Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Roc Curves Of Fused Independent Classification Systems, Michael B. Walsh

Theses and Dissertations

The need for optimal target detection arises in many different fields. Due to the complexity of many targets, it is thought that the combination of multiple classification systems, which can be tuned to several individual target attributes or features, might lead to more optimal target detection performance. The ROC curves of fused independent two-label classification systems may be generated by the mathematical combination of their ROC curves to achieve optimal classifier performance without the need to test every Boolean combination. The monotonic combination of two-label independent classification systems which assign labels to the same target types results in a lattice …

Fast Fourier Transform Algorithms With Applications, Todd Mateer

All Dissertations

This manuscript describes a number of algorithms that can be used to quickly evaluate a polynomial over a collection of points and interpolate these evaluations back into a polynomial. Engineers define the 'Fast Fourier Transform' as a method of solving the interpolation problem where the coefficient ring used to construct the polynomials has a special multiplicative structure. Mathematicians define the 'Fast Fourier Transform' as a method of solving the evaluation problem. One purpose of the document is to provide a mathematical treatment of the topic of the 'Fast Fourier Transform' that can also be understood by someone who has an …

Portfolio Selection Under Various Risk Measures, Hariharan Kandasamy

All Dissertations

Portfolio selection has been a major area of study after Markowitz's ground-breaking paper. Risk quantification for portfolio selection is studied in the literature extensively and many risk measures have been proposed.
In this dissertation we study portfolio selection under various risk measures. After exploring important risk measures currently available we propose a new risk measure, Unequal Prioritized Downside Risk (UPDR). We illustrate the formulation of UPDR for portfolio selection as a mixed-integer program. We establish conditions under which UPDR can be formulated as a linear program.
We study single-period portfolio selection using two risk measures simultaneously. We propose four alternate …

Numerical Analysis Of A Fractional Step Theta-Method For Fluid Flow Problems, John Chrispell

All Dissertations

The accurate numerical approximation of viscoelastic fluid flow poses two difficulties: the large number of unknowns in the approximating algebraic system (corresponding to velocity, pressure, and stress), and the different mathematical types of the modeling equations. Specifically, the viscoelastic modeling equations have a hyperbolic constitutive equation coupled to a parabolic conservation of momentum equation. An appealing approximation approach is to use a fractional step $\theta$-method. The $\theta$-method is an operator splitting technique that may be used to decouple mathematical equations of different types as well as separate the updates of distinct modeling equation variables when modeling mixed systems of partial …

Homomorphisms Of Graphs, Samuel Lyle

All Dissertations

Understanding the structure of graphs is fundamental to advances in many areas of graph theory, as well as in many applications. In many cases, an analysis of the structure of graphs follows one of two approaches; either many structural properties are considered over a restricted class of graphs, or a particular structural property is considered over many classes of graphs. Both approaches will be considered in this dissertation.
Graphs which do not contain a clique of size r, i.e., K_r-free graphs, are of fundamental importance in the area of extremal graph theory. Many results have been obtained …

On Graph Isomorphism And The Pagerank Algorithm, Christopher J. Augeri

Theses and Dissertations

A graph is a key construct for expressing relationships among objects, such as the radio connectivity between nodes contained in an unmanned vehicle swarm. The study of such networks may include ranking nodes based on importance, for example, by applying the PageRank algorithm used in some search engines to order their query responses. The PageRank values correspond to a unique eigenvector typically computed by applying the power method, an iterative technique based on matrix multiplication. The first new result described herein is a lower bound on the execution time of the PageRank algorithm that is derived by applying standard assumptions …

Understanding Similarity: Bridging Geometric And Numeric Contexts For Proportional Reasoning, Dana Christine Cox

Dissertations

The concept of similarity is uniquely situated at the crossroads of geometric and numerical proportional reasoning. Although studies have documented the existence and nature of student difficulties with this topic, there exists a gap between documented visual insights of younger children and the quantitative inadequacies of older ones. Using a revised version of the Similarity Perception Test followed by 21 clinical interviews, this study investigated the visual and analytical strategies that are used by middle-school students to differentiate and construct similar figures.

New strategies for construction and differentiation were identified, and three overarching conclusions were drawn from the work. First, …

Material Perturbations To Enhance Performance Of The Theile Half-Width Leaky Mode Antenna, Jason A. Girard

Theses and Dissertations

Microstrip traveling-wave antennas, often referred to as leaky-wave antennas, have been shown to radiate when the dominant or fundamental mode is suppressed and the first higher-order mode is excited. One such microstrip variation is the Thiele Half-Width (THW) antenna, which operates from 5.9 - 8.2 GHz for this research. Increasing the bandwidth over which the THW antenna radiates is desired, as is a fundamental understanding of the propagation characteristics over this region. This dissertation seeks to vary or perturb the material and physical properties of the THW antenna, including strip-width variations and modifications of the substrate layer, to achieve these …

Time-Frequency Analysis Of Terahertz Radar Signals For Rapit Heart And Breath Rate Detection, Melody L. Massar

Theses and Dissertations

We develop new time-frequency analytic techniques which facilitate the rapid detection of a person's heart and breath rates from the Doppler shift the movement of their body induces in a terahertz radar signal. In particular, the Doppler shift in the continuous radar return is proportional to the velocity of the person's body. Thus, a time-frequency analysis of the radar return will yield a velocity signal. This signal, in turn, may undergo a second time-frequency analysis to yield any periodic components of the velocity signal, which are often related to the heart and breath rates of the individual. One straightforward means …

The Square Threshold Problem In Number Fields, Matt Lafferty

All Theses

Let K be a degree n extension of Q, and let O_K be the ring of algebraic integers in K. Let x >= 2. Suppose we were to generate an ideal sequence by choosing ideals with norm at most x from O_K, independently and with uniform probability. How long would our sequence of ideals need to be before we obtain a subsequence whose terms have a product that is a square ideal in O_K? We show that the answer is about exp((2\ln(x)\ln\ln(x))^(1/2)).

Dow Jones Index, Garch(1,1) And Change-Points, Tharanga Wickramarachchi

All Theses

Many econometric time series data sets, such as log returns of stocks, exhibit evidence of the so called stylized facts. Namely it is generally observed that the data itself is uncorrelated with heavy tails, but the squared data has signicant autocorrelation. For such data sets, there appears to be little or no linear information in the past about the future values of the series. Thus the class of Autoregressive Integrated moving average models (ARIMA) are not appropriate. However, there does in general appear to be information in past values of the squared data about future values of the squared data. …

Ordered Matrices Of Prescribed Row And Column Sum, Janine Janoski

All Theses

Let M(n,s) be the number of nxn matrices with binary entries, row and column sum s, and whose rows are in lexicographical order. Let S(n) be the number of nxn matrices with entries from {0,1,2}, symmetric, with trace 0, and row sum 2. (The sequence S(n) appears as A002137 in N.J.A. Sloane's Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences.)
We give two proofs to show that M(n,2)=S(n). First, we show they satisfy the same recurrence. Second, we give an explicit bijection between the two sets. We also show that the bijection maintains the cycle structure of our matrices.
Let M_s(n,2) be the …

Estimation Of The Number Of Microbial Species Comprising A Population, Melanie R. Slattery

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the appropriateness of using non-parametric estimators, specifically the Chao1, ACES, and Jackknife methods, for estimation of the number of unique species comprising a population. It goes on to develop a parametric method for the above stated problem. This research consisted of creating diverse populations, with known numbers of species, and applying the aforementioned non-parametric and parametric methods to samples drawn from the constructed populations. The parametric fitting of several different distributions to the sample data, including the lognormal, gamma, and Weibull was considered. Both types of methodologies were then applied to sample …

Entire Blow-Up Solutions Of Semilinear Elliptic Equations And Systems, Jesse D. Peterson

Theses and Dissertations

We examine two problems concerning semilinear elliptic equations. We consider single equations of the form Δu = p(x)uα + q(x)uβ for 0 <α ≤ β ≤1 and systems Δu = p(| x |) f (v), Δv = q(| x |)g(u) , both in Euclidean n -space, n ≥ 3 . These types of problems arise in steady state diffusion, the electric potential of some bodies, subsonic motion of gases, and control theory. For the single equation case, we present sufficient conditions on p and q to …

Risk-Based Comparison Of Classification Systems, Seth B. Wagenman

Theses and Dissertations

Performance measures for families of classification system families that rely upon the analysis of receiver operating characteristics (ROCs), such as area under the ROC curve (AUC), often fail to fully address the issue of risk, especially for classification systems involving more than two classes. For the general case, we denote matrices of class prevalences, costs, and class-conditional probabilities, and assume costs are subjectively fixed, acceptable estimates for expected values of class-conditional probabilities exist, and mutual independence between a variable in one such matrix and those of any other matrix. The ROC Risk Functional (RRF), valid for any finite number of …

Statistical Removal Of Shadow For Applications To Gait Recognition, Brian D. Hockersmith

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to mathematically remove the shadow of an individual on video. The removal of the shadow will aid in the rendering of higher quality binary silhouettes than previously allowed. These silhouettes will allow researchers studying gait recognition to work with silhouettes unhindered by unrelated data. The thesis begins with the analysis of videos of solid colored backgrounds. A formulation of the effect of shadow on specified colors will aid in the derivation of a hypothesis test to remove an individual’s shadow. Video of an individual walking normally, perpendicular to the camera will be utilized to …

Hardware Algorithm Implementation For Mission Specific Processing, Jason W. Shirley

Theses and Dissertations

There is a need to expedite the process of designing military hardware to stay ahead of the adversary. The core of this project was to build reusable, synthesizeable libraries to make this a possibility. In order to build these libraries, Matlab® commands and functions, such as Conv2, Round, Floor, Pinv, etc., had to be converted into reusable VHDL modules. These modules make up reusable libraries for the Mission Specific Process (MSP) which will support AFRL/RY. The MSP allows the VLSI design process to be completed in a mere matter of days or months using an FPGA or ASIC design, as …

Street Gangs: A Modeling Approach To Evaluation "At Risk" Youth, Bernard Jacob Loeffelholz

Theses and Dissertations

Street gangs have plagued the United States for decades. One focus of current gang prevention efforts strives to reduce the number of new recruits to local street gangs. This research proposes the uses of modeling and decision analysis to aid in identifying potentially “at risk” children likely to join a street gang in Montgomery County, Ohio. A stronger means of identification of “at risk” children can lead to a more efficient placement of resources to reduce the number of street gang recruits. The approach also aids in differentiating between neighborhoods to help focus efforts. Information obtained from value-focused thinking (VFT) …

Algebraic Properties Of Edge Ideals, Rachelle R. Bouchat

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Given a simple graph G, the corresponding edge ideal I_G is the ideal generated by the edges of G. In 2007, Ha and Van Tuyl demonstrated an inductive procedure to construct the minimal free resolution of certain classes of edge ideals. We will provide a simplified proof of this inductive method for the class of trees. Furthermore, we will provide a comprehensive description of the finely graded Betti numbers occurring in the minimal free resolution of the edge ideal of a tree. For specific subclasses of trees, we will generate more precise information including explicit formulas for …

Multivariate List Decoding Of Evaluation Codes With A Gröbner Basis Perspective, Philip Busse

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Please download dissertation to view abstract.

Non-Preemptive Shunting In M/M/1 And Dynamic Service Queueing Systems, Steven Lacek

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

We provide a study of two queueing systems, namely, an M/M/1 queueing system in which an incoming customer shunts, or skips line, and a dynamic server in an infinite capacity system moving among service nodes. In the former, we explore various aspects of the system, including waiting time, and the relationships between shunting and position in queue and rate of service. Through use of global balance equations, we find the probability that an arriving non-priority customer, finding customers waiting in the system, will shunt to a position other than behind the queue. In the latter, we explore a system in …

A Study Of Present Value Maximization For The Monopolist Problem In Time Scales, Keshav Prasad Pokhrel

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

There are some mathematical characters in the abstract that will not transfer. Refer to the download to read full abstract.

General results for time scales with right dense points are established. A study of issues that arise when unifying (C) and (D) is included in the analysis

Quenching For Degenerate Semilinear Parabolic Problems With Insulated Boundary Conditions, Bernard Iyawe

Theses Digitization Project

This thesis studied the existence, uniqueness, and quenching behavior of the solution to a degenerate equation subject to the initial condition and the second boundary conditions.

Symmetric Presentations Of Finite Groups, Joshua Anthony Roche

Theses Digitization Project

Symmetric presentations of groups allow us to represent, and manipulate, group elements in a manner that is typically more convenient than conventional techniques; in this sense, symmetric presentations are particularly useful in the study of large finite groups.

Blow-Up Behavior Of Solutions For Some Ordinary And Partial Differential Equations, Sarah Y. Bahk

Theses Digitization Project

There are two parts in this project. Part 1 the Riccati initial-value problem is looked at. Part 2 considers blow-up property solutions for the degenerate semilinear parabolic initial-boundary value problem.

Dynamic Equations With Piecewise Continuous Argument, Christian Keller

Masters Theses

"We extend the theory of differential equations with piecewise continuous argument to general time scales. Linear and quasi-linear systems of functional dynamic equations with alternating retarding and advanced argument will be investigated and conditions for globally asymptotic stability of those systems will be stated and proven. Furthermore, oscillation criteria for linear first-order equations with piecewise continuous argument will be established"--Abstract, page iii.

Multiscale Analysis Of Heterogeneous Media For Local And Nonlocal Continuum Theories, Bacim Alali

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The dissertation provides new multiscale methods for the analysis of heterogeneous media. The first part of the dissertation treats heterogeneous media using the theory of linear elasticity. In this context, a methodology is presented for bounding the higher order moments of the local stress and strain fields inside random elastic media. Optimal lower bounds that are given in terms of the applied loading and the volume (area) fractions for random two-phase composites are presented. These bounds provide a means to measure load transfer across length scales relating the excursions of the local fields to applied loads. The second part of …

Stochastic Dynamic Equations, Suman Sanyal

Doctoral Dissertations

"We propose a new area of mathematics, namely stochastic dynamic equations, which unifies and extends the theories of stochastic differential equations and stochastic difference equations. After giving a brief introduction to the theory of dynamic equations on time scales, we construct Brownian motion on isolated time scales and prove some of its properties. Then we define stochastic integrals on isolated time scales. The main contribution of this dissertation is to give explicit solutions of linear stochastic dynamic equations on isolated time scales. We illustrate the theoretical results for dynamic stock prices and Ornstein-Uhlenbeck dynamic equations. Finally we study almost sure …

Differential Geometry In Cartesian Closed Categories Of Smooth Spaces, Martin Laubinger

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The main categories of study in this thesis are the categories of diffeological and Fr\"olicher spaces. They form concrete cartesian closed categories. In Chapter 1 we provide relevant background from category theory and differentiation theory in locally convex spaces. In Chapter 2 we define a class of categories whose objects are sets with a structure determined by functions into the set. Fr\"olicher's $M$-spaces, Chen's differentiable spaces and Souriau's diffeological spaces fall into this class of categories. We prove cartesian closedness of the two main categories, and show that they have all limits and colimits. We exhibit an adjunction between the …

Rational Approximation Schemes For Solutions Of Abstract Cauchy Problems And Evolution Equations, Patricio Gabriel Jara

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation we study time and space discretization methods for approximating solutions of abstract Cauchy problems and evolution equations in a Banach space setting. Two extensions of the Hille-Phillips functional calculus are developed. The first result is the Hille-Phillips functional calculus for generators of bi-continuous semigroups, and the second is a C-regularized version of the Hille-Phillips functional calculus for generators of C-regularized semigroups. These results are used in order to study time discretization schemes for abstract Cauchy problems associated with generators of bi-continuous semigroups as well as C-regularized semigoups. Stability, convergence results, and error estimates for rational approximation schemes …