Phylogenetic relationships of five pika species (genus Ochotona) based on mitochondrial DNA restriction maps

Restriction site mapping of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) with 16 restriction endonucleases was used to examine the phylogenetic relationships of Ochotona cansus, O. huangensis, O. thibetana, O. curzoniae and O. erythrotis. A 1-kb length variation between O. erythrotis of subgenus Pika and other four species of subgenus Ochotona was observed, which may be a useful genetic marker for identifying the two subgenera. The phylogenetic tree constructed using PAUP based on 61 phylogenetically informative sites suggests that O. erythrotis diverged first, followed by O. cansus, while O. curzoniae and O. huangensis are sister taxa related to O. thibetana, The results indicate that both O. cansus and O. huangensis should be treated as independent species. If the base substitution rate of pikas mtDNA was 2% per million years, then the divergence time of the two subgenera, Pika and Ochotana, is about 8.8 Ma ago of late Miocence, middle Bao-dian of Chinese mammalian age, and the divergence of the four species in subgenus Ochotona would have occurred about 2.5 - 4.2 Ma ago, Yushean of Chinese mammalian age. This calculation appears to be substantiated by the fossil record.

东海陆架盆地西南部烟囱构造与油气运聚关系研究

In recent years, chimney structure has been proved one of important indicators and a useful guide to major petroleum fields exploration through their exploration history both at home and abroad. Chimney structure, which has been called "gas chimney" or "seismic chimney", is the special fluid-filled fracture swarm, which results from the boiling of active thermal fluid caused by abruptly decreasing of high pressure and high temperature in sedimentary layers of upper lithosphere. Chimney structure is well developed in continental shelf basin of East China Sea, which indicates the great perspectives of petroleum resources there. However, the chimney structure also complicated the petroleum accumulation. So the study of chimney structure on its formation, its effect on occurrence and distribution of petroleum fields is very important not only on theoretical, but also on its applied research. It is for the first time to make a clear definition of chimney structure in this paper, and the existence and practical meaning of chimney structure are illustrated. Firstly, on the viewpoint of exploration, this will amplify exploration area or field, not only in marine, but also on continent. Secondly, this is very important to step-by-step exploration and development of petroleum fields with overpressure. Thirdly, this will provide reference for the study on complex petroleum system with multi-sources, commingled sources and accumulation, multi-stage accumulations, and multi-suits petroleum system in the overlay basin. Fourthly, when the thermal fluid enters the oceanic shallow layer, it can help form gas hydrate under favorable low-temperature and high-pressure conditions. Meanwhile, the thermal fluid with its particular component and thermal content will affect the physical, chemical and ecological environments, which will help solving the problem of global resources and environment. Beginning from the regional tectonic evolution characteristics, this paper discussed the tectonic evolution history of the Taibei depression, then made an dynamical analysis of the tectonic-sedimentary evolution during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic for the East China Sea basin. A numerical model of the tectonic-thermal evolution of the basin via the Basin-Mod technique was carried out and the subsidence-buried history and thermal history of the Taibei depression were inverse calculated: it had undergone a early rapid rift and sag, then three times of uplift and erosion, and finally depressed and been buried. The Taibei depression contains a huge thick clastic sedimentary rock of marine facies, transitional facies and continental facies on the complex basement of ante-Jurassic. It is a part of the back-arc rifting basins occurred during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic. The author analyzed the diagenesis and thermal fluid evolution of this area via the observation of cathodoluminescence, scanning electron microscope and thin section, taking advantage of the evidences of magma activities, paleo-geothermics and structural movement, the author concluded that there were at least three tectonic-thermal events and three epochs of thermal-fluid activities; and the three epochs of thermal-fluid activities were directly relative to the first two tectonic-thermal events and were controlled by the generation and expulsion of hydrocarbon in the source rock simultaneously. Based on these, this paper established the corresponding model between the tectonic-thermal events and the thermal-fluid evolution of the Taibei Depression, which becomes the base for the study on the chimney structures. According to the analyses of the gas-isotope, LAM spectrum component of fluid inclusion, geneses of CO_2 components and geneses of hydrocarbon gases, the author preliminarily verified four sources of the thermal fluid in the Taibei Depression: ① dehydration of mud shale compaction, ② expulsion of hydrocarbon in the source rock; ③ CO_2 gas hydro-thermal decomposition of carbonatite; ④magma-derived thermal fluid including the mantle magma water and volatile components (such as H_2O, CO_2, H_2S, SO_2, N_2 and He etc.). On the basis of the vitrinite reflectance (Ro), homogenization temperature of fluid inclusion, interval transit time of major well-logging, mud density of the wells, measured pressure data and the results of previous studies, this paper analyzed the characteristics of the geothermal fields and geo-pressure fields for the various parts in this area, and discussed the transversal distribution of fluid pressure. The Taibei depression on the whole underwent a temperature-loss process from hot basin to cold basin; and locally high thermal anomalies occurred on the regional background of moderate thermal structure. The seal was primarily formed during the middle and late Paleocene. The overpressured system was formed during the middle and late Eocene. The formation of overpressured system in Lishui Sag underwent such an evolutionary process as "form-weaken-strengthen-weaken". Namely, it was formed during the middle and late Eocene, then was weakened in the Oligocene, even partly broken, then strengthened after the Miocene, and finally weakened. The existence of the thermal fluid rich in volatile gas is a physical foundation for the boiling of the fluid, and sharply pressure depletion was the major cause for the boiling of the fluid, which suggests that there exists the condition for thermal fluid to boil. According to the results of the photoelastic simulation and similarity physical experiments, the geological condition and the formation mechanism of chimnestructures are summarized: well compartment is the prerequisite for chimney formation; the boiling of active thermal fluid is the original physical condition for chimney formation; The local place with low stress by tension fault is easy for chimney formation; The way that thermal fluid migrates is one of the important factors which control the types of chimney structures. Based on where the thermal fluid come from and geometrical characteristics of the chimney structures, this paper classified the genetic types of chimney structures, and concluded that there existed three types and six subtypes chimney structures: organic chimney structures generated by the hydrocarbon-bearing thermal fluid in middle-shallow layers, inorganic and commingling-genetic chimney structures generated by thermal fluid in middle-deep layers. According to the seismic profiles interpretations, well logging response analysis and mineralogical and petrological characteristics in the study area, the author summarized the comprehensive identification marks for chimney structures. Especially the horizon velocity analysis method that is established in this paper and takes advantage of interval velocity anomaly is a semi-quantitative and reliable method of chimney structure s identification. It was pointed out in this paper that the occurrence of the chimney structures in the Taibei depression made the mechanism of accumulation complicated. The author provided proof of episodic accumulation of hydrocarbon in this area: The organic component in the boiling inclusion is the trail of petroleum migration, showing the causality between the boiling of thermal fluid and the chimney structures, meanwhile showing the paroxysmal accumulation is an important petroleum accumulation model. Based on the evolutionary characteristics of various types of chimney structures, this paper discussed their relationships with the migration-accumulation of petroleum respectively. At the same time, the author summarized the accumulating-dynamical models associated with chimney structures. The author analyzed such accumulation mechanisms as the facies state, direction, power of petroleum migration, the conditions of trap, the accumulation, leakage and reservation of petroleum, and the distribution rule of petroleum. The author also provides explanation for such practical problems the existence of a lot of mantle-derived CO_2, and its heterogeneous distribution on plane. By study on and recognition for chimney structure, the existence and distribution of much mantle-derived CO_2 found in this area are explained. Caused by tectonic thermal activities, the deep magma with much CO_2-bearing thermal fluid migrate upward along deep fault and chimney structures, which makes two wells within relatively short distance different gas composition, such as in well LF-1 and well LS36-1-1. Meanwhile, the author predicted the distribution of petroleum accumulation belt in middle-shallow layer for this area, pointed out the three favorable exploration areas in future, and provided the scientific and deciding references for future study on the commingling-genetic accumulation of petroleum in middle-deep layer and the new energy-gas hydrate.

Linear solvation energy relationships regarding sorption and retention properties of hydrophobic organic compounds in soil leaching column chromatography

The capacity factors of a series of hydrophobic organic compounds (HOCs) were measured in soil leaching column chromatography (SLCC) on a soil column, and in reversed-phase liquid chromatography on a C-18 column with different volumetric fractions (phi) of methanol in methanol-water mixtures. A general equation of linear solvation energy relationships, log(XYZ) = XYZ(0) + mV(1)/100 + spi* + bbeta(m) + aalpha(m), was applied to analyze capacity factors (k'), soil organic partition coefficients (K-oc) and octanol-water partition coefficients (P). The analyses exhibited high accuracy. The chief solute factors that control log K-oc, log P, and log k' (on soil and on C-18) are the solute size (V-1/100) and hydrogen-bond basicity (beta(m)). Less important solute factors are the dipolarity/polarizability (pi*) and hydrogen-bond acidity (alpha(m)). Log k' on soil and log K-oc have similar signs in four fitting coefficients (m, s, b and a) and similar ratios (m:s:b:a), while log k' on C-18 and log P have similar signs in coefficients (m, s, b and a) and similar ratios (m:s:b:a). Consequently, log k' values on C-18 have good correlations with log P (r > 0.97), while log k' values on soil have good correlations with log K-oc (r > 0.98). Two K-oc estimation methods were developed, one through solute solvatochromic parameters, and the other through correlations with k' on soil. For HOCs, a linear relationship between logarithmic capacity factor and methanol composition in methanol-water mixtures could also be derived in SLCC. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Implementing Universal Computation in an Evolutionary System

Evolutionary algorithms are a common tool in engineering and in the study of natural evolution. Here we take their use in a new direction by showing how they can be made to implement a universal computer. We consider populations of individuals with genes whose values are the variables of interest. By allowing them to interact with one another in a specified environment with limited resources, we demonstrate the ability to construct any arbitrary logic circuit. We explore models based on the limits of small and large populations, and show examples of such a system in action, implementing a simple logic circuit.

Representations and evolutionary operators for the scheduling of pump operations in water distribution networks.

Reducing the energy consumption of water distribution networks has never had more significance. The greatest energy savings can be obtained by carefully scheduling the operations of pumps. Schedules can be defined either implicitly, in terms of other elements of the network such as tank levels, or explicitly by specifying the time during which each pump is on/off. The traditional representation of explicit schedules is a string of binary values with each bit representing pump on/off status during a particular time interval. In this paper, we formally define and analyze two new explicit representations based on time-controlled triggers, where the maximum number of pump switches is established beforehand and the schedule may contain less switches than the maximum. In these representations, a pump schedule is divided into a series of integers with each integer representing the number of hours for which a pump is active/inactive. This reduces the number of potential schedules compared to the binary representation, and allows the algorithm to operate on the feasible region of the search space. We propose evolutionary operators for these two new representations. The new representations and their corresponding operations are compared with the two most-used representations in pump scheduling, namely, binary representation and level-controlled triggers. A detailed statistical analysis of the results indicates which parameters have the greatest effect on the performance of evolutionary algorithms. The empirical results show that an evolutionary algorithm using the proposed representations improves over the results obtained by a recent state-of-the-art Hybrid Genetic Algorithm for pump scheduling using level-controlled triggers.

Generalisation and Model Selection in Supervised Learning with Evolutionary Computation

Rowland, J. J. (2003) Generalisation and Model Selection in Supervised Learning with Evolutionary Computation. European Workshop on Evolutionary Computation in Bioinformatics: EvoBio 2003. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Springer), Vol 2611, pp 119-130

Interpreting Analytical Spectra with Evolutionary Computation

Rowland, J.J. (2002) Interpreting Analytical Spectra with Evolutionary Computation. In: Fogel, G.B. and Corne, D.W. (eds), Evolutionary Computation in Bioinformatics. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco, pp 341--365, ISBN 1-55860-797-8

Evolutionary approaches to fuzzy modelling for classification

M. Galea, Q. Shen and J. Levine. Evolutionary approaches to fuzzy modelling. Knowledge Engineering Review, 19(1):27-59, 2004.

Religiosity, Relationships and Consumption: A Study of Church Going in Ireland

Gallagher, Damian, and Palmer, Adrian, 'Religiosity, Relationships and Consumption: A Study of Church Going in Ireland', Consumption Markets and Culture (2007) 10(1) pp.31-49 RAE2008

Competitive relationships in a fertile grassland community - does size matter?

John Warren, Fred Wilson & Anita Diaz (2002). Competitive relationships in a fertile grassland community - does size matter? Oecologia, 132 (1) pp.125-130 Sponsorship: SEERAD / Leverhulme Trust RAE2008