The Relationship Between Home Environment and Reading Achievement

The purpose of this study was to determine if research previously conducted was a replica to the data collected on the amount of family literacy present in the homes of high achieving and low achieving readers. Forty third grade and forty fourth grade students from a rural district in western New York constituted the subjects of this study. The students were divided into two groups - high and low achieving readers based on their recent total reading score on the Stanford .Achievement Test. An anonymous survey was sent home to the parents of these students to collect information about their family literacy environment. Comparisons were then made to determine the relationship between Home Environment and Reading Achievement. Results revealed that the relationship between the students\u27 home literacy environment and reading achievement was moderately strong, the fourth graders relationship being stronger. Analysis of the surveys demonstrated that an interesting pattern exists between the third and fourth graders\u27 surveys. Of the twenty two survey questions, ten items showed that both groups\u27 amount of literacy present in the home was less for the lower achieving students and greater for the higher achieving students

A Review of Transport Practices and Mortalities in pigs in Australia

The closure of abattoirs in Australia dictates that pigs will be transported over greater distances resulting in increased costs and reduced margins for producers. Factors contributing to reduced margins could include increased freight costs, reduced scale weight as a result of reduced killing out percentage and condemnations (due to injuries) plus possible increased deaths in transport. More information is needed in Australia on transport practices and mortalities to address knowledge deficiencies in our understanding of the welfare implications of road transport

Contributions of soil and crop factors to plant available soil water capacity of annual crops on Black and Grey Vertosols

Improved methods for field measurements of plant available soil water capacity (PAWC) of Black and Grey Vertosols in Australia’s north-eastern grain region were employed to characterise 83 soil–crop combinations over 7 depth intervals to 180 cm. Soil sub-order was shown to influence all components of PAWC (means of 224 and 182 mm in Black and Grey Vertosols, respectively) with drained upper limit (DUL), bulk density (BD), and crop lower limits (CLL) showing clear separation between soil sub-orders and a trend with soil depth. In addition to soil sub-order and soil depth effects, CLL showed crop effects such that expected PAWC of various crops when adjusted for soil sub-orders were: cotton 240 mm; wheat 233 mm; sorghum 225 mm; fababean 209 mm; chickpea 197 mm; barley 191 mm; and mungbean 130 mm. A total of 549 measured CLL values were used to develop a predictive model for estimating CLL from the soil sub-order, depth, DUL, and crop by predicting a CLL as a function of DUL and a depth-dependent variable for each crop–soil sub-order. The model CLL = DUL * (a + b * DUL) explained 85% of observed variation in the measured data with no significant bias between observed and predicted data. While properly measured data would be more reliable than estimated data, where specific site accuracy is less critical, this model may be used to estimate PAWC with an acceptable degree of accuracy

Should women be screened for postnatal depression? Exploring the effects of undiagnosed maternal mental health problems on child development.

Background: Evidence of a relationship between maternal postnatal depression and child development is consistently growing, but there has been no distinction between depression that is clearly diagnosed and treated, and depression that is never identified by health professionals. Previous models assessing the cost-effectiveness of screening for postnatal depression have been unable to account for child outcomes and the effects of undiagnosed maternal depression due to a lack of research in this area. Without these outcomes, screening for maternal postnatal depression is not currently considered to be cost-effective. Methods: Longitudinal survey data from the Millennium Cohort Study is used to explore the differential effects of undiagnosed and diagnosed maternal depression on child cognitive and behavioural development over time, and to re-examine whether screening for postnatal depression could be considered cost-effective once longer term child outcomes are included. Results: Depression that is undiagnosed has a substantial effect on the behavioural development of children. Children of mothers who are depressed but not diagnosed at 9 months are at least equally likely as those of mothers with diagnosed and treated depression to have behavioural problems later on in childhood. Identifying and treating maternal depression showed some short-term beneficial effect for child behavioural development up to age 5, but this was not maintained at age 7. Higher levels of persistent depression were identified in women who were diagnosed and treated for depression and this persistency was found to have an additive effect on child outcomes, with longer-term maternal mental health problems much more strongly associated with child outcomes than postnatal depression alone. Conclusions: This research highlights the limited success of current treatments for maternal depression, both in benefiting child development and providing long-term symptom remediation for mothers. As current treatments lack benefit for children over the longer-term, the recommendation that screening for postnatal depression appears not to be cost-effective remains unchanged

Spatial and Electronic Manipulation of Silicon Nanocrystals by Atomic Force Microscopy

[As silicon-based devices shnnk, interest is increasing in fast, low-power devices sensitive to small numbers of electrons. Recent work suggests that MOS structures with large arrays of Si nanocrystals comprising a floating gate can be extremely fast, reliable and nonvolatile relative to conventional floating gate memories. In these structures approximately one electron is stored per nanocrystal. Despite promising initial results, current devices have a distribution of charge transit times during writing of nanocrystal ensembles, which limits speed. This behavior is not completely understood, but could be related to a dispersion in oxide thicknesses, nanocrystals interface states, or shifts in the electronic bound states due to size variations. To address these limitations, we have developed an aerosol vapor synthesis/deposition technique for silicon nanocrystals with active size classification, enabling narrow distributions of nanocrystal size (~10-15% of particle in the 2-10 nm size range). The first goal of these experiments has been to use scanning probe techniques to perform particle manipulation and to characterize particle electronic properties and charging on a single-particle basis. Si nanocrystal structures (lines, arrows and other objects) have been formed by contact-mode operation and subsequently imaged in noncontact mode without additional particle motion. Further, single nanocrystal charging by a conducting AFM tip has been observed, detected as an apparent height change due to electrostatic force, followed by a slow relaxation as the stored charge dissipates. Ongoing and future efforts will also be briefly discussed, including narrowing of nanocrystal size distributions, control of oxide thickness on the nanocrystals, and measurements of electron transport through individual particles and ensembles

Are mungbean-compatible wild bradyrhizobia more resilient to abiotic stress?

Bradyrhizobia required by mungbean for nitrogen fixation can be impacted by abiotic stresses, reducing nitrogen fixation and yield. Wild bradyrhizobia were collected from ten sites in the dry tropics of Queensland and compared with the commercial strain for performance of inoculated mungbeans, under neutral and acid soil conditions. We found thirteen of the fifteen strains tested promoted growth at least as well as the commercial strain under both acid and neutral conditions. Two significantly outperformed the commercial strain under neutral conditions. This study suggests that gains could be made in mungbean performance through use of better-adapted bradyrhizobia

Cereal and Pulse Crops with Improved Resistance to Pratylenchus thornei Are Needed to Maximize Wheat Production and Expand Crop Sequence Options

n the subtropical grain region of eastern Australia, two experiments were conducted, one initially with 2490 P. thornei/kg soil, the other with 8150 P. thornei/kg soil at 0–0.9 m soil depth. We determined the effect of P. thornei, residual from a weed-free fallow and pre-cropping with several cultivars each of barley (Hordeum vulgare), faba bean (Vicia faba), chickpea (Cicer arietinum), and wheat (Triticum aestivum) (Phase 1), on the growth of wheat cultivars with intolerance or tolerance to P. thornei (Phase 2). Pratylenchus thornei substantially increased after growing all cultivars of the Phase 1 faba bean, barley, and most cultivars of chickpea and wheat, and decreased after two moderately resistant wheat cultivars and the fallow treatment. The biomass of the Phase 2 tolerant cultivar ranged from 5070 to 6780 kg/ha and the intolerant cultivar 1020 to 4740 kg/ha. There was a negative linear relationship between P. thornei population densities and biomass of the Phase 2 intolerant cultivar but not of the tolerant cultivar. Growers are at risk of financial loss because they are restricted in their choice of crops to reduce damaging population densities of P. thornei. The development of resistant and tolerant crop genotypes can maximize production in P. thornei-affected farming systems

Imazapic and diuron availability and toxicity in different soils

Take home message • Herbicide residue levels can be measured in soil, but to interpret what soil analysis results mean for the subsequent crop, information about crop toxicity thresholds, and soil-specific herbicide availability is needed. • An approach has been developed to derive toxicity thresholds and predict herbicide availability in different soils to provide a prediction of safety for cropping. • Soil analysis for herbicide residues is not a replacement for using herbicides according to label requirements. • Additional ground truthing of this proof-of-concept research across a wider range of soil types and environments will strengthen the predictions