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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

On Some New Constructions Of Difference Sets, Sarah Agnes Spence May 1997

On Some New Constructions Of Difference Sets, Sarah Agnes Spence

Honors Theses

Difference sets are mathematical structures which arise in algebra and combinatorics, with applications in coding theory. The fundamental question is when and how one can construct difference sets. This largely expository paper looks at standard construction methods and describes recent findings that resulted in new families of difference sets. This paper provides explicit examples of difference sets that arise from the recent constructions. By gaining a thorough understanding of these new techniques, it may be possible to generalize the results to find additional new families of difference sets. The paper also introduces partial and relative difference sets and discusses how …


On The Automatic Generation Of Network Protocol Simulators, Andrew Chen Apr 1997

On The Automatic Generation Of Network Protocol Simulators, Andrew Chen

Honors Theses

Computers communicate with each other over various communication networks via a language known as a protocol. The design of the protocol can have a significant impact on the efficiency (and effectiveness) of the network. Because building an actual network to test the performance (and reliability) of a new protocol is rather expensive and time consuming, there is an interest in simulating network protocols in order to determine how efficient the communication network is. We are therefore interested in automatically generating simulators that could measure the performance of the new protocols. There are two main parts to this project. The first …


Temporal Flocking And Cacophony Simulating Agent Communication In A Noisy Environment, Jessica R. Crawford Apr 1997

Temporal Flocking And Cacophony Simulating Agent Communication In A Noisy Environment, Jessica R. Crawford

Honors Theses

Realistic communication is one of the most difficult aspects of simulating group behavior because the patterns produced by group communication are complex and not easily definable. In this paper, we present a model, developed using artificial life methodology, for creating simulations of group communication. Our model employs autonomous, artificial agents to produce emergent group behavior that resembles the communication patterns of a group, specifically, a flock of birds. Each agent collects information about its environment and its neighbors and follows a set of rules designed to meet both group goals and individual agent goals. Because we seek to establish emergent …


Parallel Programming, Peter Dailey Apr 1997

Parallel Programming, Peter Dailey

Honors Theses

The speed of technology is always increasing, especially in the field of computing. Unfortunately, the size of the problems needing to be solved are also growing in many areas. In order to keep up with this, parallel computing has become an important research area. The term parallel computing essentially refers to using multiple processors cooperating to solve a problem. For certain problems this can speed up the solution by a factor ofN, the number of processors being used. There are algorithms, for which there is no speed increase due to certain dependencies.


Irreducible K-To-1 Maps Onto Grids, Susan M. Parker Jan 1997

Irreducible K-To-1 Maps Onto Grids, Susan M. Parker

Honors Theses

In this paper we explore the existence of exactly k-to-1 continuous functions between graphs, and more specifically 2-to-1 continuous function between graphs that are irreducibly 2-to-1, meaning that no restriction of the function to a subgraph is 2-to-l. We show how to construct such functions in some general cases, and then more specifically onto rectangular grids. We have in mind an application to distributed networks and signal verification.