This text presents a new approach to problems of evaluating and optimizing the performance of continuous-time stochastic systems. This approach is based on the use of a family of Markov processes called piecewise-deterministic processes (PDPs) as a general class of stochastic system models. A PDP is a Markov process that follows deterministic trajectories between random jumps, the latter occurring either spontaneously, in a Poisson-like fashion, or when the process hits the boundary of its state space.

This book presents an approach to the teaching of mathematics that departs radically from conventional prescription-oriented and management-based methods. It brings together recent developments in such diverse fields as continental and pragmatist philosophy, enactivist thought, critical discourses, cognitive theory, evolution, ecology, and mathematics, and challenges the assumptions that permeate much of mathematics teaching. The discussion focuses on the language used to frame the role of the teacher and is developed around the commonsense distinctions drawn between thought and action,...