Primary Cause Of Differences Research Articles

Phonological awareness and visual skills in learning to read Chinese and English

It is well known that phonological awareness is closely related to reading skill in children who are learning to read an alphabetic script such as English. In this study, the relationship between phonological awareness and reading skill was also investigated in children living in Hong Kong and Taiwan who were learning to read Chinese. This is because children from Taiwan learn a phonological script, known as Zhu-Yin-Fu-Hao, before they are taught to read any Chinese characters. In addition, a high proportion of Chinese characters contain a “phonetic” component which might be used by Chinese readers when they are recognising Chinese words. Consequently, the performance of 137 8-year-old primary children from Britain, Hong Kong and Taiwan on tests of phonological awareness, visual skills and reading ability was examined. Although there were significant correlations between Chinese reading and phonological awareness, the results of a series of regression analyses did not support the view that differences in phonological awareness per se are a primary cause of differences in reading ability amongst children learning to read Chinese. In contrast, performance on the phonological awareness tests (rhyme and phoneme detection) was significantly related to the reading ability of British children even after the effects of IQ and vocabulary had been partialled out. The results also showed that a test of visual skills (visual paired associates learning) was significantly related to the reading ability of the children in Hong Kong and Taiwan, but not to the reading of the British children. In addition, the nature of rhyme and phoneme deletion skills differed in children from Britain and Hong Kong. Whereas British children found it more difficult to delete the first phoneme from an initial consonant blend (e.g., deleting /s/ from star) than from a word which contained a single consonant before the vowel (e.g., deleting /s/ from sit), children from Hong Kong showed exactly the opposite pattern. In addition, performance on a phoneme deletion test appeared to be strongly influenced by whether or not the child had learnt an alphabetic script in the language in which they were being tested.

The influence of selection test type on applicant reactions to employment testing

The impact of employment selection devices on the reactions of simulated applicants was investigated. In Study 1, 141 subjects were “failed” on either a biographical inventory, a cognitive ability test, a trainability test or a work sample test. Subjects rejected on the basis of biographical inventory scores perceived the test as less difficult, coped more adaptively, and had better moods than subjects tested with the other instruments. The biographical inventory was also seen as more fakable, but less amenable to improvement through feedback or training than the other devices. We hypothesized that differences among tests in cognitive demand is a primary cause of differences in applicant reaction. In Study 2 (N=151) the comparison of the effects of two biographical inventories to two cognitive ability tests supported our hypothesis, and replicated the findings of Study 1 across failure and success conditions.

The Inevitable Failure of Cost-Containment Strategies-Reply

In Reply.— I welcome Dr Bader's expansion of my brief mention of the Baumol effect. His fuller treatment provides further insight into the difficulty of controlling hospitals' labor costs. Dr Albert is incorrect in stating that HMOs use fewer hospital services because they enroll healthier people. My statement that members of HMOs use 30% fewer hospital days than do their fee-for-service counterparts is based on a controlled study in which individuals were randomly assigned to various types of health care providers. 1,2 This study has laid to rest the view that skimming is the primary cause of differences in hospital utilization between HMOs and the fee-for-service sector. Mr Samuel's letter grossly misrepresents the ideas expressed in my article and also shows no understanding of the cost-containment dilemma that is rapidly approaching. Contrary to his statement, I emphasize the great medical value of new technology. But I also make the point

Maternal behavior of beef cows at parturition.

Over an 11-yr period maternal behavior, calf birth weight and calf condition were recorded within 24 h for 2,684 parturitions. Maternal behavior was rated on a scale from 1 to 11, where 1 indicated extreme aggressiveness and 11 indicated no maternal attentiveness. Birth condition was rated on a scale from 1 to 9, with 9 being fattest and 1 thinnest. Respective breed means of Hereford, Angus, Charolais and Red POll were 6.2, 5.3, 6.0, and 5.7 for maternal behavior rating; 30.6, 27.3, 39.2 and 32.6 kg for birth weight, and 5.5, 4.7, 5.6 and 5.5 for birth condition. Heritability estimates for maternal rating, birth weight and birth condition were .06 +/- .01, .48 +/- .02 and .19 +/- .01, respectively. Genetic correlations between maternal rating and birth weight and condition were .04 +/- .05 and -.02 +/- .06, respectively. These results suggest that, in the population of cows studied, nongenetic influences were the primary cause of differences in aggressiveness of cows at parturition.

Patterns of Reproductive Abscission, Seed Yield, and Yield Components in Soybean1

Field studies were conducted in 1981 and 1982 to determine patterns of flowering and reproductive abscission for nodes on the main stem of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] and to relate these patterns to seed yield components at nodes in various levels of the canopy. ‘Evans,’ an indeterminate, Maturity Group 0 cultivar was used. Individual flowers were tagged at anthesis and monitored through abscission or pod maturity. Date of anthesis and date of flower or pod abscission were recorded. Percent abscission was calculated on a per node basis. Number of mature pods, seeds/pod, and seed weight/pod were recorded for each main stem node. Data are reported as averages over nodes within four sections of the stem, each of which included approximately one‐fourth of the flowering nodes. Seed weight/node and seed weight/section were significantly greater in the middle two sections than in the top or bottom sections in both years. Pods at nodes in the middle two sections accounted for at least 75% of the main stem yield. Flowers produced per node generally varied only slightly among the sections, so percent abscission was the main determinant of pods/node. Pods/node varied as much as 300% among sections, whereas individual seed weight varied less than 35%. The primary cause of differences in number of pods/node and therefore in productivity of nodes in various stem sections was differential flower and pod abscission.

Prostatic acid phosphatase and the cancer of human prostate gland

From the above described results we assume that in human prostate gland there are probable proenzyme forms of the studied enzyme which are not modified posttranslationally before release to the blood circulation. Thus, their presence in blood serum might be the primary cause of differences in the determination of prostatic acid phosphatase by enzymatic and immunological methods.

MATERIAL AND GENIC CYTOPLASMIC DIFFERENCES IN RECIPROCALLY CROSSED TOMATOES

A series of generations was synthesized to study reciprocal differences for three developmental periods, early yield and fruit size in tomatoes. A small fruited early cultivar, Johnny Jumpup, and a large fruited later cultivar, Bounty, were used as parents. From individual cloned parent plants and their reciprocal F1's, all possible first backcross and F2lines were derived. Maternal effects were demonstrated in BC1lines for each of three periods and for early yield. Increased earliness was expressed rather uniformly by BC1lines derived from F1females over those derived from either of the parental females.Genic-cytoplasmic differences were demonstrated in BC1lines for each of three development periods and for early yield. Earliness for each of these characters was associated with lines having common cytoplasmic-recurrent parentage, over those not having common such parentage. Magnitudinally, the differences were more closely associated with the Johnny Jumpup cytoplasmic-Bounty recurrent parent line than with the converse.Similarity in direction and magnitude of differences in F1and F2lines indicated that matroclinous reciprocal F1differences for the development periods and early yield were persistent through the F2. Therefore, the association of cytoplasm with an F1genotype, rather than maternal effects, appears to be the primary cause of differences for earliness in F1's resulting from reciprocal crosses. The larger fruited, earlier parent should be used as the female in F1hybrid seed production, if other considerations do not predominate.