A Contemporary,Sex‐Limited Change in Body Size of an Estuarine Turtle in Response to Commercial Fishing

Abstract: Juvenile growth rate and adult body size are important components of life‐history strategies because of their direct impact on fitness. The diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) is a sexually dimorphic, long‐lived turtle inhabiting brackish waters throughout the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States. In parts of its range, terrapins face anthropogenically imposed mortality: juveniles of both sexes inadvertently enter commercial crab traps and drown. For adult females, the carapace eventually grows large enough that they cannot enter traps, whereas males almost never reach that critical size. We compared age structure, carapace dimensions, growth curves, and indices of sexual dimorphism for a Chesapeake Bay population of terrapins (where mortality of turtles is high due to crab traps) with contemporary terrapins from Long Island Sound and museum specimens from Chesapeake Bay (neither group subject to commercial crab traps). We also calculated the allochronic and synchronic rates of evolutionary change (haldanes) for males and females to measure the rate of trait change in a population or between populations, respectively. We found a dramatic shift to a younger male age structure, a decrease in the length of time to terminal female carapace size, a 15% increase in female carapace width, and an increase in sexual dimorphism in Chesapeake Bay. In a new twist, our results implicate a fishery in the selective increase in size of a reptilian bycatch species. These sex‐specific changes in life history and demography have implications for population viability that need to be considered when addressing conservation of this threatened turtle.     

Defining Historical Baselines for Conservation: Ecological Changes Since European Settlement on Vancouver Island,Canada

Abstract: Conservation and restoration goals are often defined by historical baseline conditions that occurred prior to a particular period of human disturbance, such as European settlement in North America. Nevertheless, if ecosystems were heavily influenced by native peoples prior to European settlement, conservation efforts may require active management rather than simple removal of or reductions in recent forms of disturbance. We used pre‐European settlement land survey records (1859–1874) and contemporary vegetation surveys to assess changes over the past 150 years in tree species and habitat composition, forest density, and tree size structure on southern Vancouver Island and Saltspring Island, British Columbia, Canada. Several lines of evidence support the hypothesis that frequent historical burning by native peoples, and subsequent fire suppression, have played dominant roles in shaping this landscape. First, the relative frequency of fire‐sensitive species (e.g., cedar [Thuja plicata]) has increased, whereas fire‐tolerant species (e.g., Douglas‐fir [Pseudotsuga menziesii]) have decreased. Tree density has increased 2‐fold, and the proportion of the landscape in forest has greatly increased at the expense of open habitats (plains, savannas), which today contain most of the region's threatened species. Finally, the frequency distribution of tree size has shifted from unimodal to monotonically decreasing, which suggests removal of an important barrier to tree recruitment. In addition, although most of the open habitats are associated with Garry oak (Quercus garryana) at present, most of the open habitats prior to European settlement were associated with Douglas‐fir, which suggests that the current focus on Garry oak as a flagship for the many rare species in savannas may be misguided. Overall, our results indicate that the maintenance and restoration of open habitats will require active management and that historical records can provide critical guidance to such efforts.     

中小企业安全生产“供求”与政府管制

从安全生产作为一种"公共产品"的视角,分析中小企业供给与需求状况,得出目前中小企业安全生产处于"供给低、需求低"的非正常状态,说明劳动力市场对安全供求的调节已经失灵;通过对安全管制下中小企业日常安全管理行动的调研,结合相关研究成果,说明中小企业安全生产管制存在"管制失灵";对安全生产管制存在的问题进行分析,并提出以完善安全生产法律法规体系为前提,以加强中小企业安全生产监管信息库建设为基础,以建立和完善中小企业安全生产三大机制为手段将中小企业安全生产引入良性发展轨道。     

水平燃料填充床反向阴燃传播及其熄灭分析

根据单步反应机理(仅包括燃料的氧化),建立了一维非稳态燃料填充床反向阴燃的数学模型。通过简化模型参数及大活化能渐近分析,得出了定性描述燃料反向阴燃传播的两个方程。结果表明:随着空气流量的增大,阴燃温度是不断上升的,但由于受到反向空气风流的影响,阴燃温度的增长幅度是逐渐变小的;阴燃传播速度却呈现出先增大后减小直至熄灭的变化趋势。这种变化趋势与前人的实验结果相一致。通过定性分析得出:在气体流量为零的情况下,燃料仍然可以发生阴燃,而维持阴燃不断传播所需要的氧气量源于反应区域周围气体的扩散。此外,也分析了燃料特性参数(如密度、孔隙率、比热、导热系数及活化能)对燃料阴燃温度和阴燃速度传播的影响。     

Evolutionary Distinctiveness,Threat Status,and Ecological Oddity in Primates

Abstract: The EDGE (evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered) conservation program ( http://www.edgeofexistence.org ) uses a composite measure of threat and phylogenetic isolation to rank species for conservation attention. Using primates as a test case, we examined how species that rank highly with this metric represent the collective from which they are drawn. We considered the ecological and morphological traits, including body mass, diet, terrestriality, and home range size, of all 233 species of primates. Overall, EDGE score and the level of deviance from the mean of 20 different ecological, reproductive, and morphological variables were correlated (mean correlation r =0.14, combined p =1.7 × 10^?14). Although primates with a high EDGE score had characteristics that made them seem odd, they did not seem to express more ancestral characteristics than expected. Sets of primate species with high EDGE scores will, therefore, collectively capture a broader than expected range of the biology of the clade. If similar patterns hold in other groups, the EDGE metric may be useful for prioritizing biodiversity for conservation.     

Genetic Bottlenecks Driven by Population Disconnection

Abstract: Connectivity among populations plays a crucial role in maintaining genetic variation at a local scale, especially in small populations affected strongly by genetic drift. The negative consequences of population disconnection on allelic richness and gene diversity (heterozygosity) are well recognized and empirically established. It is not well recognized, however, that a sudden drop in local effective population size induced by such disconnection produces a temporary disequilibrium in allelic frequency distributions that is akin to the genetic signature of a demographic bottleneck. To document this effect, we used individual‐based simulations and empirical data on allelic richness and gene diversity in six pairs of isolated versus well‐connected (core) populations of European tree frogs. In our simulations, population disconnection depressed allelic richness more than heterozygosity and thus resulted in a temporary excess in gene diversity relative to mutation drift equilibrium (i.e., signature of a genetic bottleneck). We observed a similar excess in gene diversity in isolated populations of tree frogs. Our results show that population disconnection can create a genetic bottleneck in the absence of demographic collapse.     

响应面法和神经网络优化Acinetobactersp．DNS32发酵基质

为了提高阿特拉津降解菌Acinetobactersp．DNS32的产量，分别采用响应曲面法和基于人工神经网络的遗传算法对阿特拉津降解菌DNS32发酵培养基中3个重要基质成分（玉米粉、豆饼粉、K：HPO。）进行优化研究。响应曲面法确定3种成分的含量为玉米粉39．494g／L，豆饼粉25．638g／L和K。HPO。3．265g／L时，预测发酵活菌最大生物量为7．079×10^8CFU／mL，实测量为7．194×10^8CFU／mL；人工神经网络结合遗传算法优化确定3种主要成分含量为玉米粉为39．650g／L，豆饼粉为25．500g／L，K2HPO4为2．624g／L时，预测最大值为7．199×10^8CFU／mL，实测量为7．244×10。CFU／mL；最终确定培养基配方：玉米粉为39．650g／L，豆饼粉为25．500g／L，K2HPO4为2．624g／L，CaCO3为3．000g／L，MgSO4·7H2O和NaCl均为0．200g／L；优化后阿特拉津降解菌DNS32发酵生物量比优化前提高了36．6％。结果表明，在阿特拉津降解菌DNS32发酵培养基组分优化方面，响应面法和基于人工神经网络的遗传算法都是可行的，基于人工神经网络的遗传算法具有更好的拟合度和预测准确度。     

Genotoxicity of chromium in vitro on yeast: Interaction with DNA†

The genotoxicity of chromium chloride was investigated in cells of D₇ strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae harvested either from logarithmic or stationary growth phase.

A weak induction of mifotic gene conversion and point reverse mutation was obtained when the incubations were performed using phosphate buffer. No genetic effect was observed when the incubations were performed using Tris‐HCl buffer.

The experiments with ⁵¹Cr radiotracer demonstrated that Cr³⁺ ion enters the yeast cells and binds to DNA even if the incubation mixture was performed with Tris HCl buffer. This behaviour could be due to the highest concentration of CrCl₃ that cause some damages to cytoplasmatic membrane.     

Human Influence and Classical Biogeographic Predictors of Rare Species Occurrence

Biogeographic theory predicts that rare species occur more often in larger, less‐isolated habitat patches and suggests that patch size and connectivity are positive predictors of patch quality for conservation. However, in areas substantially modified by humans, rare species may be relegated to the most isolated patches. We used data from plant surveys of 81 meadow patches in the Georgia Basin of Canada and the United States to show that presence of threatened and endangered plants was positively predicted for patches that were isolated on small islands surrounded by ocean and for patches that were isolated by surrounding forest. Neither patch size nor connectivity were positive predictors of rare species occurrence. Thus, in our study area, human influence, presumably due to disturbance or introduction of competitive non‐native species, appears to have overwhelmed classical predictors of rare species distribution, such that greater patch isolation appeared to favor presence of rare species. We suggest conservation planners consider the potential advantages of protecting geographically isolated patches in human‐modified landscapes because such patches may represent the only habitats in which rare species are likely to persist. Influencia Humana y Predictores Biogeográficos Clásicos de la Ocurrencia de Especies Raras