自然保护区管理效果影响因素

自然保护区的管理效果是保护区管理工作能力的重要考核指标。由于管理基础、管理机制和管理行为的不同,对保护区的管理效果产生影响的因素也有差异。为了剖析保护区管理过程中各项管理要素对管理效果产生影响情况及其重要程度,从林业系统中选取154个国家级自然保护区进行问卷调查,从26项管理要素中得到14项能体现管理有效性的关键评价指标,在此基础上。利用X^2检验的方法,分析这些关键评价指标与保护区的管理效果之间的关系,为今后的管理工作提供参考依据。经过研究,自然保护区管理效果的3个指标（保护状况E1、保护区控制E2、对当地社区经济效益的影响E3）中,目前E1在各个保护区中的管理效果得分中最高,这说明维护保护区的保护状况仍是各个保护区最为重视的工作目标;而保护区管理有效性评价指标中各个因子对于管理效果有不同的影响结果。在这些管理评价指标中,宣传项目是唯一对保护区管理效果中的3个指标都有影响的因素,并对E1这一管理效果因素影响最大,而管理监督评价和旅游管理与收费则是分别对E2、E3的影响最大。通过分析,将会更加明确保护区的管理因素中各个指标的重要性,通过对采取合理的方式,最终可以提高保护区的管理效果。     

Human Interaction as Environmental Enrichment for Pair-Housed Wolves and Wolf–Dog Crosses

Private nonhuman animal sanctuaries are often financially limited in their ability to implement traditional environmental enrichment strategies. One possible solution may be to provide socialized animals with human interaction sessions. However, the merit of human interaction as enrichment has received little empirical attention to date. The present study aimed to evaluate whether human interaction could be enriching for socialized, pair-housed wolves and wolf–dog crosses at a private sanctuary. Observations of each subject were conducted in a reversal design to measure species-typical affiliation, activity levels, and aberrant behaviors when caretakers were both present and absent. The results demonstrate significantly higher levels of conspecific-directed affiliation and activity levels and reduced aberrant behavior when human interaction was available. Social play also increased when caregivers were present, supporting the hypothesis that play among conspecifics may be maintained by positive changes in an animal's environment. The potential for human interaction to be established as a scientifically validated, cost-effective enrichment strategy is supported by these findings.     

The Shift-Work Accident Rate is More Related to the Shift Type than to Shift Rotation

The current study investigated the accident rates across morning, late, and night shifts in rotating shift-workers employed in two different shift rotations at the same steel work factory. A retrospective analysis has been performed of accident data (N = 578) over a 5-year period (2003 through 2007) of 730 male shift-workers employed in either a clockwise (mean age of the workers 38.1 ± SD 9.8 years) or counterclockwise rotation (mean age 38.0 ± SD 10.1 years) with comparable work conditions. The overall accident rate across the 24-h day was not significantly different between clockwise and counterclockwise shift rotation. In both shift-work rotations, morning shifts as opposed to night shifts exhibited a significantly higher accident rate. There was no significant difference between late shifts and morning or night shifts in either shift rotation. The increased accident rate in the morning shift at this steel factory could be related to the early starting time of the shift and to this shift being more labor intensive in both shift rotations. These findings suggest that work-related factors must be considered in addition to shift-work schedules when investigating accident rates in rotating shift-workers.     

Recovery after Shift Work: Relation to Coronary Risk Factors in Women

Shift work increases the risk for developing cardiovascular disease. There is, however, little knowledge of what aspects of shift scheduling that are detrimental and what characteristics promote good health. The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether coronary risk factors deteriorate after a hard work period and whether recovery, in the form of a week off, was sufficient to improve them. A total of 19 women worked an extremely rapidly rotating and clockwise shift schedule at a paper and pulp factory. They underwent two health examinations, one at the end of the work period and one after the week off. In addition, the women were divided into a tolerant and a vulnerable group, depending on their satisfaction with their work hours. Most risk factors did not change, but total cholesterol and low‐density lipoprotein (LDL)‐cholesterol were lower after the working period than after the week‐off. In addition, vulnerable women had higher levels of total cholesterol and a higher ratio of total cholesterol/high‐density lipoprotein (HDL) than tolerant ones. In conclusion, the finding that a week‐off worsens cholesterol levels was against our hypothesis and suggests further studies on how activities/responsibilities outside the workplace affect shift‐working women. It was also shown that susceptible shift workers had worse lipid profiles.     

Economic evaluation of weight loss interventions in overweight and obese women

Objective: To conduct a clinical and economic evaluation of outpatient weight loss strategies in overweight and obese adult U.S. women. Research Methods and Procedures: This study was a lifetime cost‐use analysis from a societal perspective, using a first‐order Monte Carlo simulation. Strategies included routine primary care and varying combinations of diet, exercise, behavior modification, and/or pharmacotherapy. Primary data were collected to assess program costs and obesity‐related quality of life. Other data were obtained from clinical trials, population‐based surveys, and other published literature. This was a simulated cohort of healthy 35‐year‐old overweight and obese women in the United States. Results: For overweight and obese women, a three‐component intervention of diet, exercise, and behavior modification cost $12,600 per quality‐adjusted life year gained compared with routine care. All other strategies were either less effective and more costly or less effective and less cost‐effective compared with the next best alternative. Results were most influenced by obesity‐related effects on quality of life and the probabilities of weight loss maintenance. Discussion: A multidisciplinary weight loss program consisting of diet, exercise, and behavior modification provides good value for money, but more research is required to confirm the impacts of such programs on quality of life and the likelihood of long‐term weight loss maintenance.     

A theory of evaluation applied to human-environment systems

1. 1. The writers present the general theory of evaluation that is being developed by their group.

2. 2. The evaluation of a human environment is a complex mental process.

3. 3. In an effort to express numerically the quality of an environment, one tends to oversimplify the complex aspects of it and the entailing problems in relation to its inhabitants.

4. 4. In this paper, some examples are taken in the evaluation of thermal environments, wherein much has been said and done in setting up numerical scales to express human comfort, and yet neither clear-cut explanations nor convincing logic seem to exist to terminate the argument over the widely scattered and sometimes seemingly contradicting experimental data.

5. 5. The writers suggest that many of the reasons for this confusion may be traced back to the oversimplified notion of evaluation.

6. 6. It is shown that there are various possibilities when looking at the scales of evaluation.

7. 7.|The nominal scale, least studied of all the four traditional scales, may be given a prominent place in evaluating a thermal environment. The pseudo-interval order scale is another example.

Free energy determinants of tertiary structure and the evaluation of protein models

We develop a protocol for estimating the free energy difference between different conformations of the same polypeptide chain. The conformational free energy evaluation combines the CHARMM force field with a continuum treatment of the solvent. In almost all cases studied, experimentally determined structures are predicted to be more stable than misfolded "decoys." This is due in part to the fact that the Coulomb energy of the native protein is consistently lower than that of the decoys. The solvation free energy generally favors the decoys, although the total electrostatic free energy (sum of Coulomb and solvation terms) favors the native structure. The behavior of the solvation free energy is somewhat counterintuitive and, surprisingly, is not correlated with differences in the burial of polar area between native structures and decoys. Rather. the effect is due to a more favorable charge distribution in the native protein, which, as is discussed, will tend to decrease its interaction with the solvent. Our results thus suggest, in keeping with a number of recent studies, that electrostatic interactions may play an important role in determining the native topology of a folded protein. On this basis, a simplified scoring function is derived that combines a Coulomb term with a hydrophobic contact term. This function performs as well as the more complete free energy evaluation in distinguishing the native structure from misfolded decoys. Its computational efficiency suggests that it can be used in protein structure prediction applications, and that it provides a physically well-defined alternative to statistically derived scoring functions.     

Adding a selective enrichment step to the iQ-Check real-time PCR improves the detection of Salmonella in naturally contaminated retail turkey meat products

AIMS: The aim of this study was to compare the real-time iQ-Check Salmonella kit (Bio-Rad) with the immunocapture assay RapidCheck Salmonella method, and a conventional culture method (FSIS, USDA) in detecting Salmonella in naturally contaminated turkey meat products. This study was also designed to determine if a selective enrichment step might improve the real-time detection of Salmonella. METHODS AND RESULTS: Using the culture method, Salmonella was recovered from 49 out of 99 retail turkey meat samples collected. RapidCheck failed to detect 11 Salmonella samples that were positive by the culture method. The iQ-Check real-time PCR also failed to detect three samples that were positive by the culture method. However, when carried out after a selective enrichment step, the iQ-Check real-time PCR detected all 49 Salmonella samples recovered by the culture method. The iQ-Check real-time PCR detected the presence of Salmonella in some samples that were not recovered by the culture method. CONCLUSIONS: Adding a selective enrichment step to the iQ-Check real-time PCR improves the detection of Salmonella in naturally contaminated turkey meat samples. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: The iQ-Check Salmonella real-time PCR can be used as a rapid method to monitor Salmonella in turkey meat, together with conventional culture methodology.     

荧光定量PCR技术评价亚甲蓝光化学法病毒灭活效果的研究

本研究探讨利用荧光定量PCR技术评价Sindbis病毒经亚甲蓝光化学处理后灭活效果的可行性。研究采用不同光照强度对Sindbis病毒进行亚甲蓝光化学灭活处理,并用SYBR Green I荧光定量PCR对Sindbis病毒的cDNA进行扩增,同时以细胞病变法做平行对照以测定病毒残余滴度。结果显示在亚甲蓝光化学处理过程中,随着光照强度的增强,病毒残余滴度由6.50 LgTCID50/mL逐渐降低至检测限以下,同时病毒核酸的拷贝数显著下降(P<0.05),并与病毒感染性的降低呈线性相关(R2>0.98)。以上结果表明,亚甲蓝光化学灭活法对Sindbis病毒核酸有破坏作用,病毒核酸损伤程度随光照强度的增强而增加,且与病毒感染性的降低存在相关性,提示荧光定量PCR技术评价亚甲蓝光化学法的病毒灭活效果具有可行性。