Multiple sulphatase deficiency: Prenatal diagnosis using chorionic villi

Multiple sulphatase deficiency was diagnosed in the first trimester of pregnancy by demonstrating markedly reduced activities of arylsulphatases and heparin sulphamidase by direct assays on chorionic villi (CV). The diagnosis was confirmed by assays on cell cultures of villi and fetal skin fibroblasts. Two further pregnancies of this mother were monitored similarly and predicted to be unaffected; one produced a normal healthy infant, the other miscarried shortly after CV sampling.     

黄河水中沉积物与铜和铅交换吸附等温线的研究

运用界面分级离子/配位子交换原理和方法研究了黄河水中Cu2+,Pb2+与沉积物相互作用的等温线。这类等温线具有1个“拐点”2个“平台”。应用分级离子交换平衡理论导出的等温式,用作图法求出了2种金属离子与沉积物相互作用的平衡常数K₁和K₂。证明Cu2+,Pb2+在黄河水中与沉积物的交换吸附是分二级进行的。      

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     

南通市深层地下水中氨氮的影响因素研究

运用相关性分析、因子分析及多元线性回归模型对南通市2020—2021年15个监测井第Ⅲ承压层地下水的监测数据进行分析,研究深层地下水中氨氮的主要影响因素。结果表明,氨氮的主要来源是地下水沉积物中有机质的矿化及一部分工业开采引入的氮污染,地下水的还原性环境是氨氮赋存的主要成因;地下水中As、Fe及总硬度含量的同时增加也能反映氨氮含量的提高;硝态氮（NO-3-N）与NH3-N在深层地下水中是竞争关系,当地下水环境处于还原性时,更易于NH3-N的富集。降低深层地下水中氨氮的主要方法是减少有机污染物输入及还原性废水的入渗。     

黄河水中悬浮粒子对镉离子的交换吸附等温线

研究了黄河水中悬浮粒子对 Cd²⁺ 的交换吸附等温线以及赖氨酸和门冬氨酸对吸附作用的影响．研究结果得到一类具有一个“拐点”、两个“平台”的新型河流等温线,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,对镉与悬浮粒子的交换吸附起促进作用．促进作用的程度与氨基酸的等电点有关,赖氨酸的促进作用较门冬氨酸大．     

沉积物毒性鉴别评估技术在一个有着多重污染物输入地点的应用

沉积物毒性鉴别评估用于确定造成沉积物整体毒性测试中观察到有害效果的原因。然而在多污染物的情况下,将总体毒性划分为为不同个体污染物单独造成的毒性的方法存在很多问题。利用一个有着多重输入与相关污染物的站点数据,我们为毒性鉴别评估提出一种通过追踪毒性单位（TUs）来确定是否囊括全部毒性的方法。首先确定出沉积物整体的毒性水平,然后将毒性来源划分至几种污染物大类,例如氨类,金属,非极性有机物等。本文中毒性很大程度上来源于非极性有机物,所以在萃取沉积物之后,将萃取物重新加回稀释水中以检测毒性的复原。每一部分污染物的毒性占比由溶剂梯度测量,并进行毒性检测。目标占比由气相色谱-质谱分析得到,从而鉴定出与特定成分相关的毒性。之后对这些成分相关的毒性单位进行测定以确定可能的原因组合和是否已囊括全部毒性。数据表明毒性既与已有化合物相关,又与新兴污染物相关,而两种污染物对于总体毒性的具体贡献则随实验地点改变。
精选自Howard C. Bailey, Catherine A. Curran, Peter Arth, Bonnie P. Lo, Rich Gossett. Application of Sediment Toxicity Identification Evaluation Techniques to a Site with Multiple-Contaminants. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry: Volume 35, Issue 10, pages 2456–2465, October 2016. DOI: 10.1002/etc.3488
详情请见http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/etc.3488/full
     

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.     

乌梁素海叶绿素a与理化因子的统计分析

利用2008年6月—10月乌梁素海水体叶绿素a浓度与环境理化因子的测定结果,分析了叶绿素a的时空分布特征.运用分层聚类分析法将乌梁素海现有的20个测点分成四类,找出各类测点及总测点中与叶绿素a显著相关的理化因子,建立了多元逐步回归方程.2008年乌梁素海各测点叶绿素a的平均值为6.31 mg.m-3,变幅1.54—26.87 mg.m-3;夏季最高,秋季居中,春季最低,整个区域呈现较明显的东北高西南低的分布趋势.应用SPSS统计分析软件进行相关分析的结果表明叶绿素a与BOD5、悬浮物、浊度、总磷都呈极显著相关,与透明度呈极显著负相关,与pH值和溶氧呈显著负相关.综合逐步回归方程表明,影响乌梁素海叶绿素a的理化因子因不同类型的测点各有所不同,但主要的影响因子有浊度、悬浮物、总磷、总氮、硝酸盐氮和亚硝酸盐氮.     

Comparison and ranking of different modelling techniques for prediction of site index in Mediterranean mountain forests

Forestry science has a long tradition of studying the relationship between stand productivity and abiotic and biotic site characteristics, such as climate, topography, soil and vegetation. Many of the early site quality modelling studies related site index to environmental variables using basic statistical methods such as linear regression. Because most ecological variables show a typical non-linear course and a non-constant variance distribution, a large fraction of the variation remained unexplained by these linear models. More recently, the development of more advanced non-parametric and machine learning methods provided opportunities to overcome these limitations. Nevertheless, these methods also have drawbacks. Due to their increasing complexity they are not only more difficult to implement and interpret, but also more vulnerable to overfitting. Especially in a context of regionalisation, this may prove to be problematic. Although many non-parametric and machine learning methods are increasingly used in applications related to forest site quality assessment, their predictive performance has only been assessed for a limited number of methods and ecosystems.In this study, five different modelling techniques are compared and evaluated, i.e. multiple linear regression (MLR), classification and regression trees (CART), boosted regression trees (BRT), generalized additive models (GAM), and artificial neural networks (ANN). Each method is used to model site index of homogeneous stands of three important tree species of the Taurus Mountains (Turkey): Pinus brutia, Pinus nigra and Cedrus libani. Site index is related to soil, vegetation and topographical variables, which are available for 167 sample plots covering all important environmental gradients in the research area. The five techniques are compared in a multi-criteria decision analysis in which different model performance measures, ecological interpretability and user-friendliness are considered as criteria.When combining these criteria, in most cases GAM is found to outperform all other techniques for modelling site index for the three species. BRT is a good alternative in case the ecological interpretability of the technique is of higher importance. When user-friendliness is more important MLR and CART are the preferred alternatives. Despite its good predictive performance, ANN is penalized for its complex, non-transparent models and big training effort.     

Offspring genetic diversity increases fitness of female Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)

Inbreeding has negative effects on individual and population performances. Therefore, enhancement of offspring genetic diversity is believed to play a major role in shaping mating systems. However, no study has clearly separated the direct effect of having multiple partners from the indirect effect of having more outbred offspring on the resulting reproductive success of individuals in the wild. In this study, we report significant associations between both multiple mating and within-individual genetic diversity of offspring, and an increased reproductive success of wild female Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar. Specifically, we found that females with a higher number of mates also have more outbred offspring (within-individuals), and that both of these characteristics increased their reproductive success expressed in terms of offspring surviving when combining all freshwater juvenile stages. Our findings also indicate that determinants of fitness are different among sexes as within-individual offspring genetic diversity was not a strong predictor of male reproductive success, while the number of mates was important. We also show that females mated with more outbred males than on average, which potentially increased their chances of producing outbred offspring. These results therefore suggest that there could be more important indirect genetic benefits of multiple mating for females than for males.Communicated by M. Abrahams