A scientific basis for restoring fish spawning habitat in the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers of the Laurentian Great Lakes

Loss of functional habitat in riverine systems is a global fisheries issue. Few studies, however, describe the decision‐making approach taken to abate loss of fish spawning habitat. Numerous habitat restoration efforts are underway and documentation of successful restoration techniques for spawning habitat of desirable fish species in large rivers connecting the Laurentian Great Lakes are reported here. In 2003, to compensate for the loss of fish spawning habitat in the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers that connect the Great Lakes Huron and Erie, an international partnership of state, federal, and academic scientists began restoring fish spawning habitat in both of these rivers. Using an adaptive management approach, we created 1,100 m² of productive fish spawning habitat near Belle Isle in the Detroit River in 2004; 3,300 m² of fish spawning habitat near Fighting Island in the Detroit River in 2008; and 4,000 m² of fish spawning habitat in the Middle Channel of the St. Clair River in 2012. Here, we describe the adaptive‐feedback management approach that we used to guide our decision making during all phases of spawning habitat restoration, including problem identification, team building, hypothesis development, strategy development, prioritization of physical and biological imperatives, project implementation, habitat construction, monitoring of fish use of the constructed spawning habitats, and communication of research results. Numerous scientific and economic lessons learned from 10 years of planning, building, and assessing fish use of these three fish spawning habitat restoration projects are summarized in this article.     

Spatial and temporal factors associated with nest survival of Gray Flycatchers in managed ponderosa pine forests

Gray Flycatchers (Empidonax wrightii) breed in a variety of habitats in the arid and semi‐arid regions of the western United States, but little is known about their breeding biology, especially in the northern portion of their range where they nest in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests. From May to July 2014 and 2015, we conducted surveys for singing male Gray Flycatchers along the eastern slope of the Cascade Range in Washington, U.S.A, monitored flycatcher nests, and quantified nest‐site vegetation. We used a logistic‐exposure model fit within a Bayesian framework to model the daily survival probability of flycatcher nests. During the 2 yr of our study, we monitored 141 nests, with 93% in ponderosa pines. Mean clutch size was 3.6 eggs and the mean number of young fledged per nest was 3.2. Predation accounted for 90% of failed nests. We found a positive association between daily nest survival and both nest height and distance of nest substrates from the nearest tree. Flycatchers that locate their nests higher above the ground and further from adjacent trees may be choosing the safest alternative because higher nests may be less exposed to terrestrial predators and nests in trees that are farther from other trees may be less exposed to arboreal predators such as jays (Corvidae) that may forage in patches with connected canopies. Nests in trees farther from other trees may also allow earlier detection of approaching predators and thus aid in nest defense.     

A geometric analysis of nutrient regulation in the generalist caterpillar Spodoptera littoralis (Boisduval)

Nutritional regulatory responses of the generalist caterpillar Spodoptera littoralis (Boisduval) were explored, in choice and no-choice experiments, using the Geometric Framework. In the choice experiment, newly moulted final instar larvae were provided with one of three protein-biased foods (PB-food: p35:c7, p28:c5.6 or p21:c4.2) and one of three equal protein-carbohydrate ratio foods (ER-food: p21:c21, p16.8:c16.8 or p12.6:c12.6). On five of the nine treatments, caterpillars independently regulated protein and carbohydrate intake to a mixture of 57 and 43%, respectively. However, when the concentration of the ER-food decreased and that of the paired PB-food increased, caterpillars progressively abandoned regulation and ate more of the PB-food. Despite these regulatory differences, performance (survivorship, growth and development) was similar across all nine treatments. In the no-choice experiment, caterpillars were given one of five foods (p35:c7, p28:c14, p21:c21, p14:c28 and p7:c35). Results indicated that caterpillars moved to a point in protein-carbohydrate space that was consistent with the Equal Distance Rule of compromise, a pattern previously predicted for generalist feeders. The insects on the two extreme foods, p35:c7 and p7:c35, showed reduced pupal mass and longer development, respectively. There was also strong evidence for post-ingestive regulation of nutrient utilisation, notably for protein.     

Carbon‐Coated Li3Nd3W2O12: A High Power and Low‐Voltage Insertion Anode with Exceptional Cycleability for Li‐Ion Batteries

The synthesis of carbon‐coated Li₃Nd₃W₂O₁₂ (C‐Li₃Nd₃W₂O₁₂), a low voltage insertion anode (0.3 V vs. Li) for a Li‐ion battery, is reported to exhibit extraordinary performance. The low voltage reversible insertion provides an increase in the energy density of Li‐ion power packs. For instance, C‐Li₃Nd₃W₂O₁₂ delivered an energy density of ≈390 Wh kg^?1 (based on cathode mass loading) when coupled with an LiMn₂O₄ cathode with an operating potential of 3.4 V. Furthermore, excellent cycling profiles are observed for C‐Li₃Nd₃W₂O₁₂ anodes both in half and full‐cell configurations. The full‐cell is capable of delivering very stable cycling profiles at high current rates (e.g., 2 C), which clearly suggests the high power capability of such garnet‐type anodes.     

区域水安全格局构建:研究进展及概念框架

随着全球变化背景下生态安全问题的日益严峻,生态安全格局研究成为宏观生态学关注的热点领域;水作为重要的自然生态要素,其安全格局的构建也是区域生态安全格局优化的重要组成部分,但目前其基本内涵、构建理论与方法、指标体系等尚未受到足够重视,缺乏系统梳理。在对比分析资源、环境与灾害等多学科视角下水安全概念异同的基础上,明晰了区域水安全格局的概念内涵,将其定义为保障区域水安全目标的土地利用空间格局;系统探讨了水安全格局构建历程与方法研究进展,指出水安全研究正由定量评价向空间管控转型,水环境安全格局构建严重滞后,缺乏水安全格局与自然生态过程、社会经济过程的耦合关联分析;最后,基于景观生态学格局-过程互馈理论和地理学区域综合视角,以GIS空间分析、In VEST模型等为技术支撑,构建了水资源安全、水环境安全和水灾害规避安全3个单一维度的水安全格局,并提出基于空间多准则分析模型的区域综合水安全格局构建概念框架,以期有效提升中国城市化进程的水安全格局保障。     

新形势下多元化板书在高校教学中的运用：以生物化学课程为例

板书担负着知识传递和课堂文化传承的双重任务。设计良好的板书不仅有助于学生对知识的记忆、理解和建构,还有助于打造严肃活泼的课堂氛围、塑造立德树人的课堂灵魂、促进教学反思和提升育人质量。笔者以板书教学在生物化学课程中的实践为例,按照针对学生要实现的教学目标,对板书进行了分类,分别介绍了每类板书在多媒体时代的必要性和适用范围,以期使板书这一传统教学形式在新时代课堂教学中发挥其重要作用。     

Modelling children's anthropometric status using Bayesian distributional regression merging socio-economic and remote sensed data from South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa

A history of insufficient nutritional intake is reflected by low anthropometric measures and can lead to growth failures, limited mental development, poor health outcomes and a higher risk of dying. Children below five years are among those most vulnerable and, while improvements in the share of children affected by insufficient nutritional intake has been observed, both sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia have a disproportionately high share of growth failures and large disparities at national and sub-national levels. In this study, we use a Bayesian distributional regression approach to develop models for the standard anthropometric measures, stunting and wasting. This approach allows us to model both the mean and the standard deviation of the underlying response distribution. Accordingly, the whole distribution of the anthropometric measures can be evaluated. This is of particular importance, considering the fact that (severe) growth failures of children are defined having a z-score below −2 (−3), emphasising the need to extend the analysis beyond the conditional mean. In addition, we merge individual data taken from the Demographic and Health Surveys with remote sensed data for a large sample of 38 countries located in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia for the period 1990–2016, in order to combine individual and household specific characteristics with geophysical and environmental characteristics, and to allow for a comparison over time. Our results show besides gender differences across space, and strong non-linear effects of included socio-economic characteristics, in particular for maternal education and the wealth of the household that, surprisingly, in the presence of socio-economic characteristics, remote sensed data does not contribute to variations in growth failures, and including a pure spatial effect excluding remote sensed data leads to even better results. Further, while all regions showed improvements towards the target of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), our analysis identifies hotspots of growth failures at sub-national levels within India, Nigeria, Niger, and Madagascar, emphasising the need to accelerate progress to reach the target set by the SDGs.     

An ‘on–off–on’ fluorescent switch based on a luminous covalent organic framework for the rapid and selective detection of glyphosate

Glyphosate, the most used herbicide in the world, has a residue problem that cannot be ignored. However, glyphosate itself does not have fluorescence emission and lacks the conditions for fluorescence detection. In this work, a rapid and selective fluorescence detection method of glyphosate was designed by an ‘on–off–on’ fluorescent switch based on a luminous covalent organic framework (L-COF). Only the fixed concentration of Fe³⁺ as an intermediate could trigger the fluorescent switch and no incubation step was required. The proposed method showed good accuracy with a correlation coefficient of 0.9978. The method's limits of detection and quantitation were 0.88 and 2.93 μmol/L, which were lower than the maximum allowable residue limits in some regulations. Environmental water samples and tomatoes were selected as actual samples to verify the application in a complex matrix. A satisfactory mean recovery from 87% to 106% was gained. Furthermore, Fe³⁺ could induce fluorescence quenching of L-COF through the photo-induced electron transfer (PET) effect, while the addition of glyphosate could block the PET effect to achieve detection. These results demonstrated the proposed method had abilities to detect glyphosate and broaden the application of L-COF.     

Comparison of metabolite production capability indices generated by network analysis methods

A framework of constraint-based reconstruction and analysis (COBRA) is used for modeling large-scale metabolic networks. In COBRA, extreme pathway and optimization analyses are commonly used to study the properties of networks. While the results of both methods are completely consistent, extreme pathway analysis is considered to be better because of its wider representational ability. In this study, we assessed these two methods by computational knockout experiments. We examined a simple pathway model and found that the extreme pathway method led to misguided conclusions in specific cases, while optimization analysis calculated the correct knockout effects. We also investigated the Escherichia coli metabolic pathway model, and found that these methods result in inconsistent interpretations of the network properties. IN CONCLUSION: it has been claimed that these two methods result in the same producible metabolites, but we found a difference in individual results for a biological pathway. Our results could provide helpful guidance for when to use the methods, particularly extreme pathway analysis.