The habitat saturation hypothesis and sociality in an allodapine bee: cooperative nesting is not “making the best of a bad situation”

Several factors thought to be important for the evolution of cooperative breeding in vertebrates have received little attention in facultatively social insects. One of these, the “habitat saturation hypothesis” of Selander (1964), predicts that colony sizes will be greater in breeding units where dispersal opportunities are limited, suggesting that group living is a secondary option to independent reproduction. The Australian allodapine bee Exoneura bicolor exhibits a number of traits that occur in cooperatively breeding bird species, including long life-span, repeated opportunities for reproduction, and vulnerability to brood predation and parasitism. We experimentally examined the effect of a potentially limiting environmental factor, nesting substrate availability, as an agent influencing sociality in E. bicolor. We manipulated nesting substrate availability in two separate locations during a time when foundress dispersal is common. No significant difference was found between colony sizes in cases where dispersal options were abundant and cases where dispersal options were limited. An increase in opportunities for dispersal did not lead to higher rates of independent nesting, suggesting that cooperative nesting is a preferred strategy regardless of distance-related costs of dispersal. Reproductivity per female and brood survival were examined as factors selecting for group living. Low survival of brood in single-female nests has the potential to select for cooperative nesting in this bee. Received: 29 September 1995/Accepted after revision: 24 June 1996     

综合拉底、扩漏和出矿全过程的底部结构安全性颗粒流模拟技术研究

为探明自然崩落法从拉底崩落至出矿全过程中底部结构节理连续扩展过程与破坏过程规律，采用PFC2D软件，结合RocLab软件反演节理岩体参数，建立229 m×129 m的岩体扩大模型，对拉底崩落至出矿过程进行连续综合计算。研究结果表明:模拟结果及破坏现象与现场监测结果相近，建模与细观参数反演方法适用于该类岩体工程研究；裂纹扩展贯通导致岩体失稳破坏，破坏过程与裂纹扩展具有相对应的阶段特征，裂纹扩展分为崩落前稳定扩展期，崩落与聚矿槽开挖过程加速扩展期和后续持续扩展期；结构破坏分为蕴育过程，扰动失稳过程和宏观破坏过程；较大范围的宏观破坏主要在出矿阶段。该模拟方法与结果可为底部结构维护以及节理岩体长期稳定性研究提供参考。     

脆弱性基本原理与控制方法

本文从社会进步导致自反性危机出发,通过对风险承载体脆弱性构成要素暴露度、敏感度、适应度的分析,提出了三特征要素递次演化的模型;并根据脆弱性的递次演化的特点,提出了对脆弱性的辨识和递次管控的基本思路;最后,依据对地铁运行安全管理脆弱性的研究,进行脆弱性管理的实证分析。     

Teams as boundaries: How intra‐team and inter‐team brokerage influence network changes in knowledge‐seeking networks

What role does an ego's brokerage location—within a team (intra‐team) or outside the team (inter‐team)—play in the evolution of an instrumental knowledge‐seeking network in terms of both proximal (i.e., within the team) and distal (i.e., outside the team) tie formation and tie decay? We address this question by drawing on literature about social networks, brokerage, and teams. We use temporally separated data from 302 students embedded in 97 teams to test our hypotheses about the impacts of intra‐team and inter‐team brokerage on proximal and distal network evolution, specifically on four network changes in knowledge‐seeking networks: proximal tie formation, proximal tie decay, distal tie formation, and distal tie decay. We find that these four changes depend on individual network brokerage location even after controlling for personality and task characteristics. Specifically, inter‐team brokers change their networks both within and outside their teams, whereas intra‐team brokers curtail their network changes. We argue that these opposite effects occur because inter‐team brokers have greater autonomy than intra‐team brokers. This study adds to the ongoing dialog about network evolution in social network literature and to the conversations about brokerage and its location in the context of team‐based work.     

Are naked and common mole-rats eusocial and if so, why?

Eusociality in mammals is defined in the present paper by the following criteria: reproductive altruism (which involves reproductive division of labor and cooperative alloparental brood care), overlap of adult generations, and permanent (lifelong) philopatry. We argue that additional criteria such as the existence of castes, colony size, reproductive skew, and social cohesion are not pertinent to the definition of eusociality in mammals. According to our definition of mammalian eusociality, several rodent species of the African family Bathyergidae can be considered eusocial, including the naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber), Damaraland mole-rat (Cryptomys damarensis), and several additional, if not all, species in the genus Cryptomys. Furthermore, some species of social voles (like Microtus ochrogaster) may also fulfill criteria of mammalian eusociality. Understanding the evolution of eusociality in mole-rats requires answers to two primary questions: (1) What are the preconditions for the development of their eusocial systems? (2) Why do offspring remain in the natal group rather than dispersing and reproducing? Eusociality in mammals is by definition a special case of monogamy (more specifically: monogyny one female breeding), involving prolonged pair bonding for more than one breeding period. We argue that eusociality in mole-rats evolved from a monogamous mating system where cooperative brood care was already established. A tendency for group living is considered to be an ancestral (plesiomorph) trait among African bathyergid mole-rats, linking them to other hystricognath rodents. A solitary lifestyle seen in some genera, such as Bathyergus, Georychus, and Heliophobius, is assumed to be a derived trait that arose independently in different lineages of bathyergids, possibly as a consequence of selective constraints associated with the subterranean environment. In proximate terms, in eusocial mole-rats either puberty is assumed to be developmentally delayed so that under natural conditions most animals die before dispersal is triggered (e.g., in the case of Heterocephalus) or dispersal is induced only by an incidental encounter with an unfamiliar, yet adequate sexual partner (e.g., in the case of Cryptomys). Ultimately, a combination of strategies involving either dispersal and/or philopatry can be beneficial, especially in a highly unpredictable environment. If genetic relatedness among siblings is high (e.g., a coefficient of relatedness of 0.5 or more), then philopatry would not invoke an appreciable loss of fitness, especially if the cost of dispersing is higher than staying within the natal group. High genetic relatedness is more likely in a monogamous mating system or a highly inbred population. In this paper, we argue that the preconditions for eusociality in bathyergid mole-rats were a monogamous mating system and high genetic relatedness among individuals. We argue against the aridity food-distribution hypothesis (AFDH) that suggests a causal relationship between cooperative foraging for patchily distributed resources and the origin of eusociality. The AFDH may explain group size dynamics of social mole-rats as a function of the distribution and availability of resources but it is inadequate to explain the formation of eusocial societies of mole-rats, especially with respect to providing preconditions conducive for the emergence of eusociality.     

固氮放线菌Frankia与放线菌根植物共生进化的研究进展

固氮放线菌Frankia是能够诱导大范围的放线菌根植物(actinorhizal plants)产生根瘤放线菌.放线菌根植物是植物受Frankia侵染后能够形成根瘤的植物[1].目前,它们之间的进化研究虽然取得了很大进展,但是仍然存在许多不清楚的东西.本文根据最近对植物和Frankia系统进化研究成果、根瘤中放线菌Frankia的多样性研究情况,综述放线菌根植物和共生Frankia进化的研究进展.     

Song ranging by the dusky antbird,Cercomacra tyrannina: ranging without song learning

In a population of dusky antbirds (Cercomacra tyrannina), less aggressive responses to distance-degraded playbacks than to undegraded playbacks of pair duets show that this tropical suboscine passerine uses sound degradation to range distance from singing conspecifics. This is the first example of song-ranging in a species that does not learn songs, supporting the hypothesis that ranging preceded the song learning that occurs in more recently evolved passerine birds (oscines). Both sexes sing and are able to use song degradation to range distance from singers when their sex-specific song is played back. Received: 27 May 1994/Accepted after revision: 24 March 1996     

Female choice on male quantitative traits in lizards — why is it so rare?

Female choice on the basis of male traits has been described in an array of taxa but has rarely been demonstrated in reptiles. In the sand lizard (Lacerta agilis), and possibly in other non-territorial reptiles, a male's contribution to a female's fitness is restricted to his genes. In order to choose males of high genetic quality, females have to trade the fitness gain against the costs of active choice. In a Swedish population of sand lizards, long-lived males sired offspring with higher embryonic survival compared to offspring sired by short-lived males. In spite of this female sand lizards did not mate selectively with older and/or larger males. There appeared to be mo reliable cues to male longevity; age-specific male body size was highly variable. Furthermore, estimates of male nuptial coloration did not covary with ectoparasite load and, hence, females cannot use male coloration as a cue to heritable resistance to pathogenic parasite effects. When cues to male genetic quality are poor, or inaccurate, and males make no parental investment, we predict that female choice will be rare. Sand lizard females mating with many partners lay clutches with higher hatching success. Thus, females may obtain good genes for their young by multiple mating, thereby avoiding costs associated with mate choice.     

Foraging responses of wild house mice to accumulations of conspecific odor as a predation risk

Many predators hunt using the social and waste odors of their prey. It is unknown, however, whether potential prey modify their behavior in response to the risks of predation associated with accumulations of conspecific odor. We examined this question by measuring foraging trade-offs of wild house mice (Mus domesticus) in the field where we increased both predation risk and conspecific odor at artificial food patches in a two-factor design. Mouse giving-up densities (GUDs) were significantly higher in open habitats than in closed habitats but did not differ with the addition of mouse odors. Fine-scale behavioral observations of captive mice confirmed their attraction to the conspecific odor in an enclosure experiment, without any change to the GUD. These results indicate that house mice continue to visit and forage at food patches despite accumulations of predator-attracting odors. This most likely occurs for the social benefits obtained from conspecific odor exploration; however, such behavior may cause mice to become vulnerable to considerable olfactory exploitation by their predators. Future work must therefore focus on how mice trade off the social benefits of investigating odors that also attract their enemies.     

NF-κB and AP-1 as molecular targets for chemoprevention with EGCG, a review

There are multiple lines of compelling evidence, mostly from population-based studies, supporting that green tea consumption is associated with reduced risk of several human malignancies. Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) is a major antioxidant present in green tea. Chemopreventive effects of EGCG have been extensively investigated and well documented. These include inhibition of metabolic activation of carcinogens and/or stimulation of their detoxification, scavenging of reactive oxygen species, induction of apoptosis or differentiation of malignant or transformed cells, suppression of tumor promotion, inhibition of angiogenesis or metastasis, etc. EGCG targets many intracellular signaling molecules and events responsible for malignant transformation or abnormal cell proliferation, and NF-κB and AP-1 appear to be two of most potential targets of EGCG in its exerting chemopreventive activities.