Future fitness and helping in social queues

Helpers in primitively eusocial and cooperatively breeding animal societies forfeit their own reproduction to rear the offspring of a queen or breeding pair, but may eventually attain breeding status themselves. Kin selection provides a widely accepted theoretical framework for understanding these societies, but differences in genetic relatedness do not explain a universal societal feature: the huge variation between individuals in helping effort. An alternative explanation for this variation lies in a fundamental trade-off faced by helpers: by working harder, they increase the indirect component of their fitness, but simultaneously decrease their own future survival and fecundity. Here, we show that individuals work less hard when they stand to lose more future fitness through working. We experimentally manipulated two components of future fitness in social queues of hover wasps (Stenogastrinae): a helper's chance of inheriting an egg-laying position, and the workforce available to rear her offspring should she inherit. After each manipulation, helpers increased or decreased their effort as appropriate to the change in expected future fitness that they experienced. Although helping provides significant indirect fitness benefits for hover wasps, our study shows that variation in the costs associated with helping is the major determinant of helping effort.     

Pre-social benefits of extended parental care

The evolution of helping, in which some individuals forfeit their own reproduction and help others to reproduce, is a central problem in evolutionary biology. Recently proposed insurance-based mechanisms rely on a pre-existing life history with a long period of offspring dependency relative to the short life expectancies of adult carers: a lone mother's offspring are doomed if she dies young, whereas after a helper dies, other group members can finish rearing the offspring. A critical question, however, is how this life history could evolve in ancestral non-social populations, as offspring survival would then depend on a single, short-lived carer. Here, we resolve this paradox by focusing on the extended parental care inherent in prolonged dependency. We show experimentally that in non-social wasps, extended care can significantly reduce the impact of interspecific parasites. Under extended care, offspring are less vulnerable by the time they are exposed to parasites, and costs of parasitism are reduced because mothers have the option to terminate investment in failing offspring. By experimentally simulating aspects of extended care in a species where it is lacking, we demonstrate that neither benefit requires specialized behaviour. Such benefits could therefore offset the disadvantage of prolonged dependency in non-social species, thereby facilitating the evolution of helping.     

食品安全规制成本收益分析研究述评

本文对食品安全规制的成本收益研究进展进行了介绍,主要包括食品安全规制成本收益的确定、食品安全规制成本的估计、食品安全收益的衡量,并对现有文献的不足进行了简要评价和分析。     

Sexual conflict reduces offspring fitness in zebra finches

Parental care is often costly; hence, in sexually reproducing species where both male and female parents rear their offspring (biparental care), sexual conflict over parental investment can arise. Such conflict occurs because each care-giver would benefit from withholding parental investment for use with another partner, leading to a reduction in the amount of care given by one parent at the expense of the other. Here we report experiments to explore the prediction from theory that parents rearing offspring alone may provide greater parental investment than when rearing offspring together with a partner. We found that when the number of offspring per parent, and hence the potential workload, were kept constant, offspring received a greater per capita parental investment from single females than from both parents working together, and that males reared by single mothers were more sexually attractive as adults than their biparentally reared siblings. This difference between single- and two-parent families is due to a reduction in care provided by females when they care together with a male, rather than laziness by males or differences in the begging behaviour of chicks, supporting the claim that sexual conflict in biparental care can reduce the quality of offspring raised.     

Mammalian sex ratios and variation in costs of rearing sons and daughters

In red deer, the sex ratio of calves at birth (calculated as the proportion of calves born that are male) increases with the dominance rank of the mother, whereas opposite trends exist in several populations of macaques and baboons. Here we show that the subsequent survival and reproductive success of subordinate female red deer is depressed more by rearing sons than by rearing daughters, whereas the subsequent fitness of dominant females is unaffected by the sex of their present offspring. By contrast, among subordinate female macaques, the rearing of daughters has greater costs to the mother's subsequent fitness than does the rearing of sons, although again, no difference in the costs of rearing sons and daughters is found among dominant mothers. These findings indicate that both differences in the relative fitness of sons and daughters and differences in the relative costs of rearing male and female offspring can favour variation in the sex ratio.     

基于最佳储能系统大小的微电网优化运行

提出了一种模型,分析微电网储能系统(energy storage system,ESS)的大小与经济效益之间的关系。以提高微电网的经济效益为目标,计算出ESS最佳大小。ESS越大,投资成本就会越高,但微电网的运行成本会随之下降。最佳ESS大小问题的研究,包括最大限度地减少了ESS的投资成本,以及微电网运行成本。建立一个包含ESS的实用模型,使用不同的运行策略,验证了最佳ESS大小的经济性和运行可靠性。     

Post-mating sexual selection increases lifetime fitness of polyandrous females in the wild

Females often mate with several males before producing offspring. Field studies of vertebrates suggest, and laboratory experiments on invertebrates confirm, that even when males provide no material benefits, polyandry can enhance offspring survival. This enhancement is widely attributed to genetic benefits that arise whenever paternity is biased towards males that sire more viable offspring. Field studies suggest that post-mating sexual selection biases fertilization towards genetically more compatible males and one controlled experiment has shown that, when females mate with close kin, polyandry reduces the relative number of inbred offspring. Another potential genetic benefit of polyandry is that it increases offspring survival because males with more competitive ejaculates sire more viable offspring. Surprisingly, however, there is no unequivocal evidence for this process. Here, by experimentally assigning mates to females, we show that polyandry greatly increases offspring survival in the Australian marsupial Antechinus stuartii. DNA profiling shows that males that gain high paternity under sperm competition sire offspring that are more viable. This beneficial effect occurs in both the laboratory and the wild. Crucially, there are no confounding non-genetic maternal effects that could arise if polyandry increases female investment in a particular reproductive event because A. stuartii is effectively semelparous. Our results therefore show that polyandry improves female lifetime fitness in nature. The threefold increase in offspring survival is not negated by a decline in maternal lifespan and is too large to be offset by an equivalent decline in the reproductive performance of surviving offspring.     

基于消费群体绿色物流偏好的政企进化博弈分析

政府、企业和消费群体是实现绿色物流的必要主体,绿色物流普及程度取决于这三方的相互博弈.根据政企之间的策略组合建立了进化博弈模型,从消费群体绿色物流偏好为喜好的角度建立成本效益矩阵;利用复制动态公式对模型进行均衡分析,得到4个进化稳定策略(ESS).并以新能源汽车为例进行研究:消费群体绿色物流偏好会改变实施绿色物流策略的政府和企业比例;政府可以通过增加惩罚成本、绿色补贴和提高消费群体绿色环保意识促使企业实施绿色物流政策.     

Polyandrous females avoid costs of inbreeding.

Why do females typically mate with more than one male? Female mating patterns have broad implications for sexual selection, speciation and conflicts of interest between the sexes, and yet they are poorly understood. Matings inevitably have costs, and for females, the benefits of taking more than one mate are rarely obvious. One possible explanation is that females gain benefits because they can avoid using sperm from genetically incompatible males, or invest less in the offspring of such males. It has been shown that mating with more than one male can increase offspring viability, but we present the first clear demonstration that this occurs because females with several mates avoid the negative effects of genetic incompatibility. We show that in crickets, the eggs of females that mate only with siblings have decreased hatching success. However, if females mate with both a sibling and a non-sibling they avoid altogether the low egg viability associated with sibling matings. If similar effects occur in other species, inbreeding avoidance may be important in understanding the prevalence of multiple mating.     

Noninvasive genetic assessment of the population trend and sex ratio of the Shennongjia population of Sichuan snub-nosed monkeys （Rhinopithecus roxellana）

Effective population management relies on assessments of population size and sex ratio.However,these estimates are difficult to obtain for elusive and rare species.Recently,noninvasive genetic census methods have been developed as an alternative to tradi-tional capture-mark-recapture methods.In this study,we estimated the size of the Sichuan snub-nosed monkey(Rhinopithecus roxellana) population in the Shennongjia Nature Reserve(SNR) using a noninvasive sampling method based on 16 microsatellite loci.We also used a PCR-based genetic method to sex the sampled individuals and infer the population sex ratio.The population size of R.roxellana in the SNR was estimated to be 1044 individuals(95% CITIRM:613-1409) .The estimated population sex ratio is more female-biased than expected,which we attribute to the sampling biased towards one male units and limited sampling of bachelor male units.Moreover,there is no suggestion that the heavy traffic road through the reserve might block movement of monkeys.The results of this study indicate genetic assessments based on a noninvasive sampling method can provide useful in-formation regarding populations of elusive primates.     

Parents suppress reproduction and stimulate dispersal in opposite-sex juvenile white-footed mice.

Juvenile dispersal is sex-biased in many mammals and birds: one sex often disperses more often or farther than the other. Two hypotheses are generally presented for sex-biased dispersal. The first holds that juvenile dispersal reduces reproductive and/or resource competition between parents and same-sexed offspring. If so, presence of a parent on the natal home range should both promote dispersal of same-sex offspring and suppress reproduction of those that remain. The second is that juvenile dispersal reduces matings between parents and offspring, thus decreasing the likelihood of inbreeding depression. If so, presence of a parent should favour dispersal and reproductive suppression of offspring of the opposite sex. Here I present evidence that juvenile dispersal in white-footed mice, Peromyscus leucopus, is due to inbreeding avoidance. When population density was high, experimental removal of one parent delayed dispersal of opposite-sexed offspring and only the presence of the parents of opposite sex suppressed juvenile reproduction.     

Adaptive variation in environmental and genetic sex determination in a fish

Two general mechanisms of sex determination have been identified among gonochoristic vertebrates: environmental sex determination where offspring become male or female in response to an environmental factor(s) during development (for example, some fishes and reptiles); and genetic sex determination where sex is determined by genotype at conception (as in birds and mammals). How do these sex-determining systems evolve? Direct evidence is virtually non-existent because the sex-determining systems of most species appear to have little genetic variation. Here we provide the first evidence of adaptive variation in environmental and genetic sex determination within a species. We show that in a fish with temperature-dependent sex determination, populations at different latitudes compensate for differences in thermal environment and seasonality by adjusting the response of sex ratio to temperature, and by altering the level of environmental as opposed to genetic control. The adjustments observed are precisely those predicted by adaptive sex ratio theory.     

True paternal care in a multi-male primate society

Although male parental care is rare among mammals, adult males of many cercopithecine primate species provide care for infants and juveniles. This care is often in the form of grooming, carrying, support in agonistic interactions, and protection against infanticide. For these behaviours to be interpreted as true parental care, males must selectively direct care towards their own offspring and this care must result in fitness benefits. With the exception of males defending probable offspring from infanticide, male primates living in multi-male, multi-female social groups have not been shown to selectively direct care towards their own offspring. We determined paternity for 75 juveniles in a population of wild savannah baboons (Papio cynocephalus) and collected data on interventions in agonistic disputes by adult males on behalf of juveniles as a form of male care. Here we show that adult males differentiate their offspring from unrelated juveniles and selectively support their offspring in agonistic disputes. As support in agonistic disputes is likely to contribute to rank acquisition and protect juveniles from injury and stress, this can be considered true parental care.     

船体结构检测及维修规划的成本-效益评估

建立了基于风险的船体结构腐蚀优化检测及维修规划的成本-效益分析模型．最优的检测及维修策略是在保证结构在设计工作寿命期内的可靠指标大于最低可靠指标的基础上,使得结构生命周期内总的费效比最大．在此基础上,以受腐蚀损伤的船体构件为例,对其检测及维修策略进行了成本-效益评估,并进行了敏感性分析．结果表明,基于风险的成本-效益分析方法可以将检测及维修规划的经济性和可靠性有效地结合起来,能够在风险与成本之间达到一种平衡,它在优化检测及确定维修策略时是有效的．     

洗涤剂对果蝇生长发育和生殖的影响

为研究洗涤剂对果蝇生长发育和生殖的影响.本实验取亲本置于不同浓度受试物的培养基中,培养得到F1代;随机取2对F1代处女蝇作为F2代亲本,于各相应浓度的培养基中培养.记录F2代的生长发育状况,获得了每管果蝇中幼虫、蛹及成虫首次出现的时间,并统计各浓度梯度下每管果蝇每天羽化的数目.结果表明:经洗涤剂处理后,果蝇后代的数量随着洗涤剂浓度的升高而减少,果蝇后代的羽化速度随着洗涤剂浓度的升高而降低,果蝇的发育也随洗涤剂浓度的升高而减慢.     

Complex social behaviour derived from maternal reproductive traits

A fundamental goal of sociobiology is to explain how complex social behaviour evolves, especially in social insects, the exemplars of social living. Although still the subject of much controversy, recent theoretical explanations have focused on the evolutionary origins of worker behaviour (assistance from daughters that remain in the nest and help their mother to reproduce) through expression of maternal care behaviour towards siblings. A key prediction of this evolutionary model is that traits involved in maternal care have been co-opted through heterochronous expression of maternal genes to result in sib-care, the hallmark of highly evolved social life in insects. A coupling of maternal behaviour to reproductive status evolved in solitary insects, and was a ready substrate for the evolution of worker-containing societies. Here we show that division of foraging labour among worker honey bees (Apis mellifera) is linked to the reproductive status of facultatively sterile females. We thereby identify the evolutionary origin of a widely expressed social-insect behavioural syndrome, and provide a direct demonstration of how variation in maternal reproductive traits gives rise to complex social behaviour in non-reproductive helpers.     

中学生家长性知识、性观念与性态度调查研究

了解中学生家长的性知识、性观念和性态度,为发挥家庭在性教育中的重要作用提供依据。采用多阶段整群随机抽样的方法对709名家长进行了匿名自填式问卷调查。结果表明大部分中学生家长具备性生理及性传播疾病知识,但缺乏性心理知识和指导孩子处理性欲望和避免性侵害方面的知识;大部分中学生家长在性观念方面呈现保守、传统与开放、务实的矛盾...     

含储能系统及风电的电力系统动态经济调度

风电的随机性和波动性给传统的调度带来困难,为此在模型中引入储能系统,分析了储能系统对含风电的电力系统经济调度的影响,尤其是对系统调峰的影响。将含风电和储能系统的经济调度描述为一个非线性优化问题,建立了一个风电场与储能系统相配合的清洁经济调度模型,其目标函数在传统火电机组运行费用的基础上兼顾了火电的排污成本,寻求经济和环保总成本的最优解,采用粒子群算法对该模型进行求解。通过6机系统算例分析,表明该模型能够有效地控制储能系统的出力;储能系统的引入可明显降低系统的运行费用,尤其是火电机组调峰的费用,且提高了风能利用率。     

生态卫生系统在中国北方城镇的费用效益分析:案例研究

生态卫生系统通过污染源的分类收集处理,再进行循环利用,其系统构成具有可持续性。生态卫生系统的经济效益是该系统推广应用的前提条件,该文针对中国内蒙古鄂尔多斯郝兆奎生态小区生态卫生系统,对大量实际数据进行测算,采用费用-效益方法进行分析,同时与同等规模的传统卫生系统进行经济性比较。结果表明,在中国规定社会折现率为8%时,郝兆奎生态小区生态卫生系统经济上可行,同时生态卫生系统的经济性优于传统卫生系统。因此,从经济角度分析看,生态卫生系统在中国北方城市具有可行性。     

风险投资并购退出行为的演化博弈分析

运用演化博弈理论,建立了基于谈判破裂风险条件下外部投资者与风险投资家之间并购退出行为的演化博弈模型,对影响双方并购退出定价的主要因素和采取的策略进行了演化博弈分析,结果表明:外部投资者采取策略的稳定性由风险投资家认为谈判破裂的可能性决定,而风险投资家的策略稳定性主要受外部投资者认为谈判破裂的可能性、双方的出价及风险企业的真实价值共同决定.