Do Architects Draw Trees? – Shifting the Perception of Urban Landscape Form

Architects are beginning to embrace the notion of landscape and,moreover, to acknowledge the conceptual scope of a dynamic and creative synthesis of ecology and materiality. In so doing, the conception that architects could not (or should not) draw a tree, is being consigned to the landfill site of antiquated practice. There is an increasing acceptance amongst planners, urban designers and governments that the greening of urbanity is necessary to, and indicative of, a viable, sustainable future. However, whether or not the traditional design rationale (modernism) delivers the necessary innovative outcomes is open to question. The visual homogenization of urban developments within our cities is symptomatic of both hackneyed design orthodoxies and a tokenistic approach to sustainable practice. Advocates of ‘landscape urbanism’ (Waldheim, et al 2006) offer a more progressive supposition for change, such as the use of natural processes to engender ecological diversity. However, in reality the paradigm shift necessary for redefining the nature of ‘acceptable’ spatial and structural constituents, within urban developments, is a challenging process. The paper debates the proposition that traditional design values and practice contribute to the fragmented adoption of genuine sustainable ecological applications within the urban landscape. It contends that rather than enriching, civilizing and sustaining urbanity; the reliance on time-honoured practices contributes to the establishment of bland and fundamentally unsustainable public spaces. As the demarcation between landscape and architecture becomes less profound the role of ecology is also viewed as integral to ‘placeness’. The fusion of spatial form and ecology serves as a valuable addition to sustainable development. Whilst grass roofs and living walls are examples of this, a more proactive approach to bridging the cavity between the aspiration of greener urbanity and its successful implementation is urgently required. The complex or ‘wicked’ problems that hinder sustainable innovation have in part led to the reliance on unchallenged prevailing design traditions. For any urban development to maximise its claim to sustainability, architects, landscape designers and planners need to demonstrate a more dispassionate approach to implementing change

Nanotubes: Shaking Hands, Talking, or Sharing?

A commentary on Intercellular nanotubes mediate bacterial communication by Dubey, G. P., and Ben-Yehuda, S. (2011). Cell 144, 590–600. Modern bacteriology was transformed by the ability to cultivate and grow pure cultures of organisms on media, which enabled the detailed and mechanistic study of physiology, biochemistry, and genetics. Whilst this reductionist approach was absolutely necessary to allow the molecular dissection and description of the fundamental processes of life, this mono-cultural focus meant that, until fairly recently, naturally occurring bacterial communities – complex, often multi-species populations – were the subject of less intensive study. Of course, that has all changed in the last few years. How microbes interact with members of their own species and those around them in a biofilm is one of the most exciting areas of microbiological research (Bassler an

Restricted cell elongation in Arabidopsis hypocotyls is associated with a reduced average pectin esterification level

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cell elongation is mainly limited by the extensibility of the cell wall. Dicotyledonous primary (growing) cell walls contain cellulose, xyloglucan, pectin and proteins, but little is known about how each polymer class contributes to the cell wall mechanical properties that control extensibility.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We present evidence that the degree of pectin methyl-esterification (DE%) limits cell growth, and that a minimum level of about 60% DE is required for normal cell elongation in <it>Arabidopsis </it>hypocotyls. When the average DE% falls below this level, as in two gibberellic acid (GA) mutants <it>ga1-3 </it>and <it>gai</it>, and plants expressing pectin methyl-esterase (<it>PME1</it>) from <it>Aspergillus aculeatus</it>, then hypocotyl elongation is reduced.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Low average levels of pectin DE% are associated with reduced cell elongation, implicating PMEs, the enzymes that regulate DE%, in the cell elongation process and in responses to GA. At high average DE% other components of the cell wall limit GA-induced growth.</p

Systematic Genetic Nomenclature for Type VII Secretion Systems

CITATION: Bitter, W., et al. 2009. Systematic genetic nomenclature for type VII secretion systems. PLoS Pathogens, 5(10): 1-6, doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1000507.The original publication is available at http://journals.plos.org/plospathogensMycobacteria, such as the etiological agent of human tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, are protected by an impermeable cell envelope composed of an inner cytoplasmic membrane, a peptidoglycan layer, an arabinogalactan layer, and an outer membrane. This second membrane consists of covalently linked, tightly packed long-chain mycolic acids [1,2] and noncovalently bound shorter lipids involved in pathogenicity [3–5]. To ensure protein transport across this complex cell envelope, mycobacteria use various secretion pathways, such as the SecA1-mediated general secretory pathway [6,7], an alternative SecA2-operated pathway [8], a twin-arginine translocation system [9,10], and a specialized secretion pathway variously named ESAT-6-, SNM-, ESX-, or type VII secretion [11–16]. The latter pathway, hereafter referred to as type VII secretion (T7S), has recently become a large and competitive research topic that is closely linked to studies of host–pathogen interactions of M. tuberculosis [17] and other pathogenic mycobacteria [16]. Molecular details are just beginning to be revealed [18–22] showing that T7S systems are complex machineries with multiple components and multiple substrates. Despite their biological importance, there has been a lack of a clear naming policy for the components and substrates of these systems. As there are multiple paralogous T7S systems within the Mycobacteria and orthologous systems in related bacteria, we are concerned that, without a unified nomenclature system, a multitude of redundant and obscure gene names will be used that will inevitably lead to confusion and hinder future progress. In this opinion piece we will therefore propose and introduce a systematic nomenclature with guidelines for name selection of new components that will greatly facilitate communication and understanding in this rapidly developing field of research.http://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.ppat.1000507Publisher's versio

The development and validation of a scoring tool to predict the operative duration of elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Background: The ability to accurately predict operative duration has the potential to optimise theatre efficiency and utilisation, thus reducing costs and increasing staff and patient satisfaction. With laparoscopic cholecystectomy being one of the most commonly performed procedures worldwide, a tool to predict operative duration could be extremely beneficial to healthcare organisations. Methods: Data collected from the CholeS study on patients undergoing cholecystectomy in UK and Irish hospitals between 04/2014 and 05/2014 were used to study operative duration. A multivariable binary logistic regression model was produced in order to identify significant independent predictors of long (> 90 min) operations. The resulting model was converted to a risk score, which was subsequently validated on second cohort of patients using ROC curves. Results: After exclusions, data were available for 7227 patients in the derivation (CholeS) cohort. The median operative duration was 60 min (interquartile range 45–85), with 17.7% of operations lasting longer than 90 min. Ten factors were found to be significant independent predictors of operative durations > 90 min, including ASA, age, previous surgical admissions, BMI, gallbladder wall thickness and CBD diameter. A risk score was then produced from these factors, and applied to a cohort of 2405 patients from a tertiary centre for external validation. This returned an area under the ROC curve of 0.708 (SE = 0.013, p  90 min increasing more than eightfold from 5.1 to 41.8% in the extremes of the score. Conclusion: The scoring tool produced in this study was found to be significantly predictive of long operative durations on validation in an external cohort. As such, the tool may have the potential to enable organisations to better organise theatre lists and deliver greater efficiencies in care

The Evolution of the Boka Kotorska as a Sustainable Ecological Entity

Purpose This study focuses on the development of the Boka Kotorska region of Montenegro. As such it attempts to analyse the viability of sustainable growth in the region and the potential role of vernacular architecture and ecology as contributory components to achieving genuine sustainable growth within the region. The development of the tourist industry within the region is a key element within the overall strategy for sustainable growth. This has obvious implications for the urban development of the case study area as uncontrolled deregulated expansion threatens the future viability of sustainable growth. By analysing this case study we aim to highlight the key areas of concern relating to sustainable spatial development. Design/methodology/approach We propose and approach that reviews the fundamental elements to the establishment of viable sustainable spatial development within the Boka Kotorska that adopts qualitative analysis of contemporary sustainable practice and traditional conventions. This provides the elements for discussion and possibility of creative solutions to the goal of ecologically inspired design models. Originality/value This paper seeks to address some of the fundamental issues relating to the often disjointed relationship between rhetoric and design practice. The study identifies the potential for this region to act as a benchmark of enlightened practice and also critically, highlights many of the issues associated with lost opportunities. The spatial design stakeholders are committed to genuine sustainable innovation. However, the adopted methodologies are often a source of dispute and open to interpretation and occasionally misrepresentation. Accordingly, our findings can be viewed as contribution to viable design strategies and implementation through identifying tangible benchmarks for a more ecological approach to spatial and architectural urban growth. Practical implications The objective of a more ecologically inspired approach to an enlarged tourist sector contrasting with over developed neighbouring states, exists against the backdrop of governmental goals of attracting direct foreign investment and the aspiration of future EU accession. Accordingly, the analysis of case studies on a micro scale highlighted in this paper should be observed as a foundation for sustainable economic growth at a macro level. Consequently the primary focus of macro development should be based on the practical adoption of micro level innovation methodologies and design templates

Tipping the balance between replicative and simple transposition

The bacterial insertion sequence IS903 has the unusual ability to transpose both replicatively and non-replicatively. The majority of products are simple insertions, while co-integrates, the product of replicative transposition, occur at a low frequency (<0.1% of simple insertions). In order to define the critical steps that determine the outcome of IS903 transposition, we have isolated mutants that specifically increase the rate of replicative transposition. Here we show that the nucleotide immediately flanking the transposon influences both overall transposition frequency and co-integrate formation. In particular, when the 3′-flanking nucleotide is A, co-integrates are increased 500-fold compared with a 3′ C. In addition, we have isolated five transposase mutants that increase replicative transposition. These residues are close to the catalytic residues and are thus likely to be part of the active site. These are the first transposase mutations described that affect the product of transposition. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that a delay in cleavage of the 5′-flanking DNA will increase the effective half-life of the 3′-nicked transposon intermediate and consequently enhance co-integrate formation