Academic maturity of students in an extended programme in mathematics

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on the students who are registered in the University of Pretoria’s academic development programme, named the Four-year Programme (FYP). The programme was introduced as a gateway for students who are underprepared but have the potential to succeed and then continue their studies into the mainstream science programmes. Our research focuses on measuring the change in the academic maturity of these students. In the theoretical framework that we developed, academic maturity is subdivided into two components namely non-subject based maturity and subject based maturity (mathematical maturity). This paper focuses on measuring non-subject based academic maturity. The survey used for this purpose is called the Student Academic Readiness Survey (STARS), taken at the beginning of the year and after the first semester respectively. The results of the surveys are compared to measure the change in students’ views. Results show that in all constructs there is a surprising decline in students’ perceptions regarding their own abilities over the first semester at university. We use the Dunning–Kruger effect to explain this unexpected decline, in that students seem to develop a more realistic view of their own maturity, which in itself can be seen as a growth in academic maturity.     

k-树的补图的最小填充和树宽

一个图的最小填充问题是寻求边数最少的弦母图,一个图的树宽问题是寻求团数最小的弦母图,这两个问题分别在稀疏矩阵计算及图的算法设计中有非常重要的作用．一个k-树G的补图G称为k-补树．本文给出了k-补树G的最小填充数f(G) 及树宽TW(G)．     

Constraint Programming and Operations Research: Comments from an Operations Researcher

This paper relates the author's personal experience with constraint programming and gives a personal assessment of the relationships between constraint programming and operations research.     

4一致反超图的最小边数问题

混合超图是在超图的基础上添加一个反超边得到的图．超边和反超边的区别主要体现在着色要求上．在着色中,要求每一超边至少要有两个点着不同的颜色,而每一反超边至少有两个点着相同的颜色．最大最小颜色数分别称为混合超图的上色数和下色数。本文主要研究反超图,即只含反超边的超图。讨论了上色数为3的4一致超图的最小边数问题．给出了上色数为3的4一致反超图的最小边数的一个上界和一个下界．     

自制金割效应物理摆的研究性实验

金割效应物理摆是将数学中的优选法与物理实验中的复摆结合起来并用计算机处理数据的自制教学仪器.把金割效应物理摆作为研究性实验进行开设,更有利于培养学生的开拓精神和创新能力.     

凹整数规划的分枝定界解法

凹整数规划是一类重要的非线性整数规划问题，也是在经济和管理中有着广泛应用的最优化问题．本文主要研究用分枝定界方法求解凹整数规划问题，这一方法的基本思想是对目标函数进行线性下逼近，然后用乘子搜索法求解连续松弛问题．数值结果表明，用这种分枝定界方法求解凹整数规划是有效的．     

Designing an effective federal biomass program

This article addresses two questions: Has the effectiveness of the US governments federal research and development (R&;D) spending suffered from the post-1980 strategic change from freely shared and publicly owned to privately owned scientific advances? What criteria would a federal R&;D program use to design a strategy that most effectively enhances the well-being of farmers and rural communities? Several studies found that the pre-1980 US Department of Agriculture research strategy was very effective. No comparable studies have analyzed the comparative effectiveness of the post-1980 strategy of restricting access to the results of public research. Recent experience and several analytical studies suggest that to significantly enhance the health of rural economies from an expanded use of plant matter as an industrial material, federal policy should channel scientific and engineering research into small- and medium-sized production and processing technologies and should encourage farmer-owned, value-added enterprises.     

凸合成模糊对策的模糊稳定集

本建立了凸合成模糊对策的模型，并得到了凸合成模糊对策的模糊稳定集，可由子对策的模糊稳定集表达出来。从而解决了凸合成模糊对策的解的结构问题。     

线性均衡约束最优化的一个广义投影强次可行方向法

本文讨论带线性均衡约束最优化问题,首先利用摄动技术和一个互补函数将问题等价转化为一般约束最优化问题,然后结合广义投影技术和强次可行方向法思想,建立了问题的一个新算法.算法在迭代过程中保证搜索方向不为零,从而使得每次迭代只需计算一次广义投影.在适当的条件下,证明了算法的全局收敛性,并对算法进行了初步的数值试验.     

二维椭圆型方程反问题中优化算法的比较

近年来，决定椭圆型方程系数反问题在地磁、地球物理、冶金和生物等实际问题上有着广泛的应用．本文讨论了二维的决定椭圆型方程系数反问题的数值求解方法．由误差平方和最小原则，这个反问题可化为一个变分问题，并进一步离散化为一个最优化问题，其目标函数依赖于要决定的方程系数．本文着重考察非线性共轭梯度法在此最优化问题数值计算中的表现，并与拟牛顿法作为对比．为了提高算法的效率我们适当选择加快收敛速度的预处理矩阵．同时还考察了线搜索方法的不同对优化算法的影响．数值实验的结果表明，非线性共轭梯度法在这类大规模优化问题中相对于拟牛顿法更有效．