together historical information on the development of refrigeration, cryopreservation, transplantation, and nanotechnologies, I explore the uneasy relationship between cryonics and the technology on which it depends for its success—cryogenics. In so doing, I argue that the ability to successfully realize the science fiction fantasy of human immortality will rest on a moral and scientific parasitism: the capacity to use the biotechnological artifacts or proxies—cryogenically preserved brains, archived brains, tissues, and immortalized cell lines—derived from the dead, in order to prolong life.     

Constraint and developmental dissociation of phenotypic integration in a genetically accommodated trait

SUMMARY The genetic accommodation of novel adaptive traits may be accompanied by the evolution of correlated traits that constrain adaptive evolution. Very little is known about the removal of maladaptive correlated traits. In the present study, body size was found to have evolved as a correlated trait during the artificial selection for a polyphenism and a monophenism, and the developmental basis underlying this correlated trait was investigated. The body size and coloration were found to be developmentally integrated by titers of the insect developmental hormone, juvenile hormone (JH). Attempts to uncouple the two traits resulted in the evolution of one of the body size determinants—the critical weight—but not the delay period whose evolution is constrained by JH titers. Thus, maladaptive correlated traits can be removed when multiple developmental modules exist, and the evolution of one or more of these modules is not constrained.     

Biocides marketing,the interface between research and the user

The paper studies the premise that in any technological industry, such as the biocides industry, the marketing function forms the essential bridge between the needs of the customers and the technological abilities of the manufacturers' research, development and production units, and thus also satisfies the needs of the body corporate by creating conditions of growth and profit generation.The needs of these three sectors — the body corporate, the research and development/production and the customers — are examined, so that the essential role of the marketing function can be observed in detail. An existing biocide marketing team is used as an example to give practical illustration to the theoretical considerations.     

Tipping the scales: Evolution of the allometric slope independent of average trait size

The scaling of body parts is central to the expression of morphology across body sizes and to the generation of morphological diversity within and among species. Although patterns of scaling‐relationship evolution have been well documented for over one hundred years, little is known regarding how selection acts to generate these patterns. In part, this is because it is unclear the extent to which the elements of log‐linear scaling relationships—the intercept or mean trait size and the slope—can evolve independently. Here, using the wing–body size scaling relationship in Drosophila melanogaster as an empirical model, we use artificial selection to demonstrate that the slope of a morphological scaling relationship between an organ (the wing) and body size can evolve independently of mean organ or body size. We discuss our findings in the context of how selection likely operates on morphological scaling relationships in nature, the developmental basis for evolved changes in scaling, and the general approach of using individual‐based selection experiments to study the expression and evolution of morphological scaling.