The red and the black: habituation and the dear-enemy phenomenon in two desert Pheidole ants

Many species of territorial animals are more aggressive toward strangers than neighbors, a pattern of aggression referred to as the ’dear-enemy phenomenon.’ In many cases, the mechanism by which neighbors are discriminated from strangers and the function of neighbor-stranger discrimination remain controversial. We investigated the spatial patterns of inter-colony aggression within and between two Pheidole species of seed-harvesting ants in the Mojave Desert of California by quantifying aggression between colonies in standardized staged encounters. We also tested whether the level of fighting between workers of two colonies is affected by previous exposure to each other. We show that neighbors (i.e., colonies less that 2.6 m away) of either species are treated less aggressively than more distant colonies and that habituation may be a mechanism by which this discrimination is achieved. The variation in aggression among spatially distant colonies also suggests that additional genetic or environmental factors are involved in recognition. The function of the dear-enemy phenomenon in these ant species may be related to the greater risk to the resources of a colony presented by strange workers than workers from a neighboring colony. Received: 18 November 1999 / Received in revised form: 3 April 2000 / Accepted: 3 May 2000     

烧麦秆与大气污染

本文就近３年来成都市周围烧麦杆，油菜秆所引起的大气环境污染的原因，危害加以分析，并提出对策及建议，由于成都市经济的高速发展，周围农村中不再用麦秆和油菜秆作为燃料而全部焚烧作肥料还田，同时由于３月多发生不利于大气污染物扩散的逆温现象及城市热岛效应，造成我市环境空气的严重污染，建议从立法、宣传及爱护资源等方面来改善人们的刑法陋习和加强对成都市大气环境的保护。     

贵阳市小车河“白水”现象的初步分析

通过对小车河从阿哈水库大坝取水口至南明河入口段采集的水样进行p H值、温度及主要离子浓度测定分析,研究该段水体的水化学特征,并从溶解度方面初步分析,发现小车河"白水"现象是由于水中Ca2+浓度过高,使水体形成过饱和的Ca SO4和Ca CO3水溶液,析出大量白色Ca SO4和Ca CO3颗粒,与河水形成溶胶导致。     

青岛市连续天气过程中不同气溶胶浓度特征对比分析

利用青岛市沙尘暴监测站GRIMM180颗粒物监测仪采集到的质量浓度和数浓度数据,结合2008年5月27～28日天气系统演变进行气溶胶定性分类,对海雾气溶胶、清洁气溶胶、浮尘气溶胶的浓度进行对比分析.结果表明,①清洁气溶胶、海雾气溶胶、浮尘气溶胶的总质量浓度有明显差异;②海雾气溶胶以1～2.5μm粒子的滞留最明显,清洁气溶胶中1μm的粒子贡献率最大,浮尘气溶胶则以2.5～10μm的颗粒物级数增加最具代表性,不同气溶胶相应大小粒子的质量浓度贡献率之比明显不同;③降水系统对0.6μm较大的粒子有明显的清除作用,对0.6μm的数浓度有增大作用;④1μm尤其是0.6μm的粒子处于天气系统前部到达潮湿空气时有特殊的活化现象;⑤不同粒径尺度的粒子数浓度随气溶胶性质的转变呈现不同的模态.     

Performances of biological aerated filter employing hollow fiber membrane segments of surface-improved poly （sulfone） as biofilm carriers

Using the surface of poly （sulfone） hollow fiber membrane segments as grafted layer, the hydrophilic acrylamide chain was grafted on by UV-photoinduced grafting polymerization. The gained improvement of surface wettability for the modified membrane was tested by measuring the contact-angle as well as FTIR spectra. Then correlation between the hydrophilic ability of support material and the biofilm adherence ability was demonstrated by comparing the pollutant removal rates from urban wastewater via two identical lab-scale up-flow biological aerated filters, one employed the surface wettability modified poly （sulfone） hollow fiber membrane segment as biofilm carder and the other employed unmodified membrane segment as biofilm carder. The experimental results showed that under the conditions of influent flux 5 L/h, hydraulic retention time 9 h and gas to liquid ratio （G/L） 10： 1, the removal rates of chemical oxygen demand （COD） and ammonium nitrogen （NH4^＋-N） for the modified packing filter and the unmodified packing filter was averaged at 83.64% and 96.25%, respectively, with the former filter being 5%-20% more than the latter. The effluent concentration of COD, NH4^＋-N and turbidity for the modified packing filter was 25.25 mg/L, 2 mg/L and 8 NTU, respectively. Moreover, the ammonium nitrogen removal performance of the filter packing the modified PSF was compared with the other bioreactor packing of an efficient floating medium. The biomass test indicated that the modified membrane matrixes provided better specific adhesion （3310-5653 mg TSS/L support）, which gave a mean of 1000 mg TSS/L more than the unmodified membrane did. In addition, the phenomenon of simultaneous denitrification on the inner surface of the support and nitrification on the outer surface was found in this work.     

城市污水管网中产甲烷菌的分布特性规律

实验通过一套1 200 m的PVC管式反应器来模拟城市污水管网,利用气相色谱法、液相色谱法和454高通量测序等手段,研究了城市污水管网中产甲烷过程中的物质变化和产甲烷菌分布特性规律.结果表明,管网中甲烷含量沿程升高,说明管网中存在产甲烷菌;产甲烷菌主要包含甲烷八叠球菌属(Methanosarcina)、广古菌门中的菌属(Euryarchaeota_unclassified)和甲烷杆菌科中的菌属(Methanobacteriaceae_unclassified)这3种优势菌属,且在管网800~1 000 m处有广古菌门中的菌属(Euryarchaeota_unclassified)取代甲烷八叠球菌属(Methanosarcina)成为第一优势菌属的演替现象;管网中产甲烷可利用基质有甲酸、甲醇、甲胺、乙酸,其中乙酸为主要基质,这些基质在管网中先增加后降低的变化趋势导致了管网中产甲烷菌演替现象的发生.     

Comments on “turbulent velocity profile in fully-developed open channel flows”

In a recent paper published in this journal, Bonakdari et al. (Environ Fluid Mech 8:1–17, 2008) presented a new formulation of the vertical velocity profile in the central portion of steady fully developed turbulent open-channel flows which is based on an analysis of the Navier–Stokes equations. The predicted mean streamwise velocity profiles presented by the authors represent dip phenomenon (maximum velocity below the free surface). The discusser would like to point out some contradictions and an error in the main demonstration. This error appears in the right-hand side term of the main Eq. 22 (Environ Fluid Mech 8:1–17, 2008) in the parameter α. Our corrected demonstration shows that α is equal to and not to as obtained by the authors (Environ Fluid Mech 8:1–17, 2008). The values of α used by the authors are under-estimated by 1, this difference has a significant effect on velocities and therefore will involve a difference between measured and predicted velocity profiles. Finally, the assumption of at the free surface is in contradiction with predicted velocity profiles.     

基于STPA法的空中加油软管甩鞭安全性分析

为定量评价空中加油软管甩鞭(HWP)现象的安全性,使用系统理论过程分析(STPA)法查找出相关系统级危险、不安全控制行为和致因因素共计46条,确定与之对应的44项安全对接约束条件;依据空中加油飞行试验数据,定义可量化的安全检查点,依据安全检查点将安全约束条件分为17类,确定各检查点的安全区间和权重;根据飞行数据确定HW...     

BVR多芯铜导线过电流故障下燃烧及火焰传播研究*

为深入研究BVR多芯铜导线过电流故障下燃烧及火焰传播特征,采用堆栈技术分析导线受热形变,并利用高速摄像机记录故障导线发热、熔断及绝缘燃烧现象,研究导线发热形变、熔断时间及燃烧时火焰传播速度与电流值变化关系。结果表明:当I=136 A时,导线不发生熔断,只有当高温线芯直接接触周围可燃物才可引发火灾;当I=153 A时,导线会发生熔断现象,且熔断时间随过电流值升高而缩短;当I=204 A时,导线发生熔断,断路电弧引燃周围热解气体,火焰前沿迅速蔓延至导线两端,平均火焰前沿传播速度达2.2 m/s,平均明火持续时间达8.2 s,整根导线无需外界可燃物即可发生明火燃烧。研究结果可为起火原因认定提供技术指导。     

Cognition Research on Global Climate Change

Researchers are looking for an effective solution to mitigate climate change along with the growth of global average temperature and the frequent occurrence of extreme climate disasters. However, after the ratification of Kyoto Protocol, which is the international agreement dedicated to solve the problem, climate change is getting more serious in the recent decade. It is considered that the ultimate reason is not from the limitation of current technology or policy instrument but from the cognition part, which is the basis guiding people to comprehend problems and search for solutions. Until now, the research on the climate change issue is consistently based on a deficient assumption that climate change is a kind of “the tragedy of the commons.” This phenomenon could be considered as the “Pluto phenomenon” and directly cause the inefficiency of current solution. Therefore, the cognition's reconstruction is vital to guide researchers and relevant stakeholders to search for an efficient approach to mitigate climate change.