Mathematics, computers in mathematics, and gender: public perceptions in context

In Australia, national tests of mathematics achievement continue showing small but consistent gender differences in favor of boys. Societal views and pressures are among the factors invoked to explain such subtle but persistent differences. In this paper we focus directly on the beliefs of the general public about students’ learning of mathematics and the role played by computers, and then we compare the findings with data previously gathered from students. Although many considered it inappropriate to differentiate between boys and girls, gender based stereotyping was still evident

Illness in Returned Travelers and Immigrants/Refugees: The 6-Year Experience of Two Australian Infectious Diseases Units.

BACKGROUND: Data comparing returned travelers and immigrants/refugees managed in a hospital setting is lacking. METHODS: We prospectively collected data on 1,106 patients with an illness likely acquired overseas who presented to two hospital-based Australian infectious diseases units over a 6-year period. RESULTS: Eighty-three percent of patients were travelers and 17% immigrants/refugees. In travelers, malaria (19%), gastroenteritis/diarrhea (15%), and upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) (7%) were the most common diagnoses. When compared with immigrants/refugees, travelers were significantly more likely to be diagnosed with gastroenteritis/diarrhea [odds ratio (OR) 8], malaria (OR 7), pneumonia (OR 6), URTI (OR 3), skin infection, dengue fever, typhoid/paratyphoid fever, influenza, and rickettsial disease. They were significantly less likely to be diagnosed with leprosy (OR 0.03), chronic hepatitis (OR 0.04), tuberculosis (OR 0.05), schistosomiasis (OR 0.3), and helminthic infection (OR 0.3). In addition, travelers were more likely to present within 1 month of entry into Australia (OR 96), and have fever (OR 8), skin (OR 6), gastrointestinal (OR 5), or neurological symptoms (OR 5) but were less likely to be asymptomatic (OR 0.1) or have anaemia (OR 0.4) or eosinophilia (OR 0.3). Diseases in travelers were more likely to have been acquired via a vector (OR 13) or food and water (OR 4), and less likely to have been acquired via the respiratory (OR 0.2) or skin (OR 0.6) routes. We also found that travel destination and classification of traveler can significantly influence the likelihood of a specific diagnosis in travelers. Six percent of travelers developed a potentially vaccine-preventable disease, with failure to vaccinate occurring in 31% of these cases in the pretravel medical consultation. CONCLUSIONS: There are important differences in the spectrum of illness, clinical features, and mode of disease transmission between returned travelers and immigrants/refugees presenting to hospital-based Australian infectious diseases units with an illness acquired overseas

Vibrations on pulse tube based Dry Dilution Refrigerators for low noise measurements

Dry Dilution Refrigerators (DDR) based on pulse tube cryo-coolers have started to replace Wet Dilution Refrigerators (WDR) due to the ease and low cost of operation. However these advantages come at the cost of increased vibrations, induced by the pulse tube. In this work, we present the vibration measurements performed on three different commercial DDRs. We describe in detail the vibration measurement system we assembled, based on commercial accelerometers, conditioner and DAQ, and examined the effects of the various damping solutions utilized on three different DDRs, both in the low and high frequency regions. Finally, we ran low temperature, pseudo-massive (30 and 250 g) germanium bolometers in the best vibration-performing system under study and report on the results

Skeletal Structural Basis of Density Banding in the Reef Coral Montastrea Annularis

Density banding in coral skeletons can provide for reconstruction of the coral\u27s growth en- vironment over long periods. The physical differ- ences between low and high density portions of a skeletal band are not well understood. The skeletal architecture of M. annularis from Southeast Flor- ida, the Florida Keys, St. Croix, the Bahamas, and Mexico was compared in X-ray revealed high den- sity (HD), low density (LD), and stress HD bands. Density changes arose from differences in the size, but not spacing, of exothecal structural elements (horizontal dissepiments and vertical costae). En- dothecal architecture size (e.g., columella, dissepi- ments, septa) was relatively constant between den- sity band types. Results have implications for studies of coral growth, sclerochronology, and iso- topic/trace element composition

Ferromagnetism in the Periodic Anderson Model - a Modified Alloy Analogy

We introduce a new aproximation scheme for the periodic Anderson model (PAM). The modified alloy approximation represents an optimum alloy approximation for the strong coupling limit, which can be solved within the CPA-formalism. Zero-temperature and finite-temperature phase diagrams are presented for the PAM in the intermediate-valence regime. The diversity of magnetic properties accessible by variation of the system parameters can be studied by means of quasiparticle densities of states: The conduction band couples either ferro- or antiferromagneticaly to the f-levels. A finite hybridization is a necessary precondition for ferromagnetism. However, too strong hybridization generally suppresses ferromagnetism, but can for certain system parameters also lead to a semi-metallic state with unusual magnetic properties. By comparing with the spectral density approximation, the influence of quasiparticle damping can be examined.Comment: 20 pages, 13 figure

On Metal-Insulator Transitions due to Self-Doping

We investigate the influence of an unoccupied band on the transport properties of a strongly correlated electron system. For that purpose, additional orbitals are coupled to a Hubbard model via hybridization. The filling is one electron per site. Depending on the position of the additional band, both, a metal--to--insulator and an insulator--to--metal transition occur with increasing hybridization. The latter transition from a Mott insulator into a metal via ``self--doping'' was recently proposed to explain the low carrier concentration in $\rm Yb_4As_3$. We suggest a restrictive parameter regime for this transition making use of exact results in various limits. The predicted absence of the self--doping transition for nested Fermi surfaces is confirmed by means of an unrestricted Hartree--Fock approximation and an exact diagonalization study in one dimension. In the general case metal--insulator phase diagrams are obtained within the slave--boson mean--field and the alloy--analog approximation.Comment: 9 pages, Revtex, 6 postscript figure

Theory of Electronic Ferroelectricity

We present a theory of the linear and nonlinear optical characteristics of the insulating phase of the Falicov-Kimball model within the self-consistent mean-field approximation. The Coulomb attraction between the itinerant d-electrons and the localized f-holes gives rise to a built-in coherence between the d and f-states, which breaks the inversion symmetry of the underlying crystal, leading to: (1) electronic ferroelectricity, (2) ferroelectric resonance, and (3) a nonvanishing susceptibility for second-harmonic generation. As experimental tests of such a built-in coherence in mixed-valent compounds we propose measurements of the static dielectric constant, the microwave absorption spectrum, and the dynamic second-order susceptibility.Comment: 15 pages, 5 PostScript figures, submitted to Physical Review