Annales Du Capes Externe De Math Matiques 2006 2008

Modelling environmental dynamics is critical to understanding and predicting the evolution of the environment in response to the large number of influences including urbanisation, climate change and deforestation. Simulation and modelling provide support for decision making in environmental management. The first chapter introduces terminology and provides an overview of methodological modelling approaches which may be applied to environmental and complex dynamics. Based on this introduction this book illustrates various models applied to a large variety of themes: deforestation in tropical regions, fire risk, natural reforestation in European mountains, agriculture, biodiversity, urbanism, climate change and land management for decision support, etc. These case studies, provided by a large international spectrum of researchers and presented in a uniform structure, focus particularly on methods and model validation so that this book is not only aimed at researchers and graduates but also at professionals.

This volume presents recent methodological developments in data analysis and classification. It covers a wide range of topics, including methods for classification and clustering, dissimilarity analysis, consensus methods, conceptual analysis of data, and data mining and knowledge discovery in databases. The book also presents a wide variety of applications, in fields such as biology, micro-array analysis, cyber traffic, and bank fraud detection.

The book presents research works developed within the Anthropological Theory of the Didactic (ATD) by senior and young researchers that participated in the Intensive Research Program “Advances in the anthropological theory of the didactic and their consequences in curricula and teacher education” held at the Centre de Recerca Matematica (CRM) in Barcelona. It is organized in three axes of current research on the ATD: teacher education and the professionalization of teaching; the curriculum problem in the historical transition from the classical paradigm of visiting works to the emerging didactic paradigm of questioning the world; and research in didactics at the university level.

Research within a socio-political paradigm or “turn” has been gradually recognized and institutionalized as an important part of mathematics education. This book focuses on the neglected problems, tensions and contradictions evoked by this process. The authors do this by challenging current regimes of truth about mathematics education; by identifying how recent technological developments challenge or suspend contemporary conceptions of mathematics education; by critiquing the ideological entanglement of mathematics, its education and schooling with capitalism; by self-reflective analyses of researchers' impacts on shaping what is and can be perceived as the practice of mathematics education (research); and by confronting main-stream mathematics education with socio-political contexts that are usually neglected. In this way, "mathematical rationality" becomes contextualized within contemporary society, where it reproduces itself through technologies, social practices, media and other spheres of social life.

In this volume cultural, social and cognitive influences on the research and teaching of mathematical modelling are explored from a variety of theoretical and practical perspectives. The authors of the current volume are all members of the International Community of Teachers of Mathematical Modelling and Applications, the peak research body in this field. A distinctive feature of this volume is the high number of authors from South American countries. These authors bring quite a different perspective to modelling than has been showcased in previous books in this series, in particular from a cultural point of view. As well as recent international research, there is a strong emphasis on pedagogical issues including those associated with technology and assessment, in the teaching and learning of modelling. Applications at various levels of education are exemplified. The contributions reflect common issues shared globally and represent emergent or on-going challenges.