Kinship and aggression: do house sparrows spare their relatives?

Kin-selection theory predicts that relatedness may reduce the level of aggression among competing group members, leading to indirect fitness benefits for kin-favoring individuals. To test this hypothesis, we investigated whether relatedness affects aggressive behavior during social activities in captive house sparrow (Passer domesticus) flocks. We found that sparrows did not reduce their aggression towards kin, as neither the frequency nor the intensity of fights differed between close kin and unrelated flock-mates. Fighting success was also unrelated to kinship and the presence of relatives in the flock did not influence the birds’ dominance rank. These results suggest that the pay-offs of reduced aggression towards kin may be low in non-breeding flocks of sparrows, e.g. due to competition among relatives as predicted by a recent refinement of kin-selection theory. Our findings indicate that the significance of kin selection may be restricted in some social systems such as winter aggregations of birds. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

遗传算法在度约束最小生成树问题中的应用

遗传算法是一类借鉴自然界生物种群“自然选择、优胜劣汰”进化过程的启发式随机搜索优化算法,具通用性好、鲁棒性强等特点,被广泛地应用于通信网络设计领域,如度约束最小生成树问题．通过讨论遗传算法在度约束最小生成树问题中的应用,并对遗传算法在应用时存在的问题和挑战提出了见解．参17．     

应用遗传算法优化氢气/空气燃烧反应系数

研究目的是优化氢气/空气简化反应机理的系数,使得简化机理在一定的误差范围内,能代替详细机理.通过计算氢气/空气详细反应机理得到的组分浓度作为遗传算法的适应度目标,对简化机理进行优化.结果显示,优化后的简化机理不仅在在计算组分浓度,而且在层流预混火焰速度和组分时空分布方面,更加接近详细机理所能达到的计算结果,比优化之前的简化反应机理计算结果更加准确.     

Impacts of organic carbon availability and recipient bacteria characteristics on the potential for TOL plasmid genetic bioaugmentation in soil slurries

The effectiveness of genetic bioaugmentation relies on efficient plasmid transfer between donor and recipient cells as well as the plasmid’s phenotype in the recipient cell. In the present study, the effects of varying organic carbon substrates, initial recipient-to-donor cell density ratios, and mixtures of known recipient bacterial strains on the conjugation and function of a TOL plasmid were tested in sterile soil slurry batch reactors. The presence of soil organic carbon was sufficient in ensuring TOL plasmid transconjugant occurrence (up to 2.1 ± 0.5%) for most recipient strains in soil slurry batch mating experiments. The addition of glucose had limited effects on transconjugant occurrence; however, glucose amendment increased the specific toluene degradation rates of some Enterobacteriaceae transconjugants in soil slurry. Initial cell density ratios and mixtures of recipient strains had smaller impacts on plasmid conjugation and resulting phenotype functionality. These observations suggest that genetic bioaugmentation may be improved by minimal altering of environmental conditions.     

Phenogenetic response of silver birch populations and half-sib families to elevated ozone and ultraviolet-B radiation at juvenile age

Phenogenetic response of silver birch populations and half-sib families to separate and combined elevated ozone (O₃) concentrations and ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation dozes was studied at juvenile age in the climatic chambers. Significant population and family effects were found for seedling height, lamina width, and leaf damage. The exposure to UV-B radiation decreased genetic variation at the stage of seed germination. Complex exposure to UV-B and O₃ caused an increase of genetic variation at the stage of intensive seedling growth: seedling height genetic variation in separate treatments increased from 23.7–38.6 to 33.7–65.7%, the increase for lamina width was from 10.2–13.9 to 13.6–31.8%. Different populations and families demonstrated differing response to elevated complex UV-B and O₃ exposure. Changes of genetic intra-population variation were population-specific. Such changes in genetic variation under the impact of stressors can alter adaptation, stability, and competitive ability of regenerating populations in a hardly predictive way.     

Relationship between heavy metals pollution and genetic diversity in Mediterranean populations of the sandhopper Talitrus saltator (Montagu) (Crustacea, Amphipoda)

Trace metals are one of the groups of pollutants that reduce genetic variability in natural populations, causing the phenomenon known as “genetic erosion”. In this study we evaluate the relationship between trace metals contamination (Hg, Cd and Cu) and genetic variability, assessed using fluorescent Inter-Simple Sequence Repeats (fISSRs). We used eight populations of a well-established biomonitor of trace metals on sandy beaches: the amphipod Talitrus saltator. The trace metals analysis confirmed the ability of sandhoppers to accumulate Hg, Cd and Cu. Moreover, populations from sites with high Hg availability had the lowest values of genetic diversity. Our results validate the use of fISSR markers in genetic studies in sandhoppers and support the “genetic erosion” hypothesis by showing the negative influence of Hg contamination on sandhopper genetic diversity. Therefore, genetic variability assessed with fISSR markers could be successfully employed as a biomarker of Hg exposure.     

基于GASA-BP神经网络的煤层瓦斯含量预测方法研究

为提高煤层瓦斯含量预测的精准度和效率,提出1种利用遗传算法(GA)和模拟退火算法(SA)混合初始化BP神经网络(BPNN)的瓦斯含量预测新模型(GASA-BPNN模型)。利用灰色关联分析法(GRA)筛选瓦斯含量主控因素并作为GASA-BPNN预测模型的输入。为解决BPNN收敛速度慢和易陷入局部极小陷阱的问题,将GA和具有时变概率突跳性的SA整合为GASA算法协同初始化BPNN的权值和阈值,有效地提高BPNN的参数学习能力。将该模型应用于煤炭生产现场,结果表明：BPNN模型、GA-BPNN模型和GASA-BPNN模型瓦斯含量预测总平均相对误差分别为15.79%,9.03%,5.56%。相比BPNN模型和GA-BPNN模型,GASA-BPNN模型对样本的泛化能力更强,参数训练速度最快并且预测精准度最高。     

Genetically informed captive breeding of hybrids of an extinct species of Galapagos tortoise

Hybridization poses a major challenge for species conservation because it threatens both genetic integrity and adaptive potential. Yet, hybridization can occasionally offer unprecedented opportunity for species recovery if the genome of an extinct taxon is present among living hybrids such that selective breeding could recapture it. We explored the design elements for establishing a captive-breeding program for Galapagos tortoises (Chelonoidis spp.) built around individuals with admixed ancestry involving an extinct species. The target individuals were hybrids between the extinct species from Floreana Island, C. niger, and an extant species, C. becki, which were recently found in the endemic range of C. becki, from Wolf Volcano on Isabela Island. We combined genotypic data from 35 tortoises with high ancestry from C. niger with forward-in-time simulations to explore captive breeding strategies that maximized overall genetic diversity and ancestry from C. niger while accommodating resource constraints, species biology, and the urgency to return tortoises to Floreana Island for facilitating ecosystem restoration. Overall genetic diversity was maximized when in the simulation tortoises were organized in relatively small breeding groups. Substantial amounts of the C. niger genome were captured despite limited resources available for selectively breeding tortoises in captivity. Genetic diversity was maximized when captive-bred offspring were released to the wild rather than being used as additional breeders. Our results provide genetic-based and practical guidance on the inclusion of hybrids with genomic representation from extinct taxa into species restoration programs and informs the ongoing debate on the value of hybrids in biodiversity conservation.     

Modeling Hydraulic and Thermal Electricity Production Based on Genetic Algorithm-Time Series (GATS)

Abstract

This study deals with the estimation of electricity production from hydraulic and thermal sources using the Genetic Algorithm (GA) with time series (TS) approach. Two forms of the mathematical models are developed, of which one is exponential and the second is polynomial. The power form of the Genetic Algorithm-Time Series (GATS) model is used for the thermal electricity production. The polynomial form of the GATS is used for the electricity production from the hydraulic sources. The GATS weighting parameters are obtained by minimizing the Sum of Squared Error (SSE) between observed and estimated electricity production from both sources. Therefore, the fitness function adapted is the minimization of the SSE for use in the GA process. The application of the GATS model is correspondingly presented. Some future scenarios are made to increase the electricity production from hydraulic sources. Variations of the electricity production from thermal and hydraulic energy sources are analyzed. Future prospects of electricity production are dealt with in terms of policy changes. The GATS models are used for making scenarios for future electricity planning policy. Results also show if current trend continues, the thermal electricity production amounts to 75% of the total electricity production, which is undesirable for environmental concerns. Results also shows that if new policy is to move from the thermal to hydraulic electricity production, the hydraulic sources will meet the demand until 2020.     

Colony life history and demography of a swarm-founding social wasp

Colonies of social insects are sometimes viewed as superorganisms. The birth, reproduction, and death of colonies can be studied with demographic measures analogous to those normally applied to individuals, but two additional questions arise. First, how do adaptive colony demographies arise from individual behaviors? Second, since these superorganisms are made up of genetically distinct individuals, do conflicts within the colony sometimes modify and upset optima for colonies? The interplay between individual and superindividual or colony interests appears to be particularly complex in neotropical, swarm-founding, epiponine wasps such as Parachartergus colobopterus. In a long-term study of this species, we censused 286 nests to study colony-level reproduction and survivorship and evaluated individual-level factors by assessing genetic relatedness and queen production. Colony survivorship followed a negative exponential curve very closely, indicating type II survivorship. This pattern is defined by constant mortality across ages and is more characteristic of birds and other vertebrates than of insects. Individual colonies are long-lived, lasting an average of 347 days, with a maximum of over 4.5 years. The low and constant levels of colony mortality arise in part from colony initiation by swarming, nesting on protected substrates, and an unusual expandable nest structure. The ability to requeen rapidly was also important; relatedness data suggest that colonies requeen on average once every 9–12 months. We studied whether colony optima with respect to the timing of reproduction could be upset by individual worker interests. In this species, colonies are normally polygynous but new queens are produced only after a colony reaches the monogynous state, a result which is in accord with the genetic interests of workers. Therefore colony worker interests might drive colonies to reproduce whenever queen number happens to cycled down to one rather than at the season that is otherwise optimal. However, we found reproduction to be heavily concentrated in the rainy season. The number of new colonies peaked in this season as did the percentages of males and queens. Relatedness among workers reached a seasonal low of 0.21–0.27, reflecting the higher numbers of laying queens. This seasonality was achieved in part by a modest degree of synchrony in the queen reduction cycle. Worker relatedness reached peaks of around 0.4 in the dry season, reflecting a decrease to a harmonic mean queen number of about 2.5. Thus, a significant number of colonies must be approaching monogyny entering the rainy season. Coupled with polygynous colonies rearing only males (split sex ratios), this makes it possible for a colony cycle driven by selfish worker interests to be consistent with concentrating colony reproduction during a favorable season.