A quantitative study of the effects of informal mathematics activities on the beliefs of preservice elementary school teachers

This study sought to determine the relationship between participation in informal mathematics activities and the formal-to-informal beliefs of university teacher candidates in elementary education. Three classes of preservice teachers participated in the study through their enrollment in a content mathematics course for elementary education majors. Four informal mathematics activities were employed as part of the course requirements. Before and after formal-to-informal beliefs about mathematics and mathematics instruction were measured using a Likert-scale beliefs assessment instrument used by Collier (J Res Math Educ 3(3):155?C163, 1972) and Seaman et al. (School Sci Math 105(4):197?C210, 2005). Changes in beliefs about mathematics and mathematics instruction were compared to a control group. Student reflection upon personal experience derived from participation in the activities was analyzed for formal and informal belief statements.     

On the Gauss–Newton method

We provide a new semilocal convergence analysis of the Gauss–Newton method (GNM) for solving nonlinear equation in the Euclidean space. Using a combination of center-Lipschitz, Lipschitz conditions, and our new idea of recurrent functions, we provide under the same or weaker hypotheses than before (Ben-Israel, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 15:243–252, 1966; Chen and Nashed, Numer. Math. 66:235–257, 1993; Deuflhard and Heindl, SIAM J. Numer. Anal. 16:1–10, 1979; Guo, J. Comput. Math. 25:231–242, 2007; Häußler, Numer. Math. 48:119–125, 1986; Hu et al., J. Comput. Appl. Math. 219:110–122, 2008; Kantorovich and Akilov, Functional Analysis in Normed Spaces, Pergamon, Oxford, 1982), a finer convergence analysis. The results can be extended in case outer or generalized inverses are used. Numerical examples are also provided to show that our results apply, where others fail (Ben-Israel, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 15:243–252, 1966; Chen and Nashed, Numer. Math. 66:235–257, 1993; Deuflhard and Heindl, SIAM J. Numer. Anal. 16:1–10, 1979; Guo, J. Comput. Math. 25:231–242, 2007; Häußler, Numer. Math. 48:119–125, 1986; Hu et al., J. Comput. Appl. Math. 219:110–122, 2008; Kantorovich and Akilov, Functional Analysis in Normed Spaces, Pergamon, Oxford, 1982).     

Gradient Estimates for the Porous Medium Equations on Riemannian Manifolds

In this paper we study gradient estimates for the positive solutions of the porous medium equation: $$u_t=\Delta u^m$$ where m>1, which is a nonlinear version of the heat equation. We derive local gradient estimates of the Li–Yau type for positive solutions of porous medium equations on Riemannian manifolds with Ricci curvature bounded from below. As applications, several parabolic Harnack inequalities are obtained. In particular, our results improve the ones of Lu, Ni, Vázquez, and Villani (in J. Math. Pures Appl. 91:1–19, 2009). Moreover, our results recover the ones of Davies (in Cambridge Tracts Math vol. 92, 1989), Hamilton (in Comm. Anal. Geom. 1:113–125, 1993) and Li and Xu (in Adv. Math. 226:4456–4491, 2011).     

Counterexamples to a triality theorem for quadratic-exponential minimization problems

The main goal of this note is to give a counterexample to the Triality Theorem in Gao and Ruan (Math Methods Oper Res 67:479–491, 2008). This is done first by considering a more general optimization problem with the aim to encompass several examples from Gao and Ruan (Math Methods Oper Res 67:479–491, 2008) and other papers by Gao and his collaborators (see f.i. Gao Duality principles in nonconvex systems. Theory, methods and applications. Kluwer, Dordrecht, 2000; Gao and Sherali Advances in applied mathematics and global optimization. Springer, Berlin, 2009). We perform a thorough analysis of the general optimization problem in terms of local extrema while presenting several counterexamples.     

Optimal Transport, Convection, Magnetic Relaxation and Generalized Boussinesq Equations

We establish a connection between optimal transport theory (see Villani in Topics in optimal transportation. Graduate studies in mathematics, vol. 58, AMS, Providence, 2003, for instance) and classical convection theory for geophysical flows (Pedlosky, in Geophysical fluid dynamics, Springer, New York, 1979). Our starting point is the model designed few years ago by Angenent, Haker, and Tannenbaum (SIAM J. Math. Anal. 35:61–97, 2003) to solve some optimal transport problems. This model can be seen as a generalization of the Darcy–Boussinesq equations, which is a degenerate version of the Navier–Stokes–Boussinesq (NSB) equations. In a unified framework, we relate different variants of the NSB equations (in particular what we call the generalized hydrostatic-Boussinesq equations) to various models involving optimal transport (and the related Monge–Ampère equation, Brenier in Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 64:375–417, 1991; Caffarelli in Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 45:1141–1151, 1992). This includes the 2D semi-geostrophic equations (Hoskins in Annual review of fluid mechanics, vol. 14, pp. 131–151, Palo Alto, 1982; Cullen et al. in SIAM J. Appl. Math. 51:20–31, 1991, Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 185:341–363, 2007; Benamou and Brenier in SIAM J. Appl. Math. 58:1450–1461, 1998; Loeper in SIAM J. Math. Anal. 38:795–823, 2006) and some fully nonlinear versions of the so-called high-field limit of the Vlasov–Poisson system (Nieto et al. in Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 158:29–59, 2001) and of the Keller–Segel for Chemotaxis (Keller and Segel in J. Theor. Biol. 30:225–234, 1971; Jäger and Luckhaus in Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 329:819–824, 1992; Chalub et al. in Mon. Math. 142:123–141, 2004). Mathematically speaking, we establish some existence theorems for local smooth, global smooth or global weak solutions of the different models. We also justify that the inertia terms can be rigorously neglected under appropriate scaling assumptions in the generalized Navier–Stokes–Boussinesq equations. Finally, we show how a “stringy” generalization of the AHT model can be related to the magnetic relaxation model studied by Arnold and Moffatt to obtain stationary solutions of the Euler equations with prescribed topology (see Arnold and Khesin in Topological methods in hydrodynamics. Applied mathematical sciences, vol. 125, Springer, Berlin, 1998; Moffatt in J. Fluid Mech. 159:359–378, 1985, Topological aspects of the dynamics of fluids and plasmas. NATO adv. sci. inst. ser. E, appl. sci., vol. 218, Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1992; Schonbek in Theory of the Navier–Stokes equations, Ser. adv. math. appl. sci., vol. 47, pp. 179–184, World Sci., Singapore, 1998; Vladimirov et al. in J. Fluid Mech. 390:127–150, 1999; Nishiyama in Bull. Inst. Math. Acad. Sin. (N.S.) 2:139–154, 2007).     

Tilting Theory and Functor Categories I. Classical Tilting

Tilting theory has been a very important tool in the classification of finite dimensional algebras of finite and tame representation type, as well as, in many other branches of mathematics. Happel (1988) and Cline et al. (J Algebra 304:397–409 1986) proved that generalized tilting induces derived equivalences between module categories, and tilting complexes were used by Rickard (J Lond Math Soc 39:436–456, 1989) to develop a general Morita theory of derived categories. On the other hand, functor categories were introduced in representation theory by Auslander (I Commun Algebra 1(3):177–268, 1974), Auslander (1971) and used in his proof of the first Brauer–Thrall conjecture (Auslander 1978) and later on, used systematically in his joint work with I. Reiten on stable equivalence (Auslander and Reiten, Adv Math 12(3):306–366, 1974), Auslander and Reiten (1973) and many other applications. Recently, functor categories were used in Martínez-Villa and Solberg (J Algebra 323(5):1369–1407, 2010) to study the Auslander–Reiten components of finite dimensional algebras. The aim of this paper is to extend tilting theory to arbitrary functor categories, having in mind applications to the functor category Mod (mod_Λ), with Λ a finite dimensional algebra.     

The teacher’s role in guiding children’s mathematical ideas toward meeting lesson objectives

This paper investigates the classroom interactive pattern, in which the teacher aims to introduce new mathematical content to children by focusing on their mathematical thinking. First, by drawing on the results of studies on the features of social interaction patterns in mathematics classrooms, we develop a framework that we call a “guided focusing pattern,” composed of four phases. Next, we use this framework and Sfard’s (J Res Math Educ 31(3):296–327, 2000) theory of focal analysis to examine the social interaction occurring in a series of mathematics lessons conducted by an experienced teacher. In the ten consecutive lessons that we analyzed, the guided focusing pattern was salient; the teacher introduced key mathematical content to children while offering support and guidance in a variety of forms within each phase and when transitioning to the next phase. On the basis of the results, we highlight the teacher’s key instructional actions that facilitate the pattern of progressing through the mathematical content as closely linked to and guided by her lesson objectives.     

Lesson study in Asia Pacific classrooms: local responses to a global movement

Japanese Lesson Study is a model for teacher professional learning that has recently attracted world attention particularly within the mathematics education community. It is a highly structured process of teacher collaboration, observation, reflection and practice. The world focus has been mainly due to the work of American researchers such as Stigler and Hiebert (Am Educ Winter:1–10, 1998; The teaching gap: Best ideas from the world’s teachers for improving education in the classroom. Free Press, New York 1999), Lewis and Tsuchida (Am Educ Winter:14–17; 50–52, 1998) and Fernandez [J Teach Educ 53(5):395–405, 2002]. These researchers have documented Lesson Study from the perspective of their social, cultural and educational contexts. In order to develop a deeper understanding of Lesson Study in a post-modern global world, there is a need to seek views beyond those presented from an American perspective. This paper will provide further additional perspectives from an Australian state view and a Malaysian state district view and a university view. The aim is to develop an understanding of how the different contexts have influenced the structure and implementation of the Japanese Lesson Study model.     

An improved local convergence analysis for a two-step Steffensen-type method

We study a class of Steffensen-type algorithm for solving nonsmooth variational inclusions in Banach spaces. We provide a local convergence analysis under ω-conditioned divided difference, and the Aubin continuity property. This work on the one hand extends the results on local convergence of Steffensen’s method related to the resolution of nonlinear equations (see Amat and Busquier in Comput. Math. Appl. 49:13–22, 2005; J. Math. Anal. Appl. 324:1084–1092, 2006; Argyros in Southwest J. Pure Appl. Math. 1:23–29, 1997; Nonlinear Anal. 62:179–194, 2005; J. Math. Anal. Appl. 322:146–157, 2006; Rev. Colomb. Math. 40:65–73, 2006; Computational Theory of Iterative Methods, 2007). On the other hand our approach improves the ratio of convergence and enlarges the convergence ball under weaker hypotheses than one given in Hilout (Commun. Appl. Nonlinear Anal. 14:27–34, 2007).     

On Ulm’s method for Fréchet differentiable operators

We provide new sufficient convergence conditions for the semilocal convergence of Ulm’s method (Izv. Akad. Nauk Est. SSR 16:403–411, 1967) in order to approximate a locally unique solution of an equation in a Banach space setting. We show that in some cases, our hypotheses hold true but the corresponding ones (Burmeister in Z. Angew. Math. Mech. 52:101–110, 1972; Kornstaedt in Aequ. Math. 13:21–45, 1975; Petzeltova in Comment. Math. Univ. Carol. 21:719–725, 1980; Potra and Ptǎk in Cas. Pest. Mat. 108:333–341, 1983; Ulm in Izv. Akad. Nauk Est. SSR 16:403–411, 1967) do not. We also show that under the same hypotheses and computational cost as (Burmeister in Z. Angew. Math. Mech. 52:101–110, 1972; Kornstaedt in Aequ. Math. 13:21–45, 1975; Petzeltova in Comment. Math. Univ. Carol. 21:719–725, 1980; Potra and Ptǎk in Cas. Pest. Mat. 108:333–341, 1983; Ulm in Izv. Akad. Nauk Est. SSR 16:403–411, 1967) finer error sequences can be obtained. Numerical examples are also provided further validating the results.     

On some free boundary problem for a compressible barotropic viscous fluid flow

In this paper, we prove a local in time unique existence theorem for the free boundary problem of a compressible barotropic viscous fluid flow without surface tension in the \(L_p\) in time and \(L_q\) in space framework with \(2 < p < \infty \) and \(N < q < \infty \) under the assumption that the initial domain is a uniform \(W^{2-1/q}_q\) one in \({\mathbb {R}}^{N}\, (N \ge 2\) ). After transforming a unknown time dependent domain to the initial domain by the Lagrangian transformation, we solve problem by the Banach contraction mapping principle based on the maximal \(L_p\) – \(L_q\) regularity of the generalized Stokes operator for the compressible viscous fluid flow with free boundary condition. The key issue for the linear theorem is the existence of \({\mathcal {R}}\) -bounded solution operator in a sector, which combined with Weis’s operator valued Fourier multiplier theorem implies the generation of analytic semigroup and the maximal \(L_p\) – \(L_q\) regularity theorem. The nonlinear problem we studied here was already investigated by several authors (Denisova and Solonnikov, St. Petersburg Math J 14:1–22, 2003; J Math Sci 115:2753–2765, 2003; Secchi, Commun PDE 1:185–204, 1990; Math Method Appl Sci 13:391–404, 1990; Secchi and Valli, J Reine Angew Math 341:1–31, 1983; Solonnikov and Tani, Constantin carathéodory: an international tribute, vols 1, 2, pp 1270–1303, World Scientific Publishing, Teaneck, 1991; Lecture notes in mathematics, vol 1530, Springer, Berlin, 1992; Tani, J Math Kyoto Univ 21:839–859, 1981; Zajaczkowski, SIAM J Math Anal 25:1–84, 1994) in the \(L_2\) framework and Hölder spaces, but our approach is different from them.     

Non-Decaying Solutions to the Navier Stokes Equations in Exterior Domains

We establish a new theorem of existence (and uniqueness) of solutions to the Navier-Stokes initial boundary value problem in exterior domains. No requirement is made on the convergence at infinity of the kinetic field and of the pressure field. These solutions are called non-decaying solutions. The first results on this topic dates back about 40 years ago see the references (Galdi and Rionero in Ann. Mat. Pures Appl. 108:361–366, 1976, Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 62:295–301, 1976, Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 69:37–52, 1979, Pac. J. Math. 104:77–83, 1980; Knightly in SIAM J. Math. Anal. 3:506–511, 1972). In the articles Galdi and Rionero (Ann. Mat. Pures Appl. 108:361–366, 1976, Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 62:295–301, 1976, Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 69:37–52, 1979, Pac. J. Math. 104:77–83, 1980) it was introduced the so called weight function method to study the uniqueness of solutions. More recently, the problem has been considered again by several authors (see Galdi et al. in J. Math. Fluid Mech. 14:633–652, 2012, Quad. Mat. 4:27–68, 1999, Nonlinear Anal. 47:4151–4156, 2001; Kato in Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 169:159–175, 2003; Kukavica and Vicol in J. Dyn. Differ. Equ. 20:719–732, 2008; Maremonti in Mat. Ves. 61:81–91, 2009, Appl. Anal. 90:125–139, 2011).     

Integral Bases of Cluster Algebras and Representations of Tame Quivers

In Caldero and Keller (Invent Math 172:169–211, 2008) and Sherman and Zelevinsky (Mosc Math J 4(4):947–974, 2004), the authors constructed the bases of cluster algebras of finite types and of type $\widetilde{A}_{1,1}$ , respectively. In this paper, we will deduce ?-bases for cluster algebras of affine types.     

Newton Polyhedra of Discriminants of Projections

For a system of polynomial equations, whose coefficients depend on parameters, the Newton polyhedron of its discriminant is computed in terms of the Newton polyhedra of the coefficients. This leads to an explicit formula (involving Euler obstructions of toric varieties) in the unmixed case, suggests certain open questions in general, and generalizes a number of similar known results (Gelfand et al. in Discriminants, resultants, and multidimensional determinants. Birkhäuser, Boston, 1994; Sturmfels in J. Algebraic Comb. 32(2):207–236, 1994; McDonald in Discrete Comput. Geom. 27:501–529, 2002; Gonzalez-Perez in Can. J. Math. 52(2):348-368, 2000; Esterov and Khovanskii in Funct. Anal. Math. 2(1), 2008).     

Estimating upper bounds on the limit points of majorizing sequences for Newton’s method

We present new sufficient conditions for the semilocal convergence of Newton’s method to a locally unique solution of an equation in a Banach space setting. Upper bounds on the limit points of majorizing sequences are also given. Numerical examples are provided, where our new results compare favorably to earlier ones such as Argyros (J Math Anal Appl 298:374–397, 2004), Argyros and Hilout (J Comput Appl Math 234:2993-3006, 2010, 2011), Ortega and Rheinboldt (1970) and Potra and Pták (1984).     

Discretely Blended Martensen Interpolation

Martensen interpolation has been investigated in Dahmen et?al. (Numer Math 52:564–639, 1988), Delvos (2003), Martensen (Numer Math 21:70–80, 1973), Siewer (BIT Numer Math 46:127–140, 2006). In this paper we investigate bivariate constructions using Boolean methods (Delvos and Schempp, Boolean methods in interpolation and approximations. Pitman research notes in mathematical series. Wiley, New York, 1989).     

Foulkes characters, Eulerian idempotents, and an amazing matrix

John Holte (Am. Math. Mon. 104:138?C149, 1997) introduced a family of ??amazing matrices?? which give the transition probabilities of ??carries?? when adding a list of numbers. It was subsequently shown that these same matrices arise in the combinatorics of the Veronese embedding of commutative algebra (Brenti and Welker, Adv. Appl. Math. 42:545?C556, 2009; Diaconis and Fulman, Am. Math. Mon. 116:788?C803, 2009; Adv. Appl. Math. 43:176?C196, 2009) and in the analysis of riffle shuffling (Diaconis and Fulman, Am. Math. Mon. 116:788?C803, 2009; Adv. Appl. Math. 43:176?C196, 2009). We find that the left eigenvectors of these matrices form the Foulkes character table of the symmetric group and the right eigenvectors are the Eulerian idempotents introduced by Loday (Cyclic Homology, 1992) in work on Hochschild homology. The connections give new closed formulae for Foulkes characters and allow explicit computation of natural correlation functions in the original carries problem.     

The Shapley value for shortest path games: a non-graph-based approach

The shortest path games are considered in this paper. The transportation of a good in a network has costs and benefits. The problem is to divide the profit of the transportation among the players. Fragnelli et al. (Math Methods Oper Res 52: 251–264, 2000) introduce the class of shortest path games and show it coincides with the class of monotone games. They also give a characterization of the Shapley value on this class of games. In this paper we consider further five characterizations of the Shapley value (Hart and Mas-Colell’s in Econometrica 57:589–614, 1989; Shapley’s in Contributions to the theory of games II, annals of mathematics studies, vol 28. Princeton University Press, Princeton, pp 307–317, 1953; Young’s in Int J Game Theory 14:65–72, 1985, Chun’s in Games Econ Behav 45:119–130, 1989; van den Brink’s in Int J Game Theory 30:309–319, 2001 axiomatizations), and conclude that all the mentioned axiomatizations are valid for the shortest path games. Fragnelli et al. (Math Methods Oper Res 52:251–264, 2000)’s axioms are based on the graph behind the problem, in this paper we do not consider graph specific axioms, we take $TU$ axioms only, that is we consider all shortest path problems and we take the viewpoint of an abstract decision maker who focuses rather on the abstract problem than on the concrete situations.     

General two-function topological minimax theorems

Using the level set method of Joó (Acta Math Hung 54(1–2):163–172, 1989), a general two-function topological minimax theorem are proved. The theorem improves and generalizes the known results shown by Cheng and Lin (Acta Math Hung 73(1–2):65–69, 1996), Lin and Cheng (Acta Math Hung 100(3):177–186, 2003), and Frenk and Kassay (Math Program Ser A 105(1):145–155, 2006).     

Confucian heritage culture learner’s phenomenon: from “exploring the middle zone” to “constructing a bridge”

In the past decades, the CHC (Confucian heritage culture) learner’s phenomenon has spawned one of the most fruitful fields in educational research. Despite the impression that CHC learners are brought up in an environment not conducive to learning, their academic performances have been excelling their Western counterparts (Fan et al. in How Chinese learn mathematics: perspectives from insiders, 2004). Numerous explanations were offered to reveal the paradox (Morrison in Educ J, 2006), and there were challenges of whether there is “over-Confucianisation” in all these discussions (Chang in J Psychol Chin Soc, 2000; Wong and Wong in Asian Psychol, 2002). It has been suggested that the East and the West should come and discuss at the “middle zone” so that one can get the best from the two worlds. On the other hand, at the turn of the new millennium, discussions on mathematics curriculum reform proliferate in many places. One of the foci of the debate is the basic skills—higher-order thinking “dichotomy”. Viewing from the perspective of the process of mathematisation, teaching mathematics is more than striking a balance between the two, but to bridge basic skills to higher-order thinking competences. Such an attempt was explored in recent years and the ideas behind will be shared in this paper.