微纳流体样品片上分离技术

基于微流控技术的细胞或颗粒分离是样品前处理中的一个重要步骤,近些年在生物和化学分析中引起了极大关注,随着微纳米加工技术的发展,分离技术在片上实验室系统的微环境应用中得到快速发展.基于微流体细胞或颗粒的分选技术具有很多优点,包括减少了样品量、加速了样品处理速度、高灵敏度、高空间分辨率、成本低以及便携性等.本文介绍了当前最先进的基于连续微流体细胞或颗粒分选技术,从被动式与主动式分离两方面的典型实例详细阐述了各种分选原理及其在细胞或微颗粒分选中的应用,讨论了这些技术的主要指标,如分选标记、分辨率、效率以及处理量,同时讨论了各类在微流体下的微分离方法存在的缺点.微尺度下高效的微分离技术在实现片上实验室、现场微分析设备和家庭诊断中将会起着越来越重要的作用,引起了众多学者们的研究兴趣,能够促进微分离与检测和信号读取等集成于一体,形成一个便携式的诊疗设备.     

Orb‐web spiders (Araneae: Araneomorphae; Orbiculariae) captured by hunting‐wasps (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae) in an area of Atlantic Forest in south‐eastern Brazil

Members of two hunting‐wasp families, Pompilidae and Sphecidae, are among the major predators of orb‐web spiders. In this study, we collected paralysed spiders from natural nests and trap‐nests provisioned by sphecids in an area of Brazilian Atlantic Forest, and compared these data with the composition of species collected by visual searching during one year. Prey preferences were analysed based on the relative abundance of spider species, their size and web characteristics. We also compiled a list of orb‐weavers captured by four sphecid genera reported in 40 other studies. A large number of prey was obtained from natural nests of Trypoxylon (Trypargilum) albonigrum in Parque Estadual Intervales, especially species of Eustala, Parawixia, and Araneus (Araneidae). Other prey, stored in trap‐nests by T. lactitarse and unidentified hunting‐wasp species, included Nephila (Tetragnathidae), Parawixia, Ocrepeira, Mecynogea, Acacesia (Araneidae), and other spider species that were less abundant. All the species that were heavily preyed upon had a relatively lower abundance in our samples of prey availability. The range of body sizes of spiders captured by Trypoxylon in our study area include the size of some abundant orb‐weavers always absent in their nests. These results indicate that factors other than abundance in the field and the spider's size influence prey selection or susceptibility to attack.     

Three new species of free‐living marine nematodes from the Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea,China

Three new species of marine nematodes belonging to the genera Paranticoma (family Anticomidae) and Parodontophora (family Axonolaimidae) are described from the Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea. Paranticoma tricerviseta sp. nov. is similar to P. bandaenseMicoletzky and Kreis, in the spicules, but can be distinguished by the presence of a ventral projection on the spicules, three regularly arranged cervical setae in both the male and female, and two distinct ventral setae behind the anus. Parodontophora deltensis sp. nov. is close to P. paragranulifera (Timm, ) in the length of the amphids, with the ventral arm of the amphid extending past the base of the stoma, but can be separated by the ratio of dorsal arm length to ventral arm (0.36–0.55 versus 0.20–0.25) and the position of the excretory pore (at the middle level versus top level of the stoma), distinctive cervical setae arrangement and a longer renette cell. Parodontophora wuleidaowanensis sp. nov. is close to P. danker Belogurov and Kartavtseva, in the form of the amphids, but can be distinguished by the longer length of the ventral arm of the amphids and the distinctive arrangement of cervical setae.     

Radiolarians from the British North‐Polar Expedition (1875–1876): re‐examination of the H. B. Brady (1878) collection

The earliest report on radiolarians from the Arctic Ocean (north of the Arctic Circle) was provided by H. B. Brady (1878 Brady, H. B. 1878. On the reticularian and radiolarian Rhizopoda (Foraminifera and Polycystina) of the North‐Polar Expedition of 1875–76.. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Series 5, 1: 425–440. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]). He documented the occurrences of 10 genera from soundings in northern Baffin Bay and north of Greenland, but he did not illustrate any specimens in his report. We have re‐examined Brady's original slide collection, housed at the Natural History Museum, London (NHM), in order to refine his radiolarian identifications to species level. We have identified 11 radiolarian taxa in his slides, but some are definitely more characteristic of tropical oceans rather than high northern latitudes. We conclude that this is most likely due to sample contamination or misidentification of samples. Therefore, the actual occurrence of tropically affiliated radiolarians recorded from the Arctic is uncertain and should be regarded with suspicion.     

Microhabitat use and feeding habits of Crossodactylus bokermanni Caramaschi and Sazima, 1985 (Anura,Hylodidae) at a site in south‐eastern Brazil

We studied a population of Crossodactylus bokermanni in a stream at the Reserva Particular do Patrimônio Natural, Santuário do Caraça, south‐eastern Brazil, with respect to microhabitat use and diet. We characterized microhabitats based on substrate, distance to water and exposure level of the occupying individual (exposed or sheltered), and adjacent aquatic microhabitats (evaluated as potential nesting sites based on observed nests), according to water current (absent, slow or fast), substrate and depth. Calling males, silent males, ovigerous females, non‐ovigerous females and juveniles showed spatial niche overlap higher than that expected by chance, with calling males showing the strongest preference for microhabitats close to potential nesting sites (with intermediate depths, fast current and sandy bottom). Only 14 males out of 48 individuals examined for stomach contents had prey in their stomachs. The food items with the highest electivity values were Coleoptera and Diptera, but preys with both high and low mobility were exploited.     

Do Long‐Run Theory Restrictions Help in Forecasting?

Do long‐run equilibrium relations suggested by economic theory help to improve the forecasting performance of a cointegrated vector error correction model (VECM)? In this paper we try to answer this question in the context of a two‐country model developed for the Canadian and US economies. We compare the forecasting performance of the exactly identified cointegrated VECMs to the performance of the over‐identified VECMs with the long‐run theory restrictions imposed. We allow for model uncertainty and conduct this comparison for every possible combination of the cointegration ranks of the Canadian and US models. We show that the over‐identified structural cointegrated models generally outperform the exactly identified models in forecasting Canadian macroeconomic variables. We also show that the pooled forecasts generated from the over‐identified models beat most of the individual exactly identified and over‐identified models as well as the VARs in levels and in differences. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Price–Dividend Ratios and Stock Price Predictability

A long‐standing puzzle to financial economists is the difficulty of outperforming the benchmark random walk model in out‐of‐sample contests. Using data from the USA over the period of 1872–2007, this paper re‐examines the out‐of‐sample predictability of real stock prices based on price–dividend (PD) ratios. The current research focuses on the significance of the time‐varying mean and nonlinear dynamics of PD ratios in the empirical analysis. Empirical results support the proposed nonlinear model of the PD ratio and the stationarity of the trend‐adjusted PD ratio. Furthermore, this paper rejects the non‐predictability hypothesis of stock prices statistically based on in‐ and out‐of‐sample tests and economically based on the criteria of expected real return per unit of risk. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exploring Survey‐Based Inflation Forecasts

This paper first shows that survey‐based expectations (SBE) outperform standard time series models in US quarterly inflation out‐of‐sample prediction and that the term structure of survey‐based inflation forecasts has predictive power over the path of future inflation changes. It then proposes some empirical explanations for the forecasting success of survey‐based inflation expectations. We show that SBE pool a large amount of heterogeneous information on inflation expectations and react more flexibly and accurately to macro conditions both contemporaneously and dynamically. We illustrate the flexibility of SBE forecasts in the context of the 2008 financial crisis. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.