Applying the self-determination theory (SDT) to explain the levels of motivation for adopting green building

Adopting green building requires a lot of motivation due to the litany of challenges involved. Consequently, many previous studies have investigated the motivation for adopting green building. Insights from motivation theories from the field of psychology such as goal-setting theory and expectancy theory suggest that the previous studies emphasized only on the goal or intention of motivation. While this is correct, the motivation for adopting green building also encompasses ‘levels of motivation’ based on another theory from the field of psychology – the self-determination theory (SDT) of motivation. Hence, what are the levels of motivation for adopting green building? What is the implication of the levels of motivation for the design of policy for motivating the adoption of green building? Through extensive literature review, this study uses insights from the SDT of motivation to answer these questions. By doing so, this study helps to form a newer understanding of the motivation for adopting green building. Specifically, this study provides the knowledge of the levels of motivation for adopting green building to individual and organizational level building stakeholders in the building sector, and how the public authorities can design policies to influence the respective levels of motivation

iCLIP of the PIWI Protein Aubergine in Drosophila Embryos.

International audiencePiwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) are a class of small noncoding RNAs bound to specific Argonaute proteins, the PIWI proteins. piRNAs target mRNAs by complementarity to silence them; they play an important role in the repression of transposable elements in the germ line of many species. piRNAs and PIWI proteins are also involved in diverse biological processes through their role in the regulation of cellular mRNAs. In the Drosophila embryo, they contribute to the maternal mRNA decay occurring during the maternal-to-zygotic transition. CLIP (UV cross-linking and immunoprecipitation) techniques have been used to identify target mRNAs of Argonaute proteins. Here we describe the iCLIP (individual-nucleotide resolution CLIP) protocol that we have adapted for the PIWI protein Aubergine in Drosophila embryos

Polycaprolactone scaffold as targeted drug delivery system and cell attachment scaffold for postsurgical care of limb salvage

10.1007/s13346-012-0096-9Drug Delivery and Translational Research24272-28

MIWI and piRNA-mediated cleavage of messenger RNAs in mouse testes

The piRNA machinery is known for its role in mediating epigenetic silencing of transposons. Recent studies suggest that this function also involves piRNA-guided cleavage of transposon-derived transcripts. As many piRNAs also appear to have the capacity to target diverse mRNAs, this raises the intriguing possibility that piRNAs may act extensively as siRNAs to degrade specific mRNAs. To directly test this hypothesis, we compared mouse PIWI (MIWI)-associated piRNAs with experimentally identified cleaved mRNA fragments from mouse testes, and observed cleavage sites that predominantly occur at position 10 from the 5′ end of putative targeting piRNAs. We also noted strong biases for U and A residues at nucleotide positions 1 and 10, respectively, in both piRNAs and mRNA fragments, features that resemble the pattern of piRNA amplification by the 'ping-pong' cycle. Through mapping of MIWI-RNA interactions by CLIP-seq and gene expression profiling, we found that many potential piRNA-targeted mRNAs directly interact with MIWI and show elevated expression levels in the testes of Miwi catalytic mutant mice. Reporter-based assays further revealed the importance of base pairing between piRNAs and mRNA targets and the requirement for both the slicer activity and piRNA-loading ability of MIWI in piRNA-mediated target repression. Importantly, we demonstrated that proper turnover of certain key piRNA targets is essential for sperm formation. Together, these findings reveal the siRNA-like function of the piRNA machinery in mouse testes and its central requirement for male germ cell development and maturation