Win-Win for Wind and Wildlife: A Vision to Facilitate Sustainable Development

Wind energy offers the potential to reduce carbon emissions while increasing energy independence and bolstering economic development. However, wind energy has a larger land footprint per Gigawatt (GW) than most other forms of energy production, making appropriate siting and mitigation particularly important. Species that require large unfragmented habitats and those known to avoid vertical structures are particularly at risk from wind development. Developing energy on disturbed lands rather than placing new developments within large and intact habitats would reduce cumulative impacts to wildlife. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that it will take 241 GW of terrestrial based wind development on approximately 5 million hectares to reach 20% electricity production for the U.S. by 2030. We estimate there are ∼7,700 GW of potential wind energy available across the U.S., with ∼3,500 GW on disturbed lands. In addition, a disturbance-focused development strategy would avert the development of ∼2.3 million hectares of undisturbed lands while generating the same amount of energy as development based solely on maximizing wind potential. Wind subsidies targeted at favoring low-impact developments and creating avoidance and mitigation requirements that raise the costs for projects impacting sensitive lands could improve public value for both wind energy and biodiversity conservation

Antibacterial properties of tualang honey and its effect in burn wound management: a comparative study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The use of honey as a natural product of <it>Apis </it>spp. for burn treatment has been widely applied for centuries. Tualang honey has been reported to have antibacterial properties against various microorganisms, including those from burn-related diagnoses, and is cheaper and easier to be absorbed by Aquacel dressing. The aim of this study is to evaluate the potential antibacterial properties of tualang honey dressing and to determine its effectiveness as a partial thickness burn wound dressing.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In order to quantitate the bioburden of the swabs, pour plates were performed to obtain the colony count (CFU/ml). Swabs obtained from burn wounds were streaked on blood agar and MacConkey agar for bacterial isolation and identification. Later, antibacterial activity of Aquacel-tualang honey, Aquacel-Manuka honey, Aquacel-Ag and Aquacel- plain dressings against bacteria isolated from patients were tested (<it>in-vitro</it>) to see the effectiveness of those dressings by zone of inhibition assays.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Seven organisms were isolated. Four types of Gram-negative bacteria, namely <it>Enterobacter cloacae</it>, <it>Klebsiella pneumoniae</it>, <it>Pseudomonas </it>spp. and <it>Acinetobacter </it>spp., and three Gram-positive bacteria, namely <it>Staphylococcus aureus</it>, coagulase-negative <it>Staphylococcus aureus </it>(CONS) and <it>Streptococcus </it>spp., were isolated. Total bacterial count decreased on day 6 and onwards. In the <it>in-vitro </it>antibacterial study, Aquacel-Ag and Aquacel-Manuka honey dressings gave better zone of inhibition for Gram positive bacteria compared to Aquacel-Tualang honey dressing. However, comparable results were obtained against Gram negative bacteria tested with Aquacel-Manuka honey and Aquacel-Tualang honey dressing.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Tualang honey has a bactericidal as well as bacteriostatic effect. It is useful as a dressing, as it is easier to apply and is less sticky compared to Manuka honey. However, for Gram positive bacteria, tualang honey is not as effective as usual care products such as silver-based dressing or medical grade honey dressing.</p

Homeobox Transcription Factors Are Required for Conidiation and Appressorium Development in the Rice Blast Fungus Magnaporthe oryzae

The appropriate development of conidia and appressoria is critical in the disease cycle of many fungal pathogens, including Magnaporthe oryzae. A total of eight genes (MoHOX1 to MoHOX8) encoding putative homeobox transcription factors (TFs) were identified from the M. oryzae genome. Knockout mutants for each MoHOX gene were obtained via homology-dependent gene replacement. Two mutants, ΔMohox3 and ΔMohox5, exhibited no difference to wild-type in growth, conidiation, conidium size, conidial germination, appressorium formation, and pathogenicity. However, the ΔMohox1 showed a dramatic reduction in hyphal growth and increase in melanin pigmentation, compared to those in wild-type. ΔMohox4 and ΔMohox6 showed significantly reduced conidium size and hyphal growth, respectively. ΔMohox8 formed normal appressoria, but failed in pathogenicity, probably due to defects in the development of penetration peg and invasive growth. It is most notable that asexual reproduction was completely abolished in ΔMohox2, in which no conidia formed. ΔMohox2 was still pathogenic through hypha-driven appressoria in a manner similar to that of the wild-type. However, ΔMohox7 was unable to form appressoria either on conidial germ tubes, or at hyphal tips, being non-pathogenic. These factors indicate that M. oryzae is able to cause foliar disease via hyphal appressorium-mediated penetration, and MoHOX7 is mutually required to drive appressorium formation from hyphae and germ tubes. Transcriptional analyses suggest that the functioning of M. oryzae homeobox TFs is mediated through the regulation of gene expression and is affected by cAMP and Ca2+ signaling and/or MAPK pathways. The divergent roles of this gene set may help reveal how the genome and regulatory pathways evolved within the rice blast pathogen and close relatives

Feedback-regulated degradation of the transcriptional activator Met4 is triggered by the SCF(Met30) complex

Saccharomyces cerevisiae SCF(Met30) ubiquitin–protein ligase controls cell cycle function and sulfur amino acid metabolism. We report here that the SCF(Met30) complex mediates the transcriptional repression of the MET gene network by triggering degradation of the transcriptional activator Met4p when intracellular S–adenosylmethionine (AdoMet) increases. This AdoMet-induced Met4p degradation is dependent upon the 26S proteasome function. Unlike Met4p, the other components of the specific transcriptional activation complexes that are assembled upstream of the MET genes do not appear to be regulated at the protein level. We provide evidence that the interaction between Met4p and the F-box protein Met30p occurs irrespective of the level of intracellular AdoMet, suggesting that the timing of Met4p degradation is not controlled by its interaction with the SCF(Met30) complex. We also demonstrate that Met30p is a short-lived protein, which localizes within the nucleus. Furthermore, transcription of the MET30 gene is regulated by intracellular AdoMet levels and is dependent upon the Met4p transcription activation function. Thus Met4p appears to control its own degradation by regulating the amount of assembled SCF(Met30) ubiquitin ligase