Extraction of DNA suitable for PCR applications from mature leaves of Mangifera indica L.

Good quality deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the pre-requisite for its downstream applications. The presence of high concentrations of polysaccharides, polyphenols, proteins, and other secondary me- tabolites in mango leaves poses problem in getting good quality DNA fit for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) applications. The problem is exacerbated when DNA is extracted from mature mango leaves. A reliable and modified protocol based on the cetyl- trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) method for DNA extraction from mature mango leaves is described here. High concentrations of inert salt were used to remove polysaccharides; Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and β-mercaptoethanol were employed to manage phenolic compounds. Extended chloroform-isoamyl alcohol treatment followed by RNase treatment yielded 950?1050 μg of good quality DNA, free of protein and RNA. The problems of DNA degradation,contamination, and low yield due to irreversible binding of phenolic compounds and coprecipitation of polysaccharides with DNA were avoided by this method. The DNA isolated by the modified method showed good PCR amplification using simple se- quence repeat (SSR) primers. This modified protocol can also be used to extract DNA from other woody plants having similar problems.     

Additive effects due to biochar and endophyte application enable soybean to enhance nutrient uptake and modulate nutritional parameters

We studied the effects of hardwood-derived biochar (BC) and the phytohormone-producing endophyte Galactomyces geotrichum WLL1 in soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) with respect to basic, macro- and micronutrient uptakes and assimilations, and their subsequent effects on the regulation of functional amino acids, isoflavones, fatty acid composition, total sugar contents, total phenolic contents, and 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH)-scavenging activity. The assimilation of basic nutrients such as nitrogen was up-regulated, leaving carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen unaffected in BC+G. geotrichum-treated soybean plants. In comparison, the uptakes of macro- and micronutrients fluctuated in the individual or co-application of BC and G. geotrichum in soybean plant organs and rhizospheric substrate. Moreover, the same attribute was recorded for the regulation of functional amino acids, isoflavones, fatty acid composition, total sugar contents, total phenolic contents, and DPPH-scavenging activity. Collectively, these results showed that BC+G. geotrichum-treated soybean yielded better results than did the plants treated with individual applications. It was concluded that BC is an additional nutriment source and that the G. geotrichum acts as a plant biostimulating source and the effects of both are additive towards plant growth promotion. Strategies involving the incorporation of BC and endophytic symbiosis may help achieve eco-friendly agricultural production, thus reducing the excessive use of chemical agents.     

ICT in Science Education: A quasi‐experimental study of achievement,attitudes toward science,and career aspirations of Korean middle school students

The Seventh School Curriculum Reform in Korea was introduced in 2000 to prepare school‐aged Koreans for an information and knowledge‐based society. The reform effort emphasises information and communication technology (ICT) in the K–12 curriculum and a learner‐centred pedagogy. This study examines the contributions of ICT, specifically, computer‐assisted instruction (CAI), in Korean science classrooms. A sample of 234 Korean middle school students was categorised into five achievement groups. Data were collected from pre‐ and post‐achievement test scores and pre‐ and post‐questionnaires for attitudes toward science, future courses, and career aspirations in science. Findings include: (1) the lowest achievement group showed the most significant improvement after CAI (p=.000); (2) an improvement in student achievement in science significantly influenced students’ attitudes toward science (p=.019), future course selections, and career aspirations related to science (p=.000); and (3) boys tended to perform better with CAI than girls. This research provides evidence that CAI has the potential to help lower achieving students in Korean science classes and may encourage enrolment in science.     

Effectiveness of ontology-based learning content generation for preschool cognitive skills learning

During early childhood, children start developing their cognitive, social, emotional, and behavioural skills, laying the foundation for life-long learning. Cognitive skills are usually taught in traditional classrooms through the use of textbooks and worksheets. The learning content in these textbooks and worksheets is static pre-authored content that is repeatedly used for teaching and learning. This repetition jeopardises the child's learning of individualised and cognitive skills. Preschool cognitive skills learning content comprises facts of everyday life. Similarly, the Semantic Web attempts to model these facts through ontologies. From this, a relationship appears between preschool cognitive skills learning content and the ontologies. The present work focuses on the stated problem and presents the theoretical and development details of a child-friendly tutoring application that dynamically generates cognitive skills learning content using ontologies as domain knowledge. The proposed application was evaluated in a preschool environment for its learning effectiveness and the correctness of the generated content. Three groups of preschool children participated in the study for preschool cognitive skills learning through the use of the proposed application. The first group learned the cognitive skills through the traditional method with textbooks and the teacher's teaching. The second group learned the skills through the proposed application at school in classroom sessions. The third group experienced the proposed application both at school and at home, along with regular classroom sessions. The results show significant gains by the third group over the other two groups, and hence support the use of the proposed application in practice. However, the enhanced learning by the third group disappears if the additional application usage time is removed. Moreover, the results of the expert evaluation show that a great deal of the learning content was correctly generated, thus justifying the true modelling of the domain ontology.     

The contribution of primary school teachers to curriculum planning and development in Iraq

ABSTRACT

This article describes the role of primary school teachers in Iraq in connection with curriculum change and development. It identifies the ways in which professional teachers have been faced with increased central control and concludes by responding directly to the Ministry of Education. A survey involving interviews and question‐ naires was conducted with primary school teachers of different school location, age, gender, experience, qualifications and subjects taught, and in various school locations. Headteachers and education officials were also interviewed to establish the degree of involvement of primary teachers in their curriculum planning process.     

The moderating role of intrinsic motivation in cloud computing adoption in online education in a developing country: a structural equation model

Asia Pacific Education Review - In the provision of massive open online courses (MOOCs), cloud computing services enable students to synchronize their study materials anywhere, anytime, and using...     

Mitigating the urban–rural educational gap in developing countries through mobile technology-supported learning

One form of educational inequality is the disparity that exists between urban and rural settings. Equal distribution of quality education is a challenge for developing countries due to the unavailability of resources. Various approaches to equal distribution are distance learning, telecast learning and e-learning; however, these approaches cannot achieve the desired objectives due to their limitations. This research aimed to investigate the interesting question of whether mobile technology can bring urban and rural settings closer together. A mobile application for learning Urdu grammar was designed to measure the learning gains of fourth-grade students at two different schools from urban and rural settings. A quantitative technique, the quasi-experimental pre-test and post-test method, was used to measure the effectiveness of the mobile application. The comparison of the students’ performances at the urban and rural schools illustrated the role of mobile technology in mitigating the educational gap. The present study provides evidence that children from different social backgrounds may benefit equally from mobile technology.     

Genetic basis of heterosis and inbreeding depression in rice (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Oryza sativa</Emphasis> L.)

The genetic basis of heterosis was studied through mid-parent, standard variety and better parent for 11 quantitative traits in 17 parental lines and their 10 selected hybrids in rice (Oryza sativa L.). The characters were plant height. days to flag leaf initiation, days to first panicle initiation, days to 100% flowering, panicle length, flag leaf length. days to maturity, number of fertile spikelet/panicle, number of effective tillers/hill, grain yield/10-hill, and 1000-grain weight. In general the hybrids performed significantly better than the respective parents. Significant heterosis was observed for most of the studied characters. Among the 10 hybrids, four hybrids viz., 17A×45R, 25A×37R, 27A×39R, 31A×47R, and 35A×47R showed highest heterosis in 10-hill grain yield/10-hill. Inbreeding depression of F₂ progeny was also studied for 11 characters of 10 hybrids. Both positive and negative inbreeding depression were found in many crosses for the studied characters, but none was found significant. Selection of good parents was found to be the most important for developing high yielding hybrid rice varieties. Project supported by the Foundation of Ministry of Science and Information and Communication Technology, People's Republic of Bangladesh     

The use of clickers in Instrumentation and Control Engineering education: a case study

ABSTRACT

This paper presents results from a small-scale study of third-year Instrumentation and Control Engineering (n?=?37) at the University of Plymouth. The aim of the study was to enhance student learning and increase participation via the use of clickers. Clickers allow for student participation anonymously. The lecture content was modified to embed clicker questions at regular intervals to test knowledge, understanding and cognitive skills. Largely, the students preferred interactive lectures to traditional didactic lectures and using clickers increased student engagement and participation. Interestingly, compared to assessment results from the previous year, the increased level of engagement did seem to lead to an overall improvement in grades of approximately 10% in the subject of Control Engineering. However, in Instrumentation, the average fell by approximately 20%. One possible contributory factor of this drop could be the changed exam format for Instrumentation only. This year, the multiple choice section was removed from the Instrumentation examination paper. Furthermore, an analysis of variance showed that in addition to using clickers in the lectures, attendance plays a key role. Results of this small-scale study show that for a more complex subject like Control, student learning, engagement and attainment can increase by the use of clickers.