Relatedness and sex ratio in a primitively eusocial halictine bee

Lasioglossum laevissimum was studied in Calgary, Alberta, where it is eusocial with one worker brood. Estimates of relatedness were obtained among various categories of nestmate based upon four polymorphic enzyme loci, two of which exhibited significant levels of linkage disequilibrium. Relatedness estimates among workers and among reproductive brood females were very close to the expected 0.75 value that obtains when nests are headed by one, singly mated queen. However, relatedness between workers and the reproductive brood females they reared was significantly lower than 0.75. A low frequency of orphaning with subsequent monopolisation of oviposition by one worker brood female in orphaned nests may explain these results. Workers were significantly more and queens significantly less closely related to male reproductives than expected if all males were to have resulted from queen-laid eggs. Orphaning and worker-produced males contribute to this result. The sex investment ratio was 1:2.2 in favour of females, in excellent agreement with the predictions based upon relative relatednesses between workers and reproductive brood males and females. Adaptive intercolony variation in investment ratios was detected: the sex ratio was more heavily female-biased in nests in which the relative relatedness asymmetry between workers and reproductive brood was more female-biased. The study species is the most weakly eusocial hymenopteran for which relatedness estimates and sex ratio data are available. With high relatedness among nestmates and a strongly female-biased sex ratio, this study suggests the importance of indirect fitness contributions in the early stages of social evolution. Correspondence to: L. Packer     

A traffic safety evaluation of California's traffic violator school citation dismissal policy

Introduction

This study evaluated California's traffic violator school (TVS) citation dismissal policy.

Method

This study identified and compared two large samples of drivers either completing a TVS (N = 210,015) or convicted of a traffic citation (N = 168,563).

Results

Prior to adjudication, the TVS group had characteristics (e.g., lower prior conviction rate and smaller proportion of males) that were predictive of a lower subsequent crash risk. However, the TVS group exhibited significantly more crashes than did the convicted group in the subsequent one-year period. The difference (4.83%) increased to 10% after adjusting for the more favorable characteristics of the TVS group. The TVS group also had a higher adjusted subsequent crash rate at each prior driver record entry level, reflecting a loss in the general and specific deterrence of the non-conviction masked status of TVS dismissed citations. It was reported that the TVS dismissal policy results in approximately 12,300 additional crashes annually with economic costs of approximately $398,000,000.

Conclusions

The avoidance of licensing actions resulting from the dismissal policy assists in explaining why the driving public is exposed to an increased crash risk. A number of recommendations are offered to reduce the negative traffic safety impact of the TVS citation dismissal policy.     

The parasite connection in ecosystems and macroevolution

In addition to their obvious negative effects (“pathogens”), endoparasites of various kinds play an important role in shaping and maintaining modern animal communities. In the long-term, parasites including pathogens are indispensable entities of any ecosystem. To understand this, it is essential that one changes the viewpoint from the host’s interests to that of the parasite. Together with geographic isolation, trophic arms race, symbiosis, and niche partitioning, all parasites (including balance strategists, i.e. seemingly non-pathogenic ones) modulate their hosts’ population densities. In addition, heteroxenic parasites control the balance between predator and prey species, particularly if final and intermediate hosts are vertebrates. Thereby, such parasites enhance the bonds in ecosystems and help maintain the status quo. As the links between eukaryotic parasites and their hosts are less flexible than trophic connections, parasite networks probably contributed to the observed stasis and incumbency of ecosystems over geologic time, in spite of continuous Darwinian innovation. Because heteroxenic parasites target taxonomic levels above that of the species (e.g. families), these taxa may have also become units of selection in global catastrophies. Macroevolutionary extrapolations, however, are difficult to verify because endoparasites cannot fossilize.     

《工伤保险条例》立法偏向的探讨

在介绍和分析《工伤保险条例》现有评论意见的基础上,从不同的视角分析《工伤保险条例》对《企业职工工伤保险试行办法》的关键修订点,笔者认为,尽管《工伤保险条例》对以往的工伤保险制度作出了一些重要的修正,但透过几处关键的改点,可以认为她是一部在一定程度上弱化了工伤劳动者权益保护的法规。     

云南蒋家沟流域泥石流沟谷演变的非线性特征

蒋家沟是我国西南山区一条典型的暴雨泥石流沟，位于云南省东北部金沙江支流小江河谷的右岸。主沟长13.9km，流域面积48.6km^2，平均纵坡比降16.02%，流域内有4级支沟。据统计，沟谷长度大于0.50km的各级泥石支沟有26条，其中主沟1条（即蒋家沟）,另含Ⅰ级支沟6条，Ⅱ，Ⅲ，Ⅳ级支沟各2，7和10。蒋家沟流域内各级泥石流支沟尽管在形态上具有自相似性，但在空间分布上则具有均一性，从各支沟的数目、密度和流域面积看，均表明由沟口至沟源（尾）有逐渐增强的趋势，且主要集中在门前、多照两沟内。对蒋家沟及流域内各泥石流支沟的沟谷形态分析显示，各支沟的流域面积、沟道坡降及长度均存在明显的分形特征，它们与沟道数目之间有良好的非线性关系。这种非线性关系一 定程度上揭示了这些泥石流沟谷演变的非均匀性和自相似性。     

关于环境保护法制理论与实践的若干问题

回顾了我国环境保护法制建设的成就和经验。根据我国２０年来环境保护法制建设的经验，从理论和实践两方面论述了值得探讨的若干问题，并就进一步完善我国环境保护法制提供了建议。     

Effects of dry bulk density and particle size fraction on gas transport parameters in variably saturated landfill cover soil

Landfill sites are emerging in climate change scenarios as a significant source of greenhouse gases. The compacted final soil cover at landfill sites plays a vital role for the emission, fate and transport of landfill gases. This study investigated the effects of dry bulk density, ρ(b), and particle size fraction on the main soil-gas transport parameters - soil-gas diffusivity (D(p)/D(o), ratio of gas diffusion coefficients in soil and free air) and air permeability (k(a)) - under variably-saturated moisture conditions. Soil samples were prepared by three different compaction methods (Standard and Modified Proctor compaction, and hand compaction) with resulting ρ(b) values ranging from 1.40 to 2.10 g cm(-3). Results showed that D(p) and k(a) values for the '+gravel' fraction (<35 mm) became larger than for the '-gravel' fraction (<2mm) under variably-saturated conditions for a given soil-air content (ε), likely due to enhanced gas diffusion and advection through less tortuous, large-pore networks. The effect of dry bulk density on D(p) and k(a) was most pronounced for the '+gravel' fraction. Normalized ratios were introduced for all soil-gas parameters: (i) for gas diffusivity D(p)/D(f), the ratio of measured D(p) to D(p) in total porosity (f), (ii) for air permeability k(a)/k(a)(,pF4.1), the ratio of measured k(a) to k(a) at 1235 kPa matric potential (=pF 4.1), and (iii) for soil-air content, the ratio of soil-air content (ε) to total porosity (f) (air saturation). Based on the normalized parameters, predictive power-law models for D(p)(ε/f) and k(a)(ε/f) models were developed based on a single parameter (water blockage factor M for D(p) and P for k(a)). The water blockage factors, M and P, were found to be linearly correlated to ρ(b) values, and the effects of dry bulk density on D(p) and k(a) for both '+gravel' and '-gravel' fractions were well accounted for by the new models.     

Can fear of going to jail reduce the number of road fatalities? The Spanish experience

The goal of this article is to evaluate the impact of the drastic Spanish Penal Code reform on the number of road deaths in Spain and the time that the effects might last. This is achieved by means of multivariate unobserved component models set up in a state space framework estimated using maximum likelihood. In short, with this reform Spain might be considered to be closing the final gap that kept it apart from other developed countries as far as the road accident rate is concerned. We have found two different types of effects on Spanish road traffic fatalities. Initially, a month before the reform was passed there was a 24.7 percent fall in Spanish road deaths. After the Bill had been passed and for the following thirteen months, the reduction stayed at a constant sixteen percent. This reform has reduced Spanish road fatalities by 534 in all between November 2007 and December 2008 and the effects will foreseeably continue during 2009.     

德国危险废物管理若干法律制度简述

德国通过清除计划，申报登记，清除机构、许可、运输、货单、鉴定、登记、交换、政府财政援助等法律制度对危险废物实行集中管理，保证对危险废物的流向进行有效跟踪，实现从产生到处置全过程监控。     

试论环境行政执法

运用行政法学理论,结合环境管理的特点,对环境行政执法的概念、主体、内容等进行了探讨,并提出了较为全面、系统的执法程序。