Attitudes, Beliefs, and Perceptions of College Level Students

The purpose of this research is to examine the attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions of college level students enrolled in an algebra course at the community college level. A survey was given to measure mathematical attitudes, beliefs, and math anxiety. Significant findings were found when looking at the difference in prior mathematics courses, repeating college algebra, enrollment status, gender, and age. By identifying the preconceived notions and beliefs that students have about mathematics and their academic ability, a teacher can use this knowledge to better meet the needs of students

ERSYS-SPP access method subsystem design specification

The STARAN special purpose processor (SPP) is a machine allowing the same operation to be performed on up to 512 different data elements simultaneously. In the ERSYS system, it is to be attached to a 4341 plug compatible machine (PCM) to do certain existing algorithms and, at a later date, to perform other to be specified algorithms. That part of the interface between the 4341 PCM and the SPP located in the 4341 PCM is known as the SPP access method (SPPAM). Access to the SPPAM will be obtained by use of the NQUEUE and DQUEUE commands. The subsystem design specification is to incorporate all applicable design considerations from the ERSYS system design specification and the Level B requirements documents relating to the SPPAM. It is intended as a basis for the preliminary design review and will expand into the subsystem detailed design specification

Vector-axialvector mixing from a chiral effective field theory at finite temperature

We study the vector-axialvector mixing in a hot medium and its evolution toward the chiral phase transition using different symmetry restoration scenarios based on the generalized hidden local symmetry framework. We show that the presence of the $a_1$ meson reduces the vector spectral function around $\rho$ meson mass and enhances it around $a_1$ meson mass. The coupling strength of $a_1$ to $\rho$ and $\pi$ vanishes at the critical temperature due to the degenerate $\rho$-$a_1$ masses. This feature holds rigorously in the chiral limit and still stays intact to good approximation for the physical pion mass.Comment: v2:11 pages, 6 figures, reorganized and expanded the text, new plots and references added, main result and conclusions unchange

An effective thermodynamic potential from the instanton with Polyakov-loop contributions

We derive an effective thermodynamic potential (Omega_eff) at finite temperature (T>0) and zero quark-chemical potential (mu_R=0), using the singular-gauge instanton solution and Matsubara formula for N_c=3 and N_f=2 in the chiral limit. The momentum-dependent constituent-quark mass is also obtained as a function of T, employing the Harrington-Shepard caloron solution in the large-N_c limit. In addition, we take into account the imaginary quark chemical potential mu_I = A_4, translated as the traced Polayakov-loop (Phi) as an order parameter for the Z(N_c) symmsetry, characterizing the confinement (intact) and deconfinement (spontaneously broken) phases. As a result, we observe the crossover of the chiral (chi) order parameter sigma^2 and Phi. It also turns out that the critical temperature for the deconfinment phase transition, T^Z_c is lowered by about (5-10)% in comparison to the case with a constant constituent-quark mass. This behavior can be understood by considerable effects from the partial chiral restoration and nontrivial QCD vacuum on Phi. Numerical calculations show that the crossover transitions occur at (T^chi_c,T^Z_c) ~ (216,227) MeV.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure

Latitude dependence of ionospheric electron content

Ionospheric electron content calculation method applied to Faraday fading signal

Kinetic description of charmonium production in high-energy nuclear collisions

We study the evolution of charmonia as they collide with the constituents of the fireball produced in high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions. The latter evolves in a manner controlled by the equation of state as given by lattice QCD, and is constructed in such a way that the observed hadronic spectra are correctly reproduced. A kinetic description of charmonium interactions with both quark-gluon and hadronic degrees of freedom allows to study in detail the evolution in different regimes, controlled by collision energy, kinematics and geometry. The data collected at the CERN-SPS accelerator are well described and new estimates for J/psi production at BNL-RHIC are presented.Comment: 19 pages, LaTeX, 13 .eps figure

Identidad docente y estrategias de resolución de incidentes críticos en contextos universitarios de alta diversidad sociocultural

Este estudio identifica las estrategias de los profesores cuando se enfrentan a incidentes críticos (IC) en contextos de alta diversidad sociocultural, reconociendo el peso de la identidad y de las emociones en la toma de decisiones, así como la efectividad de las mismas para promover cambios en las prácticas docentes. En el estudio de naturaleza cualitativa, fueron entrevistados 23 profesores universitarios. Los resultados indican que las emociones asociadas a un IC, generan una situación de desequilibrio que puede obstaculizar la actividad cuando son de naturaleza negativa. Al mismo tiempo, en estas situaciones es posible la revision y reconstrución de la propia identidad docente. En cuanto a las estrategias empleadas por los docentes ante los IC, éstas fueron mayoritariamente inmediatas e incidieron en aspectos muy puntuales, lo que derivó en actuaciones reactivas y poco eficaces. Pese a ello, la mayoría de los profesores no modificaron sus posiciones iniciales y fueron excepcionales las situaciones en las que el despliegue de estrategias y la reflexión posterior a un determinado IC permitió cambios estructurales que impactaron en alguna dimension de la identidad del profesor como sus emociones y prácticas