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Examines how selected U.S. and Asian mathematics curricula are designed to facilitate students' understanding of the arithmetic average. Discusses similarities and differences of learning goals, focuses, and concepts among U.S. commercial, Asian, and U.S. reform curriculum series. (Author/KHR)

With the growing percentage of Chinese immigrants in the U.S. population, it is crucial to understand how pre-migration factors (such as reasons for migration) are related to the adjustment of families in the host country. The present study examined reasons for migration and their associations with post-migration sociocultural factors and parenting styles in a community-based sample of Chinese American immigrant families (N = 258) living in the San Francisco Bay Area. The parents' self-reported reasons for migration included family reasons (55.1%, e.g., family reunification), betterment reasons (18.0%, e.g., better education and occupational opportunities), and both family and betterment reasons (26.9%). Those who migrated for betterment reasons reported significantly higher parental education and per capita income than the family reason group (p < 0.001) and significantly higher income than the combined reason group (p = 0.007). No significant group differences emerged in cultural orientations and parenting styles after controlling for socioeconomic factors. The findings suggested that Chinese immigrant families who migrated solely for better education and occupational opportunities had significantly higher post-migration socioeconomic status than other reason groups. These differences have relevance for programs and services for new immigrants, as families might need different types of support (e.g., socioeconomic vs. relational) depending on their motivations for migration and post-migration socioeconomic resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of 12 years of the European Centre for Mesoscale Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis dataset, we statistically analyzed the spatiotemporal distribution of lower atmospheric ducts over the seas around China, and we investigated the possible generation mechanisms. The results show that the ducts' occurrence had obvious seasonal and regional variations. Ducting events were more likely to occur in spring and summer, and the maximum occurrence rate reached 45.6%, which was closely related to the East Asian monsoon. The ducts' altitude in continental coastal areas was lower than that far from the coast due to the dominance of surface ducts. The ducts' thickness varied between 50 m and 450 m, and the thicker ducts were mainly concentrated in the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean on the east side of the East China Sea near the Philippines and Taiwan. Except for a few areas, the ducts' intensity was less than 10 M-units (an M-unit is the unit of atmospheric modified refractivity) and the diurnal variations were less pronounced. The duct formation in the lower atmosphere was related to factors such as monsoons, tropical cyclones, ocean currents, radiative cooling, and sea–land breezes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vehicle-pedestrian encounter at midblock crosswalks in urban centers is inevitable but the challenge to urban transportation planners is in achieving a balance between traffic flow efficiency and pedestrian safety. Vehicles are expected to yield to pedestrians who have a right of way at the midblock unsignalized crosswalks but, failure to yield causes conflicts that at times are fatal. This study investigated the effect of macroscopic factors on the vehicle yielding. Six environmental factors are considered: temporal gap size, number of traffic lanes, number of waiting pedestrians, position of pedestrian (whether on street kerb or median), traffic flow direction and presence (or absence) of monitoring ePolice. Video Data on six observed variables that influenced vehicle yielding was collected from 13 uncontrolled crosswalk locations in Shanghai city in the Peoples Republic of China. A Logit model with a 95.9% accuracy was developed to describe the vehicle yielding behavior. The results showed that gap size and number of traffic lanes had the highest influence on driver yielding decision and that drivers were more likely to yield if ePolice was present. The sensitivity analysis was conducted and appropriate recommendations on improving the pedestrians crossing safety were proposed accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. We evaluated the causes, hearing, and speech performance before and after cochlear implant reimplantation in Mandarin-speaking users. Methods. In total, 589 patients who underwent cochlear implantation in our medical center between 1999 and 2014 were reviewed retrospectively. Data related to demographics, etiologies, implant-related information, complications, and hearing and speech performance were collected. Results. In total, 22 (3.74%) cases were found to have major complications. Infection (n=12) and hard failure of the device (n=8) were the most common major complications. Among them, 13 were reimplanted in our hospital. The mean scores of the Categorical Auditory Performance (CAP) and the Speech Intelligibility Rating (SIR) obtained before and after reimplantation were 5.5 versus 5.8 and 3.7 versus 4.3, respectively. The SIR score after reimplantation was significantly better than preoperation. Conclusions. Cochlear implantation is a safe procedure with low rates of postsurgical revisions and device failures. The Mandarin-speaking patients in this study who received reimplantation had restored auditory performance and speech intelligibility after surgery. Device soft failure was rare in our series, calling attention to Mandarin-speaking CI users requiring revision of their implants due to undesirable symptoms or decreasing performance of uncertain cause. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]