Comparative study of Anaplasma parasites in tick carrying buffaloes and cattle

INTRODUCTION The world population of buffaloes(Bubalus bubalis)has been estimated at over172million head,more than97%(167.6million)of which are in Asia and the Pacific region,mainly in India(97.7million)and Pakistan(25.5million)(FAO,2004).About98%of buffaloes in the region are raised by small farmers owning less than two hectares of land and less than five buffaloes(Mudgal,1992).In general,the water buffalo is regarded as more productive,healthier and more useful than the cow,especiall…     

The mathematical education of engineers

Mathematics has always played an important role in the education of engineers and production managers. At the present time, the importance of mathematics has increased significantly and it is quite natural that in universities around the world engineering students are taking courses in mathematics which constitute, as a rule, a significant portion of their programme. At the same time, however, the mathematical education of the engineer is far from ideal and its improvement deserves the closest scrutiny. The present article deals with several general aspects of this problem.     

Primary school children's health-enhancing physical activity patterns: the school as a significant environment?

The moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) of 70 children (age 8.6 years; 40 boys) was measured and gender and age differences were compared. Boys spent 28 minutes per day more than girls in MVPA (p=0.02, d=0.54), and younger children accumulated 24 minutes more MVPA than older peers (p=0.0001, d=0.91). Similar gender and age-related trends were apparent during segmented periods of the day. The majority of daily MVPA was accrued during school-related time (56.4±9.1%; p=0.0001, d=1.57). The findings reinforce the significance of schools as key environments for MVPA participation and promotion.     

Differential development of 24-h retention capacities for two components of T-maze escape learning by infant mice

At 9 or 11 days of age, separate groups of Swiss-Webster mice received 12, 24, or 40 training trials to the goal opposite their first-trial choice in a shock-escape T-maze task. All groups were retested to the same goal for 25 trials 24 h following training, while maturation controls without prior exposure were trained to the goal opposite their first choice. All groups demonstrated increased escape proficiency during original training on two separate escape components: reaching the choice point and making the correct turn at the choice point. During retention testing, all groups at both ages exhibited better escape performance in terms of reaching the choice point than their maturation controls. However, when escape was measured in terms of choice, none of the groups trained at 9 days of age differed significantly from maturation controls when retested at 10 days of age. In contrast, retention of correct choice point turn varied directly with number of original training trials for mice trained at 11 days of age.     

Early intervention for reading disabilities: teaching the alphabet principle in a connectionist framework

Forty-eight children referred by teachers at the end of first grade for difficulty in reading were randomly assigned to three treatments, all of which modeled connections between written and spoken words but did not teach phonics rules, for eight half-hour individual tutoring sessions. The children were taught 48 words of varying orders of spelling-sound predictability (Venezky, 1995) using a whole-word method, for making connections between a word's name and its constituent letters; a subword method, for making connections between each color-coded spelling unit and its corresponding phonemes; or a combined whole-word and subword method. Regardless of the method used, children improved reliably on standardized reading measures and the taught words, showing that they could make connections between written and spoken words at the whole word and subword levels, even when rules were not taught. By posttest, the subword method showed a reliable advantage on a standardized test of real word reading. Knowledge of sounds associated with both multiletter and single-letter spelling units predicted reading achievement. Order of spelling-sound predictability (easy, moderate, difficult) was correlated with standardized measures of reading at pretest and posttest, and the magnitude of the relationship increased as a result of the intervention. Individual differences in verbal intelligence, rapid automatized naming, and phonological and orthographic skills predicted response to the intervention. Instructional implications of the results are discussed.     

On the Complexity of the Reduction of Multidimensional Data Models

In this paper, decomposition methods for multidimensional data hypercubes of OLAP systems are investigated. Criteria for reducing the computational complexity of the decomposition methods are presented and comparisons are made with the traditional solutions of multidimensional data analysis problems. Examples illustrating the application of these criteria to investigating the dynamics of computational complexity changes for specific types of reduction problems are considered.