Gamergates in the myrmicine genus <Emphasis Type="Italic">Metapone</Emphasis> (Hymenoptera:Formicidae)

Gamergates (i.e. mated reproductive workers) are mostly known from ant species within the Ponerinae. We report here the discovery of gamergates in two species of the subfamily Myrmicinae. Until now, mated reproductive females in colonies of myrmicine species have been considered morphologically distinct from the worker caste. However, in two species of the myrmicine Metapone (Metapone madagascarica and a newly discovered, not yet described Metapone species) all workers have six ovarioles and a spermatheca; and some of them are mated. There are no morphological differences between mated and non-mated workers. Field observations and laboratory studies indicate that colonies of the Metapone species can reproduce with gamergates only.     

Vocal acrobatics in a Chinese frog, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Amolops tormotus</Emphasis>

Although amphibians are highly vocal, they generally emit only a limited number of acoustic communication signals. We report here the extraordinarily rich vocal repertoire of Amolops tormotus, a ranid species in China. These frogs produce countless vocalizations, some of which share features of birdsong or primate calls, e.g., ultrasonic frequency components, multiple upward and downward FM sweeps, and sudden onset and offset of selective harmonic components within a call note. Frame-by-frame video analysis of the frog's calling behavior suggests the presence of two pairs of vocal sacs that may contribute to the remarkable call-note complexity in this species. Electronic supplementary material to this paper can be obtained by using the Springer LINK server located at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00114-002-0335-x.     

Inventory of emissions from major air pollutant categories in Turkey

In this study, an inventory of air pollutant emission estimates from major air polluting sources in Turkey for period between 1985 and 2005 with 5-year intervals were estimated. Inventory covers anthropogenic sources of five major air pollutants of particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and non-methane volatile organic compounds. Their break-down with respect to main activity sectors were shown and their distribution by the largest industrial source categories were worked out as annual estimates. This inventory and its analysis point to serious environmental implications of air pollutants and a need to develop a policy plan for reducing these emissions.     

Flavonoid wing pigments increase attractiveness of female common blue (Polyommatus icarus) butterflies to mate-searching males

 Common blue butterflies (Polyommatus icarus) sequester flavonoids from their larval host plants and allocate these UV-absorbing pigments to the wings. In field experiments using dummies constructed from female butterflies, mate-searching males inspected flavonoid-rich dummies more intensively than those with little or no flavonoids. Flavonoid content as signalled by UV-wing pattern may indicate ontogenetically determined female quality or enhance detectability to males. Received: 21 March 2000 / Accepted in revised form: 17 May 2000     

Practical environmental monitoring of major construction projects

Independent teams undertook environmental monitoring of particular concentrations of major construction projects forming part of Hong Kong’s U.S. $20 billion airport infrastructure programme located in dense urban areas. The team combination of environmental specialists with experienced civil engineers enabled pragmatic mitigation measures to be developed and accepted by the construction personnel with the result that potentially significant adverse impacts were averted. The authors discuss the mechanism and success of this innovative approach.     

Prenatal diagnosis of campomelic dysplasia by ultrasonography

Consanguineous partners had a boy with campomelic dysplasia who died of increasing respiratory distress soon after birth. The next pregnancy was monitored frequently by ultrasonography and a healthy male infant was born at term. During a further pregnancy, ultrasonography suggested campomelic dysplasia in the 16th week of gestation. This was confirmed in the 18th week. The pregnancy was terminated and the fetus showed the typical radiological, anatomical and histological findings.     

Hydrogen storage and distribution systems

Hydrogen storage and transportation or distribution is closely linked together. Hydrogen can be distributed continuously in pipelines or batch wise by ships, trucks, railway or airplanes. All batch transportation requires a storage system but also pipelines can be used as pressure storage system. Hydrogen exhibits the highest heating value per weight of all chemical fuels. Furthermore, hydrogen is regenerative and environment friendly. There are two reasons why hydrogen is not the major fuel of toady’s energy consumption: First of all, hydrogen is just an energy carrier. And, although it is the most abundant element in the universe, it has to be produced, since on earth it only occurs in the form of water. This implies that we have to pay for this energy, which results in a difficult economic task, because since the industrialization we are used to consuming energy for free. The second difficulty with hydrogen as an energy carrier is the low critical temperature of 33 K, i.e. hydrogen is a gas at room temperature. For mobile and in many cases also for stationary applications the volumetric and gravimetric density of hydrogen in a storage system is crucial. Hydrogen can be stored by six different methods and phenomena: high pressure gas cylinders (up to 800 bar), liquid hydrogen in cryogenic tanks (at 21 K), adsorbed hydrogen on materials with a large specific surface area (at T < 100 K), absorbed on interstitial sites in a host metal (at ambient pressure and temperature), chemically bond in covalent and ionic compounds (at ambient pressure), oxidation of reactive metals e.g. Li, Na, Mg, Al, Zn with water. These metals easily react with water to the corresponding hydroxide and liberate the hydrogen from the water. Finally, the metal hydroxides can be thermally reduced to the metals in a solar furnace.