Comparative life‐history traits in a fig wasp community: implications for community structure

1. Whether life‐history traits can determine community composition and structure is an important question that has been well explored theoretically, but has received scant empirical attention. Life‐history traits of a seven‐member community of galler and parasitoid fig wasp species (Chalcidoidea), developing within the inflorescences (syconia) of Ficus racemosa (Moraceae) in India, were determined and used to examine community structure and ecology. 2. Gallers were pro‐ovigenic (all eggs are mature upon adult emergence) whereas parasitoids were synovigenic (eggs mature progressively during adult lifespan). Initial egg load was correlated with body size for some species, and there was a trade‐off between egg number and egg size across all species. Although all species completed their development and left the syconium concurrently, they differed in their adult and pre‐adult lifespans. Providing sucrose solutions increased parasitoid lifespan but had no effect on the longevity of some galler species. While feeding regimes and body size affected longevity in most species, an interaction effect between these variables was detected for only one species. 3. Life‐history traits of wasp species exhibited a continuum in relation to their arrival sequence at syconia for oviposition during syconium development, and therefore reflected their ecology. The largest number of eggs, smallest egg sizes, and shortest longevities were characteristic of the earliest‐arriving galling wasps at the smallest, immature syconia; the converse characterised the later‐arriving parasitoids at the larger, already parasitised syconia. Thus life history is an important correlate of community resource partitioning and can be used to understand community structure. 4. This is the first comprehensive study of life‐history traits in a fig wasp community. The comparative approach revealed constraints and flexibility in trait evolution.     

基于熵准则的鲁棒的RBF谷胱甘肽发酵建模

在谷胱甘肽的发酵过程建模中, 当试验数据含有噪音时, 往往会导致模型预测精度和泛化能力的下降。针对该问题, 提出了一种新的基于熵准则的RBF神经网络建模方法。与传统的基于MSE准则函数的建模方法相比, 新方法能从训练样本的整体分布结构来进行模型参数学习, 有效地避免了传统的基于MSE准则的RBF网络的过学习和泛化能力差的缺陷。将该模型应用到实际的谷胱甘肽发酵过程建模中, 实验结果表明: 该方法具有较高的预测精度、泛化能力和良好的鲁棒性, 从而对谷胱甘肽的发酵建模有潜在的应用价值。     

短声特性对豚鼠圆窗记录的N_1N_2反应的影响

研究了不同刺激声强情况下短声特性(极性、波形及相应频谱)改变对豚鼠圆窗记录的N_1N_2反应的影响。发现:①在低声强时,若维持刺激声强不变而使短声波形改变对N_1无影响,但是对N_2有轻微的影响。而高声强时,若维持刺激声强不变而使短声波形改变将引起N_N_2反应较为显著的变化。②不仅是短声的疏相,而且其密相对N_1N_2的形成有贡献。③N_1N_2反应不仅与短声刺激强度有关,而且还与短声的其它参数(如波宽等)有关。并就各项结果进行了讨论。     

综述与专论: 肝脏免疫的活体显微光学成像研究进展

光学分子成像技术是在活体复杂的组织区域环境内细胞形态、运动与功能研究的最佳手段之一,极大地推进了免疫学的发展．肝脏是机体新陈代谢和解毒的重要器官,也被视为一个免疫器官．解析肝脏免疫基本特性和功能,对防治肝脏疾病以及全身性相关疾病具有重要意义．活体可视化研究肝脏区域生理或者病理状态下免疫应答,提供关键事件的多细胞参与及其彼此交互的时空动态信息,能极大地丰富对肝脏独特免疫反应的认知．本文将重点阐述目前活体肝脏成像的技术与方法以及光学显微成像技术,例如多光子激发显微成像与转盘共聚焦成像在肝脏免疫中的应用,并展望活体肝脏成像今后的发展方向和面临的机遇与挑战．     

Bond‐selective imaging of deep tissue through the optical window between 1600 and 1850 nm

We report the employment of an optical window between 1600 nm and 1850 nm for bond‐selective deep tissue imaging through harmonic vibrational excitation and acoustic detection of resultant pressure waves. In this window where a local minimum of water absorption resides, we found a 5 times enhancement of photoacoustic signal by first overtone excitation of the methylene group CH₂ at 1730 nm, compared to the second overtone excitation at 1210 nm. The enhancement allows 3D mapping of intramuscular fat with improved contrast and of lipid deposition inside an atherosclerotic artery wall in the presence of blood. Moreover, lipid and protein are differentiated based on the first overtone absorption profiles of CH₂ and methyl group CH₃ in this window. (© 2012 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Visual Responses of Crayfish Ocular Motoneurons: An Information Theoretical Analysis

Motoneuron responses were elicited by global visual motion and stepwise displacements of an illuminated stripe. Stimulus protocols were identical to those used in previous behavioral studies of compensatory eyestalk reflexes. The firing rates and directional selectivity of the motoneuron responses were measured with respect to four stimulus dimensions (spatial frequency, contrast, angular displacement and velocity). The directional selectivity of the motoneuron response was correlated to the previously measured gain of the reflex for each stimulus dimension. The information theoretical analysis is based upon Kullback-Leibler (K-L) distances which measure the dissimilarity of responses to different stimuli. K-L distances for single neurons are strongly influenced by the mean rate difference of the responses to any pair of stimuli. Because of redundancy, the joint K-L distances of pairs of neurons were less than the sum of the K-L distances of the individual neurons. Furthermore, the joint K-L distances were only weakly influenced by correlations among coactivated neurons. For most of the stimulus dimensions, the K-L distances of single motoneurons were not sufficient to account for the stimulus discriminations exhibited by the eyestalk reflex which typically required the summed output of 2 to 5 motoneurons. Thus the behaviorally relevant information is encoded in the motoneuron ensemble. The minimum time required to discriminate the direction of motion (the encoding window) for a single motoneuron is about 380 to 480 ms (including a 175 ms response latency) for stepwise displacements and up to 1.0 s for global motion. During this period a motoneuron fires 2 to 3 impulses.     

Lipidomic profile as a noninvasive tool to predict endometrial receptivity

For the present study we asked whether the endometrial fluid lipidomic may be a useful approach to predict endometrial receptivity in freeze‐all cycles. For this case‐control study, endometrial fluid samples were collected from 41 patients undergoing freeze‐all cycles. Samples were split depending on the pregnancy outcome: positive group (n = 24) and negative group (n = 17). Data were acquired by the matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry. Principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS‐DA) were applied. A list of potential biomarker ion ratios was obtained and the values were used to build a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve to predict pregnancy success. The lipid categories were attributed by LIPID MAPS database. Ion ratios were established according to their correlations and used for the analysis. The PCA showed a tendency of separation between the studied groups, whereas the PLS‐DA was able to clearly distinguish them. Fifteen ratios (13 hyper‐represented in the negative and two hyper‐represented in the positive group) were selected according to their importance for model prediction. These ratios were used to build the ROC curve, which presented an area under curve of 84.0% (95%CI: 69.2–97.4%; p = 0.009). These findings suggest that lipidomic profiling of endometrial fluid may be a valuable tool for identifying the time interval comprising the window of implantation.     

Effect of thinning on flying insect communities using window traps in young douglas-fir (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Pseudotsuga menziesii</Emphasis> (Mirb.) Franco) forests in the Pacific Northwestern America

The response of insects to four thinning intensities (control, light-thin, heavy-thin, or light-thin with gaps) was examined in 40-to 60-year-old Douglas-fir stands on the Willamette National Forest in Oregon, USA. In both 2000 and 2001, flying insect assemblages were collected from window traps placed over the forest floor in the center of each treatment block during two annual intervals: 1 ) June through August (early-season) and 2) August through October (late-season). The seasonal responses by these insects showed statistically significant differences in species richness (F= 22.21,P <0.001) and mean abundance (F=34.87,P <0.001). The greatest numbers of taxa generated via indicator species analysis were in the early season and within the treatment of light-thin with gap (L./ G). In particular, the woodborer beetle,Buprestis (Burprestidae), was strongly associated with L/G (Indicator Value = 52.4, P ≤0.001 ). Two beetle taxa,Ampedus (Elateridae, IV=84.7, P ≤0.001 ) and members of Cermabycidae (IV=58.4, P ≤0.001 ), were correlated significantly with early-season, whereasMelanoplus (Acrididae) was associated with late-season (IV=21.3, P >0.05) and L/G (IV=29.2, P ≤0.05). For all thinning treatments, the numbers of species and individuals were higher in the early season than the late season. Non-metric multidimensional scaling showed that Axis 1 (65%) and Axis 2 (27%) explained 92% of the variance. The former was strongly associated with thinning intensity, having higher coefficients of species richness (r=0.645) and species diversity (r=0.583). The multi-response permutation procedures showed a statistically significant difference for thinning intensity (T-statistics=-4.6322,A-statistics=0.0479,P <0.0001 ). These results suggest that heavier thinning can result in more diverse populations of flying insects, including herbivores and predators.     

Four ways to define the growing season

What is addressed as growing season in terrestrial ecosystems is one of the main determinants of annual plant biomass production globally. However, there is no well-defined concept behind. Here, we show different facets of what might be termed growing season, each with a distinct meaning: (1) the time period during which a plant or a part of it actually grows and produces new tissue, irrespective of net carbon gain (growing season sensu stricto). (2) The period defined by developmental, that is, phenological markers (phenological season). (3) The period during which vegetation as a whole achieves its annual net primary production (NPP) or a net ecosystem production (NEP), expressed as net carbon gain (productive season) and (4) the period during which plants could potentially grow based on meteorological criteria (meteorological season). We hypothesize that the duration of such a ‘window of opportunity’ is a strong predictor for NPP at a global scale, especially for forests. These different definitions have implications for the understanding and modelling of plant growth and biomass production. The common view that variation in phenology is a proxy for variation in productivity is misleading, often resulting in unfounded statements on potential consequences of climatic warming such as carbon sequestration.