柠条锦鸡儿生物量分配规律与异速生长对氮、磷添加的响应

氮（N）和磷（P）元素在生态系统的结构和功能、稳定性、服务价值和可持续发展中起着关键作用。但自工业革命以来,全球气候变化受人类活动影响愈加剧烈。气候变化不同程度的影响干旱和半干旱区的氮磷循环过程,进而改变植物个体生物量积累以及植被生产力。因此,探究荒漠植物的生物量积累与分配规律对氮、磷添加的响应机制,有助于深入理解干旱区植物应对大气氮磷沉降等气候变化的适应策略。以荒漠植物柠条锦鸡儿（Caragana korshinskii Kom.,以下简称柠条）为研究对象,通过养分添加控制实验研究柠条地上/地下生物量的积累和分配,揭示其异速生长规律。实验包括3种形态的氮素添加（NH₄⁺、NH₄NO₃、NO₃^-）和1种磷素添加（H₂PO₄^-）,分别对应4个浓度梯度（4 g/m²、8 g/m²、16 g/m²和32 g/m²）。结果表明,NO₃^-添加对柠条生物量有显著影响,但不同浓度对柠条生物量的影响无显著差异;单独的NH₄⁺添加对柠条地上/地下部分生长都具有显著抑制作用,且抑制作用与添加浓度呈显著的正相关关系;NH₄NO₃添加初期对柠条地上/地下生物量均具有促进作用,但这种促进作用会随着柠条生长和后期NH₄NO₃添加浓度的增加而消失;高浓度NH₄NO₃添加量（32 g/m²）会抑制柠条的生长。低浓度（4 g/m²、8 g/m²）外源氮添加会使柠条的生物量主要优先配给地下部分;磷添加则会使柠条的生物量分配策略向地上部分倾斜。综上所述,研究结果表明柠条改变地上和地下的生物量分配策略以响应氮或/和磷沉降。这一结论不仅增强了我们对植物生长策略的认识,而且有助于我们揭示全球气候变化条件下干旱地区土壤与植物之间的氮、磷循环和转化。     

First report of a new rapid assay for diarrhetic shellfish poisoning toxins

Jellett Rapid Testing Ltd. has developed a rapid field test kit to screen for diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP) toxins. The new test provides a qualitative (positive/negative) indication of the presence of okadaic acid (OA) and some of its analogues in about 30 min. It is designed as a screening method for regulatory labs to eliminate negative samples, thereby leaving a smaller number of positive samples to be tested with more sophisticated and time-consuming quantitative methods. Due to its simplicity and speed, the Rapid Test for DSP may eventually be used in other applications such as shellfish harvest management and toxin research. The test is based on easy-to-use lateral flow immunochromatographic (LFI) test strips, which operate the same way as Jellett Rapid Testing's Rapid Tests for paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) toxins and amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP) toxins. The sensitivity of the antibodies to some of the analogues of the DSP family of toxins was investigated using pure compounds from the National Research Council of Canada. In the Rapid Test format, okadaic acid, dinophysistoxin 1 (DTX1) and dinophysistoxin 2 (DTX2) were detected similarly with 50% reduction in test line color intensity at 5 nM for the solutions applied to test strips. One of the DTX-3 esters eliminated the test line at 500 nM, indicating low cross-reactivity, whereas no effect was observed with one of the brevetoxins (PbTx-3), yessotoxin, gymnodimine, spirolide and pectenotoxins PTX2, PTX11, at concentrations up to 1000 nM. In the ELISA format, the distinction between analogues was more apparent than on test strips. Mid-points were at 8 nM for okadaic acid, and 40 nM and 25 nM for DTX1 and DTX2, respectively.     

Reaction of laying hens to humans in the home or a novel environment

Tests assessing the fear of humans by measuring avoidance or approach reactions of the test animals towards humans can be useful tools in welfare assessment schemes. In this study, we wanted to compare tests assessing the reactions of laying hens towards humans in the home environment to a test performed in a novel environment. As well we investigated inter-test correlations in the home environment. We performed several tests to assess the hens’ approach and avoidance reactions towards an unfamiliar human inside the home environment of laying hens in 14 caged flocks and 10 free-range flocks. We measured the reactions of hens to a stationary person and a moving person approaching individual hens in both systems, as well as reactions to a stationary person trying to touch individual hens in non-cage systems and reactions of caged hens to a person passing by. Additionally, a standardised arena test was performed outside the home environment to compare the birds’ avoidance reactions towards an approaching human in a novel environment. In caged hens no significant correlations of tests performed inside the home environment with the arena test could be found, but there were moderate to high correlations (r_s > 0.6) with one parameter of the arena test in non-caged hens. The different tests applied inside the home environment correlated significantly and moderately to highly with each other, supporting the validity of these tests to measure fear of humans. The caged laying hens in our study reacted differently in the novel environment from the non-caged birds, indicating that the birds’ reactions towards humans in an unfamiliar environment depend on the housing system. In summary, a comparison of the level of fear of humans between flocks in different housing systems by using an arena test outside the home environment seems difficult and was not possible in the present study.     

Robustness of Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) Tests of Significance against Misspecification of the Error Structure Model

Generalized linear model analyses of repeated measurements typically rely on simplifying mathematical models of the error covariance structure for testing the significance of differences in patterns of change across time. The robustness of the tests of significance depends, not only on the degree of agreement between the specified mathematical model and the actual population data structure, but also on the precision and robustness of the computational criteria for fitting the specified covariance structure to the data. Generalized estimating equation (GEE) solutions utilizing the robust empirical sandwich estimator for modeling of the error structure were compared with general linear mixed model (GLMM) solutions that utilized the commonly employed restricted maximum likelihood (REML) procedure. Under the conditions considered, the GEE and GLMM procedures were identical in assuming that the data are normally distributed and that the variance‐covariance structure of the data is the one specified by the user. The question addressed in this article concerns relative sensitivity of tests of significance for treatment effects to varying degrees of misspecification of the error covariance structure model when fitted by the alternative procedures. Simulated data that were subjected to monte carlo evaluation of actual Type I error and power of tests of the equal slopes hypothesis conformed to assumptions of ordinary linear model ANOVA for repeated measures except for autoregressive covariance structures and missing data due to dropouts. The actual within‐groups correlation structures of the simulated repeated measurements ranged from AR(1) to compound symmetry in graded steps, whereas the GEE and GLMM formulations restricted the respective error structure models to be either AR(1), compound symmetry (CS), or unstructured (UN). The GEE‐based tests utilizing empirical sandwich estimator criteria were documented to be relatively insensitive to misspecification of the covariance structure models, whereas GLMM tests which relied on restricted maximum likelihood (REML) were highly sensitive to relatively modest misspecification of the error correlation structure even though normality, variance homogeneity, and linearity were not an issue in the simulated data.Goodness‐of‐fit statistics were of little utility in identifying cases in which relatively minor misspecification of the GLMM error structure model resulted in inadequate alpha protection for tests of the equal slopes hypothesis. Both GEE and GLMM formulations that relied on unstructured (UN) error model specification produced nonconservative results regardless of the actual correlation structure of the repeated measurements. A random coefficients model produced robust tests with competitive power across all conditions examined. (© 2004 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Effect of age and sex on jumping mechanography and other measures of muscle mass and function

Objectives:

Sarcopenia increases falls and fracture risk. Sarcopenia clinical trials require robust quantitative tools to evaluate muscle function; jumping mechanography (JM) is likely one such tool. However, US data comparing JM with traditional tests across the lifespan is limited. This study evaluated the effect of age and sex on JM compared with traditional function tests and lean mass.

Methods:

US adults (213 women/119 men; mean age 65.4 years, range 27-96) performed functional tests including JM, Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) and grip strength (GS). Appendicular lean mass (ALM) was measured using DXA.

Results:

Men had higher relative jump power [mean (SD) 28.5 (10.52) vs. 21.9 (7.11) W/kg], GS [35.5 (9.84) vs. 22.7 (6.98) kg] and ALM/ht² [8.25 (1.35) vs. 6.99 (1.38) kg/m²] (all p<0.0001); no difference was observed for SPPB components. JM parameters were more strongly correlated with age than traditional tests (R²=0.38-0.61 vs. R²=0.01-0.28) and weakly with GS and chair rise time (R²=0.30-0.36).

Conclusion:

JM parameters are correlated with GS and chair rise time and demonstrate stronger correlations with age. JM shows promise as a valuable tool to evaluate and monitor interventions for sarcopenia as it could potentially detect change in muscle function more precisely than existing tools.     

加减止痉散配合推拿治疗腰椎间盘突出症的临床应用

目的：分析腰椎间盘突出症采用止痉散加减配合推拿治疗的临床应用效果。方法：将2013 年10 月～2014年10月我院中医 门诊收治的90 例腰椎间盘突出症患者,将其按随机数字表法分为对照组和治疗组(n=45)。对照组患者采用针刺、推拿及牵引疗 法,治疗组患者在此基础上给予中药止痉散加减进行治疗。对比两组患者的临床总有效率及直腿抬高试验结果。结果：治疗组的 临床总有效率(97.78%)明显高于对照组的临床总有效率(75.56%),差异具有统计学意义(P＜0.05);另外,治疗组直腿抬高试验＞ 70° 的比例(68.89%)明显高于对照组的(42.22%),差异具有统计学意义(P＜0.05)。结论：止痉散加减配合推拿治疗腰椎间盘突出症 具有较好的临床效果。     

Estimation and Tests for Departures from Rao-Structured Covariance Matrices

For linear models, a measure of departure of a variance-covariance matrix from Rao-structure (Rao, 1967) is proposed. Relevant estimation and testing problems are discussed. Illustrative examples are also presented.     

A Test of Equality of Survival Distributions for Two Sample Censored Grouped Survival Data

A common testing problem for a life table or survival data is to test the equality of two survival distributions when the data is both grouped and censored. Several tests have been proposed in the literature which require various assumptions about the censoring distributions. It is shown that if these conditions are relaxed then the tests may no longer have the stated properties. The maximum likelihood test of equality when no assumptions are made about the censoring marginal distributions is derived. The properties of the test are found and it is compared to the existing tests. The fact that no assumptions are required about the censoring distributions make the test a useful initial testing procedure.