Task allocation, and task switching have an important effect on the efficiency of distributed, locally controlled systems such as social insect colonies. Both efficiency and workload distribution are global features of the system which are not directly accessible to workers and can only be sampled locally by an individual in a distributed system. To investigate how the cost of task switching affects global performance we use social wasp societies as a metaphor to construct a simple model system with four interconnected tasks. Our goal is not the accurate description of the behavior of a given species, but to seek general conclusions on the effect of noise and time delay on a behavior that is partitioned into subtasks. In our model a nest structure needs to be constructed by the cooperation of individuals that carry out different tasks: builders, pulp and water foragers, and individuals storing water. We report a simulation study based on a model using delay-differential equations to analyze the trade-off between task switching costs and keeping a high degree of adaptivity in a dynamic, noisy environment. Combining the methods of time-delayed equations and stochastic processes we are able to represent the influence of swarm size and task switching sensitivity. We find that the system is stable for reasonable choices of parameters but shows oscillations for extreme choices of parameters and we find that the system is resilient to perturbations. We identify a trade-off between reaching equilibria of high performance and having short transients.

Task allocation, and task switching have an important effect on the efficiency of distributed, locally controlled systems such as social insect colonies. Both efficiency and workload distribution are global features of the system which are not directly accessible to workers and can only be sampled locally by an individual in a distributed system. To investigate how the cost of task switching affects global performance we use social wasp societies as a metaphor to construct a simple model system with four interconnected tasks. Our goal is not the accurate description of the behavior of a given species, but to seek general conclusions on the effect of noise and time delay on a behavior that is partitioned into subtasks. In our model a nest structure needs to be constructed by the cooperation of individuals that carry out different tasks: builders, pulp and water foragers, and individuals storing water. We report a simulation study based on a model using delay-differential equations to analyze the trade-off between task switching costs and keeping a high degree of adaptivity in a dynamic, noisy environment. Combining the methods of time-delayed equations and stochastic processes we are able to represent the influence of swarm size and task switching sensitivity. We find that the system is stable for reasonable choices of parameters but shows oscillations for extreme choices of parameters and we find that the system is resilient to perturbations. We identify a trade-off between reaching equilibria of high performance and having short transients.

Metapolybia wasps live in small societies (around one hundred adults) and rear their young in nests they construct on flat surfaces from plant materials. For processing nest paper, they must gather plant materials and process it into pulp with water. The water is collected by water foragers and is transferred to pulp foragers indirectly via a "common stomach." The common stomach, or social crop, is formed by generalist wasps called laborers. These wasps can engage in water exchange, store water in their crops, and may become specialist foragers or builders. We provide an alternative model for regulating task partitioning in construction behavior by using an agent based modeling framework parameterized by our field observations. Our model predicts that assessing colony needs via individual interactions with the common stomach leads to a robust regulation of task partitioning in construction behavior. By using perturbation experiments in our simulations, we show that this emergent task allocation is able to dynamically adapt to perturbations of the environment and to changes in colony-level demands or population structure. The robustness of our model stems from the fact that the common stomach is both a strong buffer and a source of several feedback mechanisms that affect the individual wasps. We show that both the efficiency and the task fidelity of these colonies are dependent upon colony size. We also demonstrate that the emergence of specialist wasps (individuals with high task fidelity) does not require any special initial conditions or reinforcement at the individual level, but it is rather a consequence of colony-level workflow stability. Our model closely mimics the behavior of Metapolybia wasps, demonstrating that a regulation mechanism based on simple pair-wise interactions through a common stomach is a plausible hypothesis for the organization of collective behavior.

Metapolybia wasps construct their nests on flat surfaces using plant materials, which they process into paper. For processing the pulp wasps need water, which is collected by water foragers, and it is transferred to pulp foragers indirectly via a "common stomach." The common stomach is formed by generalist wasps that can engage in water exchange and can store water in their crops. Our goal is to provide an alternative model for regulating task partitioning in construction behavior, focusing on worker connectivity instead of using threshold curves to model mechanisms of colony-level regulation. We propose that the existence of an information center and of a network of worker interactions, which establish sets of positive and negative feedbacks, allow collective regulation of colony-wide behaviors. Using a Stock and Flow modeling framework, we illustrate that the common stomach could serve both as a temporal storage for water and also as a source of information about the colony's current demands related to nest construction tasks. Our model predicts that assessing colony needs via individual interactions with the common stomach leads to a robust regulation of task partitioning in construction behavior. Using perturbation experiments in our simulations, we show that this emergent task allocation is able to dynamically adapt to perturbations of the environment and to changes in colony-level demands or population structure. Our model closely mimics and predicts the behavior of Metapolybia wasps, demonstrating that the regulation mechanism based on worker connectivity through a common stomach is a plausible hypothesis for the organization of collective behavior.

C. pylori have been shown to be associated with gastritis and peptic ulceration, but the mechanism of their pathogenicity is unknown. Since a number of virulence factors are known to be plasmid mediated, it was decided to study the plasmids of C. pylori. A variety of techniques were used to establish the best method of plasmid extraction from C. pylori. The method of alkaline lysis as described by Birnboim and Doly was shown to give the most consistent results and the greatest plasmid yield. Plasmid DNA was found in 54% (26 out of 48) of the isolates examined and the plasmids varied in size from 3,4kb to greater than 137kb. The majority (21 out of 26) of isolates had unique plasmid profiles, but 5 isolates showed common ones. Three of these 5 isolates were studied in more detail. The evidence presented here suggests that all 3 plasmid bands visible in these three isolates were different conformations of the same plasmid which has a molecular weight of 6, 2 kilo bases. The plasmids appeared labile and covalently closed circular DNA was rarely isolated. Restriction enzyme digestion was done with a variety of enzymes, but only 3 of the enzymes used digested the DNA. EcoRI and HindIII partially digested the DNA, while Sau3A digested the plasmids completely, generating 2 fragments of 2,2kb and 2,4kb, and a number of smaller fragments. The DNA was shown to be methylated and the fragments generated by Sau3A digestion suggest that the plasmids may contain a repetitive element. Chromosomal DNA was also isolated and digested with a variety of enzymes. The chromosomal DNA restriction pattern was shown to be affected by methylation, which may be important when using restriction enzyme patterns to differentiate between strains. Plasmid restriction fragments were end-labelled to detect bands which were poorly visible by ethidium bromide staining. This technique was shown to be more sensitive than ethidium bromide staining of DNA, but the inability to obtain complete digestion of C. pylori DNA made it impossible to construct a restriction enzyme map of the plasmids. Hybridization experiments showed the plasmids of C. pylori to be related and was also used to detect bands which were not easily visible after ethidium bromide staining. Attempts were made to clone C. pylori DNA into pUC18 and pUC19, but no recombinant plasmids containing C. pylori DNA were obtained.

Gastric aspirate specimens were collected from patients w~th clinically diagnosed gastric carcinoma and from non-carcinoma patients. The nitrite concentration and pH values of the aspirates were measured, the microorganisms present in selected specimens were isolated and identified, and the mutagenicity ratios of the aspirates were determined. The median nitrite concentration of the gastric aspirates from the carcinoma patients was significantly higher than that obtained for the non-carcinoma patients. A positive correlation was found between the nitrite concentration and the pH values of all the specimens tested, and a marked increase in nitrite levels at pH values above 6,0 was evident in specimens from the coloured ethnic "normal" subgroup. Gastric aspirate nitrite concentrations did not correlate with salivary values. The presence of microorganisms in gastric aspirates was shown to be pH dependent. Gastric aspirates with a pH < 2,0 were sterile, below pH 4,0 only acidophilic bacteria survived, whereas above pH 4,0, numerous species, predominantly members of the oral microflora, were isolated. The mean mutagenicity ratio of the gastric aspirates from the carcinoma patients was found to be significantly higher than that found for the control group. There was a positive correlation between the mutagenicity ratios of all the gastric specimens and pH with a maximum at a pH value of approximately 6,0.

A curvilinear regression model was used to determine an expected stomach capacity for any size Bear Lake sculpin with a standard length between 4-9.5 centimeters. Stomach contents were then expressed as a percent fullness and the change in percent fullness with time intervals was used to compute an instantaneous digestion rate. The instantaneous consumption rate was computed by the formula C=log P1-log P0 +d, where C=instantaneous consumption rate. The amount of food consumed during a time interval was computed from the formula It=CtSt, where It=amount of food ingested during a time interval expressed in percent fullness of stomach. The 24 hour consumption rate was computed by summing the consumption rates for 4 consecutive time intervals of 6 hours each. Studies in September, December, and May give instantaneous digestion rates of -.424, -.214, and -.235 and total food consumption rates of 22.2, 10.2, and 6.1 percent of stomach capacity for each individual fish in the population.

This study addressed a fundamental question in applied ecology and conservation; what is the predatory impact of introduced piscivorous sport fish on imperiled native fish populations? More specifically, which of many introduced species and size-classes represent the greatest threats and should be targeted for control? In order to explore this important question, an integrated analysis of stable isotopes, quantified observed diet analysis, and stable isotope mass-balance models were used to quantify trophic interactions. These tools were used to construct food web models that were then compared to draw inferences regarding the relative contribution of prey fish, including rare native fish, to the diet of introduced sport fish. The stable isotope-derived food web illustrated a slight decoupling in energy flow between a pelagic and a benthic-littoral sub-web. The quantified diet analysis suggested piscivory was low overall, and that the introduced sport fish assemblage relied heavily on zooplankton and aquatic insect prey. The integrated stable isotope and quantified diet analysis demonstrated that the consumption of prey fish, particularly pelagic prey fish, was typically underestimated using stomach content analyses. From the evaluation, comparison, and integration of food web models, I suggest that substantial predation was occurring on the early life stages of Utah Lake fishes, including native fishes, and it was not being observed using stomach content analysis. My comparative modeling demonstrated that introduced sport fish are an impediment to native fish conservation and identified the small size-class of white bass as the most immediate threat.

This thesis presents: 1) the first statistically rigorous support for the longstanding hypothesis that state of satiation modifies diel vertical migration patterns of deep-sea micronektonic crustaceans and fishes; and, 2) the first assessment of microplastic ingestion by deep-pelagic micronekton in the Gulf of Mexico and Straits of Florida. Deep-sea pelagic crustaceans and fishes significantly contribute to abundance and biomass of pelagic ecosystems, are frequently consumed by commercially valuable fishery species, and serve to transport both nutrients and pollutants between shallow and deep waters. The results presented herein will be valuable for assessing risk associated with potential biomagnification of plastic through consumption or indirect consumption of deep-sea biota. Moreover, these data demonstrate that the extent of feeding at depth by non-migratory taxa as well as non-migrating individuals of migratory taxa is substantial. Feeding at depth is usually excluded from biogeochemical models, and these data demonstrate that this is an important factor that must be included to obtain more precise estimates of active nutrient flux by micronekton.

京都大学 / 新制・論文博士 / 博士(医学) / 乙第13552号 / 論医博第2281号 / 新制||医||1067(附属図書館) / (主査)教授 武藤 学, 教授 小濱 和貴, 教授 佐藤 俊哉 / 学位規則第4条第2項該当 / Doctor of Medical Science / Kyoto University / DFAM