Exploring the effects of individual traits and within-colony variation on task differentiation and collective behavior in a desert social spider

Social animals are extraordinarily diverse and ecologically abundant. In understanding the success of complex animal societies, task differentiation has been identified as a central mechanism underlying the emergence and performance of adaptive collective behaviors. In this study, we explore how individual differences in behavior and body size determine task allocation in the social spider Stegodyphus dumicola. We found that individuals with high body condition indices were less likely to participate in prey capture, and individuals’ tendency to engage in prey capture was not associated with either their behavioral traits or body size. No traits were associated with individuals’ propensity to participation in web repair, but small individuals were more likely to engage in standard web-building. We also discovered consistent, differences among colonies in their collective behavior (i.e., colony-level personality). At the colony level, within-colony variation in behavior (aggressiveness) and body size were positively associated with aggressive foraging behavior. Together, our findings reveal a subtly complex relationship between individual variation and collective behavior in this species. We close by comparing the relationship between individual variation and social organization in nine species of social spider. We conclude that intraspecific variation is a major force behind the social organization of multiple independently derived lineages of social spider.     

Species-specific influence of group composition on collective behaviors in ants

The success of a social group is often driven by its collective characteristics and the traits of its individuals. Thus, understanding how collective behavior is influenced by the behavioral composition of group members is an important first step to understand the ecology of collective personalities. Here, we investigated how the efficiency of several group behaviors is influenced by the aggressiveness of its members in two species of Temnothorax ants. In our manipulation of group composition, we created two experimentally reconstituted groups in a split-colony design, i.e., each colony was split into an aggressive and a docile group of equal sizes. We found strong species-specific differences in how collective behaviors were influenced by its group members. In Temnothorax longispinosus, having more aggressive individuals improved colony defense and nest relocation efficiency. In addition, source colony identity strongly influenced group behavior in T. longispinosus, highlighting that manipulations of group compositions must control for the origin of the chosen individuals. In contrast, group composition and source colony did not influence collective behaviors in Temnothorax curvispinosus. This suggests that the mechanisms regulating collective behaviors via individual differences in behavior might differ among even closely related species.     

街道峡谷中汽车排放的CO气体扩散特性的数值模拟

为了研究平行街道中汽车排放的污染气体扩散特性,本文采用RNG k-ε湍流模型和污染气体扩散方程对几种不同结构的平行街道进行了二维数值模拟,得到了峡谷内的流场和质量浓度场分布.结果表明,与单个街道峡谷相比,平行街道内污染气体扩散特性有很大不同,通过增加街道单侧建筑物的高度,可使污染气体容易扩散,减少污染气体在峡谷中的聚集.     

?kotoxikologie soll endlich wissenschaftliches Fach werden

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Time and moisture effects on total and bioavailable copper in soil water extracts

Environmental risk assessment of heavy metals in soil frequently involves testing of freshly spiked soils kept under stable humidity conditions, but it has been questioned whether these assessments are representative of the field situation. Furthermore, the poor correspondence that is often found between total metal content and metal toxicity calls for integrated chemical and biological analysis. The aim of this work was to determine time- and moisture-dependent changes in total water-extractable Cu as well as bioavailable Cu in soil water extracts. Measurements of total water-extractable copper ([Cu]tot) were performed using furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. An in vitro assay employing a Cu-specific Pseudomonas fluorescens reporter strain was used to estimate Cu that was biologically available to the reporter strain. We refer to this copper fraction as "bioavailable," [Cu]bio. We found a time-dependent decrease in [Cu]tot and [Cu]bio during incubation for up to 220 d at field capacity. Hence the [Cu]bio was reduced to between 32 and 40% of the initial values. Furthermore, the [Cu]bio to [Cu]tot ratio correlated positively with the amount of added Cu and tended to increase with time. The moisture content of the soil was important for Cu retention. Dry soil had higher [Cu]tot concentrations than humid soil, but the [Cu]bio to [Cu]tot, ratio was lower in the dry soil. Alternating drying and wetting did not lead to a more rapid Cu retention than observed under constant humid conditions. Our observations underline the need for considering both time and moisture effects when interpreting short-term toxicity studies and when making predictions concerning possible long-term effects of Cu in the soil environment.     

钡渣用于三相流化床烟气脱硫

提出了在三相流化床内用钡渣进行烟气脱硫的方法。分析了钡渣湿法脱硫原理，并进行了工艺改进实验，对两种不同溶渣方式工艺进行了静态和动态模拟实验，考察了两种方式的离子浓度和吸收容量等因素。实验表明，将渣先和水混合再用脱硫废水调整水质、脱硫塔进水pH在7．5左右时有利于系统的稳定运行。当液气比为2．88、气速为9．5m／s时，脱硫效率可以达到85％以上。这种方法可大大降低脱硫成本，实现以废治废。     

生态条件对离体瘤胃菌丛数量和菌群的影响

本文通过在模拟瘤胃发酵装置内进行动物体外瘤胃菌丛发酵生态条件动态变化对细菌数量和菌群的影响研究，发现温度４０℃、每小时搅动２０分钟是９０５２３－１瘤胃菌丛的最佳生长条件。瘤胃球菌随Ｃ／Ｎ的减小而增加，而Ｃ／Ｎ高的条件下更有利于弧菌的生长。