Steven R. Dunbar

The Average Distance Between Points in Geometric Figures

Steve Dunbar (sdunbar@math.unl.edu) is the vice-chair of mathematics and statistics at the University of NebraskaLincoln. His professional interests include applied math? ematics, especially mathematical biology and applications of dynamical systems, numerical analysis, and the use of symbolic algebra systems in research and education. When not doing applied mathematics, he enjoys applied biology in his flower and vegetable gardens.

Operations research methods applied to workflow in a medical records department.

Transcribing medical documents accurately into pre-defined formats and within certain time frames is vital for administrative and medical purposes in any hospital. This paper describes quantitative models incorporating available data to represent transcription activities of a medical records department. We forecasted the workload of the department, determined the optimal worker schedule and designed a simulation model to represent the workflow of the transcription function of a medical record department. The findings provided insight into the workflow, staffing and performance of the department.

The divider dimension of the graph of a function

Abstract The divider dimension of the graph of a continuous function is defined and compared to the well-known Hausdorff and fractal (or capacity) dimensions. The Hausdorff and fractal dimensions are lower bounds for the divider dimension. We provide an example of a function with a given divider dimension. The example shows that strict inequality between the classical and divider dimensions is possible. The example also shows that the divider dimension is not bounded above by the topological dimension of the containing Euclidean space.

42nd USA Mathematical Olympiad 4th USA Junior Mathematical Olympiad

This year the Committee on the American Mathematics Competitions offered the USA Junior Mathematical Olympiad (USAJMO) for the fourth time for students in 10th grade and below. Our experience of the last three years shows that it provides a nicely balanced link between the computational character of the AIME problems and the proof-oriented problems of the USAMO. This year the competitions took place on April 30 and May 1. The USA Junior Mathematical Olympiad contained three problems for each of two days, with an allowed time of 4.5 hours each day—the same as the USAMO. Problems JMO1, JMO2, JMO4, and JMO5 were different from the USAMO problems, but JMO3 and JMO6 were the same as USAMO1 and USAMO4, respectively.