Digital Commons Network^™

Developing A B -Tagging Algorithm Using Soft Muons At Level-3 For The Dø Detector At Fermilab, Mayukh Das

Doctoral Dissertations

The current data-taking phase of the DØ detector at Fermilab, called Run II, is designed to aid the search for the Higgs Boson. The neutral Higgs is postulated to have a mass of 117 GeV. One of the channels promising the presence of this hypothetical particle is through the decay of b-quark into a muon. The process of identifying a b-quark in a jet using muon as a reference is b-tagging with a muon tag.

At the current data taking and analysis rate, it will take long to reach the process of identifying valid events. The triggering mechanism of the …

Differences In Teacher Qualifications And The Relationship To Middle School Student Achievement In Mathematics, Carrie R. Ferguson

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to compare mathematics teacher preparation and experience to the achievement of middle school students (grades 6–8) on the mathematics section of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS). Using a theoretical framework, the research examined the extent to which the teacher qualification variables were related to the student achievement. Measures of teacher qualifications included four independent variables: (a) number of mathematics content hours, (b) level of teaching certification, (c) number of years teaching experience, and (d) number of years teaching middle school/junior high mathematics. Participants in this causal-comparative study included 97 teachers and …

Evaluating The Middle School Mathematics Teacher Preparation Program At Riyadh Teachers' College, Maher M. Alghanem

Doctoral Dissertations

Continuous evaluation and feedback are essential to improving the quality of teacher preparation programs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the perceptions of various aspects of the preparation of preservice middle school mathematics teachers at Riyadh Teachers' College, Saudi Arabia, from the perspective of both preservice middle school mathematics teachers and mathematics department faculty members. The focus of this study was on the mathematics department's theoretical framework, its governance and resources, faculty qualifications and performance, courses and field experiences, approaches of teaching, and assessment forms. Two research questionnaires were developed for the purpose of collecting research data: one …

Burnside Factors, Amenability Defects And Transitive Families Of Projections In Factors Of Type Ii(1), Jon P. Bannon

Doctoral Dissertations

We introduce a notion of transitive family of projections in a type II1 factor and prove that there exists (i) a 5 element transitive family in the hyperfinite II1 and (ii) a 12 element free transitive family. We then prove that the group von Neumann algebras of the known infinite free Burnside groups are all type II1 factors. Our investigation of weak-amenability properties of Burnside groups leads us to consider the Connes theory of correspondences. From this investigation we are able to define a new Folner invariant for type II1 factors. We prove a monotonicity result and find a positive …

Stable Invariant Subspaces, Reflexivity, And Bmo, Hassan Yousefi

Doctoral Dissertations

In the first part of the thesis we obtain some new results in Hadwin's general version of reflexivity and apply them in the classical cases. We prove that the image of any C*-algebra under any bounded unital homomorphism into B(W) is approximately reflexive, where W is a Banach space. We also introduce two new versions of reflexivity, approximate algebraic reflexivity and asymptotic reflexivity, and study their properties.

In the second part of the thesis we construct a general setting in which functions of bounded mean oscillation (BMO) and vanishing mean oscillation (VMO) can be studied. In this setting we prove …

Nonunital Multiplier Pairs And Remarks On Generalized Group C*-Algebras, Sandra E. Zak

Doctoral Dissertations

In the first part of this paper we will consider a generalization of D. Hadwin and E. Nordgren's work on multiplier pairs. Here we will not assume the existence of an identity, but rather just ask for the existence of a bounded approximate identity. Without the assumption of the identity, we find a new result concerning the relationship between the norm closure of the left multiplication operators and the approximate double commutant of the left multiplication operators.

In the second part we will suppose f, g : T→T are continuous functions on the unit circle T and let B (f, …

The Process Of Integration And The Concept Of Integral: How Does Success With Applications And Comprehension Of Underlying Notions Such As Accumulation Relate To Students' Mathematical Fluency, Mariana Montiel

Doctoral Dissertations

At the end of the standard first calculus course, the student is expected to learn the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, and to be able to use the integral to produce new functions, or numbers which, they are told, represent the "area under the curve". At the beginning of the standard second calculus course, students are expected to generalize their knowledge, and use the integration process to generate solids of revolution, surface areas, arc length and work, among other applications. Looking at students' success or failure in these endeavors, it was detected that there are marked differences in an aspect that, …