EMAP-Wetlands: A sampling design with global application

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) initiated the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) in 1988. The wetland component (EMAP-Wetlands) is designed to provide quantitative assessments of the current status and long-term trends in the ecological condition of wetland resources. EMAP-Wetlands will develop a wetland monitoring network and will identify and evaluate indicators that describe and quantify wetland condition. The EMAP-Wetlands network will represent a probability sample of the total wetland resource. The EMAP sample is based on a triangular grid of approximately 12,600 sample points in the conterminous U.S. The triangular grid adequately samples wetland resources that are common and uniformly distributed in a region, such as the prairie pothole wetlands of the Midwest. However, the design is flexible and allows the base grid density to be increased to adequately sample wetland resources, such as the coastal wetlands of the Gulf of Mexico, which are distributed linearly along the coast. The Gulf sample network required a 49-fold increase in base grid density. EMAP-Wetlands aggregates the 56 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS) National Wetland Inventory (NWI) categories (Cowardin et al. 1979) into 12 functionally similar groups (Leibowitz et al. 1991). Both the EMAP sample design and aggregated wetland classes are suitable for global inventory and assessment of wetlands.The research described in this report has been funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This document has been prepared at the EPA Environmental Research Laboratory in Corvallis, OR, through contract No. 68-C8-0006 to Man Tech Environmental Technology, Inc. This paper has been subjected to the Agency's peer and administrative review and approved for publication. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.     

云南呈贡梁王山现代花粉雨的研究

本文通过对云南呈贡梁王山5块表土分析,初步研究了主要植物花粉的百分含量与其植物覆盖率之间的数量关系,并用校正系数R值表示。按照R值的大小,分为两组:R>1属于超代表性,包括有松、桤木、马桑、蒿和部分蕨类植物;R<1属于低代表性,包括有油杉、栲和石栎、滇青冈、栎、铁仔。在分析松粉分布特征基础上,认为昆明地区西风急流对松粉的传播是主要因素。     

Dietary factors affecting the urinary mutagenicity assay system. I. Detection of mutagenic activity in human urine following a fried beef meal

Studies have been conducted to determine whether the mutagens in fried beef ingested by human subjects are excreted in the urine. Urine samples were collected from individuals on liquid or regular diets before and after a fried beef meal. The mutagenic activity of the samples was tested in the Ames Salmonella/microsome assay system. The results showed that in individuals on liquid diets, most of the urinary mutagenic activity is recovered within 2-6 h after consuming a fried beef meal. In one individual tested, mutagenic activity was found in urine samples obtained 6-15 h after the fried beef meal. No mutagenic activity was detected in any of the urine samples obtained 15-24 h following the meal. In individuals on a regular diet, however, mutagenic activity was frequently observed in urine samples obtained 16-24 h following the fried beef meal, although the mutagenic activity was not as great as that in the preceding 16 h. It appears that the mutagenic agents generated by the frying of beef are ingested, absorbed, and excreted by the human body in biologically detectable quantities. These results suggest that subjects should abstain from fried beef at least one day prior to and during urine mutagenicity screening.     

An examination of the factors involved in determining phosphatase activities in estuarine water. 1: Analytical procedures

The effects of assay pH, magnesium addition, temperature, sodium azide, and of sample storage and filtration on the apparent phosphatase activities in natural water bodies, and in particular estuaries, have been examined. Phosphatase activity was assessed by monitoring the cleavage of p-nitrophenol from p-nitrophenyl phosphate (pNPP). Magnesium concentrations in natural waters were found to be generally in excess of the requirement of the assay procedure. Several pH maxima occurred for phosphatase activities in the estuarine waters examined. These optima were not constant with respect to sampling stations or sampling time. This was considered to be, in part, the result of differences in the biomass composition. Sample storage times and temperatures employed in the present study did not influence the phosphatase activities of these low biomass waters. Phosphatase activities increased with increased incubation temperature. The rate of orthophosphate release from pNPP during incubation was linear over time to 120 h. Sodium azide was found to be an adequate preservative when long incubation times were required. The effects of assay conditions are discussed in relation to the assay procedures and data interpretation.     

Design considerations for two-stage enrichment clinical trials

When there is a predictive biomarker, enrichment can focus the clinical trial on a benefiting subpopulation. We describe a two-stage enrichment design, in which the first stage is designed to efficiently estimate a threshold and the second stage is a “phase III-like” trial on the enriched population. The goal of this paper is to explore design issues: sample size in Stages 1 and 2, and re-estimation of the Stage 2 sample size following Stage 1. By treating these as separate trials, we can gain insight into how the predictive nature of the biomarker specifically impacts the sample size. We also show that failure to adequately estimate the threshold can have disastrous consequences in the second stage. While any bivariate model could be used, we assume a continuous outcome and continuous biomarker, described by a bivariate normal model. The correlation coefficient between the outcome and biomarker is the key to understanding the behavior of the design, both for predictive and prognostic biomarkers. Through a series of simulations we illustrate the impact of model misspecification, consequences of poor threshold estimation, and requisite sample sizes that depend on the predictive nature of the biomarker. Such insight should be helpful in understanding and designing enrichment trials.     

海州湾近岸海域的微生物群落结构和抗生素抗性基因时空变化

【背景】近岸海域抗生素抗性基因(antibiotic resistance genes, ARGs)的污染和累积将直接影响海产品质量和安全,海州湾作为江苏省的四大渔场之一,是江苏渔业发展的主要载体,有多条大小河流注入,沿岸为重要农业区,对公众健康产生重大影响。【目的】对海州湾夏秋季的水样及沉积物展开微生物及ARGs检测。【方法】基于宏基因组测序技术开展海州湾夏秋两季近岸6个站点中水体和沉积物中ARGs种类和相对丰度以及微生物群落的组成研究。【结果】变形菌门(Proteobacteria)和放线菌门(Actinobacteria)是夏秋季度两种介质中最优势的门类,水样中优势的科级细菌为红细菌科(Rhodobacteraceae),沉积物样品中为脱硫杆菌科(Desulfobacteraceae);夏季水样中的ARGs相对丰度要明显高于秋季,但沉积物中不同季节的ARGs相对丰度未表现出明显的变化趋势;在水样中主要门级微生物群落的抗性机制主要是抗生素靶位替换和抗生素靶位保护,沉积物样品则以抗生素灭活机制为主,而主要科级微生物群落的抗性机制更加多样;冗余分析(redundancyanalysis...     

杂交试验中的最佳样本含量

杂交试验是一项费时费钱的工作,因此在进行试验之前如能进行严密的设计,给出试验所需的样本大小是十分必要的,统计学中常见的估计样本容理的公式不宜应用于杂交试验,本文分两种情况给出了杂交试验中样本容量的估计公式,据此估计出的样本容量安排杂交试验,可在满足试验者要求的条件下,使试验的总成本最低或使试畜的总头数最少。     

DIET OF HARBOR PORPOISES IN THE KATTEGAT AND SKAGERRAK SEAS: ACCOUNTING FOR INDIVIDUAL VARIATION AND SAMPLE SIZE

Stomach contents of 112 bycaught harbor porpoises ( Phocoena phocoena ) collected between 1989 and 1996 in the Kattegat and Skagerrak seas were analyzed to describe diet composition and estimate prey size, to examine sample size requirements, and to compare juvenile and adult diets. Although porpoises preyed on a variety of species, only a few contributed substantially to the diet. Atlantic herring ( Clupea harengus ) was the dominating prey species for both juveniles and adults. Our results, in combination with those from previous studies, suggest that where herring is a dominant food source, porpoises prey primarily on size classes containing mature or maturing individuals. Further, we also show that Atlantic hagfish ( Myxine glutinosa ) may be an important food resource, at least for adult porpoises. Examination of sample size requirement showed that, depending on the taxonomic level used to describe the diet, a minimum of 35–71 stomachs are needed to be confident that all common prey species will be found.