Correlation of personality with individual reproductive success in shrub-nesting birds depends on their life history style

Two questions in the research of animal personality—whether there is a correlation between a personality trait and individual reproductive success,and what is the genetic basis underlying a personality trait—remain unresolved.We addressed these two questions in three shrub-nesting birds,the Azure-winged Magpie(Cyanopica cyanus,AM),White-collared Blackbird(Turdus albocinctus,WB),and Brown-cheeked Laughingthrush(Trochalopteron henrici,BL).The personality type of an individual was first identified according to its response to a territorial intruder.Then,we compared the fleeing distance,breeding parameters,and differential expressed genes(DEGs) in the brain transcriptome between bold and shy breeders.In the three species,bold breeders exhibited more aggressiveness towards an intruder of their territory than did shy breeders.The reproductive success of bold breeders was significantly higher than that of shy breeders in AM but not in WB and BL.The three species shared one DEG,crabp1,which was up-regulated in bold relative to in shy individuals.By regulating the expression of corticotropin-releasing hormone,higher crabp1 gene expression can decrease cellular response to retinoic acid.Therefore,bold individuals are insensitive to external stresses and able to exhibit more aggressiveness to intruders than their shier counterparts.Aggressiveness is beneficial to bold individuals in AM but not in WB and BL because the former could evoke neighbors to make the same response of defending against intruders but the latter could not.Although a personality trait may have the same genetic basis across species,its correlation with reproductive success depends largely on the life history style of a species.

Trust Access Authentication in Vehicular Network Based on Blockchain

Data sharing and privacy securing present extensive opportunities and challenges in vehicular network.This paper introducestrust access authentication scheme’as a mechanism to achieve real-time monitoring and promote collaborative sharing for vehicles.Blockchain,which can provide secure authentication and protected privacy,is a crucial technology.However,traditional cloud computing performs poorly in supplying low-latency and fast-response services for moving vehicles.In this situation,edge computing enabled Blockchain network appeals to be a promising method,where moving vehicles can access storage or computing resource and get authenticated from Blockchain edge nodes directly.In this paper,a hierarchical architecture is proposed consist of vehicular network layer,Blockchain edge layer and Blockchain network layer.Through a authentication mechanism adopting digital signature algorithm,it achieves trusted authentication and ensures valid verification.Moreover,a caching scheme based on many-to-many matching is proposed to minimize average delivery delay of vehicles.Simulation results prove that the proposed caching scheme has a better performance than existing schemes based on central-ized model or edge caching strategy in terms of hit ratio and average delay.

Can semipermeable membranes coating materials influence in vivo performance for paliperidone tri-layer ascending release osmotic pump tablet:In vitro evaluation and in vivo pharmacokinetics study

One purpose of this study was to develop a paliperidone(PAL)tri-layer ascending release pushepull osmotic pump(TA-PPOP)tablet which could meet the needs of clinical applications.And another purpose was to investigate whether different coating materials influenced in vivo performance of TA-PPOP.The ascending release mechanism of this trilayer delivery system on theory was elaborated.TA-PPOP was prepared by means of coating with cellulose acetate(CA)or ethyl cellulose(EC).Several important influence factors such as different core tablet compositions and different coating solution ingredients involved in the formulation procedure were investigated.The optimization of formulation and process was conducted by comparing different in vitro release behaviors of PAL.In vitro dissolution studies indicated that both the two formulations of different coating materials were able to deliver PAL at an ascending release rate during the whole 24 h test.The in vivo pharmacokinetics study showed that both self-made PPOP tablets with different coating had a good in vitro-in vivo correlation(IVIVC)and were bioequivalent with the brand product,which demonstrated no significant influence of the coating materials on the in vivo release acceleration of TA-PPOP.

The Grey-backed Shrike parents adopt brood survival strategy in both the egg and nestling phases

Background:Great diversity exists in the parenting pattern of altricial birds,which has long been considered as an adaptive response to specific environmental conditions but not to their life-history style.Methods:We examined the egg-laying and nestling-raising pattern of the Grey-backed Shrike(Lanius tephronotus)that breeds only once a year on the Tibetan Plateau.We compared the dietary composition to that of its sympatric competitor,the Brown-cheeked Laughing Thrush(Trochalopteron henrici)that breeds twice a year.Results:Female Grey-backed Shrikes produced a fixed clutch size of five,with increasing egg size by their laying sequence.The last offspring in the brood is disadvantageous in the size hierarchy because it hatches later.However,they had the largest fledgling body mass.These findings indicate that Grey-backed Shrikes adopt the brood survival strategy in both the egg and nestling phases.Moreover,males and females exhibit no sexual division in providing parental care as they made an equal contribution to the total amount of food delivered to their brood.This parenting pattern of Grey-backed Shrikes,as well as their dietary items,differ significantly from those of the Brown-cheeked Laughing Thrush.Conclusions:We suggest that the differentiation in life-history style between sympatric competitors,rather than a behavioral response to specific environmental conditions,plays a decisive role in driving avian parenting strategy diversification.

Status of aquatic organisms resources and their environments in Yangtze River system(2017-2021)⋆

The Yangtze River is the mother river of China.To promote the aquatic ecosystem protection of the great river,the Project of Yangtze Fisheries Resources and Environment Investigation(2017-2021)supported by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs,P.R.China carried out by 24 institutes and universities that located in the Yangtze River basin surveys the status of(1)fish species composition and spatial distribution,(2)current fish abundance,(3)endangered fishes,(4)Yangtze finless porpoise,(5)aquatic eco-environments,(6)water-level fluctuation areas,(7)capture fisheries and recreational fisheries of the Yangtze River mainstream and 10 of its main tributaries,including Yalong River,Heng River,Min River(including Dadu River),Chishui River,Tuo River,Jialing River,Wu River,Han River,Dongting Lake and Poyang Lake.The results showed that there were 443 fish species(belonging to 163 genus,37 families,and 18 orders)before 2017,but only 323 fish species(including 15 new recorded exotic species)were recorded in the project of 2017-2021.Among them,Cyprinus carpio,Carassius auratus,Hypophthalmichthys molitrix,Pelteobagrus fulvidraco,Coilia brachygnathus,Silurus asotus,Saurogobio dabryi,Ctenopharyngodon idellus,Pelteobagrus nitidus,Hemiculter leucisculus,Siniperca chuatsi,Coreius heterodon,Culter alburnus,Parabramis pekinensis,and Aristichthys nobilis were the dominant species across the whole Yangtze River system.It is estimated that there were 886 million individuals weighing 124.8 million kg,merely equivalent to 27.3%of the resources in 1950s,30.9%of the resources in 1960s,or 58.7%of the resources in 1980s.In the new list of protected fishes that recorded in the Yangtze River system,only 15 of 29 were collected in this project of 2017-2021.Psephurus gladius has been affirmed to be Extinct by International Union for Conservation of Nature(IUCN).The wild individuals of Tenualosa reevesii and Luciobrama macrocephalus have disappeared for many years and maybe have been extinct already.Acipenser dabryanus has been affirmed to be Extinct in the Wild by IUCN.The natural propagations of A.sinensis,Myxocyprinus asiaticus and Trachidermus fasciatus have been interrupted for many years.The populations of Yangtze finless porpoise in the Yangtze River mainstream,Dongting Lake and Poyang Lake have steadily rising sizes and expanding distributions in 2017-2021.Parts of them migrate from one region to another with the seasons,which would result in the fluctuation of Yangtze finless porpoise population within some regions.The conventional indicators of water quality in the Yangtze River system were good and conformed to the water quality criteria of fishery in 2017-2021.In the last 40 years,the maximum surface water area in the Yangtze River basin extended to approximately 63,360 km2,the minimum surface water area covered approximately 26,396 km2,and the seasonal water-level fluctuation areas occupied approximately 36,964 km2.Compared with 1984-2000 period,the 2001-2020 period witnessed an overall decreasing trend in the frequency of surface water occurrence within about 25,869 km2 of aquatic areas.From 1984 to 2000 period to 2001-2020 period,permanent surface water has decreased by nearly 8,750 km2.In 2017,the fishermen were mainly 40-60 years old and their educational levels were mainly lower than junior high school.In 2017,most anglers were older than 40 and used hand rod and/or sea rod.Their average catch of each time was mainly less than 1 kg.Results suggested that the fishing ban in key waters of the Yangtze River basin is not only an ecological project of aquatic ecosystem conservation,but also a livelihood project for the fisherman to embrace industrial transformation and improve their living conditions.After the implementation of the fishing ban,the fisheries resources would gradually recover,and the Yangtze finless porpoise population size would also see a steady increase.However,the endangered species would remain threatened for a long time.The degraded waterbodies and water-level fluctuation areas would be the key restrictive factors for future aquatic ecosystem recovery in the Yangtze River basin.Since this survey was carried out before the fishing ban,the current results could provide a baseline for future evaluation of the effect of the Yangtze River fishing ban.

Adult tiger beetles Cicindela gemmata modify their foraging strategy in different hunting contexts

Predator–prey interaction has long been an interesting item in the research of animal behaviors.Given that live prey can damage their predators,predators must trade foraging efficiency for safety while hunting,but the extent of this trade-off is not yet clear.Tiger beetles display diversity in their diets and hunting strategies,and hence,they become an ideal system to address how self-security affects foraging efficiency.We addressed this question in captive adult tiger beetles Cicindela gemmata.By offering several types of arthropod and plant foods,we confirmed that C.gemmata is carnivorous.We found that C.gemmata hunt by either ambushing or chasing their prey,and that they switch between strategies based on differences in the number of prey,the prey status and encounter rate,and the number of predators.Ambushing success increased with the number of prey but decreased with prey encounter rate.Chasing success decreased as prey body size and encounter rate increased.Foraging Cicindela gemmata often gave up an attack when it was nonfatal.This active giving up of hunting may be a consequence of a trade-off between foraging efficiency and self-security.Therefore,it is an adaptive response to the risk of injury when hunting for larger live prey.

Responses of a resident group to an outsider in the blue-breasted quail: A paradigm for studying social resettlement of dispersers

Dispersal is an individual life-history trait that can influence the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of both the source and recipient populations.Current studies of animal dispersal have paid little attention to how the responses of residents in a recipient population affect the social resettlement of dispersers into a new habitat.We addressed this question in the blue-breasted quail Synoicus chinensis by designing an outsider introduction experiment to simulate a scenario of interaction between residents and dispersers.In the experiment,we introduced an unfamiliar quail into a group of 3 differently ranked residents and then examined their behavioral responses to the arrival of the outsider.We found that all residents made negative responses by pecking at the outsider to maintain their pecking order,in which high-ranked residents displayed significantly greater intensity than those of lower ranks.This result highlighted that adverse behavioral responses of residents would prevent outsiders from obtaining hierarchical dominance in the recipient group.Moreover,the residents’sex ratio,their relative ages to the outsiders,and whether outsiders counter-pecked at the residents all influenced the probability of outsiders prevailing against the residents.Those outsiders that displayed counter-peck courage were more likely to gain higher dominance and hence resettle into the recipient group successfully.Our findings suggest that resident groups may impose a selection among dispersers via adverse behavioral responses.Therefore,social factors that can influence the resettlement step of dispersers in a new habitat should be accounted for in future studies of animal dispersal.

Conspecific nest-raiding directs more at dominant breeders in the azure-winged magpie

Conspecific animals in the wild use limited resources—such as food,nest site,and mating opportunities—very differently(Shuster and Wade 2003),which has been widely considered a consequence of phenotypic diversity(Shuster 2010).