西洞庭湖鸟类物种多样性分析

2003年7月~2005年6月,按月对西洞庭湖的鸟类资源进行调查,共记录到鸟类198种,分属11目39科。其中雀形目和鹳形目占有绝对优势,分别占鸟类群落组成的40.9%和32.8%。各科中,鸭科种类最多,有26种。候鸟134种,占总数的67.7%。豆雁、绿翅鸭、罗纹鸭等为优势种。记录到包括白鹤、白尾海雕、黑鹳、东方白鹳等4种属国家Ⅰ级重点保护物种和大天鹅等21种国家Ⅱ级重点保护物种。对各季度的个体数、物种数和物种多样性指数进行年动态分析表明,个体数和物种数的年动态总体上相似,因受候鸟的影响,季节性明显,物种多样性指数年动态则存在差异。     

Northern Goshawk Habitat: an Intersection of Science,Management, and Conservation

Abstract: We responded to the claim by Greenwald et al. (2005) that the management recommendations for the northern goshawk in the Southwestern United States (MRNG; Reynolds et al. 1992), a food web-based conservation plan that incorporated both northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) and multiple prey habitats, may be inadequate to protect goshawks. Greenwald et al. (2005) based this claim on their review of 12 telemetry studies of goshawk habitat selection and 5 nontelemetry studies of the effects of vegetation structure at the home range scale on goshawk nest occupancy and reproduction that appeared after the 1992 publication of the MRNG. Greenwald et al. (2005) summarized their review as showing that 1) goshawks were habitat specialists limited to forests with mature and old-growth structures including large trees, high canopy cover, multiple canopy layering, and abundant woody debris; 2) habitats were not selected on the basis of prey abundance and, therefore, managing for prey habitats diluted goshawk habitats; and 3) selection for openings, edges, and habitat diversity was inconclusive. Our review found that when the studies' respective authors pooled their radiotagged goshawks there were weak to strong selections for old forest structures. However, the studies also documented extensive variation in use of vegetation types and structures by individual goshawks; some avoided openings, edges, young forests, and old forests, whereas others selected for these characteristics. Additionally, by virtue of their wide geographic distribution, the studies showed that the focal populations themselves occurred in a variety of forest types, some with large structural differences. We found no evidence in Greenwald's et al. (2005) review that the MRNG are inadequate to protect goshawks. Rather, the studies reviewed by Greenwald et al. (2005), as well as many studies they missed, supported the MRNG. The suggestion of inadequacy by Greenwald et al. (2005) appeared rooted in misunderstandings of goshawk habitats described in the MRNG, a discounting of the extent of variation in vegetation structural and seral stages used by goshawks, a limited understanding of the extent to which prey limits goshawks, a failure to recognize the dynamic nature of forests, and an incomplete review of the literature. We believe the MRNG are adequate because they maximize the sustainable amount of mature and old forests in goshawk home ranges and specify the kinds and intermixtures of prey habitats within home ranges. Implementation of MRNG should reduce the likelihood that the availability of vegetation structures suited to goshawk nesting and foraging, as well as abundance and availability of prey, will limit goshawk nest occupancy and reproduction.     

90 Initial characterization of the terminal domains of linear plasmid-like dna's from ernodesmis verticillata (chlorophyta)

Phylogenetic analyses inferred from rbcL sequences indicates that specimens of Caloglossa (Harvey) G. Martens collected from Vermilion Bay, Louisiana and Galveston, Texas, reported as C. leprieurii (Montagne) G. Martens (1869) constitutes a separate taxon. Studies are presently being conducted to compare this northwestern Gulf of Mexico taxon with material of C. intermedia Kamiya et West in Kamiya et al. (2000, J. Phycol. 36:411-420) from the Western Atlantic coast and with C. apomeiotica West et Zuccarello in West et al. (1994, Bot. Mar. 37:381–390) from Baja California, Mexico.     

Detecting differentially expressed genes by relative entropy

DNA microarray experiments have generated large amount of gene expression measurements across different conditions. One crucial step in the analysis of these data is to detect differentially expressed genes. Some parametric methods, including the two-sample t-test (T-test) and variations of it, have been used. Alternatively, a class of non-parametric algorithms, such as the Wilcoxon rank sum test (WRST), significance analysis of microarrays (SAM) of Tusher et al. (2001), the empirical Bayesian (EB) method of Efron et al. (2001), etc., have been proposed. Most available popular methods are based on t-statistic. Due to the quality of the statistic that they used to describe the difference between groups of data, there are situations when these methods are inefficient, especially when the data follows multi-modal distributions. For example, some genes may display different expression patterns in the same cell type, say, tumor or normal, to form some subtypes. Most available methods are likely to miss these genes. We developed a new non-parametric method for selecting differentially expressed genes by relative entropy, called SDEGRE, to detect differentially expressed genes by combining relative entropy and kernel density estimation, which can detect all types of differences between two groups of samples. The significance of whether a gene is differentially expressed or not can be estimated by resampling-based permutations. We illustrate our method on two data sets from Golub et al. (1999) and Alon et al. (1999). Comparing the results with those of the T-test, the WRST and the SAM, we identified novel differentially expressed genes which are of biological significance through previous biological studies while they were not detected by the other three methods. The results also show that the genes selected by SDEGRE have a better capability to distinguish the two cell types.     

Neuroinfections in developed versus developing countries

In recent supplement of neuroendocrinology letters, first time the authors from West and East, North and South of EU and the "Third World" present data on neuroinfections in high technology society - on nosocomial meningitis and vice versa in low technology and income countries of sub-Saharan Africa. 14 years survey of 171 cases of nosocomial paediatric meningitis is presented by Rudinsky et al. [1] and subpopulations of Acinetobacter baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa [1,2] within last 20 years are briefly analyzed by Huttova et al. [2] and Ondrusova et al. [3]. All cases were complicating high technology procedures, such as neurosurgery, very low birth weight neonates after shunt implants etc. Current problems of management of nosocomial meningitis are reviewed by Bauer et al. [4] and consequence of inappropriate therapy by Huttova et al. [5]. Another high technology associated infection is septic embolisation followed by brain abscess and meningitis in patients with endocarditis after cardiac surgery (Kovac et al.) [6]. Experience from more than 600 cases is discussed in the article by Karvaj et al. [7] who outlines extremely high mortality in patients with endocarditis embolizing to central nervous system - up to 60%. The rest of papers are in contrary to problems of neuroinfections in EU and US focused on meningitis and cerebral malaria as commonest neuroinfections in the third world: 261 cases of cerebral malaria are discussed in a brief research note by Sudanese team of tropical programme in area of famine and civil war in southern Sudan (Bartkovjak and Ianetti et al.) [8]. Fungal neuroinfections complicating AIDS are of decreasing trend as reported by Njambi et al. from Kenya [9] and data from 497 cases from Uganda, Ethiopia and Burundi are presented by Benca et al. [10]. Finally an outbreak of meningococcal meningitis is reported by Benca et al. [11] from meningitis belt in Darfur and southern Sudan. We hope that the supplement may show difference in etiology, risk factors, therapy and outcome of neuroinfections (which is a burning public health and social problem in tropics) in other third world countries versus developed high-tech medical settings of US, EU and other high income countries, as presented by Benca et al. [12].     

THE LIFE CYCLE AND TOXICITY OF PFIESTERIA PISCICIDA REVISITED1

Despite use of excellent molecular techniques, Litaker et al. (2002) cannot provide insights about the life history of toxic Pfiesteria piscicida because they showed no data in support of having used toxic strains; rather they presented evidence that they used non‐inducible strains. Litaker et al. did not find amoeboid stages or a chrysophyte‐like cyst stage in several cultures and unequivocally concluded that the stages do not exist in all P. piscicida strains. Thus, they did not consider the tenet that absence of evidence does not constitute proof of absence. Apparent discrepancies between the research by Litaker et al. and previous research on Pfiesteria can be resolved as follows: First, Litaker et al. did not use toxic strains. We have reported findings (similar to Litaker et al.) showing few amoeboid transformations in non‐inducible strains, which manifest some but not all of the forms that have been documented in some toxic strains. We, and others, have documented active toxicity to fish, transformations to amoebae, and chrysophyte‐like cysts in some clonal toxic strains. Second, the data from several recent publications, which were available but not mentioned by Litaker et al. or by Coats (2002) in accompanying commentary, have verified P. piscicida amoebae, chrysophyte‐like cysts, and other stages in some toxic strains through a combination of approaches including PCR data from clonal cultures.     

饲养条件下川金丝猴群中主雄的移除和替换对社群行为的影响

在上海野生动物园对一群半散养的川金丝猴进行了为期一年的行为学研究。在此期间,猴群中发生了4起家庭主雄被移除和替代事件和一个雌性群因繁殖需要引入一个成年雄猴的事件,该过程在饲养条件下首次被完整记录。观察发现,繁殖群中,在家庭主雄猴的健康状况良好期间,群中各雄性成员间的社会等级关系相当稳定,很少变动。主雄猴有效地控制着群体的秩序,并严格地看护着其家庭中的雌猴免受其他雄猴的侵扰,而且它也很少对其他低序位雄猴主动攻击。全雄群中则再由一个高序位雄猴控制其他低序位雄猴。疾病、衰老、前主雄猴的存在以及被饲养人员从群中移除进行治疗等都可能引起猴群社会发生很大动荡,尤其是全雄群中各雄猴的社会等级序位发生剧烈改变,甚至发生家庭主雄的替代。在本报道中,人为因素在主雄替代过程中起着主要作用。主雄替代一旦成功,新主雄会把原主雄赶入全雄群,攻击追撵其他低序位雄猴,并彻底与全雄群完全脱离。对于每一个新主雄,家庭中的雌猴对其的接纳表现出明显的选择倾向。雌性性选择可能是野生猴群中新家庭群建立一种内在基础机制,同时提示偷配发生的可能性。     

88 Preliminary observations on the identity of the red algal genus Caloglossa (delesseriaceae,ceramiales) in the northwestern gulf of mexico

Phylogenetic analyses inferred from rbcL sequences indicates that specimens of Caloglossa (Harvey) G. Martens collected from Vermilion Bay, Louisiana and Galveston, Texas, reported as C. leprieurii (Montagne) G. Martens (1869) constitutes a separate taxon. Studies are presently being conducted to compare this northwestern Gulf of Mexico taxon with material of C. intermedia Kamiya et West in Kamiya et al. (2000, J. Phycol. 36:411‐420) from the Western Atlantic coast and with C. apomeiotica West et Zuccarello in West et al. (1994, Bot. Mar. 37:381–390) from Baja California, Mexico.     

Limitations of entropy maximization in ecology: a reply to Haegeman and Loreau

Haegeman and Loreau published a paper that is primarily a criticism of a maximum entropy model of trait-based community assembly (by Shipley et al.) and purports to show the limitations of this method in ecology. However, they misunderstood the basic purpose, logic and justification of the maximum entropy formalism and, because of this, leveled criticisms of Shipley et al. that are unfounded. Part of the confusion can be traced to sloppy presentation of the underlying approach in Shipley et al. The confusion arises because maximum entropy models are justified based on information theory and Bayesian logic while the interpretation that Haegeman and Loreau present is based on substantive empirical assumptions about microstate allocations and a combinatorial argument that do not apply to maximum entropy models and which I do not apply to my model in particular.     

Pyrimidine transport activities in trypanosomes

Parasites of the Trypanosomatidae family are unable to synthesize purines. Instead, they rely on their hosts to supply these necessary compounds. The article by Gudin et al. identifies three transport mechanisms of the equilibrative nucleoside transporter family by which nucleosides and nucleobases are transported in this medically important family of organisms. The work by Gudin et al. characterizes the dynamics of these transporters and points to further areas for future genetic and therapeutic experiments.     

广东省南雄盆地白垩系—第三系交界恐龙绝灭问题

广东省南雄盆地中的红层可划分为三个群五个组,大致代表了晚白垩世—始新世的沉积.根据绝对年龄、古地磁测定结果和脊椎动物化石组合性质的综合分析,位于地磁极性带 29R 上部的坪岭组和上湖组之间的分界线被确定为 K/T 界线.对晚白垩世恐龙蛋的研究表明,不同"种"的恐龙蛋是在地磁极性带 29R 的中、下部,也就是说在白垩系—第三系交界之前20～30万年期间绝迹的.而且在这一时期内,所有已发现的蛋壳中,绝大多数蛋壳的厚度和显微结构都显示出明显的病理特征,例如根据随机取样统计,Macroolithus yaotunensis 蛋壳异常结构的出现率,最高可达75%.产生病态恐龙蛋壳的生理机制可以根据发生在现生鸟类的相同病理特征来解释.进一步分析恐龙蛋壳的微量元素和稳定同位素组成,结果显示, Pb, Cu, Mn 等9种元素丰度变化在这一时期达到最大峰值, δ~(18)O 也出现正异常.在这一基础上提出,微量元素的污染和气候突然的变化妨碍了正常蛋壳结构的形成,导致了恐龙的绝灭.这一绝灭过程大约经历了20～30万年.     

Complete genome sequence of Arcanobacterium haemolyticum type strain (11018)

Arcanobacterium haemolyticum (ex MacLean et al. 1946) Collins et al. 1983 is the type species of the genus Arcanobacterium, which belongs to the family Actinomycetaceae. The strain is of interest because it is an obligate parasite of the pharynx of humans and farm animal; occasionally, it causes pharyngeal or skin lesions. It is a Gram-positive, nonmotile and non-sporulating bacterium. The strain described in this study was isolated from infections amongst American soldiers of certain islands of the North and West Pacific. This is the first completed sequence of a member of the genus Arcanobacterium and the ninth type strain genome from the family Actinomycetaceae. The 1,986,154 bp long genome with its 1,821 protein-coding and 64 RNA genes is a part of the Genomic Encyclopedia of Bacteria and Archaea project.     

Chlorine in the Netherlands, Part II: Risk Management in Uncertainty for Chlorine

The debate over chlorine in industrialized economies has become extremely polarized in the last decade. Environmental pressure groups are striving for a virtual phaseout of chlorine and chlorinated hydrocarbons (CHCs), because they are convinced that the risks cannot be managed. Industry argues this is not necessary because environmental risks can be controlled, nor is it feasible, because at least 60% of all firms use CHCs, produds made with CHCs, or elemental chlorine. In an attempt to give this discussion a more factual basis, the Dutch minister of environment launched a strategic study on chlorine (see Kleijn et al. I997;Tukker et al. 1995). Using all available knowledge about emissions and contemporary evaluation methods, the study found only a limited number of environmental issues outstanding related to the chlorine chain: however, it also found important uncertainties. This article describes the outstanding uncertainties in more detail. It defines which uncertainties have to be regarded as chlorine-specific and the extent to which additional research can resolve them. For the remaining uncertainties the potential benefts of uncertainty reduction strategies are evaluted, relying mainly on the precautionary principle     

黑长臂猿的群体大小及组成

黑长臂猿（Ｈｙｌｏｂａｔｅｓｃｏｎｃｏｌｏｒ）是长臂猿科中较为原始的类群,对其野外行为生态习性近年来已有所报道,但意见不一。本文根据近两年的野外观察,认为黑长臂猿的群体大小为４．３±１．０只,（范围３—６,ｎ＝７）,群体组成为１成年雄性,１—２成年雌性,１—３后代个体,群体之大小除与其本身的特点有关外,还与其赖以生存的生境条件好坏有关。     

Historical records of passerine introductions to New Zealand fail to support the propagule pressure hypothesis

Blackburn et al. (Biodiver Conserv 20:2189–2199, 2011) claim that a reanalysis of passerine introductions to New Zealand supports the propagule pressure hypothesis. The conclusions of Blackburn et al. (2011) are invalid for three reasons: First, the historical record is so flawed that there is no sound basis for identifying the mechanisms behind extinction following introduction, or whether species were successful because they were introduced in large numbers or were introduced in large numbers because earlier releases succeeded. Second, the GLIMMIX analysis of Blackburn et al. (2011) is biased in favor of the propagule pressure hypothesis. Third, the population viability analysis presented by Blackburn et al. (2011) is based on unjustified and questionable assumptions. It is likely that the outcome of passerine bird introductions to New Zealand depended on species characteristics, site characteristics, and human decisions more than on a simple summing of the numbers introduced.     

Theorizing human impacts into ecological restoration is not a slippery slope,but a toehold for reaching social‐ecological resilience: a counter‐response to McDonald et al. (2019)

In their reply, McDonald et al. have misconstrued several crucial points from our article. In this counter‐response, we clarify our concerns with the Standards as a document with global implications. We highlight our concern with framing preindustrial indigenous peoples' impacts as natural and the colonial connotations of such an assumption. We also discuss practical issues that arise from the Standards' conceptualization of natural variation and suggest avenues for developing frameworks that do not rely on a nature‐culture dichotomy or naturalization of indigenous landscapes.     

Notes on the biology of the freshwater planarian Dugesia bengalensis (Platyhelminthes Turbellaria Tricladida)

Dugesia bengalensis was described by Kawakatsu (Kawakatsu et al., 1983) from specimens collected in West Bengal. We have been studying populations from many different localities in Santiniketan and adjoining areas of West Bengal and can provide additional biological information.The species is hermaphroditic, and its breeding season was found to occur usually between October and March when the winter temperature falls below 25 °C. Outside of the breeding season, D. bengalensis is capable of asexual reproduction by binary fission (Mahapatra et al., 1987).Development of the reproductive organs appeared to be from neoblasts and other mesenchymal cells and, therefore, to be like that typical of other triclads with the exception that some of the neoblasts used for the reproductive tissue appeared to be derived from the intestinal region (Ghosh, 1988; cf. Teshirogi, 1986).During copulation, the partners were oriented in the same direction and not in a head-to-tail position as has been reported (Hyman, 1945) for some planarians.The oval, stalked cocoons were laid in marshy places, and during the period of summer (usually from April to June) they lay dormant in the sandy soil until the onset of the monsoon rains. Then, typically three or four months after they were laid, the cocoons hatched to yield three or four young, a remarkably low number for freshwater triclads (cf Ball & Reynoldson, 1981).     

Human marriage systems and sexual dimorphism in stature.

Contemporary populations of Homo sapiens are sexually dimorphic on a variety of traits. In terms of stature, men are reliably between 4% and 10% taller than women in well-sampled human populations. Are cross-cultural differences in the magnitude of sexual dimorphism consistent with expectations from sexual selection theory? Prior studies have provided conflicting answers to this question in part because they failed to agree on how the force of sexual selection should or could be operationalized. Here we offer a simple and unbiased method for operationalizing sexual selection and retest two separate predictions from earlier work (Alexander et al., 1979) about its expected impact on stature dimorphism in a sample of 155 societies. Neither prediction matches the observed cross-cultural distribution of dimorphism. However, this is not the consequence of a random distribution of dimorphism across societies. Instead, the data exhibit a robust and unexpected pattern.     

Antigen-independent selection of stable intracellular single-chain antibodies.

The intracellular expression of single-chain Fv antibody fragments (scFv) in eukaryotic cells has an enormous potential in functional genomics and therapeutics [Marasco (1997) Gene Ther. 4, 11-15; Richardson and Marasco (1995) Trends Biotechnol. 13, 306-310]. However, the application of these so-called intrabodies is currently limited by their unpredictable behavior under the reducing conditions encountered inside eukaryotic cells, which can affect their stability and solubility properties [W?rn et al. (2000) J. Biol. Chem. 275, 2795-2803; Biocca et al. (1995) Bio/Technology 13, 1110-1115]. We present a novel system that enables selection of stable and soluble intrabody frameworks in vivo without the requirement or knowledge of antigens. This system is based on the expression of single-chain antibodies fused to a selectable marker that can control gene expression and cell growth. Our results show that the activity of a selectable marker fused to well characterized scFvs [W?rn et al. (2000) J. Biol. Chem. 275, 2795-2803] correlates with the solubility and stability of the scFv moieties. This method provides a unique tool to identify stable and soluble scFv frameworks, which subsequently serve as acceptor backbones to construct intrabody complementarity determining region libraries by randomization of hypervariable loops.     

Adjustments to the segment center of mass proportions of Clauser et al. (1969)

One of the most commonly-referenced studies on body segment masses and centers of mass is by Clauser et al. (AMRL Technical Report 69-70, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, 1969). The Clauser et al. data, however, are difficult to use, because the investigators used certain bony landmarks rather than joint centers as reference points for the center of mass proportions. The purpose of this study was to make adjustments to those proportions so that they could be applied directly to segments having joint centers as endpoints. The segments affected by these adjustments were the trunk, upper arm, forearm, thigh, and calf. These new proportions are markedly different than those originally reported by Clauser et al., especially for the trunk segment. Readers are cautioned against using the original proportions when using joint centers as segment endpoints.