The Analysis of the Geometric Structure of the Delayed Time Used in the Embedding Process in Predicting Chaotic Time Series

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Prospects for the biology of human intelligence

Despite the ubiquitous nature of Spearman's g in mental test performance, the charge «intelligence is what intelligence tests test» has not been countered in a satisfactory way. It is proposed that there are two ways to answer this complaint. The first concerns the new hypothesis testing models in factor analysis. The second involves studying the ‘biology of intelligence’. The biology of intelligence has various meanings and four are discussed: biology as theory; biology as race and genetics; biology as neurobiology; and biology as basic psychological processes. The last of these is considered in some detail and it is found that reaction time, evoked potentials and inspection time offer bright prospects for further research on the biology of psychometric intelligence.     

EEG Activity in the Process of Measuring-off of Time Intervals by Humans

We recorded EEG from sites C3 and C4 in an experimental situation with internal counting-off of a 20-sec-long time interval, whose beginning and end were limited by the tested subject by pushing a button; 65 adult men and women took part in the tests. In the first experimental series, the subject obtained no real information on the accuracy in production of the interval. In the second series, such information was displayed by feedback visual signals. We calculated means of the measured intervals ( ), coefficient of variation of the realizations (CV), and, in the series with the real feedback, successfulness of measuring-off (normalized number of fits within an acceptable range of the standard interval, 19 to 21 sec). Analysis of the data obtained in the first experimental series for the entire tested group demonstrated the existence of a reverse dependence between the modal frequency of EEG beta rhythm recorded from the left hemisphere in the course of measuring-off of the interval and the value. In the second series, we found significant negative correlation between the beta rhythm power in both hemispheres and CV, that between the alpha rhythm power in the left hemisphere and , and positive correlation between the alpha rhythm frequency in the left hemisphere and successfulness of the interval counting-off. Analysis of the dynamics of EEG of each tested subject demonstrated the existence of mostly reverse dependences between the powers of a few EEG rhythms and duration of the produced interval. We hypothesize that the frequencies of the alpha and beta EEG oscillations play the role of significant indices reflecting the speed of the internal clock of the individual. We also emphasize the complex nature and the high individual variability of the EEG pattern in the course of measuring-off of time intervals.     

A sulfated fucan from the brown alga Laminaria cichorioides has mainly heparin cofactor II-dependent anticoagulant activity

The major acidic polysaccharide from the brown alga Laminaria cichorioides is a complex and heterogeneous sulfated fucan. Its preponderant structure is a 2,3-disulfated, 4-linked alpha-fucose unit. The purified polysaccharide has a potent anticoagulant activity, as estimated by APTT assay ( approximately 40 IU/mg), which is mainly mediated by thrombin inhibition by heparin cofactor II. It also accelerates thrombin and factor Xa inhibition by antithrombin but at a lower potency. Sulfated fucan from L. cichorioides is a promising anticoagulant polysaccharide and a possible alternative for an antithrombotic compound due to its preferential heparin cofactor II-dependent activity.     

Disorders of the Menstrual Cycle in Elite Female Ice Hockey Players and Figure Skaters

The purpose of this study was to assess and compare the incidence of delayed menarche and menstrual dysfunction among elite ice hockey players and figure skaters. Forty-three ice hockey players (23.5 ± 4.8 years, 68.2 ± 1.2 kg, 1.68 ± 0.01 m) and 39 figure skaters (17.5 ± 3.4 years, 53.7 ± 5.8 kg, 1.64 ± 0.05 m) completed a self-administered questionnaire on their menstrual status and history, training regimens and lifestyle. Age at menarche did not differ significantly between ice hockey players (13.3 ± 1.3 years) and figure skaters (13.7 ± 1.4 years). Menarche was unrelated to nationality, vigorous training premenarche or age at which the athlete began her sport, but was correlated with the age at menarche of the athletes’ mothers (r = 0.39, p < 0.05). Hormonal contraceptives were used by 35% of ice hockey players and 15% of the figure skaters. Amenorrhea and oligomenorrhea were experienced by 7.1% and 38.7% of postmenarcheal, ice hockey players and figure skaters respectively not using hormonal contraceptives. Menstrual dysfunction was associated with both age and age at menarche in the ice hockey players only. Training factors, and psychological pressure were perceived by the athletes to contribute to menstrual dysfunction. A greater training volume, younger age at commencing sport, lower body mass, greater subjective body image pressure and younger biological and gynaecological age were reported among the figure skaters, and were proposed to explain the higher incidence of menstrual dysfunction among the figure skaters compared with the ice hockey players. Figure skaters appear at increased risk of amenorrhea and oligomenorrhea compared with ice hockey players, which may be linked to training and physical characteristics of the sports.     

Residence time and exposure time of sinking phytoplankton in the euphotic layer

The residence time of a sinking particle in the euphotic layer is usually defined as the time taken by this particle to reach for the first time the bottom of the euphotic layer. According to this definition, the concept of residence time does not take into account the fact that many cells leaving the euphotic layer at some time can re-enter the euphotic layer at a later time. Therefore, the exposure time in the surface layer, i.e. the total time spent by the particles in the euphotic layer irrespective of their possible excursions outside the surface layer, is a more relevant concept to diagnose the effect of diffusion on the survival of phytoplankton cells sinking through the water column.While increasing the diffusion coefficient can induce both a decrease or an increase of the residence time, the exposure time in the euphotic layer increases monotonically with the diffusion coefficient, at least when the settling velocity does not increase with depth. Turbulence is therefore shown to increase the total time spent by phytoplankton cells in the euphotic layer.The generalization of the concept of exposure time to take into account the variations of the light intensity with depth or the functional response of phytoplankton cells to irradiance leads to the definition of the concepts of light exposure and effective light exposure. The former provides a measure of the total light energy received by the cells during their cycling through the water column while the latter diagnose the potential growth rate.The exposure time, the light exposure and the effective light exposure can all be computed as the solution of a differential problem that generalizes the adjoint approach introduced by Delhez et al. (2004) for the residence time. A general analytical solution of the 1D steady-state version of this equation is derived from which the properties of the different diagnostic tools can be obtained.     

First Passage Time Analysis of Animal Movement and Insights into the Functional Response

Movement plays a role in structuring the interactions between individuals, their environment, and other species. Although movement models coupled with empirical data are widely used to study animal distribution, they have seldom been used to study search time. This paper proposes first passage time as a novel approach for understanding the effect of the landscape on animal movement and search time. In the context of animal movement, first passage time is the time taken for an animal to reach a specified site for the first time. We synthesize current first passage time theory and derive a general first passage time equation for animal movement. This equation is related to the Fokker–Planck equation, which is used to describe the distribution of animals in the landscape. We illustrate the first passage time method by analyzing the effect of territorial behavior on the time required for a red fox to locate prey throughout its home range. Using first passage time to compute search times, we consider the effect of two different searching modes on a functional response. We show that random searching leads to a Holling type III functional response. First passage time analysis provides a new tool for studying how animal movement may influence ecological processes.     

New evidence for the recent divergence of Devil's Hole pupfish and the plausibility of elevated mutation rates in endangered taxa

Sa?lam et al. recently argued that the Devil's Hole pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis), a conservation icon with the smallest known species range, was isolated 60 kya based on a new genomic data set. If true, this would be a radically long timescale for any species to persist at population sizes <500 individuals, in contrast to conservation genetics theory. However, here we argue that their analyses and interpretation are inappropriate. They placed highly restrictive prior distributions on divergence times, which do not appropriately model the large uncertainty and result in removing nearly all uncertainty from their analyses, and chose among models by assuming that pupfishes exhibit human mutation rates. We reanalysed their data with their same methods, only using an informative prior for the plausible range of mutation rates observed across vertebrates, including an estimate of the genomewide mutation rate from a pedigree analysis of cichlid fishes. In fact, Saglam et al.'s phylogenetic data support much younger median divergence times for C. diabolis, ranging from 6.2 to 19.9 kya, overlapping with our previous phylogenetic divergence time estimates of 2.5–6.5 kya. There are many reasons to suspect an even younger age and higher mutation rate in C. diabolis, as we previously estimated, due to their high metabolism, small adult size, small population size and severe environmental stressors. In conclusion, our results highlight the need for measuring mutation rate in this fascinating species and suggest that the ages of endangered taxa present in small, isolated populations may frequently be overestimated.     

The plasticity of the germinative response in the populations of two xeric species inhabiting two contrasting environments of central Mexico

The species' germination response evolves based on its population environment; therefore, the responses of each local population evolve independently. We investigated two xeric species from central Mexico, Echeveria gibbiflora and Penstemon campanulatus, the populations of which inhabit two localities (Reserva Ecológica del Pedregal de San Ángel [REPSA] and Parque Ecológico de la Ciudad de México [PECM]) that differ in environmental conditions. For both species and populations, final germination, cardinal temperatures, thermal time and range of temperature for germination (RTG) were determined in seeds that were (a) collected recently, (b) stored in a laboratory for 2 months and (c) reciprocally buried in field conditions for 2 months. The results indicated that for both species, seed population, laboratory storage and temperature were significant for final germination. These responses indicated differences in germination based primarily on the site in P. campanulatus (PECM seeds germinated at higher percentages than REPSA seeds) and the burial site in the REPSA seeds of E. gibbiflora. Cluster and discriminant analyses were conducted for both species, identifying the following significant variables for group treatments: base temperature between the stored and buried seeds of E. gibbiflora and the ceiling temperature between the recently collected, stored and buried seeds of P. campanulatus. The results suggest that instead of seed population, burial (in both species) and laboratory storage (in P. campanulatus) narrowed the RTG. These responses could indicate plasticity in both germination and dormancy in response to environmental conditions experienced in the different habitats, which are crucial for understanding species' adaptive capacity.     

Phylogeographic history of the woodwardioid ferns,including species from the Himalayas

The woodwardioid ferns are well-represented in the Northern Hemisphere, where they are disjunctly distributed throughout the warm temperate and subtropical regions of North America, Europe, and Asia. To infer the biogeographic history of the woodwardioid ferns, the phylogeny of Woodwardia was estimated using rbcL and rps4 sequences from divergent distribution regions including the Himalayas. Phylogenetic results support Woodwardia as a monophyletic group with Woodwardia areolatae and W. virginica as basal, these two species from eastern North America diverged early, which are sister clades to the remaining species from America, Europe, and Asia. Based on analyses of the fossil records of these species for divergence times, Woodwardia species were estimated to have diverged initially in the Paleogene of North America. After its New World origin, a greater diversification and expansion of Woodwardia occurred in eastern Eurasia, with the European arrival of Woodwardia radicans during the Middle Miocene. Compared to earlier reports, a migration back into North America via the Bering land bridge is consistent with these data.     

显性E1基因背景下大豆开花和成熟期的全基因组关联分析

【目的】深入解析大豆开花期和成熟期的遗传基础,发掘控制性状的重要基因组区间,为分子标记辅助选择育种和新基因克隆提供依据。【方法】以224份携带显性E1基因的大豆种质为试验材料,在4个种植环境下调查表型数据,采用R-mrMLM软件包中的6种多位点关联分析模型对大豆开花和成熟期进行全基因组关联分析。【结果】共检测到91个开花期和83个成熟期QTNs（quantitative trait nucleotides）,其中6个开花期和10个成熟期QTNs能在多环境中检测到。这些环境稳定QTNs分布于15个区间大小在90~490 Kb的单倍型（基因组）内,并有6个基因组区间为本研究新检测到。【结论】研究表明显性E1基因背景下大豆开花和成熟期的QTN构成复杂,位于5号染色体39.52~40.01Mb等15个基因组区间是该群体中控制大豆开花期或成熟期的重要位点。     

Influence of the storage time and the method of stimulation on whole blood chemiluminescence

The ultra‐weak light, chemiluminescence (CL), of stimulated leukocytes is a well‐known phenomenon. Parameters of this CL are modified by many factors including laboratory procedures. The order of stimulation and enhancement (two possibilities) and two concentrations of luminol create four types of procedure, which were accomplished in five sample storage ‘time points’. We received the strongest signals of CL using higher concentrations of luminol (and DMSO), but only when stimulation (FMLP) was used before enhancement (luminol); luminol used before FMLP strongly inhibited CL. For lower luminol concentration (and DMSO), the order of stimulation and enhancement was of no importance. There were comparable but weaker signals of CL in this case. We received stronger signals with storage time for all procedures. It may be dependent on the priming of phagocytes by releasing cell factors. Stimulation (FMLP) before enhancement (luminol) eliminates the inhibitory effect of DMSO on CL. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Circannual Variations of the Bleeding Time in the Rat

This study was carried out to determine the annual fluctuations of the tail bleeding time in the rat. Bleeding time was determined by transection of the tail of pentobarbital-anesthetized rats. Over a 6-year period, monthly measurement of the tail bleeding time revealed highly reproducible circannual fluctuations. Bleeding times were shortened in the summer (414 ± 18 s in July), being almost half that observed during the winter span (886 ± 32 s in January). The difference between these two time points was highly significant (p > 0.001). This study reports for the first time circannual variations of the bleeding time in the rat.     

物质、能量在生态网络中的滞留时间及其灵敏度的解析表达

物质、能量在生态网络中的总滞留时间（TRT）是反映物质、能量在生态网络中流动特征的一个整体指标．本文在分析生态网络中物质、能量滞留时间的基础上,给出了总滞留时间关于流动参量和状态参量的灵敏度解析形式．     

藕节止血作用研究

本实验通过测定毛细管凝血时间(CT)、剪尾法出血时间(BT)、活化部分凝血酶时间(APTT)、凝血酶原时间(PT)、凝血酶时间(TT)、优球蛋白溶解时间(ELT)等指标研究藕节醇提物及其不同极性段的体内止血作用.结果表明,藕节醇提物显著缩短小鼠CT、BT,显示很好的止血作用,可能是主要通过缩短APTT、PT,延长ELT...     

Are digestive characteristics important contributors to the profitability of prey?

Summary In the field, Spinachia fed on four types of prey; copepods, isopods, mysids and amphipods. As fish size increased, mysids gradually succeeded amphipods as the most important food type in the diet. Prey dimensions and morphometry of the fish's mouth most accurately predicted capture efficiency for amphipods, whereas for mysids capture efficiency was determined by the prey's escape response and the fish's fast-start capability. Responses to model prey revealed the ability of fish to differentiate among contrasting prey characteristics, resulting in the adoption of appropriate predatory tactics. Amphipods were associated with a shorter gut evacuation time than mysids, although approximately equal proportions of energy were absorbed from each. Similar rations of mysids and amphipods were required to satiate fish. The lower energy content per unit dry mass of amphipods was off set by their lower water content. From pre-digestive behaviour, we predicted that mysids were more profitable than amphipods, and this was reflected in the fish's choice. Conversely, incorporating the net rate of energy uptake by the gut led us to predict that amphipods were more profitable. Although physiological constraints clearly influence the net rate of energy uptake, it appears that dietary preferences are based on pre-digestive predatory behaviour and hence on time minimisation.