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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

A Case Study Of Accelerator Performance, Esthela Gallardo Jan 2015

A Case Study Of Accelerator Performance, Esthela Gallardo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In recent years the designs of High Performance Computing (HPC) clusters have become more complex. This is due to the emergence of new processing elements, in particular Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and other many-core processors that can be combined with multi-core processors to enhance application performance. The design of a cluster includes processing elements that meet the needs of the applications that will run on the system. Unfortunately, it has become increasingly difficult to compare the performance of novel many-core processing elements due to the differences in their architectures. This work describes an attempt to develop a methodology for comparing …


Dynamic Triggering In The Coso Geothermal Field, 2004-2013, Richard A. Alfaro-Diaz Jan 2015

Dynamic Triggering In The Coso Geothermal Field, 2004-2013, Richard A. Alfaro-Diaz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

We take advantage of EarthScope’s USArray Transportable Array (TA), regional seismic networks to investigate 154 M ≥ 7 earthquakes over a ten-year period (2004- 2013), in search of remotely triggered seismicity within the continental United States. We conduct an automated search to detect high frequency signals (which may indicate triggering of small local earthquakes) using a time window of 5 hours before and after each mainshock. The automated detection applies a short-term average (STA) to long-term-average (LTA) algorithms, to create a catalogue of detections. Using the catalog we search for an increase in detection rates after each main-shock. Sharp increases …


Evaluating Methods Of Field-Based 3d Visualization And Their Application To Mapping Metamorphic Terranes: An Example From The Panamint Mountains, California, Jade Ashley Brush Jan 2015

Evaluating Methods Of Field-Based 3d Visualization And Their Application To Mapping Metamorphic Terranes: An Example From The Panamint Mountains, California, Jade Ashley Brush

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Field geology has traditionally relied on 2D, paper-based workflows, but digital mapping techniques are rapidly replacing these outdated methods because they allow for more efficient and accurate mapping. This research applies digital mapping techniques and two terrestrially-based 3D visualization technologies, photogrammetry and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), to the study of metamorphic terranes in the Panamint Mountains, California. This study reports on the spatial accuracy of TINs (triangulated irregular networks) generated from both photogrammetry and ground-based LiDAR using a terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) and discusses how spatial accuracy can be increased. Two levels of comparison were used to test spatial …


Investigation Of The Natural Degradation Of Selected Endocrine Disrupting Compounds In Wastewater, Toni Carrick Jan 2015

Investigation Of The Natural Degradation Of Selected Endocrine Disrupting Compounds In Wastewater, Toni Carrick

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) are a class of compounds that are of concern for their potentially adverse effects on fish, wildlife, and humans. They can cause developmental and reproductive anomalies at concentrations in the low ppb to ppt levels. Studies have shown the primary route of exposure of EDCs within the environment is through the discharge of effluent wastewater. Removal efficiencies of wastewater treatment plants have been studied extensively, however, in rural or developing areas, which often lack secondary or tertiary wastewater treatment, little is known about the stability of these compounds and the rate at which they degrade in …


Understanding The Contractional History Of Surprise Canyon, California Through Digital Field Mapping, 3d Modeling, And U-Pb Zircon Geochronology, Joshua A. Cobb Jan 2015

Understanding The Contractional History Of Surprise Canyon, California Through Digital Field Mapping, 3d Modeling, And U-Pb Zircon Geochronology, Joshua A. Cobb

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Detailed digital mapping of lower-middle Surprise Canyon has revealed a more complex structure than previously interpreted. Rock units derived from the metamorphosed equivalents of the Pahrump Group exposed in Surprise Canyon display juxtapositions inconsistent with stratigraphic variations suggested in previous studies. This study proposes a contractional history of the central Panamint Mountains defined by two kinematically distinct and geochronologically constrained deformation events. D1 is characterized by a shallow dipping, NNW striking L and LS tectonite fabric ubiquitously observed in all metasedimentary and basement units. F1 folds are mesoscopic in scale and isoclinal with an axial planar S1 foliation. A prominent …


Physical Engagement As A Way To Increase Emotional Rapport In Interactions With Embodied Conversational Agents, Ivan Gris Sepulveda Jan 2015

Physical Engagement As A Way To Increase Emotional Rapport In Interactions With Embodied Conversational Agents, Ivan Gris Sepulveda

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

One of the major goals in research on embodied conversational agents (ECAs) is to increase the believability and perceived trustworthiness of agents. To improve the efficacy of the interaction between humans and ECAs, I focus on the development of rapport, which is a complex and extensive behavioral state of affinity, synchronicity, coordination and mutual understanding that is difficult to model, measure and interpret. I present our AGENT Framework and our ECA, Adriana, which is capable of speech recognition and gesture recognition over long periods of time. Our current system provides up to 60 minutes of human-ECA interaction in a jungle-survival …


Computational Search For Novel Magnetic Clusters With Large Magnetic Anisotropy Energy, Nabil Md Rakinul Hoque Jan 2015

Computational Search For Novel Magnetic Clusters With Large Magnetic Anisotropy Energy, Nabil Md Rakinul Hoque

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The clusters of transition metal atoms often show high spin moments but generally are reactive with the environment. Passivation of the surface atoms can lead to more stable clusters. We have explored one such avenue for passivation in this work. We picked the As@Ni12@As20 cluster which in the neutral state has a magnetic moment of 3 μB. We doped this cluster with various numbers of Mn atoms by substituting Ni atoms. The substitutional doping leads to spin moments located on the Mn atoms. The doping leads to symmetry breaking and as a consequence the number of structural isomers and spin …


Synchronization Of Bistatic Radar Using Chaotic Amplitude And Frequency Modulated Signals, Chandra Sekhar Pappu Jan 2015

Synchronization Of Bistatic Radar Using Chaotic Amplitude And Frequency Modulated Signals, Chandra Sekhar Pappu

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this work is to develop a synchronization scheme for bistatic radar that uses a 3-D chaotic system to generate and process wideband AM and FM signals, which allows for the extraction of high range-resolution information from targets. For AM bistatic radar, the setup includes a drive oscillator at the transmitter and a response oscillator at the receiver. The challenge is synchronizing the response oscillator to the drive oscillator with a scaled version of the transmitted signal sr(t, x) = αs t(t, x), where x is a chaotic state variable and α is a scaling factor. Here, α …


Enterprise Systems, Information Security Management Systems And Their Impact On Enterprise Risk: A 3-Essay Dissertation, Fernando Parra Reyes Jan 2015

Enterprise Systems, Information Security Management Systems And Their Impact On Enterprise Risk: A 3-Essay Dissertation, Fernando Parra Reyes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This 3-essay study offers a comprehensive examination of hypothetical concepts related to the behaviors, attitudes, outcomes, processes, experiences, manifestations and indicators connected with an organizationâ??s design, implementation and management of a coherent set of policies, processes and systems to manage risks to its information assets. Network analysis tools are used to examine the relationships found in Information Security Management Systems (ISMS) literature published within the last decade. This study examines the effect of upgrades and implementations of enterprise systems on enterprise risk, as perceived by external investors. Finally, this study also assesses the impact of external IT governance certifications on …


Studying Cellular And Molecular Interaction With Two-Photon Fluorescence Microscopy, Arifur Rahaman Jan 2015

Studying Cellular And Molecular Interaction With Two-Photon Fluorescence Microscopy, Arifur Rahaman

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Advances in microscopy and fluorescent probes provide new insight into studying cellular and molecular interactions. Two-photon fluorescence microscopy is one of the most important recent inventions in cellular and molecular study. This technology enables noninvasive study at cellular and molecular levels in three dimensions with submicrometer resolution. Two-photon excitation of fluorophores results from the simultaneous absorption of two photons. This excitation process has a number of unique advantages, such as reduced specimen photodamage and enhanced penetration depth. In this study, we used our two-photon microscope to observe predatorial behavior of fast moving bacterivorous marine organism Cafeteria roenbergensis and quantify Mycobacterium …


A Tectonic Analysis On The Central Region Of The Himalaya Collision Zone Using Double Difference Tomography, Chanel Perez Jan 2015

A Tectonic Analysis On The Central Region Of The Himalaya Collision Zone Using Double Difference Tomography, Chanel Perez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Himalaya mountain range remains the only place on Earth undergoing continuous effects from the continental-continental collision between India and Asia. Because of this, the Himalayas have been subjected to extensive deformation and transpression, and contain five major shear zones. Extensive seismic analysis of the region, however, is lacking due to sparse seismograph coverage and complexity of the crustal structure. I examined seismic event data from two temporary seismic networks deployed in the central Himalaya, the HIMNT deployment from 2001-2003, and the Bhutan deployment from 2002-2003. Using this data I develop a 3-D earth model for the region using double-difference …


Stochastic Differential Equation Applied To High Frequency Data Arising In Geophysics And Other Disciplines, Osei Kofi Tweneboah Jan 2015

Stochastic Differential Equation Applied To High Frequency Data Arising In Geophysics And Other Disciplines, Osei Kofi Tweneboah

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Estimating future seismic hazards of a region constitutes an important study many scholars have shown a renewed interest in the past few decades. A good estimation of the seismic hazard in a region requires predicting the location and magnitude of future seismic events. As the knowledge of the geophysical mechanisms that drive seismic events have increased, so have the corresponding mathematical model representations.

This Thesis is devoted to the study of modeling geophysical data. We propose a stochastic differential equation arising on the superposition of independent Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes driven by a Gamma process.

Superposition of independent Gamma Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes offers …


Evaluation Of Small Molecules On The Excitatory Amino Acid Transporter 3 (Eaat3) For The Treatment Of Ocd, Emmanuel Zubia Jan 2015

Evaluation Of Small Molecules On The Excitatory Amino Acid Transporter 3 (Eaat3) For The Treatment Of Ocd, Emmanuel Zubia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

We seek to discover new drug candidates for the excitatory amino acid transporter 3 (EAAT3) for the treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). We hypothesize that decreasing the glutamatergic transmission via EAAT3 intervention will create an amelioration of the symptoms of OCD. For this we have prepared in-silico binding calculations to identify a better compound that can stimulate EAAT3 and decrease glutamatergic transmission. This research will help us further understand and elucidate the role of glutamate in the neural mechanisms of this illness, which to date remain inconclusive. Those areas of study are significant because, until now, there is no …


Role Of Small Molecules In Rescuing Protein Folding Under Oxidative Stress, Mahmoud Fawzi Megahed Helal Khalil Jan 2015

Role Of Small Molecules In Rescuing Protein Folding Under Oxidative Stress, Mahmoud Fawzi Megahed Helal Khalil

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Increased levels of nitrosative stress intracellularly within the endoplasmic reticulum is a key factor involvled in the pathogenesis of both Parkinson's (PD) and Alzheimer's (AD) diseases. Previous in-vitro studies in our lab showed that increased levels of nitrosative stress lead to aggregation of misfolded proteins and formation of Lewy Bodies, the main biomarker of PD and AD diseases. Although this was mainly through nitrosylation of Protein Disulfide Isomerase (PDI), the chief endoplasmic reticulum (ER) resident oxidoreductase chaperone responsible for maturation of disulfide-bond-containing proteins, we demonstrate in this project that increased levels of nitrosative stress has an additional direct effect on …


Towards Analytical Techniques For Optimizing Knowledge Acquisition, Processing, Propagation, And Use In Cyberinfrastructure, Leonardo Octavio Lerma Jan 2015

Towards Analytical Techniques For Optimizing Knowledge Acquisition, Processing, Propagation, And Use In Cyberinfrastructure, Leonardo Octavio Lerma

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

For many decades, there has been a continuous progress in science and engineering applications.

A large part of this progress comes from the new knowledge that researchers acquire, propagate, and use. This new knowledge has revolutionized many aspects of our life, from driving to communications to shopping.

Somewhat surprisingly, there is one area of human activity which is the least impacted by the modern technological progress: the very processes of acquiring, processing, and propagating information. When we decide where to place sensors, which algorithm to use for processing the data – we rely mostly on our own intuition and on …


Does Low-Level Arsenic Exposure Predict Blood Pressure In Children?, Tania Angelica Mayorga Jan 2015

Does Low-Level Arsenic Exposure Predict Blood Pressure In Children?, Tania Angelica Mayorga

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Background & Significance: Inorganic arsenic is a heavy metal naturally found in soil and human exposure to this heavy metal causes adverse effects. Exposure risks are particularly high in developing children. Arsenic is mainly found in bedrock. It is also a by-product of smelting, it is used in cement production, and historically is has been found in crop pesticides. Among other ill-effects, arsenic exposure in humans can cause respiratory diseases, peripheral neuropathy and liver fibrosis. In particular arsenic has been shown in many studies to be a contributing factor in the risk for hypertension in adults however no studies have …


Processing And Property Evaluation Of Tungsten-Based Mixed Oxides For Photovoltaics And Optoelectronics, Mirella Vargas Jan 2015

Processing And Property Evaluation Of Tungsten-Based Mixed Oxides For Photovoltaics And Optoelectronics, Mirella Vargas

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Tungsten Oxide (WO3) films and low-dimensional structures have proven to be promising candidates in the fields of photonics and electronics. WO3 is a well-established n-type semiconductor characterized by unique electrochromic behavior, an ideal optical band gap that permits transparency over a wide spectral range, and high chemical integrity. The plethora of diverse properties endow WO3 to be highly effective in applications related to electrochromism, gas sensing, and deriving economical energy. Compared to the bulk films, a materials system involving WO3 and a related species (elements or metal oxides) offer the opportunity to tailor the electrochromic response, and an overall enhancement …


Comparison Of Blood Lead Levels Between Children In An Urban Setting And Children In A Rural Setting, Juan Manuel Alvarez Jan 2015

Comparison Of Blood Lead Levels Between Children In An Urban Setting And Children In A Rural Setting, Juan Manuel Alvarez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Environmental heavy metal exposure is a public health problem that is of great concern because it is highly toxic for children. The urban setting in downtown El Paso is historically known to be contaminated through various sources of contamination of heavy metals. The goal of this study was to compare whether children in a historically contaminated urban downtown area had significantly increased levels of lead exposure as compared to children in a demographically similar rural area approximately 20 miles north of the urban center, while controlling for gender and age. Cadmium and mercury were also measured for comparison purposes. It …


Lithospheric Structure And Stress Field Orientations In The Northern Libya And East-Central Mediterranean Region, Abdusalam Ali Agail Jan 2015

Lithospheric Structure And Stress Field Orientations In The Northern Libya And East-Central Mediterranean Region, Abdusalam Ali Agail

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This thesis is a combination of three studies including tomography using surface wave group velocities, stress orientations from focal mechanisms, and receiver functions. The study area covers northern Libya and the east central Mediterranean region. I utilized new data from the Libyan National Seismic Network to better understand the crustal thickness and stress orientation of northern Libya as well as the east central Mediterranean region. In the first study, I conducted surface wave group velocity tomography implementing the Gaussian beam method for obtaining 2-D velocity variations assuming an isotropic model. I constructed surface wave group velocity maps over a range …


Virtual Rapport With Extraverted Agents, Jacqueline Brixey Jan 2015

Virtual Rapport With Extraverted Agents, Jacqueline Brixey

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Studies from psychology conclude that "birds of a feather flock together"- or, in other words, people tend to seek companionship with those who have a similar personality to their own. Researchers in the fields of Linguistics and Psychology have found numerous markers that differentiate the dialogue of extroverts from that of introverts. Recent work in Human Computer Interaction has sought to understand the nature of creating and maintaining rapport between humans and Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs).

Seeking an interdisciplinary approach that combines knowledge from HCI, Linguistics, and Psychology, I sought to establish whether introverted users report the highest level of …


Molecular Dynamics Study On Defect Reduction Strategies Towards The Fabrication Of High Performance Cd1-Xznxte/Cds Solar Cells, Jose Juan Chavez Jan 2015

Molecular Dynamics Study On Defect Reduction Strategies Towards The Fabrication Of High Performance Cd1-Xznxte/Cds Solar Cells, Jose Juan Chavez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Cadmium Telluride is a material widely used in terrestrial thin film photovoltaic applications due to its nearly ideal band gap (~1.5 eV) and high absorption coefficient. Due to its low manufacturing cost, this technology has the potential to become a significant energy resource if higher energy conversion efficiencies are achieved. However, the module efficiencies (~14%) are still far from the theoretical maximum (~30%) for this material in a single junction configuration. The reason behind this low performance is attributed to the high number of defects that are present within the device materials. The physics behind the formation mechanisms of these …


Novel Endohedral Derivatives Of Sc3n@C2n (N = 34, 40) And Unique Tether Controlled Bis-Functionalization Of Fullerenes, Maira Raquel Ceron Hernandez Jan 2015

Novel Endohedral Derivatives Of Sc3n@C2n (N = 34, 40) And Unique Tether Controlled Bis-Functionalization Of Fullerenes, Maira Raquel Ceron Hernandez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Since the discovery of fullerenes in 1985, their exohedral functionalization has been necessary to increase their solubility and explore their properties and potential applications in materials science and medicinal chemistry. This Thesis provides a short overview of the importance of electronic, size and shape complementarity in determining the structures of specific endohedral fullerene compounds. This is followed by a description of a new method for the separation of scandium nitride endohedral fullerenes Sc3N@C2n (n = 34, 39 and 40), and their monofunctionalization.

We also present the regioselective synThesis of easily isolable bis-derivatives of C60, C70, and M3N@Ih-C80 (M = Sc, …


Effect Of Plastic Deformation Anisotropies On Shock-Induced Phase Transitions In Metallic Single Crystals, Punam Ghimire Jan 2015

Effect Of Plastic Deformation Anisotropies On Shock-Induced Phase Transitions In Metallic Single Crystals, Punam Ghimire

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Most metals and alloys undergo plastic deformation at shear stresses and/or pressures in the Kbars regime. On the other hand, typical pressure-induced structural transitions, take place at much higher pressures, in the tens of GPa range. Surprisingly, there has not been to date, a systematic study on the role plastic deformation plays on the dynamics of defect-mediated phase transformations. The main purpose of this work was to investigate via atomistic simulations, the contribution of pre-existing defect densities on the kinetics of structural transformations under dynamic loading. We have carried out molecular dynamics simulations - including large-scale non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD), …


Transition States And Modeling For Co9s8/Mos2 Catalysis, Gabriel Angel Gonzalez Jan 2015

Transition States And Modeling For Co9s8/Mos2 Catalysis, Gabriel Angel Gonzalez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Transition state computational studies of the sulfur removal from dibenzothiophene (DBT) molecule have herein been performed considering the Co9S8/MoS2 interface existing on unsupported Co/MoS2 catalysts. The linear synchronous transit (LST) and quadratic synchronous transit (QST) methods integrated in a density functional theory (DFT) program such as Dmol3 were used for the calculations of energy barriers of the transition states. Three different configurations present on the Co9S8/MoS2 interface have been envisaged as possible catalytic sites: sulfur-sulfur (S, S) sites, and molybdenum-sulfur (Mo, S) and molybdenum-molybdenum (Mo, Mo) edge sites. This study revealed that the (Mo, Mo) edge site is the most …


Exploratory Study Of Seasonal Indoor Bioaerosols And The Associated Health Outcomes In Low-Income Communities In El Paso, Texas, 2014, Eric Martinez Jan 2015

Exploratory Study Of Seasonal Indoor Bioaerosols And The Associated Health Outcomes In Low-Income Communities In El Paso, Texas, 2014, Eric Martinez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Introduction: Structural degradation, moisture levels, and building failures can influence poor indoor air quality and create a good environment for bioaerosols. People spend much of their time indoors and can potentially be exposed to these bioaerosols. Several studies have correlated exposures to high concentrations of bioaerosols to various health problems, severe allergies, asthma, or other respiratory illness. Objectives: The objectives of this study are to describe bioaerosol concentrations, meteorological factors, and health outcomes during the summer and fall seasons; characterize bioaerosols (bacteria and fungi) collected in low-income communities; compare bioaerosol concentrations by season; compare meteorological factors to bioaerosol concentrations by …


On The Path To Multi-Electron Redox Chemistry With Bimetallic Systems, Nathalie Metta Jan 2015

On The Path To Multi-Electron Redox Chemistry With Bimetallic Systems, Nathalie Metta

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The following study is presented in two sections, in the first, a novel digold (II) complex with semi-bridging chlorides supported by two bulky formamidinates was synthesized for the purpose of studying late-transition metal multi-electron redox chemistry. Electrochemical analysis shows one non-reversible reduction. Although the electrochemistry of this complex is restricted, the compound shows interesting electronic properties. The crystal structure reveals a geometry distortion of the Au2ï?­-Cl2 core. The coupling of an unoccupied orbital and an occupied orbital through a vibrational mode, causes a distortion in the geometry of the molecule lowering the D2h symmetry to C2h. This is an example …


Ac-Susceptibility And Epr Investigations Of Superspin Dynamics In Magnetite Nanoparticles, Alex D. Price Jan 2015

Ac-Susceptibility And Epr Investigations Of Superspin Dynamics In Magnetite Nanoparticles, Alex D. Price

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In this investigation we use two complementary techniques to distinguish between superparamagnetic blocking (SPB) and superspin-glass (SSG) freezing phenomena in magnetite nanoparticles. While these manifestations of the superspin dynamics are fundamentally different, they have similar "signatures", especially in dc-magnetization experiments. Even if ac-susceptibility measurements are employed, careful use of mathematical models to analyze the data are needed to uncover which type of phenomena (SPB or SSG freezing) occurs within the material. Yet, by utilizing electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) on a 10 nm Fe3O4 nano-powder as well as on a ferrofluid (based on the same nanoparticle ensemble) we found a very …


Development Of 3-D Shear Wave Models Using A Multi-Objective Optimization Scheme, Lennox Emmanuel Thompson Jan 2015

Development Of 3-D Shear Wave Models Using A Multi-Objective Optimization Scheme, Lennox Emmanuel Thompson

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Evidence of geologic activity still occurring in Rio Grande Rift (RGR) includes quaternary faulting, seismicity, and widening at a small rate. We map the crustal thickness and seismic velocity ratio to create crustal model cross sections that highlights the regional extension of the Southern Rio Grande Rift (SRGR). Specifically, we compute receiver functions and receiver function stacks for 147 USArray and previously collected data, and interpolate the crustal and velocity results using a kriging interpolation scheme. By incorporating gravity, magnetics, receiver functions, velocity models, and the interpretation of seismic reflection/refraction data, we produce a constrained crustal model that characterizes the …


Total Synthesis Of Syringolides 1 And 2, Sudhakar Kalagara Jan 2015

Total Synthesis Of Syringolides 1 And 2, Sudhakar Kalagara

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The total synthesis of Syringolides is described. The synthetic pathway was designed in order to synthesize Syringolides in high yields using inexpensive starting materials. The synthesis strategy features a preparation of the linear tricarbonyl compound followed by intramolecular cyclization. The linear precursor is divided into two fragments, β-keto acid and protected D-xylulose, which are the key fragments and were synthesized from α,β-unsaturated compound followed by asymmetric dihydroxylation. The α,β-unsaturated compound was efficiently prepared by a Wittig reaction between aldehyde and ylide fragments. The butenolide derivative was also achieved by the Knoevenagel condensation of the tricarbonyl compound.


Bayesian Adaptive Penalized Splines In Nonparametric Regression And In Spectral Time Series Analysis, Luis Angel Mora Jan 2015

Bayesian Adaptive Penalized Splines In Nonparametric Regression And In Spectral Time Series Analysis, Luis Angel Mora

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A Bayesian approach to nonparametric regression using Penalized splines (P-splines) is presented. The approach uses the linear mixed model formulation of P-spines. The usual model assumes a single value for the smoothing parameter controlling the amount of smoothing of the fitted function. The main focus of the Thesis is on spatially adaptive smoothing where the smoothing parameter is a function of the covariate so that different amounts of smoothing are applied in different regions of the covariate. An application to spectral time series analysis will be demonstrated. Markov chain Monte Carlo methods are used to make inference based on the …