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【JEL Codes】I21, I24 【Abstract】This study investigates two aspects of maternal and paternal involvement. First, what are the associations of parental involvement with adolescents' academic achievement? Second, how does adolescent's educational aspiration mediate the relationship between parental involvement and achievement? Samples of middle school students were analysed separately according to adolescents' gender. The analyses were conducted by using a generalised structural equation modelling. The results show that both maternal and paternal involvement is associated with adolescent's academic outcome even though some differences are also found. Adolescent's educational aspirations mediate the association between parental involvement and academic grade. Among several discussion topics, discussing about adolescents' schooling is more significantly and positively associated with grade.

B class MADS-box genes play important roles in petal and stamen development. Some monocotyledonous species, including liliaceous ones, produce flowers with petaloid tepals in whorls 1 and 2. A modified ABCE model has been proposed to explain the molecular mechanism of development of two-layered petaloid tepals. However, direct evidence for this modified ABCE model has not been reported to date. To clarify the molecular mechanism determining the organ identity of two-layered petaloid tepals, we used chimeric repressor gene-silencing technology (CRES-T) to examine the suppression of B function in the liliaceous ornamental Tricyrtis sp. Transgenic plants with suppressed B class genes produced sepaloid tepals in whorls 1 and 2 instead of the petaloid tepals as expected. In addition, the stamens of transgenic plants converted into pistil-like organs with ovule- and stigma-like structures. This report is the first to describe the successful suppression of B function in monocotyledonous species with two-layered petaloid tepals, and the results strongly support the modified ABCE model.

The transition to formal education is a critical transition in children's lives that has importance for socio-emotional and behavioral functioning. In the transition process, teachers are key players who work intensively with children and their families. This article focuses on teachers' perceptions of children´s socio-emotional behavior during the transition from preschool to primary school. We collected qualitative teacher interviews from 112 teachers from five different countries-Australia, China, Finland, Japan and Spain. The research questions were: (1) How do teachers in the five countries perceive children's abilities in expressing and regulating emotions. (2) How are children's emotions linked to their family relationships? (3) What similarities and differences across countries exist in teachers' perceptions of children's emotions? Overall, the interviewed teachers considered children's emotional skills of crucial importance in the first grade and emphasized the importance of teaching children emotional skills, emotion management and regulation. The teachers reported that children can be stressed, worried or anxious during the transition. The educators also reported that transitions in the family such as parental divorce, the birth of a sibling or the death of a family member can manifest in children at school as restlessness, excitement, sadness or instability. Similarities and differences in the emphasis placed on children's emotions by teachers were found across the five countries. We interpret these results to reflect differences in teacher education, school culture, resources and teachers' freedom of choice in the educational system in the different participating countries. These factors all impact on how teachers think about children and emotions.

A considerable portion of agricultural land in central-east Japan has been contaminated by radioactive material, particularly radioactive Cs, due to the industrial accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Understanding the mechanism of absorption, translocation and accumulation of Cs in plants will greatly assist in developing approaches to help reduce the radioactive contamination of agricultural products. At present, however, little is known regarding the Cs transporters in rice. A transporter-enriched yeast expression library was constructed and the library was screened for Cs transporter genes. The 1452 full length cDNAs encoding transporter genes were obtained from the Rice Genome Resource Center and 1358 clones of these transporter genes were successively subcloned into yeast expression vectors; which were then transferred into yeast. Using this library, both positive and negative selection screens can be performed, which have not been previously possible. The constructed library is an excellent tool for the isolation of novel transporter genes. This library was screened for clones that were sensitive to Cs using a SD-Gal medium containing either 30 or 70 mM CsCl; resulting in the isolation of 13 Cs sensitive clones. Cs absorption experiments were conducted and confirmed that all of the identified clones were able to absorb Cs. A total of 3 potassium transporters, 2 ABC transporters and 1 NRAMP transporter were among the 13 identified clones.