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Effects of Technology on Mathematics Education in the Middle School
Thesis written by a student in the UNT Honors College discussing the use of technology in middle schools. While technology is shown to improve standardized test scores, there are problems with the costs, training, and failure of technology
Modeling of mode-locking in a laser with spatially separate gain media
We present a novel laser mode-locking scheme and discuss its unusual
properties and feasibility using a theoretical model. A large set of
single-frequency continuous-wave lasers oscillate by amplification in spatially
separated gain media. They are mutually phase-locked by nonlinear feedback from
a common saturable absorber. As a result, ultra short pulses are generated. The
new scheme offers three significant benefits: the light that is amplified in
each medium is continuous wave, thereby avoiding issues related to group
velocity dispersion and nonlinear effects that can perturb the pulse shape. The
set of frequencies on which the laser oscillates, and therefore the pulse
repetition rate, is controlled by the geometry of resonator-internal optical
elements, not by the cavity length. Finally, the bandwidth of the laser can be
controlled by switching gain modules on and off. This scheme offers a route to
mode-locked lasers with high average output power, repetition rates that can be
scaled into the THz range, and a bandwidth that can be dynamically controlled.
The approach is particularly suited for implementation using semiconductor
diode laser arrays.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Optics Expres
Contrastive focus and emphasis
The paper puts forward a discourse-semantic account of the notoriously evasive phenomena of contrastivity and emphasis. Based on new evidence from Chadic, it is argued that occurrences of focus that are treated in terms of âcontrastive focusâ, âkontrastâ (VallduvĂ-Vilkuna 1998) or âidentificational focusâ (Ă. Kiss 1998) in the literature should not be analyzed in familiar semantic terms as involving the introduction and subsequent exclusion of alternatives. Rather, an adequate analysis must take into account discourse-semantic notions like âhearer expectationâ or âdiscourse expectabilityâ of the focused content in a given discourse situation. The less expected the focus content is judged to be for the hearer, relative to the Common Ground, the more likely a speaker is to mark the focus constituent by means of special grammatical devices, thus giving rise to emphasis
Descriptions, truth value intuitions, and questions
International audienceSince the famous debate between Russell (Mind 14: 479â493, 1905, Mind 66: 385â389, 1957) and Strawson (Mind 59: 320â344, 1950; Introduction to logical theory, 1952; Theoria, 30: 96â118, 1964) linguistic intuitions about truth values have been considered notoriously unreliable as a guide to the semantics of definite descriptions. As a result, most existing semantic analyses of definites leave a large number of intuitions unexplained. In this paper, I explore the nature of the relationship between truth value intuitions and non-referring definites. Inspired by comments in Strawson (Introduction to logical theory, 1964), I argue that given certain systematic considerations, one can provide a structured explanation of conflicting intuitions. I show that the intuitions of falsity, which proponents of a Russellian analysis often appeal to, result from evaluating sentences in relation to specific questions in context. This is shown by developing a method for predicting when sentences containing non-referring definites elicit intuitions of falsity. My proposed analysis draws importantly on Roberts (in: Yoon & Kathol (eds.) OSU working papers in Linguistics: vol. 49: Papers in Semantics 1998; in: Horn & Ward (eds.) Handbook of pragmatics, 2004) and recent research in the semantics and pragmatics of focus
Enhancement and suppression effects resulting from information structuring in sentences
Information structuring through the use of cleft sentences increases the processing efficiency of references to elements within the scope of focus. Furthermore, there is evidence that putting certain types of emphasis on individual words not only enhances their subsequent processing, but also protects these words from becoming suppressed in the wake of subsequent information, suggesting mechanisms of enhancement and suppression. In Experiment 1, we showed that clefted constructions facilitate the integration of subsequent sentences that make reference to elements within the scope of focus, and that they decrease the efficiency with reference to elements outside of the scope of focus. In Experiment 2, using an auditory text-change-detection paradigm, we showed that focus has similar effects on the strength of memory representations. These results add to the evidence for enhancement and suppression as mechanisms of sentence processing and clarify that the effects occur within sentences having a marked focus structure
Small-Size Resonant Photoacoustic Cell of Inclined Geometry for Gas Detection
A photoacoustic cell intended for laser detection of trace gases is
represented. The cell is adapted so as to enhance the gas-detection performance
and, simultaneously, to reduce the cell size. The cell design provides an
efficient cancellation of the window background (a parasite response due to
absorption of laser beam in the cell windows) and acoustic isolation from the
environment for an acoustic resonance of the cell. The useful photoacoustic
response from a detected gas, window background and noise are analyzed in
demonstration experiments as functions of the modulation frequency for a
prototype cell with the internal volume ~ 0.5 cm^3. The minimal detectable
absorption for the prototype is estimated to be ~ 1.2 10^{-8} cm^{-1} W
Hz^{-1/2}.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure
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