Mathematics Commons^™

Mathematical And Empirical Modeling Of Chemical Reactions In A Microreactor, Jing Hu

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is concerned with mathematical and empirical modeling to simulate three important chemical reactions (cyclohexene hydrogenation and dehydrogenation, preferential oxidation of carbon monoxide, and the Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) synthesis in a microreaction system.

Empirical modeling and optimization techniques based on experimental design (Central Composite Design (CCD)) and response surface methodology were applied to these three chemical reactions. Regression models were built, and the operating conditions (such as temperature, the ratio of the reactants, and total flow rate) which maximize reactant conversion and product selectivity were determined for each reaction.

A probability model for predicting the probability that a certain species …

Uniqueness Theorems In Bioluminescence Tomography, Ge Wang, Yi Li, Ming Jiang

Yi Li

Motivated by bioluminescent imaging needs for studies on gene therapy and other applications in the mouse models, a bioluminescence tomography (BLT) system is being developed in the University of Iowa. While the forward imaging model is described by the well-known diffusion equation, the inverse problem is to recover an internal bioluminescent source distribution subject to Cauchy data. Our primary goal in this paper is to establish the solution uniqueness for BLT under practical constraints despite the ill-posedness of the inverse problem in the general case. After a review on the inverse source literature, we demonstrate that in the general case …

Reliability Estimation Based On System Data With An Unknown Load Share Rule, Hyoungtae Kim, Paul H. Kvam

Department of Math & Statistics Faculty Publications

We consider a multicomponent load-sharing system in which the failure rate of a given component depends on the set of working components at any given time. Such systems can arise in software reliability models and in multivariate failure-time models in biostatistics, for example. A load-share rule dictates how stress or load is redistributed to the surviving components after a component fails within the system. In this paper, we assume the load share rule is unknown and derive methods for statistical inference on load-share parameters based on maximum likelihood. Components with (individual) constant failure rates are observed in two environments: (1) …

A Nonlinear Random Coefficients Model For Degradation Testing, Suk Joo Bae, Paul H. Kvam

Department of Math & Statistics Faculty Publications

As an alternative to traditional life testing, degradation tests can be effective in assessing product reliability when measurements of degradation leading to failure can be observed. This article presents a degradation model for highly reliable light displays, such as plasma display panels and vacuum fluorescent displays (VFDs). Standard degradation models fail to capture the burn-in characteristics of VFDs, when emitted light actually increases up to a certain point in time before it decreases (or degrades) continuously. Random coefficients are used to model this phenomenon in a nonlinear way, which allows for a nonmonotonic degradation path. In many situations, the relative …

Uniqueness Theorems In Bioluminescence Tomography, Ge Wang, Yi Li, Ming Jiang

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications

Motivated by bioluminescent imaging needs for studies on gene therapy and other applications in the mouse models, a bioluminescence tomography (BLT) system is being developed in the University of Iowa. While the forward imaging model is described by the well-known diffusion equation, the inverse problem is to recover an internal bioluminescent source distribution subject to Cauchy data. Our primary goal in this paper is to establish the solution uniqueness for BLT under practical constraints despite the ill-posedness of the inverse problem in the general case. After a review on the inverse source literature, we demonstrate that in the general case …

The Dual Spectral Set Conjecture, Steen Pedersen

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications

Suppose that Λ = (aZ + b) ∪ (cZ + d) where a, b, c, d are real numbers such that a ≠ 0 and c ≠ 0. The union is not assumed to be disjoint. It is shown that the translates Ω + λ, λ is an element of Λ, tile the real line for some bounded measurable set Ω if and only if the exponentials e_λ(x) = e^i2πλx, λ is an element of Λ, form an orthogonal basis for some bounded measurable set Ω'.