bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Management of Abiotic Stress in Forage Crops
Authors: Singh Amanpreet , Singh Chahal Harmandeep
Published: December 2020

Forage plays a key role in rearing ruminants and protecting the environment. Apart from serving as the primary source of food for domestic and wild animals, forages also contribute to human civilization in different ways like protecting soil through crop over and fertility by addition of organic matter. It also provides habitat for wild animals. A survival strategy plays a more important role than a growth strategy to improve the sustainability of forage production, especially in extreme environmental conditions . Climate change is likely to affect the forage production and nutritional food security for domestic animals. Long-term rainfall data in India indicate that rainfed areas experience 3 to 4 years of drought in every 10 years. Of these, one or two of it occur in severe form. Forage crop production is largely affected by abiotic factors related stress such as drought, salinity, etc. There is need to adopt various conventional and genetic approaches to improve stress tolerance of forage crops.
Wavelet Filter Banks Using Allpass Filters
Authors: Zhang Xi
Published: December 2020

Allpass filter is a computationally efficient versatile signal processing building block. The interconnection of allpass filters has found numerous applications in digital filtering and wavelets. In this chapter, we discuss several classes of wavelet filter banks by using allpass filters. Firstly, we describe two classes of orthogonal wavelet filter banks composed of two real allpass filters or a complex allpass filter, and then consider design of orthogonal filter banks without or with symmetry, respectively. Next, we present two classes of filter banks by using allpass filters in lifting scheme. One class is causal stable biorthogonal wavelet filter bank and another class is orthogonal wavelet filter bank, all with approximately linear phase response. We also give several design examples to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
The Knee Proprioception as Patient-Dependent Outcome Measures within Surgical and Non-Surgical Interventions
Authors: Kim Wangdo
Published: December 2020

Proprioception considered as the obtaining of information about one’s own action does not necessarily depend on proprioceptors. At the knee joint, perceptual systems are active sets of organs designed to reach equilibrium through synergies. Many surgical procedures, such as ACL reconstruction in personalized medicine, are often based on native anatomy, which may not accurately reflect the proprioception between native musculoskeletal tissues and biomechanical artifacts. Taking an affordance-based approach to this type of “design” brings valuable new insights to bear in advancing the area of “evidence-based medicine (EBM).” EBM has become incorporated into many health care disciplines, including occupational therapy, physiotherapy, nursing, dentistry, and complementary medicine, among many others. The design process can be viewed in terms of action possibilities provided by the (biological) environment. In anterior crucial ligament (ACL) reconstruction, the design goal is to avoid ligament impingement while optimizing the placement of the tibial tunnel. Although in the current rationale for tibial tunnel placement, roof impingement is minimized to avoid a negative affordance, we show that tibial tunnel placement can rather aim to constrain the target bounds with respect to a positive affordance. We describe the steps for identifying the measurable invariants in the knee proprioception system and provide a mathematical framework for the outcome measure within the knee.
Efficacy of Home-Based Callisthenic Resistance Training on Cardiovascular Disease Risk in Overweight Compared to Normal Weight Preadolescents
Authors: Shaw Ina , E Boshoff Victoria , Coetzee Sunette , Shaw Brandon Stuwart
Published: December 2020

Background: Childhood overweightness/obesity is likely to further challenge worldwide public health if effective preventative measures, such as physical activity interventions, are not put in place as prescribed by public health organizations, such as the World Health Organisation (WHO). Objectives: This study attempted to determine and compare the efficacy of home-based callisthenic resistance training on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in overweight children compared to normal-weight children. Methods: A quantitative study was undertaken, and 15 previously sedentary overweight/obese children (OOC) and 15 previously sedentary normal-weight children (NWC), aged 9 - 11 years, were assigned to a six-week, 45-minute, non-consecutive callisthenic resistance training program consisting of six exercises. An additional 15 previously sedentary normal-weight children were assigned to a non-exercising control group (NON). Results: In the OOC, the six-week callisthenic resistance training program significantly (P ≤ 0.05) decreased body mass (from 44.54 ± 10.53 to 43.77 ± 10.38 kg, P = 0.002), BMI (23.27 ± 5.05 to 22.85 ± 5.00 kg.m-2, P = 0.002), percentage body fat (from 33.01 ± 5.15 to 31.94 ± 5.55%, P = 0.042), fat mass (from 15.01 ± 5.45 to 14.30 ± 5.33 kg, P = 0.001), sum of skinfolds (from 46.46 ± 11.65 to 44.38 ± 11.61 mm, P = 0.032), and run/walk time (from 21.70 ± 5.06 to 20.71 ± 4.96 min; P = 0.003). In the NWC, hip circumference was found to be decreased (from 73.26 ± 5.84 to 72.76 ± 5.88 cm, P = 0.031), as was the sum of skinfolds (from 29.38 ± 10.18 to 25.84 ± 8.11mm, P = 0.035). Conclusions: This study demonstrated that home-based callisthenic resistance training can have positive impacts on overall body composition and may prove to be a cost-effective and essential tool in the fight against childhood overweight/obesity whether in normal weight or even overweight/obese children.
If Science Is a Public Good, Why Do Scientists Own It?
Authors: Fuller Steve ,   Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences
Published: December 2020

I argue that if science is to be a public good, it must be made one. Neither science nor any other form of knowledge is naturally a public good. And given the history of science policy in the twentieth century, it would be reasonable to conclude that science is in fact what economists call a ‘club good’. I discuss this matter in detail in two contexts: (1) current UK efforts to create a version of the US DARPA that would focus on projects of larger, long-term societal interests – i.e. beyond the interests of the academic specialities represented in, say, the US NSF; (2) what I call the ‘organized hypocrisy’ involved in presenting science as a public good through the so-called ‘peer review’ process.
Science on Demand
Authors: Turner Stephen ,   Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences
Published: December 2020

Characterizing science as a public good, as Steve Fuller notes, is a part of an ideological construal of science, linked to a particular portrayal of science in the postwar era that was designed to provide a rationale for the funding of pure or basic science. The image of science depended on the idea of scientists as autonomous truth-seekers. But the funding system, and other hierarchies, effectively eliminated this autonomy, and bound scientists tightly to a competitive system in which the opportunity to pursue ideas in science depended on peer approval in advance. Funding agencies then turned to assessments of impact. John Ziman had already recognized the effects of these changes in the nature of science, and characterized it as “reliable knowledge” produced on demand from funders. As the competition for funds increased, there were further changes in the nature of science itself toward “reliable enough” knowledge. This made science into a “good”. but a good in the sense of results produced for funders, a transformation that left the original epistemic aims of science behind.
The Ubiquity of Public Science
Authors: Sassower Raphael ,   Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences
Published: December 2020

Instead of using the binary of public versus private science or autonomous versus state-sponsored science, this paper focuses on the ways in which Science, the Scientific Community, and the Scientific Enterprise have all been and are still public, serving the common good through the production, dissemination, and consumption of technoscientific innovations.
Mathematical Reasoning
Authors: Tselishchev Vitaly V. ,   Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences
Published: December 2020

The article is devoted to the comparison of two types of proofs in mathematical practice, the methodological differences of which go back to the difference in the understanding of the nature of mathematics by Descartes and Leibniz. In modern philosophy of mathematics, we talk about conceptual and formal proofs in connection with the so-called Hilbert Thesis, according to which every proof can be transformed into a logical conclusion in a suitable formal system. The analysis of the arguments of the proponents and opponents of the Thesis, “conceptualists” and “formalists”, is presented respectively by the two main antagonists – Y. Rav and J. Azzouni. The focus is on the possibility of reproducing the proof of “interesting” mathematical theorems in the form of a strict logical conclusion, in principle feasible by a mechanical procedure. The argument of conceptualists is based on pointing out the importance of other aspects of the proof besides the logical conclusion, namely, in introducing new concepts, methods, and establishing connections between different sections of meaningful mathematics, which is often illustrated by the case of proving Fermat’s Last Theorem (Y. Rav). Formalists say that a conceptual proof “points” to the formal logical structure of the proof (J. Azzouni). The article shows that the disagreement is based on the assumption of asymmetry of mutual translation of syntactic and semantic structures of the language, as a result of which the formal proof loses important semantic factors of proof. In favor of a formal proof, the program of univalent foundations of mathematics In. Vojevodski, according to which the future of mathematical proofs is associated with the availability of computer verification programs. In favor of conceptual proofs, it is stated (A. Pelc) that the number of steps in the supposed formal logical conclusion when proving an “interesting” theorem exceeds the cognitive abilities of a person. The latter circumstance leads the controversy beyond the actual topic of mathematical proof into the epistemological sphere of discussions of “mentalists” and “mechanists” on the question of the supposed superiority of human intelligence over the machine, initiated by R. Penrose in his interpretation of the Second Theorem of Goedel, among whose supporters, as it turned out, was Goedel himself.
Libertarian Volition and the Problem of Luck
Authors: Sekatskaya Maria A. ,   Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences
Published: December 2020

The most important difference between contemporary compatibilist and libertarian theories is not the difference in their positions regarding the truth of the thesis of physical determinism, but their different approaches to the causal role of agents. According to libertarians, volitional acts performed by agents constitute a specific type of causes, which are not themselves caused by other causes. In this respect, event-causal libertarianism is similar to the agent-causal libertarianism, because it insists that in performing a volitional act an agent can choose one of the alternative outcomes without being caused to do so by anything else, where ‘anything else’ includes all the facts about the past and the present. Since event-causal libertarians maintain that volitional acts and the causal role of agents can be explained naturalistically, they must solve the problem of luck, i.e., they must explain how an agent is able to control her choices, given that she can choose one way or another without there being any difference in her state immediately preceding the moment of choice. This problem arises not from the indeterminism per se, but from the way it is coupled with the causal role of agents.In section one, I consider the historical development of compatibilist views on physical determinism and indeterminism. In section two, I present an overview of conditional analyses of alternative possibilities. In section three, I analyze the reasons why libertarians reject any type of conditional analysis, and show that intuitive objections against physical determinism, which portrait it as an obstacle to freedom, are untenable. In section four, I consider the consequence argument and show how it is related to the libertarian condition of sourcehood. In the final section, I analyze the problem of luck and show that it inevitably arises for any version of libertarianism. I demonstrate that indeterminism is a problem for libertarians, although they need it. And it is not a problem for compatibilists, who, while they do not need it, can incorporate it in their theories without facing the problem of luck.
On Some Prospects of the Russian Philosophy of Natural Sciences
Authors: Pruzhinin Boris I. ,   Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences
Published: December 2020

The article discusses the prospects of philosophical understanding of the problem situations that have arisen in modern science due to its thorough involvement in the socio-economic dynamics of technogenic civilization. The natural sciences are under the powerful influence of social demands, which significantly affect the forms, directions, and intensity of the realization of the cognitive potential of natural science. The problems that arise in this case are thoroughly investigated today in specific socio-economic perspectives, as well as through various options for social epistemology. But, the author believes, a full understanding of the relevant problems also involves its discussion in the conceptual field of the philosophical, in its essence, issue of the cultural, and by no means only the socio-pragmatic sense of the phenomenon of scientific knowledge. Moreover, the need of scientists themselves for this kind of philosophical understanding of science is due, according to the author of the article, primarily to the widespread dissemination of scientific collaboration in interdisciplinary research programs. In the course of joint scientific research, acute problems of mutual understanding arise among collaborating scientists of various specialties. Their philosophical understanding and the search for ways to solve them effectively is becoming today the central task of the philosophy of natural sciences. However, to effectively solve these problems, the author insists, both philosophers and scientists need to disclose and analyze the specific sources of relevant philosophical topics that mature in the interdisciplinary practices of science itself. According to the author, first of all, the philosophy of the natural sciences is called upon to solve this problem today.
Evolution of Expertiment in the Context of Technogenic Civilization
Authors: Konyaev Sergei N. ,   Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences
Published: December 2020

Philosophical and methodological approaches to the processes of experimental measurement are discussed in the context of the modern natural sciences. “A collective experimenter” category is considered as conceptual foundation of modern experimentation in the scientific researches’ directions oriented to the people surviving in the modern world. Deepening of ecological crisis and its overcoming are connected to the process of noosphere’s elements formation. Howard Pattee’s approaches to the essence of the experiment are considered from the perspective of his ideas of dynamic and linguistic complementarity of levels of a complex system. Pattee insists on the fact that artificial complex system does not exist except as abstraction that leaves out the brain in which their description originated. Howard Pattee have made the distinction between rate-dependent dynamical processes and rate-independent linguistic descriptions as essential component of complex systems. According to Pattee, “a measuring device is a physical constraint that tacitly execute a rule that relate a system to an element of description of system. Any attempt to make the dynamics of this execution explicit or detail only obscures the measurements. That is the more you describe the measuring device, the less effectively it measures or describes system. A similar situation occurs when we generate speech. Either we can say what we mean, or we can analyze how we have said it, but trying to do both at the same time renders us incoherent. We cannot speak two languages at once, since the essence of any language is the unity, completeness and coherence of its syntactical rules”. Thus, Pattee’s approach could be used to explain how action with things produces numbers. It is also very important that a complex system must read and write its own messages. Therefore, no external observer is needed for self-describing of the complex system. Pattee’s approach seems to be very promising for Bruno Latour’s actor-network theory development.
Time in the Physical Picture of the World
Authors: Sevalnikov Andrey Yu. ,   Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences
Published: December 2020

The article is devoted to the problem of time in modern science, where in recent years there have been major changes related to the latest discoveries in the field of the foundations of quantum theory. The author refers to works of K.-F. von Weizsacker (which works are not well-known in Russian-speaking field). Weizsacker deploys a large-scale program of building modern physics, while starting (not only as a physicist, but also a professional philosopher) with questions of philosophical interpretation of postulates of modern physics, especially quantum mechanics. His key thesis is that time in physics is fundamentally distinct, which represents the whole physics as an integral scientific discipline. Weizsacker comes from physical and philosophical reflections, that give a special value to his work. Analyzing the conclusions of theoretical physics, namely the issues of substantiation of statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, and, above all, quantum mechanics, Weizsacker comes to the key idea of the structure of time in the substantiation of physical theory. The author in this conclusion disagrees with the opinion of most modern physicists that time has a subjective character, and the modus of the past, present and future reflects its essential character. The allocation of the time structure requires special logic. Such a logic is temporal and quantum. Starting from temporal logic, introducing the concept of possibility and probability, he comes to the substantiation of quantum mechanics. Being modal logic, it is based on the concept of possibility and probability. Key concept for Weizsacker is a binary alternative (Uralternative), closely related to the principle of superposition in quantum mechanics. By introducing the concept of certain alternatives, essentially actualized alternatives, Weizsacker shows how one can get the theory of relativity with its space-time structure. Further, he shows that based on its structure, you can get the theory of relativity. The space-time structure in this case is secondary, relational, as understood by Leibniz, Mach, and Einstein.
Otto Neurath’s Relevance for Science Policy Debates
Authors: Grundmann Reiner ,   Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences
Published: December 2020

Debates about the role of science in policy making have highlighted the uneasy relationship between knowledge and decision making. Recent high-profile examples include climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. On the one hand there is an intertwinement between facts and values. On the other hand, there is a tension between the acknowledgement of scientific uncertainty and the justification of political action. This sometimes finds political solutions that are perceived as unsound and unsatisfactory. Some perceive the policies as too weak, some as too strong. Both appeal to fundamental values such as health, wealth, security, freedom, equality, or solidarity. In this article I will argue that we need a more open debate about these issues and a deeper understanding of what is at issue in science policy debates. I shall do so by referring to a Neurathian framework. Neurath’s legacy survives mainly in the history and philosophy of science but is largely forgotten in policy studies and sociology. This needs rectifying, especially in light of the fact that he anticipated central insights that have been attributed to later authors such as Fleck and Kuhn.The paper has the following structure. I first provide some historical and intellectual context by looking at the Vienna Circle and some biographical background about Neurath’s views, and his political engagement. I then examine his epistemology, especially his view of science and the social sciences, leading to his anti-foundationalism. Finally, I turn to the public policy literature which has produced results that partly overlap with, and partly contradict Neurath’s views.
Qualia Irreducibility Thesis
Authors: Sopov Mikhail S. ,   Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences
Published: December 2020

The article discusses the possibility of a naturalistic explanation of phenomenal experience (qualia). It starts with the analysis of one of the thought experiments described by D. Chalmers in his book “The Conscious Mind. In search of a fundamental theory”, namely, a zombie experiment. The article shows that the conclusions of this experiment can be recognized as correct only provided that the experimenter imagines a complete functional analogue of a human being. However, this condition is not feasible, since the experimenter is required to possess the totality of knowledge about the imaginary creature. Experimenter’s imagination is in one way or another determined by the available conceptual schemes. It is concluded that the thesis of the irreducibility of qualia, based on the data of thought experiments, is a presupposition of conscious mind studies, and not their conclusion. From my point of view, this presupposition can be challenged just as N.I. Lobachevsky challenged the intuitive plausibility of Euclid’s fifth axiom. As an alternative understanding of the nature of qualia I propose J. McDowell's approach, which is called “perceptual conceptualism”.
The Science of Society and the Concept of Complexity
Authors: Antonovski Alexander Yu. , Barash Raisa E. ,   Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences
Published: December 2020

This article is dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the publication of Niklas Luhmann’s book The Science of Society. The system-communicative approach to the analysis of science is reconstructed with a focus on the relation of science to its highly complex external world. The problem of complexity is posed as a key one and is considered in the context of the communicative “reduction of the complexity” of the external world, which science actualizes through its unique binary opposition (truth/falsehood distinction). The complexity of the world that science is facing disintegrates into two large areas. On the one hand, science processes its own external world, i.e., nature, society, the human psyche, as its object and thus fulfills a unique function, the pursuance of research. Scientific communication in this case can be integrated in the form of transdisciplinary studies. On the other hand, science has to respond to the complexity of the internal (i.e., social) external world of the communicative system of science, namely, to interfaced communicative systems of the embracing system of world society (politics, economy, religion, education, law, etc.). In the latter case, science does not fulfill a function but delivers achievements on request to the above-mentioned communicative systems in exchange for resources for interdisciplinary studies, which are occasional and cannot serve for integrating scientific communication on a systematic basis. We will propose some corrections to this theory and apply it to the situation in Russian science.
Cosmic Mathematics, Human Erōs: A Comparison of Plato’s Timaeus and Symposium
Authors: German Andy ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: December 2020

In her 2014 monograph, Sarah Broadie argues that Timaeus’s cosmology points to a radical Platonic insight: the full rationality of the cosmos requires the existence of individualized, autonomous, and finite beings like us. Only human life makes the cosmos truly complete. But can Timaeus do full justice to the uniquely human way of being and hence to his own insight? My paper argues that he cannot and that Plato means for us to see that he cannot, by showing how Timaeus treats a famous Platonic theme: eros. Timaeus describes human perfection as assimilation to the mathematical proportions of the cosmos, but by comparing Timaeus with the Symposium I show that, given his deeply mathematized conception of reason, Timaeus cannot provide what Diotima can: a phenomenologically satisfactory account of how we come to identify ourselves with this perfection. Such identification is a transformation in our self-understanding explicable only because of the desirous and reflexive character of the soul. Expressing this character, however, requires combining the mathematical with a poetic, or even mantic, register. Only these sensibilities together grant access to Plato’s cosmology in its fullness.
Husserl’s Sachhaltigkeit and the Question of the Essence of Individuals
Authors: Livadas Stathis ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: December 2020

Phenomenology can be roughly described as the theory of the pure essences of phenomena. Yet the meaning of essence and of concepts traditionally tied to it (such as the concepts of a priori and of essential necessity) are far from settled. This is especially true given the impact modern science has had on established philosophical views and the need for revisiting certain core notions of philosophy. In this paper I intend to review Husserl’s view on thingness-essence and his conception of the essence of individuals, based mainly in his writings from the time of Logical Investigations, Ideas, and later of Experience and Judgment. Taking account of the work of Lothar Eley in Die Krise des Apriori, among others, I will inquire into the ways in which phenomenology may undermine (one could even say fully “destroy”) the view of essences as non-factual, as well as undermine their ontological priority. Doing so may help to shape a conception of material or formal individual essences and generally of essences as concrete objects of experience in virtue of well-defined epistemic ones.
Gabriel Marcel and Thomas Aquinas
Authors: Lisowski R. James ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: December 2020

This article considers the positions of Gabriel Marcel and Thomas Aquinas on self-knowledge and argues for a synthesis between them. The basis of this Marcelian-Thomistic synthesis is their common understanding of the self as inherently in relation to that which is other (via embodiment) and in the necessity of activation for self-knowledge to occur. The divergence between these thinkers occurs in regard to the process of activation. While Aquinas presents an Aristotelian account of activation rooted in his understanding of cognition, Marcel offers a broader vision of activation that gives pride of place to intersubjectivity. A Marcelian-Thomistic synthesis preserves the Aristotelian systematization of Aquinas, while adding Marcel’s expanded understanding of activation and his prioritization of intersubjectivity. Such a synthesis allows for a treatment of self-knowledge that is metaphysically systematic and true to lived experience.
A Womanist Consideration of Architecture and the Common Good
Authors: Edwards Elise M. ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: December 2020

Womanist religious thought centers the experiences of black women but addresses the holistic liberation of communities from multiple and hybridized religious, spiritual, and cultural identities, offering valuable insight for examining the moral aims of the common good and identifying challenges to the good of particular communities. This paper offers a womanist analysis of prevailing conceptions of the common good and accounts of architecture and urban planning’s relation to the common good and civic virtue within the work of Christian theologians. It explores the architectural implications of the common good from a womanist lens and articulates a liberatory vision of the common good and its relation to architectural design and construction. Womanist critiques and insights suggest that the spirituality and participation of common people are vital for shaping architecture for the common good, especially as it addresses whose interests are to be served and how common ground is pursued.
Neither Ally, Nor Accomplice
Authors: Jantzen Matt R. ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: December 2020

This paper offers an intervention in recent debates about white anti-racism by revisiting James Cone’s treatment of this topic in his early writings. In the last decade, scholars and activists have sought to reimagine the conceptual framework of white anti-racism, criticizing the dominant paradigm of “the ally” and articulating an alternative: “the accomplice.” While these critiques of white allyship accurately expose the serious deficiencies of that paradigm, the failure of white allyship is a symptom of a more fundamental crisis within white anti-racism as a whole, one which the accomplice paradigm is equally unable to resolve. Cone’s early account of the relationship between black liberation and those racialized as white, which he articulates using the theological concept of conversion, offers important resources for a constructive account of conversion from whiteness as a way to imagine an ambiguous and paradoxical future for people racialized as white beyond the crisis of white anti-racism.
Including the Iroquois Great Law of Peace in Introduction to Political Philosophy
Authors: Buckman Christopher ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: December 2020

Introductory courses in political philosophy would benefit from the incorporation of material on the Iroquois Great Law of Peace, including the story of the foundation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Classroom study of this tradition will serve several purposes: introducing a valuable account of political phenomena such as negotiation, consensus, veto, and rational communication; contributing to the diversity of syllabi; tracing the influence of Iroquois law on Western political institutions; and comparing the Haudenosaunee story to early modern social contract theory, especially Hobbes’s Leviathan. This paper draws connections to relevant topics in a standard, historically-oriented course and suggests learning resources and objectives.
Alcuin and Cynewulf: the art and craft of Anglo-Saxon verse
Authors: Orchard Andy
Published: December 2020

The essentially bilingual nature of Anglo-Saxon poetry is explored through the verse of two of the most prolific poets from the period, namely Alcuin and Cynewulf, composing primarily in Latin and Old English, respectively, but each reflecting knowledge and appreciation of verse in both languages. Both Alcuin and Cynewulf are shown to have consciously copied the works of their predecessors,
and both in turn had their own verse evidently echoed by contemporary and later poets in both Anglo-Latin and Old English, so much so that they seem to have been the centres of closely identifiable �schools� of verse, active at around the same period, within a decade or two either side of the year 800, and sharing a similar background, attitude, and training. An Appendix considers the authorship and identity of Cynewulf, and suggests that, like Alcuin, he too may be best situated at the interface of orality and literacy in contemporary Northumbria.
Energy efficient water desalination technology
Authors: Sergeevich Ezhov , Evgenievna Semicheva , Vladimirovna Ezhova , Viktorovich Brezhnev
Published: December 2020

The work relates to the technique of desalination of sea and saline waters and can be used to obtain desalinated water with generation of electrical energy. The proposed technology of water desalination is implemented by an autonomous solar desalination-electric generator, containing a rectangular body, the roof of which is covered from above with photocells with a storage unit, an inclined evaporating tray is placed inside the body, dividing the body cavity into evaporation and condensation chambers, communicating with each other at the sides of the body through vertical slots at the ends of the body and the tray are an inlet manifold connected to a submersible feed pump, and a horizontal outlet slot. The bottom of the body is connected to a condensate collection tank, in which a condensate pump is placed, a condensation chamber, immersed in a reservoir, the inner surface of the ends, sides and bottom of the condensation the chamber is made with vertical and horizontal corrugations, into the grooves of which thermoelectric converters are inserted. The first and last of which with photocells are connected to the output collectors, a storage unit, feed and condensate pumps and other them as consumers of electricity.
The Rug-cutting Puzzle
Authors: Lamb John F.
Published: December 2020

A well-known puzzle is often used in classrooms to show that appearances can be deceiving. It involves cutting up a square with carefully chosen dimensions in such a way that, when reassembled, a gain or loss in the total area seems to have occurred. The object of the puzzle is to figure out what caused this gain or loss. The following analysis uses concepts from geometry, algebra, and trigonometry in an attempt to explain what really happened.
The Peelle Triangle
Authors: Lipp Alan
Published: December 2020

I recently ran across an arithmetic triangle that deserves to be more widely known. Unfortunately, it has not been previously published. This triangle is an excellent topic for classroom investigation and has both geometric and algebraic interpretations that make it suitable for many students. It also contains some marvelous surprises, including a generalization of Pascal's triangle.
You Can't Get There from Here—an Algorithmic Approach to Eulerian and Hamiltonian Circuits
Authors: Shyers Joan H.
Published: December 2020

Suppose you are in charge of the routing for a road crew whose job is to paint yellow lines down the center of all highways in a given section of the country. Your first task is to organize their travels to find a route that takes the crew over each section of the highway exactly once and returns them to their starting point. Such a route is an Eulerian circuit. Now suppose that the towns being served by these highways will pay the workers only on completion of the entire job. Your second task is to find a route that will take them through each town exactly once, again returning them to their starting point. This kind of route is a Hamiltonian circuit.
Sometimes Students' Errors Are Our Fault
Authors: Movshovitz-Hadar Nitsa , Inbar Shlomo , Zaslavsky Orit
Published: December 2020

“The root of students' frustration with mathematics is that they are so frequently wrong” (Wood 1982). We accept this thesis, along with the fact that taking a written test is not a relaxing experience. Therefore, as teat designers, we must make an effort to minimize the amount of irrelevant obstacles students face when taking a test.
Three Methods of Attacking Problems in Discrete Mathematics, Part 1
Authors: Mansheim Jan , Baldridge Phyllis
Published: December 2020

We are concerned about how we will meet the challenge of introducing our students to those topics usually listed under the heading of “discrete mathematics.” We agree with those authorities who, like Schoen (1986), maintain that this subject should be an integral part of the junior high and high school curriculum. Since many students find problems in discrete mathematics rather difficult, we think that these should be approached from various avenues. A variety of approaches will make the problems more understandable and increase the students' skill in the use of diverse mathematical techniques.
Discoveries with Rectangles and Rectangular Solids
Authors: Smith Lyle R.
Published: December 2020

Among the topics included in the second NAEP mathematics assessment were the concepts of perimeter, area, and volume. According to Hirstein (1981), the majority of the junior high and high school students tested confused area and perimeter and thought of volume as surface area. In addition to helping students develop a conceptual understanding of these topics in measurement, the following activities should also develop skills in spatial visualization and in formulation of generalizations based on specific examples.
Getting Serious about SAT Software
Authors: Harvey John G. , Kenelly John W.
Published: December 2020

The College Entrance Examination Board's (CEEB) Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is widely taken by high school juniors and seniors for college admission and to apply for college scholarships. (The CEEB is also known as the College Board.) In addition, SAT scores have been used to describe the health of precollege education, particularly in reading, language arts, and mathematics. Parents, teachers, and school systems have tried to improve the SAT scores of their students by instituting SAT test-preparation programs. These programs use a variety of SAT-oriented materials and have recently begun to include computer software packages. Indeed, in a recent cartoon (Weaver 1984), a child asks, “What does the SAT measure?” Another child responds, “Whether your parents can afford a computer.”
Applications: Statistical Process Control and Control Charts: An Application for Statistics Classes
Authors: Brooks Marie A.
Published: December 2020

In teaching statistics at the high school level, we attempt to give students an appreciation of the usefulness of statistical measures and techniques. But too frequently we create a group of number-crunching robots who grind through formulas and see no connection to the real world. One way to avoid this dilemma is to use meaningful applications of mean, range, and standard deviation.
Understanding Rational Numbers
Authors: Scott Malcom P.
Published: December 2020

Understanding is sometimes an elusive goal in mathematics. Although we may believe we have a complete understanding of a concept, another approach to this same concept may bring us additional insight.
Approximation of Area Under a Curve: A Conceptual Approach
Authors: Dreyfus Tommy
Published: December 2020

The need to find the area under a curve occurs in a large number of applications of mathematics from physics (work, mechanical and electric potentials, entropy, etc.), to probability (average, expectation, and variance of continuous probability distributions), to the biological and social sciences, Newton invented the definite integral for the express purpose of dealing with applications involving motion and work. Students at the high school level sometimes need to find the area under a curve before they have been introduced to integrals. This article discusses some issues related to calculations of area before calculus.
Interpreting and Applying the Distance Formula
Authors: Hopkinson Richard J.
Published: December 2020

Many useful results in analytic geometry can be determined by using properties established in geometry. One particularly useful result is the formula for the distance from a point (x1, y1) to a line y = ax + b. Although the formula can be derived algebraically, this article will discuss an approach based on similar triangles that offers an interesting alternative interpretation,
Collecting Homework: A Lesson in Randomness
Authors: Artzt Alice F.
Published: December 2020

Most mathematics teachers are in agreement that homework is an integral part of the mathematics class. It gives students the opportunity to practice what they have learned in class, and if the work is spiraled, it gives them the opportunity to review past work. Through the checking of homework, teachers can discover the areas with which their students are having problems and can attend to these problems before the onset of the examination.
Teaching Mathematics to Learning Disabled Students in the Secondary Classroom
Authors: Burton Grace M. , Meyers Marcee J.
Published: December 2020

Professionals in the field of learning disabilities have made tremendous advances in the past twenty years in research, methodology, diagnosis, and programs. Until very recently (Johnston 1984), much of this progress has focused on the young learning disabled child (Kaliski 1962; Homan 1970) and on the curricular area of language arts. Although learning disabled (LD) students are indeed enrolled in middle school and high school mathematics classes, limited attention has been paid to their difficulties and special needs, and even less information is available addressing the concerns of their mathematics teachers. Because of mainstreaming, most LD students will probably remain in the regular classes for prealgebra, algebra, and geometry.
In Celebration: Newton's Principia, 1687–1987
Authors: Goldberg Dorothy
Published: December 2020

Three hundred years have passed since the publication in 1687 of Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (The mathematical principles of natural philosophy). Sir Isaac Newton's great scientific treatise, commonly known as the Principia, was published in London on 5 July 1687.
Realistic Examples in Elementary Statistics
Authors: Barbella Peter
Published: December 2020

Secondary school students often do not see the need for certain statistical measures that we ask them to learn. Some statistics may seem redundant or to have no purpose at all. To the students, it may appear they are learning these statistics just for the sake of doing the calculations. Presented here are two examples including data sets for which calculating various elementary statistics will reveal something new about the data. The objective of these examples is to show the student what various statistics may reveal, or not reveal, about a given data set. Furthermore, questions can be raised regarding how various methods of analyzing data can lead to different or even contradictory conclusions.
Extending a Fibonacci Number Trick
Authors: Gannon Gerald E. , Converse Cherlyn
Published: December 2020

Many texts include the following problem under such headings as “Just for Fun” or “Extra for Experts.” A member of the class is asked to put any two natural numbers on the chalkboard. The student then adds these two numbers to obtain a third number. The second and the third are then added to obtain a fourth, the third and fourth to obtain a fifth, and so on, until ten numbers have been listed. The class is then asked to add the ten numbers. As they begin, the teacher “magically” gives the correct sum.
An Interesting Introduction to Sequences and Series
Authors: Egsgard John C.
Published: December 2020

Every teacher is on the lookout for mathematical ideas that will bring a spirit of excitement to the classroom. For years I have been searching for such an idea that could be used to introduce the topic of sequences and series. An article in the College Mathematics Journal (Barcellos 1984) contained a description of the snowflake curve together with some of the sequences associated with that curve. The snowflake curve has proved to be the exciting idea that I wanted. My students find the snowflake curve so fascinating that they are eager to learn more about sequences.
A Look at Frequency Distributions for Sports Scores
Authors: Bernklau David
Published: December 2020

Frequency distributions are familiar to almost all sports fans. Most common are one-way distributions in which the frequency of occurrence for each of the related categories is given. Table 1 gives an example of such a distribution. Several basic concepts in statistics and probability can be illustrated here. For example, the mean, median, mode, range, standard deviation, and other sample statistics can be calculated, as well as the a posteriori probability that a certain score occurs (table 2).
Soundoff: Teach Geometry before Second-Year Algebra
Authors: Nichols Beverly W.
Published: December 2020

For years we have debated whether geometry should come before or after second-year algebra in the traditional high school program. Teachers and students at my high school, with the support of the Mathematics Education Trust, have completed a threeyear study of this issue. I have good reason to claim that the traditional first-year algebra, geometry, second-year algebra sequence is better than the first-year algebra, secondyear algebra, geometry sequence.
Games, Geometry, and Teaching
Authors: Bright George W. , Haruey John G.
Published: December 2020

We believe that games can be used effectively in high school geometry both to teach content and to structure practice of problem-solving skills. In part, our belief stems from our research on the use of games in a wide range of situations (Bright, Harvey, and Wheeler 1985). Also, we recognize that games can help teach problem solving (NCTM 1980). By the time you finish reading this article, we hope we will have convinced you to share our belief and to try out our games.
Pyramids, Prisms, Antiprisms, and Deltahedra
Authors: Lichtenberg Donovan R.
Published: December 2020

Each of the nine covers of the Mathematics Teacher for 1985 contained pictures of two polyhedra. The covers for January through May showed the five regular polyhedra, or Platonic solids, along with their truncated versions. The latter are semiregular polyhedra, or Archimedean solids. For the months of September through December the covers displayed the remaining eight Archimedean solids.
Why Cancel?
Authors: Blubaugh William L.
Published: December 2020

The word cancel is often used during mathematics instruction. Its meaning is undoubtedly clear to the teacher; however, students' interpretations of the word cancel are frequently unclear. Many students are unable to distinguish between the different meanings associated with cancel as they apply to different mathematical topics. Verno (1976) suggests that cancellation be abandoned in the interest of good mathematical teaching. Instead of using cancel, we need to employ appropriate terms to describe mathematical procedures. This article examines several uses of the word cancel and suggests alternative terminology. In particular, arithmetic and algebraic examples are used to illustrate problems associated with the term cancel.
Animated Circular Functions with a Microcomputer
Authors: Hermann James P.
Published: December 2020

Students often have difficulty conceptualizing the idea of a circular function as a winding process and associating real numbers with points P(u. u) on the unit circle. This concept and the idea of periodicity of circular functions are at the heart of trigonometry.
Combining Individualized Instruction with the Traditional Lecture Method in a College Algebra Course
Authors: Petricig Michael
Published: December 2020

In recent years many colleges have noticed an increase in the number of student applicants who are underprepared in the basic skills of reading, writing, and mathematics. At Chapman College, a large percentage of freshmen have been required to take remedial courses in these subjects. Furthermore, many students were not performing well in the remedial course in Intermediate Algebra. To improve the success rate for students in this course, a method for teaching it was developed that combined individualized instruction with the traditional lecture approach. The method was easy and inexpensive to implement, and it required a minimum of reorganization.