Children's competition in a natural setting: evidence for the ideal free distribution

Little is known of the foraging abilities of children in modern cultures, especially when children forage in groups. Here we present a test of optimal foraging theory in groups of street children working for money. The children we observed were selling bottles of water to drivers distributed in two lanes at a crossroad of Istanbul, Turkey. As predicted by the ideal free distribution (a model of optimal group foraging), the ratio of children working in the two lanes was sensitive to the ratio of cars (and therefore the ratio of potential buyers) present in each lane. Deviations from the ideal free model arose largely from numerical restrictions on the set of possible ratios compatible with a small group size. When these constraints were taken into account, optimal behavior emerged as a robust aspect of the children's group distribution. Our results extend to human children aspects of group foraging that were previously tested in human adults or other animal species.     

Amplification of evoked potentials recorded from mouse hippocampal slices by very low repetition rate pulsed magnetic fields

The influence of low repetition rate pulsed magnetic fields (LRMF) on the evoked potential (population spike) recorded from mouse hippocampal slices was investigated. LRMF were applied according to two protocols. In protocol A, LRMF applied with a constant strength (15 mT) and frequency ranging from 0.03 to 0.5 Hz resulted in an amplification of the potential. Although the frequency of 0.16 Hz was the most effective, enhancing the population spike by over 280%, it also caused an increase in spontaneous activity, seizures, and cessation of neuronal activity in 50% of the slices. In protocol B, LRMF were applied with a variable intensity (9-15 mT) and in cycles of different duration ranging from 5 to 20 min. While an increase in the amplitude of the population spike was observed in all slices exposed to LRMF applied according to protocol B, the longest exposure was the most effective. Neither seizures nor an increase in the spontaneous activity were observed in this group of the slices. These results support and extend our previous data and characterize further the relation between the pattern of applied magnetic fields and their influence on the nervous system.     

The influence of food supply on foraging behaviour in a desert spider

We tested the alternative hypotheses that foraging effort will increase (energy maximizer model) or decrease (due to increased costs or risks) when food supply increased, using a Namib desert burrowing spider, Seothyra henscheli (Eresidae), which feeds mainly on ants. The web of S. henscheli has a simple geometrical configuration, comprising a horizontal mat on the sand surface, with a variable number of lobes lined with sticky silk. The sticky silk is renewed daily after being covered by wind-blown sand. In a field experiment, we supplemented the spiders' natural prey with one ant on each day that spiders had active webs and determined the response to an increase in prey. We compared the foraging activity and web geometry of prey-supplemented spiders to non-supplemented controls. We compared the same parameters in fooddeprived and supplemented spiders in captivity. The results support the costs of foraging hypothesis. Supplemented spiders reduced their foraging activity and web dimensions. They moulted at least once and grew rapidly, more than doubling their mass in 6 weeks. By contrast, food-deprived spiders increased foraging effort by enlarging the diameter of the capture web. We suggest that digestive constraints prevented supplemented spiders from fully utilizing the available prey. By reducing foraging activities on the surface, spiders in a prey-rich habitat can reduce the risk of predation. However, early maturation resulting from a higher growth rate provides no advantage to S. henscheli owing to the fact that the timing of mating and dispersal are fixed by climatic factors (wind and temperature). Instead, large female body size will increase fitness by increasing the investiment in young during the period of extended maternal care.     

Are mistakes inevitable? Sex allocation specialization by workers can reduce the genetic information needed to assess queen mating frequency

Insect workers can increase their inclusive fitness by biasing colony sex allocation towards males when their mother queen is mated to multiple males and females when she is singly mated. Workers need heritable variation in odour diversity to assess queen mating frequency. Here we present a simple one-locus two-allele model, which shows that the sex ratio specialization itself will often select against rare alleles that would provide additional information for the assessment of queen mating frequency. However, under certain rather restricted conditions, such as when sex ratios are highly female biased, and when worker reproduction is rare, sex ratio specialization can select for rare alleles. This suggests that sex allocation biasing by workers will usually reduce the very information that workers need to assess queen mating frequency. Our model is an example where an explicit treatment of underlying genetics and mechanisms of behaviour, such as information use, is necessary to fully understand the evolution of an adaptive behavioural strategy.     

Geographic and breed distribution of an Msp I PCR-RFLP in the bovine growth hormone (bGH) gene

Information is presented on the frequency of the Msp I (-) allele in the third intron of the bovine growth hormone gene in a large number of cattle breeds. Consideration of the breed frequencies in relation to their geographic origin shows a low frequency for breeds originating in Northern Europe, moderate frequencies for breeds originating in Eastern Europe or the countries surrounding the Mediterranean basin, and very high frequencies for breeds originating in the Indian subcontinent. Consideration of breed frequencies in relation to breed type, shows low to moderate frequencies for the humpless breeds, high frequencies for the humped breeds. Various explanations for this distribution are discussed, among them the possibility that the Msp I (-) allele originated in the Bos indicus breeds of the Indian subcontinent, from which it diffused through the humpless Bos taurus breeds of Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean basin, eventually reaching Western, Northern Europe, Western Africa in low frequencies.     

代谢、血液碱化和纯氧影响呼吸调控的人体实验研究III： 血液碱化后纯氧运动试验*

目的: 在急性血液碱化前、后空气吸入下完成症状限制性最大极限心肺运动试验(CPET)的基础上,本文探讨在血液碱化后吸入纯氧对呼吸调控的影响。方法: 正常志愿者5名在碱化血液后呼吸纯氧CPET,在静息、热身、运动及恢复期,连续测定肺通换气指标及每分钟动脉取样的血气指标,对CPET期间的呼吸气体交换和血气指标的动态变化进行分析,同时与急性碱化血液前、后空气CPET数据比较。结果: 碱化血液后吸入纯氧运动呼吸反应与急性碱化血液前、后空气CPET呼吸反应基本一致。CPET期间,各运动状态下的每分通气量均与对照组相似(P>0.05);仅静息每分通气量较血液碱化空气CPET略高(P<0.05),而其它状态和恢复2min时均相近(P>0.05)。潮气量仅峰值运动时较对照和血液碱化空气CPET略低(P<0.05);而运动过程和恢复2min时的潮气量均相近(P>0.05)。呼吸频率在各个时间与血液碱化前后CPET均无差异(P>0.05)。在碱化血液后吸入纯氧运动各个时期的PaO₂和SaO₂较碱化血液前后空气CPET时明显提高(P<0.001,P<0.05)。血红蛋白浓度虽然较急性血液碱化前后均低,但仅较血液碱化前显著降低(P<0.05),比血液碱化后差异不显著(P>0.05) ; 开始时的PaCO₂较碱化血液前后空气CPET时降低(P<0.05),无氧阈时相近(P>0.05),但到峰值及恢复2 min时明显增高(P<0.05);pH仅较对照增高(P<0.05),但与碱化血液空气试验时无差异;乳酸水平较对照略高,但仅在热身和恢复期有差异(P<0.05)。纯氧提高了两人无氧阈和三人峰值运动的功率和时间。结论: 虽然血液碱化给予纯氧, CPET呼吸反应与碱化血液前、后空气CPET呼吸反应模式相似,表明运动中呼吸反应主要取决于代谢变化,而非动脉血气平均值高低。     

Study on Population Genetic Structure in Castanopsis fargesii with Microsatellite Markers

Genetic structure of four populations in Castanopsis fargesii Franch. in Fujian Province was studied with microsatellite (SSR) markers. A high level of genetic variation was detected in the populations of C. fargesii by using SSR with A=9.0, Ne=4.8, He=0.65 and the population differentiation coefficient ( Fst ) was only 0.031. The distributions of alleles of all loci were significantly different among the populations of C. fargesii , and the population differentiation could be found according to the distributions of SSR alleles. Some rare alleles in the populations of C. fargesii were revealed by SSR: Fifteen of 54 alleles appeared in one or two populations with lower frequencies; conservation of these rare alleles is of great importance.     

Foraging for mates in the hyperparasitic wasp, Dendrocerus carpenteri: impact of unfavourable weather conditions and parasitoid age

Males of the aphid hyperparasitoid Dendrocerus carpenteri (Curtis) were attracted by a sex pheromone released by conspecific females. The intensity of this cue, and thus female attractiveness, depended both on the female's mating status and her age. Only virgin females younger than 2 h were consistently recognized as mates by foraging males. Male age did not influence foraging and mating success. Empty mummies, from which females had emerged within the previous 10 min were attractive to males and examined intensively. Rain reduced the searching success of males, although the host plant Vicia faba provided sheltered places. Wind did not reduce mating success but prevented both sexes from leaving the host plant. Since the time of female attractiveness seems to be very limited, wind may have an enormous effect on the mating success of D. carpenteri in the field and thus on the population dynamics of this species. Received: 5 October 1998 / Accepted: 16 December 1998     

Evaluation of a DNA pooled-sampling strategy for estimating the RFLP diversity of maize populations

Molecular characterization by means of RFLPs of large sets of populations is presently limited by experimental costs. In order to reduce costs, we have evaluated a method based on the RFLP analysis of balanced bulks of DNA from several individuals. The precision of this approach for estimating allele frequencies within each population was investigated using (i) DNA extracted from controlled bulks of leaf tissues of maize inbred lines, (ii) data obtained from individual analyses of 10 maize populations. Both approaches showed that allele frequencies can generally be estimated with a high precision (coefficients of determination up to 0.99 for some probe-enzyme combinations assayed), relative to the variation in allele frequencies observed among maize populations. Although further efforts are needed to define a set of probe-enzyme combinations that can be routinely image processed, these results, and preliminary results from a 65 maize populations project, suggest that this approach could provide highly informative data for large sets of populations, and at relatively low costs.