The case for a new accounting research agenda in Spain

In Spain both accounting practice and accounting research have been strongly influenced by accounting practices developed in the Englishspeaking world. This paper:1) Summarizes a seminal English paper, the 'Corporate Report', that identified the potential for accounting reports to serve a wide range of users.2) Identifies the ways in which English language accounting conceptual frameworks have paid lip service to a range of user needs, but in practice have excluded users other than investors and creditors.3) Argues that for Spain the ideas put forward in the Corporate Report have a particular relevance, and might usefully form the basis for a new research agenda.

Mating triggers dynamic immune regulations in wood ant queens.

Mating can affect female immunity in multiple ways. On the one hand, the immune system may be activated by pathogens transmitted during mating, sperm and seminal proteins, or wounds inflicted by males. On the other hand, immune defences may also be down-regulated to reallocate resources to reproduction. Ants are interesting models to study post-mating immune regulation because queens mate early in life, store sperm for many years, and use it until their death many years later, while males typically die after mating. This long-term commitment between queens and their mates limits the opportunity for sexual conflict but raises the new constraint of long-term sperm survival. In this study, we examine experimentally the effect of mating on immunity in wood ant queens. Specifically, we compared the phenoloxidase and antibacterial activities of mated and virgin Formica paralugubris queens. Queens had reduced levels of active phenoloxidase after mating, but elevated antibacterial activity 7 days after mating. These results indicate that the process of mating, dealation and ovary activation triggers dynamic patterns of immune regulation in ant queens that probably reflect functional responses to mating and pathogen exposure that are independent of sexual conflict.

External irradiation with or without long-term androgen suppression for prostate cancer with high metastatic risk: 10-year results of an EORTC randomised study.

BACKGROUND: We did a randomised phase 3 trial assessing the benefit of addition of long-term androgen suppression with a luteinising-hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) agonist to external irradiation in patients with prostate cancer with high metastatic risk. In this report, we present the 10-year results. METHODS: For this open-label randomised trial, eligible patients were younger than 80 years and had newly diagnosed histologically proven T1-2 prostatic adenocarcinoma with WHO histological grade 3 or T3-4 prostatic adenocarcinoma of any histological grade, and a WHO performance status of 0-2. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive radiotherapy alone or radiotherapy plus immediate androgen suppression. Treatment allocation was open label and used a minimisation algorithm with institution, clinical stage of the disease, results of pelvic-lymph-node dissection, and irradiation fields extension as minimisation factors. Patients were irradiated externally, once a day, 5 days a week, for 7 weeks to a total dose of 50 Gy to the whole pelvis, with an additional 20 Gy to the prostate and seminal vesicles. The LHRH agonist, goserelin acetate (3·6 mg subcutaneously every 4 weeks), was started on the first day of irradiation and continued for 3 years; cyproterone acetate (50 mg orally three times a day) was given for 1 month starting a week before the first goserelin injection. The primary endpoint was clinical disease-free survival. Analysis was by intention to treat. The trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00849082. FINDINGS: Between May 22, 1987, and Oct 31, 1995, 415 patients were randomly assigned to treatment groups and were included in the analysis (208 radiotherapy alone, 207 combined treatment). Median follow-up was 9·1 years (IQR 5·1-12·6). 10-year clinical disease-free survival was 22·7% (95% CI 16·3-29·7) in the radiotherapy-alone group and 47·7% (39·0-56·0) in the combined treatment group (hazard ratio [HR] 0·42, 95% CI 0·33-0·55, p<0·0001). 10-year overall survival was 39·8% (95% CI 31·9-47·5) in patients receiving radiotherapy alone and 58·1% (49·2-66·0) in those allocated combined treatment (HR 0·60, 95% CI 0·45-0·80, p=0·0004), and 10-year prostate-cancer mortality was 30·4% (95% CI 23·2-37·5) and 10·3% (5·1-15·4), respectively (HR 0·38, 95% CI 0·24-0·60, p<0·0001). No significant difference in cardiovascular mortality was noted between treatment groups both in patients who had cardiovascular problems at study entry (eight of 53 patients in the combined treatment group had a cardiovascular-related cause of death vs 11 of 63 in the radiotherapy group; p=0·60) and in those who did not (14 of 154 vs six of 145; p=0·25). Two fractures were reported in patients allocated combined treatment. INTERPRETATION: In patients with prostate cancer with high metastatic risk, immediate androgen suppression with an LHRH agonist given during and for 3 years after external irradiation improves 10-year disease-free and overall survival without increasing late cardiovascular toxicity.

Dose and time effects of treatment with low doses of a LRH agonist on testicular axis and accessory sex organs in rats.

LRH and its agonists have been shown to exert both stimulatory and inhibitory effects on testicular function. In the present study, the dose and length of treatment were tested to determine the appearance of the stimulatory and inhibitory effects of LRH agonist on testicular axis including the three levels. Two doses of an agonist of LRH, 40 and 100 ng/100 g body weight (buserelin, 'agonist'), were administered daily for 1 to 15 days to adult male rats. Control rats received the vehicle only. On day 1, 2, 4, 8 and 15 of treatment, the pituitary, testicular and peripheral levels (weight of accessory sex organs and androgen receptors in ventral prostate) were tested 6 h after the last injection. For the 15 days of treatment with both doses, a stimulatory effect of the 'agonist' was observed on LH and FSH release. A short exposure (1-2 days) to the low dose of the 'agonist' had a stimulatory effect on the density of LH/hCG testicular receptors (326 +/- 49 vs control 185 +/- 21 fmol/mg protein, mean +/- SEM), on the weights of seminal vesicles and ventral prostate and exposure to both doses led to high plasma testosterone levels (13.8 +/- 0.5 and 13.7 +/- 0.7 ng/ml, respectively, vs control 2.6 +/- 0.3 ng/ml), and to an increased density of nuclear androgen receptors in the ventral prostate (142 +/- 9 and 144 +/- 15 fmol/mg protein respectively vs control 97 +/- 12 fmol/mg protein).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Innate sensors for Gram-positive bacteria.

More than half of invasive bacterial infections are Gram-positive in origin. This class of bacteria has neither endotoxins nor an outer membrane, yet it generates some of the most powerful inflammatory responses known in medicine. Some recent seminal studies go a long way toward settling the controversies that surround the process by which Gram-positive bacterial surfaces trigger the human immune system. Although the components of the cell wall are now chemically defined in exquisite detail and the interaction with the toll-like receptor 2 pathway has been discovered, it is only very recently that definitive studies combining these advanced biochemical and cell biological tools have been carried out. It is these breakthrough studies that have finally confirmed the paradigm of innate sensors for Gram-positive bacteria.

The QCD Potential at O(1/m2): Complete spin-dependent and spin-independent result

Within an effective field theory framework, we obtain an expression, with O(1/m2) accuracy, for the energies of the gluonic excitations between heavy quarks, which holds beyond perturbation theory. For the singlet heavy-quarkantiquark energy, in particular, we also obtain an expression in terms of Wilson loops. This provides, twenty years after the seminal work of Eichten and Feinberg, the first complete expression for the heavy quarkonium potential up to O(1/m2) for pure gluodynamics. Several errors present in the previous literature (also in the work of Eichten and Feinberg) have been corrected. We also briefly discuss the power counting of NRQCD in the nonperturbative regime.

A quantitative test of Hamilton's rule for the evolution of altruism.

The evolution of altruism is a fundamental and enduring puzzle in biology. In a seminal paper Hamilton showed that altruism can be selected for when rb - c > 0, where c is the fitness cost to the altruist, b is the fitness benefit to the beneficiary, and r is their genetic relatedness. While many studies have provided qualitative support for Hamilton's rule, quantitative tests have not yet been possible due to the difficulty of quantifying the costs and benefits of helping acts. Here we use a simulated system of foraging robots to experimentally manipulate the costs and benefits of helping and determine the conditions under which altruism evolves. By conducting experimental evolution over hundreds of generations of selection in populations with different c/b ratios, we show that Hamilton's rule always accurately predicts the minimum relatedness necessary for altruism to evolve. This high accuracy is remarkable given the presence of pleiotropic and epistatic effects as well as mutations with strong effects on behavior and fitness (effects not directly taken into account in Hamilton's original 1964 rule). In addition to providing the first quantitative test of Hamilton's rule in a system with a complex mapping between genotype and phenotype, these experiments demonstrate the wide applicability of kin selection theory.

Seed morphology of Iberian Species of the genus Aconitum L.

Es presenta un estudi morfològic-biomètric de les granes deis taxons del genere Aconitum L. presents a la Península Ibérica. Es tracten aspectes que fan referencia a: 1) disposició de les granes al fol-licle, 2) definido de paramètres (forma general i ornamentado de l'episperma), 3) biometria i 4) descripció de les granes deis représentants ibérics. Els microcaràcters relacionats fonamentalment amb el relleu epispérmic, forma i ornamentado de la base d'inserció (hílum i cél-lules umbil-licals), son els que es mostren mes utils per discriminar els taxons i els que proporcionen mes informado filogenética. Els résultats que s'exposen coincideixen, en línies generals, amb els d'altres autors (SEITZ, 1969; CAPPELETTI & POLDINI, 1984). Es presenten, tanmateix, discrepancies importants pel que fa a la morfología seminal, en especial de l'ornamentació de l'episperma, en les especies A. anthora, A. napellus s.l., A. burnatii i A. vulparia subsp. ranunculifoiium. Es presenta, sovint, polimorfisme seminal en les diferentes poblacions, aïllades geogràficament, d'una mateixa especie o subspècie, tant en el context ibèric com d'Europa central i meridional. Es conclou que aquest polimorfisme és una manifestado mes de la plasticitat fenotípica del genere, particularment intensa en les especies colonitzadores d'àmplia valencia ecológica (A. napellus, s.l.; A. vulparia, s.l.), possiblement conseqiiència de la deriva genética de les poblacions.

Bridging basic science and clinical research - The EASL Monothematic Conference on Translational Research in Viral Hepatitis.

The EASL Monothematic Conference on Translational Research in Viral Hepatitis brought together a group of leading scientists and clinicians working on both, basic and clinical aspects of viral hepatitis, thereby building bridges from bench to bedside. This report recapitulates the presentations and discussions at the conference held in Lyon, France on November 29-30, 2013. In recent years, great advances have been made in the field of viral hepatitis, particularly in hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. The identification of IL28B genetic polymorphisms as a major determinant for spontaneous and treatment-induced HCV clearance was a seminal discovery. Currently, hepatologists are at the doorstep of even greater advances, with the advent of a wealth of directly acting antivirals (DAAs) against HCV. Indeed, promising results have accumulated over the last months and few years, showing sustained virological response (SVR) rates of up to 100% with interferon-free DAA combination therapies. Thus, less than 25years after its identification, HCV infection may soon be curable in the vast majority of patients, highlighting the great success of HCV research over the last decades. However, viral hepatitis and its clinical complications such as liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain major global challenges. New therapeutic strategies to tackle hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis D virus (HDV) infection are needed, as current therapies have undeniable limitations. Nucleoside/nucleotide analogues (NUC) can efficiently control HBV replication and reduce or even reverse liver damage. However, these drugs have to be given for indefinite periods in most patients to maintain virological and biochemical responses. Although sustained responses off treatment can be achieved by treatment with (pegylated) interferon-α, only about 10-30% of patients effectively resolve chronic hepatitis B. It was the goal of this conference to review the progress made over the last years in chronic viral hepatitis research and to identify key questions that need to be addressed in order to close the gap between basic and clinical research and to develop novel preventive and treatment approaches for this most common cause of liver cirrhosis and HCC.

Crescimento radicular de plântulas de milho afetado pela resistência do solo à penetração

A resistência do solo à penetração é relacionada com a textura, compactação e umidade do solo. No presente trabalho se estudou o efeito da interação desses fatores sobre o crescimento de raízes de milho. Materiais de solo com 22, 30, 34, 41 e 48% de argila foram acondicionados em tubos de PVC de 10 cm com 4,3 cm de diâmetro interno, nas densidades globais de 1,07, 1,18, 1,36 e 1,53 g cm-3, em três tensões de água: -0,034, -0,106 e -0,640 MPa. Plântulas de milho foram cultivadas nos tubos por 48 horas. Quando a densidade do solo é baixa, a textura tem papel preponderante no crescimento radicular. Esse efeito é menor à medida que aumenta a densidade global. O aumento da resistência do solo à penetração causa diminuição no comprimento e número de raízes seminais adventícias; a raiz seminal primária mostra menor capacidade de penetração do que as raízes seminais adventícias. Resistências do solo à penetração da ordem de 1,3 MPa reduzem à metade o crescimento das raízes seminais adventícias do milho.

Natural selection on fecundity variance in subdivided populations: kin selection meets bet hedging.

In a series of seminal articles in 1974, 1975, and 1977, J. H. Gillespie challenged the notion that the "fittest" individuals are those that produce on average the highest number of offspring. He showed that in small populations, the variance in fecundity can determine fitness as much as mean fecundity. One likely reason why Gillespie's concept of within-generation bet hedging has been largely ignored is the general consensus that natural populations are of large size. As a consequence, essentially no work has investigated the role of the fecundity variance on the evolutionary stable state of life-history strategies. While typically large, natural populations also tend to be subdivided in local demes connected by migration. Here, we integrate Gillespie's measure of selection for within-generation bet hedging into the inclusive fitness and game theoretic measure of selection for structured populations. The resulting framework demonstrates that selection against high variance in offspring number is a potent force in large, but structured populations. More generally, the results highlight that variance in offspring number will directly affect various life-history strategies, especially those involving kin interaction. The selective pressures on three key traits are directly investigated here, namely within-generation bet hedging, helping behaviors, and the evolutionary stable dispersal rate. The evolutionary dynamics of all three traits are markedly affected by variance in offspring number, although to a different extent and under different demographic conditions.

Role of MyD88 and Toll-like receptors 2 and 4 in the sensing of Parachlamydia acanthamoebae.

Parachlamydia acanthamoebae is a Chlamydia-related organism whose pathogenic role in pneumonia is supported by serological and molecular clinical studies and an experimental mouse model of lung infection. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play a seminal role in sensing microbial products and initiating innate immune responses. The aim of this study was to investigate the roles of MyD88, TLR2, and TLR4 in the interaction of Parachlamydia with macrophages. Here, we showed that Parachlamydia entered bone-marrow derived macrophages (BMDMs) in a TLR-independent manner but did not multiply intracellularly. Interestingly, compared to live bacteria, heat-inactivated Parachlamydia induced the production of substantial amounts of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and IL-12p40 by BMDMs and of TNF and IL-6 by peritoneal macrophages as well as RAW 264.7 and J774 macrophage cell lines. Cytokine production by BMDMs, which was partially inhibited upon trypsin treatment of Parachlamydia, was dependent on MyD88, TLR4, and, to a lesser extent, TLR2. Finally, MyD88(-/-), TLR4(-/-), and TLR2(-/-) mice were as resistant as wild-type mice to lung infection following the intratracheal instillation of Parachlamydia. Thus, in contrast to Chlamydia pneumoniae, Parachlamydia acanthamoebae weakly stimulates macrophages, potentially compensating for its low replication capacity in macrophages by escaping the innate immune surveillance.

Desempenho reprodutivo de porcas submetidas a infusões uterinas no início do estro

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o desempenho reprodutivo de porcas multíparas submetidas à infusão uterina de diferentes soluções, realizada no início do estro. Um total de 1.019 fêmeas foram controladas no período de verão (n=570) e inverno (n=449). Os animais foram submetidos a cinco tratamentos, que consistiram em infusão de plasma seminal (PS), sêmen morto (SM), solução de 17beta-estradiol (SE), solução fisiológica (SS) e um grupo-controle (CO). As fêmeas receberam três inseminações: a primeira, 8-12 horas após a detecção do estro, e as demais, nos turnos subseqüentes. Com relação à taxa de retorno ao estro e taxa de parto ajustada, não ocorreram diferenças entre os tratamentos (p>0,05). Na análise do modelo de regressão adotado para determinar o tamanho da leitegada, foi observada uma interação entre época do ano e tratamento (p<=0,01). No verão, as fêmeas que receberam infusão de PS apresentaram 0,89, 1,20, 1,34 e 2,31 leitões a mais, em relação aos tratamentos SE, SM, SS e CO (p<0,05), respectivamente. No inverno, o grupo submetido ao tratamento SS aumentou a produção em 1,25 e 0,91 leitões, respectivamente, em relação aos tratamentos SM e CO (p<0,05). Este trabalho demonstrou que a infusão uterina de PS foi eficiente somente no verão, para aumentar o número de leitões nascidos. Entretanto, são necessários estudos complementares esclarecendo o efeito deste tratamento em épocas do ano distintas e em diferentes ordens de parto.

Efeito do extrato aquoso de leucena na germinação e no desenvolvimento do milho

Foram desenvolvidos bioensaios, na Embrapa-Centro Nacional de Pesquisa de Milho e Sorgo (CNPMS), para avaliar o efeito de extratos aquosos, a frio e a quente, da parte aérea de leucena (Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) De Wit.), sobre a germinação e o desenvolvimento das plantas de milho (Zea mays L.). Os extratos foram preparados na concentração 20% (p/v), e avaliados em solo e papel- germiteste, em casa de vegetação, e em papel-filtro em laboratório. O extrato obtido com água fria (EF) e aplicado ao solo não causou nenhum efeito fitotóxico sobre a germinação e o desenvolvimento das plantas de milho. O extrato obtido com água quente (EQ), quando aplicado em papel-germiteste ou papel-filtro, causou redução no comprimento da raiz seminal, mas não interferiu na germinação das sementes de milho. O comprimento da raiz seminal foi um indicador mais sensível aos efeitos do EQ do que a germinação.

Parâmetros escroto-testiculares e de sêmen em caprinos adultos submetidos à insulação escrotal

Ejaculados de seis bodes Moxotó e seis ½ sangue Moxotó-Pardo Alpina, adultos, mantidos em confinamento, foram avaliados antes e após a insulação do saco escrotal com bolsa de plástico, de parede dupla, durante 6,5 dias. A degeneração seminal ocorreu em todos os animais na 4ª semana após o início da insulação, ressaltando-se a redução na concentração, o aumento dos defeitos espermáticos e a redução do vigor celular, culminando com a necrospermia. A motilidade individual progressiva (MIP) atingiu os valores mais baixos na 3ª semana após o início da insulação, retornando aos valores normais entre a 8ª e 9ª semanas. Os defeitos espermáticos começaram a aumentar aos sete dias após o início da insulação escrotal. O volume apresentou oscilações atípicas e o aumento da temperatura escrotal afetou os parâmetros físicos e morfológicos do ejaculado de maneira consistente evidenciando-se o efeito negativo sobre a qualidade do sêmen.