‘Excellent’ primary mathematics teachers’ espoused and enacted values of effective lessons

This paper reports a study that explored the characteristics of mathematics lessons that were espoused as effective by six ??excellent?? mathematics teachers and how they enacted their values in their classroom practice. In this study, we define espoused values as values that we want other people to believe we hold, and enacted values as values that we actually practice. Qualitative data were collected through video-recorded lesson observations (3 lessons for each teacher) and in-depth interviews with teachers after each observation. At the end of the project, stimulated-recall focus group interviews were used to allow teachers to define the meaning of an effective mathematics lesson as well as to recall and reflect on a 10-min edited video clip of one of their teaching lessons. The findings showed that these teachers shared five common characteristics of effective mathematics lessons: achieving teaching objectives; pupils?? cognitive development; affective achievement of pupils; focus on low-attaining pupils; and active participation of pupils in mathematics activities. These values were espoused explicitly as well as enacted in the lessons observed.     

Global Bifurcations in Parametrically Excited Systems with Zero-to-One Internal Resonance

In this work we study the existence of Silnikov homoclinicorbits in the averaged equations representing the modal interactionsbetween two modes with zero-to-one internal resonance. The fast mode isparametrically excited near its resonance frequency by a periodicforcing. The slow mode is coupled to the fast mode when the amplitude ofthe fast mode reaches a critical value so that the equilibrium of theslow mode loses stability. Using the analytical solutions of anunperturbed integrable Hamiltonian system, we evaluate a generalizedMelnikov function which measures the separation of the stable and theunstable manifolds of an annulus containing the resonance band of thefast mode. This Melnikov function is used together with the informationof the resonances of the fast mode to predict the region of physicalparameters for the existence of Silnikov homoclinic orbits.     

On filtering and estimation of a threshold stochastic volatility model

We derive a nonlinear filter and the corresponding filter-based estimates for a threshold autoregressive stochastic volatility (TARSV) model. Using the technique of a reference probability measure, we derive a nonlinear filter for the hidden volatility and related quantities. The filter-based estimates for the unknown parameters are then obtained from the EM algorithm.     

Electrical,structural, and thermal studies of antimony trioxide-doped poly(acrylic acid)-based composite polymer electrolytes

In this work, we investigate the electrical, structural, and thermal properties of composite polymer electrolytes (CPEs). Different mass fractions of antimony trioxide filler, Sb₂O₃, are added into poly(acrylic acid) (PAA)-based polymer electrolytes with N-lithiotrifluoromethane sulphonamide [LiN(SO₂CF₃)₂] (LiTFSI) as doping salt. Characteristics such as alternating current (AC)–impedance spectroscopy, attenuated total reflectance–Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) are analyzed. The highest ionic conductivity of (2.15?±?0.01)?×?10^?4 S cm^?1 is achieved at room temperature with addition of 6 wt% of fillers. The ionic transportation is further proven in a transference number study under DC polarization, whereas ATR-FTIR is employed to explore the complexation between PAA, LiTFSI, and Sb₂O₃. TGA reveals the improved thermal stability of CPEs. The glass transition temperature (T _g) is reduced upon addition of Sb₂O₃ as shown in DSC analysis.     

A remedy for performance degradation of TCP Vegas in asymmetric networks

Many previous studies have indicated that TCP Vegas outperforms TCP Reno. This letter shows that in asymmetric networks in which the bottleneck is on the reverse path rather than on the forward path, Vegas underutilizes the available bandwidth on the forward path by a large margin. A solution that makes use of the TCP timestamp option can effectively restore the throughput on the forward path.     

Viscosities ofn-alkylamines from 15 to 80°C

The viscosities of seven n-alkylamines from n-butylamine to n-decylamine were determined from 15 to 80°C at 5°C intervals. The intrinsic volumes were determined by extrapolation of the plot of fluidity against molar volume to zero fluidity and found to be a linear function of the number of carbon atoms. Plots of the logarithm of viscosity vs. reciprocal absolute temperature were almost linear. The energies of activation for viscous flow for the n-alkylamines were calculated and found to increase with increase in the carbon number. The B values, based on Hildebrand's equation and representing a measure of a molecules resistance to transport of momentum, were calculated for each of the n-alkylamines. A modified form of the equation describing the change fluidity with temperature was then formulated. It is suggested that the activation energy for viscous flow consists of the sum of the energy required for the expansion of the void volume and the energy required to overcome intermolecular interactions. These energies were calculated and discussed.     

Modified silver staining in 2DE improves protein detection even at extremely low sample concentration

The typical concentration of protein loaded varies from 0.13 to 1.40 μg/μL for a classical silver staining method in 2DE gel. Here, we present a simple modified classical silver staining method by modifying the silver impregnation and development reaction steps. This modified method detects the protein spots at extremely low loaded concentrations, ranging from 0.0048 to 0.0480 μg/μL. We recommend this modified silver staining as an excellent method for the limited biological samples used for silver‐stained 2DE analysis. Altogether, the protocol takes close to two days from first dimension separation to second dimension separation, followed by silver staining, scanning, and analysis.     

Structures and electronic transport of water molecular nanotubes embedded in carbon nanotubes

In this paper, ice nanotubes confined in carbon nanotubes are investigated by molecular dynamics. The trigonal, square, pentagonal, and hexagonal water tubes are obtained, respectively. The current-voltage (I-V) curves of water nanotubes are found to be nonlinear, and fluctuations of conductance spectra of these ice nanotubes show that the transport properties of ice nanotubes are quite different from those of bulk materials. Our studies indicate that the conductance gap of ice nanotube is related to the difference value from the Fermi energy EF to the nearest molecular energy level E0. Increasing the diameter of a water molecular nanostructure results in the increase of the conductance.