Hereditary multiple intestinal atresia—ultrasound findings and outcome of pregnancy in an affected case

A case of multiple intestinal atresia is described. Dilatation of the bowel was observed at 17 weeks' gestation during routine ultrasound scan of a healthy Caucasian primigravida from a non-consanguineous marriage. Amniocentesis was performed. The karyotype was normal male and cystic fibrosis screening was negative. Regular scans were performed throughout the pregnancy and a simple bowel obstruction was suspected. The baby was delivered at 37 weeks' gestation in good condition. Initial clinical examination was normal but abdominal distension developed during the first day. At laparotomy, prepyloric septal atresia, a distal duodenal membrane, and multiple intestinal atresia were found. The baby died aged 4 days. Post-mortem examination of the abdomen confirmed the absence of lumen from long segments of the small intestine together with areas of colonic atresia. Histology and distribution were consistent with those reported in familial multiple intestinal atresia. The pitfalls in the interpretation of prenatal ultrasound scans and the possibility of prenatal diagnosis in future pregnancies are discussed.     

膨胀石墨吸附材料在环境保护中的应用

介绍了膨胀石墨吸附材料的特点、结合国内外研究资料和我们对膨胀石墨吸附性能的研究，重点分析了这种新型吸附材料在环境保护中的各种用途     

小清河水中沉积物与铅离子吸附等温线的研究

运用界面分极离子/配位子交换原理和方法研究了小清河水中沉积物对Pb^2 的交换吸附等温线以及赖氨酸对吸附作用的影响。研究结果得出等温线具有1个“拐点”2个“平台”。用分级离子交换等温式求出平衡常数k1和k2,当低浓度的氨基酸存在时,对铅与沉积物的交换吸附起促进作用。     

Female preferences for multiple attributes in the acoustic signals of the Italian treefrog, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Hyla intermedia</Emphasis>

The advertisement call of frogs and toads is an example of multiple message signal because different acoustic properties encode different kinds of biologically significant information. In the Italian treefrog, Hyla intermedia, pulse rate and frequency have been found to be under stabilizing female preferences and to encode information important for mate recognition, whereas the number of calls per call group have been found to be under directional preferences and, thus, to be important for mate quality assessment. In this study, we investigate preferences for calls that differ simultaneously in frequency, pulse rate, and number of calls per call group, and we ask how these properties interact with each other in influencing female mating decisions. Results of two-choice phonotaxis experiments provide no evidence to support the hypothesis that females process multi-attribute signals in a hierarchical way. In contrast, the pattern of preferences is consistent with the ‘preference function’ hypothesis, that is, with the hypothesis that females rank signals along an ordinal scale of values and choose accordingly. Pulse rate and frequency influence mating preferences more than does the number of calls per call group. The interaction between pulse rate and frequency is not additive but multiplicative: small differences in either pulse rate or frequency that, alone, have no effects on female choice, interact synergistically so that their combination has strong influence on female preferences. A preference repeatability test shows strong among-female differences in preference for multi-attribute signals. We suggest that this result reveals not only a variation in attribute values among females, but also a variation in the way females weight and combine attribute values into a single preference score.     

气象要素对气溶胶光学厚度估算PM2.5的影响

地面监测得到的近地面细颗粒物PM_(2.5)浓度较为精确,但数据覆盖范围相对较小,卫星遥感反演的气溶胶光学厚度(AOD)数据可以反映污染物浓度分布,具有范围大且速度快的特点,因此,大多数学者通过建立PM_(2.5)-AOD模型来实现卫星遥感监测PM_(2.5)浓度,并通过引入气象要素来优化模型.然而,气象要素的选择与引入往往对模型的精度有较大的影响,如何有效地选择对PM_(2.5)浓度影响较大的气象要素一直是PM_(2.5)-AOD模型中的关键问题.因此,本文基于华东地区2014—2015年的MODIS AOD和地面监测站的PM_(2.5)浓度数据,结合再分析气象资料,利用多元逐步线性回归方法建立PM_(2.5)-AOD模型,从由特定时刻、高度上的气象要素与随时间、高度变化的气象要素组成的气象要素集中,筛选出对因变量PM_(2.5)浓度有显著影响的关键气象要素.结果表明:在地域与季节双重尺度下的PM_(2.5)-AOD模型精度更高;相较于特定时刻高度的气象要素,随时间和高度变化的气象要素对PM_(2.5)-AOD模型的影响更为显著;在地域与季节双重尺度下,1000～850 hPa经向风速差、世界时0:00—6:00近地面温度差、850～600 hPa温度差、6:00边界层高度、12:00—18:00近地面压强差、1000～850 hPa温度差对模型影响较大,但应依据不同季节和不同地区的具体影响程度作为选择标准.     

Source apportionment of PM2.5 light extinction in an urban atmosphere in China

Haze in China is primarily caused by high pollution of atmospheric fine particulates (PM_2.5). However, the detailed source structures of PM_2.5 light extinction have not been well established, especially for the roles of various organic aerosols, which makes haze management lack specified targets. This study obtained the mass concentrations of the chemical compositions and the light extinction coefficients of fine particles in the winter in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, using high time resolution aerosol observation instruments. We combined the positive matrix factor (PMF) analysis model of organic aerosols and the multiple linear regression method to establish a quantitative relationship model between the main chemical components, in particular the different sources of organic aerosols and the extinction coefficients of fine particles with a high goodness of fit (R² = 0.953). The results show that the contribution rates of ammonium sulphate, ammonium nitrate, biomass burning organic aerosol (BBOA), secondary organic aerosol (SOA) and black carbon (BC) were 48.1%, 20.7%, 15.0%, 10.6%, and 5.6%, respectively. It can be seen that the contribution of the secondary aerosols is much higher than that of the primary aerosols (79.4% versus 20.6%) and are a major factor in the visibility decline. BBOA is found to have a high visibility destroying potential, with a high mass extinction coefficient, and was the largest contributor during some high pollution periods. A more detailed analysis indicates that the contribution of the enhanced absorption caused by BC mixing state was approximately 37.7% of the total particle absorption and should not be neglected.     

Inbreeding and local mate competition in the ant Cardiocondyla batesii

The ant species Cardiocondyla batesii is unique in that, in contrast to all other ant species, both sexes are flightless. Female sexuals and wingless, ergatoid males mate in the nest in autumn and young queens disperse on foot to found their own colonies in spring. The close genetic relatedness between queens and their mates (r_qm=0.76±SE 0.12) and the high inbreeding coefficient (F=0.55; 95%CI 0.45–0.65) suggest that 83% of all matings are between brothers and sisters. As expected from local mate competition theory, sex ratios were extremely female biased, with more than 85% of all sexuals produced being young queens. Despite the common occurrence of inbreeding, we could not detect any adult diploid males. Though the probability of not detecting multiple mating was relatively high, at least one-third of all queens in our sample had mated more than once. Multiple mating to some extent counteracts the effects of inbreeding on worker relatedness (r_ww=0.68±SE 0.05) and would also be beneficial through decreasing diploid male load, if sex was determined by a single locus complementary system.Communicated by L. Sundström     

Do male barn swallows (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Hirundo rustica</Emphasis>) experience a trade-off between the expression of multiple sexual signals?

Some sexual selection models envisage exaggerated male secondary sexual characters to be costly and therefore reliable indicators of the quality of potential mates to choosy females. If male secondary sexual characters have a natural selection cost, they may be linked to each other by reciprocally constraining relationships that would prevent individual males from increasing their level of multiple signaling. Barn swallow (Hirundo rustica) males have at least two costly signals relevant to socio-sexual interactions: tail length and song. Under the hypothesis that a trade-off exists between male signals, we manipulated the maintenance cost of tail ornaments to test whether this reduced the quantity and quality of song, a condition-dependent, phenotypically plastic signal. Contrary to our expectation, tail elongation had no effect on singing activity and song complexity. However, tail-elongated males produced songs with longer terminal parts ('rattles'). Long rattles are associated with highly competitive social contexts and high circulating levels of testosterone, suggesting that tail-elongated males were more frequently involved in either male-male aggressive or inter-sexual interactions. Therefore, this study shows that males are not displaying multiple signals at the maximum possible level, implying that this system is open to unreliable communication. However, long-term trade-offs between signal expression and viability may prevent males from displaying both signals at higher rates.Communicated by: M. Webster     

Effects of female mating status on copulation behaviour and sperm expenditure in the freshwater crayfish <Emphasis Type="Italic">Austropotamobius italicus</Emphasis>

Sperm competition models predict that males should adjust their sperm expenditure according to the risk and/or intensity of sperm competition. In this paper, we analysed copulatory behaviour of both sexes and sperm expenditure in relation to female mating status (virgin or mated) in the freshwater crayfish Austropotamobius italicus, a species where males have been reported to feed on and remove sperm laid by other males. The same females were allowed to be inseminated sequentially by two males, and we compared the sexual behaviours of partners between the first (virgin females) and the second mating (mated females). We found that female resistance did not differ between the first and the second mating, nor males refused or took more time to mount a mated female. However, when mating with a mated female, males reached an effective copulation position significantly later. This occurred because second-mating males removed, by eating, all or most spermatophores previously deposited by first males. As removal was often incomplete, this resulted in a larger amount of sperm being deposited on female ventral parts after the second mating, although second males did not allocate more sperm to mated females than first males did. Thus, the peculiar mode of sperm competition, where males remove previously deposited sperm, and the consequent predictable strong last male prevalence in paternity likely led to the observed lack of adjustment of sperm expenditure to female mating status in this species.