Navigating Schooled Numeracies: Explanations for Low Achievement,in Mathematics of UK Children From Low SES Background

The intention of the research reported here was to seek explanations for low achievement in school mathematics, as conventionally assessed, that derive from broad understandings of mathematics as social. Such a broad social perspective can provide explanations for low achievement, which could lead to different understandings and hence to different teaching approaches. This study centered on 5- to 8-year-old children from a White working-class area in England. Data were collected during visits to the children in school, in their homes, and in the broader community over a 3-year period. Parents, teachers, and other professionals in the broad school context were interviewed, and data were also collected from school documents and policy statements. Interpretations of these data in terms of ways of understanding children's achievements in school mathematics are put forward. The potential effects of these factors on low schooled numeracy attainment are discussed, together with some possible strategic implications for practice and policy.     

A Flexible Solution to Anion Transport: Powerful Anionophores Based on a Cyclohexane Scaffold

Transmembrane anion carriers (anionophores) have potential for biological activity, including the treatment of channelopathies such as cystic fibrosis. A new family of anionophores has been synthesized, in which three thiourea groups are mounted on a cyclohexane‐based scaffold. Though conceptually related to earlier polycyclic systems, these molecules are simpler and far more accessible. Preorganization is somewhat reduced compared to earlier systems, and anion affinities are correspondingly lower. However, transport activities set new records. This surprising performance suggests a role for controlled flexibility in the design of transmembrane anion carriers.     

Distribution of recombination lifetimes in amorphous silicon

Light-induced ESR (LESR) and luminescence in aSi:H are studied in order to resolve a recent controversy over whether the low temperature recombination is geminate or non-geminate. New transient measurements find that at moderate excitation intensities, luminescence is predominately monomolecular, whereas LESR is not. We show that the different behavior occurs because there is a very broad distribution of decay times for geminate electron-hole pairs. LESR is dominated by a small fraction of the pairs which have a very long decay time and which therefore slowly generate a non-geminate distribution. Luminescence is dominated by the closer geminate pairs that recombine quickly.     

Adsorption of water on JSC‐1A (simulated moon dust samples)—a surface science study

JSC‐1a (a simulated lunar dust sample) supported on a silica wafer (SiO₂/Si(111)) has been characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive x‐ray (EDX) spectroscopy, and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). The adsorption kinetics of water has been studied primarily by thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) and in addition by collecting isothermal adsorption transients. Blind experiments on the silica support have been performed as well. JSC‐1a consists mostly of aluminosilicate glass and other minerals containing Fe, Na, Ca, and Mg, as characterized in detail in prior studies, for example, at NASA. The particle sizes span the range from a few micrometers up to 100 µm. At small exposures, H₂O TDS is characterized by broad (100–450) K structures; at large exposures, distinct TDS peaks emerge, which are assigned to amorphous solid water (ASW) (145 K) and crystalline ice (CI) (165 K). Water dissociates on JSC‐1a at small exposures but not on the bare silica support. Coadsorption TDS data (alkane–water mixtures) indicate that rather porous condensed ice layers form at large exposures, with the mineral particles acting most likely as nucleation sites. At thermal impact energies, the initial adsorption probability amounts to 0.92 ± 0.05. It is evident that the drop‐and‐dry technique, developed in studies about nanoparticles/tubes, can be extended to obtain samples for surface science studies based on powders consisting of particles with rather large diameters. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Skew-Duoidal Eckmann-Hilton Argument and Quantum Categories

A general result relating skew monoidal structures and monads is proved. This is applied to quantum categories and bialgebroids. Ordinary categories are monads in the bicategory whose morphisms are spans between sets. Quantum categories were originally defined as monoidal comonads on endomorphism objects in a particular monoidal bicategory ?. Then they were shown also to be skew monoidal structures (with an appropriate unit) on objects in ?. Now we see in what kind of ? quantum categories are merely monads.     

Synthesis of 14-Bromo and 14-Hydroxy Baccatin III Derviatives

Numerous efforts towards synthesis of anticancer drug paclitaxel (Taxol(r), 1a) with improved activities led to the modification at 13-phenylisoserine side chain and different positions of its core structure-baccatin III 1c1. At the same time, the activities of searching new taxoids for starting materials of new semi-synthetic paclitaxel analogs from Taxus spp. plant have not ever been stopped. Among these taxoids, 14?-hydroxy-10-deacetylbaccatin III 22 and 13-acetyl-9-dihydrobaccatin III …     

Fusion Operators and Cocycloids in Monoidal Categories

The Yang–Baxter equation has been studied extensively in the context of monoidal categories. The fusion equation, which appears to be the Yang–Baxter equation with a term missing, has been studied mainly in the context of Hilbert spaces. This paper endeavours to place the fusion equation in an appropriate categorical setting. Tricocycloids are defined; they are new mathematical structures closely related to Hopf algebras.