Sustaining a Family Business Beyond the Second Generation

A significant number of funeral homes in the United States are family-owned businesses. These family-owned funeral businesses contribute to society throughout generations to create wealth, provide employment opportunities, and serve the communities that surround them. The purpose of this descriptive multiple case study was to explore strategies that leaders of family-owned funeral business owners in the eastern region of the United States used for intergenerational succession planning. Game theory was the conceptual framework for the study. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with 3 family business owners and review of the family businesses\u27 professional association websites and family historical documents. Yin\u27s 5-step process served as a guide for analyzing data. Data analysis revealed 6 themes: family succession values, the game, the players, strategies, payoff and rewards, and the outcome. Implications of this study for social change include family business owners\u27 enhanced awareness of successful strategies, which may improve business continuity leading to an increased rate of intergenerational transitions within the funeral industry

Comparison of quality of bull semen collected in the artificial vagina or by electroejaculation

The artificial vagina has become the generally accepted method for collecting semen from bulls. It was invented by an Italian, Amantea (Willet 1956), in an attempt to increase the service of highly desirable sires. This was not a satisfactory method when using beef bulls to study the effects of radiation on sperm production at the UT-AEC Agricultural Research Laboratory. Two problems were encountered in attempting to use this method of collection. First, the percentage of untrained and unselected bulls that would serve the artificial vagina was relatively small; and second, it was difficult to obtain consistently timed collections. It was, therefore, necessary to have a large herd of bulls from which to select the desired number of experimental animals. The failure of selected bulls to ejaculate at scheduled intervals prompted the subsequent use of an electro-ejaculation technique in such investigations. The ease and consistency of obtaining semen from bulls by electroejaculation is a a great aid In conducting experiments and can be used to obtain semen for breeding purposes when the male is unable or unwilling to serve the artificial vagina. Despite the fact that a number of papers have been published describing electroejaculation techniques, few intensive comparisons of the characteristics of semen collected in the artificial vagina with that collected by electroejaculatIon have been reported. The purpose of this investigation was to examine and compare the quality of semen collected by the artificial vagina and electroejaculation. By doing so, the results of studies on semen obtained by electroejaculation could then be compared more accurately with the results of other methods found in the literature

Adiposity and spinal cord injury

The drastic changes in body composition following spinal cord injury (SCI) have been shown to play a significant role in cardiovascular and metabolic health. The pattern of storage and distribution of different types of adipose tissue may impact metabolic health variables similar to carbohydrate, lipid and bone metabolism. The use of magnetic resonance imaging provides insights on the interplay among different regional adipose tissue compartments and their role in developing chronic diseases. Regional adipose tissue can be either distributed centrally or peripherally into subcutaneous and ectopic sites. The primary ectopic adipose tissue sites are visceral, intramuscular and bone marrow. Dysfunction in the central nervous system following SCI impacts the pattern of distribution of adiposity especially between tetraplegia and paraplegia. The current editorial is focused primarily on introducing different types of adipose tissue and establishing scientific basis to develop appropriate dietary, rehabilitation or pharmaceutical interventions to manage the negative consequences of increasing adiposity after SCI. We have also summarized the clinical implications and future recommendations relevant to study adiposity after SCI

Oral interaction with two years students in a pedagogical-theatrical context

[EN] Still, we have few studies carried out with students who are less than three years old, even though it is widely accepted that the evolution of early life, in and out of the school, has a great relevance for proper develop-ment of the person. The aim of this research is to focus on the interactive processes of the first acquisition of language. For this purpose we have analyzed the verbal production of little children attending a theatre play called Lorategian by the Teatro Paraiso Company in a pedagogical environment. The research target is the interaction keys between the play and the infant spectators. In the research process we have taken field notes and we have transcribed the play ́s video recording. The results show clearly that the artistic play has on the one hand a remarkable pedagogical side and in the other hand it also has a linguistic and commu-nicative value. That ́s because it offers to the young spectators a stimulus to practice the language by play-ing, by chatting and through an interactive communication provided by the mentioned play Lorategian[ES] Todavía, son escasos los estudios con alumnado menor de tres años, aun cuando está ampliamente aceptado que la evolución de los primeros años de vida, dentro y fuera del ámbito escolar, posee una enorme relevancia para un adecuado desarrollo posterior de la persona. Con el fin de arrojar cierta luz sobre los procesos interactivos en el desarrollo inicial del lenguaje, se ha analizado la producción verbal de niñas y niños de un aula de dos años de Vitoria-Gasteiz en un contexto pedagógico-teatral: las representaciones de la obra Lorategian (En el jardín) de la reconocida compañía Teatro Paraíso. El foco de la investigación se centra en las claves de la interacción que surge entre la obra de teatro y el alumnado infantil asistente. Para tal fin, se han tomado notas de campo y se han realizado grabaciones audiovisuales de las representaciones teatrales. En el apartado de resultados, queda de manifiesto que la propuesta artística, además de tener un marcado carácter pedagógico junto con el teatral, también posee un valor lingüístico-comunicativo, en tanto que ofrece a la pequeña infancia un estímulo para poner en práctica el lenguaje mediante el juego, la conversación y la comunicación interactiva.Zelaieta Anta, E.; Alvarez Uria, A.; Vizcarra Morales, M. (2016). Interacción oral con alumnado de dos años en un contexto pedagógico-teatral. Lenguaje y Textos. (44):19-29. doi:10.4995/lyt.2016.6789SWORD192944Acuña, X. y Sentis, F. 2004: Desarrollo pragmático en el habla infantil, Onomázein 10 (2), 33-56.Aubert, A., Garcia, C., & Racionero, S. (2009). El aprendizaje dialógico. Cultura y Educación, 21(2), 129-139. doi:10.1174/113564009788345826Austin, J. L. 1982: Cómo hacer cosas con palabras: Palabras y acciones. Barcelona: Paidós.Bruner, J. 1986: El habla del ni-o. Aprendiendo a usar el lenguaje. Barcelona: Paidós.De Houwer, A. 2009: Bilingual first language acquisition. UK, US, Canada: Multilingual Matters Textbooks.Franks, A. 2010: Drama in teaching and learning language and literacy. In D. Wise, R. Andrews y J. Hoffman (eds.). The routledge international handbook of English, language and literacy teaching (pp. 242-253). New York & London: Routledge.Gardner, H y Forrester, M. 2010: Analysing Interaction in Childhood. Insights from Conversation analysis. UK: Wiley-Blackwell.Myhill, D. 2010: Understanding language development. In D. Wise, R. Andrews, y J. Hoffman, (eds.). The Routledge International Handbook of English, Language and Literacy Teaching. (pp. 216-227). New York & London: Routledge.Ninio, A. y Snow, C.E. 1999: The Development of Pragmatics: Learning to use language appropriately in Bathiam T.K. & Richie, W.C. (eds.). Handbook of Language Acquisition. (pp. 347-383). New York: Academic Press.Owens, R.E. 2001: Language development. An introduction. USA: Allyn & Bacon. 5ª Ed.Tejerina, I. 1994: Dramatización y teatro infantil: dimensiones psicopedagógicas y expresivas. Madrid: Siglo XXI.Vigotsky, L. 1995: Pensamiento y lenguaje. Buenos Aires: Paidós.Wells, G. 1986: The Meaning Makers: Children learning language and using language to learn. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Educational Books.Wells, G. 2009: The Meaning makers: Learning to talk and talking to learn (2nd edition). Bristol: Multilingual Matters

Substantial blue carbon sequestration in the world’s largest seagrass meadow

Seagrass meadows are important sinks for organic carbon and provide co-benefits. However, data on the organic carbon stock in seagrass sediments are scarce for many regions, particularly The Bahamas, which accounts for up to 40.7% of the documented global seagrass area, limiting formulation of blue carbon strategies. Here, we sampled 10 seagrass meadows across an extensive island chain in The Bahamas. We estimate that Bahamas seagrass meadows store 0.42–0.59 Pg organic carbon in the top-meter sediments with an accumulation rate of 2.1–2.9 Tg annually, representing a substantial global blue carbon hotspot. Autochthonous organic carbon in sediments decreased from ~1980 onwards, with concomitant increases in cyanobacterial and mangrove contributions, suggesting disturbance of seagrass ecosystems, likely caused by tourism and maritime traffic activities. This study provides seagrass blue carbon data from a vast, understudied region and contributes to improving climate action for The Bahamas and the Greater Caribbean region

Resting metabolic rate and lung function in wild offshore common bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, near Bermuda

© The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Physiology 9 (2018): 886, doi:10.3389/fphys.2018.00886.Diving mammals have evolved a suite of physiological adaptations to manage respiratory gases during extended breath-hold dives. To test the hypothesis that offshore bottlenose dolphins have evolved physiological adaptations to improve their ability for extended deep dives and as protection for lung barotrauma, we investigated the lung function and respiratory physiology of four wild common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) near the island of Bermuda. We measured blood hematocrit (Hct, %), resting metabolic rate (RMR, l O2 ⋅ min-1), tidal volume (VT, l), respiratory frequency (fR, breaths ⋅ min-1), respiratory flow (l ⋅ min-1), and dynamic lung compliance (CL, l ⋅ cmH2O-1) in air and in water, and compared measurements with published results from coastal, shallow-diving dolphins. We found that offshore dolphins had greater Hct (56 ± 2%) compared to shallow-diving bottlenose dolphins (range: 30–49%), thus resulting in a greater O2 storage capacity and longer aerobic diving duration. Contrary to our hypothesis, the specific CL (sCL, 0.30 ± 0.12 cmH2O-1) was not different between populations. Neither the mass-specific RMR (3.0 ± 1.7 ml O2 ⋅ min-1 ⋅ kg-1) nor VT (23.0 ± 3.7 ml ⋅ kg-1) were different from coastal ecotype bottlenose dolphins, both in the wild and under managed care, suggesting that deep-diving dolphins do not have metabolic or respiratory adaptations that differ from the shallow-diving ecotypes. The lack of respiratory adaptations for deep diving further support the recently developed hypothesis that gas management in cetaceans is not entirely passive but governed by alteration in the ventilation-perfusion matching, which allows for selective gas exchange to protect against diving related problems such as decompression sickness.Funding for this project was provided by the Office of Naval Research (ONR YIP Award No. N000141410563, and Dolphin Quest, Inc. FHJ was supported by the Office of Naval Research (Award No. N00014-1410410) and an AIAS-COFUND fellowship from Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies under the FP7 program of the EU (Agreement No. 609033)

The Impact of the Human DNA Topoisomerase II C-Terminal Domain on Activity

Type II DNA topoisomerases (topos) are essential enzymes needed for the resolution of topological problems that occur during DNA metabolic processes. Topos carry out an ATP-dependent strand passage reaction whereby one double helix is passed through a transient break in another. Humans have two topoII isoforms, alpha and beta, which while enzymatically similar are differentially expressed and regulated, and are thought to have different cellular roles. The C-terminal domain (CTD) of the enzyme has the most diversity, and has been implicated in regulation. We sought to investigate the impact of the CTD domain on activity.We have investigated the role of the human topoII C-terminal domain by creating constructs encoding C-terminally truncated recombinant topoIIalpha and beta and topoIIalpha+beta-tail and topoIIbeta+alpha-tail chimeric proteins. We then investigated function in vivo in a yeast system, and in vitro in activity assays. We find that the C-terminal domain of human topoII isoforms is needed for in vivo function of the enzyme, but not needed for cleavage activity. C-terminally truncated enzymes had similar strand passage activity to full length enzymes, but the presence of the opposite C-terminal domain had a large effect, with the topoIIalpha-CTD increasing activity, and the topoIIbeta-CTD decreasing activity.In vivo complementation data show that the topoIIalpha C-terminal domain is needed for growth, but the topoIIbeta isoform is able to support low levels of growth without a C-terminal domain. This may indicate that topoIIbeta has an additional localisation signal. In vitro data suggest that, while the lack of any C-terminal domain has little effect on activity, the presence of either the topoIIalpha or beta C-terminal domain can affect strand passage activity. Data indicates that the topoIIbeta-CTD may be a negative regulator. This is the first report of in vitro data with chimeric human topoIIs

Studies of the transmissibility of the agent of bovine spongiform encephalopathy to the domestic chicken

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Transmission of the prion disease bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) occurred accidentally to cattle and several other mammalian species via feed supplemented with meat and bone meal contaminated with infected bovine tissue. Prior to United Kingdom controls in 1996 on the feeding of mammalian meat and bone meal to farmed animals, the domestic chicken was potentially exposed to feed contaminated with the causal agent of BSE. Although confirmed prion diseases are unrecorded in avian species a study was undertaken to transmit BSE to the domestic chicken by parenteral and oral inoculations. Transmissibility was assessed by clinical monitoring, histopathological examinations, detection of a putative disease form of an avian prion protein (PrP) in recipient tissues and by mouse bioassay of tissues. Occurrence of a progressive neurological syndrome in the primary transmission study was investigated by sub-passage experiments.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>No clinical, pathological or bioassay evidence of transmission of BSE to the chicken was obtained in the primary or sub-passage experiments. Survival data showed no significant differences between control and treatment groups. Neurological signs observed, not previously described in the domestic chicken, were not associated with significant pathology. The diagnostic techniques applied failed to detect a disease associated form of PrP.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Important from a risk assessment perspective, the present study has established that the domestic chicken does not develop a prion disease after large parenteral exposures to the BSE agent or after oral exposures equivalent to previous exposures via commercial diets. Future investigations into the potential susceptibility of avian species to mammalian prion diseases require species-specific immunochemical techniques and more refined experimental models.</p

Compton Scattering by Nuclei

The concept of Compton scattering by even-even nuclei from giant-resonance to nucleon-resonance energies and the status of experimental and theoretical researches in this field are outlined. Nuclear Compton scattering in the giant-resonance energy-region provides information on the dynamical properties of the in-medium mass of the nucleon. The electromagnetic polarizabilities of the nucleon in the nuclear medium can be extracted from nuclear Compton scattering data obtained in the quasi-deuteron energy-region. Recent results are presented for two-body effects due to the mesonic seagull amplitude and due to the excitation of nucleon internal degrees of freedom accompanied by meson exchanges. Due to these studies the in-medium electromagnetic polarizabilities are by now well understood, whereas the understanding of nuclear Compton scattering in the Delta-resonance range is only at the beginning. Phenomenological methods how to include retardation effects in the scattering amplitude are discussed and compared with model predictions.Comment: 146 pages, 37 figures, submitted to Phys. Report

Educational and vocational goal disruption in adolescent and young adult cancer survivors

ObjectiveCancer in adolescents and young adults (AYAs) can interrupt important developmental milestones. Absence from school and time lost from work, together with the physical impacts of treatment on energy and cognition, can disrupt educational and vocational goals. The purpose of this paper is to report on AYA cancer survivors’ experiences of reintegration into school and/or work and to describe perceived changes in their educational and vocational goals.MethodsAdolescents and young adults recruited from 7 hospitals in Australia, aged 15 to 26 years and â ¤24 months posttreatment, were interviewed using the psychosocial adjustment to illness scale. Responses were analysed to determine the extent of, and explanations for, cancer’s effect on school/work.ResultsFortyâ two AYA cancer survivors (50% female) participated. Compared with their previous vocational functioning, 12 (28.6%) were scored as experiencing mild impairment, 14 (33.3%) moderate impairment, and 3 (7.1%) marked impairment. Adolescents and young adults described difficulties reintegrating to school/work as a result of cognitive impacts such as concentration problems and physical impacts of their treatment, including fatigue. Despite these reported difficulties, the majority indicated that their vocation goals were of equal or greater importance than before diagnosis (26/42; 62%), and most AYAs did not see their performance as compromised (23/42; 55%). Many survivors described a positive shift in life goals and priorities. The theme of goal conflict emerged where AYAs reported compromised abilities to achieve their goals.ConclusionsThe physical and cognitive impacts of treatment can make returning to school/work challenging for AYA cancer survivors. Adolescents and young adults experiencing difficulties may benefit from additional supports to facilitate meaningful engagement with their chosen educational/vocational goals.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142495/1/pon4525_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142495/2/pon4525.pd