A confirmatory approach based on a multidimensional model (Douglas, Roussos, & Stout, 1996; Shealy & Stout, 1993; Stout & Roussos, 1995) was used to identify sources of differential item functioning (DIF) and differential bundle functioning (DBF) for boys and girls on the British Columbia Principles of Mathematics Exam for grade 12 (PME12). Data consisted of a total of 9404 examinees; 4335 girls and 5069 boys. There were 45 multiple choice items in the exam. Analyses were completed in two stages. In stage 1, patterns present in the gender DIF research in mathematics were identified. Stage 2 was the statistical confirmation of these patterns. Sources of gender DIF were confirmed for the content areas: polynomial, quadratic relations, logarithms and exponents. Items tapping higher cognitive levels dealing with patterns and relation, word problems, and items containing visuals were also confirmed as a source of DIF. Exploratory analyses indicated that computation items for which no equations are provided may be a source of DIF along with trigonometry items. This study contributes to an increased understanding of sources of gender DIF that may assist test developers to ensure that mathematics items measure the construct that they are intended to measure and that the test as a whole measures that which it purports to measure. The findings of this research provide an additional source of information about the differential performance of boys and girls that may be used to develop guidelines and test construction principles for reducing gender DIF in mathematics. This research also contributes to a greater understanding of gender differences in mathematics learning and achievement. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

This thesis deals with the conversion of financial statements and accounting data from the national adjustments to IFRS. Includes ways and means by which the transfer can be achieved, but also their limitations and problems that are associated with the conversion. In the theoretical part the selected blocks converted tries to analyze national approaches with a view looking in the IFRS conversion and outline possible if the sector is needed. The theoretical part is then applied to data from real companies and calculations are made each conversion.

Sexual differences in the diet of Little Penguins Eudyptula minor at four geographically isolated colonies in Victoria, Australia were investigated over 12 breeding seasons, between 1985 and 2005. The weighted relative occurrence of each prey species consumed was calculated and compared at a seasonal, annual as well as locational scale, and differences in prey size were examined. Penguin body masses differed significantly between sexes and locations, with males consistently being the significantly heavier sex, whereas stomach content masses varied significantly between locations, with samples from males usually being heavier. Fish was the principal prey group in the diet of penguins at all sites, and was more dominant in the diet of males overall. Females tended to take slightly more cephalopods and crustaceans than did males. The contribution of fish to the diet varied between locations, with Rabbit Island and St Kilda penguins feeding almost exclusively on fish, while Phillip Island and Port Campbell birds consumed more cephalopods and crustaceans. Prey composition differed both annually and between breeding stages at Phillip Island, with males and females utilizing different food resources between certain years and breeding stages. Dietary resources were segregated by prey size, with males generally preying on significantly larger Anchovy Engraulis australis and Gould’s Squid Nototodarus gouldi at all sites than did females. Such local and sexual differences in diet composition and prey size suggest a considerable separation in feeding niche between the sexes. Partitioning of foraging depths and temporal prey availability may be implied as the proximate cause, and sexual dimorphism in bill and body size, as the ultimate cause behind the observed dietary variation. Copyright / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Zoology and Entomology / unrestricted

No description available.

OBJECTIVE: The overlap in literature on stress and human reward processing is relatively small but growing as its significance becomes increasingly implicated in the obesity epidemic. The greater prevalence of obesity, especially severe obesity, among females than males suggests that there may be sex differences in hormones driving eating behaviors and in food reward processing. There is an important gap in the literature – a paucity of studies employing robust psychosocial stressors in combination with a food-related reward neuroimaging task to examine sex differences in the effect of psychosocial stress on hormones and food reward processing in humans. We hypothesized that male and female healthy subjects exposed to stressful situations during the Maastricht Acute Stress Test (MAST) will show sex differences in physiological, subjective self-report, and neural measures. The physiological variables measured ghrelin and cortisol reactivity. Subjective self-report variables measured perceived threat (pre-/post-task appraisals), state anxiety (pre-/post-scan state anxiety), and visual analogue scale ratings of appetite and mood (hunger/sadness/tension). The neural variables utilized a food incentive delay (FID) task that measured hedonic value (valence ratings of reward vs. neutral cue, success, or fail), incentive motivation (reaction time to reward vs. neutral success), and reward sensitivity (blood-oxygen-level-dependent activation during functional magnetic resonance imaging in response to food reward vs. neutral anticipation and receipt) in predefined brain regions of interest (ROIs): the caudate, nucleus accumbens, putamen, amygdala, and hypothalamus. METHODS: A total of 42 healthy subjects between the ages of 21 and 45 with body mass index between 18 and 35 were enrolled. Each participant completed a stress visit, during which the stress version of the MAST was administered, and a no-stress visit, during which the no-stress version of the MAST was administered. The order of visits for each subject was randomly assigned. Demographic data as well as physiological, subjective self-report, and neural measures were obtained at each visit. RESULTS: Subjects experienced greater percent increase in cortisol from pre-MAST to post-MAST at the stress visit than the no-stress visit. At the stress visit, post-MAST raw cortisol levels were significantly higher in males than in females and pre-FID raw ghrelin levels were significantly higher in females than males. Subjects endorsed higher perceived threat, lower pre-scan state anxiety, and more negative post-MAST mood at the stress visit compared to the no-stress visit. During the stress visit, no significant sex differences were found in perceived threat, state anxiety, or mood. Lastly, there were no main effects of visit or sex on appetite, valence ratings, and functional response in the ROIs. Across visits, females reacted significantly slower than males to food reward and neutral cues. There was a significant effect of phase on functional response in the amygdala, but not in any other ROIs, with subjects across visits showing significantly greater amygdala activation in response to food reward (vs. neutral) receipt than anticipation. DISCUSSION: Our study revealed, as predicted, that there was a significant effect of stress on cortisol and ghrelin, and on subjective self-reported perceived threat, pre-scan state anxiety, and post-MAST mood. At the stress visit, compared to the no-stress visit, subjects showed greater increase in cortisol and reported higher perceived threat, lower pre-scan state anxiety, and more negative post-MAST mood, indicating that the stressful impact of the MAST induced the intended physiological consequences. Sex differences were observed in the effect of stress on cortisol at post-MAST time point (T20) and on ghrelin at pre-FID time point (T80). Our findings support sex differences in ghrelin and cortisol response to stress in agreement with previous studies’ findings. We failed to reject the null hypothesis that there is no effect of stress on appetite, valence ratings, reaction times, and functional response in the ROIs in response to food reward (vs. neutral) anticipation and receipt. We also did not find significant sex differences, or interactions involving sex, in perceived threat, state anxiety, appetite, mood, or valence ratings. Notably, we did not detect statistically significant sex differences in blood-oxygen-level-dependent signal activation in the caudate, nucleus accumbens, putamen, amygdala, or hypothalamus in response to reward (vs. neutral) anticipation and receipt. Future research can extend our findings by examining individual and potential sex differences in pervasive trait-level qualities to better understand the role of emotional eating tendencies on ghrelin, and reward anticipation and receipt.

It is well established that older adults display marked impairments in the heat loss responses of sweating and skin blood flow relative to young adults which can exacerbate body heat storage by compromising whole-body heat loss (evaporative + dry heat exchange). Similarly, young women display reductions in whole-body heat loss relative to young men during exercise in dry heat. As such, it is possible that the age-related decline in whole-body heat loss will be greater among women relative to men. To examine whether the age-related decline in whole-body heat loss would be greater in women relative to men during exercise in dry heat, and whether this response would be more pronounced with a greater elevation in the level of heat stress, whole-body heat loss (evaporative ± dry heat exchange) was evaluated in 80 individuals (46 men, 34 women) aged between 18-70 years. Participants completed an incremental exercise model involving three, 30-min bouts of semi-recumbent cycling at fixed rates of metabolic heat production (150, 200, 250 W/m2), each separated by a 15-min recovery period in hot-dry conditions (40˚C, ~15% relative humidity). Whole-body heat loss was measured using direct calorimetry whereas metabolic heat production was measured using indirect calorimetry. Whole-body heat loss declined with age (across men and women) during moderate- and vigorous-intensity exercise by 4.2 and 6.6 W/m2 (both P < 0.050), respectively, however, these relationships were not modified by sex (both P > 0.050). Nonetheless, whole-body heat loss was lower in women relative to men during moderate- and vigorous-intensity exercise by 8.4 and 12.1 W/m2 (both P < 0.05), respectively. Therefore, the results of this thesis demonstrate that the age-related decline in whole-body heat loss is not dependent on sex.

This dissertation investigates how German young adults use modal particles (MPs) when communicating in online chat forums. Simply stated, MPs help to clarify a speaker’s intent and mood, without having any syntactical function or adding specific semantic content. For many years, MPs were ignored, described as useless fill-words, or even regarded as "Lice in the fur of our language." (Reiners, 1967). During the last three decades though, their usefulness and importance has been recognized. It has long been established that the correct use of MPs in German causes spoken discourse to sound more fluent and warm, while spoken German without the use of MPs appears wooden and cold. Although various areas of MP research have been explored, the use of MPs by young adults has not yet received much attention. In order to provide a first account of how MPs are used by young adults in informal settings, online conversations (chats) were analyzed to determine the frequency of their MP use. Additionally, this research investigates whether gender differences for MP use in young adults exist, and relates the results within the framework of current research in the areas of pragmatics and gender specific language. The analyzed online conversations were collected from the German chat forum ‘meet-teens.de.’ Approx. 2,000 words of chat data, each from 15 male and 15 female young adult users aged between 16 and 21 were collected. The data consists of conversations between five male-male pairs, five female-female pairs, and five male-female pairs. The analyses of the data found that the female participants in this research used significantly more MPs than their male counterparts. Furthermore, the MPs ‘bloß’, ‘halt’, and ‘mal’ were used significantly more frequently by male participants, while the MPs ‘denn’, ‘eben’, and ‘wohl’ were significantly more frequently used by female participants. The analyses also found that female young adults speaking to other females used the MPs ‘denn’, ‘halt’, and ‘mal’ significantly more often than when speaking to their male counterparts, while male young adults, with the exception of the MP ‘bloß’, did not change their use of MPs depending on the gender of their conversational partner.

Females exhibit lower sudomotor response than males, which has been attributed to physiological differences between sexes. It is well accepted that non-thermal factors (i.e. baroreceptors and osmoreceptors) can influence thermoeffector responses. Even though there are sex-related differences in baroreceptor modulation of thermoeffector responses, it remains unknown if differences in osmoreceptor modulation could explain the lower sudomotor response in females. Therefore, we examined if there are sex-related differences in osmoreceptor modulation of sweating and cutaneous vascular conductance (CVC). A group of nine males and nine females were passively heated while in an isosmotic and hyperosmotic state. The onset and thermosensitivity of sweating and CVC were calculated and compared between groups and conditions. We show that the delay in onset of sweating and CVC is similar between sexes. However, thermosensitivity of sweating was lower in females than males. We conclude that hyperosmolality does not modulate the decreased sudomotor activity in females.

No description available.

This study resolves divergent prior findings relating book-tax differences to future earnings, determines whether prior literature has missed relationships between different types of book-tax differences and pre-tax and/or after-tax income, and investigates prior earnings as a factor contributing to the observed relationships. As past research has found that some firms have large book-tax differences over several years, this study separates these firms with large stable book-tax differences from others with large book-tax differences (non-stable) when investigating the link between large book-tax differences and future earnings. Finally, this study investigates whether the relationship between book-tax differences and future earnings reflects information about prior earnings and finds that prior earnings growth explains much of the lower persistence found for firms with large book-tax differences.