Substrate-induced changes in microbial community-level physiological profiles and their application to discriminate soil microbial communities

The addition of simple substrates could affect the microbial respiration in soils. This substrate-induced respiration is widely used to estimate the soil microbial biomass, but little attention has been paid to its influence on the changes of community-level physiological profiles. In this study, the process of microbial communities responding to the added substrate using sole-carbon-source utilization （BIOLOG） was investigated. BIOLOG is biased toward fast-growing bacteria; this advantage was taken to detect the prompt response of the active microbial communities to the added substrate. Four soil samples from agricultural fields adjacent to heavy metal mines were amended with L-arginine, citric acid, or D-glucose. Substrate amendments could, generally, not only increase the metabolic activity of the microbial communities, but also change the metabolic diverse patterns compared with no-substrate control. By tracking the process, it was found that the variance between substrate-induced treatment and control fluctuated greatly during the incubation course, and the influences of these three substrates were different. In addition, the application of these induced changes to discriminate soil microbial communities was tested. The distance among all samples was greatly increased, which further showed the functional variance among microbial communities in soils. This can be very useful in the discrimination of microbial communities even with high similarity.     

A vaccination game based on public health actions and personal decisions

Susceptible-infective-removed (SIR) models are commonly used for representing the spread of contagious diseases. A SIR model can be described in terms of a probabilistic cellular automaton (PCA), where each individual (corresponding to a cell of the PCA lattice) is connected to others by a random network favoring local contacts. Here, this framework is employed for investigating the consequences of applying vaccine against the propagation of a contagious infection, by considering vaccination as a game, in the sense of game theory. In this game, the players are the government and the susceptible newborns. In order to maximize their own payoffs, the government attempts to reduce the costs for combating the epidemic, and the newborns may be vaccinated only when infective individuals are found in their neighborhoods and/or the government promotes an immunization program. As a consequence of these strategies supported by cost-benefit analysis and perceived risk, numerical simulations show that the disease is not fully eliminated and the government implements quasi-periodic vaccination campaigns.     

全向辐照电磁环境构建及与BPSK系统的干扰效应研究

目的分析某型通信电台在工作时所处的复杂电磁环境,构建基于混响室原理的全向辐照电磁环境。方法以一个采用标准BPSK信号的数字通信系统为例,研究干扰信号码速、频率偏移量、信干比等参数对系统误码率的影响。结果当干扰信号码速低于期望信号码速时,随着频率偏移量的增加,接收系统误码率也随之减小,且呈现周期性规律;当信干比相同时,在相同的频率偏移下,干扰信号的码速越高,其干扰效果越好;当干扰信号码速高于期望信号码速时,随着干扰信号码速的进一步增大,干扰效果将呈现逐渐降低的趋势。结论该研究在电子装备的复杂电磁环境适应性方面做出了有益探索,为今后的复杂电磁环境适应性理论的深入研究提供了借鉴。     

Who should wear mask against airborne infections? Altering the contact network for controlling the spread of contagious diseases

There are several ways of controlling the propagation of a contagious disease. For instance, to reduce the spreading of an airborne infection, individuals can be encouraged to remain in their homes and/or to wear face masks outside their domiciles. However, when a limited amount of masks is available, who should use them: the susceptible subjects, the infective persons or both populations? Here we employ susceptible-infective-recovered (SIR) models described in terms of ordinary differential equations and probabilistic cellular automata in order to investigate how the deletion of links in the random complex network representing the social contacts among individuals affects the dynamics of a contagious disease. The inspiration for this study comes from recent discussions about the impact of measures usually recommended by health public organizations for preventing the propagation of the swine influenza A (H1N1) virus. Our answer to this question can be valid for other eco-epidemiological systems.     

Instrument tuning for trace analysis of dioxins and furans for the vg 70s/se gas chromatography/mass spectrometry system using electron impact mode

We present the salient characteristics of tuning procedures that have evolved from our 3 years of experience while producing large amounts of data of the highest quality. Our laboratory routinely analyzes 2,3,7,8‐substituted dioxins and furans at parts per quadrillion levels in 50–100 g of human serum samples using the VG 70S/SE stand‐alone gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) system at 10000 resolution (defined by 5% overlap) in the selected ion recording mode. Trace measurement of dioxins and furans in human biological matrices—for example, whole blood, serum, or adipose tissue‐requires reproducible instrument tuning within day as well as among days for quality results. Additionally, instument‐tuning procedures among operators must be reproducible to minimize operator bias because periodically different operators are used. Instrument tuning is highly subjective and argumentive; therefore, to minimize the ambiguity within our laboratory, we have standardized our technique to reproducibly tune the GC/MS system.     

印刷电路组件吸湿性尘粒人工模拟试验中关键因素的控制

吸湿性尘粒人工模拟试验(简称湿尘试验)是一种新型的环境试验。通过对试验方法和试验过程中各环节的研究,确定了试验时应把握的关键因素,并最终总结了试验中关键因素控制的方法。这些方法可为湿尘试验的开展提供借鉴作用。     

On the basic reproduction number and the topological properties of the contact network: An epidemiological study in mainly locally connected cellular automata

We study the spreading of contagious diseases in a population of constant size using susceptible-infective-recovered (SIR) models described in terms of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) and probabilistic cellular automata (PCA). In the PCA model, each individual (represented by a cell in the lattice) is mainly locally connected to others. We investigate how the topological properties of the random network representing contacts among individuals influence the transient behavior and the permanent regime of the epidemiological system described by ODE and PCA. Our main conclusions are: (1) the basic reproduction number (commonly called _R0$R_0$) related to a disease propagation in a population cannot be uniquely determined from some features of transient behavior of the infective group; (2) _R0$R_0$ cannot be associated to a unique combination of clustering coefficient and average shortest path length characterizing the contact network. We discuss how these results can embarrass the specification of control strategies for combating disease propagations.