Comparing Different Models of the Development of Verb Inflection in Early Child Spanish

How children acquire knowledge of verb inflection is a long-standing question in language acquisition research. In the present study, we test the predictions of some current constructivist and generativist accounts of the development of verb inflection by focusing on data from two Spanish-speaking children between the ages of 2;0 and 2;6. The constructivist claim that children’s early knowledge of verb inflection is only partially productive is tested by comparing the average number of different inflections per verb in matched samples of child and adult speech. The generativist claim that children’s early use of verb inflection is essentially error-free is tested by investigating the rate at which the children made subject-verb agreement errors in different parts of the present tense paradigm. Our results show: 1) that, although even adults’ use of verb inflection in Spanish tends to look somewhat lexically restricted, both children’s use of verb inflection was significantly less flexible than that of their caregivers, and 2) that, although the rate at which the two children produced subject-verb agreement errors in their speech was very low, this overall error rate hid a consistent pattern of error in which error rates were substantially higher in low frequency than in high frequency contexts, and substantially higher for low frequency than for high frequency verbs. These results undermine the claim that children’s use of verb inflection is fully productive from the earliest observable stages, and are consistent with the constructivist claim that knowledge of verb inflection develops only gradually.     

不同血钙水平大鼠动物模型的建立

为研究低钙动物的生长代谢与疾病的关系。介绍一种可行的不同血钙水平大鼠动物模型,通过控制膳食内下水平对所饲大鼠血钙进行调节。用Ｗｉｓｔａｒ大鼠,按体重和性别均匀分层分为７组。所用的基础ＬＣ饲料,是以玉烦为主的膳食配方所配成,其中低钼特点突出,所饲大鼠血钙水平明显低下,体重生长迟缓,代谢偏低。研究结果表明,ＬＣ组大鼠血清Ｃａ水平仅为Ｓｔｏｃｋ组一半,体重增长迟缓,不膳食补Ｃａ后,血Ｃａ水平随补Ｃａ量逐     

Increasing Levels of Physical Disturbance Affect Soil Nematode Community Composition in a Previously Undisturbed Ecosystem

Soil is essential for the sustenance of life. Diverse soil organisms support several biological processes such as organic matter decomposition, mineralization, nutrient cycling, and controlling pests and diseases. Among multicellular soil organisms, nematodes are ubiquitous, functionally diverse, and abundant. Notably, agricultural practices have diverse impacts on plants, soils, and soil organisms. Tillage affects nematodes directly by altering pore size and disrupting the continuity of water films and indirectly by affecting the lower trophic groups such as bacteria and fungi. The primary goal of this study was to examine the effect of increasing levels of physical disturbance on nematode communities in an undisturbed forest ecosystem. The experiment included four treatments: control with no disturbance, surface litter removed with no litter and no vegetation, tilling the soil with a rototiller every 2 mon, and every 2 wk. Tillage significantly reduced the overall abundance and overall richness of nematode communities over time. Among nematode trophic groups, tillage significantly reduced the abundance and richness of bacterial feeders, predators, and omnivores over time. The abundance and richness of c-p 2, c-p 4, and c-p 5 class nematodes were significantly decreased by tillage. Unlike tillage, minimal disturbance such as removal of surface litter resulted in a significant decrease in the abundance of only three genera: Acrobeles, Aporcelaimellus, and Boleodorus. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling analysis revealed that nematodes of higher c-p classes such as Dorylaimida, Aporcelaimellus, Alaimus, Clarkus, and Tripyla were sensitive to physical disturbances. Bacterial feeders belonging to the c-p 2 class such as Tylocephalus, Acrobeles, Ceratoplectus, Plectus, and Pseudacrobeles were significantly reduced by tillage. Moreover, tillage significantly reduced the functional metabolic footprint of nematodes, which indicates decreased metabolic activity, reduced C inflow, and poorly structured soil food webs. Previous studies conducted in agricultural ecosystems determined that Clarkus, Filenchus, and Plectus were tolerant to tillage; however, they were found sensitive to tillage in our study. Overall, our study suggests that increasing levels of physical disturbance are detrimental to nematode community abundance and diversity that could affect soil ecosystem stability and sustainability.     

Tree Species Composition and Diversity at Different Levels of Disturbance in Popa Mountain Park,Myanmar

Tropical forests are highly threatened by human activities, even within the protected areas that have been established to conserve biodiversity. Human activities may have different degrees of impact on vegetation structure, composition and diversity. Some studies have measured direct evidence of human activities in forming disturbance gradients, while others have quantified canopy cover as a proxy for disturbance. When measurement is confined to human activities, disturbance may be underestimated in areas of poor canopy cover where forest degrading activities have ceased. Where measurements are restricted to canopy cover, disturbance may be underestimated in areas of extensive canopy cover that may have been subject to past disturbances, and overestimated for areas where canopy cover is naturally sparse. Combining indicators of past and present disturbances is therefore necessary to examine the full spectrum of human disturbances. Forest vegetation in Popa Mountain Park, Myanmar was surveyed and classified into three levels of disturbance—undisturbed, medium disturbed and highly disturbed—derived from evidence of cutting and canopy cover. The forests are second or third growth after clearing for agriculture in the early 20th century. All trees with ≥10 cm diameter at breast height in 168 sample plots (10 m × 10 m) were identified and measured. Density, basal area and diversity decreased and dominance rose when disturbance increased. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) clearly discriminated three forest stands and CCA axes were significantly correlated to soil moisture, soil nitrogen, elevation, slope, aspect, distance from park boundary and distance from villages. Abstract in Myanmar is available at http://www.blackwell‐synergy.com/loi/btp .     

Patterns in Species Persistence and Biomass Production in Soil Microcosms Recovering from a Disturbance Reject a Neutral Hypothesis for Bacterial Community Assembly

The neutral theory of biodiversity has emerged as a major null hypothesis in community ecology. The neutral theory may sufficiently well explain the structuring of microbial communities as the extremely high microbial diversity has led to an expectation of high ecological equivalence among species. To address this possibility, we worked with microcosms of two soils; the microcosms were either exposed, or not, to a dilution disturbance which reduces community sizes and removes some very rare species. After incubation for recovery, changes in bacterial species composition in microcosms compared with the source soils were assessed by pyrosequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA genes. Our assays could detect species with a proportional abundance ≥ 0.0001 in each community, and changes in the abundances of these species should have occurred during the recovery growth, but not be caused by the disturbance per se. The undisturbed microcosms showed slight changes in bacterial species diversity and composition, with a small number of initially low-abundance species going extinct. In microcosms recovering from the disturbance, however, species diversity decreased dramatically (by > 50%); and in most cases there was not a positive relationship between species initial abundance and their chance of persistence. Furthermore, a positive relationship between species richness and community biomass was observed in microcosms of one soil, but not in those of the other soil. The results are not consistent with a neutral hypothesis that predicts a positive abundance-persistence relationship and a null effect of diversity on ecosystem functioning. Adaptation mechanisms, in particular those associated with species interactions including facilitation and predation, may provide better explanations.     

Comparison of Serum and Tissue Levels of Trace Elements in Different Models of Cervical Cancer

Cervical cancer is a leading cause of death by cancer among women worldwide. It is necessary to develop and refine cervical cancer models to more accurately reflect human tumor type. The relevance of cervical cancer to trace element was studied in this paper. By means of quantitative trace element analysis in models and patients with cervical cancer, the tissue and serum levels of trace elements in papillomaviruses-induced cancer models were more similar to that of patients than the levels in models induced by HeLa cell and methylcholanthrene. The results reflect papillomaviruses model most accurately mimic in vivo carcinogenesis of patients with cervical cancer. It will have a superior predictive value over HeLa cell and methylcholanthrene models in pre-clinical trials. The papillomaviruses-induced cervical cancer can provide more reliable models for testing the efficacy of drugs in treating human cancers.     

退化植物群落结构及其物种组成在人为干扰梯度上的响应

在岷江上游大沟流域,沿着人为干扰梯度,调查了退化榛栎群落的结构及其物种组成变化。结果表明：（１）除密度外,群落木本层的结构特性（密度、高度、生物量、基径面积和物种多样性）与干扰强度的增加呈负相关,而其草本物种多样性、生态优势度呈正反应,但地上生物量变化呈现相反的趋势;（２）根据群落内植物种群密度（或盖度）在干扰梯度上的响应变化,群人４７个种可基本上分成３个反应种组：１６个为扩展种（ｉｎｖａｓｉｖｅ     

Disturbance Frequency and Community Stability in Native Tallgrass Prairie

Ecological communities are spatially and temporally variable in response to a variety of biotic and abiotic forces. It is not always clear, however, if spatial and temporal variability leads to instability in communities. Instability may result from strong biotic interactions or from stochastic processes acting on small populations. I used 10-15 yr of annual data from the Konza Prairie Long-Term Ecological Research site to examine whether plant, breeding bird, grasshopper, and small mammal communities in tallgrass prairie exhibit stability or directional change in response to different experimentally induced fire frequencies. Based on ordination and ANOVA, plant and grasshopper communities on annually burned sites differed significantly from plant and grasshopper communities on less frequently burned sites. Breeding birds and small mammals differed among sites as well, but these differences were not clearly related to disturbance frequency. A modified time series analysis indicated that plant communities were undergoing directional change (unstable) on all watersheds, regardless of fire frequency. Contrary to expectations, directional change was greatest on the annually burned sites and lowest on the infrequently burned sites. Unlike the plant communities, breeding bird, grasshopper, and small mammal communities were temporally stable, despite high-compositional variability from 1 yr to the next. Stability among the consumer communities within these dynamic plant communities occurs because three-dimensional vegetation structure does not change over time, despite changes in plant species composition. Evidence suggests that instability in the plant community results from strong biotic interactions among temporally persistent core species and stochastic dynamics among infrequent satellite species. Overall, community stability cannot be assessed if the pattern of temporal dynamics is unknown. Long-term empirical studies of different taxa under different disturbance regimes are needed to determine over what time frames and spatial scales communities may be stable. Such studies are essential for the development of generalities regarding the relationship between disturbance frequency and community stability in terrestrial and aquatic systems.     

Relationship Between Plasma and Brain Large Neutral Amino Acids in Rats Fed Diets with Different Compositions at Different Times of the Day

Large neutral amino acids (LNAAs) compete with each other for carrier-mediated transport through the blood-brain barrier into the brain. The relative plasma concentration, expressed as the ratio of each LNAA to the sum of LNAAs, is considered the main regulator of brain LNAA concentrations. In order to investigate the consistency of this assumption throughout a 24-h period, we have compared the relationship of plasma LNAAs to brain LNAAs among groups of rats fed diets containing various amounts of protein (in order to obtain a wide range of plasma LNAA levels) at two different phases of the light/dark cycle (0900 and 2100 hours). The relationship between plasma and brain LNAAs was found to be dependent on both diet and the time of day. Similar plasma amino acid concentrations in the morning and in the evening contrasted with different brain concentrations. Furthermore, previous findings that brain LNAA concentrations are influenced by plasma amino acid concentrations were confirmed.     

Nonrandom Composition of Flower Colors in a Plant Community: Mutually Different Co-Flowering Natives and Disturbance by Aliens

When pollinators use flower color to locate food sources, a distinct color can serve as a reproductive barrier against co-flowering species. This anti-interference function of flower color may result in a community assembly of plant species displaying mutually different flower colors. However, such color dispersion is not ubiquitous, suggesting a variable selection across communities and existence of some opposing factors. We conducted a 30-week study in a plant community and measured the floral reflectances of 244 species. The reflectances were evaluated in insect color spaces (bees, swallowtails, and flies), and the dispersion was compared with random expectations. We found that co-existing colors were overdispersed for each analyzed pollinator type, and this overdispersion was statistically significant for bees. Furthermore, we showed that exclusion of 32 aliens from the analysis significantly increased the color dispersion of native flowers in every color space. This result indicated that aliens disturbed a native plant–pollinator network via similarly colored flowers. Our results demonstrate the masking effects of aliens in the detection of color dispersion of native flowers and that variations in pollinator vision yield different outcomes. Our results also support the hypothesis that co-flowering species are one of the drivers of color diversification and affect the community assembly.     

Relationship between Leaf Structure and Gas Exchange in Wheat Leaves at Different Insertion Levels

Net photosynthesis rate (P_n), stomatal conductance to CO₂ andresidual conductance to CO₂ were measured in the last six leaves(the sixth or flag leaf and the preceding five leaves) of Triticumaestivum L. cv. Kolibri plants grown in Mediterranean conditions.Recently fully expanded leaves of well-watered plants were alwaysused. Measurements were made at saturating photosynthetic photonflux density, and at ambient CO₂ and O₂ levels. The specificleaf area, total organic nitrogen content, some anatomical characteristics,and other parameters, were measured on the same leaves usedfor gas exchange experiments. A progressive xeromorphic adaptation in the leaf structure wasobserved with increasing leaf insertion levels. Furthermore,mesophyll cell volume per unit leaf area (V_mes/A) decreasedby 52·6% from the first leaf to the flag leaf. Mesophyllcell area per unit leaf area also decreased, but only by 24·5%.However, nitrogen content per unit mesophyll cell volume increasedby 50·6% from the first leaf to the flag leaf. This increasecould be associated to an observed higher number of chloroplastcross-sections per mm² of mesophyll cell cross-sectional areain the flag leaf: values of 23000 in the first leaf and 48000in the flag leaf were obtained. P_n per unit leaf area remainedfairly constant at the different insertion levels: values of33·83±0·93 mg dm^–2 h^–1 and32·32±1·61 mg dm^–2 h^–1 wereobtained for the first leaf and the flag leaf, respectively.Residual conductance, however, decreased by 18·2% fromthe first leaf to the flag leaf. Stomatal conductance increasedby 41·7%. The steadiness in P_n per unit leaf area across the leaf insertionlevels could be mainly accounted for by an opposing effect betweena decrease in V_mes/A and a more closely packed arrangement ofphotosynthetic apparatus. Adaptative significance of structuralchanges with increasing leaf insertion levels and the steadinessin P_n per unit leaf area was studied. Key words: Photosynthesis, structure, wheat     

γ-Aminobutyric Acid Regulates Grain Yield Formation in Different Fragrant Rice Genotypes Under Different Nitrogen Levels

Journal of Plant Growth Regulation - The influences of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and nitrogen on grain yield, yield-related traits, plant growth, grain–leaf ratio and NSC contents in...     

The Interaction Effect to Fertilization on the Mineral Nutrition of Canola Under Different Salinity Levels

Journal of Plant Growth Regulation - The objective of this work was to study the effect of increasing rates of salinity with and without fertilizer on the mineral nutrition of canola. It is about...     

Summer Epidemics of Apple Scab: The Relationship between Measurements and their Implications for the Development of Predictive Models and Threshold Levels under Different Disease Control Regimes

A 2‐year study on epidemic progress of apple scab was conducted at Randwijk, the Netherlands, in 1998 and 1999. The summer epidemic caused by conidia was studied instead of the well‐described spring season epidemic originating from ascospores. The aim was to investigate relationships between disease measurements, i.e. disease incidence and severity measures of apple scab, and their implications for the development of predictive models and threshold levels. The study characterized good relationships between the measurements on cultivar Jonagold using regression analyses in three disease control regimes (untreated, organic and integrated). For fruit quality prediction, the relationship between fruit incidence (I_f) and leaf incidence (I_l) in the organic control regime was given by I_f = 1.966 + 0.402 × (I_l) (R² = 0.92). As a result of low level of disease in the integrated control regime, shoot incidence (I_s), with higher values than leaf incidence, was better suited for prediction. The relationship was given by I_f = ?0.162 + 0.028 × (I_s) (R² = 0.91). For the integrated control regime, disease threshold levels were constructed for timing of the final fungicide application. If an apple grower wants to keep fruit infection under 1% incidence (harvest scab threshold), the timing of the final fungicide application (action threshold) should correspond to 4% shoot scab incidence at the beginning of August. The results are compared with similar studies and their biological interpretation is discussed.     

Juxtaposition and Disturbance: Disentangling the Determinants of Lizard Community Structure

Disturbance alters the structure and dynamics of communities. Here, we examined the effects of seasonal flooding on the lizard community structure by comparing two adjacent habitats, a seasonally flooded and a non‐flooded forest, in a Cerrado–Amazon ecotone area, the Cantão State Park, Tocantins state, Brazil. Despite the strong potential impact of seasonal flooding, the only significant environmental difference detected was more termite mounds in non‐flooded forests. Species richness was significantly higher in the non‐flooded forest. Colobosaura modesta, followed by Mabuya frenata and Anolis brasiliensis, were the only species that differed in number of captures between sites. Colobosaura modesta was exclusively found in the non‐flooded forest, while Anolis brasiliensis was the most captured in the flooded forest. Mabuya frenata is indicated as an indicator species in the flooded forest, and Colobosaura modesta in the non‐flooded forest. We found a significant association between lizard abundances and habitat characteristics, with flooding, canopy cover, and logs being the best predictors. A phylogenetic community structure analysis indicated a lack of structure in both lizard assemblages. Overall, we show that seasonal flooding can strongly impact species richness and species occurrence patterns, but not phylogenetic community structure. The Amazon–Cerrado transition is undergoing pronounced transformations due to deforestation and climate change. Despite being species‐poor compared with central areas in Amazon or Cerrado, this ecotone harbors species with important adaptations that could hold the key to persistence in human‐disturbed landscapes or during periods of climate change.     

Lessons Learned While Integrating Habitat,Dispersal, Disturbance,and Life-History Traits into Species Habitat Models Under Climate Change

We present an approach to modeling potential climate-driven changes in habitat for tree and bird species in the eastern United States. First, we took an empirical-statistical modeling approach, using randomForest, with species abundance data from national inventories combined with soil, climate, and landscape variables, to build abundance-based habitat models for 134 tree and 147 bird species. We produced lists of species for which suitable habitat tends to increase, decrease, or stay the same for any region. Independent assessments of trends of large trees versus seedlings across the eastern U.S. show that 37 of 40 species in common under both studies are currently trending as modeled. We developed a framework, ModFacs, in which we used the literature to assign default modification factor scores for species characteristics that cannot be readily assessed in such models, including 12 disturbance factors (for example, drought, fire, insect pests), nine biological factors (for example, dispersal, shade tolerance), and assessment scores of novel climates, long-distance extrapolations, and output variability by climate model and emission scenario. We also used a spatially explicit cellular model, SHIFT, to calculate colonization potentials for some species, based on their abundance, historic dispersal distances, and the fragmented nature of the landscape. By combining results from the three efforts, we can create projections of potential climate change impacts over the next 100 years or so. Here we emphasize some of the lessons we have learned over 16 years in hopes that they may help guide future experiments, modeling efforts, and management.     

Microbial Community Growth and Utilization of Carbon Constituents During Thermophilic Composting at Different Oxygen Levels

Composting is characterized by dramatic changes in microbial community structure, to a high extent driven by changes in temperature and in the composition of the organic substrate. This study focuses on the interrelationships between decomposition of major classes in the organic material and dynamics in microbial populations during thermophilic composting of source-separated organic household waste. Experiments were performed in a 200-L laboratory reactor at 16, 2.5, and 1% O₂ in the compost atmosphere. Major classes of carbon constituents were analyzed by chemical methods, and the microbial biomass and community structure determined by fatty acid analyses with phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA) and total ester-linked fatty acids (EL) methods. At all three O₂ levels, the process was characterized by a rapid increase in microbial activity and biomass in the early thermophilic phase, although this period was delayed at the lower O₂ concentrations. Starch and fat were the main substrates utilized at all three O₂ levels during this period. The depletion of the starch fraction coincided with the beginning of a microbial biomass decrease, suggesting thatstarch is an important carbon substrate for the growth of thermophilic microorganisms during composting. Growth yields in the microbial community based on consumption of major carbon constituent classes in the high-activity period fell between 22 and 28%. Multivariate statistical analysis of changes in fatty acid composition revealed small, but statistically significant differences in the microbial community succession. At 16% O₂, 10Me fatty acids from Actinomycetes and cyclopropyl fatty acids (from Gram-negative bacteria) became more important with time, whereas 18:1ω7t was characteristic at 2.5 and 1% O₂, indicating a more stressed bacterial community at the lower O₂ concentrations. Although adequate composting was achieved at O₂ levels as low as 2.5 and 1%, it is not recommended to compost at such low levels in large-scale systems, because the heterogeneous gas transport through the material in these systems might lead to anaerobic conditions and inefficient composting.     

风沙干扰在濒危植物沙生柽柳群落形成演变过程中的作用

风沙干扰影响沙生柽柳(Tamarix taklamakanensis M.T.Liu)群落形成、发展和衰亡的全过程。经8年的调查、试验和探索后认为,沙生柽柳群落形成于低湿风蚀洼地,发展于沙埋地,死亡于风蚀地和重度沙埋地。在群落形成初期,风蚀形成的洼地为沙生柽柳种子发芽生根创造了适宜的生境,但高矿化度水胁迫使得沙生柽柳幼苗保存率较低;在群落发展期,沙埋促使沙生柽柳灌丛茁壮生长;在群落衰落期,风蚀或沙埋导致沙生柽柳灌从消亡。即在沙生柽柳群落的形成发展过程中,风沙干扰具有促进作用;而在沙生柽柳群落的衰落过程中,风沙干扰则具有加速衰亡的作用。此外,结合沙生柽柳生境分析认为,在高干扰和高胁迫情况下,荒漠地区耐胁迫的沙丘先锋植物仍可以生存,这一结果是对CSR对策的补充。     

Divergence and Polymorphism Under the Nearly Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution

The nearly neutral theory attributes most nucleotide substitution and polymorphism to genetic drift acting on weakly selected mutants, and assumes that the selection coefficients for these mutants are drawn from a continuous distribution. This means that parameter estimation can require numerical integration, and this can be computationally costly and inaccurate. Furthermore, the leading parameter dependencies of important quantities can be unclear, making results difficult to understand. For some commonly used distributions of mutant effects, we show how these problems can be avoided by writing equations in terms of special functions. Series expansion then allows for their rapid calculation and, also, illuminates leading parameter dependencies. For example, we show that if mutants are gamma distributed, the neutrality index is largely independent of the effective population size. However, we also show that such results are not robust to misspecification of the functional form of distribution. Some implications of these findings are then discussed.