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Goats were one of the oldest domesticated ruminants and are thought to have been domesticated in the mountains of West Asia between 7000 and 10,000 BC. The earliest evidence for its domestication was the discovery of relics in a supposedly >7,000 B.C. on the coast of the Yerko and Caspian Seas, Jordan. Goats are also remarkable in that they are bred all over the world in the exception of quite cold regions such as the Arctic. About 75% of the world's population uses goat for milk, meat, wool, and/or leather. Existing wild goats are roughly classified into three subspecies: Bezoar (Capra aegagrus), distributed in West Asia; Markhor (C. falconeri), inhabiting Afghanistan and Pakistan; and Ibex (C. ibex), scattered in West Asia, Central Asia, East Africa, and Europe. Among these, Bezoar is the most widely agreed wild goat, and in addition, genetic effects of Markhor in the Central Asian region and genetic effects of Ibex in the course of transmission to the African region are suggested. The world's domestic goats are broadly classified into three categories as Bezoar type, Savanna type, and Nubian type. Recently, DNA polymorphism analyses for goats have been performed, especially using the D-loop region of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). As a result, it has been clarified as six haplogroups (types A-G). The divergence times among these haplogroups were estimated to be at least >50,000 years, suggesting that they diverged before domestication. However, analyses of multiple strains of wild goats Bezoar, Markhor, and Ibex are genetically distinct from the haplotypes of these domestic goats, and from this analysis, it is not clear from which wild goats they are inherited from their ancestors or genetic influences. The mitochondrial haplogroup A predominates in most of the world, and is almost exclusively found in Europe and Africa, especially in the Middle East and the West. On the other hand, the mitochondrial haplogroup B is found in more eastern countries, particularly in Southeast Asia at high frequency, and its frequency tends to increase in the southeast. The fact that this type B is restricted to East Asia and is more frequent in Southeast Asian countries may provide interesting insights into the domestication and propagation routes of goats. In addition, SRY 3 UTR sequences on Y chromosome revealed four major SRY haplotypes (Y1A, Y1B, Y2A, and Y2B) with a marked geographic differentiation and several regional variants. The haplotypes Y1A and Y2A are found worldwide at high frequencies, whereas the haplotypes Y1B and Y2B are found specifically in Europe and Southeast Asia, respectively. Moreover, whole-genome sequences showed that the Y1A haplotype was split into Y1AA and Y1AB. Subsequently, we examined genome-wide analysis of modern Eurasian goats using goat 52K SNP array for estimating the genetic structure and the establishing process of Southeast Asian goats. The results of the analyses in Asian goat populations were well matched with topology of geographical locations, suggesting two major propagation routes from domestication center to Southeast Asia via Southwest Asia and Northeast Asia via Central Asia. The genome-wide SNP information in addition of uniparental markers could supply a comprehensive scenario of Southeast Asian goat history. In this ICAST4 conference, I would like to talk about our results based on molecular evidence and discuss the origin(s) and propagation route(s) in the East and Southeast Asian goats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The utilization of Technology Enhanced Learning and more specifically of Distance Education for Life-Long Learning and Continuous Professional Development are at the epicenter/focus of European policies for the improvement of the delivery of Vocational Education and Training. In this context, one of the important challenges is the design of versatile quality assurance strategies for training; providers that can guide the development of eLearning programs that achieve real impact in the participants' lives. The University of Patras has launched a project for the provision of short, accessible, certified distance life-long learning programmes. The main pillars of this project are Excellence, Specialized Personalized Training at cutting edge subjects, Quality, Deep Learning and Innovation. Quality is perceived as a vibrant, dynamic process that is evaluated in the eye of the beholder (learner). Deep Learning goes beyond (superficial) knowledge increase: it aims at the development of transformative knowledge, meaning and metacognitive skills. In this study we identify, propose and evaluate preconditions, criteria and strategies to achieve high quality blended learning online courses based on the relevant experience of the University of Patras' Educational Centre for Life-Long Learning (KEDIVIM). We present the methods used to assess the quality of the eLearning programmes, key findings of the evaluation process as well as early results of a research study on the quality of learning. The formative evaluation process was conducted by external assessors based on Context, Input, Process, Product approach. The evaluation instruments were online questionnaires, structured and semi-structured observation. The research study on quality was conducted by using an online questionnaire and aims at estimating the level of participants satisfaction using interactive learning methods such as collaborative learning. Early results of the study suggest that the project lead to the rapid provision of eLearning programmes that used successfully active learning methods to achieve high learner satisfaction and address training needs and skills gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and therefore e-learning is becoming an ever more frequently used teaching and learning technique at all levels of education. In higher education, it completely or partially substitutes the classical teaching methods. It provides richer resources than the traditional classroom and overcomes its limitations (time and space). In some cases, it has proved to be very effective. Some authors, however, also point out that e-learning requires highly self-regulated and independent students or their e-learning performance may be low. The purpose of the paper is to analyse how introduction of the e-learning system Moodle as part of the teaching process is related with students' performance, i.e. the average grade and the average number of admissions to the exams. We also examined the same relationship among different groups of students (based on selected individual socio-demographic factors). The study included a member of the University of Ljubljana (Faculty of Administration) with public administration programmes as our sample in the period from 2008 till 2014. The results of the analysis (using a t-test) show a significant improvement in performance (a higher average grade and lower average number of admissions) at the different (faculty-, student- and course-) levels after introducing the Moodle e-learning platform. The data show that the greatest improvement is seen among students with lower high school grades. The results can serve as important guidelines for university management when further investigating how to enhance students' performance on different levels when employing modern ICT solutions in the teaching process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Courses in virtual learning environments can leave recently enrolled participants in a state of loneliness (Brown, 1996), confusion (Hara & Kling, 2000) and boredom (Huang, 2002). What course content is essential in the course, where can more information be found and which assignments are mandatory? Research has stated that learner control (Chou & Liu, 2005) and motivation (Keller & Suzuki, 2004) are crucial issues for successful online education. This paper presents and discusses visualisation as a channel to improve learner control, and gamification as a way to increase study motivation in virtual learning environments. Data has been collected by evaluation questionnaires and group discussions in two courses partly given in the Moodle virtual learning environment. One course is on Game based learning for Bachelor's programmes, the other is a course on e-learning for university teachers. Both the courses have used progress bars to visualise students' study paths and digital badges for gamification. Results have also been discussed with teachers and pedagogues at a department for computer and systems sciences. Findings indicate that visualisation by progress bars is a good way to improve course participants' overview in online environments with rich and multifaceted content. To what degree the visualisation facilitates the course completion is hard to estimate, and like students have different learning styles, they also seem to have different visualisation needs. Gamification by digital badges seems to have various motivational impacts in different study groups and in traditional university programmes the traditional grades seem to be the main carrots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the present study was to provide a structural model for organizational justice in universities based on intellectual capital. The population of the research included all employees of Islamic Azad University (administrative region 11) in Iran. 203 employees were selected using stratified and cluster random sampling. The research instruments were two questionnaires which were administered in 13 branches and education centers: Beugre's (1998) organizational justice questionnaire which consisted of 20 items with three underlying constructs of procedural justice, interactional justice, and distributive justice and Cronbach Alpha of 0.93 and Bontis's (1997) intellectual capital questionnaire which consisted of 52 items with three underlying constructs of human capital, customer capital, and structural capital and Cronbach Alpha of 0.89. The results of path analysis using LISREL software indicated that dimensions of intellectual capital had a direct effect on organizational justice with the indices of 0.73. The model also showed that the factor of customer capital in intellectual capital had the highest direct effect on the factor of procedural justice in organizational justice. It was also concluded that the proposed model showed full fit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides a schedule of conference events and a listing of which papers were presented in each session. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study investigated students' experiences in two types of instructional strategies (i.e., fully-guided and partially guided) and their learning experience patterns from the beginning towards the end of the computer-based interactions. An empirical study was performed on 41 students from a public university in Malaysia using two types of computer-based systems for learning Basic Computer Networks. The students' learning experiences were evaluated at three different stages of the computer-based learning sessions using self-report technique. The results showed that the students' learning experiences were changing over the period of the computer-based lessons either in positive or negative ways. The directions of changes were mainly influenced by the students' Information Technology (IT) prior knowledge. The results of this study suggest that computer-based guided learning systems should consider students' background of knowledge in their design to achieve effective learning. Further, the combination of the fully-and partially-guided features may create an adaptive computer-based learning system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses research relating to the influence of power, learning, and conflict on international joint ventures. The research indicates that conflict between parent companies plays an indirect role as to whether ventures become wholly-owned subsidiaries and which partner (local or foreign) gains control. An imbalance in power between the parents over the venture does not independently influence the stability of the venture. When combined with high levels of conflict between the parents, the international joint venture is more likely to convert to a wholly-owned subsidiary.