Do animal personalities emerge?

The evolution of animal personalities is a topic of primary importance in behavioural ecology. An intriguing empirical fact is the consistency of animal responses to repeated stresses or threats. Wolf et al. propose an evolutionary model to explain the emergence of consistent personalities. They show that a population dimorphism for an exploration trait implies the existence of behavioural syndromes, such as decreased aggressiveness and the boldness of 'thorough explorers'. This finding helps explain how animal responses can be consistent, despite the seeming advantages of flexible responses. However, we contend that the emergence of a dimorphism depends critically on the intensity of the trade-off between exploration investment and first-year fecundity.     

Do lamprophyric magma carry gold ?

By taking lamprophyres in the Laowangzhai gold orefield, Yunnan Province, as starting materials, the melting experiments of lamprophyre + gold have been conducted under 1.5 and 3.0 GPa in a DS-29A cubic-type 3 600 t ultrahigh-pressure apparatus. The experimental results showed that gold powder (less than 0.045 mm) which even contributed in the samples before experiment assembled to be gold balls and precipitated to the bottom of the experimental products, gold in the lamprophyric glass is few, and sulfur in lamprophyric magma is favourable for gold assembling balls and depositing. According to the above, it is suggested that the possibility of lamprophyric magma to carry massive gold is little.     

Do female hyaenas choose mates based on tenure?

In their investigation into whether female mate-choice drives male dispersal, H?ner et al. argue that female spotted hyaenas (Crocuta crocuta) prefer mates whose tenure in the social group is less than the females' age, to avoid paternal incest, and suggest that male dispersal reflects this preference. However, we are not persuaded that females choose mates on the basis of tenure because H?ner et al. overlook the alternative hypothesis that dispersal status itself is important in female mate-choice, such that females prefer immigrants over natal males. Like mate-choice based on tenure, choice based on dispersal status reduces the risk of incest.     

Is there a close relationship between synonymous codon bias and codon-anticodon binding strength in human genes?

Synonymous codon bias has been examined in 78 human genes (19967 codons) and measured by relative synonymous codon usage (RSCU). Relative frequencies of all kinds of dinucleotides in 2,3 or 3,4 codon positions have been calculated, and codon-anticodon binding strength has been estimated by the stacking energies of codon-anticodon bases in Watson-Crick pairs. The data show common features in synonymous codon bias for all codon families in human genes: all C-ending codons, which possess the strongest codon-anticodon binding energies, are the most favored codons in almost all codon families, and those codons with medium codon-anticodon binding energies are avoided. Data analysis suggests that besides isochore and genome signature , codon-anticodon binding strength may be closely related to synonymous codon choice in human genes. The join-effect of these factors on human genes results in the common features in codon bias.     

Do plants explore habitats before exploiting them? An explicit test using two stoloniferous herbs

We tested whether the processes of exploration and exploitation can be explicitly distinguished as plants grow and develop within a habitat using two stoloniferous clonal herbs,Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides(Umbelliferae) and Potentilla anserina(Rosaceae).Ramets were planted in four circular trays differing in diameter.One replicate from each diameter-group was sampled at intervals corresponding to plant coverage of the trays,and plant biomass allocation to leaves,stolons,and roots and internode length were quantified.For both species,at early sampling times(when the smallest trays were full),total plant biomass and ramet number were larger in the smaller trays than in the larger trays.However,this trend was reversed for plants collected at later times.For H.sibthorpioides,leaf mass ratios(leaf mass to total plant mass) were significantly greater,but stolon mass ratios(stolon mass to total plant mass) were less in the small trays than in the larger ones,particularly during the early stages of the experiment.Similarly,for P.anserina,leaf mass ratios decreased in the smaller trays but increased in the larger ones as the experiment progressed.Root mass ratios showed contrasting pattern to leaf mass ratios for both species;stolon mass ratios were significantly smaller in the smaller trays than in the larger ones,although there were no obvious patterns during the course of the experiment.In addition,for both species,internode length was shorter but the number of ramets was greater in the smaller trays at early sampling times.We conclude that plants invest greater biomass in resource-exploring organs(stolons) than in resource-exploiting organs(leaves or roots) as they initially establish in a habitat.The relatively lower plant productivity in the largest trays at early sampling times presumably reflects the cost of exploration prior to resource exploitation and utilization.     

Do lamprophyric magma carry gold?——Evidence from high temperature and ultrahigh pressure experiments

By taking lamprophyres in the Laowangzhai gold orefield, Yunnan Province, as starting materials, the melting experiments of lamprophyre + gold have been conducted under 1.5 and 3.0 GPa in a DS-29A cubic-type 3 600 t ultrahigh-pressure apparatus. The experimental results showed that gold powder (less than 0.045 mm) which even contributed in the samples before experiment assembled to be gold balls and precipitated to the bottom of the experimental products, gold in the lamprophyric glass is few, and sulfur in lamprophyric magma is favourable for gold assembling balls and depositing. According to the above, it is suggested that the possibility of lamprophyric magma to carry massive gold is little.     

Do multiple cycles of aeolian deposit-pedogenesis exist in the reticulate red clay sections in southern China?

Since the Quaternary scientists successfully dis-closed the paleoclimatic significance of the loess-paleo- sol sequence in the Loess Plateau, Northwest China, the loess-paleosol sequence has become well-known terres-trial materials revealing the multiple cyclic changes of Quaternary climates. As a carrier of paleoenvironmental information, it could compare beauty with the deep ocean deposit[8]. In recent years, however, the researchers began to put their sights to southern China. They try t…