Long‐range seasonal migration in insects: mechanisms,evolutionary drivers and ecological consequences

Myriad tiny insect species take to the air to engage in windborne migration, but entomology also has its ‘charismatic megafauna’ of butterflies, large moths, dragonflies and locusts. The spectacular migrations of large day‐flying insects have long fascinated humankind, and since the advent of radar entomology much has been revealed about high‐altitude night‐time insect migrations. Over the last decade, there have been significant advances in insect migration research, which we review here. In particular, we highlight: (1) notable improvements in our understanding of lepidopteran navigation strategies, including the hitherto unsuspected capabilities of high‐altitude migrants to select favourable winds and orientate adaptively, (2) progress in unravelling the neuronal mechanisms underlying sun compass orientation and in identifying the genetic complex underpinning key traits associated with migration behaviour and performance in the monarch butterfly, and (3) improvements in our knowledge of the multifaceted interactions between disease agents and insect migrants, in terms of direct effects on migration success and pathogen spread, and indirect effects on the evolution of migratory systems. We conclude by highlighting the progress that can be made through inter‐phyla comparisons, and identify future research areas that will enhance our understanding of insect migration strategies within an eco‐evolutionary perspective.     

Control charts for improved decisions in environmental management: a case study of catchment water supply in south‐west Western Australia

Environmental monitoring is becoming increasingly sophisticated with the widespread adoption of data loggers, sensor arrays and remote sensing, leading to larger scale, higher resolution and superior quality data. However, interpreting monitoring data and deciding when and how to apply environmental management remains a subjective and underdeveloped area of research. Control charts, developed in industrial settings to identify when manufacturing processes were beyond the acceptable bounds of production quality, represent one solution. Despite their potential utility, control charts have rarely been adopted in environmental monitoring. In theory, they are able to identify undesirable trends early and provide transparent and broadly consensual criteria for defining when management action should take place, that is action is triggered when parameter values are observed beyond the agreed control limits of the process. Once triggered, a predetermined management action is implemented. Possible actions are many and varied, and range from investigation and increased monitoring to intervention in the system. Here, the utility of control charts in monitoring water supply in south‐western Australia from 1911 to 2010 is examined, and their ability to provide an early, transparent and easily understandable means of triggering management action is assessed. Two control chart types are applied: the X‐bar chart and the CUSUM chart. X‐bar charts varied widely in their ability to trigger action and were insensitive to many traditional threshold criteria (of which there are many to choose from). In contrast, standard CUSUM charts are specifically designed to detect subtler shifts away from a mean trend and hence provided a more consistent warning of the decline in water supply. While managers were aware of the decline in water supply from an early stage, we believe that control charts could have clearly communicated this earlier, enabling consensus among decision makers to be reached more rapidly.     

The influence of weather on the flight altitude of nocturnal migrants in mid‐latitudes

By altering its flight altitude, a bird can change the atmospheric conditions it experiences during migration. Although many factors may influence a bird's choice of altitude, wind is generally accepted as being the most influential. However, the influence of wind is not clearly understood, particularly outside the trade‐wind zone, and other factors may play a role. We used operational weather radar to measure the flight altitudes of nocturnally migrating birds during spring and autumn in the Netherlands. We first assessed whether the nocturnal altitudinal distribution of proportional bird density could be explained by the vertical distribution of wind support using three different methods. We then used generalized additive models to assess which atmospheric variables, in addition to altitude, best explained variability in proportional bird density per altitudinal layer each night. Migrants generally remained at low altitudes, and flight altitude explained 52 and 73% of the observed variability in proportional bird density in spring and autumn, respectively. Overall, there were weak correlations between altitudinal distributions of wind support and proportional bird density. Improving tailwind support with height increased the probability of birds climbing to higher altitude, but when birds did fly higher than normal, they generally concentrated around the lowest altitude with acceptable wind conditions. The generalized additive model analysis also indicated an influence of temperature on flight altitudes, suggesting that birds avoided colder layers. These findings suggested that birds increased flight altitudes to seek out more supportive winds when wind conditions near the surface were prohibitive. Thus, birds did not select flight altitudes only to optimize wind support. Rather, they preferred to fly at low altitudes unless wind conditions there were unsupportive of migration. Overall, flight altitudes of birds in relation to environmental conditions appear to reflect a balance between different adaptive pressures.     

一种利用ViewGIS软件绘制生物墨线图的方法

本文介绍一种利用ViewGIS地信之窗软件绘制生物墨线图的方法,该方法较好地克服了传统手工绘图中存在的问题,具有操作简单、结构特征准确、耗时短、比例准确等特点.     

Retrospective study on performance of constancy check device in Linac beam monitoring using Statistical Process Control

AimTo examine the application of Statistical Process Control (SPC) and Ishikawa diagrams for retrospective evaluation of machine Quality Assurance (QA) performance in radiotherapyBackgroundSPC is a popular method for supplementing the performance of QA techniques in healthcare. This work investigates the applicability of SPC techniques and Ishikawa charts in machine QA.Materials and MethodsSPC has been applied to recommend QA limits on the particular beam parameters using the QUICKCHECK^webline QA portable constancy check device for 6 MV and 10 MV flattened photon beams from the Elekta Versa HD linear accelerator (Linac). Four machine QA parameters – beam flatness, beam symmetry along gun target direction and left-right direction, and beam quality factor (BQF) – were selected for retrospective analysis. Shewhart charts, Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (EWMA) charts and Cumulative Sum (CUSUM) charts were obtained for each parameter. The root causes for a failure in machine QA were broken down into an Ishikawa diagram enabling the user to identify the root cause of error and rectify the problem subsequently.ResultsShewhart charts and EWMA charts applied could detect loss in control in one variable in the 6 MV beams and in all four variables in 10 MV beams. CUSUM charts detected offsets in the readings. The Ishikawa chart exhaustively included the possible errors that lead to loss of control.ConclusionSPC is proven to be effective for detection of loss in control in machine QA. The Ishikawa chart provides the set of probable root causes of machine error useful while troubleshooting.     

Nocturnal passerine migration without tailwind assistance

Nocturnal passerine migrants could substantially reduce the amount of energy spent per distance covered if they fly with tailwind assistance and thus achieve ground speeds that exceed their airspeeds (the birds’ speed in relation to the surrounding air). We analysed tracking radar data from two study sites in southern and northern Scandinavia and show that nocturnally migrating passerines, during both spring and autumn migration, regularly travelled without tailwind assistance. Average ground and airspeeds of the birds were strikingly similar for all seasonal and site‐specific samples, demonstrating that winds had little overall influence on the birds’ resulting travel speeds. Distributions of wind effects, measured as (1) the difference between ground and airspeed and (2) the tail/headwind component along the birds’ direction of travel, showed peaks close to a zero wind effect, indicating that the migratory flights often occurred irrespective of wind direction. An assessment of prevailing wind speeds at the birds’ mean altitude indicated a preference for lower wind speeds, with flights often taking place in moderate winds of 3–10 m/s. The limited frequency of wind‐assisted flights among the nocturnal passerine migrants studied is surprising and in clear contrast to the strong selectivity of tailwinds exhibited by some other bird groups. Relatively high costs of waiting for favourable winds, rather low probabilities of occurrence of tailwind conditions and a need to use a large proportion of nights for flying are probably among the factors that explain the lack of a distinct preference for wind‐assisted flights among nocturnal passerine migrants.     

冠状动脉CTA结合动态心电图夜间ST段趋势图诊断冠状动脉硬化性心脏病的价值研究

摘要 目的：探讨冠状动脉CTA结合动态心电图夜间ST段趋势图对冠状动脉硬化性心脏病（冠心病）的诊断价值。方法：回顾性分析2022年1月-2023年2月在我院疑似冠心病的患者104例,所有患者均行冠状动脉造影、冠状动脉CTA、动态心电图及临床相关实验室检查。以冠状动脉造影结果作为诊断冠心病的金标准,分析比较冠状动脉CTA、动态心电图夜间ST段趋势图及两者联合诊断冠心病的诊断效能和一致性。结果：104例疑似冠心病的患者确诊93例（89.42%）。冠状动脉CTA诊断冠心病的敏感性为90.32%,特异性为72.73%,阳性预测值为96.55%,阴性预测值为47.06%,准确率为88.46%,与冠状动脉造影的Kappa值为0.813,一致性好。动态心电图夜间ST段趋势图诊断冠心病的敏感性为84.95%,特异性为63.64%,阳性预测值为95.18%,阴性预测值为33.33%,准确率为82.69%,与冠状动脉造影的Kappa值为0.724,一致性较好。有夜间ST段动态改变的冠心病检出率（84.95%,79/93）明显高于无夜间ST段动态改变的冠心病检出率（15.05%,14/93）,差异有统计学意义（P＜0.001）。冠状动脉CTA结合动态心电图夜间ST段趋势图诊断冠心病的敏感性为96.77%,特异性为90.91%,阳性预测值为98.90%,阴性预测值为76.92%,准确率为96.15%,与冠状动脉造影的Kappa值为0.923,一致性好。结论：冠状动脉CTA结合动态心电图夜间ST段趋势图诊断冠心病的临床价值优于冠状动脉CTA或动态心电图夜间ST段趋势图单独检查。     

安徽植被带的划分

安徽各地种子植物分布型的统计结果显示其植物区系基本属于温带性质．地理联系广泛．与东亚关系密切。通过对大别山不同区域3个山头(天堂寨、多枝尖和陀尖)的种子植物数目和结构．及属种相似性系数两方面的研究,认为整个大别山植物应归同一植物区系,其植被应归为亚热带常绿阔叶林．在划分亚热带与暖温带的分界线时,大别山应作为一个整体考虑。同时结合对黄山、板桥、天堂寨、琅琊山和皇藏峪的植物区系和生活型谱的统计结果分析,提出暖温带落叶阏叶林与常绿、落叶阔叶混交林的分界线,位于淮河一线;而亚热带常绿阔叶林与暖温带的常绿、落叶阏叶混交林的分界线位于叶集、六安、舒城、庐江、铜陵、宣城至广德一线。