A Survey of Portuguese Mathematics in the Nineteenth Century

The Portuguese University was briefly reformed in 1772, aiming to bring it to the level of its European counterparts; but this was soon cut short by the return to power of reactionary forces. As a consequence of this, and the political and social unrest that characterized the first half of the nineteenth century in Portugal, there was very little production of mathematics in this period. The military academies were the main centres of transmission of mathematical knowledge, and mathematical works were mostly published by the Lisbon Academy of Sciences. In the second half of the nineteenth century the country entered a period of stability. The education reform of 1836 and the Academy's new statutes of 1851 set in train a blossoming of mathematical activity, reflected in the restructuring of the military academies, or their transformation into Polytechnic Schools, of which the Polytechnic School of Lisbon is of particular importance. Mathematics research was further promoted from 1877 onwards by the publication of the first mathematics journal independent of the Academy, which aimed specifically at ending the isolation of Portuguese mathematics. In the final pages of this survey some data is given on the life and work of the two outstanding Portuguese mathematicians of the nineteenth century: Daniel Augusto da Silva (1814–1878) and Francisco Gomes Teixeira (1851–1933).     

Continuity and Discontinuity of Collaboration Behaviour since 1800 — from a Bibliometric Point of View

Time-series of collaboration trends indicated through co-authorships are examined from 1800 to presence in mathematics, logic, and physics. In physics, the share of co-authored papers expands in the second half of the19th century, in mathematics in the first decades of the 20th century, in logic in the second half of the 20th century. Subdisciplines of mathematics, of physics, and areas of logic show large differences in their respective propensities to collaborate. None of the existing explanatory approaches meets this heterogeneity; the most salient feature is a propensitiy to collaborate in fields where theoretical and applied research is combined. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Itinerarium Wittichi ex Calendarium Sculteti: New biographical evidence on the Breslau mathematician Paul Wittich (ca. 1546–ca. 1587)

In the present paper, I present and discuss some new information about the life of Paul Wittich from Wrocław, Poland (formerly Breslau, Germany), an elusive mathematician and astronomer of the late 16th century. Wittich seems to have played a significant role in the emergence of two important, though short-lived, developments of late 16th-century science: the so-called prosthaphaeresis calculating method, and the geoheliocentric model of the universe usually attributed to Tycho Brahe. His role in both achievements, however, has not been sufficiently explained so far, and it is my belief that one of the main obstacles to that endeavor has been our scarce knowledge about the details of Wittich's life. Thus, I attempt to reconstruct his life with aim of being able to evaluate, eventually, his involvement in the development of mathematics and astronomy towards the end of the 16th century, primarily with the use of whatever scant sources can be found concerning Wittich. The source that I present here—a notebook of Bartholomäus Scultetus, an astronomer from Görlitz—is known and has already been used, but only to a limited extent by the community of historians of science, or by those of astronomy and mathematics. By presenting the information about Wittich from Scultetus's notebook, I aim to bring this source to the attention of those communities, clarify some hitherto unclear details from Wittich's life, and set out new paths for further investigation into his biography.     

Euclid’s Elements in the Czech Lands

[Terentianus 1st – 2nd century A.D.]

This article is dedicated to Euclid’s Elements, to translations of this work into Czech, and to the translators who have taken on the task of translation. It contains a short overview of the results achieved during a three-year project supported by the Czech Grant Agency.We explored how Euclid’s Elements were spread around the Czech lands.We will try to describe the circumstances that lay behind attempts to translate the Elements into the Czech language.     

聚丙烯技术进展

简要回顾了聚丙烯技术近半个世纪的发展历程,概述了国内外聚丙烯技术的主要进展,对今后我国聚丙烯技术发展方向进行了初步探讨。     

疲劳研究的历史回顾

本文总结了近一个半世纪以来疲劳研究的主要历程;其中包括裂纹扩展的断裂力学发展的部分。并指出裂纹屏蔽思想是疲劳研究年谱上最新一块里程碑,疲劳研究发展至今,可以说我们刚刚进入控制裂纹扩展的大门。各种新型材料将会不断提出涉及到多种学科相关的更为复杂的疲劳问题。     

Über die Entwicklung der Mathematik in Westeuropa zwischen 1100 und 1500

The twelfth century was a period of transmission and absorption of Arabic learning though it filtered outside of the Arabic world as early as the second half of the tenth century. In general, the lure of Spain began to act only in the twelfth century, and the active impulse toward the spread of Arabic mathematics came from beyond the Pyrenees and from men of diverse origins. The chief names are Adelard of Bath, Robert of Chester, Hermann of Carinthia and Gerard of Cremona. In this time the Latin world became acquainted with the Hindu numerals, the Arabic Algebra and Euclid'sElements. However, not only Spain, but also the Norman kingdom of southern Italy and Sicily occupies a position of peculiar importance, though the works of the translators did not become very influential. There were made direct translations from Greek into Latin. One had to wait a century more to obtain a translation from Greek into Latin of the chief Archimedean scientific and mathematical treatises by William of Moerbeke. In the thirteenth century Fibonacci and Jordanus Nemorarius stand at the threshold of European mathematics. Not only was Fibonacci the first to explain Arabic arithmetic, but his works, especially his later ones, contain many original ideas. Jordanus continued the Greco-Roman tradition rather than the Greco-Arabic one, but he did so with much independence. To Nicole Oresme (fourteenth century) was due a broadened view of proportionality, a geometric proof to determine the summation of convergent infinite series and the proof, evidently the first in the history of mathematics, that the harmonic series is divergent. The Configuration Doctrine was treated by Merton College authors and by Oresme. In the fifteenth century theDe triangulis omnimodis of Regiomontan, a systematic account of the methods for solving triangles, marked the rebirth of trigonometry.      

立磨液压系统的自动化控制技术的研究

数字技术的数学基础——离散数学、逻辑数学等，早在17、18世纪就已经出现。但是发展成为数字技术并付诸实用，随着半导体器件、集成器件和超大规模集成器件的出现，数字技术在液压系统中的应用迅速而又普遍地发展起来。     

Mathematics and Measurement

In this paper we describe the role that mathematics plays in measurement science at NIST. We first survey the history behind NIST’s current work in this area, starting with the NBS Math Tables project of the 1930s. We then provide examples of more recent efforts in the application of mathematics to measurement science, including the solution of ill-posed inverse problems, characterization of the accuracy of software for micromagnetic modeling, and in the development and dissemination of mathematical reference data. Finally, we comment on emerging issues in measurement science to which mathematicians will devote their energies in coming years.     

Bibliometric evaluation of the FP-5 and FP-6 results in the Czech Republic

Our study evaluates results and impacts of the Framework Programs (FP) 5 and 6 in the Czech Republic. Publications resulting from the FP projects had 42% higher mean citation rate and 77% more EU-25 collaborations than the Czech standards. Teams participating in the FP are better-than-average, because citation rate of all their papers is 21% higher than the Czech standards. The most striking finding is the marked influence of FP on research direction. After the project start, the participating teams published papers in ten new fields in which they did not publish before the project. In 45 other fields, more than 200% increase of papers was observed.     

Improving Internationally Core Competences Based on the Capabilities of Precise and Accurate Project Management

Modern international project management has entered the phase of precise and accurate project management after the global financial crisis broke out at the beginning of the 21^st century. However, its development has faced new challenges since there has been lack of explicitly unanimous definition for the capability dimensions of precise and accurate project management, as well as the models and their process control parameters. The required core capabilities based on the precise and accurate project management for various rings are involved in the project life cycle, namely, the required internationally core competences and their components for the phases of project strategic planning and decision making in the early project phase, as well as the value engineering, and the project supervision and controls during the execution phase. Through studying the effects of the internationally core competences based on precise and accurate project management capabilities for the success and excellence of projects and configuring such models, the goal is to help the main contractors continuously obtain project success and excellence, thus improve its internationally core competences with continuous project success and excellence.     

"Mathematics made no contribution to the public weal": why Jean Fernel (1497-1558) became a physician

This paper offers a caution that emphasis upon the importance of mathematics in recent historiography is in danger of obscuring the historical fact that, for the most part, mathematics was not seen as important in the pre-modern period. The paper proceeds by following a single case study, and in so doing offers the first account of the mathematical writings of Jean Fernel (1497-1558), better known as a leading medical innovator of the 16th century. After establishing Fernel's early commitment to mathematics, and attempt to forge a career as a cosmographer, it goes on to explain his abandonment of mathematics for a career in medicine. The 'mathematization of the world picture' is usually explained in terms of the perceived usefulness of mathematics, but Fernel's case shows that for many pre-modern thinkers, mathematics was not regarded as a useful pursuit. The paper should serve as a reminder, therefore, that the take-up of mathematics by natural philosophers was by no means inevitable, but had to be carefully managed by early modern mathematical practitioners. The case of Fernel indicates that perhaps he was not the only would-be mathematical practitioner to abandon mathematics in favor of a calling that was more appreciated by contemporaries.     

Research of a Tram Headstock from Composite

The requirements for crashworthiness of railway vehicles are defined by the Railroad crashworthiness standard EN 15227. This standard is based on the findings of the characteristics of steel structures of front parts of railway vehicles. In the Czech Republic an extensive research was carried out within the project TIP FR-TI1/113 on application of composite sandwich structure elements in the design of the front cabins of a railway vehicle. The aim of the research work was to determine real possibilities of the composite sandwich structures for use in the construction of railway vehicles while considering the validity of the above-mentioned standard.     

On development of fractional calculus during the last fifty years

Fractional calculus generalizes integer order derivatives and integrals. During the last half century a considerable progress took place in this scientific area. This paper addresses the evolution and establishes an assertive measure of the research development.     

Revitalising the engineering curriculum: the role of informationtechnology

The traditional engineering curriculum, based for the most part on classical science and nineteenth century mathematics, is inappropriate for educating engineers for the 21st century. Modern computer tools can be used both to shift the emphasis of the curriculum and to improve the quality of learning, but are rarely exploited to best effect. This paper reviews the potential of IT in engineering education with reference to different aspects of the learning process     

支撑强国目标的中国工程科技发展战略路径谋划

工程科技是与生产力结合最为紧密的科学技术,是实现强国目标的直接推动力。工程科技中长期发展战略研究的任务是面向"两个一百年"的强国目标,结合我国国情和发展需求,开展工程科技发展路径设计。本文探讨了我国经济社会发展与科技强国建设对工程科技创新的要求,介绍了将需求牵引与技术推动相结合开展工程科技中长期发展战略研究和路径谋划的方法体系,在愿景分析基础上,提出了面向2035年中国工程科技发展的总体思路和战略构想。     

The integration of resource allocation and time buffering for bi-objective robust project scheduling

In the recent decades, the recognition that uncertainty lies at the heart of modern project management has induced considerable research efforts on robust project scheduling for dealing with uncertainty in a scheduling environment. The literature generally provides two main strategies for the development of a robust predictive project schedule, namely robust resource allocation and time buffering. Yet, the previous studies seem to have neglected the potential benefits of an integration between the two. Besides, few efforts have been made to protect simultaneously the project due date and the activity start times against disruptions during execution, which is desperately demanded in practice. In this paper, we aim at constructing a proactive schedule that is not only short in time but also less vulnerable to disruptions. Firstly, a bi-objective optimisation model with a proper normalisation of the two components is proposed in the presence of activity duration variability. Then a two-stage heuristic algorithm is developed which deals with a robust resource allocation problem in the first stage and optimally determines the position and the size of time buffers using a simulated annealing algorithm in the second stage. Finally, an extensive computational experiment on the PSPLIB network instances demonstrates the superiority of the combination between resource allocation and time buffering as well as the effectiveness of the proposed two-stage algorithm for generating proactive project schedules with composite robustness.     

日本碳材料研究的新动向--"碳合金"介绍

结合日本国内目前在研的炭素国家项目“碳合金ＣａｒｂｏｎＡｌｌｏｙｓ”对有关碳合金的提法及发展历程作一简单介绍,同时列出其遴选的研究项目和在研人员,以期对今后碳材料的研究及选题提供参考。     

中国水利建设的成就 问题和展望

扼要总结了在1949至2000的50年间中国大陆取得的主要水利建设成就，分别从防洪、灌溉、供水、通航和水能利用等方面加以叙述，并反映到水利科学、技术、教育、管理方面的发展。分析了在取得成就的同时所发生的问题与缺点，探讨了近年来出现的一些新矛盾和新问题，主要有江河防洪标准仍然偏低，未形成可靠和完整的防洪体系；洪水位不断抬高，防汛负担与风险不断增加；水资源过度开发与严重浪费，水质广泛污染，水环境不断恶化以及水利工程配套不全，质量不高，管理粗放，经济效益低落等，并认为产生这些情况的主要因素是思想意识的片面和政策     

裤衩型钢煤斗曲面展开图的计算机自动生成

分析了裤衩型钢煤斗外形的几何特点,建立了裤衩型钢煤斗漏斗表面的数学模型,分析了曲面展开的算法。以此为基础,编制了漏斗表面展开图的绘图程序,由计算机自动绘制出了展开图。以所绘制的展开图为依据,制作了实物模型,进一步验证了展开图绘图程序算法的正确性和程序的可靠性,并将该程序应用于实际工程的设计中,得到了很好的应用效果。