Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Structure For Regular Inclusions. I, David R. Pitts

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

We give general structure theory for pairs (C,D) of unital C*- algebras where D is a regular and abelian C*-subalgebra of C.

When D is maximal abelian in C, we prove existence and uniqueness of a completely positive unital map E of C into the injective envelope I(D) of D such that EjD = idD; E is a useful replacement for a conditional expectation when no expectation exists. When E is faithful, (C,D) has numerous desirable properties: e.g. the linear span of the normalizers has a unique minimal C*- norm; D norms C; and isometric isomorphisms of norm-closed subalgebras lying …

Oscillation Of Solution To Second-Order Half-Linear Delay Dynamic Equations On Time Scales, Hongwu Wu, Lynn Erbe, Allan Peterson

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

This article concerns the oscillation of solutions to second-order half-linear dynamic equations with a variable delay. By using integral averaging techniques and generalized Riccati transformations, new oscillation criteria are obtained. Our results extend Kamenev-type, Philos-type and Li-type oscillation criteria. Several examples are given to illustrate our results.

Matched Metrics And Channels, Marcelo Firer, Judy L. Walker

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

The most common decision criteria for decoding are maximum likelihood decoding and nearest neighbor decoding. It is well-known that maximum likelihood decoding coincides with nearest neighbor decoding with respect to the Hamming metric on the binary symmetric channel. In this work we study channels and metrics for which those two criteria do and do not coincide for general codes.

R0 Analysis Of A Benthic-Drift Model For A Stream Population, Qihua Huang, Yu Jin, Mark A. Lewis

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

One key issue for theory in stream ecology is how much stream flow can be changed while still maintaining an intact stream ecology, instream flow needs (IFNs); the study of determining IFNs is challenging due to the complex and dynamic nature of the interaction between the stream environ- ment and the biological community. We develop a process-oriented benthic-drift model that links changes in the flow regime and habitat availability with population dynamics. In the model, the stream is divided into two zones, drift zone and benthic zone, and the population is divided into two interacting compartments, individuals residing in the …

Characterizing Mathematics Graduate Student Teaching Assistants’ Opportunities To Learn From Teaching, Yvonne Lai, Wendy Smith, Nathan Wakefield, Erica R. Miller, Julia St. Goar, Corbin M. Groothuis, Kelsey M. Wells

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

Exemplary models to inform novice instruction and the development of graduate teaching assistants (TAs) exist. What is missing from the literature is the process of how graduate students in model professional development programs make sense of and enact the experiences offered. A first step to understanding TAs’ learning to teach is to characterize how and whether they link observations of student work to hypotheses about student thinking and then connect those hypotheses to future teaching actions. A reason to be interested in these connections is that their strength and coherence determine how well TAs can learn from experiences. We found …

Comparing The Growth Of The Prime Numbers To The Natural Numbers, Michael A. Brilleslyper, Nathan Wakefield, A. J. Wallerstein, Bradley Warner

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

We define a new method of measuring the rate of divergence for an increasing positive sequence of integers. We introduce the growth function for such a sequence and its associated growth limit. We use these tools to study the divergence rate for the natural numbers, polynomial and exponential-type sequences, and the prime numbers. We conclude with a number of open questions concerning general properties and characterizations of growth functions and the set of possible growth limits.

Simple Adaptive Control For Positive Linear Systems With Applications To Pest Management, Chris Guiver, Christina Edholm, Yu Jin, Markus Mueller, Jim Powell, Richard Rebarber, Brigitte Tenhumberg, Stuart Townley

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

Pest management is vitally important for modern arable farming, but models for pest species are often highly uncertain. In the context of pest management, control actions are naturally described by a nonlinear feedback that is generally unknown, which thus motivates a robust control approach. We argue that adaptive approaches are well suited for the management of pests and propose a simple high-gain adaptive tuning mechanism so that the nonlinear feedback achieves exponential stabilization. Furthermore, a switched adaptive controller is proposed, cycling through a set of given control actions, that also achieves global asymptotic stability. Such a model in practice allows …