Supporting primary students' learning of fraction conceptual knowledge through digital games

With the advent of mobile technologies, well-designed fraction apps can be used to help children gain fraction knowledge, a challenging topic for both teachers and students. The present pilot study adopted a quasi-experimental design to investigate whether children can learn fraction concepts equally well if half of the lesson time (20 min) is replaced with game-based learning. Keeping the total lesson time (40 min) identical, the control group (N = 33) received traditional instruction, and the experimental group (N = 32) was presented with a blended learning approach spending half of the class time (20 min) playing tablet-based fraction games, where each of the learners had their own tablet. The results suggested that in the posttest, the experimental group achieved similar learning gains to the control group and appear to have achieved better performance in the transfer test than the control group. This paper also discusses the efficiency of game-based learning, the mechanism of how fraction games might enhance learning, and the potential of integrating game-based learning in educational settings.     

双膦胺镍-甲基铝氧烷体系催化苯乙烯聚合

研究了具有新型结构的双膦胺镍配合物N,N-双(二苯膦基)-对甲氧基苯胺二氯化镍-甲基铝氧烷(PNP-N i-MAO)催化体系对苯乙烯聚合的催化性能,考察了聚合温度、n(A l)∶n(PNP-N i)、PNP-N i的浓度和苯乙烯的浓度对催化活性、苯乙烯转化率、聚苯乙烯相对分子质量及其分布的影响,并用核磁共振和凝胶色谱对聚苯乙烯的结构进行了表征。实验结果表明,在聚合温度25℃、聚合时间1h、n(A l)∶n(PNP-N i)=300、c(苯乙烯)=2.3m ol/L、c(PNP-N i)=0.4mm ol/L、甲苯为溶剂的适宜条件下,苯乙烯的转化率可达95%以上,催化活性达到5×105g/(m ol.h)左右。核磁共振和凝胶色谱表征结果显示,所得聚苯乙烯为无规结构,重均相对分子质量约为1×104,相对分子质量分布Mw/Mn约为2。     

真空铸造高强度C/Mg复合材料

本文介绍用真空铸造法制造抗拉强度超过1000MPa的高强度C/Mg复合材料。将T300纤维经C-Si-O梯度涂层处理后单向排布于型腔内,在真空下注入ZM-5合金液,凝固后即得C/Mg复合材料零件或试样。试样的抗拉强度在纤维体积分数为0.35时达1050MPa。本文讨论C-Si-O梯度涂层对获得高强度复合材料的作用。     

Inhibition of 2-nitropropane-induced rat liver DNA and RNA damage by benzyl selenocyanate

We observed that pretreatment of male F344 rats with benzyl selenocyanate, a versatile organoselenium chemopreventive agent in several animal model systems, decreases the levels of DNA and RNA modifications produced in the liver by the hepatocarcinogen 2-nitropropane. To clarify the mechanisms involved, we pretreated male F344 rats with either benzyl selenocyanate, its sulfur analog benzyl thiocyanate, phenobarbital or cobalt protoporphyrin IX; the latter is a depletor of P450. We then determined (1) the ability of liver microsomes to denitrify 2-nitropropane, (2) effects on 2-nitropropane-induced liver DNA and RNA modifications and (3) amount of nitrate excreted in rat urine following administration of the carcinogen. Pretreatment with benzyl selenocyanate or phenobarbital increased the denitrification activity of liver microsomes by 217 and 765%, respectively, increased liver P4502B1 by 31- and 435-fold, respectively, decreased the levels of 2-nitropropane-induced modifications in liver DNA (29-70% and 17-30%, respectively) and RNA (67-85% and 30-50%, respectively), and increased the 24-h urinary excretion of nitrate by 157 and 209%, respectively. Pretreatment with benzyl thiocyanate had no significant effect on any of these parameters. Pretreatment with cobalt protoporphyrin IX decreased liver P4502B 1 by 87%, decreased the denitrification activity of liver microsomes by 76%, decreased the 24 h urinary excretion of nitrate by 88.5%, but increased the extent of 2-nitropropane-induced liver nucleic acid modifications by 17-67%. These results indicate that the metabolic sequence from 2-nitropropane to the reactive species causing DNA and RNA modifications does not involve the removal of the nitro group. Moreover, they suggest that benzyl selenocyanate inhibits 2-NP-induced liver nucleic acid modifications in part by increasing its detoxication through induction of denitrification, although it is evident that other mechanisms must also be involved.     

On loop transformations for generalized cycle shrinking

This paper describes several loop transformation techniques for extracting parallelism from nested loop structures. Nested loops can then be scheduled to run in parallel so that execution time is minimized. One technique is called selective cycle shrinking, and the other is called true dependence cycle shrinking. It is shown how selective shrinking is related to linear scheduling of nested loops and how true dependence shrinking is related to conflict-free mappings of higher dimensional algorithms into lower dimensional processor arrays. Methods are proposed in this paper to find the selective and true dependence shrinkings with minimum total execution time by applying the techniques of finding optimal linear schedules and optimal and conflict-free mappings proposed by W. Shang and A.B. Fortes     

A versatile data acquisition system for time resolved X-ray scattering using gas proportional detectors with delay line readout

A data acquisition system for time resolved X-ray scattering experiments using linear, quadrant or area gas proportional detectors with delay line readout based on commercially available hardware (National Instruments) is described. The system can easily be configured for recording data from point detectors (e.g. photomultipliers and photodiodes) and/or ancillary data only. Applications involving measurements with two different types of time to digital converters illustrate the features and performances of the system.