Managing Individuals' Contributions to Maximize the Allelic Diversity Maintained in Small, Conserved Populations

Abstract:  The maintenance of diversity is, from a genetic perspective, one of the key aims in a conservation program. Because the most widely used measure of genetic diversity is the expected heterozygosity of the population, or gene diversity (GD), most research has been devoted to finding optimal strategies for maximizing this parameter. Little attention has been paid, however, to the development of strategies to manage allelic diversity (AD), the number of alleles maintained in the population. Using computer simulations, we show that the strategies that maximize GD, by managing contributions from parents, keep levels of AD as high as strategies maximizing AD itself, for a wide range of situations including different numbers of molecular markers used and the possibility of evaluating a number of offspring per parent to make decisions. Because maximization of GD also minimizes levels of inbreeding, this should be the strategy of choice in any conservationprogram.     

美国军用标准航天器试验基线与量级调整研究

对美国航天器试验的军用标准的发展进行了调研,系统地整理了MIL-STD-1540标准到SMC-S-016A标准的发展脉络,针对系统级、组件级试验基线的修订进行了整理、分析。以热试验为典型研究对象,整理了不同标准对于系统级、组件级热试验在试验温度范围、循环数、剪裁方法上的修改,对比了试验基线、试验量级的变迁,结合美国航天器型号与验证理念的发展,分析了其修订的依据,为我国相应标准的制定、修订提供了参考。     

二甲基甲酰胺中毒研究进展

介绍了二甲基甲酰胺(DMF)在人体的代谢、毒性作用和临床表现,以及DMF职业接触标志物的研究进展。     

特异性拟杆菌引物在珠江三角洲的适应性研究

在珠江三角洲地区采集人、猪、牛、狗以及家禽等33个粪便样品,高效提取基因组DNA,选取14种特异性拟杆菌引物进行检验分析,并进一步采用已知污染源类型的水样对其进行验证.结果表明:采用粪便样品DNA专属提取试剂盒和水体样品DNA专属提取试剂盒提取的基因组模版纯度和提取率均符合后续实验要求.拟杆菌通用引物2#(Bac32F/Bac708R)检出率为85%(28/33),特别是对哺乳类动物和鸡的粪便具有更高的检出率.人的拟杆菌特异性引物3#(HF134F/ Bac708R)和4#(HF183F/Bac708R)、反刍动物的拟杆菌特异性引物8#(CF128F/Bac708R)以及猪的拟杆菌特异性引物10#(PF163F/Bac708R)在珠江三角洲地区同时具有较高的灵敏度和较强的特异性.水体样品验证实验与实际污染类型相符,说明拟杆菌通用引物2#、人的特异性引物3# 和4# 以及猪的特异性引物10# 在珠江三角洲地区具有很好的适用性.     

Effects of benzo(a)pyrene on blood components,tumor markers,and oxidative status in mice

This study was carried out to investigate the effect of long-term exposure to benzo(a)pyrene (B(a)P) in mice. Hemogram, tumor markers, oxidative status, and B(a)P residues in liver tissue were evaluated. Sixty albino Swiss mice were randomly distributed equally into three groups; the control was given 0.1?mL corn oil once a week for 8 weeks. The other two groups were given 20 and 40?mg B(a)P per kg body weight once a week orally for the same period. B(a)P-treated mice suffered from depression and ascites, and macrocytic normochromic anemia was recorded at the 16th and 30th week. There was marked leukocytosis with lymphocytosis at the early stage of the experiment, followed by leukopenia, lymphopenia, and neutropenia at the end of the experiment. Monocytes and arginase activity were elevated throughout the experiment. Alpha feto-protein was detected only in the experimental groups in the 30th week of the experiment. A marked increase in lipid peroxides associated with a decrease in reduced glutathione and glutathione-S-transferase (GST) activity was observed in liver homogenate of the B(a)P-exposed animals. Residues of B(a)P were detected in liver tissue with a concentration parallel to the B(a)P dose level. In conclusion, B(a)P caused abnormal changes in the hemogram, evidence of tumor formation through B(a)P-induced oxidative stress, and it was accumulated in the liver tissue of mice.     

Composition of Floating Debris in Harbours of the United States

As part of a programme to characterize floating anthropogenic debris in the aquatic environment, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducted 18 field surveys in the harbours of major metropolitan cities of the east, west, and Gulf coasts of the United States and the Mid-Atlantic Bight. the surveys were designed to provide information on the types, relative amounts, and distributions of aquatic debris in different geographic regions of the United States. Neuston nets (0.33 mm mesh) were used to collect surface debris during outgoing tides on two or three consecutive days in selected areas of each city. After each net tow, the debris, which ranged in size from small resin pellets to large plastic sheeting pieces, was identified, categorized, and counted. the data are being used to qualitatively characterize aquatic debris in coastal metropolitan areas, to examine potential regional variations, and to tentatively identify potential sources.     

Lead astray: scale,environmental justice and the El Paso smelter

Residents in Paso del Norte (El Paso, Texas; Sunland Park, New Mexico; and Juárez, Mexico) have been concerned about heavy metal contamination in their communities since the 1970s, when high blood lead levels were found in children living in Smeltertown – a company town for the local metals smelter. After the smelter's closure in 1999, and throughout onsite and offsite cleanup efforts, residents have continued to express concerns about these contamination issues. Using a politics of scale framework and analysing ethnographic data and government, media and scientific documents, this paper identifies a set of major disjunctures between the scales of heavy metal contamination and the scales at which that contamination is regulated. These disjunctures exacerbate regional environmental injustice by complicating public participation, neglecting vulnerability and displacing hazards to new communities. Consequently, applying a politics of scale framework to this case study highlights regulatory and policy failures to address environmental justice.     

Environments,Risks, and the Limits of Representation: Examples from Nuclear Energy and Some Implications of Fukushima

This essay examines examples from the field of nuclear energy, including the 2011 disaster at Fukushima-Daiichi, through perspectives drawn from phenomenology, social systems theory, and constitutive communication theory. The essay argues that although prevailing approaches to nuclear risk analysis and risk communication seek to represent a world of preexisting phenomena, they also fundamentally constitute the world on which decision-makers, organizations, and communities act. Representations of nuclear risk are inevitably and problematically limited, with important implications for policy, practice, and communicative action.     

Combining a generic process-based productivity model and a statistical classification method to predict the presence and absence of tree species in the Pacific Northwest,U.S.A.

Although long-lived tree species experience considerable environmental variation over their life spans, their geographical distributions reflect sensitivity mainly to mean monthly climatic conditions. We introduce an approach that incorporates a physiologically based growth model to illustrate how a half-dozen tree species differ in their responses to monthly variation in four climatic-related variables: water availability, deviations from an optimum temperature, atmospheric humidity deficits, and the frequency of frost. Rather than use climatic data directly to correlate with a species’ distribution, we assess the relative constraints of each of the four variables as they affect predicted monthly photosynthesis for Douglas-fir, the most widely distributed species in the region. We apply an automated regression-tree analysis to create a suite of rules, which differentially rank the relative importance of the four climatic modifiers for each species, and provide a basis for predicting a species’ presence or absence on 3737 uniformly distributed U.S. Forest Services’ Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) field survey plots. Results of this generalized rule-based approach were encouraging, with weighted accuracy, which combines the correct prediction of both presence and absence on FIA survey plots, averaging 87%. A wider sampling of climatic conditions throughout the full range of a species’ distribution should improve the basis for creating rules and the possibility of predicting future shifts in the geographic distribution of species.