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.     

西部开发中能源配置模型的研究

开发西部丰富的能源资源,解决东部地区能源紧缺的矛盾,是东西部经济合作、优势互补、东西联动双赢战略研究的一项重要课题.在国家投资主体和市场经济条件下,以能源消费效益最大为目标,建立了基于边际效益均衡的能源空间配置优化模型;兼顾经济效益与环境效益的能源部门配置优化模型.结果显示,各地区、部门要获得更多的能源,就必须提高能源的使用效率,提高能源消费的边际效益,降低污染排放水平.     

A primer on perfect simulation for spatial point processes

This primer provides a self-contained exposition of the case where spatial birth-and-death processes are used for perfect simulation of locally stable point processes. Particularly, a simple dominating coupling from the past (CFTP) algorithm and the CFTP algorithms introduced in [13], [14], and [5] are studied. Some empirical results for the algorithms are discussed. Received: 30 June 2002     

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.     

空间目标的可见光散射与红外辐射

利用Lowtran7大气传输模型计算0.4～0.8μm可见光波段的太阳辐射、大气自身的热辐射以及天地背景辐射.依据粗糙面光散射理论与双向反射分布函数计算空中目标表面对太阳辐射和云层对阳光反射的散射.利用传热学和背景辐射理论,根据能量守恒定律建立空间目标表面温度的热平衡方程.以气球为例,计算不同表面涂层材料的气球,在不同地理位置、不同高度和不同时间条件下,其温度及辐射功率的变化.分析空间目标红外辐射特性的一般规律和特征.     

Effects of Spatial Noncommutativity on Energy Spectrum of a Trapped Bose-Einstein Condensate

In noncommutative space, we examine the problem of a noninteracting and harmonically trapped BoseEinstein condensate, and derive a simple analytic expression for the effect of spatial noncommutativity on energy spectrum of the condensate. It indicates that the ground-state energy incorporating the spatial noncommutativity is reduced to a lower level, which depends upon the noncommutativity parameter θ. The gap between the noncommutative space and commutative one for the ground-state level of the condensate should be a signal of spatial noncommutativity.     

椭圆强非局域空间光孤子

对傍轴椭圆高斯光束在具有椭圆对称响应特性的强非局域非线性介质中的演化规律进行研究，得到了光束各参量演化的精确解析解，分析了单向空间光孤子和强非局域椭圆空间光孤子的形成条件，发现了椭圆光孤子的相移与介质响应函数的椭圆率有关. 关键词： 椭圆对称强非局域响应介质 椭圆强非局域空间光孤子 相移     

Dynamic Model of R&D,Spillovers, and Efficiency of Bertrand and Cournot Equilibria

Using an infinite-horizon two-player differential game, we derive and compare Bertrand and Cournot equilibria for a differentiated duopoly engaging in the process of R&D competition. The main findings of this study are as follows. First, Bertrand competition is more efficient if either R&D productivity is low or products are very different. Second, Cournot competition is more efficient provided that R&D productivity is high, products are close substitutes, and spillovers are not close to zero. This last result is different from what has been obtained in the literature. Hence, this shows that considering a dynamic model and more general investment costs does have an impact on the efficiency results.     

Li(AlxCo1-x)O2晶体中Co3+电子态的变化及对结构演化的影响

研究了应用于锂二次电池正极的新型高能量密度存贮材料Li(AlxCo1-x)O2 (x=01—05)的磁性.发现Al3+的掺杂可导致Co3+中d电子自旋态发生变化，即有部分d电子进入高自旋态.伴随Co3+中电子状态的改变，材料结构演化也发生了相应变化，表现为c/a比增大明显减缓，较好地解释了材料结构对Vegard定律的正偏离.这对材料的微观结构与性能设计具有重要意义. 关键词： 锂电池材料 Li（AlxCo1-x）O2 磁性 自旋态 结构演化     

Asymptotic Methods Applied to Contact Problems

Asymptotic methods for contact problems are expounded. Some typical integral equations are considered