Roads in Rainforest: best practice guidelines for planning, design and management

These Guidelines were developed as a framework for understanding the primary ecological issues to be addressed in the planning, design and management of roads in rainforest environments. This manual has been created to assist in reducing the main impacts of roads, which are primarily: • Habitat loss and fragmentation; • Reduction in habitat quality; • Edge effects; • Reduced animal movements, resulting in restricted genetic flows and diminished survival rates in some species; • Population reduction through road kill of wildlife species; • Erosion, sedimentation and pollution; • Impacts on scenic quality; • Disturbance from vehicular noise, headlights and movement; • Facilitation of the spread of exotic pests, • weeds and diseases; and • Direct mortality from road construction activities. Cumulatively, these impacts threaten the biodiversity and integrity of ecosystem processes throughout Queensland’s tropical forests. It is therefore imperative that current and future road infrastructure be designed with consideration of these factors within the context of the natural environment. This document provides a set of principles and supporting guidelines for implementing best practice planning, design and management for ecologically sustainable roads within rainforests throughout Queensland. The intention of these Guidelines is to describe the particular aspects of rainforest environments that are unique and thus require particular consideration when designing and constructing roads in these habitats. Therefore, these Guidelines were specifically developed to: • Inform planners, engineers and managers about the key ecological elements (Principles) to consider when building roads in rainforest environments; • Identify the most important issues to consider when planning, designing and implementing plans for road infrastructure so that the impacts to the primary ecological elements of rainforests are minimised. Each major issue is clarified within its own ‘Guideline’; and • Provide a set of steps and checklists within each Guideline to ensure that the core Principles are maintained throughout the different phases of planning, design and construction

GluN2B and GluN2D NMDARs dominate synaptic responses in the adult spinal cord

The composition of the postsynaptic ionotropic receptors that receive presynaptically released transmitter is critical not only for transducing and integrating electrical signals but also for coordinating downstream biochemical signaling pathways. At glutamatergic synapses in the adult CNS an overwhelming body of evidence indicates that the NMDA receptor (NMDAR) component of synaptic responses is dominated by NMDARs containing the GluN2A subunit, while NMDARs containing GluN2B, GluN2C, or GluN2D play minor roles in synaptic transmission. Here, we discovered NMDAR-mediated synaptic responses with characteristics not described elsewhere in the adult CNS. We found that GluN2A-containing receptors contribute little to synaptic NMDAR responses while GluN2B dominates at synapses of lamina I neurons in the adult spinal cord. In addition, we provide evidence for a GluN2D-mediated synaptic NMDAR component in adult lamina I neurons. Strikingly, the charge transfer mediated by GluN2D far exceeds that of GluN2A and is comparable to that of GluN2B. Lamina I forms a disti

Narrowband Searches for Continuous and Long-duration Transient Gravitational Waves from Known Pulsars in the LIGO-Virgo Third Observing Run

Isolated neutron stars that are asymmetric with respect to their spin axis are possible sources of detectable continuous gravitational waves. This paper presents a fully coherent search for such signals from eighteen pulsars in data from LIGO and Virgo's third observing run (O3). For known pulsars, efficient and sensitive matched-filter searches can be carried out if one assumes the gravitational radiation is phase-locked to the electromagnetic emission. In the search presented here, we relax this assumption and allow both the frequency and the time derivative of the frequency of the gravitational waves to vary in a small range around those inferred from electromagnetic observations. We find no evidence for continuous gravitational waves, and set upper limits on the strain amplitude for each target. These limits are more constraining for seven of the targets than the spin-down limit defined by ascribing all rotational energy loss to gravitational radiation. In an additional search, we look in O3 data for long-duration (hours-months) transient gravitational waves in the aftermath of pulsar glitches for six targets with a total of nine glitches. We report two marginal outliers from this search, but find no clear evidence for such emission either. The resulting duration-dependent strain upper limits do not surpass indirect energy constraints for any of these targets. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society

Roads in Rainforest: science behind the guidelines

[Extract] This document summarises scientific findings to date which support the Principles and Guidelines\ud outlined in Part A Roads in Rainforest: Best Practice Guidelines for planning, design and\ud management (the Guidelines).\ud \ud References to Part B (this document) are included throughout the Guidelines and it is recommended\ud that the two documents be read together.\ud \ud In addition to a comprehensive list of References (page 45) supporting this science background\ud document, further literature is highlighted in ‘Further Reading’ (page 55) that is relevant to the\ud planning, design and management of roads in the tropical rainforest regions of northern Australia\ud and can provide further information to roads planners, designers and managers

Nucleic acid hybridizations as radioactive tool for rapid detection of banana bunchy top virus

Banana bunchy top disease (BBTD) caused by banana bunchy top virus (BBTV) was radioactively detected by nucleic acid hybridization techniques. Results showed that, 32P-labelled insert of pBT338 was hybridized with nucleic acid extracts from BBTV-infected plants from Egypt and Australia but not with those from CMV-infected plants from Egypt. Results revealed that BBTV was greatly detected in midrib, roots, meristem, corm, leaves and pseudostem respectively. BBTV was also detected in symptomless young plants prepared from diseased plant materials grown under tissue culture conditions but was not present in those performed from healthy plant materials. The sensitivity of dot blot and Southern blot hybridizations for the detection of BBTV was also performed for the detection of BBTV

Detection of banana bunchy top virus in virus-infected plants using polymerase chain reaction

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was developed for the detection of Banana bunchy top virus (BBTV) at maximum after 210 min and at minimum after 90 min using Pc-1 and Pc-2, respectively. PCR detection of BBTV in crude sap indicated that the freezing of banana tissue in liquid nitrogen (LN2) before extraction was more effective than using sand as the extraction technique. BBTV was also detected using PCR assay in 69 healthy and diseased plants using Na-PO4 buffer containing 1 % SDS. PCR detection of BBTV in nucleic acid extracts using seven different extraction buffers to adapt the use of PCR in routine detection in the field was studied. Results proved that BBTV was detected with high sensitivity in nucleic acid extracts more than in infectious sap. The results also suggested the common aetiology for the BBTV by the PCR reactions of BBTV in nucleic acid extracts from Australia, Burundi, Egypt, France, Gabon, Philippines and Taiwan. Results also proved a positive relation between the Egyptian-BBTV isolate and abaca bunchy top isolate from the Philippines, but there no relation was found with the Cucumber mosaic cucumovirus (CMV) isolates from Egypt and Philippines and Banana bract mosaic virus (BBMV) were found

A Cultural and Conservation Economy for Northern Australia

This report presents the outcomes of a collaborative research project to test the applicability of the concept of a ‘conservation economy’ in Australia, and the relevance of the ‘Ecotrust model’ to foster the emergence of such an economy. The specific objectives of the study were:\ud \ud * To investigate and report on the relevance of the concept of Ecotrust Canada’s ‘conservation economy’ model for Indigenous and rural sustainable community development in Australia, particularly in Northern Australia.\ud \ud * To investigate and report on the opportunities and any limitations within the current Australian institutional settings, particularly of Northern Australia, that would affect the application of the principles and components of Ecotrust Canada’s model.\u

Kinetics and intracellular pathways required for major histocompatibility complex II–peptide loading and surface expression of a fluorescent hapten-protein conjugate in murine macrophage

A fluorescent antigen, FITC10BSA, that is sensitive to several of the biochemical processes involved in antigen processing was constructed. In combination with both flow cytometry and subcellular fractionation, the unique probe provided new details regarding the kinetics and intracellular pathways involved in antigen processing in murine macrophage. These studies suggested that macrophage utilized multiple vesicles as opposed to a few specific organelles for major histocompatibility complex (MHC) type II–peptide loading and transport. Although newly formed MHC II–peptide complexes were detected in cathepsin D-positive, lysosomal associated membrane glycoprotein (LAMP-1)-positive lysosomes, MHC II–peptide loading also occurred in transferrin receptor-positive endosomes. Interestingly, MHC II-fluoresceinated complexes were only observed in transferrin receptor-positive organelles as opposed to MHC II-unlabelled peptide complexes which were detected in traditional early lysosomal compartments. More importantly, MHC II–peptide complexes were monitored in light transferrin receptor-positive fractions following their initial appearance in dense endosomal/lysosomal fractions. Control experiments suggested that these complexes represented intermediates in the process of migrating to the cell surface through a retrograde pathway within the macrophage