Rapid evolution drives ecological dynamics in a predator-prey system

Ecological and evolutionary dynamics can occur on similar timescales. However, theoretical predictions of how rapid evolution can affect ecological dynamics are inconclusive and often depend on untested model assumptions. Here we report that rapid prey evolution in response to oscillating predator density affects predator-prey (rotifer-algal) cycles in laboratory microcosms. Our experiments tested explicit predictions from a model for our system that allows prey evolution. We verified the predicted existence of an evolutionary tradeoff between algal competitive ability and defence against consumption, and examined its effects on cycle dynamics by manipulating the evolutionary potential of the prey population. Single-clone algal cultures (lacking genetic variability) produced short cycle periods and typical quarter-period phase lags between prey and predator densities, whereas multi-clonal (genetically variable) algal cultures produced long cycles with prey and predator densities nearly out of phase, exactly as predicted. These results confirm that prey evolution can substantially alter predator-prey dynamics, and therefore that attempts to understand population oscillations in nature cannot neglect potential effects from ongoing rapid evolution.     

Female mate-choice drives the evolution of male-biased dispersal in a social mammal

Dispersal has a significant impact on lifetime reproductive success, and is often more prevalent in one sex than the other. In group-living mammals, dispersal is normally male-biased and in theory this sexual bias could be a response by males to female mate preferences, competition for access to females or resources, or the result of males avoiding inbreeding. There is a lack of studies on social mammals that simultaneously assess these factors and measure the fitness consequences of male dispersal decisions. Here we show that male-biased dispersal in the spotted hyaena (Crocuta crocuta) most probably results from an adaptive response by males to simple female mate-choice rules that have evolved to avoid inbreeding. Microsatellite profiling revealed that females preferred sires that were born into or immigrated into the female's group after the female was born. Furthermore, young females preferred short-tenured sires and older females preferred longer-tenured sires. Males responded to these female mate preferences by initiating their reproductive careers in groups containing the highest number of young females. As a consequence, 11% of males started their reproductive career in their natal group and 89% of males dispersed. Males that started reproduction in groups containing the highest number of young females had a higher long-term reproductive success than males that did not. The female mate-choice rules ensured that females effectively avoided inbreeding without the need to discriminate directly against close kin or males born in their own group, or to favour immigrant males. The extent of male dispersal as a response to such female mate preferences depends on the demographic structure of breeding groups, rather than the genetic relatedness between females and males.     

Host-plant adaptation drives the parallel evolution of reproductive isolation

Parallel evolution of similar traits in independent populations that inhabit ecologically similar environments strongly implicates natural selection as the cause of evolution. Parallel speciation is a special form of parallel evolution where traits that determine reproductive isolation evolve repeatedly, in closely related populations, as by-products of adaptation to ecological conditions. The outcome of such parallel evolution is that ecologically divergent pairs of populations exhibit greater levels of reproductive isolation than ecologically similar pairs of populations of a similar or younger age. The parallel evolution of reproductive isolation provides strong evidence for natural selection in the process of speciation, but only one conclusive example from nature is known. Populations of the walking-stick insect Timema cristinae that use different host-plant species have diverged in body size and shape, host preference, behaviour and the relative frequency of two highly cryptic colour-pattern morphs. Here we report that divergent selection for host adaptation, and not genetic drift, has promoted the parallel evolution of sexual isolation in this species. Our findings represent a clear demonstration that host-plant adaptation can play a crucial and repeatable role in the early stages of speciation.     

Coevolution with viruses drives the evolution of bacterial mutation rates

Bacteria with greatly elevated mutation rates (mutators) are frequently found in natural and laboratory populations, and are often associated with clinical infections. Although mutators may increase adaptability to novel environmental conditions, they are also prone to the accumulation of deleterious mutations. The long-term maintenance of high bacterial mutation rates is therefore likely to be driven by rapidly changing selection pressures, in addition to the possible slow transition rate by point mutation from mutators to non-mutators. One of the most likely causes of rapidly changing selection pressures is antagonistic coevolution with parasites. Here we show whether coevolution with viral parasites could drive the evolution of bacterial mutation rates in laboratory populations of the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens. After fewer than 200 bacterial generations, 25% of the populations coevolving with phages had evolved 10- to 100-fold increases in mutation rates owing to mutations in mismatch-repair genes; no populations evolving in the absence of phages showed any significant change in mutation rate. Furthermore, mutator populations had a higher probability of driving their phage populations extinct, strongly suggesting that mutators have an advantage against phages in the coevolutionary arms race. Given their ubiquity, bacteriophages may play an important role in the evolution of bacterial mutation rates.     

Adaptive evolution drives divergence of a hybrid inviability gene between two species of Drosophila

Speciation--the splitting of one species into two--occurs by the evolution of any of several forms of reproductive isolation between taxa, including the intrinsic sterility and inviability of hybrids. Abundant evidence shows that these hybrid fitness problems are caused by incompatible interactions between loci: new alleles that become established in one species are sometimes functionally incompatible with alleles at interacting loci from another species. However, almost nothing is known about the genes involved in such hybrid incompatibilities or the evolutionary forces that drive their divergence. Here we identify a gene that causes epistatic inviability in hybrids between two fruitfly species, Drosophila melanogaster and D. simulans. Our population genetic analysis reveals that this gene--which encodes a nuclear pore protein--evolved by positive natural selection in both species' lineages. These results show that a lethal hybrid incompatibility has evolved as a by-product of adaptive protein evolution.     

势垒隧道贯穿系统与量子化光场相互作用的态布居演化

讨论了势垒隧道贯穿三态系统与量子化光场相互作用体系的态布居问题，结果表明：这种体系中态布居演变会呈现长时间的拍频特征，并有可能完全压缩势垒隧道贯穿现象，而且这种特征还与初始量子化光场的统计状态有关。     

鬼场暗能量密度的宇宙演化

用来解释宇宙加速膨胀的鬼场暗能量近期被提出.分别从暗能量密度与哈勃函数的正比和二次函数关系出发,求解Friedman方程,推导出无量纲能量密度和态方程参量随宇宙尺度因子演化的结果.计算表明:无量纲鬼场暗能量密度在后期趋向于1而态方程参量在后期趋向于-1,呈现出宇宙学常数的形式.     

煤岩体裂隙集度演化理论模型

为了描述煤岩体内裂隙演化对其宏观力学特性的影响,引入了裂隙集度参量,从热力学平衡方程出发,推导出裂隙集度演化方程;根据岩石试件单轴压缩的全程应力应变实验结果,给出了单轴压缩下的裂隙集度演化方程和考虑裂隙集度对煤岩体力学性质影响的非线性弹性裂隙演化本构方程;通过单轴压缩煤岩试样实验数据值与理论值对比,两者吻合度相当高,证明了理论分析及其理论模型的正确性。     

局部密度函数的支持向量机估计法

研究了用局部密度函数表示连续型随机变量的未确知信息问题，给出了估计局部密度函数的支持向量机算法．     

信噪局部方差自适应的小波阈值滤波

为了在去除高斯噪声的同时更有效地保持图像的边缘和细节,提出了信噪局部方差自适应的小波滤波方法.根据图像与高斯噪声的小波系数的分布特征,提出了一种信噪局部方差自适应的阈值.同时,鉴于无噪图像的小波系数具有平滑连贯性,提出一种连续的、可微的且无限逼近原小波系数的阈值函数.阈值依据信噪强度对信号系数与噪声系数进行区分,阈值函数依据阈值对小波系数进行量化处理,以去除噪声.实验结果表明,所提出的方法对图像去噪所得的PSNR(peak signal to noise ratio)和SSIM(structural similarity index)值以及图像的视觉效果,相对于现有的小波去噪方法有较大的提升,在彻底去除高斯噪声同时,更有效地保持图像的边缘和细节.     

核密度估计的局部积分方差的渐近表示

在非参数统计推断中，首选方法是核密度估计，但通常很难得到精确表达式。利用局部交叉生效方法，获得随机删失下核密度估计的局部积分方差的渐近表示，所得结果改进和推广了Watson，Leadbetter和Csorgo，Horvath等研究的相关结果。     

陕西长青保护区勺鸡种群密度、分布及繁殖

为了了解勺鸡的种群密度、分布及繁殖信息,采用了日常巡护监测数据资料、分布图、样带法、样方法、跟踪调查法.得到勺鸡平均密度为0.2171只/hm2,由此推算勺鸡种群数量为1303只.勺鸡繁殖期选择产卵地点的因子是:巢址海拔区间1430～2220m;在林缘附近,坡度适中,坡向南或者东南、下坡位,巢向向阳;视野开阔、离水源近;有巢材,卵白色、卵数4枚;巢为地面巢,能遮风避雨;巢周围有栖材、沙浴场.勺鸡巢穴处的植被因子乔木、灌木、草本差异不明显,都有一定数量的乔灌草.未发现在乱石堆和无植被覆盖的地方有巢穴.     

驻波能量及能流密度局部振荡理论探析

以截面积为S密度ρ为的棒中沿相反方向传播的简谐横波叠加成的驻波为例,论证了驻波能量分布曲线和能流密度曲线都与驻波曲线相似.若将相邻波腹和波节间的各质元称为一段,分析表明,只有同一段中有能量转换和转移,且在半个周期内的能流密度等于零.这说明驻波中无单一方向的能流.     

Ecology drives a global network of gene exchange connecting the human microbiome

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT), the acquisition of genetic material from non-parental lineages, is known to be important in bacterial evolution. In particular, HGT provides rapid access to genetic innovations, allowing traits such as virulence, antibiotic resistance and xenobiotic metabolism to spread through the human microbiome. Recent anecdotal studies providing snapshots of active gene flow on the human body have highlighted the need to determine the frequency of such recent transfers and the forces that govern these events. Here we report the discovery and characterization of a vast, human-associated network of gene exchange, large enough to directly compare the principal forces shaping HGT. We show that this network of 10,770 unique, recently transferred (more than 99% nucleotide identity) genes found in 2,235 full bacterial genomes, is shaped principally by ecology rather than geography or phylogeny, with most gene exchange occurring between isolates from ecologically similar, but geographically separated, environments. For example, we observe 25-fold more HGT between human-associated bacteria than among ecologically diverse non-human isolates (P = 3.0 × 10(-270)). We show that within the human microbiome this ecological architecture continues across multiple spatial scales, functional classes and ecological niches with transfer further enriched among bacteria that inhabit the same body site, have the same oxygen tolerance or have the same ability to cause disease. This structure offers a window into the molecular traits that define ecological niches, insight that we use to uncover sources of antibiotic resistance and identify genes associated with the pathology of meningitis and other diseases.     

Uptake of apoptotic cells drives the growth of a pathogenic trypanosome in macrophages

After apoptosis, phagocytes prevent inflammation and tissue damage by the uptake and removal of dead cells. In addition, apoptotic cells evoke an anti-inflammatory response through macrophages. We have previously shown that there is intense lymphocyte apoptosis in an experimental model of Chagas' disease, a debilitating cardiac illness caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi. Here we show that the interaction of apoptotic, but not necrotic T lymphocytes with macrophages infected with T. cruzi fuels parasite growth in a manner dependent on prostaglandins, transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) and polyamine biosynthesis. We show that the vitronectin receptor is critical, in both apoptotic-cell cytoadherence and the induction of prostaglandin E2/TGF-beta release and ornithine decarboxylase activity in macrophages. A single injection of apoptotic cells in infected mice increases parasitaemia, whereas treatment with cyclooxygenase inhibitors almost completely ablates it in vivo. These results suggest that continual lymphocyte apoptosis and phagocytosis of apoptotic cells by macrophages have a role in parasite persistence in the host, and that cyclooxygenase inhibitors have potential therapeutic application in the control of parasite replication and spread in Chagas' disease.     

基于局部密度聚类的雷达目标散射中心区域分割

散射中心是描述雷达目标高频散射机理的重要特征,准确提取雷达目标散射中心参数对解析雷达目标有着极其重要的研究意义。为了提高散射中心参数计算速度,通常将整幅SAR图分解为多个包含散射中心的小区域,对每个小区域分别进行特征提取和参数计算。根据雷达目标散射中心的特点,本文提出了一种基于局部密度聚类的雷达目标散射中心区域分割技术。首先,首先对雷达图像进行Frost滤波、LSM图像分割和面积滤波的一系列图像预处理获得目标ROI区域,然后对预处理后的图像利用局部密度聚类算法检测散射中心并进行区域分割。实验中,采用模拟数据和真实数据对本文方法和传统图像分割算法展开数值实验,实验结果验证了本文方法在雷达目标散射中心区域分割的有效性和优越性。     

乳酸阈和通气阈的研究进展

综述了乳酸阈和通气阀的研究进展，介绍了两产生的机制和应用。