Dispersal delays, predator-prey stability, and the paradox of enrichment

It takes time for individuals to move from place to place. This travel time can be incorporated into metapopulation models via a delay in the interpatch migration term. Such a term has been shown to stabilize the positive equilibrium of the classical Lotka-Volterra predator-prey system with one species (either the predator or the prey) dispersing. We study a more realistic, Rosenzweig-MacArthur, model that includes a carrying capacity for the prey, and saturating functional response for the predator. We show that dispersal delays can stabilize the predator-prey equilibrium point despite the presence of a Type II functional response that is known to be destabilizing. We also show that dispersal delays reduce the amplitude of oscillations when the equilibrium is unstable, and therefore may help resolve the paradox of enrichment.     

Can you shrinkwrap a cow? Protections available for the intellectual property of the animal breeding industry

There are currently four main intellectual property protection statutory schemes available: copyright, trade secret, trademark and patent. Each of these protects a different aspect of intellectual property, which leaves gaps of protection when an innovation does not fit squarely within the boundaries of the statutes. Contracts allow the industry to tailor the protection desired. One very common approach is to license the product via contract. Licences allow intellectual property owners to retain ownership and give permission to others to use the product. Although there are several types of licences, the most common is the field of use licence, which limits the licensee's use of the product. This often leads to price discrimination where various levels of restriction are offered at corresponding prices. The more rights retained by the owner, the more restricted the buyer is and the lower the purchase price allowing customers to choose the level of restriction they are willing to accept. Therefore, the different uses and needs of various customers can be accounted for and reflected in the price. The animal breeding industry is currently struggling to protect their innovations falling into these statutory gaps. The protection for animal breeding industry innovations is most likely through contract law rather than traditional intellectual property law. By taking advantage of the unique nature of contracts, industry will be able to tailor protection and pricing to best suit the variety of customers and uses for the products sold.     

一类无穷时滞微分系统的周期解和全局吸引性

考虑如下具有无穷时滞的微分系统:x′(t)=A(t,x(t))x(t) (integral from -∞to 0)f(t,s,x(s t))ds (sum from i=1 to p) fi(t,x(t-T_i(t)))的周期解.利用重合度理论和构造适当的Lyapunov泛函得到上述系统周期解存在性和全局吸引性的充分条件,推广了已有的结论,得到了新的结果.     

Do we expect natural selection to produce rational behaviour?

We expect that natural selection should result in behavioural rules which perform well; however, animals (including humans) sometimes make bad decisions. Researchers account for these with a variety of explanations; we concentrate on two of them. One explanation is that the outcome is a side effect; what matters is how a rule performs (in terms of reproductive success). Several rules may perform well in the environment in which they have evolved, but their performance may differ in a 'new' environment (e.g. the laboratory). Some rules may perform very badly in this environment. We use the debate about whether animals follow the matching law rather than maximizing their gains as an illustration. Another possibility is that we were wrong about what is optimal. Here, the general idea is that the setting in which optimal decisions are investigated is too simple and may not include elements that add extra degrees of freedom to the situation.     

Mitochondrial ribosomal protein S36 delays cell cycle progression in association with p53 modification and p21(WAF1/CIP1) expression

Ribosomal biogenesis is correlated with cell cycle, cell proliferation, cell growth and tumorigenesis. Some oncogenes and tumor suppressors are involved in regulating the formation of mature ribosome and affecting the ribosomal biogenesis. In previous studies, the mitochondrial ribosomal protein L41 was reported to be involved in cell proliferation regulating through p21(WAF1/CIP1) and p53 pathway. In this report, we have identified a mitochondrial ribosomal protein S36 (mMRPS36), which is localized in the mitochondria, and demonstrated that overexpression of mMRPS36 in cells retards the cell proliferation and delays cell cycle progression. In addition, the mMRPS36 overexpression induces p21(WAF1/CIP1) expression, and regulates the expression and phosphorylation of p53. Our result also indicate that overexpression of mMRPS36 affects the mitochondrial function. These results suggest that mMRPS36 plays an important role in mitochondrial ribosomal biogenesis, which may cause nucleolar stress, thereby leading to cell cycle delay.     

基于比较基因组学的高地芽孢杆菌6ww6分子标识筛选及其快速鉴定

【目的】高地芽孢杆菌(Bacillus altitudinis) 6ww6是一株根际耐盐促生菌,可以作为微生物肥料的优选菌种。为了加强菌种知识产权保护,建立菌株快速检测方法。【方法】本研究通过基因组比对分析、TBLASTn检索、NR库检索验证并剔除有其他同源的结果序列,最终得到菌株6ww6的孤儿基因,设计引物进行PCR鉴定。【结果】筛选出5个特异性基因J939_13195、J9319_05960、J9319_13355、J9319_05965和J9319_13350。引物5960F和5960R可以单一性扩增出菌株6ww6的目的基因J9319_05960,确定其为菌株6ww6的特异性分子标识。【结论】本研究确定了菌株6ww6的唯一性身份编码,建立了以比较基因组学和孤儿基因为基础的菌株水平上的鉴定方法。该方法具有快速、精确、能鉴定到菌株水平的优点,对于有价值微生物的知识产权保护提供了有力的抓手。     

具有分布时滞离散Cohen-Grossberg神经网络的周期解

讨论了一类具有分布时滞离散Cohen-Grossberg神经网络模型,利用M-矩阵理论与适合的Lypunov函数,得到该类模型周期解的存在性与全局指数稳定性．