Reduced costs of mixed-species pairings in flycatchers: by-product or female strategy?

Heterospecific matings are generally assumed to be unconditionally disadvantageous due to reduced viability or fertility of hybrid offspring. For female collared flycatchers (Ficedula albicollis) mated to male pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca), the cost of heterospecific pair formation is reduced due to high levels of conspecific extra-pair paternity and a male-biased offspring sex ratio. In order to investigate whether these cost-reducing mechanisms are the result of female mating strategies, rather than being a by-product of species incompatibilities, we manipulated the plumage of male collared flycatchers before pair formation to make them resemble male pied flycatchers. Since species incompatibilities are absent in this design, any systematic effect of manipulation on sex ratio or paternity would indicate a role of female mating strategy. Paternity was determined by means of a likelihood approach that controls the errors made in assigning a chick to be ‘within-pair’ or ‘extra-pair’. Neither the sex ratio nor the male share of paternity was affected by the manipulation in a systematic manner. We therefore conclude that our experimental data provide no support for the suggestion that female behavioural strategies are markedly adjusted in response to formation of mixed-species pairs. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Development of competitive immunoassays to hydroxyl containing fungicide metabolites

This paper describes the isolation of monoclonal antibodies and the development of competitive immunoassays to pesticide metabolites of the fungicides imazalil, carbendazim and thiabendazole. The metabolite specific hydroxyl residues were used as the reactive group with which to link the metabolite to the carrier proteins Keyhole Limpet Haemocyanin (KLH) and Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA). In each case immune responses in mice were raised and monoclonal antibodies were produced. Antibodies were developed into competitive ELISAs to the appropriate metabolite. The antibody raised to a metabolite of imazalil was optimised into a competitive ELISA format which had an assay IC50 of 7.5 μg/L and a limit of detection (LOD) of 1.1 μg/L. A single antibody isolated against the metabolite of carbendazim had assay IC50s of 3.2 and 2.7 μg/L for the metabolites of carbendazim and thiabendazole respectively with an LOD of 0.38 μg/L for both. These sensitive immunoassays may have application in the monitoring of human exposure to these fungicide residues either by occupational or non-occupational routes.     

中国长江三角洲地区电力行业SO2排放控制的经济分析

总结了中国SO2排放总量控制与排放权交易政策研究与实施3个阶段的主要内容与成果。使用YRDEGS线性规划优化模型对在长江三角洲地区电力行业实施SO2排放权交易所能产生的SO2控制费用的节省、安装FGD装机容量的变化、可引起的脱硫变动成本的节约、SO2排放许可的市场需求、不同交易方式所引起的脱硫费用变化进行分析,得到以下主要结论：若发电量保持在2000年的水平,实现SO2减排20％的目标,采用排污交易脱硫费用将会节省38％,可以少安装FGD的机组装机容量达6．3GW;随着发电量的增加,对SO2排放许可指标的市场需求呈增长趋势,发电量的改变比逐步严格的SO2减排要求更会增加区域SO2减排的负担;当SO2排放削减率为20％时,在不实施排污交易时脱硫费用约为30亿～45亿元;实施跨省排污交易以电厂为交易单位时费用最低,约为6亿～28．5亿元,脱硫费用可以节省16．5亿～24亿元。     

Attribute-based analysis of hunters’ lease preferences

Understanding of hunter preferences for hunting lease attributes is important to landowners because such knowledge provides key information for managing and marketing fee-hunting in order to maximize revenues. Premised on this insight, we used attribute based modeling to investigate how hunter preferences for potential leases were influenced by lease and hunter-specific attributes. A mail survey of Mississippi licensed hunters provided the necessary data. Estimation results based on McFadden conditional logit regression suggested that lease attributes including game diversity, lease location relative to hunter residence, lease size, lease duration and lease rate influenced willingness to pay for additional units of lease attributes. Depending on the specific levels of these attributes, WTP could vary as much as $5.70 per acre. Of the hunter-specific attributes, age and income significantly influenced hunter decision to buy a lease or opt for status quo. Results of this study should assist landowners in increasing financial returns from fee-hunting endeavors through appropriate changes to their hunting access policies and wildlife management activities in response to hunter preferences regarding lease attributes.     

Cyber first aid: proactive risk management and decision-making

Public and private organizations need a robust approach to prepare, respond, and recover from cyber-attacks. This perspective article will refer to such an approach as Cyber First AID—adaptable, integrated, and deliberate. Adaptable describes that one size does not fit all; Integrated means the effort is throughout the organization; and Deliberate describes plans that are reviewed periodically and practiced, in which all members of the organization know their respective roles and responsibilities. The article outlines a decision-making process for how to minimize the impacts of cyber threats, maintain stakeholder and customer confidence, and help organizations to adaptively manage and respond to cyber threats in rapidly changing cyber environments.     

常见烯烃爆炸特性的研究

为减少烯烃类爆炸事故带来的严重危害,采用国际通用的20L球型爆炸测试装置测试了常温初始压力为0.1 MPa条件下,4种常见烯烃的爆炸特性参数.结果表明,随着烯烃含量的增加各项爆炸特性参数均呈现出先增大后减小的特征,最大爆炸压力和爆炸指数均在化学计量比附近获得,4种烯烃最大爆炸压力分别为乙烯1.5 MPa、丙烯1.3 MPa、正丁烯1.5 MPa、异丁烯1.6 MPa,爆炸指数分别为16.56 (MPa·m)/s、7.37(MPa·m)/s、16.98 (MPa·m)/s、29.07(MPa· m)/s.     

A Bayesian approach to construct bow tie diagrams for risk evaluation

Bow tie diagrams have become a popular method for risk analysis and safety management. This tool describes the whole scenario of a given risk graphically, and proposes preventive and protective barriers to reduce, respectively, its occurrence and its severity. The weakness of bow tie diagrams is that they are restricted to a graphical representation of different scenarios exclusively designed by experts that ignore the dynamic aspect of real systems. Thus, constructing bow tie diagrams in an automatic and dynamic way remains a real challenge. This paper proposes a new Bayesian approach to construct bow tie diagrams from real data and improve them by adding a new numerical that enables us to implement the appropriate preventive and protective barriers in a dynamic manner.     

MPP协同MF@ADP阻燃低密度聚乙烯性能研究*

为提高低密度聚乙烯（LDPE）阻燃性能和阻燃LDPE复合材料的力学性能与抑烟性能,采用原位聚合法制备三聚氰胺-甲醛（MF）树脂包覆二乙基次磷酸铝（ADP）的MF@ADP微胶囊,再引入三聚氰胺聚磷酸（MPP）与MF@ADP进行协效复配,熔融共混制备阻燃LDPE复合材料。通过氧指数、热重分析、力学测试和烟密度测试等研究复合材料的阻燃、力学和抑烟性能。研究结果表明:MF@ADP微胶囊能改善阻燃剂与复合材料之间的相容性,与MPP复配构成的磷-氮膨胀阻燃体系能有效提高LDPE的抑烟性能;当MF@ADP∶MPP的质量比为2∶1时,材料的LOI达到了30.6%,垂直燃烧测试达到UL-94 V0级,拉伸强度为11.8 MPa,且形成的P/N/O高聚物炭层稳定性更高,可减少LDPE燃烧释放的烟雾量。