The utility of electrocardiography and echocardiography in copper deficiency-induced cardiac damage in goats

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Copper deficiency (CuD) is a common mineral disorder in ruminants, which causes histomorphological changes in the heart due to disturbances in...     

Extending null scenarios with Faddy distributions in a probabilistic randomization protocol for presence-absence data

Environmental and Ecological Statistics - Navarro and Manly (Popul Ecol 51:505–512, 2009) (NM) have proposed a randomization protocol for null model analysis of species occurrences at...     

Gigantism in honeybees: Apis cerana queens reared in mixed-species colonies

The development of animals depends on both genetic and environmental effects to a varying extent. Their relative influences can be evaluated in the social insects by raising the intracolonial diversity to an extreme in nests consisting of workers from more than one species. In this study, we studied the effects of mixed honeybee colonies of Apis mellifera and Apis cerana on the rearing of grafted queen larvae of A. cerana. A. mellifera sealed worker brood was introduced into A. cerana colonies and on emergence, the adults were accepted. Then, A. cerana larvae were grafted for queen rearing into two of these mixed-species colonies. Similarly, A. cerana larvae and A. mellifera larvae were also grafted conspecifically as controls. The success rate of A. cerana queen rearing in the test colonies was 64.5%, surpassing all previous attempts at interspecific queen rearing. After emergence, all virgin queens obtained from the three groups (N=90) were measured morphometrically. The A. cerana queens from the mixed-species colonies differed significantly in size and pigmentation from the A. cerana control queens and closely approximated the A. mellifera queens. It is inferred that these changes in the A. cerana queens reared in the mixed-species colonies can be attributed to feeding by heterospecific nurse bees and/or chemical differences in royal jelly. Our data show a strong impact of environment on the development of queens. The results further suggest that in honeybees the cues for brood recognition can be learned by heterospecific workers after eclosion, thereby providing a novel analogy to slave making in ants.     

松花江水系江水中全氟辛烷磺酸和全氟辛酸污染现状调查

为阐明松花江江水中全氟辛烷磺酸(Perfluorooctane sulfonate,PFOS)、全氟辛酸(Perfluorooctanoic acid,PFOA)的污染现状,以及中国石油吉林石化双苯厂爆炸事件对松花江江水和哈尔滨市内饮用水中PFOS、PFOA浓度的影响,于2005-10-12至2005-10-16间采集嫩江吉林大安江段、第二松花江吉林扶余江段、第一松花江黑龙江肇源江段及哈尔滨江段江水样品共22份.在吉林石化爆炸事件后,于2005-11-24至2005-11-28间每日定时在固定地点采集松花江哈尔滨江段江水样品;于2005-11-23和2005-11-28分别采集哈尔滨市内饮用水样品.采用高效液相色谱/质谱联机法(HPLC/MS)检测样品中PFOS和PFOA.结果表明,松花江水体中普遍存在PFOS、PFOA污染.全部江水样品中PFOS和PFOA浓度范围分别为0.06～8.04ng·L-1和0.02～2.68 ng·L-1,几何平均值分别为1.214 ng·L-1和0.166 ng·L-1.松花江上游江段水中PFOS、PFOA浓度明显低于下游.流经哈尔滨市区时江水中PFOS和PFOA浓度逐渐升高.2005-11-26江水中PFOS浓度水平比2005-11-24江水浓度水平高5.8倍,而PFOA浓度未见变化.哈尔滨市内饮用水PFOS、PFOA平均浓度在2005-11-23停水前和2005-11-28恢复供水后未见差异.研究结果显示,松花江水体中普遍存在PFOS、PFOA污染;吉林石化公司爆炸事件后暂时性升高松花江江水中PFOS浓度,但未对哈尔滨市内饮用水中PFOS、PFOA的浓度产生影响.