Mathematical modelling of the patent ductus arteriosus (PDA)

The heart is one of the most important and vital body organs, which is responsible for pumping blood to different body tissues. Abnormalities in each part of heart can lead to lack of proper blood circulation. The arterial duct is one of the most important parts of embryonic cycles which may provide the possibility of a relationship between the aorta and the pulmonary artery. The failure of this duct to close after birth causes the abnormality called patent ductus arteriosus (PDA). In this article, we propose a novel model for accurate simulation of PDA abnormality in the human heart. The model is obtained by exploiting the mathematical relation between hemodynamic parameters of heart, including pressure, blood, volume and flow. The proposed model is verified using clinical data.     

Mathematical Modeling for Preservice Teachers: A Problem from Anesthesiology

The study reported in this article deals with the observed actions of prospective Swedish mathematics teachers as they were working with a modeling situation. These prospective teachers were preparing to teach in Grades 4 to9 or in the gymnasium (Grades 10 to 12) and were students in a course in mathematical modeling. The larger study of which this study was a part focused on these students' understanding of modeling and how they related mathematical models to the real world. This article also attempts to illustrate how mathematics is intertwined with many other subjects, in this case medicine. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Exploring informal mathematical products of low achievers at the secondary school level

This article examines the notion of informal mathematical products, in the specific context of teaching mathematics to low achieving students at the secondary school level. The complex and relative nature of this notion is illustrated and some of its characteristics are suggested. These include the use of ad-hoc strategies, mental calculations, idiosyncratic ideas, everyday rather than mathematical language, non-symbolic explanations, visual justifications and common-sense based reasoning. The main argument raised in the article concerns the challenge of valuing informal mathematical products, created by low achievers, and using them within the mathematics classroom as means for advancing such students. The data draws from several research and design projects conducted in Israel since 1991. Selected examples of students’ products, gathered from low-track mathematics classrooms involved in these projects, are presented and analyzed. The analyses highlight various features of such products, and portray the possible gains of teaching approaches that legitimize, and build onwards from, informal products of low achievers.     

Mathematical modelling of the stochastic mechanical properties of wood and its extensibility at small scales

This paper investigates the relation between the uncertain mechanical properties of wood and its extensibility at the ultrastructural scale. A statistical approximation to the output of a multi-scale constitutive model is adopted to predict the extensibility of wood in the presence of parametric uncertainty. By means of this procedure, a very large number of computationally intensive fully-coupled multi-scale simulations are avoided. Following this approach, four different micromechanical parameters are chosen to assess their influence on the extensibility of the material under tensile loading conditions. These are the degree of cellulose crystallinity, the ultimate strain and Young’s modulus of the hemicellulose–lignin matrix, and the thickness of the amorphous cellulose layer which covers the periodic crystalline portions of cellulose. We believe that a better understanding of the mechanisms of deformation and extensibility in wood and in natural materials can pave the way for the development of new strategies to design more advanced materials in engineering structures.     

半导体与超晶格的数学模型及其分析Ⅰ:模型

本文论及半导体与超晶格的数学模型方法的一些新近发展动态。介绍了半导体与超晶格的一些背景材料并给出了半导体宏观模型间的层次框架。超晶格中载流子传输的SHE扩散模型也被观察。     

Mathematical modelling for keyhole surgery simulations: a biomechanical model for spleen tissue

There is growing interest in the potential for computer simulationsto provide good training materials for abdominal endoscopicor ‘keyhole’ surgery. This paper describes a preliminarystudy of the mechanical properties of abdominal (spleen) tissue.We show how experimental force–displacement data can beused to derive a biomechanical model for the tissue as an incompressible,homogeneous, isotropic nonlinear elastic material with an exponentialstress–strain law. We also show how the model can be usedto predict the response of the tissue to a surgical probe. Thisinvolves solving a complicated nonlinear constrained boundary-valueproblem, and there is a good fit between the computed solutionand experimental data.     

Crust density in bread baking: Mathematical modelling and numerical solutions

A model for the formation of a “crust” during bread baking is presented. The crust is the outermost part of the loaf where the final bread density is significantly higher than in the “crumb”, the interior of the loaf. The model is based on a collapse mechanism, whereby raised pressures due to thermal expansion and water evaporation squash bubbles in the bread as the dough sets and fractures; the latter process allows vapour within bubbles to escape.     

大学数学创新教育实施过程的探讨

从创新教育的理念出发,结合大学数学教育的现状,探讨了大学数学创新教育实施过程中的实现手段,分析了数学创新教育中的层次化、学生思想培养、习惯、文化等核心问题.     

《数学物理方法》课程教改的探索与实践

随着我国科学技术的快速发展,对于理工科学生在数学基础和数学素养方面的要求越来越高.数学物理方法课程综合应用了各个数学分支的内容,是提升理工科本科学生应用数学能力的重要基础课程.本文以课程作用、课程安排以及教学内容的梳理改进为主线,介绍数学物理方法课程教改的思考与实践.     

Application of autoregressive modelling for the analysis of clinical and other biological data

This paper deals with the application of autoregressive (AR) modelling for the analysis of biological data including clinical laboratory data. In the first part of the paper, we discuss the necessity of feedback analysis in the field of biochemistry. In order to enable this, relative power contribution analysis was introduced. Next, we utilized the two types of impulse response curves of the open and closed loop systems for elucidating the structure of the metabolic networks under study. Time series data obtained from 31 chronic hemodialysis patients observed for periods of 3 to 7 years were analyzed by these procedures. The results of the analysis were rather uniform among the patients and suggested the consistency of this approach in identifying the dynamical system of individual patients. An example of data set is included in the paper.     

将数学实验的思想和方法融入大学数学教学

大学数学教学中应注重理论联系实际,注重数学思想和方法的讲授,强调应用案例中融入数学实验思想的新教学方法.改革课堂教学方法,探索新的教学模式,加强学生的实践性教学环节,培养学生的应用和创新能力.最后,本文给出了几个例子显示了数学实验与大学数学教学结合的效果.     

慢速饮酒血液中酒精含量的数学模型

描述的是在一定时间内慢慢地匀速喝完一定数量酒的问题,并建立了相应的数学模型.同时也建立了快速饮酒的数学模型,以及证明了在各次饮酒后的某时刻酒精含量的可叠加性.     

Efficient optimisation of a vehicle suspension system, using a gradient-based approximation method, Part 1: Mathematical modelling

A methodology is proposed for the efficient determination of gradient information, when performing gradient based optimisation of an off-road vehicle’s suspension system. The methodology is applied to a computationally expensive, non-linear vehicle model, that exhibits severe numerical noise. A recreational off-road vehicle is modelled in MSC.ADAMS, and coupled to MATLAB for the execution of the optimisation. The successive approximation method, Dynamic-Q, is used for the optimisation of the spring and damper characteristics. Optimisation is performed for both ride comfort and handling. The determination of the objective function value is performed using computationally expensive numerical simulations.This paper proposes a non-linear pitch-plane model, to be used for the gradient information, when optimising ride comfort. When optimising for handling, a non-linear four wheel model, that includes roll, is used. The gradients of the objective function and constraint functions are obtained through the use of central finite differences, within Dynamic-Q, via numerical simulation using the proposed simplified models. The importance of correctly scaling these simplified models is emphasised. The models are validated against experimental results. The simplified vehicle models exhibit significantly less numerical noise than the full vehicle simulation model, and solve in significantly less computational time.     

PLS Path modelling: computation of latent variables with the estimation mode B

PLS Path modelling has several interesting advantages compared to other existing approaches traditionally used for structural modelling. However, the lack of convergence properties of the existing iterative procedures for the computation of the latent variables, has always been considered as a major drawback. The convergence is stated only in practice. The present paper shows that when the estimation mode B is chosen for all blocks, the iterative procedure for the computation of latent variables proposed by Wold (in Encyclopaedia of statistical sciences, vol 6. Wiley, New York, pp. 581–591, 1985) is monotonically convergent.     

Instrumenting Mathematical Activity: Reflections on Key Studies of the Educational Use of Computer Algebra Systems

This paper examines the process through which students learn to make functional use of computer algebra systems (CAS), and the interaction between that process and the wider mathematical development of students. The result of ‘instrumentalising‘ a device to become a mathematical tool and correspondingly ‘instrumenting’ mathematical activity through use of that tool is not only to extend students' mathematical technique but to shape their sense of the mathematical entities involved. These ideas have been developed within a French programme of research – as reported by Artigue in this issue of the journal – which has explored the integration of CAS – typically in the form of symbolic calculators – into the everyday practice of mathematics classrooms. The French research –influenced by socio-psychological theorisation of the development of conceptual systems- seeks to take account of the cultural and cognitive facets of these issues, noting how mathematical norms – or their absence – shape the mental schemes which students form as they appropriate CAS as tools. Instrumenting graphic and symbolic reasoning through using CAS influences the range and form of the tasks and techniques experienced by students, and so the resources available for more explicit codification and theorisation of such reasoning. This illuminates an influential North American study– conducted by Heid – which French researchers have seen as taking a contrasting view of the part played by technical activity in developing conceptual understanding. Reconsidered from this perspective, it appears that while teaching approaches which ‘resequence skills and concepts’ indeed defer – and diminish –attention to routinised skills, the tasks introduced in their place depend on another –albeit less strongly codified – system of techniques, supporting more extensive and active theorisation. The French research high lights important challenges which arise in instrumenting classroom mathematical activity and correspondingly instrumentalising CAS. In particular, it reveals fundamental constraints on human-machine interaction which may limit the capacity of the present generation of CAS to scaffold the mathematical thinking and learning of students. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Mathematical modeling of the dissolving and deposition processes during solution seepage in a porous medium

A mathematical model that describes solution seepage in a porous medium and the processes of mineral dissolving and secondary deposition is proposed. Self-similar solutions describing the motion of the leading and trailing fronts, that is, the boundaries of the complete-dissolving zone, are determined. The main features of the processes under consideration are studied and numerical calculations are performed. It is shown that the model describes well the experimental data on mineral leaching by sulfate solutions. The dynamics of mineral extraction from productive solutions in a medium with a nonuniformacidity distribution are investigated. It is shown that, in the elevated-PH zones, the mineral is dissolved; whereas, in the low-acidity zones, secondary deposition of the mineral occurs. In the latter case, after the work has been completed, the bed may contain more or less considerable mineral resources, depending on the extent of the low-PH zone and its proximity to an extraction well.     

Supporting the development of algebraic thinking in middle school: a closer look at students’ informal strategies

This study investigated how 31 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade middle school students who had not previously, nor were currently taking a formal Algebra course, approached word problems of an algebraic nature. Specifically, these algebraic word problems were of the form x + (x + a) + (x + b) = c or ax + bx + cx = d. An examination of students’ understanding of the relationships expressed in the problems and how they used this information to solve problems was conducted. Data included the students’ written responses to problems, field notes of researcher-student interactions while working on the problems, and follow-up interviews. Results showed that students had many informal strategies for solving the problems with systematic guess and check being the most common approach. Analysis of researcher-student interactions while working on the problems revealed ways in which students struggled to engage in the problems. Support mechanisms for students who struggle with these problems are suggested. Finally, implications are provided for drawing upon students’ informal and intuitive knowledge to support the development of algebraic thinking.