Wild rabbit restocking for predator conservation in Spain     

Sacramento Moreno  Rafael Villafuerte  Ludgarda Lombardi 《Biological conservation》2004,118(2):183-193

The decline of rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) populations in Mediterranean Spain has been shown to be one of the main threats to rabbit-specialist predators such as the Iberian lynx (Lynx pardina) and the Spanish imperial eagle (Aquila adalberti), two species which are in serious danger of extinction. Consequently, corrective measures such as increasing rabbit populations by restocking have been carried out to help the recovery of predator populations. In order to determine the general applicability of rabbit restocking for predator conservation, we performed three experimental restockings and evaluated their success in relation to season, habitat quality and the number of animals introduced. Rabbits were released either in large or small numbers in all four seasons of the year, and in habitat types defined as `poor' or `rich' according to the food availability for rabbits. For each restocking we evaluated rabbit survival, degree of residency and expected population increase. As a rule, the highest restocking success occurred whenever smaller number of rabbits were released in the richest quality habitat. Restocking during the breeding season was less successful than in other seasons. Problems concerning intraspecific competition, reproductive failure and diseases are discussed.  相似文献   

Hypoglycemic effect of lupin seed γ-conglutin in experimental animals and healthy human subjects   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

Bertoglio JC  Calvo MA  Hancke JL  Burgos RA  Riva A  Morazzoni P  Ponzone C  Magni C  Duranti M 《Fitoterapia》2011,82(7):933-938

A lupin seed γ-conglutin-enriched preparation was tested in a glucose overload trial with both murine models and adult healthy volunteers. The results with rats showed a dose-dependent significant decrease of blood glucose concentration, which confirmed previous findings obtained with the purified protein. Moreover, three test-product doses equivalent to 630, 315, and 157.5 mg γ-conglutin, orally administered 30 min before the carbohydrate supply, showed a relevant hypoglycemic effect in human trials. Insulin concentrations were not significantly affected. The general hematic parameters did not change at all.This is the first report on the glucose-lowering effect of lupin γ-conglutin in human subjects.  相似文献   

Spatio-temporal heterogeneity effects on seedling growth and establishment in four <Emphasis Type="Italic">Quercus</Emphasis> species     

Victoria González-Rodríguez  Rafael Villar  Raquel Casado  Elena Suárez-Bonnet  José Luis Quero  Rafael M. Navarro-Cerrillo 《Annals of Forest Science》2011,68(7):1217-1232

Introduction   

The great spatial and temporal heterogeneity of Mediterranean ecosystems can influence establishment success in woody species, whose natural regeneration occurs to a very small extent. In this work, the effect of the spatial pattern of environmental variables (light availability, soil moisture and herbaceous production) on seedling emergence, growth, survival and establishment success was examined by using a spatially explicit approach.  相似文献   

Characterization of the interaction between two food aroma components, alpha-pinene and ethyl butyrate, and ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer (EVOH) packaging films as a function of environmental humidity     

López-Carballo G  Cava D  Lagarón JM  Catalá R  Gavara R 《Journal of agricultural and food chemistry》2005,53(18):7212-7216

The ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymers (EVOHs) are well-known high oxygen barrier materials that are being used successfully in the design of packaging structures for oxygen-sensitive food or pharmaceutical products. Recently, there has been increasing interest in using EVOH materials to provide a high barrier to organic compounds as a means to reduce food aroma scalping. However, the barrier function of this family of materials diminishes significantly in humid environments, and it is supposed that so does the organic vapor barrier. In this work, a new sorption-based method to characterize the interaction between food aroma and polymer films for packaging as a function of relative humidity is presented and is used to determine the barrier to ethyl butyrate and alpha-pinene of EVOH at 23 degrees C. The results show that although EVOH is an excellent barrier to food aroma when dry, a property that even improves at low relative humidity (RH), the solubility and diffusivity of the compounds tested increase dramatically with humidity at medium to high water activities. However, even in the worst case (100% RH), EVOH outperforms low-density polyethylene (LDPE) as a barrier to organic vapors at least 500,000-fold.  相似文献   

Spatial patterns of diversity and genetic erosion of traditional cassava (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Manihot esculenta</Emphasis> Crantz) in the Peruvian Amazon: An evaluation of socio-economic and environmental indicators     

Louise Willemen  Xavier Scheldeman  Víctor Soto Cabellos  Simón Rafael Salazar  Luigi Guarino 《Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution》2007,54(7):1599-1612

This study evaluates quantitatively the suitability of the use of site-specific socio-economic and environmental data as indicators to rapidly assess patterns of diversity and genetic erosion risk in cassava. Socio-economic data as well as farmers’ estimation of genetic erosion were collected in the study area, the Ucayali region of the Peruvian Amazon, through interviews with 285 cassava farmers in 50 communities, while diversity was assessed based on agromorphological characterization of 295 cassava accessions. Using multivariate regression analyses, 50 and 45% of the variation in respectively diversity and genetic erosion estimation could be explained by a selected set of socio-economic and environmental indicators. In both regression models four out of the total of 38 variables proved to contribute significantly (at p < 0.10 level). Additionally, the study revealed that farmers are a good direct source of information on the diversity present at community level, which can contribute to the development of methodologies to assess diversity more rapidly. The results of this study are valuable for the development of models to rapidly assess diversity dynamics in large areas.  相似文献   

Inheritance of race 1.2 Fusarium wilt resistance in four melon cultivars     

Hela Chikh-Rouhou  Rafael González-Torres  Ali Oumouloud  José M. Alvarez 《Euphytica》2011,182(2):177-186

The resistance to Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. melonis (Fom) race 1.2 has been studied in melons, such as the Portuguese accession ‘BG-5384’ and in the Japanese ‘Shiro Uri Okayama’, ‘Kogane Nashi Makuwa’, and ‘C-211’, since a good characterization of the resistance is necessary before its introgression into commercial varieties. These four melon accessions showed a high level of resistance to races 0, 1, and 2 of Fom, indicating that the partial resistance to the race 1.2 previously detected may not have been race specific. To determine the mode of inheritance of the resistance to Fom race 1.2, the F₁, F₂, BCP_R, and BCP_S generations from the crosses between the four resistant accessions above and ‘Piel de Sapo’, a Fom race 1.2 susceptible melon, were developed. They were subsequently inoculated with two Fom isolates, one from the pathotype 1.2Y and the other from the pathotype 1.2W. The area under the disease progress curve was determined for each inoculated plant, and the data were analyzed. We show that the resistance seen in these accessions is polygenically inherited with a complex genetic control because many epistatic interactions were detected. The three epistatic effects; additivity × additivity, dominance × dominance, and dominance × additivity are present and significant, with differing magnitudes from one cross to the next. The relatively low heritabilities, and these epistatic effects make difficult the improvement of the resistance, from these sources, through a standard selection procedure.  相似文献   

CoRoT measures solar-like oscillations and granulation in stars hotter than the Sun     

Michel E  Baglin A  Auvergne M  Catala C  Samadi R  Baudin F  Appourchaux T  Barban C  Weiss WW  Berthomieu G  Boumier P  Dupret MA  Garcia RA  Fridlund M  Garrido R  Goupil MJ  Kjeldsen H  Lebreton Y  Mosser B  Grotsch-Noels A  Janot-Pacheco E  Provost J  Roxburgh IW  Thoul A  Toutain T  Tiphène D  Turck-Chieze S  Vauclair SD  Vauclair GP  Aerts C  Alecian G  Ballot J  Charpinet S  Hubert AM  Lignières F  Mathias P  Monteiro MJ  Neiner C  Poretti E  de Medeiros JR  Ribas I  Rieutord ML  Cortés TR  Zwintz K 《Science (New York, N.Y.)》2008,322(5901):558-560

Oscillations of the Sun have been used to understand its interior structure. The extension of similar studies to more distant stars has raised many difficulties despite the strong efforts of the international community over the past decades. The CoRoT (Convection Rotation and Planetary Transits) satellite, launched in December 2006, has now measured oscillations and the stellar granulation signature in three main sequence stars that are noticeably hotter than the sun. The oscillation amplitudes are about 1.5 times as large as those in the Sun; the stellar granulation is up to three times as high. The stellar amplitudes are about 25% below the theoretic values, providing a measurement of the nonadiabaticity of the process ruling the oscillations in the outer layers of the stars.  相似文献   

Internally generated reactivation of single neurons in human hippocampus during free recall     

Gelbard-Sagiv H  Mukamel R  Harel M  Malach R  Fried I 《Science (New York, N.Y.)》2008,322(5898):96-101

The emergence of memory, a trace of things past, into human consciousness is one of the greatest mysteries of the human mind. Whereas the neuronal basis of recognition memory can be probed experimentally in human and nonhuman primates, the study of free recall requires that the mind declare the occurrence of a recalled memory (an event intrinsic to the organism and invisible to an observer). Here, we report the activity of single neurons in the human hippocampus and surrounding areas when subjects first view cinematic episodes consisting of audiovisual sequences and again later when they freely recall these episodes. A subset of these neurons exhibited selective firing, which often persisted throughout and following specific episodes for as long as 12 seconds. Verbal reports of memories of these specific episodes at the time of free recall were preceded by selective reactivation of the same hippocampal and entorhinal cortex neurons. We suggest that this reactivation is an internally generated neuronal correlate for the subjective experience of spontaneous emergence of human recollection.  相似文献   

Deep Impact observations by OSIRIS onboard the Rosetta spacecraft   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Keller HU  Jorda L  Küppers M  Gutierrez PJ  Hviid SF  Knollenberg J  Lara LM  Sierks H  Barbieri C  Lamy P  Rickman H  Rodrigo R 《Science (New York, N.Y.)》2005,310(5746):281-283

The OSIRIS cameras (optical, spectroscopic, and infrared remote imaging system) onboard the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft observed comet 9P/Tempel 1 for 17 days continuously around the time of NASA's Deep Impact mission. The cyanide-to-water production ratio was slightly enhanced in the impact cloud, compared with that of normal comet activity. Dust particles were flowing outward in the coma at >160 meters per second, accelerated by the gas. The slope of the brightness increase showed a dip about 200 seconds after the impact. Dust Afrho values before and long after the impact confirm the slight decrease of cometary activity. The dust-to-water mass ratio was much larger than 1.  相似文献   

Origin and evolution of prebiotic organic matter as inferred from the Tagish Lake meteorite     

Herd CD  Blinova A  Simkus DN  Huang Y  Tarozo R  Alexander CM  Gyngard F  Nittler LR  Cody GD  Fogel ML  Kebukawa Y  Kilcoyne AL  Hilts RW  Slater GF  Glavin DP  Dworkin JP  Callahan MP  Elsila JE  De Gregorio BT  Stroud RM 《Science (New York, N.Y.)》2011,332(6035):1304-1307

The complex suite of organic materials in carbonaceous chondrite meteorites probably originally formed in the interstellar medium and/or the solar protoplanetary disk, but was subsequently modified in the meteorites' asteroidal parent bodies. The mechanisms of formation and modification are still very poorly understood. We carried out a systematic study of variations in the mineralogy, petrology, and soluble and insoluble organic matter in distinct fragments of the Tagish Lake meteorite. The variations correlate with indicators of parent body aqueous alteration. At least some molecules of prebiotic importance formed during the alteration.  相似文献