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This study aims at understanding the role of the tools chosen throughout the processes of solving a non-routine mathematical problem and communicating its solution. In assuming that problem-solving is a synchronous activity of mathematization and expression of mathematical thinking we take our proposed Mathematical Problem Solving with Technology (MPST) model to analyze the processes of solving-and-expressing-problems. Resorting to qualitative methods for data collection and analysis, we report on the case of an 8th grader working on a covariation problem to examine the role that paper-and-pencil and digital tools play in the development of a conceptual model of the situation. We found that the resources used throughout the solving-and-expressing activity influenced the depth of the conceptual model developed, within a process of progressive mathematization. Whereas paper-and-pencil led to the emergence of a conceptual model based on exploring particular cases, the digital transformation of the solution was triggered by the process of communicating its mathematical justification and expanded the previous model. Moreover, the complexity of this activity is evidenced by its multiple sequences of processes. Finally, the integration process seems crucial as the concomitant use of technological and mathematical resources precedes major advancements in the expansion of the conceptual model.

We investigated the influence of mental imagery expertise in 15 pen and paper role-players as an expert group compared to the gender-matched control group of computer role-players in the difficult Vandenberg and Kuse mental rotation task. In this task, the participants have to decide which two of four rotated figures match the target figure. The dependent measures were performance speed and accuracy. In our exploratory investigation, we further examined midline frontal theta band activation, parietal alpha band activation, and parietal alpha band asymmetry in EEG as indicator for the chosen rotation strategy. Additionally, we explored the gender influence on performance and EEG activation, although a very small female sample section was given. The expected gender difference concerning performance accuracy was negated by expertise in pen and paper role-playing women, while the gender-specific difference in performance speed was preserved. Moreover, gender differences concerning electro-cortical measures revealed differences in rotation strategy, with women using top-down strategies compared to men, who were using top-down strategies and active inhibition of associative cortical areas. These strategy uses were further moderated by expertise, with higher expertise leading to more pronounced activation patters, especially during successful performance. However, due to the very limited sample size, the findings of this explorative study have to be interpreted cautiously.

Investigating the research trends within a scientific domain by analyzing semantic information extracted from scientific journals has been a topic of interest in the natural language processing (NLP) field. A research trend evaluation is generally based on the time evolution of the term occurrence or the term topic, but it neglects an important aspect—research publication latency. The average time lag between the research and its publication may vary from one month to more than one year, and it is a characteristic that may have significant impact when assessing research trends, mainly for rapidly evolving scientific areas. To cope with this problem, the present paper is the first work that explicitly considers research publication latency as a parameter in the trend evaluation process. Consequently, we provide a new trend detection methodology that mixes auto-ARIMA prediction with Mann–Kendall trend evaluations. The experimental results in an electronic design automation case study prove the viability of our approach.

Paper waste in the mockups design with regular, irregular, and amorphous patterns is a critical problem in digital printing presses. Paper waste reduction directly impacts production costs, generating business and environmental benefits. This problem can be mapped to the two-dimensional irregular bin-packing problem. In this paper, an iterated local search algorithm using a novel neighborhood structure to detect overlaps between amorphous shapes is introduced. This algorithm is used to solve the paper waste problem, modeled as one 2D irregular bin-packing problem. The experimental results show that this approach works efficiently and effectively to detect and correct the overlaps between regular, irregular, and amorphous figures.

A classical result of K. L. Chung and W. Feller deals with the partial sums S k S_k arising in a fair coin-tossing game. If N n N_n is the number of “positive” terms among S 1 S_1 , S 2 S_2 , …, S n S_n then the quantity P ( N 2 n = 2 r ) P(N_{2n} = 2r) takes an elegant form. We lift the restriction on an even number of tosses and give a simple expression for P ( N 2 n + 1 = r ) P(N_{2n+1} = r) , r = 0 r = 0 , 1 1 , 2 2 , …, 2 n + 1 2n+1 . We get to this ansatz by adaptating the Feynman–Kac methodology.

Rewinding machines are used in the paper converting industrial sector to unroll paper veils from large source reels and wind them around smaller rolls, for the production of paper logs to be used in household activities. Many different types of rewinding machine exist, and they are mostly based on stapling devices which automatically unroll a large coil of paper, roll it up around a new log, stop the veil allowing it to be torn off, unload the completed paper log, and reload a new paper core to be rolled up. Winding units generally include a primary and a secondary roller, supplying the desired rotational speed for winding, and a pressure unit consisting of a pressure roller in contact with the paper log being rolled up, which assures adequate containment and avoids the paper log to escape. All known systems have some mechanical limitations, mainly due to the contact of the pressure roller with the paper log, causing instabilities and vibrations, particularly when working with soft paper veils. This limits the maximum possible winding speed. The aim of this paper is it to present a detailed kinematic analysis of a novel pressure unit which overcomes the aforementioned limitation.

In this paper, we first generalize to any hyper-Kahler manifold X with $$b_3(X)\not =0$$ results proved by O’Grady for hyper-Kahler manifolds of generalized Kummer type. In the second part, we restrict to hyper-Kahler manifolds of generalized Kummer type and prove, using results of Markman, that their Kuga–Satake correspondence is algebraic.

“Real Normed Algebras Revisited,” the last paper of the late Gadi Moran, attempts to reconstruct the discovery of the complex numbers, the quaternions, and the octonions, as well as proofs of their...

Very recently, I. Altun, M. Aslantas and H. Sahin [1] introduced the notion of $$p$$ -proximal contractions and surveyed the existence of best proximity points for such class of non-self mappings in metric spaces. In this note we show that this existence result is a straightforward consequence of the same conclusion in fixed point theory.

Sendov’s conjecture states that if all the zeroes of a complex polynomial P(z) of degree at least two lie in the unit disk, then within a unit distance of each zero lies a critical point of P(z). In a paper that appeared in 2014, Degot proved that, for each a ∈ (0, 1), there exists an integer N such that for any polynomial P(z) with degree greater than N, if P(a) = 0 and all zeroes lie inside the unit disk, the disk |z − a| ≤ 1 contains a critical point of P(z). Based on this result, we derive an explicit formula N(a) for each a ∈ (0, 1) and, consequently obtain a uniform bound N for all a ∈ [α, β] where 0 < α < β < 1. This (partially) addresses the questions posed in Degot’s paper.

This is a corrigendum to our paper, “On a class of prime entire functions”, published in Acta Math. Sin., Engl. Ser., 25, 1647–1652 (2009).

Erratum to the paper [Konovalov, Alexander; Smoktunowicz, Agata; Vendramin, Leandro. On skew braces and their ideals. Exp. Math. 30 (2021), no. 1, 95–104. DOI: 10.1080/10586458.2018.1492476.].

Even fairly good students, when they have obtained the solution of the problem and written down neatly the argument, shut their books and look for something else. Doing so, they miss an important a...

The variability and interdependence of local porosity and local mean geodesic tortuosity, which is a measure for the sinuosity of shortest transportation paths, is investigated at the example of the microstructure in sack paper. By means of statistical image analysis, these two morphological characteristics are computed for several cutouts of 3D image data obtained by X-ray microcomputed tomography. Considering cutouts of different sizes allows us to study the influence of the sample size on the local variability of the considered characteristics. Moreover, the interdependence between local porosity and local mean geodesic tortuosity is quantified by modeling their joint distribution parametrically using Archimedean copulas. It turns out that the family of Gumbel copulas is an appropriate model type, which is formally validated by a goodness of fit test. Besides mean geodesic tortuosity, we consider further related morphological characteristics, describing the sinuosity of those shortest transportation paths, whose minimum diameter exceeds a predefined threshold. Moreover, we show that the copula approach investigated in this paper can also be used to quantify the negative correlation between local porosity and these modified versions of local mean geodesic tortuosity. Our results elucidate the impact of local porosity on various kinds of morphological characteristics, which are not experimentally accessible and which are important for local air permeance – a key property of sack paper.

We introduce a graph Ramsey game called Ramsey, Paper, Scissors. This game has two players, Proposer and Decider. Starting from an empty graph on $n$ vertices, on each turn Proposer proposes a potential edge and Decider simultaneously decides (without knowing Proposer's choice) whether to add it to the graph. Proposer cannot propose an edge which would create a triangle in the graph. The game ends when Proposer has no legal moves remaining, and Proposer wins if the final graph has independence number at least $s$. We prove a threshold phenomenon exists for this game by exhibiting randomized strategies for both players that are optimal up to constants. Namely, there exist constants $0B\sqrt{n}\log{n}$. This is a factor of $\Theta(\sqrt{\log{n}})$ larger than the lower bound coming from the off-diagonal Ramsey number $r(3,s)$.

The main result of this paper states that if $${\mathcal {F}}$$ is a subgroup-closed saturated formation of full characteristic, then the $${\mathcal {F}}$$ -residual of a K- $${\mathcal {F}}$$ -subnormal subgroup S of a finite group G is a large subgroup of G provided that the $${\mathcal {F}}$$ -hypercentre of every subgroup X of G containing S is contained in the $${\mathcal {F}}$$ -residual of X. This extends a recent result of Aivazidis, Safonova and Skiba.

If $$z\in {\mathbb {C}}$$ and $$1\le n$$ is a natural number then $$\begin{aligned} \sum _{d_1 d_2 =n} (1-z^{p_1})\cdots (1-z^{p_m}) z^{q_1 e_{1}+\cdots +q_i e_{i} }=1, \end{aligned}$$ where $$d_1=p_1^{r_1}\dots p_m^{r_m }$$ , $$d_2=q_1^{e_1}\dots q_i^{e_i }$$ are the prime decompositions of $$d_1, d_2$$ . This is one of the identities involving arithmetic functions that we prove using ideas from the paper of Dressler and van de Lune [3].