The present study focuses on creating a more pleasurable learning experience for students learning maths. Participants completed two lists of maths problems, a short list of only difficult maths ...problems and an extended list with both difficult maths problems and moderately difficult maths problems, placed in the beginning, end, or both beginning and end of the list. When asked to choose a third list to complete, participants preferred one of the extended list over the short list and found the extended lists to be less discomforting. Of the three types of extended lists, participants reported the one in which the moderately difficult maths problems were situated at both the beginning and end of the list to be the least discomforting. Participants self-reported maths anxiety did not moderate these effects. However, participants' maths anxiety was negatively correlated with predicted and actual maths performance and positively correlated with discomfort ratings. These results suggest that by creating lists of maths problems in which the relatively easier problems are given before or after the more difficult maths problems, educators can create a more favourable learning experience that could help both maths-anxious and nonmath-anxious students practice more maths problems.
Software vendors must consider confidentiality especially while creating software architectures because decisions made here are hard to change later. Our approach represents and analyzes data flows ...in software architectures. Systems specify data flows and confidentiality requirements specify limitations of data flows. Software architects use detected violations of these limitations to improve the system. We demonstrate how to integrate our approach into existing development processes.
Learning skills (as well as disorders) tend to be associated; however, cognitive models typically focus either on reading, spelling or maths providing no clear basis for interpreting this phenomenon. ...A recent new model of learning cognitive skills proposes that the association among learning skills (and potentially the comorbidity of learning disorders) depends in part from the individual ability to consolidate instances (taken as a measure of rate of learning). We examined the performance of typically developing fifth graders over the acquisition of a novel paper-and-pencil task that could be solved based on an algorithm or, with practice, with reference to specific instances. Our aim was to establish a measure of individual rate of learning using parameters envisaged by the instance theory of automatization by Logan and correlate it to tasks requiring knowledge of individual items (e.g., spelling words with an ambiguous transcription) or tasks requiring the application of a rule or an algorithm (e.g., spelling non-words). The paper-and-pencil procedure yielded acquisition curves consistent with the predictions of the instance theory of automatization (i.e., they followed a power function fit) both at a group and an individual level. Performance in tasks requiring knowledge of individual items (such as doing tables or the retrieval of lexical representations) but not in tasks requiring the application of rules or algorithms (such as judging numerosity or spelling through sublexical mapping) was significantly predicted by the learning parameters of the individual power fits. The results support the hypothesis that an individual dimension of “ability to consolidate instances” contributes to learning skills such as reading, spelling, and maths, providing an interesting heuristic for understanding the comorbidity across learning disorders.
Large sparse linear systems of equations are ubiquitous in science, engineering and beyond. This open access monograph focuses on factorization algorithms for solving such systems. It presents ...classical techniques for complete factorizations that are used in sparse direct methods and discusses the computation of approximate direct and inverse factorizations that are key to constructing general-purpose algebraic preconditioners for iterative solvers. A unified framework is used that emphasizes the underlying sparsity structures and highlights the importance of understanding sparse direct methods when developing algebraic preconditioners. Theoretical results are complemented by sparse matrix algorithm outlines. This monograph is aimed at students of applied mathematics and scientific computing, as well as computational scientists and software developers who are interested in understanding the theory and algorithms needed to tackle sparse systems. It is assumed that the reader has completed a basic course in linear algebra and numerical mathematics.
This open access book contains a structured collection of the complete solutions of all essential axisymmetric contact problems. Based on a systematic distinction regarding the type of contact, the ...regime of friction and the contact geometry, a multitude of technically relevant contact problems from mechanical engineering, the automotive industry and medical engineering are discussed. In addition to contact problems between isotropic elastic and viscoelastic media, contact problems between transversal-isotropic elastic materials and functionally graded materials are addressed, too. The optimization of the latter is a focus of current research especially in the fields of actuator technology and biomechanics. The book takes into account adhesive effects which allow access to contact-mechanical questions about micro- and nano-electromechanical systems. Solutions of the contact problems include both the relationships between the macroscopic force, displacement and contact length, as well as the stress and displacement fields at the surface and, if appropriate, within the half-space medium. Solutions are always obtained with the simplest available method - usually with the method of dimensionality reduction (MDR) or approaches which use the solution of the non-adhesive normal contact problem to solve the respective contact problem.
This open access book introduces the fundamentals of the space–time conservation element and solution element (CESE) method, which is a novel numerical approach for solving equations of physical ...conservation laws. It highlights the recent progress to establish various improved CESE schemes and its engineering applications. With attractive accuracy, efficiency, and robustness, the CESE method is particularly suitable for solving time-dependent nonlinear hyperbolic systems involving dynamical evolutions of waves and discontinuities. Therefore, it has been applied to a wide spectrum of problems, e.g., aerodynamics, aeroacoustics, magnetohydrodynamics, multi-material flows, and detonations. This book contains algorithm analysis, numerical examples, as well as demonstration codes. This book is intended for graduate students and researchers who are interested in the fields such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD), mechanical engineering, and numerical computation.
Women are under-represented in science fields; this poses a significant challenge considering the emerging digital revolution. The intersectionality theory suggests that women whose social identities ...intersect across gender and class have distinct experiences; affecting their science aspirations. This research examined gender and class intersections, measuring science experiences and aspirations of working-class girls versus those who are not. A total of 421 female students (ages 15-18) from Irish secondary schools answered questions about their science experiences and views. The findings revealed that working-class girls displayed lower levels of confidence and interest in pursuing science; additionally, they felt that their ability in science was lower than other students. These findings provide highlight the impact of gender and class on science aspirations, showing the value of considering intersectionality when addressing unequal participation in science. Science interventions should consider the intersectional layers of disadvantage which can affect young women's science aspirations.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a small change in reverberation time (from 0.57 to 0.69 s) in a classroom on children's performance and listening effort. Aiming for ...ecological listening conditions, the change in reverberation time was combined with the presence or absence of classroom noise. In three academic tasks, the study examined whether the effect of reverberation was modulated by the presence of noise and depended on the children's age.
A total of 302 children (aged 11-13 years, grades 6-8) with normal hearing participated in the study. Three typical tasks of daily classroom activities (speech perception, sentence comprehension, and mental calculation) were administered to groups of children in two listening conditions (quiet and classroom noise). The experiment was conducted inside real classrooms, where reverberation time was controlled. The outcomes considered were task accuracy and response times (RTs), the latter taken as a behavioral proxy for listening effort. Participants were also assessed on reading comprehension and math fluency. To investigate the impact of noise and/or reverberation, these two scores were entered in the statistical model to control for individual child's general academic abilities.
While the longer reverberation time did not significantly affect accuracy or RTs under the quiet condition, it had several effects when in combination with classroom noise, depending on the task measured. A significant drop in accuracy with a longer reverberation time emerged for the speech perception task, but only for the grade 6 children. The effect on accuracy of a longer reverberation time was nonsignificant for sentence comprehension (always at ceiling), and depended on the children's age in the mental calculation task. RTs were longer for moderate than for short reverberation times in the speech perception and sentence comprehension tasks, while there was no significant effect of the different reverberation times on RTs in the mental calculation task.
The results indicate small, but statistically significant, effects of a small change in reverberation time on listening effort as well as accuracy for children aged 11 to 13 performing typical tasks of daily classroom activities. Thus, the results extend previous findings in adults to children as well. The findings also contribute to a better understanding of the practical implications and importance of optimal ranges of reverberation time in classrooms. A comparison with previous studies underscored the importance of early reflections as well as reverberation times in classrooms.
