选种标准中信息性状确定方法的研究

本文介绍了一套新的一选种标准中信息性状的理论和方法,并提出了计算性状信息蜈的实用公式,同时指出了影响性状信息量的主要因素,提出了确定性状信息量的原则。本文提出的确定信息太的理论和方法是客观,避免了专家评受主观因素缺点。     

Habitat evaluation for outbreak of Yangtze voles (Microtus fortis) and management implications

Rodent pests severely damage agricultural crops. Outbreak risk models of rodent pests often do not include sufficient information regarding geographic variation. Habitat plays an important role in rodent–pest outbreak risk, and more information about the relationship between habitat and crop protection is urgently needed. The goal of the present study was to provide an outbreak risk map for the Dongting Lake region and to understand the relationship between rodent–pest outbreak variation and habitat distribution. The main rodent pests in the Dongting Lake region are Yangtze voles (Microtus fortis). These pests cause massive damage in outbreak years, most notably in 2007. Habitat evaluation and ecological details were obtained by analyzing the correlation between habitat suitability and outbreak risk, as indicated by population density and historical events. For the source‐sink population, 96.18% of Yangtze vole disaster regions were covered by a 10‐km buffer zone of suitable habitat in 2007. Historical outbreak frequency and peak population density were significantly correlated with the proportion of land covered by suitable habitat (r = 0.68, P = 0.04 and r = 0.76, P = 0.03, respectively). The Yangtze vole population tends to migrate approximately 10 km in outbreak years. Here, we propose a practical method for habitat evaluation that can be used to create integrated pest management plans for rodent pests when combined with basic information on the biology, ecology and behavior of the target species.     

Practical Challenges in Private Stewardship of Rangeland Ecosystems: Yellow Starthistle Control in Sierra Nevadan Foothills

Private landowners are often de facto stewards of biodiversity and ecosystem services. In California's Sierra Nevada foothills, ranchers frequently present the only defense against biological invasions in private rangelands. Although ranchers' land management goals (e.g., the desire to control invasive species) can be consistent with ecosystem protection, practical constraints often limit their success. Considerable research on the invasive weed, yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis L.), has produced numerous control strategies. Nevertheless, the range of this noxious weed continues to increase. We used surveys and interviews to document the weed control efforts of 202 ranchers and to identify practical limitations to their efficacy. Overall, 86% of ranchers who had experienced yellow starthistle infestation had attempted control, using one or more of 19 methods. Early response reduced negative effects from yellow starthistle. Control methods learned from agricultural advisors were reported more effective than those learned elsewhere. Limitations to yellow starthistle control in our study population resulted from incomplete information regarding control methods, complexity of weed control in heterogeneous landscapes, inconsistent application of methods, and lack of long-term planning for weed control. Such hindrances make it difficult for landowners to implement control methods promoted by researchers. This gap between science and practice contributes to the continued increase of yellow starthistle within the study region. To shrink this gap, researchers and agricultural advisors can incorporate environmental heterogeneity into applied agricultural research, use land stewards' knowledge and experience, and increase public education.     

Development of veld management research in the karoo region

The development of veld research in the semi‐arid Karoo areas since 1934 is outlined. It entailed key experiments on different types of veld, and the synthesis of grazing systems and their testing in experimental camps and co‐operatively on a practical farming scale. The experiments were primarily conducted with Merino sheep but Angora goats, Boer goats, cattle and Persian sheep were also employed. A large number of rotational grazing systems, special treatments and methods have been set out for the entire Karoo Region. The group camp approach serves as a basis for complete veld management planning in the Karoo Region.

Supporting research covered plant physiological, phenological and ecological studies; the determination of selective grazing habits of livestock; production of karoo bushes; and the development of research techniques especially in connection with quantitative and qualitative vegetation surveys.     

Tekortkominge van die naasteplant‐metode en Dyksterhuis‐verwante klassifikasiesisteme om veldtoestand in semi‐ariede gebiede te bepaal 1

Shortcomings of the nearest plant methods and Dyksterhuis‐related classification systems for assessing veld condition in the semi‐arid regions. Veld condition was determined on seven farms in the Mopane veld, during two seasons using the nearest plant method and a Dyksterhuis‐related classification system. During wet periods, Increasers 2c increased faster than Increasers 2b, 2a and Decreasers and this resulted in lower veld condition scores during wet periods. The limitations of this method are discussed in the light of other driving forces.     

Chinese poultry farmers' decision‐making for avian influenza prevention: a qualitative analysis

Poultry farmers faced dual risk when mutant avian influenza (AI) virus showed the zoonotic characteristics. A/H5N1 and A/H7N9 were two dominant AI virus strains that have captured the attention of the public over the years for they have been reported to bring about greater loss to poultry and human, respectively. Previous studies mainly used quantitative methods investigating either the means that poultry farmers adopted for protecting their poultry against A/H5N1 infection or the poultry farmers' self‐protective behaviours against A/H7N9 infection. We sought insights into the underlying factors influencing Chinese poultry farmers' protective behaviours in response to the dual risk of AI by a qualitative way. Semi‐structured in‐depth interviews were conducted with 25 Chinese chicken farmers recruited by purposive sampling between November 2016 and May 2017, the peak season of AI. All interviews were audio‐taped, transcribed and analysed using a grounded theory approach. From participants' experiences, we revealed five main themes: Measures adopted for protecting poultry and farmers, Emotional response to the AI epidemic, Perceived risk of AI, Perceived effectiveness of the preventive measures adopted and Perceived self‐efficacy to take preventive measures. The information of AI outbreak directly triggered Chinese chicken farmers' emotional response and thereafter preventive actions. Compared to the perceived risk of poultry infection with A/H5N1 which mainly connected to economic loss, participants perceived much lower risk of human infection with A/H7N9. AI epidemic information played a key role triggering poultry farmers' response behaviours. Chinese poultry farmers weighted more attention on the risk of poultry infection which was highly associated with economic losses. The government should build and improve an early AI warning and information transmission network to poultry farmers. Further reinforcement of related self‐protective and preventive knowledge training towards poultry farmers is necessary.     

Biology of the prolactin family in bovine placenta. II. Bovine prolactin-related proteins: Their expression, structure and proposed roles

The placenta produces various peptides and steroid hormones that regulate placental function and fetal growth. Prolactin‐related proteins are peptides that are produced by the placenta and belong to the growth hormone/prolactin family, and have structural similarity to prolactin and placental lactogen. Although several prolactin‐related protein genes have been detected in bovine placenta, their expression profiles and functions are not clear. The main difficulties in examining their biological function is the similarity between their genes and the lack of information about their proteins. Recently, molecular biology methods have been used to detect some new bovine prolactin‐related proteins, and elucidate their biological functions. This review focuses on the structures, expression profiles and conceivable functions of prolactin‐related proteins in bovine placenta. With respect to their expression profiles, bovine prolactin‐related proteins fall into four groups: (i) those expressed around the implantation period; (ii) those that reach peak expression in the middle of gestation; (iii) those that increase with the progress of gestation, reaching a peak in late gestation; and (iv) those that reach a plateau in early gestation and are maintained at that level throughout gestation. Data indicate that bovine prolactin‐related proteins have different biological roles in different periods of gestation. In situ monitoring suggests that bovine prolactin‐related protein‐I has a role in the attachment of trophoblast cells to endometrium during the early implantation period.     

A numerical classification system for cleft lip and palate in the dog

An easy‐to‐use classification that enables an accurate record of canine cleft lip and palate is fundamental for effective communication between professionals and researchers and optimal use of published information. Here we present how a classification system for human cleft lip and palate can be used to register spontaneous cases in dogs, highlighting its advantages. This system is based on four topographic areas with a numerical representation of the severity of the cleft in each area. The use of spontaneous cases has the advantage of providing clefts that are naturally similar to their human counterparts for surgical, genetic and genomic studies and, furthermore, will reduce the need for experimental models of this condition.     

Roots of the taxonomic impediment: Is the “integrativeness” a remedy?

The use of the “integrative approach” for classification of organisms since its formal establishment in 2005 has become a recurrent theme of zoosystematics. A bibliometric survey of the publications on integrative taxonomy of animals, which is aimed at exploring the most popular areas of research and characterizing the practical systematists’ attitudes to this new approach, is presented. An analysis of 582 papers, which appeared between 2005 and 2017 in journals indexed by Scopus and the Web of Science Core Collection, has illustrated the gradual growth of the popularity of integrative taxonomy as well as some biases in the representation of higher taxa in “integrated” studies. It has been shown that the “integrative” papers have more chance of appearing in a top‐ranking journal and gain relatively more citations as compared with non‐integrative papers. The obtained results are discussed in the context of the “taxonomic impediment” problem thought to be a consequence of the institutional crisis of traditional taxonomy, which has been vividly debated over the past decades.     

从历届世界公园大会议题看国际保护地建设与发展趋势

将自1962年开始,每10年召开一次的世界公园大会各议题按八个分类单元归类后进行分析。结果显示每次会议主题的外延不断扩大;单次大会议题的总数量在逐渐增加;单科议题五次大会的总数量和近年变化上也显示出保护地目前与新的发展科学研究进展结合很紧密;议题在各分类单元间的分布越来越均匀;并且议题内容在各个不同学科领域内的深度也在加深。这些结果表明目前保护地的研究领域从总体上逐渐呈现出更加强调全球保护地网络合作、多学科涉入和与区域性政治、经济、社会发展相结合的特征;从具体的保护管理手段上也体现出以科研为基础的规划、社区共管、人员能力提高、监测与评估和参与为主要方式的管理特征。最后,对今后保护地发展的方向和领域进行了预测。     

“双创”背景下信息与计算科学专业应用型人才培养模式研究

近年来,信息与计算科学专业教育有了较快的发展。分析了在“双创”背景下高校信息与计算科学专业应用型人才培养存在人才培养目标定位不明确、教学方法和教学手段落后、师资队伍建设滞后等问题,探讨适合该专业人才培养的途径：深入开展应用型人才培养模式构建研究、加大力气推进教学方法与教学手段的改革、扎实做好应用型人才培养的支撑保障工作,以期提高信息与计算科学专业应用型人才培养质量,为培养适应社会需求的人才提供参考。     

提高羊草种子发芽率方法研究进展

总结了近年来国内外羊草种子休眠机理和提高发芽率方法的最新研究成果。提高羊草种子发芽率的方法可以概括为物理方法、化学方法和激素方法,其中变温与低温处理是目前提高羊草种子发芽率的有效途径与方法,具有生产实践意义,值得今后深入研究。为此,探讨了有关方面存在的主要问题,并对今后的研究方向提出了具体建议。     

基于多源遥感数据提高山地森林识别精度——以祁连山国家公园肃南县段为例

本研究旨在探索一种基于多源遥感数据的提高山地森林识别精度的方法。以祁连山国家公园肃南县段为实验区，结合ICESat/GLAS（geoscience laser altimeter system ）星载激光雷达数据、Landsat OLI影像、Google Earth高分辨率影像、DEM数据以及样地调查数据，综合利用各数据提供的垂直结构、光谱、季相和地形特征探索基于多源遥感数据的山地森林识别精度提升方法。结果表明：1）将经过地形校正后的GLAS数据提取的垂直结构信息与光谱信息结合能够提高山区复杂地形条件下森林范围识别的精度，相比仅依据光谱特征进行分类，依据光谱及垂直结构综合特征分类时其总体分类精度提高了10.67%。2）地形信息的加入能够尽量全面的考虑到不同地形特征上各森林类型的不同光谱特征，从而提升森林类型的识别精度，且就本研究区域而言，加入坡向信息比海拔信息更能够提高森林类型的分类精度。3）多源多时相遥感影像提供的季相特征能够对不同森林类型的分类提供帮助，而不同的波段组合对分类精度几乎没有影响。 研究对探索低成本、高时效、操作方便并具有一定精度保证的山地森林识别方法具有一定的借鉴意义。     

The Classification of Grassland Types Based on Object-Based Image Analysis with Multisource Data

The spatial distribution of different grassland types is important for effectively analyzing spatial patterns, obtaining key vegetation parameters using remote sensing (e.g., biomass, leaf area index, net primary production), and using and protecting grasslands. Existing classifications of grasslands by remote sensing are mostly divided according to the fractional vegetation cover or biomass, but classifications according to grassland types are scarce. In this study, we focused on the classification of different grassland types using remote sensing based on object-based image analysis (OBIA) with multitemporal images in combination with a 30-m digital elevation model (DEM) and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). The grasslands were located in Hulunber, Inner Mongolia, and an autonomous region of China. The support vector machine (SVM) and random forest (RF) machine learning classifiers were selected for the classification. The results revealed the following: 1) It is feasible to generally extract different grassland types on the basis of OBIA with multisource data; the overall classification accuracy and Kappa value exceeded 90% and 0.9, respectively, using the SVM and RF machine learning classifiers, and the classification accuracy of the different grassland types ranged from 61.64% to 98.71%; 2) Multitemporal images and auxiliary data (DEM and NDVI) improved the separability of different grassland types. The information in the growing season was conducive for distinguishing temperate meadow steppe from temperate steppe and was favorable for extracting lowland meadow and swamp in the nongrowing season. The DEM and NDVI also effectively reduced the number of image segmentation objects and improved the segmentation effects; 3) Spectral and textural features were more important than geometric features in this study. A few main variables played a major role in the classification, while a large number of variables had either no significant effect or a negative effect on the classification results when the optimal feature subset was determined. This study provides a scientific basis and reference for the classification of various grassland types by remote sensing, including the data selection, image segmentation, feature selection, classifier selection, and parameter settings.     

The role of cultivated pastures in milk production in South Africa

A brief survey of existing methods of milk production in the Republic of South Africa is made, together with an appreciation of the role and importance of established pastures in relation to these. The cost of milk is discussed in relation to two roughage plans; the one being based on ordinarily accepted methods of roughage provision, and the other on roughage produced under intensive methods of grass farming where a high fertilizer regime is employed. High‐producing cows are more economic than low‐producing cows. So too, is a high‐level pasture fertilizing regime, except where cows have a very low inherent production.     

Implementation issues for Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods in random regression test-day models

Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods made possible estimation of parameters for complex random regression test‐day models. Models evolved from single‐trait with one set of random regressions to multiple‐trait applications with several random effects described by regressions. Gibbs sampling has been used for models with linear (with respect to coefficients) regressions and normality assumptions for random effects. Difficulties associated with implementations of Markov Chain Monte Carlo schemes include lack of good practical methods to assess convergence, slow mixing caused by high posterior correlations of parameters and long running time to generate enough posterior samples. Those problems are illustrated through comparison of Gibbs sampling schemes for single‐trait random regression test‐day models with different model parameterizations, different functions used for regressions and posterior chains of different sizes. Orthogonal polynomials showed better convergence and mixing properties in comparison with ‘lactation curve’ functions of the same number of parameters. Increasing the order of polynomials resulted in smaller number of independent samples for covariance components. Gibbs sampling under hierarchical model parameterization had a lower level of autocorrelation and required less time for computation. Posterior means and standard deviations of genetic parameters were very similar for chains of different size (from 20 000 to 1 000 000) after convergence. Single‐trait random regression models with large data sets can be analysed by Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods in relatively short time. Multiple‐trait (lactation) models are computationally more demanding and better algorithms are required.     

分类、聚类与草原类型

本文阐明分类与聚类在草原分类中同等重要。据此建立的草原综合顺序分类系统(IOCSG)应遵循6项原则,即草原分类要素的完整性原则、草原分类体系内涵的综合性原则、草原分类指标的相对稳定性原则、草原分类同级指标的可比性原则、草原分类特征指标的确限性原则和草原分类体系普适的周延性原则。该分类系统含有类(以地带性水热特征为指标)、亚类(以土地特征为指标)和型(以植被特征为指标)3个基本级别;7个热量级和6个湿润度级。依据本分类系统全球天然草原分为42类,中国有41类。本分类系统在生物种适宜度计算、全球变化对草原类型演替方向的预测、草坪引种等方面进行了论证。该文阐明了草原类型学对草业科学的基础理论意义和实践意义。     

Social vocalizations of big‐footed myotis (Myotis macrodactylus) during foraging

Acoustic signals play a crucial role in transmitting information and maintaining social stability in gregarious animals, especially in echolocating bats, which rely primarily on biological sonar for navigating in the dark. In the context of foraging without relying on tactile, visual or olfactory cues, acoustic signals convey information not only on food but also on ownership and defense of resources. However, studies on such information remain fragmentary. In the present study, we aim to document the social vocal repertoire of Myotis macrodactylus at natural foraging sites. Multiple acoustic analyses and spectrographic classification revealed a rich foraging vocal repertoire comprising 6 simple syllables and 2 composites. Discriminant function analyses associated with a subset‐validation procedure provided an optimal method to spectrographically classify all recorded sounds into different syllable types. Multidimensional scaling of median values of multiple parameters further confirmed notable differences among these syllables in a 3‐D space. In addition, Euclidean distance analysis showed that there were some spectral similarities between specific social vocal syllables and feeding buzzes, which implied a potential jamming role. Altogether, the data indicate that bats at foraging sites under natural conditions used variant social vocalizations with different functions in addition to echolocation calls, providing supporting evidence for further work on the function and vocal mechanisms of acoustic communication in mammals.     

The Prediction of Parturition Date in Canine Pregnancy

In bitches, the length of gestation is highly variable when measured from the day of mating, thus prediction of parturition may be greatly inaccurate when determined from this point. The ability to precisely predict the duration of pregnancy is of practical importance for managing parturition or planning caesarean section and this review analyses the methods that can be used to accurately forecast the day of parturition. At the time of breeding, determination of the luteinizing hormone surge and the initial rise in progesterone provide reliable information on gestational length of the bitch, but when pregnancy is ascertained, ultrasonography is the most useful tool to predict the delivery day. In fact, by ultrasonographic measurements of the extra-foetal and foetal structures an accurate prediction can be made both in early and late pregnancy.