Bayesian model-based cluster analysis for predicting macrofaunal communities

To predict macrofaunal community composition from environmental data a two-step approach is often followed: (1) the water samples are clustered into groups on the basis of the macrofauna data and (2) the groups are related to the environmental data, e.g. by discriminant analysis. For the cluster analysis in step 1 many hard, seemingly arbitrary choices have to be made that nevertheless influence the solution (similarity measure, clustering strategy, number of clusters). The stability of the solution is often of concern, e.g. in clustering by the program. In the discriminant analysis of step 2 it can occur that a water sample is misclassified on the basis of the environmental data but on further inspection happens to be a borderline case in the cluster analysis. One would then rather reclassify such a sample and iterate the two steps. Bayesian latent class analysis is a flexible, extendable model-based cluster analysis approach that recently has gained popularity in the statistical literature and that has the potential to address these problems. It allows the macrofauna and environmental data to be modelled and analyzed in a single integrated analysis. An exciting extension is to incorporate in the analysis prior information on the habitat preferences of the macrofauna taxa such as is available in lists of indicator values. The output of the analysis is not a hard assignment of water samples to clusters but a probabilistic (fuzzy) assignment. The number of clusters is determined on the basis of the Bayes factor. A standard feature of the Bayesian method is to make predictions and to assess their uncertainty. We applied this approach to a data set consisting of 70 water samples, 484 macrofauna taxa and four environmental variables for which previously a five cluster solution had been proposed. The standard for Bayesian estimation, the Gibbs sampler, worked fine on a subset with only 12 selected taxa but did not converge on the full set with 484 taxa. This is due to many configurations in which the assignment probabilities are all very close to either 0 or 1. This convergence problem is comparable with the local optima problem in classical cluster optimization algorithms, including the EM algorithm used in Latent Gold, a Windows program for latent class analysis. The convergence problem needs to be solved before the benefits of Bayesian latent class analysis can come to fruition in this application. We discuss possible solutions.     

乙腈溶剂中单壁碳纳米管与常见有机化合物的相互作用

以单壁碳纳米管(SWCNTs)为固定相,采用高压匀浆法,制备HPLC色谱柱.测定乙腈相中18种有机化合物在SWCNTs色谱柱上的保留因子,研究SWCNTs与化合物的相互作用.结果表明,有机化合物取代基的种类和个数、杂原子的个数影响乙腈相中有机化合物与SWCNTs的相互作用.采用线性溶解能关系(LSER)定量表征SWCNTs与有机化合物的相互作用,所构建的LSER模型具有较强的拟合能力(R2=0.844)和稳健性(Q2LOO=0.768),发现π-/n-电子对作用和空穴/弥散作用是控制SWCNTs与有机化合物相互作用的主要因素.     

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.     

Source apportionment studies for particulates (PM10) in Kozhikode,South Western India using a combined receptor model

In the present work, source apportionment studies were carried out for particulate matter – one among the significant pollutants as addressed by The National Ambient Air Quality Standards. Advantages and disadvantages of each receptor model were addressed using a combined receptor model which integrates Factor Analysis (FA), Positive Matrix Factorisation (PMF) and Chemical Mass Balance (CMB). Verification of the approach was done using sets of synthetic data as well as field data from Kozhikode. Sampling was carried out in National Institute of Technology, Calicut for a period of over 26 days with 24-hour sampling. The sampling gave an average PM concentration value in the range of 29.174–129.176 µg m^?3. Studies using field data revealed five dominant sources and their contributions obtained from CMB and PMF were compared. Soil dust (contribution from CMB: 18%; contribution from PMF: 16%), marine aerosol (17%; 25%), construction and aggregate processing (46%; 11%), garden waste combustion (18%; 45%), and vehicular exhaust (1%; 3%) were major contributors in the site under study. The outcomes of the study integrated with the support of local authorities and by the acceptance of residents can definitely curb the pollution levels in the site under the study.     

大气颗粒物上多环芳烃的识别和源解析的进展

本文对当前大气颗粒物上ＰＡＨｓ的识别和源解析的定量及定性和半定量的方法进行了综述，定性及半定量方法简便易行，但误差大；化学质量平衡法结果较准确具体，但ＰＡＨｓ会发生化学反应而降解，并且没有各种燃烧源较完整的ＰＡＨｓ成份谱，这已成为ＣＭＢ广泛推行的障碍；多元统计方法不考虑ＰＡＨｓ的降解，但要求数据量大，国内外的科学工作者用不同的方法和手段，使ＰＡＨｓ来源的识别和源解析工作有了一定进展。     

The constitutively active Ah receptor (CA-AhR) mouse as a model for dioxin exposure - effects in reproductive organs

The dioxin/aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) mediates most toxic effects of dioxins. In utero/lactational exposure to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) impairs fetal/neonatal development and the developing male reproductive tract are among the most sensitive tissues. TCDD causes antiestrogenic responses in rodent mammary gland and uterus and in human breast cancer cell lines in the presence of estrogen. Also, more recently an estrogen-like effect of TCDD/AhR has been suggested in the absence of estrogen. A transgenic mouse expressing a constitutively active AhR (CA-AhR) was developed as a model mimicking a situation of constant exposure to AhR agonists. Male and female reproductive tissues of CA-AhR mice were characterized for some of the effects commonly seen after dioxin exposure. Sexually mature CA-AhR female mice showed decreased uterus weight, while an uterotrophic assay in immature CA-AhR mice resulted in increased uterus weight. In immature mice, both TCDD-exposure and CA-AhR increased the expression of the estrogen receptor target gene Cathepsin D. When co-treated with 17β-estradiol no increase in Cathepsin D levels occurred in either TCDD-exposed or CA-AhR mice. In sexually mature male CA-AhR mice the weights of testis and ventral prostate were decreased and the epididymal sperm reserve was reduced. The results of the present study are in accordance with previous studies on dioxin-exposed rodents in that an activated AhR (here CA-AhR) leads to antiestrogenic effects in the presence of estrogen, but to estrogenic effects in the absence of estrogen. These results suggest the CA-AhR mouse model as a useful tool for studies of continuous low activity of the AhR from early development, resembling the human exposure situation.     

环境和人体中氯代/溴代多环芳烃的研究进展——污染来源、分析方法和污染特征

氯代/溴代多环芳烃(Cl/Br-PAHs)是一类具有与二噁英和多环芳烃(PAHs)相似结构和致癌效应的新兴持久性毒害污染物,其环境行为归趋和潜在风险受到了高度重视.本研究以Cl-PAH*ORBr-PAH*ORH-PAH*ORchlorinated PAH*ORbrominated PAH*ORha...     

大气颗粒物源解析受体模型优化技术研究

针对大气颗粒物来源解析技术存在的2大问题:二次有机碳(SOC)对CMB模型的影响及源与受体不匹配程度对源成分谱共线性的影响,给出了解决方案.对于SOC影响的问题,提出从受体的角度扣除SOC,对CMB模型进行修正,降低SOC的影响;对于共线性问题,提出了PCA/MLR-CMB复合模型,复合模型首先进行PCA/MLR的解析,降低受体中未知源的影响,使得纳入CMB模型中的源和受体匹配程度大大提高,从而使得共线性源类能够得到理想的结果.     

工频磁场诱导人FL细胞膜EGF的受体聚簇及噪声磁场的干预

为了研究50Hz工频磁场对人源细胞膜表皮生长因子(epidermal growth factor,EGF)的受体聚簇现象的可能诱导作用及噪声磁场的干预,将人羊膜细胞FL(human amniotic cells)分别用EGF、不同强度(0.05、0.1、0.2、0.4mT)工频磁场、噪声磁场、工频磁场和噪声磁场叠加的复合场处理15 min后,用间接免疫荧光染色法标记,并用激光共聚焦显微镜观察细胞膜表皮生长因子(EGF)的受体的聚簇现象.结果表明,0.1、0.2、0.4mT工频磁场辐照FL细胞15 min可诱导细胞膜EGF的受体发生聚簇,但0.05mT工频磁场辐照时,细胞膜不出现EGF受体的明显聚簇.0.2mT噪声磁场则不能诱导细胞膜EGF受体的聚簇;当0.2mT噪声磁场与0.1、0.2mT工频磁场叠加后,可抑制工频磁场诱导的细胞膜EGF受体聚簇,但不能完全抑制0.4mT工频磁场诱导的细胞膜EGF受体聚簇.研究结果表明,一定强度的工频磁场能诱导细胞膜EGF受体的聚簇;其作用阈值在0.05～0.1mT之间;噪声磁场对工频磁场诱导膜受体聚簇的干预作用存在剂量-效应关系.     

纳滤膜对脂肪族及杂环有机物的截留特性

分别选用NF90、NF270和NF-型号的纳滤膜测定了20种脂肪族及杂环有机物的截留率®,并分析了纳滤膜截留效果的影响因素.结果表明,脂肪族及杂环有机物的R受到分子结构和膜特性的影响:对于同分异构体,分枝结构越多,R越高;环状有机物与分子量相近的直链有机物相比,R明显偏高;孔径越小的纳滤膜R越高.利用遗传算法(GA)结合偏最小二乘回归(PLS)和人工神经网络法(ANN)建立了脂肪族及杂环物质的R与其结构的定量关系模型,2种方法建立的模型相关系数可分别达到0.8809和0.9944,通过2种模型进一步分析了R的影响规律,并对几种物质的R进行了有效的预测.从预测结果来看,GA-ANN模型的预测精度要好于GA-PLS模型.