Advanced Textbooks Research Articles

The complexities of moving topics between disciplines: the case of buoyancy and isostasy

ABSTRACT ‘A lack of prior knowledge in the other discipline’ is often given by geoscience instructors to explain why students struggle to apply knowledge from other disciplines to the Earth. We examine this assumption by considering the disciplinary crossing of buoyancy (physics) to isostasy (geoscience). We investigate the teachers’ perspective through workshops, and use the theoretical framework of Interdisciplinary Reasoning and Communication to explore what geoscience textbooks ask of students. Most introductory textbooks rely on students applying pre-existing knowledge of hydrostatics in a geoscience context (forwards transfer), while intermediate and advanced textbooks develop the necessary physics explicitly in a geoscientific context (backwards transfer). Moreover, introductory textbooks frequently use analogies for concrete translation between physics and geoscience ideas, but the analogical relations and where they break down (relational translations), receive little attention. This places high demands on students’ prior understanding of hydrostatics to successfully integrate and transfer knowledge from physics to geoscience. If students lack the relevant physics background, introductory textbooks may force them to rely on intuitive ideas of physics, potentially reinforcing old, and giving rise to new misconceptions. Our results move the focus from perceived shortcomings of students to the demands made on them in interdisciplinary learning.

The Medical Students’ Dilemma: E-Textbook or Printed Textbook? A Cross Sectional Study from Medical Colleges in Rawalpindi Pakistan

Objectives: To assess students’ perspectives of traditional learning and text books and more advanced e-learning and digital text books learning from digital and printed text.
 Study Design: Cross-sectional study.
 Place and Duration of Study: Course of six months from Jan to Jun 2022 in two Medical Colleges of Rawalpindi Pakistan.
 Methodology: The study was a cross-sectional study carried out over course of six months from Jan to Jun 2022 in two Medical Colleges. Participants were 300, recruited through non-probability convenience sampling technique. A questionnaire and online survey were used to obtain information about response of medical students towards e-book and printed text effecting the quality of education. The data was analyzed using SPSS software version 23.0.
 Results: Mean age of participants was 22±2.24 years and majority were between 21-24 years of age 212(71%) with almost equal proportions of males 140(47%) and females 160(53%) Significant association was found between gender and solid plan with traditional learning p=0.046 and more privacy of data in printed text, more reliability p=0.033.Significat association also found between age category and ease of modification of e text p=0.023, improvement in skills p=0.024 and also decrease in motivation due to technical disruption 0.034, instant feedback in e learning p=0.002.
 Conclusion: Mean while Medical students favored the e-learning and digital books, they didn’t over rule completely thesignificance of traditional learning and paperback books.

Fermionic superfluidity: from cold atoms to neutron stars

From flow without dissipation of energy to the formation of vortices when placed within a rotating container, the superfluid state of matter has proven to be a very interesting physical phenomenon. Here we present the key mechanisms behind superfluidity in fermionic systems and apply our understanding to one of the most exotic systems in the universe: the superfluid interior of a neutron star. The extreme conditions of neutron stars prevent us from directly probing the internal superfluid properties, however, we can experimentally realize conditions resembling the interior through the use of cold atoms prepared in a laboratory and simulated on a computer. Key insights can be gained by simulating the neutron star superfluid using another system with analogous properties: a cold atomic Fermi gas. Computational physicists are leveraging the power of supercomputers to simulate interacting atomic systems with unprecedented accuracy. In this paper we provide a pedagogical introduction to the physics, guiding the reader through the major conceptual steps to understand the relation between cold atoms, superfluids, and neutron stars. We stress the surprising similarity between these systems, which stems from universality, a fundamental notion in many-body physics. These topics are available in advanced textbooks, but introductory materials are harder to come by; this paper is intended to fill the gap for curious undergraduate and graduate students. We will show how cold atoms can help us make significant strides towards understanding the exotic physics found deep within the universe.

A Stochastic Model of Economic Growth in Time-Space

We deal with an infinite horizon, infinite dimensional stochastic optimal control problem arising in the study of economic growth in time-space. Such a problem has been the object of various papers in deterministic cases when the possible presence of stochastic disturbances is ignored (see, e.g., [P. Brito, The Dynamics of Growth and Distribution in a Spatially Heterogeneous World, working paper 2004/14, ISEG-Lisbon School of Economics and Management, University of Lisbon, 2004], [R. Boucekkine, C. Camacho, and G. Fabbri, J. Econom. Theory, 148 (2013), pp. 2719--2736], [G. Fabbri, J. Econom. Theory, 162 (2016), pp. 114--136], and [R. Boucekkine, G. Fabbri, S. Federico, and F. Gozzi, J. Econom. Geography, 19 (2019), pp. 1287--1318]). Here we propose and solve a stochastic generalization of such models where the stochastic term, in line with the standard stochastic economic growth models (see, e.g., the books [A. G. Malliaris and W. A. Brock, Stochastic Methods in Economics and Finance, Advanced Textbooks in Economics 17, North Holland, 1982, Chapter 3] and [H. Morimoto, Stochastic Control and Mathematical Modeling: Applications in Economics, Cambridge Books, 2010, Chapter 9]), is a multiplicative one, driven by a cylindrical Wiener process. The problem is studied using the dynamic programming approach. We find an explicit solution of the associated HJB equation, use a verification type result to prove that such a solution is the value function, and find the optimal feedback strategies. Finally, we use this result to study the asymptotic behavior of the optimal trajectories.

Yoad Winter’s Elements of Formal Semantics, 2016, Edinburgh Advanced Textbooks in Linguistics (Edinburgh University Press)

Elements of Formal Semantics (EFS) has already been reviewed twice (Rett in Glossa 1(1):42, 2016; Erlewine in Comput Linguist 42(4):837–839, 2017). As well, the website for the work is accompanied by evaluative quotes by noted scholars. All are very positive concerning its clarity and its utility as an introduction to formal semantics for natural language. As I agree with these evaluations my interest in reiterating them in slightly different words is limited. So my reviews of the content chapters will be accompanied by a Reflections section consisting of my own reflections on the foundations of model theoretic semantics for natural language as laid out in EFS. The issues I address—alternate ways of accomplishing the tasks Winter treats—should not be included in an introductory work but they may be helpful for those who teach classes for which EFS is an appropriate text. They might also help with queries about the content of the text by those using it. I note that a mark of a clear text is that it allows the reader to reflect on its content not its presentation.

The bead on a rotating hoop revisited: an unexpected resonance

The bead on a rotating hoop is a typical problem in mechanics, frequently posed to junior science and engineering students in basic physics courses. Although this system has a rich dynamics, it is usually not analysed beyond the point particle approximation in undergraduate textbooks, nor empirically investigated. Advanced textbooks show the existence of bifurcations owing to the system's nonlinear nature, and some papers demonstrate, from a theoretical standpoint, its points of contact with phase transition phenomena. However, scarce experimental research has been conducted to better understand its behaviour. We show in this paper that a minor modification to the problem leads to appealing consequences that can be studied both theoretically and empirically with the basic conceptual tools and experimental skills available to junior students. In particular, we go beyond the point particle approximation by treating the bead as a rigid spherical body, and explore the effect of a slightly non-vertical hoop's rotation axis that gives rise to a resonant behaviour not considered in previous works. This study can be accomplished by means of digital video and open source software. The experience can motivate an engaging laboratory project by integrating standard curriculum topics, data analysis and experimental exploration.

Computation of Two- and Three-Dimensional Confidence Regions With the Likelihood Ratio

ABSTRACTThe asymptotic results pertaining to the distribution of the log-likelihood ratio allow for the creation of a confidence region, which is a general extension of the confidence interval. Two- and three-dimensional regions can be displayed visually to describe the plausible region of the parameters of interest simultaneously. While most advanced statistical textbooks on inference discuss these asymptotic confidence regions, there is no exploration of how to numerically compute these regions for graphical purposes. This article demonstrates the application of a simple trigonometric transformation to compute two- and three-dimensional confidence regions; we transform the Cartesian coordinates of the parameters to create what we call the radial profile log-likelihood. The method is applicable to any distribution with a defined likelihood function, so it is not limited to specific data distributions or model paradigms. We describe the method along with the algorithm, follow with an example of our method, and end with an examination of computation time. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.

Does Economic Thought Always Reflect History? A Book Review of the Economic Clashes of the Last Hundred Years

The author reviews the book Larry H. White (2012): The Economic Clashes of the Last Hundred Years. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.Is the book White (2012) a modern text book of history of economic thought? Kuhn (1970) argues that the scientific development is a matter of the competition between theoretical paradigms. Coase (1994) applies this argument on the development of the economic theory. White (2012) tries to illustrate this argument on the development of economic theory of the last hundred years. In my opinion this is how modern and advanced text books of history of economic thought might be written.

A history in sum: 150 years of mathematics at Harvard (1825-1975)

In the twentieth century, American mathematicians began to make critical advances in a field previously dominated by Europeans. Harvard's mathematics department was at the center of these developments. A History in an inviting account of the pioneers who trailblazed a distinctly American tradition of mathematics--in algebraic geometry and topology, complex analysis, number theory, and a host of esoteric subdisciplines that have rarely been written about outside of journal articles or advanced textbooks. The heady mathematical concepts that emerged, and the men and women who shaped them, are described here in lively, accessible prose.The story begins in 1825, when a precocious sixteen-year-old freshman, Benjamin Peirce, arrived at the College. He would become the first American to produce original mathematics--an ambition frowned upon in an era when professors largely limited themselves to teaching. Peirce's successors--William Fogg Osgood and Maxime Bocher--undertook the task of transforming the math department into a world-class research center, attracting to the faculty such luminaries as George David Birkhoff. Birkhoff produced a dazzling body of work, while training a generation of innovators--students like Marston Morse and Hassler Whitney, who forged novel pathways in topology and other areas. Influential figures from around the world soon flocked to Harvard, some overcoming great challenges to pursue their elected calling.A History in Sum elucidates the contributions of these extraordinary minds and makes clear why the history of the Harvard mathematics department is an essential part of the history of mathematics in America and beyond.

Comparative analysis of knowledge representation and reasoning requirements across a range of life sciences textbooks.

BackgroundUsing knowledge representation for biomedical projects is now commonplace. In previous work, we represented the knowledge found in a college-level biology textbook in a fashion useful for answering questions. We showed that embedding the knowledge representation and question-answering abilities in an electronic textbook helped to engage student interest and improve learning. A natural question that arises from this success, and this paper’s primary focus, is whether a similar approach is applicable across a range of life science textbooks. To answer that question, we considered four different textbooks, ranging from a below-introductory college biology text to an advanced, graduate-level neuroscience textbook. For these textbooks, we investigated the following questions: (1) To what extent is knowledge shared between the different textbooks? (2) To what extent can the same upper ontology be used to represent the knowledge found in different textbooks? (3) To what extent can the questions of interest for a range of textbooks be answered by using the same reasoning mechanisms?ResultsOur existing modeling and reasoning methods apply especially well both to a textbook that is comparable in level to the text studied in our previous work (i.e., an introductory-level text) and to a textbook at a lower level, suggesting potential for a high degree of portability. Even for the overlapping knowledge found across the textbooks, the level of detail covered in each textbook was different, which requires that the representations must be customized for each textbook. We also found that for advanced textbooks, representing models and scientific reasoning processes was particularly important.ConclusionsWith some additional work, our representation methodology would be applicable to a range of textbooks. The requirements for knowledge representation are common across textbooks, suggesting that a shared semantic infrastructure for the life sciences is feasible. Because our representation overlaps heavily with those already being used for biomedical ontologies, this work suggests a natural pathway to include such representations as part of the life sciences curriculum at different grade levels.

Towards a More Stable and Sustainable Financial Architecture – A Discussion and Application of the Quantity Theory of Credit

Thanks to the banking crisis, there has been a greater awareness that leading economic theories and models, as well as influential advanced textbooks in macroeconomics and monetary economics may have been amiss when they neglected to include banks in their analyses. Economists are now labouring to include banking in their models. However already sixteen years ago a paper was published in this journal which presented probably the simplest possible framework that incorporates the economic consequences of banking into a macroeconomic framework: The ‘Quantity Theory of Credit’ (QTC, Werner (1997)). It resolves a number of perceived ‘anomalies’ in macroeconomics and finance, can be used to explain and predict banking crises, and carries a number of policy implications about how to enhance financial stability and deliver sustainable growth. Unlike many better known and far more complex models and theories, it has fared well during the turbulent period since it was proposed. In this paper QTC is revisited and a number of questions that have been raised in the profession concerning it are discussed. It is then applied to the following questions: how to detect and avoid banking crises; how to deliver sustainable and stable economic growth; how to end post-crisis recessions quickly – such as those in many European economies – while minimising costs to the tax payer; and finally, what a financial architecture would look like that has a higher chance of delivering the latter goals on a regular basis. (E41, E52, E58)

Foreword

Foreword

Using Class Poster Sessions to Teach Intermediary Metabolism

Research Article| March 01 2011 Using Class Poster Sessions to Teach Intermediary Metabolism Charles E. Deutch Charles E. Deutch CHARLES E. DEUTCH is an Associate Professor in the Division of Mathematical and Natural Sciences at Arizona State University at the West Campus, 4701 W. Thunderbird Rd., Glendale, AZ 85306; e-mail: charles.deutch@asu.edu. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar The American Biology Teacher (2011) 73 (3): 177–178. https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2011.73.3.10 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Charles E. Deutch; Using Class Poster Sessions to Teach Intermediary Metabolism. The American Biology Teacher 1 March 2011; 73 (3): 177–178. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2011.73.3.10 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentThe American Biology Teacher Search Intermediary metabolism is a complex subject that is often covered in general biology, cell biology, biochemistry, and animal and plant physiology courses. The functions of metabolism include the generation of usable energy, the degradation of complex nutrients into smaller intermediates, and the synthesis of new carbohydrates, amino acids, nucleotides, and lipids. Among the pathways most often studied are glycolysis, the citric acid cycle (tricarboxylic acid [TCA] or Krebs cycle), gluconeogenesis, the C3 (Calvin cycle) and C4 pathways of CO2 fixation, the β-oxidation cycle of fatty acid degradation, and the urea cycle. Most general biology textbooks include the structures of the key intermediates in these pathways along with the names of the enzymes that catalyze the individual reactions. More advanced textbooks provide additional details about each enzyme, such as its structure, reaction mechanism, and regulation. The breadth of this material can be overwhelming for both teachers and students. In teaching... You do not currently have access to this content.

Advancing the Cause of Computation in the Physics Curriculum

There are numerous approaches to incorporating computational science advances in education. Many physics departments now teach a course in CP, usually in the upper division. Some also teach a lower division scientific computing class. And, of course, computers are often used to help teach physics classes, but value is usually placed on the physics and not the computation. Although there is as yet no standard CP curriculum, there are now several excellent texts available for CP classes. However, few textbooks cover the standard topics in a physics curriculum while also integrating modern computational techniques. The authors are proposing a series of advanced textbooks that address the interface of physical and computational sciences.

Invalid Permutation Tests

Permutation tests are often presented in a rather casual manner, in both introductory and advanced statistics textbooks. The appeal of the cleverness of the procedure seems to replace the need for a rigorous argument that it produces valid hypothesis tests. The consequence of this educational failing has been a widespread belief in a “permutation principle”, which is supposed invariably to give tests that are valid by construction, under an absolute minimum of statistical assumptions. Several lines of argument are presented here to show that the permutation principle itself can be invalid, concentrating on the Fisher‐Pitman permutation test for two means. A simple counterfactual example illustrates the general problem, and a slightly more elaborate counterfactual argument is used to explain why the main mathematical proof of the validity of permutation tests is mistaken. Two modifications of the permutation test are suggested to be valid in a very modest simulation. In instances where simulation software is readily available, investigating the validity of a specific permutation test can be done easily, requiring only a minimum understanding of statistical technicalities.

Capital Budgeting - Decision Making Practices in Pakistan

A number of capital budgeting techniques find place in basic as well as advanced text books on Financial Management and Corporate Finance. Each technique has its pros and cons as a decision making tool. The research paper investigates the decision making practices of Pakistani companies with respect to Capital Budgeting including the techniques employed and basis for estimation of cost of Capital / Project risk. The paper also examines the linkage between the techniques employed and various factors such as; size of investment outlay, nature of industry, company size, growth rate and capital structure. Also probed is the extent of delegation of decision making authority in respect of capital budgeting decisions. Further, the respondents' views on relative popularity/significance of the techniques and reasons for the same have also been studied. Furthermore, the differences in techniques and decision making practices of local and foreign companies operating in Pakistan have also been looked into. The information/data for the above stated purpose was collected through a questionnaire from sample companies listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE).The main findings extracted from the responses to the questionnaire are, that key decision makers in Pakistani firms are quite aware of and practically using sophisticated capital budgeting techniques. The study shows that bigger size companies give greater preference to IRR, while smaller firms rely more on NPV. Also smaller firms are keener in estimating the pay back period (PP) as compared to larger companies. Consciously or unconsciously the firms relying more on debt financing or with high growth rates give more preference to the NPV technique, while low leverage and low growth firms rely more on IRR.

The transmission of numeracy: integrating reckoning in Protestant North‐German elementary education (1770–1810)

With the introduction of arithmetic as a compulsory part of the elementary school curriculum in late eighteenth‐ and early nineteenth‐century Germany, textbooks and pedagogical methods were wanted. Relying on the traditions of the Rechenbücher and informed by the demand for method found in Wolffian style advanced textbooks, the first generation of elementary school reformers (1770–1800) rewrote and re‐ordered these texts to that end. In the second wave of reforms (1800–1815), these re‐orderings became more extreme, though better adapted to the existing school situation. Through textbook analyses not only does this evolution become apparent, but also many contextual factors as well as a major shift in dispositives, namely the concept of arithmetic (as opposed to utilitarian reckoning) as a general discipline for training the mind. Studying these discursive variations in textbooks and their communicative embedding in the classroom contributes to our understanding of the role, origin and function of numeracy, the culturally specific practices of recording and manipulating numbers, in modern history.

Fred: A Child Who is Different

Fred burst into our school in September 2003, aged 7, demanding to know why he was 'in a class with backward children' and where the 'advanced textbooks' were kept. His admission notes from the private international school he had previously attended in Germany included a WISC-III test report placing him in the very superior range at the 99.7th percentile. His cognitive abilities, at 6:00 years, were considered equivalent to children of 12:06 years. His first few weeks were traumatic for everyone. He shouted out; he showed contempt for everything and everyone; he offended his peers with unkind words and injured them with clumsy, boisterous play; his writing was indecipherable; and he regularly disrupted lessons with his antics. We clearly had a child with complex needs in our midst.

Marshallian Surplus for Differentiable Preferences: Partial Equilibrium Approach

Modern mainstream economics, intermediate and advanced micro textbooks teach us after classical Marshall, Hicks, Samuelson etc. contributions that Marshallian surplus - area to the left from the textbook demand function - represents exact change in consumers' money metric utility only in special quasilinear case, when marginal utility of income is every time unity. In the general case, it is recommended therefore to use Hicksian equivalent or compensated variations as a measures of utility change, keeping in mind Marshallian surplus as a useful, but rather poor, approximation of true utility change. Our paper shows that in one-dimensional case when only price of the good changes, area to the left of Walrasian demand curve every time represents exact, not approximate, change in consumer' indirect money metric utility function, for rather general class of differentiable preferences.

Computation of Surface Integrals of Curl Vector Fields

This article presents a way of computing a surface integral when the vector field of the integrand is a curl field. Presented in some advanced calculus textbooks such as [1], the technique, as the author experienced, is simple and applicable. The computation is based on Stokes' theorem in 3-space calculus, and thus provides not only a means to compute (often difficult) surface integrals, but also gives a better understanding of Stokes' theorem.