Factors influencing detection of nesting crested caracaras

Management of crested caracaras (Caracara cheriway), focuses on nests identified during surveys. If no nests are found, management can be suspended. Thus, false negatives can have substantial consequences. We surveyed 49 breeding territories to assess factors with the potential to cause false negatives in detecting nests of crested caracaras and in observing adult birds. The probability that a nest would be detected on any given visit increased by about 0.5% for each hour of observer experience up to about 70 hours (our maximum). Experience did not affect the probability of observing an adult. The probability of detecting a caracara nest or observing an adult caracara decreased by 2.0–3.5% each hour after sunrise that a visit began. If visibility during any portion of a visit was obscured by fog or rain, the probability of detecting a nest decreased by as much as 60%, and the probability of observing an adult caracara decreased by about 50%. We provide a tool managers can use to calculate the likelihood of successful surveys. We recommend that managers disregard negative results from surveys conducted under conditions that are unlikely to yield positive results, and repeat those surveys under better conditions. © 2011 The Wildlife Society.     

基于荧光强度快速判断蛋白可溶性方法的建立

目的:建立一种通过观察荧光强度,快速、直观地判断蛋白可溶性的方法。方法:选择抗辐射蛋白CBL502-AA及其突变体CBL502-ΔAA′作为目的蛋白,增强型绿色荧光蛋白作为报告分子,分别构建融合蛋白表达载体;通过SDS-PAGE和荧光观察两种手段检测和比较融合蛋白的可溶性。结果:荧光观察融合蛋白的可溶性与SDS-PAGE检测结果一致。结论:建立了一种基于荧光强度,快速、简单、直观的比较蛋白可溶性的方法。     

Quantitative analyses of observing and attending

We review recent experiments examining whether simple models of the allocation and persistence of operant behavior are applicable to attending. In one series of experiments, observing responses of pigeons were used as an analog of attending. Maintenance of observing is often attributed to the conditioned reinforcing effects of a food-correlated stimulus (i.e., S+), so these experiments also may inform our understanding of conditioned reinforcement. Rates and allocations of observing were governed by rates of food or S+ delivery in a manner consistent with the matching law. Resistance to change of observing was well described by behavioral momentum theory only when rates of primary reinforcement in the context were considered. Rate and value of S+ deliveries did not affect resistance to change. Thus, persistence of attending to stimuli appears to be governed by primary reinforcement rates in the training context rather than conditioned reinforcing effects of the stimuli. An additional implication of these findings is that conditioned "reinforcers" may affect response rates through some mechanism other than response-strengthening. In a second series of experiments, we examined the applicability of the matching law to the allocation of attending to the elements of compound stimuli in a divided-attention task. The generalized matching law described performance well, and sensitivity to relative reinforcement varied with sample duration. The bias and sensitivity terms of the generalized matching law may provide measures of stimulus-driven and goal-driven control of divided attention. Further application of theories of operant behavior to performance on attention tasks may provide insights into what is referred to variously as endogenous, top-down, or goal-directed control of attention.     

Movement Coordination or Movement Interference: Visual Tracking and Spontaneous Coordination Modulate Rhythmic Movement Interference

When an actor performs a rhythmic limb movement while observing a spatially incongruent movement he or she exhibits increased movement orthogonal to the instructed motion. Known as rhythmic movement interference, this phenomenon has been interpreted as a motor contagion effect, whereby observing the incongruent movement interferes with the intended movement and results in a motor production error. Here we test the hypothesis that rhythmic movement interference is an emergent property of rhythmic coordination. Participants performed rhythmic limb movements at a self-selected tempo while observing a computer stimulus moving in a congruent or incongruent manner. The degree to which participants visually tracked the stimulus was manipulated to influence whether participants became spontaneously entrained to the stimulus or not. Consistent with the rhythmic coordination hypothesis, participants only exhibited the rhythmic movement interference effect when they became spontaneously entrained to the incongruent stimulus.     

I See What You Mean: How Attentional Selection Is Shaped by Ascribing Intentions to Others

The ability to understand and predict others’ behavior is essential for successful interactions. When making predictions about what other humans will do, we treat them as intentional systems and adopt the intentional stance, i.e., refer to their mental states such as desires and intentions. In the present experiments, we investigated whether the mere belief that the observed agent is an intentional system influences basic social attention mechanisms. We presented pictures of a human and a robot face in a gaze cuing paradigm and manipulated the likelihood of adopting the intentional stance by instruction: in some conditions, participants were told that they were observing a human or a robot, in others, that they were observing a human-like mannequin or a robot whose eyes were controlled by a human. In conditions in which participants were made to believe they were observing human behavior (intentional stance likely) gaze cuing effects were significantly larger as compared to conditions when adopting the intentional stance was less likely. This effect was independent of whether a human or a robot face was presented. Therefore, we conclude that adopting the intentional stance when observing others’ behavior fundamentally influences basic mechanisms of social attention. The present results provide striking evidence that high-level cognitive processes, such as beliefs, modulate bottom-up mechanisms of attentional selection in a top-down manner.     

Enzyme-induced inactivation of transminases by acetylenic and vinyl analogues of 4-aminobutyrate.

The reactions of two analogues of 4-aminobutyrate, namely 4-aminohex-5-ynoate and 4-aminohex-5-enoate, with three transaminases were studied. Three pure enzymes were used, aminobutyrate transaminase (EC 2.6.1.19), ornithine transaminase (EC 2.6.1.13) and aspartate transaminase (EC 2.6.1.1), and the course of the reactions was studied by observing changes in the absorption spectrum of the bound coenzyme and by observing loss of activity. All of the enzymes were inactivated by either inhibitor, but amino-hexenoate showed a marked specificity for aminobutyrate transaminase. Aminohexynoate was most potent towards ornithine transaminase, and with this enzyme transamination of the inhibitor is an important factor in protecting the enzyme. Most of the reactions could be analysed as first order, with the observed rate constant showing a hyperbolic dependence on inhibitor concentration.     

腹腔热灌注联合肿瘤细胞减灭术治疗晚期子宫内膜癌的疗效

目的:探讨IHCP+CDS治疗晚期子宫内膜癌的临床疗效和安全性。方法:选取治疗确诊为晚期子宫内膜癌的患者84例,随机分为观察组和对照组。观察组采用IHCP+CDS方案化疗,对照组采用常规灌注+肿瘤细胞减灭术方案化疗。比较两组的手术时间、临床疗效、复发率、生存时间和不良反应等。结果:观察组手术时间和术中腹水量比对照组少,两组差异明显(P0.05);观察组总有效率和24个月生存率比对照组高,而复发率比对照组低(P0.05);观察组恶心、麻木发生率较对照组低(P0.05);而白细胞降低、血小板降低和盆腔感染方面相互比较,无显著差异(P0.05)。结论:IHCP+CDS能有效改善晚期子宫内膜癌患者术前和术后对化疗的耐受性;提高患者的生存率和临床治疗效果。     

Observing responses: Maintained by good news only?

Observing responses are those that produce stimuli correlated with the availability (S+) or non-availability (S−) of reinforcement but that has no influence on the actual delivery or timing of reinforcement. Prior research has shown that observing is maintained by the occasional production of the S+ (“good news”) and not by production of the equally informative S− (“bad news”). However, for both humans and rats the S− maintains observing when it is at least implicitly correlated with good news. In the present study, pigeons could obtain both good and bad news by responding during the appropriate key color. In one condition, the bad news was actually more informative about reinforcement than was the good news. Nevertheless, a preponderance of the birds’ responses was made on the nominally good-news option. The present results offer further support for the central role of good news in maintaining observing responses and are entirely consistent with the traditional conditioned-reinforcement (or classical conditioning) interpretation of observing.     

游客密度对动物园中黇鹿行为的影响

2006年9月20日-10月10日,以江苏省扬州市茱萸湾公园半散放鲇鹿为研究对象,采用目标动物取样法和全事件记录法,研究了不同游客密度条件下黇鹿日行为时间分配.并探讨了游客密度对鲇鹿日活动的影响.结果表明:在游客高峰期与低峰期,雄性取食、观望行为,雌性观望以及幼鹿取食、观望和修饰行为之间均存在显著差异(P＜0.05).在游客低峰期,雄性与雌性取食、反刍、卧息行为,雄性与幼鹿观望、其它行为,雌性与幼鹿取食、卧息、观望均存在极显著差异(P＜0.01);在游客高峰期,雄性与雌性取食、卧息,雌性与幼鹿取食、卧息、观望及移动行为均差异极显著(P＜0.01),雄性和幼鹿观望行为差异显著(P＜0.05).不同游客密度条件下游客活动对鲇鹿的取食、观望具有显著影响,当游客密度达到6人·min-1以上时,雄性观望行为显著增加,当达到16人·min-1以上时,雄性取食行为差异极显著(P＜0.01),此时雌性和幼鹿观望行为差异亦达到极显著水平(P＜0·01).因此,在旅游管理中,应将游客密度限制在16人·min-1以下,以减少对鲇鹿日活动影响.     

Electronic evaluation for video commercials by impression index

How to evaluate the effect of commercials is significantly important in neuromarketing. In this paper, we proposed an electronic way to evaluate the influence of video commercials on consumers by impression index. The impression index combines both the memorization and attention index during consumers observing video commercials by tracking the EEG activity. It extracts features from scalp EEG to evaluate the effectiveness of video commercials in terms of time–frequency-space domain. And, the general global field power was used as an impression index for evaluation of video commercial scenes as time series. Results of experiment demonstrate that the proposed approach is able to track variations of the cerebral activity related to cognitive task such as observing video commercials, and help to judge whether the scene in video commercials is impressive or not by EEG signals.     

Plate Colony Sample Sizes Required for Inferences about the Uniqueness of a Lactobacillus Strain within a Human Volunteer

Making inferences about the spectrum of bacterial strains on a plate as a consequence of observing only one strain in a random sample of colonies from the plate is relatively straightforward whereas making inferences about the spectrum of strains within a human volunteer as a consequence of observing only one strain in a random sample from the plate requires some care. The issue of the appropriate number of colonies to sample from a plate to make inferences about strain uniqueness within a human volunteer is examined and illustrated with an example     

A Sampling Scheme for Study of Two Characters

The paper deals with the use of appropriate sampling scheme for estimating the means of a finite bivariate population. The conditions have been obtained for choosing from the two sampling schemes, one being the observing of same sampling units for both the characters and the other being observing first character alone for a part of the sample, second character alone for another part of the sample and observing both the characters together on some other part of the sample.     

Application of Freeze-Etching Method to the Study of Reovirus-Infected LLC-MK2 Cells

A continuous cell line of rhesus monkey kidney cells, LLC-MK(2), was infected with reovirus type 1 (Lang). The cells were freeze-etched as a method for observing the structural details of the reovirus-induced cytoplasmic inclusion. Information on maturation may be obtained by preparing infected cells for electron microscopy by freeze-etching.     

一种小麦叶片气孔保卫细胞观察样品的制备方法

以小麦(Triticum aestivum)花粉植株的叶片为材料, 利用整体透明技术制备小麦叶片气孔保卫细胞的观察样品, 比较了4种透明剂的样品制备效果。结果表明, 利用整体透明技术制备小麦叶片气孔保卫细胞观察样品, 无需经过叶片撕取和刮制步骤, 样品制备方法简便且高效; 用甘油溶液、饱和水合三氯乙醛及水合三氯乙醛与甘油的混合液3种透明剂处理小麦叶片后, 在普通显微镜下均可观察到清晰的气孔保卫细胞。     

图像反卷积复原技术在玉米45S rDNA转录图式研究中的运用

由于成像焦平面外杂光的干扰,宽场荧光显微镜所得的图像往往较模糊,使其不适合用来观察植物细胞核内的精细结构。该实验讨论了反卷积软件中对图像复原结果有较大影响的几个重要参数的设置。经过合适的图像反卷积复原,由宽场荧光显微镜获取的玉米45S rRNA原位杂交信号图像得以清楚显示。对所得杂交图像的分析表明:玉米45S rDNA转录往往先发生在核仁外围,且随着核仁转录活性的提高逐渐向核仁内部扩散,并最终与5S rRNA一起,在核仁内部的空洞结构中形成成熟rRNA。研究结果显示,反卷积复原可有效提高宽场荧光显微镜所得二维图像的分辨率,从而使宽场荧光显微镜在植物细胞核内精细结构研究中发挥更多的作用。     

An interference effect of observed biological movement on action

It has been proposed that actions are intrinsically linked to perception and that imagining, observing, preparing, or in any way representing an action excites the motor programs used to execute that same action. There is neurophysiological evidence that certain brain regions involved in executing actions are activated by the mere observation of action (the so-called "mirror system;" ). However, it is unknown whether this mirror system causes interference between observed and simultaneously executed movements. In this study we test the hypothesis that, because of the overlap between action observation and execution, observed actions should interfere with incongruous executed actions. Subjects made arm movements while observing either a robot or another human making the same or qualitatively different arm movements. Variance in the executed movement was measured as an index of interference to the movement. The results demonstrate that observing another human making incongruent movements has a significant interference effect on executed movements. However, we found no evidence that this interference effect occurred when subjects observed a robotic arm making incongruent movements. These results suggest that the simultaneous activation of the overlapping neural networks that process movement observation and execution infers a measurable cost to motor control.     

The effect of room-temperature storage on the stability of compounds in DMSO

The stability of approximately 7200 compounds stored as 20-mM DMSO solutions under ambient conditions was monitored for 1 year. Compound integrity was measured by flow injection analysis using positive and negative electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. Each sample was assessed at the beginning of the study, after 12 months of storage, and at a randomized time point between the initial and final time points of the study. The relationship between length of storage and the probability of observing the compound was described by a repeated-measures logistic regression model. The probability of observing the compound was 92% after 3 months of storage at room temperature, 83% after 6 months, and 52% after 1 year in DMSO. An acceptable limit for compound loss and corresponding maximum storage time for samples in DMSO can be determined based on these results.     

The statistical analysis of spatially clustered genes under the maximum gap criterion.

Statistical validation of gene clusters is imperative for many important applications in comparative genomics which depend on the identification of genomic regions that are historically and/or functionally related. We develop the first rigorous statistical treatment of max-gap clusters, a cluster definition frequently used in empirical studies. We present exact expressions for the probability of observing an individual cluster of a set of marked genes in one genome, as well as upper and lower bounds on the probability of observing a cluster of h homologs in a pairwise whole-genome comparison. We demonstrate the utility of our approach by applying it to a whole-genome comparison of E. coli and B. subtilis. Code for statistical tests is available at.     

Hunting behaviour,prey capture and ant avoidance in the tropical social waspPolybia sevicea (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

Summary Polybia sericea (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) prey foraging was studied by following individual foragers as they hunted in the field, by observing how wasps handled prey once they had captured it, and by observing wasps as they returned to the nest with prey. Wasps were most likely to forage for prey between 0700 and 1300 hours and between 1600 and 1700 hours. The prey foraging sequence consisted of the behaviours high flight, search, touch, land, groom, walk, bite and malaxate. Captured small prey were malaxated and carried to the nest. Wasps removed the gut from large prey and dragged the meat up a twig or grass stem. A load of the meat was then bitten off and malaxated; the remainder was cached while the wasp made an orientation flight and returned to the nest. The forager returned within minutes for the remainder of the prey. Experiments demonstrated that caching the prey remains above the ground rather than close to the ground, where the prey are generally captured, reduces the chance that the prey will be found and expropriated by ants.     

Young children with autism spectrum disorder use predictive eye movements in action observation

Does a dysfunction in the mirror neuron system (MNS) underlie the social symptoms defining autism spectrum disorder (ASD)? Research suggests that the MNS matches observed actions to motor plans for similar actions, and that these motor plans include directions for predictive eye movements when observing goal-directed actions. Thus, one important question is whether children with ASD use predictive eye movements in action observation. Young children with ASD as well as typically developing children and adults were shown videos in which an actor performed object-directed actions (human agent condition). Children with ASD were also shown control videos showing objects moving by themselves (self-propelled condition). Gaze was measured using a corneal reflection technique. Children with ASD and typically developing individuals used strikingly similar goal-directed eye movements when observing others’ actions in the human agent condition. Gaze was reactive in the self-propelled condition, suggesting that prediction is linked to seeing a hand–object interaction. This study does not support the view that ASD is characterized by a global dysfunction in the MNS.