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Automatic test paper design is critical in education to reduce workloads for educators and facilitate an efficient teaching process. However, current designs fail to satisfy the realistic teaching requirements of educators, including the consideration of both test quality and efficiency. This is the main reason why teachers still manually construct tests in most teaching environments. In this paper, the quality of tests is quantitatively defined while considering multiple objectives, including a flexible coverage of knowledge points, cognitive levels, and question difficulty. Then, a model based on the technique of linear programming is delicately designed to explore the optimal results for this newly defined problem. However, this technique is not efficient enough, which cannot obtain results in polynomial time. With the consideration of both test quality and generation efficiency, this paper proposes a genetic algorithm (GA) based method, named dynamic programming guided genetic algorithm with adaptive selection (DPGA-AS). In this method, a dynamic programming method is proposed in the population initialization part to improve the efficiency of the genetic algorithm. An adaptive selection method for the GA is designed to avoid prematurely falling into the local optimal for better test quality. The question bank used in our experiments is assembled based on college-level calculus questions from well-known textbooks. The experimental results show that the proposed techniques can construct test papers with both high effectiveness and efficiency. The computation time of the test assembly problem is reduced from 3 hours to 2 seconds for a 5000-size question bank as compared to a linear programming model with similar test quality. The test quality of the proposed method is better than the other baselines.

To deeply analyze the performance of paper-cutting elements in interior space design, this paper explores the artistic expression of paper-cutting elements. The BIM model is constructed based on the TVL algorithm, and a noise-reducing style migration method with an additional total variable loss function is used to fuse the texture features of a specific paper-cutting style so that the paper-cutting texture is generated in the target object area more intensively. The algorithm is supplemented with a U-shaped network structure to obtain the mask map of the target object, modify and expand the ScanNet training data set, and input a content map and a style map to generate the stylized paper cutout image automatically. The results show that compared with other elements, the stability of paper-cut elements reaches 96.31%, the image smoothness reaches 89.34%, and the retention of significant regions reaches 93.26%. In modern design, the peak signal-noise of paper-cut elements improved by 13.418d on average, the structural similarity also improved by 0.34807, and the recognition rate of paper-cut elements in the furnishing category reached 95%. Applying paper-cut art in interior space design can give interior furnishing design better visual effects, provide inspiration and ideas for interior space design innovation, and contribute to improving aesthetics.

The study of metadiscourse word resources is an important way to reveal academic knowledge constructs and genre features in English papers. This paper selects intra- and interdisciplinary English academic papers as data samples, and the text representation is based on the vector space model. The text similarity is calculated using the word movement distance model to complete the clustering based on the density peak, and then the semantic annotation of metadiscourse verb patterns is performed using the conditional random field. Then, the intra- and interdisciplinary metadiscourse annotations are compared to analyze the variation of verb patterns. The intra-disciplinary variation of metadiscourse verb patterns was mainly found using attitude markers, where the log-likelihood ratios of 48.56, 30.25, and 35.64 were obtained for affirmative, critical, and critical declarative attitudes, respectively. In interdisciplinary studies, basic disciplines preferred to use verb patterns as transitions, while applied disciplines preferred to express the author’s point of view. The study of metadiscourse verb patterns effectively enriches the linguistic resources in academic English teaching and deepens the understanding of the characteristics of disciplinary essay genres.

The aim of this pilot study is to evaluate the relevance of the use of history in mathematics education. This paper presents an experiment carried out in France with sixth-grade students (n=108) in which an ancient number system is used, an approach that is commonly suggested in French sixth-grade textbooks but has previously been unassessed. Based on the data of a pretest and a post-test surrounding an activity on an ancient Chinese numeration system, a statistical analysis using Rasch modeling shows a specific added value of the history of mathematics for students with low abilities in mathematics. For these students, a significant increase in observed abilities of +0.67 logit in mean is measured with a large effect size (Cliff delta +0.52). This effect is then weighted by considering the regression to the mean (RTM) effect, leading to a value around +0.14 logit in mean and a negligible effect size (Cliff delta +0.10). So, this pilot study shows the important effect of RTM, which suggests a very strong rebalancing of students' results. In the last part of the paper, we discuss how RTM can nonetheless be positively interpreted in this specific context where students' disorientation is one of the purposes of history in mathematics education.

Background: To accurately measure students' science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) career interest, researchers must get inside the 'black box' to understand students' conceptualizations of STEM careers., Aims: The aim of Study 1 was to explore whether students' conceptualizations of STEM included medical careers. The aim of Study 2 was to explore whether predictors of STEM career interest (e.g., gender and motivation) varied by STEM definition (inclusion/exclusion of medical careers)., Samples: In Study 1, the sample was US college students (N = 125) who were mostly White (80%). In Study 2, the sample was US 10th-grade high school students (N = 455) who were mostly Black (79%)., Methods: In Study 1, students completed an online questionnaire. In Study 2, students completed various measures of math achievement, motivation (science and math expectancies of success, interest and importance value) and career interest with an importance., Results: In Study 1, medical careers were less often classified as STEM careers than traditional STEM careers, but more often classified as STEM than non-STEM careers. In Study 2, science importance value was the only motivational predictor of students' STEM+Medicine career interest, and no motivation constructs predicted traditional STEM career interest. Boys expressed greater interest in traditional STEM careers, while girls expressed greater interest in STEM+Medicine careers., Conclusions: Students' conceptualizations of STEM are not binary. Thus, we recommend researchers are explicit about their definition of STEM with study participants, in their coding and in their publications., (© 2023 British Psychological Society.)

Mathematics is often treated as different from other disciplines, since arguments in the field rely on deductive proof rather than empirical evidence as in the natural sciences. A mathematical paper can therefore, at least in principle, be replicated simply by reading it. While this distinction is sometimes taken as the basis to claim that the results in mathematics are therefore certain, mathematicians themselves know that the published literature contains many mistakes. Reading a proof is not easy, and checking whether an argument constitutes a proof is surprisingly difficult. This article uses peer review of submissions to mathematics journals as a site where referees are explicitly concerned with checking whether a paper is correct and therefore could be published. Drawing on 95 qualitative interviews with mathematics journal editors, as well as a collection of more than 100 referee reports and other correspondence from peer review processes, this article establishes that while mathematicians acknowledge that peer review does not guarantee correctness, they still value it. For mathematicians, peer review 'adds a bit of certainty', especially in contrast to papers only submitted to preprint servers such as arXiv. Furthermore, during peer review there can be disagreements not just regarding the importance of a result, but also whether a particular argument constitutes a proof or not (in particular, whether there are substantial gaps in the proof). Finally, the mathematical community is seen as important when it comes to accepting arguments as proofs and assigning certainty to results. Publishing an argument in a peer-reviewed journal is often only the first step in having a result accepted. Results get accepted if they stand the test of time and are used by other mathematicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper defines and assesses student learning patterns under the influence of problem-based learning (PBL) and their classification into a reasonable minimum number of classes. Study utilizes PBL implemented in an undergraduate Statistics and Operations Research course for techno-management students at a private university in India. Design/methodology/approach: Study employs an in situ experiment using a conceptual model based on learning theory. The participant's end-of-semester GPA is Performance Indicator. Integrating PBL with classroom teaching is unique instructional approach to this study. An unsupervised and supervised data mining approach to analyse PBL impact establishes research conclusions. Findings: The administration of PBL results in improved learning patterns (above-average) for students with medium attendance. PBL, Gender, Math background, Board and discipline are contributing factors to students' performance in the decision tree. PBL benefits a student of any gender with lower attendance. Research limitations/implications: This study is limited to course students from one institute and does not consider external factors. Practical implications: Researchers can apply learning patterns obtained in this paper highlighting PBL impact to study effect of every innovative pedagogical study. Classification of students based on learning behaviours can help facilitators plan remedial actions. Originality/value: 1. Clustering is used to extract student learning patterns considering dynamics of student performances over time. Then decision tree is utilized to elicit a simple process of classifying students. 2. Data mining approach overcomes limitations of statistical techniques to provide knowledge impact in presence of demographic characteristics and student attendance.

Understanding the concepts related to real function is essential in learning mathematics. To determine how students understand these concepts, it is necessary to have an appropriate measurement tool. In this paper, we have created a web application using 32 items from conceptual understanding of real functions (CURF) item bank. We conducted a psychometric analysis using Rasch model on 207 first-year students. The analysis showed that CURF is a dependable and valid instrument for measuring students' CURF. The test is uni-dimensional; all items are consistent with the construct and have excellent item fit statistics. The results indicate that the items are independent of each other and unbiased towards the gender and high school background of the students.

Proving mathematical theorems at the olympiad level represents a notable milestone in human-level automated reasoning 1-4 , owing to their reputed difficulty among the world's best talents in pre-university mathematics. Current machine-learning approaches, however, are not applicable to most mathematical domains owing to the high cost of translating human proofs into machine-verifiable format. The problem is even worse for geometry because of its unique translation challenges 1,5 , resulting in severe scarcity of training data. We propose AlphaGeometry, a theorem prover for Euclidean plane geometry that sidesteps the need for human demonstrations by synthesizing millions of theorems and proofs across different levels of complexity. AlphaGeometry is a neuro-symbolic system that uses a neural language model, trained from scratch on our large-scale synthetic data, to guide a symbolic deduction engine through infinite branching points in challenging problems. On a test set of 30 latest olympiad-level problems, AlphaGeometry solves 25, outperforming the previous best method that only solves ten problems and approaching the performance of an average International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) gold medallist. Notably, AlphaGeometry produces human-readable proofs, solves all geometry problems in the IMO 2000 and 2015 under human expert evaluation and discovers a generalized version of a translated IMO theorem in 2004., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

This systematic review aims to provide a complementary to existing synopses of the state-of-the-art of mathematics education research on proof and proving in both school and university mathematics. As an organizing framework, we used Cohen et al.'s triadic conceptualization of instruction, which draws attention not only to the main actors of the didactical process (i.e., the Teacher and Students) and the Content around which the actors' work is organized (herein, content related to proof and proving), but also to the relationships among the actors and the content. Out of the 103 papers we reviewed, almost half fell in the Student-Content category, which is consistent with the existence of a substantial number of frameworks, methods, and research findings related to students' engagement with proof and proving. About a quarter of the papers fell in the Student–Teacher-Content category, which reflects an emphasis on viewing instructional practice in proof and proving in a holistic, systemic way. Only few papers fell in the categories that did not include Content in them, namely, the categories of Student, Teacher, and Student–Teacher; this suggests mathematics education research on proof and proving has a strong disciplinary identity, which potentially differentiates it from other mathematics education research strands. About a fifth of the papers were oriented towards 'breaking ground' through making an explicit theoretical and/or methodological contribution (Student–Teacher-Content and Content were the main categories where such contributions appeared), whilst the majority of the papers were focused on 'building ground' through elaborating or employing existing methodological and/or theoretical approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem solving in chemical kinetics poses substantial challenges for university students since it often involves significant use of mathematics as a tool and language, with challenging translations and transitions between chemical phenomena and mathematical representations. In this paper, we present key findings from a study investigating chemistry students solving tasks centred around the steady-state approximation. Building upon the mathematical modelling cycle (MMC), qualitative analysis of the data collected using a think-aloud protocol led to the development of the extended MMC. This empirically derived extended MMC offers a more detailed account of the processes involved in mathematical modelling of chemical phenomena, highlighting aspects such as the occurrence of deliberation and evaluation throughout the modelling cycle, as well as the varying characteristics, points of activation and roles of extra-mathematical resources during problem solving. We further introduce and use problem-solving trajectories as a tool for visualising and analysing the complex and diverse approaches used by students in their attempts at reaching a solution. Overall, the extended MMC provides a finer-grained model of the cognitive and metacognitive activities that students engage in, offering further insights for research and practice.

This paper provides evidence on the effect of local prescription opioid use on academic achievement of 3rd-8th graders between 2009 and 2018. Using county fixed effects models, I find that when counties have higher levels of prescription opioid use, students score lower on standardized assessments two to three years later, with variation by student subgroups and magnitudes comparable to effective interventions. I find the largest magnitudes in counties with higher poverty rates and states with below-median state education spending. As test score effects predict adult outcomes, these findings point to economic and public health challenges when affected children become adults.

In this paper, I analyze the impact of culture and metaphor on cryptology education. I will compare and contrast the historically grounded metaphors of cryptology-is-warfare and encryption-is-security to a set of counter-metaphors: cryptology-is-privacy and encryption-is-communication. Using this explicit understanding of conceptual metaphor, I present design recommendations and metaphorizing activities for educators building their undergraduate cryptology course.

This paper describes how the notion of the strongly didactic contract can serve to characterize the teaching adopted to implement a task in probability. It is particularly focused on the reality of mathematical work performed by students and teachers. For this research, classroom sessions were developed in an in-service teacher training course designed (and adapted) according to the Japanese Lesson Study model. Through the combined use of the Theory of Didactical Situations (TDS) and the Theory of Mathematical Working Spaces (ThMWS), a coding of the sessions observed was developed. Based on this coding, different patterns emerged which gave each session a specific rhythm and identity from which it was possible to recognize and characterize different strongly didactic contracts. The study highlights the difference between the potential contracts intended by the teachers and those observed in practice. The tools, and especially the coding, developed for the study could be used for future research on instructional situations or in-service teacher training.

The present paper aims at investigating the relationship between students' attitudes toward online homework use and mathematics anxiety among secondary school students. In this study, a model has been proposed by integrating the technology acceptance model (TAM) with mathematics anxiety theory. Three hundred and forty-five secondary school students participated in the instrument of the study that included 20-item based on a 5-point Likert scale. The subsequent analysis using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) supported the negative relationship between attitude toward an online homework (OHW) tool and mathematics anxiety. The results revealed that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use are predictors of attitude toward the use of OHW. This study maximized the capability of acceptance of the OHW tool in mathematics learning. The findings provided by the study will encourage mathematics educators to implement mathematics OHW tools in the learning process.

This paper reports on students' conceptions of minima points. Written assignments and individual interviews uncovered salient, concept images, as well as erroneous "mis-out examples" that mistakenly regard examples as non-examples and "mis-in examples" that mistakenly grant non-examples the status of examples. We used Tall and Vinner's theoretical framework to analyze the students' errors that were rooted in mathematical and in real-life contexts.

In this paper we discuss the types of knowledge used by six middle school students as they engaged with a debugging task designed to integrate ideas from computer science, mathematics and science. Our findings show that the computational thinking practice of debugging is a rich source of opportunities to integrate these different disciplines. The analysis illustrates how the types of knowledge the students did and did not use at each step of the debugging process were related to their ability to succeed at each step. Our work contributes to theory and practice by uncovering implications for studying debugging through two refined frameworks and for designing debugging tasks to support transdisciplinary learning.

This article describes the outcomes of a faculty partnership between a math professor and a composition professor to improve the final paper in a research-focused senior capstone math course. Much attention has been paid in recent years to the importance of undergraduate research experiences and how to best create and support such endeavors. However, little space has been dedicated to helping math faculty design and scaffold writing assignments to support their students' development as scholars. We describe how our partnership took place, the changes we made to existing assignments and the creation of new ones, and an assessment of our efforts completed by an interdisciplinary group of faculty and students, which showed marked improvement in the areas of information literacy, critical thinking, and quality of writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frieze patterns have been introduced by Coxeter [Acta Arith. 18 (1971), pp. 297–310] in the 1970's and have recently attracted renewed interest due to their close connection with Fomin-Zelevinsky's cluster algebras. Frieze patterns can be interpreted as assignments of values to the diagonals of a triangulated polygon satisfying certain conditions for crossing diagonals (Ptolemy relations). Weak friezes, as introduced by Çanakçı and Jørgensen [Adv. in Appl. Math. 131 (2021), Paper No. 102253], are generalizing this concept by allowing to glue dissected polygons so that the Ptolemy relations only have to be satisfied for crossings involving one of the gluing diagonals. To any frieze pattern one can associate a symmetric matrix using a triangular fundamental domain of the frieze pattern in the upper and lower half of the matrix and putting zeroes on the diagonal. Broline, Crowe and Isaacs [Geometriae Dedicata 3 (1974), pp. 171–176] have found a formula for the determinants of these matrices and their work has later been generalized in various directions by other authors. These frieze pattern determinants are the main focus of our paper. As our main result we show that this determinant behaves well with respect to gluing weak friezes: the determinant is the product of the determinants for the pieces glued, up to a scalar factor coming from the gluing diagonal. Then we give several applications of this result, showing that formulas from the literature, obtained by Broline-Crowe-Isaacs, Baur-Marsh [J. Combin. Theory Ser. A 119 (2012), pp. 1110–1122], Bessenrodt-Holm-Jørgensen [J. Combin. Theory Ser. A 123 (2014), pp. 30–42] and Maldonado [ Frieze matrices and infinite frieze patterns with coefficients , Preprint, arXiv: 2207.04120 , 2022] can all be obtained as consequences of our result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A paper of Reeder–Yu [J. Amer. Math. Soc. 27 (2014), pp. 437–477] gives a construction of epipelagic supercuspidal representations of p-adic groups. The input for this construction is a pair (\lambda, \chi) where \lambda is a stable vector in a certain representation coming from a Moy–Prasad filtration, and \chi is a character of the additive group of the residue field. We say two such pairs are equivalent if the resulting supercuspidal representations are isomorphic. In this paper we describe the equivalence classes of such pairs. As an application, we give a classification of the simple supercuspidal representations for split adjoint groups. Finally, under an assumption about unramified base change, we describe properties of the Langlands parameters associated to these simple supercuspidals, showing that they have trivial L-functions and minimal Swan conductors, and showing that each of these simple supercuspidals lies in a singleton L-packet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging digital technologies offer a transformative potential to redefine learning tasks and many examples of this potential are now available. The scaling of the innovative pedagogies emerging from the research into widespread and sustainable practice, however, remains problematic. This paper addresses the issue of scaling by using Design Based Research (DBR), also known as Educational Design Research, within teacher professional development to reposition teachers' thinking about the place of digital tools in their teaching. Using a project seeking to support the use of new digital technologies to develop children's spatial reasoning as a 'worked example', this paper highlights how the bringing together of the knowledge of educational research and knowledge of teaching practice in DBR can provide a catalyst for epistemic change. The paper will argue that DBR positions the knowledge and practice objects of both research and teaching as 'epistemic' or 'not yet known' objects and, therefore, the legitimate focus of experimentation and reflection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English Teaching Quality Assessment is a crucial aspect of evaluating and enhancing the effectiveness of English language education programs. To achieve a comprehensive understanding of teaching quality, a Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation Model is employed. This model combines qualitative and quantitative assessments, considering various factors such as teaching methods, student engagement, curriculum design, and instructor proficiency. Based on the multi-level model of Fuzzy mathematics, this paper designs a set of teaching Quality Assessment training suitable for English Teaching for Medical Students and applies it to teaching courses to improve their understanding of comprehensive functions and provide reference for future online teaching. In terms of curriculum structure, this paper uses Fuzzy analysis method and literature analysis method. Based on the literature, this paper discusses the training module, training theme, training content, training time and training mode. Summarize and organize the consultant's opinions, and finally formulate th e training program. According to the teaching syllabus of comprehensive Quality Assessment student, teaching courseware was prepared, teachers conducted teaching demonstrations and recorded them as high-definition videos, and then cloud classroom teaching platform was built to teach community English. In terms of teaching practice, this subject took the tertiary medical institutions as the object, and investigated and evaluated the qualified primary care staff. Before training, the Fuzzy mathematics multi-level knowledge questionnaire, English Teaching Quality Assessment knowledge questionnaire, English Teaching Quality Assessment attitude, behavioral intention and self-efficacy scale were used to investigate the English Teaching. After completion, the methods were used to investigate English Teaching, and the different degrees of student effects were compared. Finally, a self-designed questionnaire was used to investigate English Teaching to understand the comprehensive evaluation of the satisfaction degree of student courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foundation mathematics courses play a crucial role in allowing students who have not achieved the pre-requisite mathematics credits for tertiary studies to re-engage with STEM studies. This paper describes how targeting self-efficacy, skill development and social connectedness have influenced the design of a foundation mathematics course at a New Zealand university. These design goals are grounded in education literature, and the paper outlines how focusing on these goals has resulted in the design of a course that incorporates novel approaches to learning and assessment, including online and face-to-face components. These approaches include the use of large, automatically graded weekly quizzes; adaptive learning quizzes for essential skills such as fraction arithmetic; and an emphasis on face-to-face learning and connection through tutorials and collaborative problem-solving workshops. The paper concludes with reflections on the success of the course so far and raising questions for future investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the first part of the paper, we propose a different viewpoint on the theory of higher Airy structures (or Airy ideals), which may shed light on its origin. We define Airy ideals in the ħ -adic completion of the Rees Weyl algebra and show that Airy ideals are defined exactly such that they are always related to the canonical left ideal generated by derivatives by automorphisms of the Rees Weyl algebra of a simple type, which we call transvections. The standard existence and uniqueness result in the theory of Airy structures then follow immediately. In the second part of the paper, we construct Airy ideals generated by the nonnegative modes of the strong generators of the principal W -algebra of sp 2 N at level - N - 1 / 2 , following the approach developed in Borot et al. (Mem Am Math Soc, 2021). This provides an example of an Airy ideal in the Heisenberg algebra that requires realizing the zero modes as derivatives instead of variables, which leads to an interesting interpretation for the resulting partition function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This correction notice provides updates and corrections to a research paper on deep machine learning model-based cyber-attacks detection in smart power systems. The paper proposes a deep learning-based attack detection model that addresses system disturbances caused by natural events and cyber-attacks. It discusses the use of principal component analysis (PCA) for feature selection and the potential of deep learning-based and decision tree classifiers for detecting cyber-attacks in intelligent energy grids. The notice also includes updates to references, clarifications on the experimental data set, and feature selection based on PCA. The study evaluates the effectiveness of the proposed model using various assessment indexes and compares it to conventional methods, concluding that the proposed model is effective in detecting cyber-attacks and demonstrates good performance in detecting destructive attacks. [Extracted from the article]

This paper discusses several linear algebra activities designed to help enhance students' skills in collaborating, exploring mathematics, and linking together abstract and visual ways of approaching mathematics. Most of these activities are short, accessible, engaging, and easy to incorporate into any classroom. In addition, we discuss some questions instructors can ask themselves to design novel and engaging activities when constrained to teaching from a particular curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we resolve a conjecture of Kresch and Tamvakis [Duke Math. J. 110 (2001), pp. 359–376]. Our result is the following. Theorem : For any positive integer D and any integers i,j (0\leq i,j \leq D), \; the absolute value of the following hypergeometric series is at most 1: \begin{equation*} {_4F_3} \left [ \begin {array}{c} -i, \; i+1, \; -j, \; j+1 \\ 1, \; D+2, \; -D \end{array} ; 1 \right ]. \end{equation*} To prove this theorem, we use the Biedenharn-Elliott identity, the theory of Leonard pairs, and the Perron-Frobenius theorem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews research on equity in mathematics education (excluding gender equity) for the period 2017–2022. From the publications identified, five themes were distilled: conceptualizations and framing of equity in mathematics education; research methodologies and researcher positionalities; equity-focused practices, pedagogies and teacher education; equitable mathematics curriculum content, access and pathways; and equity in mathematics education at system levels, nationally and internationally. The review concludes by engaging some of the critique and suggests future directions for research. The research demonstrates that there is growing voice and visibility of equity-focused studies in mathematics education and that conceptualizations of equity have broadened and deepened through an increasing diversity of studies in this area. At the same time, the review also shows the dominance of the Global North in shaping equity discourses and the paucity of research on equity in mathematics education from the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study of the class \Delta consisting of topological \Delta-spaces was originated by Jerzy Ka̧kol and Arkady Leiderman [Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. Ser. B 8 (2021), pp. 86–99; Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. Ser. B 8 (2021), pp. 267–280]. The main purpose of this paper is to introduce and investigate new classes \Delta _2 \subset \Delta _1 properly containing \Delta. We observe that for every first-countable X the following equivalences hold: X\in \Delta _1 iff X\in \Delta _2 iff each countable subset of X is G_{\delta }. Thus, new proposed concepts provide a natural extension of the family of all \lambda-sets beyond the separable metrizable spaces. We prove that (1) A pseudocompact space X belongs to the class \Delta _1 iff countable subsets of X are scattered. (2) Every regular scattered space belongs to the class \Delta _2. We investigate whether the classes \Delta _1 and \Delta _2 are invariant under the basic topological operations. Similarly to \Delta, both classes \Delta _1 and \Delta _2 are invariant under the operation of taking countable unions of closed subspaces. In contrast to \Delta, they are not preserved by closed continuous images. Let Y be l-dominated by X, i.e. C_p(X) admits a continuous linear map onto C_p(Y). We show that Y \in \Delta _1 whenever X \in \Delta _1. Moreover, we establish that if Y is l-dominated by a compact scattered space X, then Y is a pseudocompact space such that its Stone–Čech compactification \beta Y is scattered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider a Li-Yau gradient estimate on the positive solution to the following nonlinear parabolic equation ∂/∂t f = Δf + af (ln f)p with Neumann boundary conditions on a compact Riemannian manifold satisfying the integral Ricci curvature assumption, where p ≥ 0 is a real constant. This contrasts Olivé's gradient estimate, which works mainly for the heat equation rather than nonlinear parabolic equations and the result can be regarded as a generalization of the Li-Yau [P. Li, S. T. Yau, On the parabolic kernel of the Schrödinger operator, Acta Math., 156 (1986), 153-201] and Olivé [X. R. Olive, Neumann Li-Yau gradient estimate under integral Ricci curvature bounds, Proc. Amer. Math. Soc., 147 (2019), 411-426] gradient estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been an increasing amount of literature on online teaching and learning. Teaching mathematics in the fourth industrial revolution offers entry-level mathematics teachers formidable challenges. Despite using various teaching aids in explaining the learning area, entry-level mathematics teachers, those with zero to three years of teaching experience, have experienced challenges in blended teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. Such challenges could support the preconceived notion identified by others that the field of learning (mathematics) is difficult. This paper hinged on constructivist epistemology and investigated the challenges that entry-level mathematics teachers face in conducting blended teaching in the Sedibeng West District of Gauteng Province in the Republic of South Africa. Eight entrylevel mathematics teachers were purposely sampled from four selected schools that participated in the article. This article adopted a case study design and responses were analysed thematically. The focus group interviews were used as tools to collect data in this study. The study revealed a variety of perceptions that entry-level mathematics teachers shared about the impact of blended teaching in mathematics learning. These included, but were not limited to, the use of teaching programs or software, the effects of load shedding and blended teaching challenges related to learners' performance and behaviour. The results of this study could provide program developers, subject advisors, school principals with other members of the management team, and mathematics teachers to support the entry-level mathematics teacher's confidence, sense of future and communication skills, as well as foster multigenerational connections in blended teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microteaching has been viewed as a professional development tool that gives pre-service teachers the chance to strengthen their teaching skills. This paper presents an overview of the research on microteaching in mathematics teacher education, noting its prospects and challenges while also making recommendations for modifications to its application. A thorough analysis of 28 empirical papers on microteaching in mathematics teacher preparation that were published between 2000 and 12 May 2023, was conducted. Findings demonstrate that microteaching is an effective approach for enhancing pre-service teachers' core mathematics teaching skills. It is suggested that microteaching, which begins in a laboratory setting with the development of essential teaching skills, should not end there; it should give trainee teachers an opportunity to learn and practice in a real classroom context. Microteaching activities require more time, more supervisors, and more resources to function at its maximum capacity. Technology has also demonstrated greater promise when it comes to enhancing microteaching's position in facilitating the development of pre-service mathematics teachers' instructional skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mathematics can be used as a tool to question and critique society and, in doing so, give us more information about the world around us and how it operates. This however, is not a common perspective that is conveyed to students during their undergraduate mathematics coursework. This paper contributes to the understanding of how undergraduate mathematics students question and critique society via mathematical modeling tasks. In two courses at two universities, 27 mathematics majors and secondary preservice teachers engaged in the modeling process situated in authentic contexts to learn specific concepts and make mathematical connections across domains and disciplines. Both courses culminated in a final project in which students created and investigated solutions to their own modeling tasks. In this paper, we describe how our courses (1) centered justice as pedagogy, (2) were environments for student agency and exploration, and (3) explicitly demonstrated how mathematics and social justice are intertwined. Drawing on frameworks of mathematical modeling for social justice, we present and analyze student-created tasks to showcase how they utilized mathematics as a tool to question and critique the world around them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose an iterative algorithm, which is based on the Mann iterative method for solving simultaneously common fixed point problem with a finite family of demicontractive mappings and systems of variational inequalities involving an infinite family of strongly accretive operators. Under suitable assumptions, we prove the strong convergence of this algorithm in Banach spaces. Application to systems of constrained convex minimization problem is provided to support our main results. The results of this paper improve and extend results of [M. Eslamian, C. R. Math. Acad. Sci. Paris, 355 (2017), 1168–1177], and of many others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Rubik's Cube mechanism (RCM) is a kind of reconfigurable mechanism with multiple characteristics such as multiple configurations, variable topology, strong coupling, and reconfigurability. Crossover research on the RCM with mathematics, chemistry, cryptography, and other disciplines has led to important breakthroughs and progress. It is obvious that the invention and creation of a new RCM can provide important ideological inspiration and theoretical guidance for the accelerated iterative updating of Rubik's Cube products and the expansion of their applications. This paper investigates the type synthesis method for a regular hexagonal prism (RHP) RCM (RHPRCM). Through analysis of the reconfigurable movement process of the RCM, two mechanism factors are abstracted, a type synthesis process for the RHPRCM is proposed, a symmetry layout method for the RCM's revolute axis based on the RHP space polyhedron is proposed, and an analysis method for the intersection of the revolute pair contact surfaces (RPCSs) based on the adjacency matrix is proposed. Taking a revolute axis passing through the center of an RHP and having only one RPCS for each revolute axis as an example, an RHPRCM with different topological structures is synthesized. The relevant research in this paper can provide methodological guidance for the synthesis of other spatial RCMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introducing a strong form of soft continuity between soft topological spaces is significant because it can contribute to our growing understanding of soft topological spaces and their features, provide a basis for creating new mathematical tools and methods, and have significant applications in various fields. In this paper, we define soft super-continuity as a new form of soft mapping. We present various characterizations of this soft concept. Also, we show that soft super-continuity lies strictly between soft continuity and soft complete continuity and that soft super-continuity is a strong form of soft δ-continuity. In addition, we give some sufficient conditions for the equivalence between soft super-continuity and other related concepts. Moreover, we characterize soft semi-regularity in terms of super-continuity. Furthermore, we provide several results of soft composition, restrictions, preservation, and products by soft super-continuity. In addition to these, we study the relationship between soft super-continuity and soft δ-continuity with their analogous notions in general topology. Finally, we give several sufficient conditions on a soft mapping to have a soft δ-closed graph., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Abuzaid et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

This study contributes to the existing body of research by examining the mediating effect of ethics in the relationship between mathematics teacher cooperation and readiness. It fills a gap in the literature by investigating the ethical dimensions of collaboration and their impact on readiness for the industrial revolution. This study aims to determine the mediator effect of ethics between the relationship of Mathematics Teacher Cooperation and Readiness in Facing the Era of Industrial Revolution. The study involved a total of 231 mathematics teachers in Indonesia and a total of 384 mathematics teachers in Malaysia using simple random sampling. A survey was conducted to determine the readiness of mathematics teachers in facing the industrial revolution. This study used SEM analysis (using AMOS software) to determine the model of teacher readiness facing the era of industrial revolution such as the direct effect of mathematics teacher cooperation and readiness in facing the era of industrial revolution, the essence of ethics as mediators of the relationship between mathematics teacher cooperation and readiness in facing the era of industrial revolution. The study findings showed collaboration has significant effect on IR4.0 readiness and the direct effect of collaboration on ethics was also significant. Indirectly, ethics has a significant mediating effect in the contribution between collaboration on the readiness of IR4.0 among mathematics teachers in Indonesia and Malaysia. A partial mediator occurred in the results of this study. In conclusion, the study's implications and recommendations emphasize the importance of collaborative practices, ethics, and cross-cultural considerations in preparing mathematics teachers for the Industrial Revolution era in Indonesia and Malaysia. These recommendations highlight the significance of policy support, professional development, ethical guidelines, and research-informed practices to enhance readiness for the challenges brought about by technological advancements., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors state that they have no personal relationship(s) that might have inappropriately influenced them in writing the current paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

We treat the exterior Dirichlet problem for a class of fully nonlinear elliptic equations of the form f (λ (D 2 u)) = g (x) with prescribed asymptotic behavior at infinity. The equations of this type had been studied extensively by Caffarelli et al. [The Dirichlet problem for nonlinear second-order elliptic equations. III. Functions of the eigenvalues of the Hessian, Acta Math. 155 (1985) 261–301], Trudinger [On the Dirichlet problem for Hessian equations, Acta Math. 175 (1995) 151–164] and many others, and there had been significant discussions on the solvability of the classical Dirichlet problem via the continuity method, under the assumption that f is a concave function. In this paper, based on Perron's method, we establish an exterior existence and uniqueness result for viscosity solutions of the equations, by assuming f to satisfy certain structure conditions as in [L. Caffarelli, L. Nirenberg and J. Spruck, The Dirichlet problem for nonlinear second-order elliptic equations. III. Functions of the eigenvalues of the Hessian, Acta Math. 155 (1985) 261–301; N. S. Trudinger, On the Dirichlet problem for Hessian equations, Acta Math. 175 (1995) 151–164] but without requiring the concavity of f. The equations in our setting may embrace the well-known Monge–Ampère equations, Hessian equations and Hessian quotient equations as special cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although women's representation in STEM fields and occupations has increased, science and math continue to be stereotyped as male domains. This paper links psychological and sociological explanations for gendered disparities in STEM by examining the relationship between the local "micro-situational" female learning environment and the gender gap in academic self-concept in math and science. We applied hybrid models to TIMSS 2015 data comprised of a pseudo-panel of repeated measures for individual student and peer achievement, academic self-concept, utility value, and interest-enjoyment value in math/science (at age 14). We analyzed data from three countries, including a subsample of students who were taught by the same teacher in both math and science, thus eliminating unobserved teacher heterogeneity. Results indicate that female peer climate in the classroom is important for understanding how girls' self-concept in math/science is formed, even though it was unrelated to the gender gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the roles of gender social norms in explaining the gender gap in maths test scores across the entire distribution. Applying generalized quantile regression models, we show that gender-equal cultural norms eliminate the gender gap in maths scores at the top of the distribution. Moreover, this effect is concentrated among students in the higher grade level. An investigation of the underlying mechanisms shows that girls from more gender-equal regions are less likely to hold maths-specific stereotypes and are likely to receive more attention from maths teachers. Additionally, girls from more gender-equal regions tend to perceive that parents have higher educational aspirations for them and are more confident about their future. Our paper provides compelling evidence that policy initiatives aiming at fostering egalitarian gender norms could serve as powerful tools to alleviate the gender gap in maths at the top of the distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We exploit the existence and non-existence of positive solutions to the eigenvalue problem driven by the nonhomogeneous fractional $ p\& q $ p &q Laplacian operator with indefinite weights \[ \left(-\Delta_p\right)^{\alpha}u + \left(-\Delta_q\right)^{\beta}u = \lambda\left[a \left|u\right|^{p-2}u + b \left|u\right|^{q-2}u \right]\quad{\rm in}\ \Omega, \] (− Δ p) α u + (− Δ q) β u = λ [ a | u | p − 2 u + b | u | q − 2 u ] in Ω , where $ \Omega \subseteq \mathbb {R}^N $ Ω ⊆ R N is a smooth bounded domain that has been extended by zero. We further show the existence of a continuous family of eigenvalues in the case $ \Omega =\mathbb {R}^N $ Ω = R N and $ b\equiv 0 $ b ≡ 0 a.e. Our approach relies strongly on variational Analysis, in which the Mountain pass theorem plays the key role. Due to the lack of spatial compactness and the embedding $ \mathcal {W}^{\alpha, p}\left (\mathbb {R}^N\right) \hookrightarrow \mathcal {W}^{\beta, q}\left (\mathbb {R}^N\right) $ W α , p (R N) ↪ W β , q (R N) in $ \mathbb {R}^N $ R N , we employ the concentration-compactness principle of P.L. Lions [The concentration-compactness principle in the calculus of variations. The limit case. II, Rev Mat Iberoamericana. 1985;1(2):45–121]. to overcome the difficulty. Our paper can be considered as a counterpart to the important works [Alves et al. Existence, multiplicity and concentration for a class of fractional $ p\& q $ p &q Laplacian problems in $ \Bbb R^N $ R N , Commun Pure Appl Anal, 2019;18(4):2009–2045], [Benci et al. An eigenvalue problem for a quasilinear elliptic field equation. J Differ Equ, 2002;184(2):299–320], [Bobkov et al. On positive solutions for $ (p,q) $ (p , q) -Laplace equations with two parameters, Calc Var Partial Differ Equ, 2015;54(3):3277–3301], [Colasuonno and Squassina. Eigenvalues for double phase variational integrals, Ann Mat Pura Appl (4), 2016;195(6):1917–1956], [Papageorgiou et al. Positive solutions for nonlinear Neumann problems with singular terms and convection, J Math Pures Appl (9), 2020;136:1–21], [Papageorgiou et al. Ground state and nodal solutions for a class of double phase problems, Z Angew Math Phys, 2020;71:1–15], and may have further applications to deal with other problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the equation - Δ u + μ u = f on high-dimensional spaces R m , where the right-hand side f (x) = F (T x) is composed of a separable function F with an integrable Fourier transform on a space of a dimension n > m and a linear mapping given by a matrix T of full rank and μ ≥ 0 is a constant. For example, the right-hand side can explicitly depend on differences x i - x j of components of x. Following our publication (Yserentant in Numer Math 146:219–238, 2020), we show that the solution of this equation can be expanded into sums of functions of the same structure and develop in this framework an equally simple and fast iterative method for its computation. The method is based on the observation that in almost all cases and for large problem classes the expression ‖ T t y ‖ 2 deviates on the unit sphere ‖ y ‖ = 1 the less from its mean value the higher the dimension m is, a concentration of measure effect. The higher the dimension m, the faster the iteration converges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One characteristic of high-quality mathematics teaching is supporting students in engaging in tasks of high cognitive demand. In this paper, we explore relationships between two elementary teachers' efforts to integrate computational thinking (CT) practices—abstraction, debugging, and decomposition—into their mathematics instruction and their development of high-level tasks. Teachers engaged in professional development sessions about CT. Using their mathematics curriculum materials as a starting point, teachers then planned mathematics lessons to incorporate attention to at least one CT practice. Researchers transcribed their conversations and qualitatively coded the transcripts using an established framework for assessing the cognitive demand of tasks posed to students. Analyses of the planning conversations suggested that encouraging these teachers to examine their mathematics curriculum materials through the lens of CT practices supported them in adapting tasks from their curriculum materials in ways that raised the cognitive demand. Implications for the use of CT in elementary mathematics teacher education are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we prove the convexity of trace functionals (A , B , C) ↦ Tr | B p A C q | s , for parameters (p, q, s) that are best possible, where B and C are any n-by-n positive-definite matrices, and A is any n-by-n matrix. We also obtain the monotonicity versions of trace functionals of this type. As applications, we extend some results in Carlen et al. (Linear Algebra Appl 490:174–185, 2016), Hiai and Petz (Publ Res Inst Math Sci 48(3):525-542, 2012) and resolve a conjecture in Al-Rashed and Zegarliński (Infin Dimens Anal Quantum Probab Relat Top 17(4):1450029, 2014) in the matrix setting. Other conjectures in Al-Rashed and Zegarliński (Infin Dimens Anal Quantum Probab Relat Top 17(4):1450029, 2014) will also be discussed. We also show that some related trace functionals are not concave in general. Such concavity results were expected to hold in different problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let \mu (n) be the Möbius function and e(\alpha)=e^{2\pi i\alpha }. In this paper, we study upper bounds of the classical sum \[ S(x,\alpha)≔\sum _{1\leq n\leq x}\mu (n)e(\alpha n). \] We can improve some classical results of Baker and Harman [J. London Math. Soc. (2) 43 (1991), pp. 193–198]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]