The influence of parental age and weather on testosterone concentration and offspring survival in broods of tawny owl Strix aluco

Previous research has suggested that parental condition may affect offspring mortality patterns by affecting offspring testosterone levels. Accordingly, we hypothesized that there is a relationship between offspring testosterone concentration and survival during the early nestling period, and that both are influenced by parent age/experience and by prey availability. We tested our hypothesis on tawny owls Strix aluco in their first and third known breeding seasons, when they bred either in adverse or mild weather conditions, in Duna-Ipoly National Park, Hungary. Plasma testosterone concentrations of the nestlings were analyzed and related to parental condition, hatching order and nestling mortality. Inexperienced parents breeding in all weather conditions and experienced parents breeding in adverse conditions were both in poor condition compared to experienced parents breeding in mild conditions. Parents in poor condition produced broods with large between-sibling differences in testosterone concentrations and their later-hatched nestlings (which had low testosterone levels) died during the early nestling period, whereas parents in good condition produced broods with lower variation in offspring testosterone concentrations and all offspring survived the early nestling period. We discuss environmental influences on the amount of testosterone deposited in eggs, and also how maternal testosterone might induce those mechanisms producing testosterone in the nestlings.Communicated by M. Webster, T. Czeschlik     

Alternative strategies for a father with a small brood: mate, cannibalise or care

Brood cycling, the alternation of periods of courtship and mating activity ("mating phase") with days of full brood care ("parental phase"), and total filial cannibalism, the consumption of all current offspring by a parent, have been interpreted as a response to the conflicting demands faced by parental males during the breeding season. Under the assumption that these two behaviours result from trade-offs among mating, caring and feeding, the strategy adopted by the male should depend on egg number and age. This hypothesis was tested in the scissors-tail sergeant (Abudefduf sexfasciatus), a common tropical damselfish. Observations of undisturbed males and a brood reduction experiment confirmed all theoretical predictions. The shift from the mating to parental phase occurred when an appropriate number of eggs had been obtained. When the brood was reduced on the first day of the parental phase, males often reverted to the mating phase, but never did so if the manipulation occurred on the second or third day. Only broods that were smaller than average were consumed by the parental male. Artificial reduction of the brood increased the incidence of total filial cannibalism, but the probability of cannibalism decreased with brood age. Electronic Publication     

The effect of helpers on artificially increased brood size in sociable weavers (Philetairus socius)

In cooperatively breeding birds, the presence of helpers is expected to increase the reproductive success of the breeding pair. However, some studies fail to find this effect. A positive effect of helpers may be restricted to cases in which a breeding pair has a poor likelihood of raising the entire brood on its own, as would be the case under stressful environmental conditions or with enlarged brood sizes. We conducted brood size manipulations in a cooperative breeder, the sociable weaver, Philetairus socius, to investigate the relationship between the difficulty of raising nestlings and the effort and impact of helpers. Overall, sociable weavers did not work harder to raise the enlarged broods. However, the presence of helpers significantly increased the feeding rates at enlarged nests, but not controls. This was insufficient to prevent generalised brood reduction in enlarged broods, whether attended by pairs alone or with helpers. Nonetheless, the presence of helpers was associated with decreased nestling mortality and an increase in the numbers of young fledged. Our results suggest that groups are better able to respond to the needs of enlarged broods than pairs alone and that the presence of helpers has a beneficial effect on overall reproductive success.Communicated by J. Dickinson     

Combining Flow Cytometry and Real-Time PCR Methodology to Demonstrate Consumption by Prymnesium parvum1

Bowers, Holly A., Andreas Brutemark, Wanderson F. Carvalho, and Edna Granéli, 2010. Combining Flow Cytometry and Real-Time PCR Methodology to Demonstrate Consumption by Prymnesium parvum. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 46(1):133-143. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2009.00397.x Abstract: Harmful algal bloom species can persist in the environment, impacting aquatic life and human health. One of the mechanisms by which some harmful algal bloom species are able to persist is by consumption of organic particles. Methods to demonstrate and measure consumption can yield insight into how populations thrive. Here, we combine flow cytometry and real-time PCR to demonstrate consumption of a cryptophyte species (Rhodomonas sp.) by a toxic mixotrophic haptophyte (Prymnesium parvum). Using flow cytometry, the feeding frequency of a population of P. parvum cells was calculated using the phycoerythrin (PE) fluorescence signal from Rhodomonas sp. and the fluorescence of an acidotropic probe labeling the food vacuoles. Feeding frequency increased in the beginning of the experiment and then began to decline, reaching a maximum of 47.5% of the whole P. parvum population after 212 min. The maximum number of consumed Rhodomonas sp. cells was 0.8 per P. parvum cell, and occurred after 114 min corresponding to an ingestion rate of 0.4 Rhodomonas sp. cells/P. parvum/h. Cells from the feeding P. parvum population were sorted, washed, and subjected to a real-time PCR assay targeting the cryptophyte 18S locus. There was a correlation between cycle threshold (Ct) values and number of consumed prey cells calculated by fluorescence. Overall, this study shows that flow cytometric analysis, of the acidotropic probe and prey pigments, is an efficient and rapid tool in enumerating food vacuoles and the number of prey cells consumed. Furthermore, we suggest that real-time PCR can be applied to cells sorted by flow cytometry, thus allowing for the detection and potential quantification of the targeted prey cells.     

高校生活垃圾源头分类行为的调查研究——以烟台大学为例

摘要：文章以烟台大学为例,采用问卷调查、实地调研的方法,对高校生活垃圾源头分类行为进行调查分析。结果表明：生活垃圾源头分类在高校虽已被普遍认可但在实际分类中存在“知与行不合一”的现象;高校群体更关注垃圾分类的社会效益而非个人利益,其感知行为障碍主要来源于垃圾设施方面。此外,高校群体环境情感较弱、环境认知仍停留在浅层,对生活垃圾分类的实际推行造成了不便。     

Provisional rejection of three alternative hypotheses on the maintenance of a size dichotomy in males of Dawson’s burrowing bee,Amegilla dawsoni (Apidae,Apinae, Anthophorini)

I examine three alternative hypotheses on the male size dimorphism of Dawson’s burrowing bees (Amegilla dawsoni) in which there are large (major) and small (minor) males. One possibility is that minor males are simply the incidental byproduct of environmental conditions that prevent females from provisioning brood cells optimally. This hypothesis is not supported by the finding that males of intermediate size are consistently rare in populations sampled across years and in different regions, nor can it easily account for the absence of a size dichotomy in females. A second possibility is that minors represent a “best of a bad job” response of those females that are small or otherwise disadvantaged. However, presumptive male siblings sometimes include both majors and minors, a result not predicted from this hypothesis. A third explanation is that female brood provisioning strategy results in the production of minors and majors with equal fitness benefit to fitness cost ratios. However, although it is true that minor males weigh on average about half what a major weighs, and so represent approximately half the provisioning expense of a major, minor males on average appear to secure far fewer than half the number of matings of majors. If the estimate of mating success of minors is accurate, the net gain to females from producing a minor son is unlikely to equal that derived from a major son. Therefore the third hypothesis must also be tentatively rejected, although with caution given the uncertainties in estimating the relative costs and benefits of producing major and minor sons. Received: 12 January 1996/Accepted after revision: 27 April 1996     

两种生物除磷系统活性污泥中除磷菌的甄别——淀粉-缺氧/好氧交替与乙酸盐-厌氧/好氧交替系统

为了直接识别出污泥中的聚磷细菌和其种属,本研究采用4',6-二脒基-2-苯基吲哚(DAPI)染色和流式细胞荧光分选技术(FACS)对以淀粉为唯一碳源的缺氧/好氧序批式活性污泥(SBR)系统(R1)的缺氧末期和好氧末期以及以乙酸盐为唯一碳源的厌氧/好氧SBR系统(R2)的好氧末期污泥的聚磷细菌进行了原位分选,并通过16S rRNA高通量测序技术鉴定了分选后细菌的种属.结果表明,在R1中,缺氧期和好氧期均进行生物除磷,且缺氧期吸磷量大于好氧期. R2中发生着厌氧期释磷、好氧期大量吸磷的传统生物除磷.利用FACS在R1和R2污泥中均分选得到10⁶个相对纯度为85%的具有聚磷颗粒的细菌.测序结果表明,在R1系统中,缺氧段优势的聚磷菌属为Halomonas(37.75%)、unclassified Brucellaceae(14.15%)、Pseudomonas(6.49%)、unclassified Chlamydiales(0.027%)和Sphingopyxis(0.007%);好氧段优势聚磷菌属为Halomonas(19.72%)、unclassified Brucellaceae(14.62%)、Pseudomonas(14.28%)、unclassified Comamonadaceae(0.046%)、unclassified Acidobacteria Gp3(0.036%)和Ferruginibacter(0.026%).R1系统中unclassified Chlamydiales和Sphingopyxis仅仅在缺氧条件下具有聚磷功能,而unclassified Comamonadaceae、unclassified Acidobacteria Gp3和Ferruginibacter仅在好氧条件下才具有聚磷功能.在R2系统中,优势聚磷菌群为Dechloromonas(11.06%)、unclassified Anaerolineaceae(9.29%)、unclassified Bacteroidetes(7.44%)、unclassified Gammaproteobacteria(7.34%)以及Acinetobacter(0.31%).这意味着在新型的除磷系统(R1)中,参与除磷过程的细菌包括好氧,缺氧和兼性缺氧聚磷细菌,而在传统的除磷系统(R2)中,参与除磷过程的细菌仅为好氧聚磷细菌.     

An integrated model for structure optimization and technology screening of urban wastewater systems

The conventional approach to wastewater system design and planning considers each component separately and does not provide the optimum performance of the entire system. However, the growing concern for environmental protection, economic efficiency, and sustainability of urban wastewater systems requires an integrated modeling of subsystems and a synthetic evaluation of multiple objectives. In this study, a multi-objective optimization model of an integrated urban wastewater system was developed. The model encompasses subsystems, such as a sewer system, stormwater management, municipal wastewater treatment, and a wastewater reclamation system. The non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) was used to generate a range of system design possibilities to optimize conflicting environmental and economic objectives. Information from a knowledge base, which included rules for generating treatment trains as well as the performance characteristics of commonly used water pollution control measures, was utilized. The trade-off relationships between the objectives, total water pollution loads to the environment, and life cycle costs (which consist of investment as well as operation and maintenance costs), can be illustrated using Pareto charts. The developed model can be used to assist decision makers in the preliminary planning of system structure. A benchmark city was constructed to illustrate the methods of multi-objective controls, highlight cost-effective water pollution control measures, and identify the main pressures on urban water environment.     

关于中国城市生活垃圾分类的法律研究

城市生活垃圾分类是目前发达国家广泛采用的一种垃圾源头处理方式,中国城市生活垃圾分类起步较晚,实践中存在较多问题,而中国现有的城市生活垃圾分类处理的法律法规也不够健全。如何认识阻碍中国城市生活垃圾分类具体实施的根本原因,法律的努力是解决问题的关键之一。了解中国现有城市生活垃圾分类的法律状况,对现有法律制度进行深层次分析和思考,找出推进中国城市生活垃圾分类的法律之路。只有这样中国城市生活垃圾分类才不会流于形式,资源的回收利用才会成为可能。     

基于层次分析法的生活垃圾分类收集方案的优化

改革开放以来,中国经济发展水平不断提高,城市生活垃圾产量急剧增加。文章根据中国的实际情况,提出垃圾分类收集方案,运用层次分析法对垃圾分类收集方案进行了优化,确定出了垃圾分类收集最佳方案。即将生活垃圾分为厨房垃圾、客厅和卧室垃圾、厕所垃圾及有毒有害垃圾4类。