cAMP concentration,morphological differentiation and citric acid production in Aspergillus niger

Summary The possibility that adenosine 3,5 monophosphate exerts an effect on citric acid production by Aspergillus niger by influencing pellet morphology has been investigated. The effect of pH and inoculum size on pellet formation, citric acid production, and intracellular and extracellular cAMP levels were studied. High levels of intracellular and extracellular cAMP in the later stages of the fermentation, the period of maximum citric acid formation, were associated with those treatments which gave pellets of intermediate size. The highest cAMP levels were associated with those treatments which gave the highest citric acid titre. It was concluded that high cAMP levels are principally associated with an optimum physiological state for citric acid production and that cAMP levels do not vary directly with pellet size.     

The effect of exhaustive exercise on expired pentane as a measure of in vivo lipid peroxidation in the rat

The concentrations of pentane and ethane in the expired breath of swimming rats were used to determine the possible occurrence of lipid peroxidation caused by strenuous exercise. Rats swum to exhaustion produced significantly more pentane but not ethane than did rats at rest. Rats fed a vitamin E-deficient diet produced slightly more pentane following exhaustive exercise than they did while at rest, but this increase was not statistically significant. Rats were also swum for prescribed lengths of time. Only rats that had swum for 20 or 40 min had significantly elevated concentrations of pentane in the breath. Rats swum for 10 or 30 min had elevated concentrations of pentane in the breath, but these increases were not statistically significant. These results suggest that lipid peroxidation is moderately increased following exhaustive exercise.     

Species specificity and intraspecific variation in the chemical profiles of Heliconius butterflies across a large geographic range

In many animals, mate choice is important for the maintenance of reproductive isolation between species. Traits important for mate choice and behavioral isolation are predicted to be under strong stabilizing selection within species; however, such traits can also exhibit variation at the population level driven by neutral and adaptive evolutionary processes. Here, we describe patterns of divergence among androconial and genital chemical profiles at inter‐ and intraspecific levels in mimetic Heliconius butterflies. Most variation in chemical bouquets was found between species, but there were also quantitative differences at the population level. We found a strong correlation between interspecific chemical and genetic divergence, but this correlation varied in intraspecific comparisons. We identified “indicator” compounds characteristic of particular species that included compounds already known to elicit a behavioral response, suggesting an approach for identification of candidate compounds for future behavioral studies in novel systems. Overall, the strong signal of species identity suggests a role for these compounds in species recognition, but with additional potentially neutral variation at the population level.     

Signs of stabilisation and stable coexistence

Many empirical studies motivated by an interest in stable coexistence have quantified negative density dependence, negative frequency dependence, or negative plant–soil feedback, but the links between these empirical results and ecological theory are not straightforward. Here, we relate these analyses to theoretical conditions for stabilisation and stable coexistence in classical competition models. By stabilisation, we mean an excess of intraspecific competition relative to interspecific competition that inherently slows or even prevents competitive exclusion. We show that most, though not all, tests demonstrating negative density dependence, negative frequency dependence, and negative plant–soil feedback constitute sufficient conditions for stabilisation of two‐species interactions if applied to data for per capita population growth rates of pairs of species, but none are necessary or sufficient conditions for stable coexistence of two species. Potential inferences are even more limited when communities involve more than two species, and when performance is measured at a single life stage or vital rate. We then discuss two approaches that enable stronger tests for stable coexistence‐invasibility experiments and model parameterisation. The model parameterisation approach can be applied to typical density‐dependence, frequency‐dependence, and plant–soil feedback data sets, and generally enables better links with mechanisms and greater insights, as demonstrated by recent studies.     

Environmental Supply Chain Cooperation and Its Effect on the Circular Economy Practice‐Performance Relationship Among Chinese Manufacturers

Due to resource scarcity and environmental degradation, a new development concept emphasizing environmental concerns, called the circular economy (CE), has been enacted in legislation in China. This environmental management concept can be implemented at three levels, namely, region, industrial zone, and individual enterprise, with the objective of boosting economic development while lessening environmental and resource challenges. Environmental supply chain cooperation (ESCC), an approach that utilizes customer and supplier cooperation in environmental management, has been initiated among Chinese enterprises. Using survey data collected from 396 Chinese manufacturers, we examine the role of ESCC practices in influencing the relationship between implementing CE practices and the achievement of performance outcomes by testing the moderation and mediation effects of ESCC practices on the CE practice‐performance relationship through hierarchical regression analysis. Our data analyses indicate that ESCC practices are useful by moderation and, in some cases, essential by mediation, for Chinese manufacturers seeking to realize the performance targets desired in CE practices. The results highlight the need for Chinese manufacturers to improve supply chain coordination in their implementation of CE. On the policy side, our research findings suggest that ESCC practices are beneficial and, in some cases, necessary for the development of CE in China.     

Common and rare species respond to similar niche processes in macroinvertebrate metacommunities

Ecologists have long investigated why communities are composed of a few common species and many rare species. Most studies relate rarity to either niche differentiation among species or spatial processes. There is a parallel between these processes and the processes proposed to explain the structure of metacommunities. Based on a metacommunity perspective and on data on stream macroinvertebrates from different regions of Brazil, we answer two questions. 1) Are sets of common and rare species affected by similar niche and spatial processes? 2) How does the community composition of common and of rare species differ? The main hypothesis we test is that common species are mainly affected by environmental factors, whereas rare species are mostly influenced by dispersal limitation. We used variation partitioning to determine the proportion of variation explained by the environment and space in common and rare species matrices. Contrary to our expectations, evidence supported the idea that both common and rare species are affected mainly by environmental factors, even after controlling for the differing information content between common and rare species matrices. Moreover, the abundance of some common species is also a good predictor of variation in rare species matrices. Niche differences are unlikely to be the sole cause of patterns of rarity in these metacommunities. We suggest that sets of common and rare species react to similar major environmental gradients and that rare species also respond to processes that operate at a more fine‐grained spatial scale, particularly biotic interactions. We extend the view that species sorting is the dominant process structuring metacommunities and argue that future studies focusing on rarity would benefit from a metacommunity perspective.