Managers vs. Students: New Approach in Analyzing Current Practices in Capital Structure Management Education

According to Graham and Harvey (2001), an immense gap exists between capital structure theories and practice. This paper argues that this can be partially explained by current educational practices by analyzing undergraduate students'perceptions of capital structure theories and the differences between their opinion and that of the current CEO's and managers. Educators mostly focus on one or maybe two most popular theories and students have much smaller knowledge about other theories. Secondly educational practices favor trade-off theory to asymmetric information based theories. The paper provides some suggestions regarding capital structure education and future research

The Establishment of a Primary Culture System of Proximal Tubule Segments Using Specific Markers from Normal Mouse Kidneys

The proximal tubule contains the highest expression of angiotensinogen mRNA and protein within the kidney and plays a vital role in the renal renin-angiotensin system. To study the regulation of angiotensinogen expression in the kidney in more detail, the proximal tubule needs to be accurately isolated from the rest of the nephron and separated into its three segments. The purpose of this study was to design a novel protocol using specific markers for the separation of proximal tubule cells into the three proximal tubule segments and to determine angiotensinogen expression in each segment. Kidneys were removed from C57BL/6J mice. The proximal tubules were aspirated from region of a Percoll gradient solution of the appropriate density. The proximal tubule was then separated into its three segments using segment-specific membrane proteins, after which each segment was characterized by a different specific marker (sodium-glucose transporter 2 for Segment 1; carbonic anhydrase IV for Segment 2; ecto-adenosine triphosphatase for Segment 3). The isolation of proximal tubules into three segments was successful, and angiotensinogen mRNA in Segment 2 and 3 and angiotensinogen protein in all three segments were confirmed. This protocol will be helpful for future studies of the detailed mechanisms of the intrarenal renin-angiotensin system

Small vertebrate captures two years after prescribed fire in stringybark open forest at Bagdad Native Forest Reserve, Robe, South Australia

Post-fire fauna surveys are important for monitoring populations of rare and threatened species, as well as those considered to be of pest significance. We conducted a small vertebrate survey in April 2013, setting 32 pitfall traps and 122 Elliott traps over four days at Bagdad Native Forest Reserve. The aim of the survey was to compare populations of small ground-dwelling vertebrates between a site burnt two years previously in 2011, and an unburnt adjacent one. Significantly more exotic House Mice (Mus musculus) were trapped in the burnt site than in the unburnt. The Western Pygmy-possum (Cercartetus concinnus), which has 'rare' regional conservation status, was only trapped in unburnt habitat. Small numbers of reptiles were captured in both burnt and unburnt sites without apparent preferences, but juvenile reptiles were restricted to the burnt site, including the critically endangered Bardick snake Echiopsis curta.Barbara P. Murphy, Tegan Underwood, Makyla Halliday, Tara Forbes, Josh Fielke, Tom Suljagic, Anton Drummond, Michael Heath, Joan Gibbs, Manfred Jusaitis and Sophie Peti

Two types of BCR interactions are positively selected during leukemia development in the Eμ-TCL1 transgenic mouse model of CLL.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a common B-cell malignancy characterized by a highly variable course and outcome. The disease is believed to be driven by B-cell receptor (BCR) signals generated by external antigens and/or cell-autonomous BCR interactions, but direct in vivo evidence for this is still lacking. To further define the role of the BCR pathway in the development and progression of CLL, we evaluated the capacity of different types of antigen/BCR interactions to induce leukemia in the Eμ-TCL1 transgenic mouse model. We show that cell autonomous signaling capacity is a uniform characteristic of the leukemia-derived BCRs and represents a prerequisite for CLL development. Low-affinity BCR interactions with autoantigens generated during apoptosis are also positively selected, suggesting that they contribute to the pathogenesis of the disease. In contrast, high-affinity BCR interactions are not selected, regardless of antigen form or presentation. We also show that the capacity of the leukemic cells to respond to cognate antigen correlates inversely with time to leukemia development, suggesting that signals induced by external antigen increase the aggressiveness of the disease. Collectively, these findings provide in vivo evidence that the BCR pathway drives the development and can influence the clinical course of CLL