The sex in short supply for matings varies over small spatial scales in a katydid (Kawanaphilanartee, Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae)

In katydids such as Kawanaphilanartee, a female bias in the operational sex ratio (OSR) results in female competition for mates and male choice of mates. Previous work showed that the excess of sexually active females occurs when food availability is low, in part because less food increases the propensity of females to mate as they forage for the large edible spermatophores produced by males. In this study with K.nartee, a pollen-feeding species, we estimate natural variation in numbers of sexually active males and females by assessing male calling activity and the propensity of females to respond to experimental calling males. We found an excess of sexually active males at a site with many flowers and an excess of sexually active females at a site with few flowers about 900 m away. Between-site differences in gut masses of calling males were consistent with the hypothesis that pollen availability controls OSR. Finally, at a third site where flowers were at first scarce, we found that the initial excess in sexually active females changed to an excess of sexually active males after a clump of grass-trees flowered. The mean gut mass of all sampled males from this site increased after flowering. The large variation in OSR that we document for K. nartee highlights the importance of identifying the appropriate spatial and temporal scales over which OSRs are measured in studies of factors controlling sexual selection. Received: 13 May 1997 / Accepted after revision: 27 October 1997     

家蚕斑纹限性品种SC_1的RAPD差异DNA片段的克隆及其酶切图谱分析

利用RAPD技术对家蚕限性普斑品种SC1的雌雄体分别进行PCR扩增通过120种引物的筛选,得到1个雌体特异的RAPDDNA片段将该片段克隆到pUC19质粒,井进行了限制性内切酶图谱分析.     

北京市居家空气微生物粒径及分布特征研究

室内外空气微生物对人们健康的危害不仅与微生物的种类和浓度有关,而且还与微生物粒子的大小及粒径分布特征密切相关,并且不同粒径的空气微生物对人们健康影响的作用机制不同.在北京市不同方向选取31户有1～10岁儿童的家庭进行空气微生物取样,系统研究了室内家庭空气微生物粒径及分布特征.结果表明,室内空气细菌和真菌粒径分布特征不随家庭环境、季节特征、儿童性别、房屋结构的变化而变化,但空气细菌和真菌的粒径分布特征不同.总体上空气细菌和真菌粒径均呈对数正态分布,但空气细菌粒子百分比从Ⅰ级(>8.2μm)到Ⅴ级(1.0～2.0μm)逐渐增加,Ⅵ级(<1.0μm)细菌粒子百分比急剧下降,最高值出现在Ⅴ级,而空气真菌粒径百分比从Ⅰ级～Ⅳ级(2.0～3.5μm)逐渐增加,而后从Ⅳ级～Ⅵ级真菌粒径百分比急剧下降,最高值出现在Ⅳ级.不同优势真菌属的粒径分布也不相同,枝孢属、青霉属和曲霉属呈对数正态分布,最高值出现在Ⅳ级,而链格孢属为偏态分布,最高值出现在Ⅱ级(5.0～10.4μm).室内空气细菌的中值直径明显大于空气真菌,1 a中空气细菌和真菌春、夏、秋季的粒径明显大于冬季.     

Quantification of risk perception: Development and validation of the construction worker risk perception (CoWoRP) scale

Introduction: The construction sector is leading in the number of accidents and fatalities; risk perception is the key to driving these numbers. Previous construction safety studies on risk perception quantification have not considered affective risk perception of construction workers or conducted comprehensive reliability and validity testing. Thus, this study aims to fill this need by developing a psychometrically sound instrument – the Construction Worker Risk Perception (CoWoRP) Scale – to assess the risk perception of construction workers. Method: Four phases of scale development, namely, item development, factor analysis, reliability assessment, and validity assessment were conducted with the collection and testing of data from a group (n = 469) of voluntary construction workers in Hong Kong. Results: The CoWoRP Scale with 13 items was shown to have acceptable test–retest reliability, internal consistency reliability, as well as content, convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity. Also, the CoWoRP Scale was affirmed to have three dimensions of worker risk perception, namely risk perception – probability, risk perception – severity, risk perception – worry and unsafe. These three dimensions of worker risk perception were negatively correlated with their risk-taking behavior. Conclusions: The CoWoRP Scale is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring the risk perception of construction workers and is expected to facilitate the construction safety studies that take risk perception of construction workers into account. Practical applications: The CoWoRP Scale could serve as an aptitude test to identify the characteristics of construction workers most likely to perceive lower risk in risky work situations. In turn, this information could help safety management provide safety training programs to those workers to enhance their risk perception and thereby minimizing their risk-taking behavior, reducing unnecessary training costs, and improving the construction safety performance.     

A method to estimate pre-exploitation population size

Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) were commercially exploited on the subantarctic island of South Georgia for over 100 years and nearly driven to extinction. Since the cessation of harvesting, however, their populations have rebounded, and they are now often considered a nuisance species whose impact on the terrestrial landscape should be mitigated. Any evaluation of their current population requires the context provided by their historic, pre-exploitation abundance, lest ecologists fall prey to shifting baseline syndrome in which their perspective on current abundance is compared only with an altered state resulting from past anthropogenic disturbance. Estimating pre-exploitation abundance is critical to defining species recovery and setting recovery targets, both of which are needed for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's recent efforts to develop a green list of recovering species. To address this issue, we reconstructed the South Georgia fur seal harvest from 1786 to 1908 from ship logbooks and other historical records and interpolated missing harvest data as necessary with a generalized linear model fit to the historical record. Using an approximate Bayesian computation framework, harvest data, and a stochastic age-structured population model, we estimated the pre-exploitation abundance of Antarctic fur seals on South Georgia was 2.5 million females (95% CI 1.5–3.5 million). This estimate is similar to recent abundance estimates, and suggests current populations, and the ecological consequences of so many fur seals on the island, may be similar to conditions prior to human harvest. Although the historic archive on the fur sealing era is unavoidably patchy, the use of archival records is essential for reconstructing the past and, correspondingly, to understanding the present. Article impact statement: Defining species recovery requires an understanding of baseline population state, which can be estimated through statistical methods.     

Effect of noise exposure (85 dB ) on testicular adrenocortical steroidogenic key enzymes, acid and alkaline phosphatase activities of sex organs in mature albino rats

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Do female roe deer in good condition produce more sons than daughters

In polygynous roe deer Capreolus capreolus, males are only slightly heavier than females and the overall sex ratio at birth is close to unity. We studied offspring sex ratio and litter size (range 1–4, n = 74) of culled females, in utero, which provided an opportunity to examine responses of sex ratio to maternal condition. Male embryos were heavier than their sisters, and male fawns (9 months old) heavier than female fawns, suggesting a higher growth rate in males. There was no evidence for differential mortality between the sexes from birth to 9 months old. Heavier adult females produced larger embryos than lighter, or primiparous females. The overall sex ratio of embryos did not differ from unity, but adult does had more male embryos (55%) than primiparous does (32%), and the proportion of male embryos in a litter increased with the mother's body mass. Litter size also tended to increase with maternal age and body mass. We argue that this pattern reflects adaptive variation in offspring sex ratio.     

荔枝花发育过程中雌雄蕊内源激素的动态变化

分析了荔枝花性别决定中雄蕊和雌蕊内源激素含量的动态变化 .结果发现 :雌蕊的发育与较高浓度的IAA和iPAs相关联 ;GA和ZRs的含量在较低浓度时有利于性器官发育 ,而较高浓度则抑制了对应性器官的发育 ;在败育的雄蕊或雌蕊中都含有较高浓度的ABA ,但从激素平衡的角度分析 ,促进生长物质与抑制生长物质的比值相对高时 ,即雄蕊的ABA浓度相对较低 ,雄蕊发育正常 ;当该比值相对较低时 ,即雌蕊的ABA浓度相对较高 ,雌蕊发育正常 .提出调节荔枝雌、雄花的发育不是某一种激素单独作用的结果 ,而是各种激素在时间、空间上的相互作用产生的综合效果 .图 2表 2参 17     

Sexually differentiated functions of female-produced pheromone of the black chafer <Emphasis Type="Italic">Holotrichia loochooana loochooana</Emphasis> (Sawada) (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae)

Summary. Both male and female Holotrichia loochooana loochooana (Sawada) (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) were attracted with female-produced pheromone, anthranilic acid (2-aminobenzoic acid), in the field. Male chafers were observed to apparently directly locate cotton balls impregnated with 1 to 10 mg of pheromone. In contrast, females never directly oriented to the treated balls but landed 0.2-1.5 m away and exposed their abdominal glands in a calling posture, which occasionally resulted in aggregation of both females and males. This suggested the mating aggregation of this species could be primarily induced by pheromone released by females. A hypothesis for adaptability of female aggregation is proposed and discussed.     

Evidence for seasonal mate limitation in populations of an intertidal amphipod, Corophium volutator (Pallas)

Potential rates of reproduction (PRR) differ between the sexes of many animal species. Adult sex ratios together with PRR are expected to determine the operational sex ratio (OSR) defined as the ratio of fertilizable females to sexually active males at any given time. OSR is expected to determine the degree to which one sex competes for another—the limiting sex. We explored the potential for mate limitation in an intertidal amphipod, Corophium volutator (Pallas). Males have higher PRR than females, but males may be limiting because of extreme female-biased sex ratios observed in this species. Consistent with this idea, late season females were less likely to be ovigerous and had smaller size-specific clutches, both of which were associated with seasonal declines in availability of males of reproductive size. Seasonal changes in ovigery could not be explained by seasonal changes across sites in other factors (e.g., female body size or phenology of breeding). Smaller females were less likely to become ovigerous later in the season at three of four sites. Seasonal reductions in clutch size also occurred among small females expected to be reproducing for their first time. In complimentary laboratory experiments, reduced likelihood of ovigery and reduced fecundity occurred when the number of receptive females was increased relative to availability of a reproductively active male. Our results suggest male mate limitation can occur seasonally in this species and that male limitation is regionally widespread and may affect recruitment.