Temporal Changes in the Inequality of Early Growth of Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook.: A Novel Application of the Gini Coefficient and Lorenz Asymmetry

Growth within tree populations varies among individuals due to changes in biotic and abiotic factors. The degree of such variation, defined as growth inequality, serves as a useful indicator of the uniformity of growth within a population in response to the prevalent environmental conditions. By application of the Gini coefficient (G), an index for inequality, we characterized the early growth inequality of ninety crosses of Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook.) and their open-pollinated parental lines. Tree cumulative height was measured annually for 8 consecutive years. Both the crosses and parental lines exhibited temporal changes in growth inequality. The inequality of total height among the crosses decreased logarithmically with age by nearly 3-fold after 13 growing seasons, suggesting that tree height became less variable among the crosses as trees grew larger. Interestingly, the Lorenz asymmetry, an index reflecting the shape of the Lorenze curve from which G is derived, revealed that the inequality of annual height increment among the crosses resulted from an alternate contribution of the fast-growing and slow-growing trees. Among parental lines, two provenances with the smallest and the largest overall inequality in total height showed a similar pattern of changes in annual growth inequality, and the provenance differences were consistent over time. Compared to the other provinces, a local provenance exhibited less variation in total height among individual trees as reflected by a smaller value of inequality, and was better adapted to the field conditions. Our results demonstrated the sensitivity and usefulness of the Gini coefficient and Lorenz asymmetry for the analysis of growth inequality in non-natural populations. Growth inequality is a potentially useful evaluation criterion for early selection. Given comparable initial growth, provenances/families with lower growth inequality values would likely outperform those with higher growth inequality, and eventually tree size of the latter would be more variable due to greater variations among individual trees. Assessment of growth inequality at early ages will advance our understanding of variability of tree growth within a population, facilitate forest genetics improvement programs, and enhance the efficiency of tree breeding.     

Trickle or clumped infection process? An analysis of aggregation in the weights of the parasitic roundworm of humans, Ascaris lumbricoides

Studying the distribution of parasitic helminth body size across a population of definitive hosts can advance our understanding of parasite population biology. Body size is typically correlated with egg production. Consequently, inequalities in body size have been frequently measured to infer variation in reproductive success (VRS). Body size is also related to parasite age (time since entering the definitive host) and potentially provides valuable information on the mode of acquisition and establishment of immature (larval) parasites within the host: whether parasites tend to establish singly or in aggregates. The mode of acquisition of soil-transmitted helminths has been a theoretical consideration in the parasitological literature but has eluded data-driven investigation. In this paper, we analyse individual Ascaris lumbricoides weight data collected from a cohort of human hosts before and after re-infection following curative treatment, and explore its distribution within and among individuals in the population. Lorenz curves and Gini coefficients indicate that levels of weight inequality (a proxy for VRS) in A. lumbricoides are lower than other published estimates from animal-helminth systems. We explore levels of intra-host weight aggregation using statistical models to estimate the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) while adjusting for covariates using a flexible fractional polynomial transformation approach capable of handling non-linear functional relationships. The estimated ICCs indicate that weights are aggregated within hosts both at equilibrium and after re-infection, suggesting that parasites may establish within the host in clumps. The implications of a clumped infection process are discussed in terms of ascariasis transmission dynamics, control and anthelmintic resistance.     

基于SWCI-NDVI特征空间的县域耕地地力遥感反演

利用遥感反演县域耕地地力状况,快速、准确、高效地实现耕地定级,是区域耕地资源利用与管理的客观需求.本研究以东平县为研究区,利用Landsat-TM卫星影像和耕地地力评价资料,构建以地表含水量指数(SWCI)、归一化植被指数(NDVI)为特征参量的水分植被地力指数(MVFI),进而优选得到最佳反演模型,并在县域空间上进行...     

Ethology, Natural History, the Life Sciences, and the Problem of Place

Investigators of animal behavior since the eighteenth century have sought to make their work integral to the enterprises of natural history and/or the life sciences. In their efforts to do so, they have frequently based their claims of authority on the advantages offered by the special places where they have conducted their research. The zoo, the laboratory, and the field have been major settings for animal behavior studies. The issue of the relative advantages of these different sites has been a persistent one in the history of animal behavior studies up to and including the work of the ethologists of the twentieth century. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Instinct in the '50s: the British reception of Konrad Lorenz's theory of instinctive behavior<Superscript>*</Superscript>

At the beginning of the 1950s most students of animal behavior in Britain saw the instinct concept developed by Konrad Lorenz in the 1930s as the central theoretical construct of the new ethology. In the mid 1950s J.B.S. Haldane made substantial efforts to undermine Lorenz's status as the founder of the new discipline, challenging his priority on key ethological concepts. Haldane was also critical of Lorenz's sharp distinction between instinctive and learnt behavior. This was inconsistent with Haldane's account of the evolution of language, and, according to Haldane, inconsistent with elementary genetics. British attitudes to the instinct concept changed dramatically in the wake of Daniel S. Lehraman's 1953 critique of Lorenz, and by the 1960s Lorenz drew a clear distinction between his own views and those of the English-speaking ethologists. The inconsistencies between Lorenz's ideas and the trends in contemporary evolutionary genetics that are reflected in Haldane's critiques may help to explain why the Lorenzian instinct concept was unable to maintain itself in Britian.     

近30年官厅水库流域景观结构的时空演变

以官厅水库流域为研究区,以1978-2009年的6期Landsat系列遥感影像为基础数据解译景观分布图.利用经济学中的洛伦兹曲线及基尼系数对景观类型分布的均匀性及其动态进行分析,采用缓中区分析方法对现有方法进行改进,使得洛伦兹曲线更加平滑,基尼系数更加准确.结果表明:各种景观类型分布的均匀性存在明显的时空差异,耕地始终是分布最均匀的景观类型,1978-1998年人工林地是分布最不均匀的景观类型,2004年以后天然草地成为分布最不均匀的景观类型;景观类型分布的均匀程度与该景观类型面积的大小存在负相关关系,其分布均匀性的变化与该景观类型面积的变化方式有关,局部变化还是全局变化会使该景观类型分布的均匀性向不同的方向发展;在近30年的时间里,自然景观全面退化,表现在面积减小和分布越来越不均匀,自然景观不断被人工景观取代.     

Assessment of inequality of root hair density in Arabidopsis thaliana using the Gini coefficient: a close look at the effect of phosphorus and its interaction with ethylene

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Root hair density (i.e. the number of root hairs per unit root length) in Arabidopsis thaliana varies among individual plants in response to different nutrient stresses. The degree of such variation, defined as inequality, serves as a unique indicator of the uniformity of response within a plant population to nutrient availability. METHODS: Using the Gini coefficient (G) as an inequality index, the inequality of root hair density in Arabidopsis thaliana 'Columbia' was evaluated under conditions of nutrient stresses; in particular the effect of phosphorus and its interaction with ethylene. KEY RESULTS: With decreasing phosphorus concentration, root hair density increased while inequality decreased logarithmically. The addition of the ethylene precursor 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) under high phosphorus increased root hair density and decreased inequality by 7-fold. Inhibition of ethylene action with 1-methylcyclopropene (MCP) and silver thiosulphate (STS) under low phosphorus decreased root hair density, and increased inequality by 9-fold and 4-fold, respectively. The ethylene action inhibitors had little effect on root hair density under high phosphorus, but inequality increased 3-fold in the presence of MCP and decreased 2-fold in the presence of STS. Compared with the control, deficiencies in S, N and K increased inequality of root hair density, whereas deficiencies in P, Ca, B, Mn, Fe, Zn, Cu and Mg decreased inequality. In particular, the inequality of root hair density increased by over 2-fold under deficiencies of N or K, but decreased 14-fold under phosphorus deficiency. CONCLUSIONS: The inequality analysis indicates a strong correlation between prevalent signals from the environment (i.e. phosphorus stress) and the response of the plant, and the role of ethylene in this response. As the environmental signals become stronger, an increasing proportion of individuals respond, resulting in a decrease in variation in responsiveness among individual plants as indicated by reduced inequality.     

A partial ordering approach for functional diversity

Functional diversity is generally regarded as the constituent of biological diversity that considers how the species functional traits affect ecosystem processes. Due to its ecological relevance, a number of indices of functional diversity have been proposed to date based on distinct objectives and motivations. Such proliferation of indices can be at least partially overcome by a more fundamental mathematical approach. In this paper we propose an intrinsic ordering approach for abundance-weighted measures of functional diversity that is similar to the Lorenz curves used by ecologists for ordering evenness measures. We then discuss the relevance of a number of functional diversity indices that have a behavior compatible with the proposed partial ordering.