Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Spatiotemporal Dynamics In A Lower Montane Tropical Rainforest, Robert Michael Lawton

Doctoral Dissertations

Disturbance in a forest’s canopy, whether caused by treefall, limbfall, landslide, or fire determines not only the distribution of well-lit patches at any given time, but also the ways in which the forest changes over time. In this dissertation, I use a 25 year record of treefall gap formation find a novel and highly patterned process of forest disturbance and regeneration, providing a local mechanism by examining the factors that influence the likelihood of treefall. I then develop a stochastic cellular automaton for disturbance and regeneration based on the analysis of this long term data set and illustrate the potential …

The Maximum Clique Problem: Algorithms, Applications, And Implementations, John David Eblen

Doctoral Dissertations

Computationally hard problems are routinely encountered during the course of solving practical problems. This is commonly dealt with by settling for less than optimal solutions, through the use of heuristics or approximation algorithms. This dissertation examines the alternate possibility of solving such problems exactly, through a detailed study of one particular problem, the maximum clique problem. It discusses algorithms, implementations, and the application of maximum clique results to real-world problems. First, the theoretical roots of the algorithmic method employed are discussed. Then a practical approach is described, which separates out important algorithmic decisions so that the algorithm can be easily …

Optimal Control Of Species Augmentation Conservation Strategies, Erin Nicole Bodine

Doctoral Dissertations

Species augmentation is a method of reducing species loss via augmenting declining or threatened populations with individuals from captive-bred or stable, wild populations. In this dissertation, species augmentation is analyzed in an optimal control setting to determine the optimal augmentation strategies given various constraints and settings. In each setting, we consider the effects on both the target/endangered population and a reserve population from which the individuals translocated in the augmentation are harvested. Four different optimal control formulations are explored. The first two optimal control formulations model the underlying population dynamics with a system of ordinary differential equations. Each of these …

On Conjectures Concerning Nonassociate Factorizations, Jason A Laska

Doctoral Dissertations

We consider and solve some open conjectures on the asymptotic behavior of the number of different numbers of the nonassociate factorizations of prescribed minimal length for specific finite factorization domains. The asymptotic behavior will be classified for Cohen-Kaplansky domains in Chapter 1 and for domains of the form R=K+XF[X] for finite fields K and F in Chapter 2. A corollary of the main result in Chapter 3 will determine the asymptotic behavior for Krull domains with finite divisor class group.

Elasticity Of Krull Domains With Infinite Divisor Class Group, Benjamin Ryan Lynch

Doctoral Dissertations

The elasticity of a Krull domain R is equivalent to the elasticity of the block monoid B(G,S), where G is the divisor class group of R and S is the set of elements of G containing a height-one prime ideal of R. Therefore the elasticity of R can by studied using the divisor class group. In this dissertation, we will study infinite divisor class groups to determine the elasticity of the associated Krull domain. The results will focus on the divisor class groups Z, Z(p infinity), Q, and general infinite groups. For the groups Z and Z(p infinity), it has …

Carleson-Type Inequalitites In Harmonically Weighted Dirichlet Spaces, Gerardo Roman Chacon Perez

Doctoral Dissertations

Carleson measures for Harmonically Weighted Dirichlet Spaces are characterized. It is shown a version of a maximal inequality for these spaces. Also, Interpolating Sequences and Closed-Range Composition Operators are studied in this context.

Fractions Of Numerical Semigroups, Harold Justin Smith

Doctoral Dissertations

Let S and T be numerical semigroups and let k be a positive integer. We say that S is the quotient of T by k if an integer x belongs to S if and only if kx belongs to T. Given any integer k larger than 1 (resp., larger than 2), every numerical semigroup S is the quotient T/k of infinitely many symmetric (resp., pseudo-symmetric) numerical semigroups T by k. Related examples, probabilistic results, and applications to ring theory are shown.

Given an arbitrary positive integer k, it is not true in general that every numerical semigroup S is the …

On The Irreducibility Of The Cauchy-Mirimanoff Polynomials, Brian C. Irick

Doctoral Dissertations

The Cauchy-Mirimanoff Polynomials are a class of polynomials that naturally arise in various classical studies of Fermat's Last Theorem. Originally conjectured to be irreducible over 100 years ago, the irreducibility of the Cauchy-Mirimanoff polynomials is still an open conjecture.

This dissertation takes a new approach to the study of the Cauchy-Mirimanoff Polynomials. The reciprocal transform of a self-reciprocal polynomial is defined, and the reciprocal transforms of the Cauchy-Mirimanoff Polynomials are found and studied. Particular attention is given to the Cauchy-Mirimanoff Polynomials with index three times a power of a prime, and it is shown that the Cauchy-Mirimanoff Polynomials of index …

Computational Circle Packing: Geometry And Discrete Analytic Function Theory, Gerald Lee Orick

Doctoral Dissertations

Geometric Circle Packings are of interest not only for their aesthetic appeal but also their relation to discrete analytic function theory. This thesis presents new computational methods which enable additional practical applications for circle packing geometry along with providing a new discrete analytic interpretation of the classical Schwarzian derivative and traditional univalence criterion of classical analytic function theory. To this end I present a new method of computing the maximal packing and solving the circle packing layout problem for a simplicial 2-complex along with additional geometric variants and applications. This thesis also presents a geometric discrete Schwarzian quantity whose value …

On Calculating Residuated Approximations And The Structure Of Finite Lattices Of Small Width, Wu Feng

Doctoral Dissertations

The concept of a residuated mapping relates to the concept of Galois connections; both arise in the theory of partially ordered sets. They have been applied in mathematical theories (e.g., category theory and formal concept analysis) and in theoretical computer science. The computation of residuated approximations between two lattices is influenced by lattice properties, e.g. distributivity.

In previous work, it has been proven that, for any mapping f : L → [special characters omitted] between two complete lattices L and [special characters omitted], there exists a largest residuated mapping ρf dominated by f, and the notion of "the shadow …