Molecular phylogeography and population structure of a mid-elevation montane frog Leptobrachium ailaonicum in a fragmented habitat of southwest China

Leptobrachium ailaonicum is a vulnerable anuran restricted to a patchy distribution associated with small mountain streams surrounded by forested slopes at mid-elevations (approximately 2000-2600 m) in the subtropical Mount Wuliang and Mount Ailao ranges in southwest China (Yunnan Province) and northern Vietnam. Given high habitat specificity and lack of suitable habitat in lower elevations between these ranges, we hypothesized limited gene flow between populations throughout its range. We used two mitochondrial genes to construct a phylogeographic pattern within this species in order to test our hypothesis. We also examined whether this phylogeographic pattern is a response to past geological events and/or climatic oscillations. A total of 1989 base pairs were obtained from 81 individuals of nine populations yielding 51 unique haplotypes. Both Bayesian and maximum parsimony phylogenetic analyses revealed four deeply divergent and reciprocally monophyletic mtDNA lineages that approximately correspond to four geographical regions separated by deep river valleys. These results suggest a long history of allopatric separation by vicariance. The distinct geographic distributions of four major clades and the estimated divergence time suggest spatial and temporal separations that coincide with climatic and paleogeographic changes following the orogeny and uplift of Mount Ailao during the late Miocene to mid Pliocene in southwest China. At the southern distribution, the presence of two sympatric yet differentiated clades in two areas are interpreted as a result of secondary contact between previously allopatric populations during cooler Pleistocene glacial cycles. Analysis of molecular variance indicates that most of the observed genetic variation occurs among the four regions implying long-term interruption of maternal gene flow, suggesting that L ailaonicum may represent more than one distinct species and should at least be separated into four management units corresponding to these four geographic lineages for conservation. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

SPECIES DIVERSITY DYNAMICS OF FRAGMENTED TROPICAL RAINFORESTS IN THE LOWER-LANCANG/ UPPER-MEKONG RIVER BASIN

　在澜沧江下游/ 湄公河上游的滇南西双版纳地区,通过样方法比较了热带雨林的连片与3 个小片断的物 种多样性变化趋势。与连续森林比较,片断热带雨林的植物物种丰富度和物种多样性指数都比较低,而且有相当低 比例的大高位芽、中高位芽和附生等生活型植物,而藤本、小高位芽和矮高位芽等生活型植物的比例则较高;泛热 带、热带亚洲至热带非洲的区系成分比例较高,而当地成分则减少;群落的上层树木比下层树木更加稳定。同样,动 物的物种多样性指数和均衡度在片断热带雨林中都较低,与其密切相关的是片断热带雨林的环境质量,而不是片 断的大小。此外,也探讨了片断热带雨林物种变化与森林小气候的关系,阐明了由凉湿向干暖转化的“林内效应"是 其物种变化的重要原因之一。

Microsatellite diversity and population genetic structure of redfin culter (Culter erythropterus) in fragmented lakes of the Yangtze River

Redfin culter (Culter erythropterus) is a small lethic freshwater fish and widely distributed in the adjacent lakes of the Yangtze River of China. Five microsatellite loci were applied to investigate the genetic variation and population structure of redfin culter from seven lakes in the middle-and-lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The gene diversity was high among the populations (H > 0.9), the average number of alleles among seven populations was low with a range from 2.00 to 3.87. The mean observed (H-O) and expected (H-E) heterozygosity ranged from 0.111 to 0.419 and from 0.162 to 0.750, respectively. Significant deviations from Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium expectation were found in 50% of the total locus-population combination tests in which heterozygote deficits were apparent. The analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) indicated that the percentage of variance among and within these populations were 6.18 and 93.82, respectively. The Fst values (0.062, P < 0.001) among studied populations indicated that there were significant genetic differentiations among redfin culture populations from the scattered lakes with different connections to the Yangtze River. These results are useful for the evaluation and conservation of small freshwater fishes. The factors that may be involved in low intra-population polymorphism and the pattern of the population genetic structure of redfin culter from the Yangtze River were discussed.

A shortest path algorithm for moving objects in spatial network databases

One of the most important kinds of queries in Spatial Network Databases (SNDB) to support location-based services (LBS) is the shortest path query. Given an object in a network, e.g. a location of a car on a road network, and a set of objects of interests, e.g. hotels,gas station, and car, the shortest path query returns the shortest path from the query object to interested objects. The studies of shortest path query have two kinds of ways, online processing and preprocessing. The studies of preprocessing suppose that the interest objects are static. This paper proposes a shortest path algorithm with a set of index structures to support the situation of moving objects. This algorithm can transform a dynamic problem to a static problem. In this paper we focus on road networks. However, our algorithms do not use any domain specific information, and therefore can be applied to any network. This algorithm’s complexity is O(klog2 i), and traditional Dijkstra’s complexity is O((i + k)2).

a shortest path algorithm for moving objects in spatial network databases

中国计算机学会

Topological objects in the O(3) nonlinear sigma model

We study the topological defects in the nonlinear O(3) sigma model in terms of the decomposition of U(1) gauge potential. Time-dependent baby skyrmions are discussed in the (2 + 1)-dimensional spacetime with the CP1 field. Furthermore, we show that there are three kinds of topological defects-vortex lines, point defects and knot exist in the (3 + 1)-dimensional model, and their topological charges, locations and motions are determined by the phi-mapping topological current theory.

Topological objects in two-gap superconductor

We discuss the non-Abelian topological objects, in particular the non-Abrikosov vortex and the magnetic knot made of the twisted non-Abrikosov vortex, in two-gap superconductor. We show that there are two types of non-Abrikosov vortex in Ginzburg-Landau theory of two-gap superconductor, the D-type which has no concentration of the condensate at the core and the N-type which has a non-trivial profile of the condensate at the core, under a wide class of realistic interaction potential. We prove that these non-Abrikosov vortices can have either integral or fractional magnetic flux, depending on the interaction potential. We show that they are described by the non-Abelian topology pi(2)(S-2) and pi(1)(S-1), in addition to the well-known Abelian topology pi(1)(S-1). Furthermore, we discuss the possibility to construct a stable magnetic knot in two-gap superconductor by twisting the non-Abrikosov vortex and connecting two periodic ends together, whose knot topology pi(3)(S-2) is described by the Chern-Simon index of the electromagnetic potential. We argue that similar topological objects may exist in multi-gap or multi-layer superconductors and multi-component Bose-Einstein condensates and superfluids, and discuss how these topological objects can be constructed in MgB2, Sr2RuO4, He-3, and liquid metallic hydrogen.

adaptive location update mechanism for network-constrained moving objects in changeful traffic conditions

Natl Chiao Tung Univ, Dept Comp Sci

5-13岁儿童对惯性运动的认知发展

Research on naïve physics investigates children’s intuitive understanding of physical objects, phenomena and processes. Children, and also many adults, were found to have a misconception of inertia, called impetus theory. In order to investigate the development of this naïve concept and the mechanism underlying it, four age groups (5-year-olds, 2nd graders, 5th graders, and 8th graders) were included in this research. Modified experimental tasks were used to explore the effects of daily experience, perceptual cues and general information-processing ability on children’s understanding of inertia. The results of this research are: 1) Five- to thirteen-year-olds’ understanding of inertia problems which were constituted by two ogjects moving at the same spped undergoes an L-shaped developmental trend; Children’s performance became worse as they got older, and their performance in the experiment did not necessarily ascend with the improvement of their cognitive abilities. 2) The L-shaped developmental curve suggests that children in different ages used different strategies to solve inertia problems: Five- to eight-year-olds only used heuristic strategy, while eleven- to thirteen-year-olds solved problems by analyzing the details of inertia motion. 3) The different performance between familiar and unfamiliar problems showed that older children were not able to spontaneously transfer their knowledge and experience from daily action and observation of inertia to unfamiliar, abstract inertia problems. 4) Five- to eight-year-olds showed straight and fragmented pattern, while more eleven- to thirteen-year-olds showed standard impetus theory and revised impetus theory pattern, which showed that younger children were influenced by perceptual cues and their understanding of inertia was fragmented, while older children had coherent impetus theory. 5) When the perceptual cues were controlled, even 40 percent 5 years olds showed the information-processing ability to analyze the distance, speed and time of two objects traveling in two different directions at the same time, demonstrating that they have achieved a necessary level to theorize their naïve concept of inertia.

Imaging of three-dimensional objects in emission electron microscopy

Under investigation by emission electron microscopy, the shape and size of three-dimensional objects are distorted because of the appearance of a characteristic potential relief and a possible contact potential difference between the particles and the substrate. An estimation of these effects for spherical particles is made. It is shown that the apparent size of particles observed in an emission electron microscope (EEM) could be increased as well as decreased depending on the relation between the work functions of the particle and the substrate. The corresponding formulae are given and several possibilities are shown which permit us to determine from the EEM image the real size of particles and their work function relative to the substrate.