Expanding conceptions of utility: middle school students’ perspectives on the usefulness of mathematics

This research explores how adolescents conceptualize the usefulness of mathematics. Integrating sociocultural theory with the study of utility value, this study uses open-ended survey items and interview tasks to examine conceptions of usefulness among a group of predominantly Latinx middle school students. Findings reveal that students primarily conceptualized the usefulness of mathematics in two ways. First, students considered the applicability of mathematics content, focusing on applications of mathematics in everyday life and future jobs/careers. Second, students considered the usefulness of features of the learning experience, such as the form of interaction and structure of the activity. Both conceptions are compared to existing conceptions of usefulness in the literature, and implications for classroom practice and future research are discussed.     

Index transforms with the squares of Kelvin functions

New index transforms, involving squares of Kelvin functions, are investigated. Mapping properties and inversion formulas are established for these transforms in Lebesgue spaces. The results are applied to solve a boundary value problem on the wedge for a fourth order partial differential equation.     

考虑溯源系统应用的优质农产品双渠道供应链决策研究

优质农产品溯源系统的引入,既能提升有效供给、缩短流通时间,又能降低流通中的数量损耗和价值损失,由此带来了双渠道供应链系统在投资、销售、定价等方面的系列决策问题。考虑制造商开辟电子渠道、从溯源系统降低流通损耗和提高质量出发,分别构建制造商主导型的双渠道供应链决策模型。通过对比分析应用前后各成员在投资、定价及销售方面的最优策略,得到相关的核心边界值。数值仿真结果表明:核心边界值主要与双重损耗的改善程度及其他参数相关,各成员及系统接受溯源系统的应用成本不同,应用成本对各渠道销量的影响程度亦不相同,但各成员调整定价的应用成本边界值是一致的。     

Free boundary problem for a fully nonlinear and degenerate parabolic equation in an angular domain

This paper concerns with the problem of how to running an insurance company to maximize his total discounted expected dividends. In our model, the dividend rate is limited in $[0,M]$ and the company is allowed to transfer any proportion of risk by reinsuring. So there are two strategies which we call dividend strategy and reinsurance strategy. The objective function and the corresponding optimal two strategies are the solution and the two free boundaries of the following Barenblatt parabolic equation

$v_t?\underset{0\le a\le 1}{\max }?(\frac{1}{2}{a}^2{\sigma }^2{v}_{xx}+a\mu v_x)+cv?\underset{0\le l\le M}{\max }?[(1?v_x)l]=0$

under certain boundary conditions on an angular domain

$Q_T=\{(x,t)|0<x<Mt,0<t\le T\}.$

The main effort is to analyze the properties of the solution and the free boundaries to show the optimal decision for the insurance company.