Domestication to crop improvement: Genetic resources for sorghum and saccharum (Andropogoneae)

Background Both sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) and sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) are members of the Andropogoneae tribe in the Poaceae and are each other's closest relatives amongst cultivated plants. Both are relatively recent domesticates and comparatively little of the genetic potential of these taxa and their wild relatives has been captured by breeding programmes to date. This review assesses the genetic gains made by plant breeders since domestication and the progress in the characterization of genetic resources and their utilization in crop improvement for these two related species. Genetic Resources The genome of sorghum has recently been sequenced providing a great boost to our knowledge of the evolution of grass genomes and the wealth of diversity within S. bicolor taxa. Molecular analysis of the Sorghum genus has identified close relatives of S. bicolor with novel traits, endosperm structure and composition that may be used to expand the cultivated gene pool. Mutant populations (including TILLING populations) provide a useful addition to genetic resources for this species. Sugarcane is a complex polyploid with a large and variable number of copies of each gene. The wild relatives of sugarcane represent a reservoir of genetic diversity for use in sugarcane improvement. Techniques for quantitative molecular analysis of gene or allele copy number in this genetically complex crop have been developed. SNP discovery and mapping in sugarcane has been advanced by the development of high-throughput techniques for ecoTILLING in sugarcane. Genetic linkage maps of the sugarcane genome are being improved for use in breeding selection. The improvement of both sorghum and sugarcane will be accelerated by the incorporation of more diverse germplasm into the domesticated gene pools using molecular tools and the improved knowledge of these genomes.

Responsibility to Protect and Sovereignty

The responsibility to protect ('R2P') principle articulates the obligations of the international community to prevent conflict occurring, to intervene in conflicts, and to assist in rebuilding after conflicts. The doctrine is about protecting civilians in armed conflicts from four mass atrocity crimes: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. This book examines interventions in East Timor, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Kosovo. The chapters explore and question UN debates with respect to the doctrine both before and after its adoption in 2005; contrasting state attitudes to international military intervention; and what takes place after intervention. It also discusses the ability of the Security Council to access reliable information and credible and transparent processes to enable it to make a determination on the occurrence of atrocities in a Member State. Questioning whether there is a need to find a closer operational link between the responsibilities to prevent and react and a normative link between R2P and principles of international law, the contributions examine the effectiveness of the framework of R2P for international decision-making in response to mass atrocity crimes and ask how an international system to deal with threats and mass atrocities can be developed in the absence of a central authority. This book will be valuable to those interested in international law, human rights, and security, peace and conflict studies

Designing university, government and industry community engagement to build informed and effective interventions in the area of road safety

Individuals, community organisations and industry have always been involved to varying degrees in efforts to address the Queensland road toll. Traditionally, road crash prevention efforts have been led by state and local government organisations. While community and industry groups have sometimes become involved (e.g. Driver Reviver campaign), their efforts have largely been uncoordinated and under-resourced. A common strength of these initiatives lies in the energy, enthusiasm and persistence of community-based efforts. Conversely, a weakness has sometimes been the lack of knowledge, awareness or prioritisation of evidence-based interventions or their capacity to build on collaborative efforts. In 2000, the Queensland University of Technology’s Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety – Queensland (CARRS-Q) identified this issue as an opportunity to bridge practice and research and began acknowledging a selection of these initiatives, in partnership with the RACQ, through the Queensland Road Safety Awards program. After nine years it became apparent there was need to strengthen this connection, with the Centre establishing a Community Engagement Workshop in 2009 as part of the overall Awards program. With an aim of providing community participants opportunities to see, hear and discuss the experiences of others, this event was further developed in 2010, and with the collaboration of the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads, the RACQ, Queensland Police Service and Leighton Contractors Pty Ltd, a stand-alone Queensland Road Safety Awards Community Engagement Workshop was held in 2010. Each collaborating organisation recognised a need to mobilise the community through effective information and knowledge sharing, and recognised that learning and discussion can influence lasting behaviour change and action in this often emotive, yet not always evidence-based, area. This free event featured a number of speakers representing successful projects from around Australia and overseas. Attendees were encouraged to interact with the speakers, to ask questions, and most importantly, build connections with other attendees to build a ‘community road safety army’ all working throughout Australia on projects underpinned by evaluated research. The workshop facilitated the integration of research, policy and grass-roots action enhancing the success of community road safety initiatives. For collaboration partners, the event enabled them to transfer their knowledge in an engaged approach, working within a more personal communication process. An analysis of the success factors for this event identified openness to community groups and individuals, relevance of content to local initiatives, generous support with the provision of online materials and ongoing communication with key staff members as critical and supports the view that the university can directly provide both the leadership and the research needed for effective and credible community-based initiatives to address injury and death on the roads.

The Global Youth Media Council : young people speaking and learning about media reform

The 5th World Summit on Media for Children and Youth held in Karlstad, Sweden in June 2010 provided a unique media literacy experience for approximately thirty young people from diverse backgrounds through participation in the Global Youth Media Council. This article focuses on the Summit’s aim to give young people a ‘voice’ through intercultural dialogue about media reform. The accounts of four young Australians are discussed in order to consider how successful the Summit was in achieving this goal. The article concludes by making recommendations for future international media literacy conferences involving young people. It also advocates for the expansion of the Global Youth Media Council concept as a grass roots movement to involve more young people in discussions about media reform.

International law and the regulation of violence : shifting perceptions of the legitimacy of the jus ad bellum?

International law’s capacity to influence state behaviour by regulating recourse to violence has been a longstanding source of debate among international lawyers and political scientists. On the one hand, sceptics assert that frequent violations of the prohibition on the use of force have rendered article 2(4) of the UN Charter redundant. They contend that national self-interest, rather than international law, is the key determinant of state behaviour regarding the use of force. On the other hand, defenders of article 2(4) argue first, that most states comply with the Charter framework, and second, that state rhetoric continues to acknowledge the existence of the jus ad bellum. In particular, the fact that violators go to considerable lengths to offer legal or factual justifications for their conduct – typically by relying on the right of self-defence – is advanced as evidence that the prohibition on the use of force retains legitimacy in the eyes of states. This paper identifies two potentially significant features of state practice since 2006 which may signal a shift in states’ perceptions of the normative authority of article 2(4). The first aspect is the recent failure by several states to offer explicit legal justifications for their use or force, or to report action taken in self-defence to the Security Council in accordance with Article 51. Four incidents linked to the global “war on terror” are examined here: Israeli airstrikes in Syria in 2007 and in Sudan in 2009, Turkey’s 2006-2008 incursions into northern Iraq, and Ethiopia’s 2006 intervention in Somalia. The second, more troubling feature is the international community’s apparent lack of concern over the legality of these incidents. Each use of force is difficult to reconcile with the strict requirements of the jus ad bellum; yet none attracted genuine legal scrutiny or debate among other states. While it is too early to conclude that these relatively minor incidents presage long term shifts in state practice, viewed together the two developments identified here suggest a possible downgrading of the role of international law in discussions over the use of force, at least in conflicts linked to the “war on terror”. This, in turn, may represent a declining perception of the normative authority of the jus ad bellum, and a concomitant admission of the limits of international law in regulating violence.

Systematics of the Ustilago-Sporisorium-Macalpinomyces complex of smut fungi

Smut fungi are important pathogens of grasses, including the cultivated crops maize, sorghum and sugarcane. Typically, smut fungi infect the inflorescence of their host plants. Three genera of smut fungi (Ustilago, Sporisorium and Macalpinomyces) form a complex with overlapping morphological characters, making species placement problematic. For example, the newly described Macalpinomyces mackinlayi possesses a combination of morphological characters such that it cannot be unambiguously accommodated in any of the three genera. Previous attempts to define Ustilago, Sporisorium and Macalpinomyces using morphology and molecular phylogenetics have highlighted the polyphyletic nature of the genera, but have failed to produce a satisfactory taxonomic resolution. A detailed systematic study of 137 smut species in the Ustilago-Sporisorium- Macalpinomyces complex was completed in the current work. Morphological and DNA sequence data from five loci were assessed with maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference to reconstruct a phylogeny of the complex. The phylogenetic hypotheses generated were used to identify morphological synapomorphies, some of which had previously been dismissed as a useful way to delimit the complex. These synapomorphic characters are the basis for a revised taxonomic classification of the Ustilago-Sporisorium-Macalpinomyces complex, which takes into account their morphological diversity and coevolution with their grass hosts. The new classification is based on a redescription of the type genus Sporisorium, and the establishment of four genera, described from newly recognised monophyletic groups, to accommodate species expelled from Sporisorium. Over 150 taxonomic combinations have been proposed as an outcome of this investigation, which makes a rigorous and objective contribution to the fungal systematics of these important plant pathogens.

Comparing the cost-effectiveness of MRSA control strategies between ICU and non-ICU settings

Introduction / objectives Many strategies are used to control MRSA in hospitals. Only a few have been assessed in clinical trials and it is not obvious how findings should be generalised between settings. Uncertainty remains about which strategies represent the most appropriate use of scarce resources. We assess the cost-effectiveness of alternative MRSA screening and infection control strategies in England and Wales and discuss international relevance. Methods Models of MRSA transmission in ICUs and general medical (GM) wards were developed and used to evaluate different screening methods combined with decolonisation or isolation. Strategies were compared in terms of costs and health benefits (quality adjusted life years, QALYs). Different prevalences, proportions of high risk patients and ward sizes were investigated, and probabilistic sensitivity analyses (PSA) conducted. Results Decolonisation strategies were cost-saving in ICUs at a 5% admission prevalence, with admission and weekly PCR screening the most cost-effective (£3,929/QALY). In ICUs, screening and isolation reduced infection rates by ~10%. With admission prevalence ≤5%, targeting screening and isolation to high risk patients was optimal. In GM wards decolonisation and isolation strategies, though able to reduce MRSA infection rates up to ~50%, were not cost-effective. Conclusion The largest reductions in MRSA infection were achieved by screening and decolonisation strategies, and were cost-effective in ICU settings. In comparison, there is limited potential for screening and control strategies to be cost-effective in GM wards due to lower infection and mortality rates.

An Introduction to Political Communication, 5th Edition

An Introduction to Political Communication introduces students to the complex relationship between politics, the media and democracy in the United Kingdom, United States and other contemporary societies. Brian McNair examines how politicians, trade unions, pressure groups, NGOs and terrorist organisations make use of the media. Individual chapters look at political media and their effects, the work of political advertising, marketing and public relations, and the communicative practices of organizations at all levels, from grass-root campaigning through to governments and international bodies. This fifth edition has been revised and updated to include: • the 2008 US presidential election, and the early years of Barack Obama’s term • the MPs’ expenses scandal in Britain, and the 2010 UK election campaign • the growing role of bloggers and online pundits such as Guido Fawkes in the political agenda setting process • the emergence of social media platforms such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, and their destabiising impact on the management of political crises all over the world, including the Iranian pro-reform protests of July 2009 and the Israeli atack on the anti-blockade flotilla of May 2010 • the growing power of Wikileaks and other online information sources to challenge state control of classified information

Statistical modelling of wind effects on signal propagation for wireless sensor networks

A wireless sensor network system must have the ability to tolerate harsh environmental conditions and reduce communication failures. In a typical outdoor situation, the presence of wind can introduce movement in the foliage. This motion of vegetation structures causes large and rapid signal fading in the communication link and must be accounted for when deploying a wireless sensor network system in such conditions. This thesis examines the fading characteristics experienced by wireless sensor nodes due to the effect of varying wind speed in a foliage obstructed transmission path. It presents extensive measurement campaigns at two locations with the approach of a typical wireless sensor networks configuration. The significance of this research lies in the varied approaches of its different experiments, involving a variety of vegetation types, scenarios and the use of different polarisations (vertical and horizontal). Non–line of sight (NLoS) scenario conditions investigate the wind effect based on different vegetation densities including that of the Acacia tree, Dogbane tree and tall grass. Whereas the line of sight (LoS) scenario investigates the effect of wind when the grass is swaying and affecting the ground-reflected component of the signal. Vegetation type and scenarios are envisaged to simulate real life working conditions of wireless sensor network systems in outdoor foliated environments. The results from the measurements are presented in statistical models involving first and second order statistics. We found that in most of the cases, the fading amplitude could be approximated by both Lognormal and Nakagami distribution, whose m parameter was found to depend on received power fluctuations. Lognormal distribution is known as the result of slow fading characteristics due to shadowing. This study concludes that fading caused by variations in received power due to wind in wireless sensor networks systems are found to be insignificant. There is no notable difference in Nakagami m values for low, calm, and windy wind speed categories. It is also shown in the second order analysis, the duration of the deep fades are very short, 0.1 second for 10 dB attenuation below RMS level for vertical polarization and 0.01 second for 10 dB attenuation below RMS level for horizontal polarization. Another key finding is that the received signal strength for horizontal polarisation demonstrates more than 3 dB better performances than the vertical polarisation for LoS and near LoS (thin vegetation) conditions and up to 10 dB better for denser vegetation conditions.

Abundance of introduced species at home predicts abundance away in herbaceous communities

Many ecosystems worldwide are dominated by introduced plant species, leading to loss of biodiversity and ecosystem function. A common but rarely tested assumption is that these plants are more abundant in introduced vs. native communities, because ecological or evolutionary-based shifts in populations underlie invasion success. Here, data for 26 herbaceous species at 39 sites, within eight countries, revealed that species abundances were similar at native (home) and introduced (away) sites – grass species were generally abundant home and away, while forbs were low in abundance, but more abundant at home. Sites with six or more of these species had similar community abundance hierarchies, suggesting that suites of introduced species are assembling similarly on different continents. Overall, we found that substantial changes to populations are not necessarily a pre-condition for invasion success and that increases in species abundance are unusual. Instead, abundance at home predicts abundance away, a potentially useful additional criterion for biosecurity programmes.

Understanding the mechanism behind invasion of African lovegrass

African lovegrass (Eragrostis curvula) is a C4 perennial grass, native to southern Africa, that was accidentally introduced into Australia in the late 1900s as a contaminant of pasture seed. Its utility for pasture improvement and soil conservation was explored because of its recognised ability to grow in areas of low rainfall and on nutrient-poor sandy loams. Several different agronomic types have now been intentionally introduced across Australia. African lovegrass is now found in all Australian states and territories. It is a declared weed in 33 council areas of New South Wales, a declared pest plant in the ACT and Tasmania and a Regionally Prohibited Weed in 5 out of 11 regions in Victoria. Victoria has also placed it in the very serious threat category (Carr et al. 1992). In Queensland, it has yet to be declared except under local law in the Eidsvold shire (Leigh and Walton, in press).

CO2 emissions from the combustion of native Australian trees

Carbon dioxide (CO2), as a primary product of combustion, is a known factor affecting climate change and global warming. In Australia, CO2 emissions from biomass burning are a significant contributor to total carbon in the atmosphere and therefore, it is important to quantify the CO2 emission factors from biomass burning in order to estimate their magnitude and impact on the Australian atmosphere. This paper presents the quantification of CO2 emission factors for five common tree species found in South East Queensland forests, as well as several grasses taken from savannah lands in the Northern Territory of Australia, under controlled ‘fast burning’ and ‘slow burning’ laboratory conditions. The results showed that CO2 emission factors varied according to the type of vegetation and burning conditions, with emission factors for fast burning being 2574 ± 254 g/kg for wood, 394 ± 40 g/kg for branches and leaves, and 2181 ± 120 g/kg for grass. Under slow burning conditions, the CO2 emission factors were 218 ± 20 g/kg for wood, 392± 80 g/kg for branches and leaves, and 2027 ± 809 g/kg for grass.

Recombination, decreased host specificity and increased mobility may have driven the emergence of maize streak virus as an agricultural pathogen

Maize streak virus (MSV; family Geminiviridae, genus Mastrevirus), the causal agent of maize streak disease, ranks amongst the most serious biological threats to food security in subSaharan Africa. Although five distinct MSV strains have been currently described, only one of these - MSV-A - causes severe disease in maize. Due primarily to their not being an obvious threat to agriculture, very little is known about the 'grass-adapted' MSV strains, MSV-B, -C, -D and -E. Since comparing the genetic diversities, geographical distributions and natural host ranges of MSV-A with the other MSV strains could provide valuable information on the epidemiology, evolution and emergence of MSV-A, we carried out a phylogeographical analysis of MSVs found in uncultivated indigenous African grasses. Amongst the 83 new MSV genomes presented here, we report the discovery of six new MSV strains (MSV-F to -K). The non-random recombination breakpoint distributions detectable with these and other available mastrevirus sequences partially mirror those seen in begomoviruses, implying that the forces shaping these breakpoint patterns have been largely conserved since the earliest geminivirus ancestors. We present evidence that the ancestor of all MSV-A variants was the recombinant progeny of ancestral MSV-B and MSV-G/-F variants. While it remains unknown whether recombination influenced the emergence of MSV-A in maize, our discovery that MSV-A variants may both move between and become established in different regions of Africa with greater ease, and infect more grass species than other MSV strains, goes some way towards explaining why MSV-A is such a successful maize pathogen. © 2008 SGM.

Experimental evidence indicating that mastreviruses probably did not co-diverge with their hosts

Background. Despite the demonstration that geminiviruses, like many other single stranded DNA viruses, are evolving at rates similar to those of RNA viruses, a recent study has suggested that grass-infecting species in the genus Mastrevirus may have co-diverged with their hosts over millions of years. This "co-divergence hypothesis" requires that long-term mastrevirus substitution rates be at least 100,000-fold lower than their basal mutation rates and 10,000-fold lower than their observable short-term substitution rates. The credibility of this hypothesis, therefore, hinges on the testable claim that negative selection during mastrevirus evolution is so potent that it effectively purges 99.999% of all mutations that occur. Results. We have conducted long-term evolution experiments lasting between 6 and 32 years, where we have determined substitution rates of between 2 and 3 × 10 -4substitutions/site/year for the mastreviruses Maize streak virus (MSV) and Sugarcane streak Réunion virus (SSRV). We further show that mutation biases are similar for different geminivirus genera, suggesting that mutational processes that drive high basal mutation rates are conserved across the family. Rather than displaying signs of extremely severe negative selection as implied by the co-divergence hypothesis, our evolution experiments indicate that MSV and SSRV are predominantly evolving under neutral genetic drift. Conclusion. The absence of strong negative selection signals within our evolution experiments and the uniformly high geminivirus substitution rates that we and others have reported suggest that mastreviruses cannot have co-diverged with their hosts. © 2009 Harkins et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.