Monetary Policy and Nigeria’S Quest for Import-Substitution Industrialization

This study examines the impact of monetary policy variables on industrialization via import substitution strategy in Nigeria from 1981 – 2012. The deregulation of the foreign exchange market in Nigeria was with the aim of stimulating export and industrialization through import substitution. However, it turned out that Nigeria had become more import dependent than ever. We specified four explanatory variables for this study based on theoretical underpinnings. We sought to establish a relationship between the explanatory variables and industrial output. The Johansen trace test revealed that there was one cointegrating equation. The estimated error correction mechanism (ECM) revealed that 53 per cent of disequilibrium in industrial-GDP is corrected for in the long run. Keywords: Monetary policy, exchange rate, industrialization, imports substitution industrialization

Photorespiration: metabolic pathways and their role in stress protection

Photorespiration results from the oxygenase reaction catalysed by ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/ oxygenase. In this reaction glycollate-2-phosphate is produced and subsequently metabolized in the photorespiratory pathway to form the Calvin cycle intermediate glycerate-3-phosphate. During this metabolic process, CO2 and NH3 are produced and ATP and reducing equivalents are consumed, thus making photorespiration a wasteful process. However, precisely because of this ine¤ciency, photorespiration could serve as an energy sink preventing the overreduction of the photosynthetic electron transport chain and photoinhibition, especially under stress conditions that lead to reduced rates of photosynthetic CO2 assimilation. Furthermore, photorespiration provides metabolites for other metabolic processes, e.g. glycine for the synthesis of glutathione, which is also involved in stress protection. In this review, we describe the use of photorespiratory mutants to study the control and regulation of photorespiratory pathways. In addition, we discuss the possible role of photorespiration under stress conditions, such as drought, high salt concentrations and high light intensities encountered by alpine plants

Complex effects of helper relatedness on female extrapair reproduction in a cooperative breeder

In cooperatively breeding species, the presence of male helpers in a group often reduces the breeding female’s fidelity to her social partner, possibly because there is more than one potential sire in the group. Using a long-term study of cooperatively breeding superb fairy-wrens (Malurus cyaneus) and records of paternity in 1936 broods, we show that the effect of helpers on rates of extrapair paternity varied according to the helpers’ relatedness to the breeding female. The presence of unrelated male helpers in a group increased average rates of extrapair paternity, from 57% for groups with no unrelated helpers, to 74% with one unrelated helper, to 86% with 2+ unrelated helpers. However, this increase was due in equal part to helpers within the group and males in other groups achieving increased paternity. In contrast, helpers who were sons of the breeding female did not gain paternity, nor did they affect the level of extra-group paternity (which occurred at rates of 60%, 58%, 61% in the presence of 0, 1, 2+ helper sons, respectively). There was no evidence of effects of helpers’ relatedness to the female on nest productivity or nestling performance. Because the presence of helpers per se did not elevate extrapair reproduction rates, our results undermine the “constrained female hypothesis” explanation for an increase in extrapair paternity with helper number in cooperative breeders. However, they indicate that dominant males are disadvantaged by breeding in “cooperative” groups. The reasons why the presence of unrelated helpers, but not of helper-sons, results in higher rates of extra-group reproduction are not clear.G.K.H. was supported by the U.K. Natural Environment Research Council (Grant NE/L002558/1) through the University of Edinburgh’s E3 Doctoral Training Partnership. The long-term research has been facilitated b

Prenatal factors contribute to the emergence of kwoshiorkor or marasmus in severe undernutrition: evidence for the predictive adaptation model

Severe acute malnutrition in childhood manifests as oedematous (kwashiorkor, marasmic kwashiorkor) and non-oedematous (marasmus) syndromes with very different prognoses. Kwashiorkor differs from marasmus in the patterns of protein, amino acid and lipid metabolism when patients are acutely ill as well as after rehabilitation to ideal weight for height. Metabolic patterns among marasmic patients define them as metabolically thrifty, while kwashiorkor patients function as metabolically profligate. Such differences might underlie syndromic presentation and prognosis. However, no fundamental explanation exists for these differences in metabolism, nor clinical pictures, given similar exposures to undernutrition. We hypothesized that different developmental trajectories underlie these clinical-metabolic phenotypes: if so this would be strong evidence in support of predictive adaptation model of developmental plasticity

Intergenerational Transmission of Birth Weight Across 3 Generations

While previous studies have shown intergenerational transmission of birth weight from mother to child, whether the continuity persists across 3 generations has rarely been assessed. We used the Aberdeen Maternity and Neonatal Data-bank (United Kingdom) to examine the intergenerational correlations of birth weight, birth weight adjusted for gestational age and sex, and small- and large-for-gestational-age births across 3 generations among 1,457 grandmother-mother-child triads. All participants were born between 1950 and 2015. The intergenerational transmission was examined with linear regression analyses. We found that grandmaternal birth weight was associated with grandchild birth weight, independently of prenatal and sociodemographic covariates and maternal birth weight (B = 0.12 standard deviation units, 95% confidence interval: 0.07, 0.18). Similar intergenerational continuity was found for birth weight adjusted for sex and gestational age as well as for small-for-gestational-age births. In conclusion, birth weight and fetal growth showed intergenerational continuity across 3 generations. This supports the hypothesis that the developmental origins of birth weight and hence later health and disease are already present in earlier generations.Peer reviewe

EXPANDINDO HORIZONTES NA HISTÓRIA DO ESPORTE: FILMES, FOTOGRAFIAS E MONUMENTOS

Resumo: Historiadores do esporte, em geral, seguem práticas de trabalho historiográfico padronizadas ao buscarem narrar o passado no presente, focando seus interesses em material escrito. Esse artigo argumenta que, por mais importantes que as fontes escritas sejam para o trabalho do historiador, a história do esporte teria a ganhar se considerasse representações do passado que incluam cultura visual e material. Mais especificamente, este trabalho investiga filmes, fotografias e monumentos, e tenta responder duas questões-chave. Como os historiadores do esporte têm se relacionado com estas formas de cultura visual e material? Em segundo lugar, como poderiam os historiadores do esporte, baseado em práticas desenvolvidas em outros campos, ampliar o uso de filmes, fotografias e monumentos em seu trabalho? Argumentamos que os historiadores do esporte estão em uma posição que permite articular as complexas relações entre o passado esportivo e o presente usando diferentes formas de cultura visual e material.Palavras-Chave: filme, fotografia, metodologia, monumento BROADENING HORIZONS IN SPORT HISTORY: FILMS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND MONUMENTSAbstract: Sport historians, in the main, follow standard historical practice by focusing their interests on written material in their quests to relate the past in the present. This paper argues that as important as written sources are to the historical process, sport history could benefit by considering representations of the past that include visual and material culture. More specifically, this paper investigates film, photographs, and monuments and attempts to answer two key questions. How have sport historians related to these forms of visual and material culture? Secondly, how could sport historians, based on the practices developed in other fields, extend the use of films, photographs, and monuments in their work? We contend that sport historians are in a position to articulate the complex relationships between the sporting past in the present by embracing different forms of visual and material culture.Keywords: film, fotografia, methodology, monument

Local variation in endoparasite intensities of bank voles (Clethrionomys glareolus )from ecologically similar sites: morphometric and endocrine correlates

Much interest has centred recently on the role of adaptive trade-offs between the immune system and other components of life history in determining resistance and parasite intensities among hosts. Steroid hormones, particularly glucocorticoids and sex steroids, provide a plausible mechanism for mediating such trade-offs. A basic assumption behind the hypothesis, however, is that steroid activity will generally correlate with reduced resistance and thus greater parasite intensities. Here, we present some findings from a field study of bank voles (Clethrionomys glareolus ) in which we have looked at associations between parasite intensities, anatomical and morphometric measures relating to endocrine function and life history variation in three local populations inhabiting similar but mutually isolated woodland habitats. In general, sites with greater parasite intensities were those in which male C. glareolus had significantly larger adrenal glands, testes and seminal vesicles for their age and body size. Females also showed a site difference in adrenal gland weight. Some aspects of site-related parasite intensity were associated with asymmetry in adrenal gland weight and hind foot length, which may have reflected developmental effects on glucocorticoid activity