The thinking styles of university mathematics students

In this paper, we focus on the relationship between studying university mathematics and the ‘thinking styles’ of both undergraduate and postgraduate mathematics students. A crosssectional quantitative study (N = 238) was conducted in a large Greek university, identifying the thinking styles of second, third and fourth year undergraduates, as well as those of students following a postgraduate degree in mathematics. The analysis revealed that the more experienced undergraduates and the postgraduates showed a stronger preference for originality and freedom in thinking, low degrees of structure, high levels of freedom and more complex information processing, combined with non-prioritised thinking. However, the postgraduates combine these preferences with a stronger preference for implementing rules and instructions. A discussion on these findings and on the factors that may account for them is presented

School Socio-Cultural Identity and Perceived Parental Involvement About Mathematics Learning in Greece

In this quantitative study we investigated the primary school students’ perceived parental involvement in mathematics with respect to different school socio-cultural identity as identified by the students’ ethnicity. 493 students attending the two last grades of three primary schools participated in the study. The role of the students’ grade and gender, as well as the mother/father contrast were also considered in the analyses. The findings of the study revealed both inter-school and intra-school divergences and convergences, thus suggesting the complex links between school identity and perceived parental involvement. More specifically, according to our results, the ‘multi-cultural’ seems to be linked with a more stable perceived parental involvement across different year groups and calendar years. The pedagogical implication of the findings are discussed

Teaching for the objectification of the Pythagorean Theorem

This study concerns a teaching design with the purpose to facilitate the students’ objectification of the Pythagorean Theorem. Twelve 14-year old students (N=12) participated in the study before the theorem was introduced to them at school. The design incorporated ideas from the ‘embodied mind’ framework, history and realistic mathematics, linking ‘embodied verticality’ with ‘perpendicularity’. The qualitative analyses suggested that the participants were led to the conquest of the ‘first level of objectification’ (through numbers) of the Pythagorean Theorem, showing also evidence of appropriate ‘fore-conceptions’ of the ‘second level of objectification’ (through proof) of the theorem. The triangle the sides of which are associated with the Basic Triple (3,4,5) served as a primary instrument for the students’ objectification, mainly, by facilitating their ‘generic abstraction’ of the Pythagorean Triples

Lieux, territoires et espaces d’écoute de la chanson grecque

Les lieux géographiques, notamment les villes, en tant qu’endroits de création et de diffusion commerciale des chansons, constituent aussi des références spécifiques dans leurs paroles, représentant ainsi des éléments géographiques d’importance culturelle particulière. L’article expose les circonstances dans lesquelles les villes ont constitué pour la chanson grecque des références tant culturelles que géopolitiques mais aussi des espaces d’écoute. Les caractéristiques historiques de la société néo-hellénique associent Athènes, qui est devenue une capitale artificielle de la chanson grecque actuelle, à des villes telles que Constantinople, Smyrne ou Alexandrie et Odessa. D’autre part, les villes grecques modernes, qui présentent de sérieux phénomènes de dysfonctionnement, deviennent des sources d’inspiration de chansons urbaines modernes avec une approche de la ville qui est dystopique et sombre.The geographic locations, especially cities, as places of creation and commercial distribution of songs are also specific references in their lyrics. They obviously represent geographic elements of some cultural importance. The article outlines the circumstances under which the cities, a listening space par excellence, have formed in Greek songs both cultural and geopolitical references. The historic features of modern Greek society associate cities such as Constantinople, Smyrna, Alexandria and Odessa to Athens, which became an artificial capital of Greek song. On the other hand, the modern Greek cities, which have serious phenomena of malfunction, become sources of inspiration for songs with a modern urban approach to the city in dystopian and dark colors

« Allons aux bouzoukis »

Le bouzouki, est un instrument à cordes très répandu dans les villes grecques. Pendant tout le XXe siècle jusqu’à nos jours, cet instrument semble avoir joué un rôle déterminant ‒ voire symbolique ‒ dans la musique populaire grecque, la société grecque et sa culture. Le bouzouki a beaucoup contribué à la représentation de la vie même de la ville grecque. Cette étude propose une approche géographique de la musique populaire, des genres musicaux semblables, de leurs contenus culturels urbains et de leurs environnements sociaux. Elle a comme axe et élément connectif de ses différentes parties l’observation et la mise en relief de la présence (ou de l’absence) du bouzouki. L’article prend pour point de départ 1) l’intérêt suscité (en Grèce) par la « chanson populaire urbaine » ‒ terme qui désigne généralement le « rébétiko » par opposition au chant traditionnel/ folklorique, 2) l’influence que le bouzouki semble avoir exercé sur la musique populaire, 3) l’image intéressante de la diffusion de cette musique à bouzouki.Bouzouki is a string instrument very common in Greece. Throughout the 20th Century to the present, this instrument seems to have played an important and even symbolic role in the popular Greek music, Greek society and culture. Bouzouki has contributed to the depiction of a specific image and representation of the Greek city’s life. This study proposes a geographical approach of popular music and of similar genres, their content and their cultural urban environments through observations and highlightings of presence (or absence) of the bouzouki. It takes as its threefold starting point 1) the lively interest that has been shown in Greece in the "urban popular song" ‒ a term that generally refers to the "rembetiko" as opposed to traditional folk song, 2) the influence that bouzouki seems to have exercised on popular music, 3) the interesting pattern of the dissemination of the bouzouki-music genres

Active vibration control of civil engineering structures

This thesis is in the area of active vibration control of Civil Engineering structures subject to earthquake loading. Existing structural control methods and technologies including passive, active, semi-active and hybrid control are first introduced. An extensive analysis of a frame-pendulum model is developed and analysed to investigate under what conditions effective energy dissipation is achieved in Tuned Mass Damper systems and the limitation of these devices under stiffness degradation when the structure enters the inelastic region. Linear Quadratic Gaussian and H-infinity active control schemes are designed, simulated and assessed for buildings, modelled as lumped parameter systems, including base and actuator dynamics. Various aspects of the designs are extensively evaluated using multiple criteria and loading conditions and validated in large-scale benchmark problems under practical limitations and implementation constraints. A novel design method is proposed for minimising peak responses of regulated signals via a deadbeat parametrisation of all stabilising controllers in discrete-time. The method incorporates constraints on the magnitude and rate of the control signal and is solved via efficient Linear Programming methods. It is argued that this type of optimisation is more relevant for structural control, as failure occurs when maximum member displacements are exceeded. The problem of stiffness matrix estimation from experimental data is formulated as an optimisation problem and solved under various conditions (positive definiteness, tridiagonal structure) via an alternating convex projection scheme. Both static and dynamic loading is considered. The method is finally incorporated in an adaptive control scheme involving the redesign in real-time of an LQR (Linear Quadratic Regulator) active vibration controller. It is shown that the method is successful in recovering the stability and performance properties of the nominal design under conditions of significant uncertainty in the stiffness parameters

Dural arteriovenous fistulas in cerebral venous thrombosis Data from the International Cerebral Venous Thrombosis Consortium

Background and purpose To explore the prevalence, risk factors, time correlation, characteristics and clinical outcome of dural arteriovenous fistulas (dAVFs) in a cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) population. Methods We included patients from the International CVT Consortium registries. Diagnosis of dAVF was confirmed centrally. We assessed the prevalence and risk factors for dAVF among consecutive CVT patients and investigated its impact on clinical outcome using logistic regression analysis. We defined poor outcome as modified Rankin Scale score 3-6 at last follow-up. Results dAVF was confirmed in 29/1218 (2.4%) consecutive CVT patients. The median (interquartile range [IQR]) follow-up time was 8 (5-23) months. Patients with dAVF were older (median [IQR] 53 [44-61] vs. 41 [29-53] years; p 30 days: 39% vs. 7%; p < 0.001) and sigmoid sinus thrombosis (86% vs. 51%; p < 0.001), and less frequently had parenchymal lesions (31% vs. 55%; p = 0.013) at baseline imaging. Clinical outcome at last follow-up did not differ between patients with and without dAVF. Additionally, five patients were confirmed with dAVF from non-consecutive CVT cohorts. Among all patients with CVT and dAVF, 17/34 (50%) had multiple fistulas and 23/34 (68%) had cortical venous drainage. Of 34 patients with dAVF with 36 separate CVT events, 3/36 fistulas (8%) were diagnosed prior to, 20/36 (56%) simultaneously and 13/36 after (36%, median 115 [IQR 38-337] days) diagnosis of CVT. Conclusions Dural arteriovenous fistulas occur in at least 2% of CVT patients and are associated with chronic CVT onset, older age and male sex. Most CVT-related dAVFs are detected simultaneously or subsequently to diagnosis of CVT.Peer reviewe

Expanding production perspectives by collaborating learning factories-perceived needs and possibilities

Collaboration across organizational, business and technological borders receives growing emphasis in industrial production due to the evolution of production networks, as well as the growing integration of different product life cycle stages. These demands receive growing attention in the learning factory community, and can be answered by the combination of courses and collaboration across several sites. The paper gives an in-progress report on such an initiative: on perceived needs and opportunities of collaboration spanning the learning factory site at TU Wien, and the premises of MTA SZTAKI in Gyor and Budapest. Special emphasis is put on several collaboration types crucial to design and production in an enterprise network, such as parallel and collaborative product development, or transparency across organizational levels of different degrees of abstraction. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V

Mathematics as a discipline and as a school course: a systemic comparative study conducted in Brazil and Greece about the in-service school principals’ constructions

Em todos os sistemas educacionais hierárquicos são importantes os pontos de vista dos diretores de escola, pois eles afetam crucialmente as práticas de sala de aula e as relações entre todos os protagonistas da unidade escolar. Neste trabalho, adotamos aspectos da abordagem para a teoria dos sistemas, com o objetivo de investigar os pontos de vista dos diretores em serviço sobre a matemática, tanto como uma disciplina curricular como as práticas gerenciais do sistema de ensino, buscando entender as interações entre seus pontos de vista em relação à matemática e à organização dessa disciplina no sistema. A matemática no contexto escolar foi investigada considerando três focos: as representações simbólicas/ regulamentares, as representações pragmáticas e as intencionalidades das ações adotadas. Um estudo comparativo qualitativo foi realizado em pequena escala (N = 59), incluindo diretores de escolas públicas em serviço em uma região de São Paulo, no Brasil (NB = 29) e diretores de escolas da Grécia (NG = 30). Os resultados das comparações intraculturais e interculturais sugerem convergências e divergências noemáticas entre os pontos de vista epistemológicos adotados sobre a matemática pelos diretores gregos e pelos seus colegas brasileiros, também evidenciam pontos de vista sobre a matemática como um curso no ano letivo, revelando então interações intra e intersistêmicas

Mathematics as a discipline and as a school course: a systemic comparative study conducted in Brazil and Greece about the in-service school principals’ constructions

Em todos os sistemas educacionais hierárquicos são importantes os pontos de vista dos diretores de escola, pois eles afetam crucialmente as práticas de sala de aula e as relações entre todos os protagonistas da unidade escolar. Neste trabalho, adotamos aspectos da abordagem para a teoria dos sistemas, com o objetivo de investigar os pontos de vista dos diretores em serviço sobre a matemática, tanto como uma disciplina curricular como as práticas gerenciais do sistema de ensino, buscando entender as interações entre seus pontos de vista em relação à matemática e à organização dessa disciplina no sistema. A matemática no contexto escolar foi investigada considerando três focos: as representações simbólicas/ regulamentares, as representações pragmáticas e as intencionalidades das ações adotadas. Um estudo comparativo qualitativo foi realizado em pequena escala (N = 59), incluindo diretores de escolas públicas em serviço em uma região de São Paulo, no Brasil (NB = 29) e diretores de escolas da Grécia (NG = 30). Os resultados das comparações intraculturais e interculturais sugerem convergências e divergências noemáticas entre os pontos de vista epistemológicos adotados sobre a matemática pelos diretores gregos e pelos seus colegas brasileiros, também evidenciam pontos de vista sobre a matemática como um curso no ano letivo, revelando então interações intra e intersistêmicas