Study of Cause-and-Effect Relationships in the Formation of Biocenoses: Their Use for the Control of Eutrophication

The cause-and-effect relationships existing in freshwater biogeocenoses and changing with time are conventionally divided into three groups: direct, directly mediated, and indirect. The possibility of using the indirect relationships for the control over natural systems is exemplified by a new scheme of eutrophication control and water quality improvement.     

应用模式识别法研究芳腈化合物结构与活性的关系

基于２３个芳腈衍生物对发光菌的毒性疚和一批结构参数，用模式识别法研究了结构与活性的关系。在化合物的生物活性类别与模式特征之间建立的３个类别判别函数对化合物活性类别的判别正确率达９１．３％，并为进一步的研究工作合理地挑选了４个代表性化合物。     

Rainfall Runoff Relationships for a Cloud Forest Watershed in Central America: Implications for Water Resource Engineering1

Caballero, Luis A., Alon Rimmer, Zachary M. Easton, and Tammo S. Steenhuis, 2012. Rainfall Runoff Relationships for a Cloud Forest Watershed in Central America: Implications for Water Resource Engineering. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 48(5): 1022‐1031. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752‐1688.2012.00668.x Abstract: Understanding the basic relationships between rainfall and runoff is vital for effective management and utilization of scarce water resources. Especially, this is important in Central America with widespread potable water shortage during the dry months of the monsoon. Potential good water sources are cloud forests, but little information concerning its potential is available to water supply engineers. Our objective is to define rainfall‐runoff‐base flow relationships for a cloud forest catchment. Flumes were installed for measuring river flow in four subwatersheds in La Tigra National Park, Honduras. One of the four watersheds was a 636‐ha subwatershed (WS1) with 60% cloud forest coverage. Precipitation averaged 1,130 mm/yr over the entire basin. About half of the total rainfall became runoff for the cloud forest watershed whereas, for the adjacent undisturbed forested watershed, the total discharge was <20% of the amount of precipitation. Infiltration rates were generally greater than rainfall rates. Therefore, most rainfall infiltrated into the soil, especially in the upper, steep, and well‐drained portions of the watershed. Direct runoff was generated from saturated areas near the river and exposed bedrock. This research provides compelling evidence that base flow is the primary contributor to streamflow during both wet and dry seasons in cloud forest catchments. Protecting these flow processes over time is critical for the sustained provision of potable water.     

有机污染物的被动采样材料-水分配系数的QSAR研究

污染物的被动采样材料-水分配系数(K_(PW))是衡量被动采样器性能和进行优化的一个重要指标,由于实验方法难以逐个测定众多污染物的K_(PW)值,有必要发展其KP W预测方法。本研究选取聚乙烯(PE)、聚丙烯酸酯(PA)和硅橡胶(SR)3类常用的被动采样材料共7种,采用多元线性回归分析方法构建可用于K_(PW)预测的定量构效关系(QSAR)模型。所构建的QSAR模型具有良好的拟合优度(R2a dj介于0.806~0.989)、稳健性(Q2L O O和Q2B O O T分别介于0.786~0.988和0.773~0.801)和预测能力(R_(ext)~2和Q_(ext)~2分别介于0.769~0.989和0.757~0.982),可以用于预测烷烃、烯烃、芳香类、醇类、酮类、酯类、醚类等多种有机污染物的log KP W值。有机污染物的log KP W与分子Mc Gowan体积(Vx)、氯原子个数(n Cl)、环周长(Rperim)、多重键个数(n BM)、N,O极性贡献的拓扑极性表面积(TPSA(NO))、[-N(=)=]结构个数(Ndds N)和羟基个数(nROH)等参数有关。     

Food site residence time and female competitive relationships in wild gray-cheeked mangabeys (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Lophocebus albigena</Emphasis>)

Authors of socioecological models propose that food distribution affects female social relationships in that clumped food resources, such as fruit, result in strong dominance hierarchies and favor coalition formation with female relatives. A number of Old World monkey species have been used to test predictions of the socioecological models. However, arboreal forest-living Old World monkeys have been understudied in this regard, and it is legitimate to ask whether predominantly arboreal primates living in tropical forests exhibit similar or different patterns of behavior. Therefore, the goal of our study was to investigate female dominance relationships in relation to food in gray-cheeked mangabeys (Lophocebus albigena). Since gray-cheeked mangabeys are largely frugivorous, we predicted that females would have linear dominance hierarchies and form coalitions. In addition, recent studies suggest that long food site residence time is another important factor in eliciting competitive interactions. Therefore, we also predicted that when foods had long site residence times, higher-ranking females would be able to spend longer at the resource than lower-ranking females. Analyses showed that coalitions were rare relative to some other Old World primate species, but females had linear dominance hierarchies. We found that, contrary to expectation, fruit was not associated with more agonism and did not involve long site residence times. However, bark, a food with a long site residence time and potentially high resource value, was associated with more agonism, and higher-ranking females were able to spend more time feeding on it than lower-ranking females. These results suggest that higher-ranking females may benefit from higher food and energy intake rates when food site residence times are long. These findings also add to accumulating evidence that food site residence time is a behavioral contributor to female dominance hierarchies in group-living species.     

QSAR计算中的分子连接性指数法

本文介绍了分子连接性指数法和原理及各阶指数的计算方法，以及在ＱＳＡＲ计算中的应用实例，并对特殊连接性指数的用法作了分析。     

三种供需关系论

本文提出在人与自然组成的环境－社会系统中存在着三种有决定性意义的供需关系,分析了这三者的异同与联系,剖析了它们在人类社会运行、发展中和及在人类社会可持续发展中的地位。     

Review and comparison of methods to study the contribution of variables in artificial neural network models

Convinced by the predictive quality of artificial neural network (ANN) models in ecology, we have turned our interests to their explanatory capacities. Seven methods which can give the relative contribution and/or the contribution profile of the input factors were compared: (i) the ‘PaD’ (for Partial Derivatives) method consists in a calculation of the partial derivatives of the output according to the input variables; (ii) the ‘Weights’ method is a computation using the connection weights; (iii) the ‘Perturb’ method corresponds to a perturbation of the input variables; (iv) the ‘Profile’ method is a successive variation of one input variable while the others are kept constant at a fixed value; (v) the ‘classical stepwise’ method is an observation of the change in the error value when an adding (forward) or an elimination (backward) step of the input variables is operated; (vi) ‘Improved stepwise a’ uses the same principle as the classical stepwise, but the elimination of the input occurs when the network is trained, the connection weights corresponding to the input variable studied is also eliminated; (vii) ‘Improved stepwise b’ involves the network being trained and fixed step by step, one input variable at its mean value to note the consequences on the error. The data tested in this study concerns the prediction of the density of brown trout spawning redds using habitat characteristics. The PaD method was found to be the most useful as it gave the most complete results, followed by the Profile method that gave the contribution profile of the input variables. The Perturb method allowed a good classification of the input parameters as well as the Weights method that has been simplified but these two methods lack stability. Next came the two improved stepwise methods (a and b) that both gave exactly the same result but the contributions were not sufficiently expressed. Finally, the classical stepwise methods gave the poorest results.     

有机化合物厌氧生物降解性的测定和预测

测定有机物厌氧生物降解性的方法包括非特性参数和特性参数测定法。本文着重介绍有机物厌氧生物降解性的筛选测定法，以基团贡献法为基础，不外加其它理化参数的有机物结构与生物降解性关系的预测已经由简单的线性模型发展至专家系统和人工神经网络模型，并显示出极好的应用前景。     

The social consequences of a natural/technological disaster: evidence from Louisiana and Mississippi

Disaster scholarship shows that people’s relationships stay the same or improve after natural disasters and become worse after technological, or human-induced, events. Using the case of Katrina, this research explores what happens to people’s relationships after a disaster that began with a catastrophic natural event and was followed by numerous failures in the way human institutions responded to the event. Through an analysis of survey data collected in devastated areas of Louisiana and Mississippi in 2008, this study tests how consequences of both natural (damage to the home and having to leave the home) and technological events (distrust in government, stress, concern about toxic exposure, and pursuing litigation) affect people’s relationships with family members and community groups. Damage to the home, distrust in government, and the pursuit of litigation lead to declines in people’s relationships. These experiences are more likely to change intimate relationships (with family) than relationships in the broader community. The relevance that these findings have for creating better social justice outcomes after future disasters is discussed.