Neural Correlate Differences in Number Sense Between Children With Low and Middle/High Socioeconomic Status.

Although some cognitive studies provided reasons that children with low socioeconomic status (SES) showed poor mathematical achievements, there was no explicit evidence to directly explain the root of lagged performance in children with low SES. Therefore, the present study explored the differences in neural correlates in the process of symbolic magnitude comparison between children with different SESs by the event-related potentials (ERPs). A total of 16 second-graders from low-SES families and 16 from middle/high-SES families participated in this study. According to the results of anterior N1 (early attention) and P2 (extraction of numerical meaning) over the frontal region, the differences among children with different SESs were manifested as differences in general neural activities in terms of attention and top-down cognitive control. In the late stage of cognitive processing, there was no significant difference in the average amplitude of the late positive component (LPC) between children with different SES, indicating that low SES did not influence the information encoding and memory updating of numerical representation, which was responsible by the parietal lobe. The educational implications of this study are mentioned in the discussion.

[Strategy and effect of Oncomelania hupensis snail control in inside-embankment areas in Junshan District, Hunan Province from 1998 to 2017].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the strategy and countermeasures of Oncomelania hupensis snail control and evaluate the effect in inside-embankment areas of lake-type schistosomiasis endemic area, for providing the effective method for controlling and interrupting the schistosomiasis transmission. METHODS: The data of schistosomiasis epidemic and its control and prevention were collected in Junshan District, Hunan Province, and the effect of snail control countermeasures were evaluated and the trend of indexes of snails was drafted in the inside-embankment areas of Junshan District, Hunan Province from 1998 to 2007. RESULTS: The area with snails in the inside embankment areas of Junshan District decreased by 98.43%, from 1 496.66 hm2 in 1998 to 23.48 hm2 in 2017. The occurrence rate and average density of of living snails decreased from 20.61% and 0.45 snail/0.1 m2 in 2003 to 2.06% and 0.03 snail/0.1 m2 in 2017. The highest area with schistosome infected snails was found in 2001 and the total area was 79.36 hm2, however, no infected snails were found since 2007. The total fiscal investment for schistosomiasis prevention and control was 398.857 million RMB in Junshan District, including molluscicide (81.770 9 million RMB) and environment reform (213.5 million RMB) respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The comprehensive measures, mainly including the combination of molluscicide and environment reform have gotten a significant effect in snail control and elimination in the inside-embankment areas, but the snail surveillance still need to be strengthened in the historic areas with snails.

[Cost-effectiveness of comprehensive schistosomiasis control strategy with focus on cattle and sheep removal in Junshan District, Yueyang City].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of comprehensive schistosomiasis control measures with focus on total removal of cattle and sheep in Juanshan District, Yueyang City. METHODS: The schistosome infection status of human, cattle, sheep and Oncomelania hupensis snails and costs of control measures were gathered during the period of 2006 to 2016. The costs for different periods and cost-effectiveness ratios were calculated. RESULTS: The prevalence of schistosome infection in residents in the pilot villages decreased from 3.44% in 2006 to 0 in 2016. The annual costs of schistosomiasis prevention and control were 4 708 500 yuan from 2006 to 2008, 5 094 700 yuan from 2009 to 2012 and 9 522 700 yuan from 2013 to 2016. The cost-effectiveness analysis showed that the average annual cost of reduction in the residents'infection rate by 1% were 79 500 yuan from 2006 to 2008, 101 200 yuan from 2009 to 2012, and 95 200 yuan from 2013 to 2016, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The comprehensive schistosomiasis control strategy with focus on cattle and sheep removal in Junshan District is cost effective which could be extended to other lake and marshland schistosomiasis endemic areas.