Acoustic signals of Chinese alligators (Alligator sinensis): Social communication

This paper reports the first systematic study of acoustic signals during social interactions of the Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis). Sound pressure level (SPL) measurements revealed that Chinese alligators have an elaborate acoustic communication system with both long-distance signal-bellowing-and short-distance signals that include tooting, bubble blowing, hissing, mooing, head slapping and whining. Bellows have high SPL and appear to play an important role in the alligator's long range intercommunion. Sounds characterized by low SPL are short-distance signals used when alligators are in close spatial proximity to one another. The signal spectrographic analysis showed that the acoustic signals of Chinese alligators have a very low dominant frequency, less than 500 Hz. These frequencies are consistent with adaptation to a habitat with high density vegetation. Low dominant frequency sound attenuates less and could therefore cover a larger spatial range by diffraction in a densely vegetated environment relative to a higher dominant frequency sound. (C) 2007 Acoustical Society of America.

Spatiotemporal chaos control with pinning signals in distributed systems

We suggest a local pinning feedback control for stabilizing periodic pattern in spatially extended systems. Analytical and numerical investigations of this method for a system described by the one-dimensional complex Ginzburg-Landau equation are carried out. We found that it is possible to suppress spatiotemporal chaos by using a few pinning signals in the presence of a large gradient force. Our analytical predictions well coincide with numerical observations.

The intensity distributions of collected signals in coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy

Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy with the combining of confocal and CARS techniques is a remarkable alternative for imaging chemical or biological specimens that neither fluoresce nor tolerate labeling. The CARS is a nonlinear optical process, the imaging properties of CARS microscopy will be very different from the conventional confocal microscopy. In this paper, we calculated the propagation of CARS signals by using the wave equation in medium and the slowly varying envelope approximation (SVEA), and find that the intensity angular distributions vary considerably with the different experimental configurations and the different specimen shapes. So the conventional description of microscopy (e.g.. the point spread function) will fail to descript the imaging properties of CARS microscopy. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A de novo originated gene depresses budding yeast mating pathway and is repressed by the protein encoded by its antisense strand

Recent transcription profiling studies have revealed an unexpectedly large proportion of antisense transcripts in eukaryotic genomes. These antisense genes seem to regulate gene expression by interacting with sense genes. Previous studies have focused on the non-coding antisense genes, but the possible regulatory role of the antisense protein is poorly understood. In this study, we found that a protein encoded by the antisense gene ADF1 acts as a transcription suppressor, regulating the expression of sense gene MDF1 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Based on the evolutionary, genetic, cytological and biochemical evidence, we show that the protein-coding sense gene MDF1 most likely originated de novo from a previously non-coding sequence and can significantly suppress the mating efficiency of baker's yeast in rich medium by binding MAT alpha 2 and thus promote vegetative growth. These results shed new light on several important issues, including a new sense-antisense interaction mechanism, the de novo origination of a functional gene, and the regulation of yeast mating pathway.

Polygynous Mating System and Behavioural Reason of Black Crested Gibbon (Nomascus concolor jingdongensis) at Dazhaizi,Mt.Wuliang, Yunnan,China

2003年8月—2005年8月,对无量山大寨子5个黑长臂猿群体的结构和组成进行了观察。当一个群体在早晨鸣叫或依次通过树冠时,记录群体的结构和组成。每个群体都由1个成年雄性、2个成年雌性及其后代组成。2003年8月平均群体大小为6·2只;到2005年8月,平均群体大小发展为6·4只,其中有2个亚成年雄性从出生群迁出,且有3只幼猿出生。在3个群体(G1、G2和G3)中两个成年雌性都成功繁殖了后代。同一群体内两个成年雌性间无攻击或等级行为。2005年4月15日,当一只亚成年雌性进入G3的领域后,两只成年雌性对其进行追逐驱赶,并且干扰其与成年雄性配合进行二重唱,成年雄性没有直接驱赶流浪的亚成年雌性,10天后这只亚成年雌性离开了G3的领域。亚成年雄性经常与群体其他成员保持一定距离,并且在出生地通过独唱练习鸣叫。黑长臂猿可能通过亚成年雄性和雌性的迁出,及成年雌性对外来流浪雌性的驱赶维持这种一夫二妻的群体结构。

MATING COMPETITION AND INTERGROUP TRANSFER OF MALES IN TIBETAN MACAQUES (MACACA-THIBETANA) AT MT EMEI, CHINA

In five groups of seasonally provisioned Tibetan macaques (Macaca thibetana) at Mt. Emei, males were sampled for wounds as an indicator of their competition for females during about 80 days in the 1987 mating season. Quantitative data on intergroup transfer were collected in a period between June 1986 and December 1987. The young adult (YA) males, the most active age-class in mating activity and intergroup transfer, received most of the wounds. Wounds tended to appear more in the front of body for YA and subadults (SA) than they did for middle-old aged (MO) males. This implies that some of the MO males were more active and aggressive in the fights. During the 1.5 year period, 5/6 of the YA and 5/17 of the MO males made intergroup shifts. Although YA males faced a high risk of receiving wounds at transfer, they usually rose in rank. On the other hand, the MO males transferred more smoothly but dropped in rank. The peripheral SA males, which rarely emigrated in the population, were an active component in determining the wounding rate, and the rate and direction of male migration. Three SA immigrants died of severe attacks made by resident males in 1988 and 1991. Adult sex ratios and their variations were considerably reduced with male nonrandom shifts and better conservation of the population.

Intergroup interactions in Tibetan macaques at Mt. Emei, China

Data on intergroup-interactions (I-I) were collected in 5 seasonally provisioned groups (A, B, D, D-1, and E) of Tibetan macaques (Macaca Thibetana) at Mt. Emei in three 70-day periods between 1991 April-June (P1), September-November (P2), December-1992 February (P3). The I-I were categorized as forewarning made by high-ranking males (including Branch Shaking and/or Loud Calls), long-distance interactions in space (specified by changes in their foraging movements), and close encounters (with Affinitive Behavior, Male's Herding Female, Sexual Interaction, Severe Conflict, Adult Male-male Conflict, Opportunistic Advance and Retreat, etc. performed by different age-sex classes). From periods Fl to P3, the I-I rate decreased with reduction in population density as a positive correlate of food clumpedness or the number of potential feeders along a pedestrian trail. On the other hand, from the birth season (BS, represented by P1 and P3) to the mating season (MS, represented by P2) the dominance relation between groups, which produced a winner and a loser in the encounters, became obscure; the proportion of close encounters in the I-I increased; the asymmetry (local groups over intruders) of forewarning signals disappeared; the rate of branch shaking decreased; and sometimes intergroup cohesion appeared. Considering that sexual interactions also occurred between the encountering groups, above changes in intergroup behaviors may be explained with a model of the way in which the competition for food (exclusion) and the sexual attractiveness between opposite sexes were in a dynamic equilibrium among the groups, with the former outweighing the latter in the BS, and conversely in the MS. Females made 93% of severe conflicts, which occurred in 18% of close encounters. Groups fissioned in the recent past shared the same home range, and showed the highest hostility to each other by females. In conspicuous contrast with females' great interest in intergroup food/range competition, adult male-male conflicts that were normally without body contact occurred in 66% bf close encounters; high-ranking male herding of females, which is typical in baboons, appeared in 83% of close encounters, and showed no changes with season and sexual weight-dimorphism; peripheral juvenile and subadult males were the main performers of the affinitive behaviors, opportunistic advance and retreat, and guarding at the border. In brief, all males appeared to "sit on the fence" at the border, likely holding out hope of gaining the favor of females both within and outside the group. Thus, females and males attempted to maximize reproductive values in different ways, just as expected by Darwin-Trivers' theory of sexual selection. In addition, group fission was observed in the largest and highest-ranking group for two times (both in the MS) when its size increased to a certain level, and the mother group kept their dominant position in size and rank among the groups that might encounter, suggesting that fission takes a way of discarding the "superfluous part" in order to balance the cost of competition for food and mates within a group, and the benefit of cooperation to access the resources for animals in the mother group. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Secondary structure of yeast genomic downstream region and polyadenylation signals

Polyadenylation of 3 ' -forming in eukaryote concerns three elements located in precursor mRNA downstream region: efficiency element (EE), position element (PE) and the actual site for cleavage and polyadenylation. Several base sequences of EE and PE have

Seasonality of mating and birth in wild black-and-white snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus bieti) at Xiaochangdu, Tibet

Data on mating and birth seasonality were recorded in wild black-and-white snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus bieti) at Xiaochangdu in the Honglaxueshan National Nature Reserve, Tibet. This represents one of the harshest habitats utilized by any nonhuman p

Response Specificity to Advertisement Vocalization in the Chinese Alligator (Alligator sinensis)

Stringency in the identification of conspecific call properties is essential among sympatric species to ensure conspecific mating, as the risk of improper recognition and heterospecific mating is high. In this study we investigated the basic signal structure required for intraspecies communication in the Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis), a species that has no relatives living in sympatry, by playback of signals modified in the temporal (truncating original bellows with first 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 or last 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 portion) or frequency domain (with low- or high-pass filters at frequencies 100, 250, 500 and 1000 Hz), or by reversal of natural bellows. The playback experiments revealed that relatively large modifications in bellow temporal or frequency structure failed to impair Chinese alligators' bellowing behavior; even reversed bellows effectively evoked a positive response. In general, the first half of the bellow in temporal domain and frequencies below 500 Hz were critical for behavioral induction, while the last half of the bellow in temporal domain and frequencies above 500 Hz failed to produce a single positive response, implying a potential functional signal redundancy. The observed high tolerance to bellow variations in Chinese alligators may be an evolutionary adaptation to (1) the acoustic constraints of propagation imposed by dense vegetative habitats; or (2) a lack of selection pressure due to the low risk of incorrect conspecific recognition and heterospecific mating.