Pathways to Improvement: Using Psychological Strategies to Help College Students Master Developmental Math

Some 60 percent of the nation's 13 million community college students are unprepared for college-level courses and must enroll in at least one developmental course....[and] less than a quarter of students in developmental math courses earn a degree or credential within eight years.Faced with a long sequence of pre-college-level, non-credit courses, often repeating math material they've failed before, half of them quit within the first few weeks of enrolling in the courses. They quit because they believe they aren't smart enough to do math, that the class itself has little relevance to their personal or academic goals, and that they don't really belong in the course or in college at all. And because such students cannot get to graduation if they cannot get past mathematics, the result is not just a dropped class, but the end of college and the economic insecurity that often results from not earning a degree. This report examines the success of the Pathways programs created by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching which is currently being taught in 28 different community colleges nationwide. The Pathways program differs from traditional developmental math courses in that it is a yearlong class for academic credit with fewer students dropping out, most earning college credit toward graduation, and some even discovering a predilection for mathematics

Un estudio comparativo de distintas funciones de prueba en la detección de puntos límite y de bifurcación

Se presenta un estudio comparativo de distintas funciones de prueba para la detección de puntos límite y de puntos de bifurcación. Se eligen como parámetros de dichas funciones el determinante, el menor pivote y el menor autovalor de la matriz de rigidez tangente, obtenida a través del método de los elementos finitos en el análisis no lineal de distintas tipologías estructurales. Se presenta un algoritmo sencillo para la búsqueda de ramas de equilibrio secundarias en la proximidad de puntos singulares. Dicho algoritmo se define en función de los autovectores pertenecientes al espacio nulo de la matriz de rigidez tangente. Estos autovectores son utilizados para calcular el número y la dirección de ramas secundarias existentes en el punto singular. La dirección de dichas ramas se calcula mediante la suma de los autovectores escalados y el campo de desplazamientos correspondientes a la configuración deformada en el punto singular. Se presenta el comportamiento numérico de estos métodos en el análisis de inestabilidad de algunas tipologías estructurales tales como, vigas, pórticos y arcos.Peer Reviewe

Un estudio comparativo de distintas funciones de prueba en la detección de puntos límite y de bifurcación

Se presenta un estudio comparativo de distintas funciones de prueba para la detección de puntos límite y de puntos de bifurcación. Se eligen como parámetros de dichas funciones el determinante, el menor pivote y el menor autovalor de la matriz de rigidez tangente, obtenida a través del método de los elementos finitos en el análisis no lineal de distintas tipologías estructurales. Se presenta un algoritmo sencillo para la búsqueda de ramas de equilibrio secundarias en la proximidad de puntos singulares. Dicho algoritmo se define en función de los autovectores pertenecientes al espacio nulo de la matriz de rigidez tangente. Estos autovectores son utilizados para calcular el número y la dirección de ramas secundarias existentes en el punto singular. La dirección de dichas ramas se calcula mediante la suma de los autovectores escalados y el campo de desplazamientos correspondientes a la configuración deformada en el punto singular. Se presenta el comportamiento numérico de estos métodos en el análisis de inestabilidad de algunas tipologías estructurales tales como: vigas, pórticos y arcos.Peer Reviewe

Topological strings on noncommutative manifolds

We identify a deformation of the N=2 supersymmetric sigma model on a Calabi-Yau manifold X which has the same effect on B-branes as a noncommutative deformation of X. We show that for hyperkahler X such deformations allow one to interpolate continuously between the A-model and the B-model. For generic values of the noncommutativity and the B-field, properties of the topologically twisted sigma-models can be described in terms of generalized complex structures introduced by N. Hitchin. For example, we show that the path integral for the deformed sigma-model is localized on generalized holomorphic maps, whereas for the A-model and the B-model it is localized on holomorphic and constant maps, respectively. The geometry of topological D-branes is also best described using generalized complex structures. We also derive a constraint on the Chern character of topological D-branes, which includes A-branes and B-branes as special cases.Comment: 36 pages, AMS latex. v2: a reference to a related work has been added. v3: An error in the discussion of the Fourier-Mukai transform for twisted coherent sheaves has been fixed, resulting in several changes in Section 2. The rest of the paper is unaffected. v4: an incorrect statement concerning Lie algebroid cohomology has been fixe

Myolipoma of the Eye associate with Giant Fornix Syndrome

This is our poster submission for the research symposiu

Adaptation to Cesarean Birth: Implementation of an International Multisite Study

The purpose of this column is to describe the implementation of an international multisite Roy adaptation model-based study of women’s perceptions of and responses to cesarean birth. The need for the study arose from the concern that women’s childbearing needs may not be met to their full satisfaction, especially if the infant is born by cesarean. Serendipity and networking played a part in the selection of four study sites in the United States (Boston, Milwaukee, Norfolk, Oklahoma City) and two in other countries (Finland, Australia). Data were collected by nursing students and staff nurses. Post-hoc consideration of the diversity of study sites revealed opportunities for examination of the influence of the contextual stimuli of culture and geographic region on the women’s adaptation to cesarean birth. Strategies used to foster integration of teaching, practice, and research are discussed

The Carnegie Unit: A Century-Old Standard in a Changing Education Landscape

The result of a two-year study, the report examines the history of the influential, century-old Carnegie Unit and its impact on education reform in K-12 and higher education. The study finds that the Carnegie Unit remains the central organizing feature of the vast American education system, from elementary school to graduate school, and provides students with an important opportunity-to-learn standard. But at best, the Carnegie Unit is a crude proxy for student learning. The U.S. education system needs more informative measures of student performance. Achieving this goal would require the development of rigorous standards, assessments, and accountability systems -- difficult work, especially in the field of higher education, where educational aims are highly varied and faculty autonomy is deeply engrained

Elastoplastic Analysis of Framed Structures with Interaction Surfaces Obtained for Multiple Linear Regression

Os critérios de estado limite último (superfícies de interação) aplicados para projetos estruturais são de melhor utilidade quando são resultantes de tensões. Existem muitas dificuldades para gerar superfícies de interação com 6 esforços seccionais obtidos por modelos numéricos ou experimentais de uma análise de pórtico espacial. O enfoque, na literatura, para a análise não linear de estruturas com vigas 3D é o uso de superfícies de interação com somente 3 esforços combinados na secção transversal. Portanto, uma melhor compreensão do tipo de carga, das interações entre os 6 esforços e da estabilidade global e local da estrutura são necessárias. As superfícies de interação com 3 esforços são apresentadas em formas planas, quádricas, complexas ou mistas, de modo que as técnicas que usam formulações analíticas com esforços combinados e várias formas de secções são mais ou menos complexas. O modelo de regressão linear múltipla permite tratar esforços resultantes de várias análises para obter uma superfície de escoamento com esforços combinados. Neste trabalho, a formulação para obter superfícies e suas aplicações nas análises de estruturas elastoplásticas de pórticos espaciais são apresentadas.The ultimate limit state criteria (yielding surfaces) applied to structural designs are easier in stress resultants. There are many difficulties to generating interaction surfaces with six sectional efforts obtained through to numerical or experimental models of a space-frame analysis. The approach, in the literature, to nonlinear analysis of structures with 3D beams is use of interaction surfaces with only three combined efforts in the cross-section. Therefore, a better understanding of load types, of interactions between the six efforts and of local and global stability of structure are necessary. The interaction surfaces with three efforts are presented in planes, quadrics, more complex, or a mixture of them shapes, so that techniques which use analytical formulations with combined efforts and several section shapes are more or less complex. Multiple linear regression allows to treat the resultant efforts of several analyses for obtaining a yielding surface with the combined efforts. In this paper, the formulation to obtaining of the surfaces and their applications in the analysis of elasto-plastic frame structures are presented.Peer Reviewe