Intended Treatments of Arithmetic Average in U.S. and Asian School Mathematics Textbooks

This study examined how selected U.S. and Asian mathematics curricula are designed to facilitate students' understanding of the arithmetic average. There is a consistency regarding the learning goals among these curriculum series, but the focuses are different between the Asian series and the U.S. reform series. The Asian series and the U.S. commercial series focus the arithmetic average more on conceptual and procedural understanding of the concept as a computational algorithm than on understanding the concept as a representative of a data set; however, the two U.S. reform series focus the concept more on the latter. Because of the different focuses, the Asian and the U.S. curriculum series treat the concept differently. In the Asian series, the concept is first introduced in the context of “equal‐sharing” or “per‐unit‐quantity,” and the averaging formula is formally introduced at a very early stage. In the U.S. reform series, the concept is discussed as a measure of central tendency, and after students have some intuitive ideas of the statistical aspect of the concept, the averaging algorithm is briefly introduced.     

Förster energy transfer from poly(arylene–ethynylene)s to an erbium–porphyrin complex

We study the infrared emission at 1.54 μm of an organolanthanide complex, Er(III)-tetraphenylporphyrin [Er(TPP)acac], both as a result of direct optical excitation and via energy transfer from host π-conjugate polymers of type poly(arylene–ethynylene) [PAE]. In the first case, the emission of the neat complex is characterized in inert transparent materials and a value of the quantum yield at 1.54 μm φ_IR=4×10⁻⁴ is measured. Then, fluorescence resonance transfer is investigated in blends of Er(TPP)acac with PAEs by monitoring the quenching of the polymer fluorescence along with the enhancement of both the visible emission of the ligand and the near-infrared band of Er³⁺. These different procedures allow a detailed analysis of the transfer efficiency within a specific implementation of the Förster model for polymeric donors. The experimental values of the critical radius R₀, ranging from 1.3 to 2.5 nm for the different blends, are in good agreement with theory for a wide interval of the physical and spectroscopic parameters. This suggests that other mechanisms for excitation transfer do not play a significant role in these materials.     

A benchmark-learning roadmap for regional sustainable development in China

Journal of the Operational Research Society - Serious environmental problems have accompanied China's remarkable economic growth for decades, which also have direct and indirect impacts on its...     

Diagramme polythermique du systeme ternaire H2O—Al(NO3)3—Mg(NO3)2

The solid—liquid equilibria of the ternary system H₂O—Al(NO₃)₃—Mg(NO₃)₂ were studied at –30, –20, –10 and 0°C by using a synthetic method which allows to detemine all the characteristic points of isothermal sections. The stable solid phases which appear are respectively: ice, Al(NO₃)₃·9H₂O, Mg(NO₃)₂·9H₂O and Mg(NO₃)₂·6H₂O. Neither double salts nor mixed crystals are observed in the temperature and composition field studied. Polytherm diagram layout show two invariant transformations correspond with an eutectic point and a peritectic point.This revised version was published online in November 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Crossing of shears bands in196Pb

High-spin states in¹⁹⁶Pb have been populated using the reaction¹⁷⁰Er(³⁰Si,4n). The previously observed shears bands in this nucleus have been extended and some of their transitions have been reordered. They now form regular bands with band crossings. One of the bands splits into two pathways at high spin.     

Nonlinear and chaotic oscillations of a constrained cantilevered pipe conveying fluid: A full nonlinear analysis

In this paper, the planar dynamics of a nonlinearly constrained pipe conveying fluid is examined numerically, by considering the full nonlinear equation of motions and a refined trilinear-spring model for the impact constraints—completing the circle of several studies on the subject. The effect of varying system parameters is investigated for the two-degree-of-freedom (N=2) model of the system, followed by less extensive similar investigations forN=3 and 4. Phase portraits, bifurcation diagrams, power spectra and Lyapunov exponents are presented for a selected set of system parameters, showing some rather interesting, and sometimes unexpected, results. The numerical results are compared with experimental ones obtained previously. It is found that in the parameter space that includesN, there exists a subspace wherein excellent qualitative, and reasonably good (N=2) to excellent (N=4) quantitative agreement with experiment. In the latter case, excellent agreement is not only obtained in the threshold flow velocities (u) for the key bifurcations, but the inclusion of the nonlinear terms improves agreement with experiment in terms of amplitudes of motion and by capturing features of behaviour not hitherto predicted by theory.     

Algorithms for ham-sandwich cuts

Given disjoint setsP ₁,P ₂, ...,P _d inR ^d withn points in total, ahamsandwich cut is a hyperplane that simultaneously bisects theP _i . We present algorithms for finding ham-sandwich cuts in every dimensiond>1. Whend=2, the algorithm is optimal, having complexityO(n). For dimensiond>2, the bound on the running time is proportional to the worst-case time needed for constructing a level in an arrangement ofn hyperplanes in dimensiond−1. This, in turn, is related to the number ofk-sets inR ^d−1 . With the current estimates, we get complexity close toO(n ^3/2 ) ford=3, roughlyO(n ^8/3 ) ford=4, andO(n ^d−1−a(d) ) for somea(d)>0 (going to zero asd increases) for largerd. We also give a linear-time algorithm for ham-sandwich cuts inR ³ when the three sets are suitably separated. A preliminary version of the results of this paper appeared in [16] and [17]. Part of this research by J. Matoušek was done while he was visiting the School of Mathematics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, and part of his work on this paper was supported by a Humboldt Research Fellowship. W. Steiger expresses gratitude to the NSF DIMACS Center at Rutgers, and his research was supported in part by NSF Grants CCR-8902522 and CCR-9111491.