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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Spreading Speeds And Traveling Waves In Some Population Models., Quancheng Meng Dec 2015

Spreading Speeds And Traveling Waves In Some Population Models., Quancheng Meng

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Virtually every ecosystem has been invaded by exotic organisms with potentially drastic consequences for the native fauna or flora. Studying the forms and rates of invading species has been an important topic in spatial ecology. We investigate two two-species competition models with Allee effects in the forms of reaction-diffusion equations and integro-difference equations. We discuss the spatial transitions from a mono-culture equilibrium to a coexistence equilibrium or a different mono-culture equilibrium in these models. We provide formulas for the spreading speeds based on the linear determinacy and show the results on the existence of traveling waves. We also study a …


Topographic Signatures Of Geodynamics, Samuel G. Roy Aug 2015

Topographic Signatures Of Geodynamics, Samuel G. Roy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The surface of the Earth retains an imperfect memory of the diverse geodynamic, climatic, and surface transport processes that cooperatively drive the evolution of Earth. In this thesis I explore the potential of using topographic analysis and landscape evolution models to unlock past and/or present evidence for geodynamic activity. I explore the potential isolated effects of geodynamics on landscape evolution, particularly focusing on two byproducts of tectonic strain: rock displacement and damage. Field evidence supports a strong correlation between rock damage and erodibility, and a numerical sensitivity analysis supports the hypothesis that an order of magnitude weakening in rock, well …


Comparison Of Two Parameter Estimation Techniques For Stochastic Models, Thomas C. Robacker Aug 2015

Comparison Of Two Parameter Estimation Techniques For Stochastic Models, Thomas C. Robacker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Parameter estimation techniques have been successfully and extensively applied to deterministic models based on ordinary differential equations but are in early development for stochastic models. In this thesis, we first investigate using parameter estimation techniques for a deterministic model to approximate parameters in a corresponding stochastic model. The basis behind this approach lies in the Kurtz limit theorem which implies that for large populations, the realizations of the stochastic model converge to the deterministic model. We show for two example models that this approach often fails to estimate parameters well when the population size is small. We then develop a …


The Pc-Tree Algorithm, Kuratowski Subdivisions, And The Torus., Charles J. Suer Aug 2015

The Pc-Tree Algorithm, Kuratowski Subdivisions, And The Torus., Charles J. Suer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The PC-Tree algorithm of Shih and Hsu (1999) is a practical linear-time planarity algorithm that provides a plane embedding of the given graph if it is planar and a Kuratowski subdivision otherwise. Remarkably, there is no known linear-time algorithm for embedding graphs on the torus. We extend the PC-Tree algorithm to a practical, linear-time toroidality test for K3;3-free graphs called the PCK-Tree algorithm. We also prove that it is NP-complete to decide whether the edges of a graph can be covered with two Kuratowski subdivisions. This greatly reduces the possibility of a polynomial-time toroidality testing algorithm based solely on edge-coverings …


Order Automorphisms On The Lattice Of Residuated Maps Of Some Special Nondistributive Lattices., Erika D. Foreman Aug 2015

Order Automorphisms On The Lattice Of Residuated Maps Of Some Special Nondistributive Lattices., Erika D. Foreman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The residuated maps from a lattice L to itself form their own lattice, which we denote Res(L). In this dissertation, we explore the order automorphisms on the lattice Res(L) where L is a finite nondistributive lattice. It is known that left and right composition of f ∈ Res(L) with automorphisms of L yields an order automorphism of Res(L). It begs the question, then, if all order automorphisms of Res(L) can be classified as such.


Mathematical Studies Of The Glucose-Insulin Regulatory System Models., Minghu Wang Aug 2015

Mathematical Studies Of The Glucose-Insulin Regulatory System Models., Minghu Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Three dynamic models are proposed to study the mechanism of glucose-insulin regulatory system and the possible causes of diabetes mellitus. The progression of diabetes comes along with the apoptosis of pancreatic beta-cells. A dynamical system model is formulated based on physiology and studied by geometric singular perturbation theory. The analytical studies reveal rich analytical features, such as persistence of solutions, Hopf bifurcation and backward bifurcation, while numerical studies successfully fit available longitudinal T2DM data of Pima Indian tribe. These studies together not only validate our model, but also point out key intrinsic factors leading to the development of T2DM. We …


Chaos In Semiflows., Chad Money Aug 2015

Chaos In Semiflows., Chad Money

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

All the common notions about dynamics in cascades - topological transitivity, periodic points, sensitive dependence, and so forth - can be formulated in the context of a general abelian semiflow. Many intricate results, such as the redundancy of Devaney chaos, remain true (with very minor qualifications) in this wider context. However, when we examine general monoid actions on a product space, it turns out that the topological and algebraic structure of N0 plays a large role in the preservation of chaotic properties. In order to obtain meaningful results in that arena, new ideas such as “directional” and “synnrec” are introduced, …


Strong Quota Pair Systems And May's Theorem On Median Semilattices., Lucas Hoots Aug 2015

Strong Quota Pair Systems And May's Theorem On Median Semilattices., Lucas Hoots

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Kenneth May [16], in 1952, characterized simple majority rule in terms of three conditions: anonymity, neutrality, and positive responsiveness. In this thesis, we remove the condition of neutrality and obtain a characterization of the class of voting rules that satisfy anonymity and positive responsiveness. The key concept in this characterization is the notion of a strong quota pair system. The situation with two alternatives studied by May can be thought of as a very simple example of a finite median semilattice. The main result of this thesis is an extension of May’s theorem to the domain of all finite median …


Improved Self-Consistency For Sced-Lcao., Lyle C. Smith May 2015

Improved Self-Consistency For Sced-Lcao., Lyle C. Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this document I describe a novel implementation of the generalized bisection method for finding roots of highly non-linear functions of several variables. Several techniques were optimized to reduce computation time. The implementation of the bisection method allows for the calculation of heterogeneous systems with SCED-LCAO, since derivative-based methods often fail for these systems. Systems composed of Gallium and Nitrogen are currently receiving much interest due to their behavior as semi-conductors and their ability to form nano-wires. The methods developed here were employed to create a set of SCED-LCAO parameters for homogeneous Gallium and heterogeneous Gallium Nitride systems. These parameters …


A Hierarchical Graph For Nucleotide Binding Domain 2, Samuel Kakraba May 2015

A Hierarchical Graph For Nucleotide Binding Domain 2, Samuel Kakraba

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

One of the most prevalent inherited diseases is cystic fibrosis. This disease is caused by a mutation in a membrane protein, the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR). CFTR is known to function as a chloride channel that regulates the viscosity of mucus that lines the ducts of a number of organs. Generally, most of the prevalent mutations of CFTR are located in one of two nucleotide binding domains, namely, the nucleotide binding domain 1 (NBD1). However, some mutations in nucleotide binding domain 2 (NBD2) can equally cause cystic fibrosis. In this work, a hierarchical graph is built for NBD2. …


Graphs Of Classroom Networks, Rebecca Holliday Jan 2015

Graphs Of Classroom Networks, Rebecca Holliday

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this work, we use the Havel-Hakimi algorithm to visualize data collected from students to investigate classroom networks. The Havel-Hakimi algorithm uses a recursive method to create a simple graph from a graphical degree sequence. In this case, the degree sequence is a representation of the students in a classroom, and we use the number of peers with whom a student studied or collaborated to determine the degree of each. We expand upon the Havel-Hakimi algorithm by coding a program in MATLAB that generates random graphs with the same degree sequence. Then, we run another algorithm to find the isomorphism …


Improved Full-Newton-Step Infeasible Interior-Point Method For Linear Complementarity Problems, Mustafa Ozen Jan 2015

Improved Full-Newton-Step Infeasible Interior-Point Method For Linear Complementarity Problems, Mustafa Ozen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, we present an improved version of Infeasible Interior-Point Method (IIPM) for monotone Linear Complementarity Problem (LCP). One of the most important advantages of this version in compare to old version is that it only requires feasibility steps. In the earlier version, each iteration consisted of one feasibility step and some centering steps (at most three in practice). The improved version guarantees that after one feasibility step, the new iterated point is feasible and close enough to central path. Thus, the centering steps are eliminated. This improvement is based on the Lemma(Roos, 2015). Thanks to this lemma, proximity …


A Survey Of Mathematical Models Of Dengue Fever, Iurii Bakach Jan 2015

A Survey Of Mathematical Models Of Dengue Fever, Iurii Bakach

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this paper, we compare and contrast five models of Dengue fever. We evaluate each model using different scenarios and identify the strenghts and wecknesses of each of the model


Enumerating Graphs Using Integrals From Quantum Field Theory, William A. Coggins Jan 2015

Enumerating Graphs Using Integrals From Quantum Field Theory, William A. Coggins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Enumerating graphs is a relatively new subfield of mathematics. In this thesis, we will discuss a enumerative method that derives from Quantum Field Theory. We begin with the basic ideas of Calculus and extend them into a enumerative method that will allow us to classify graphs embedded on surfaces.


Solutions Of Inequality Constrained Spline Optimization Problems With The Active Set Method, Joshua A. Holloway Jan 2015

Solutions Of Inequality Constrained Spline Optimization Problems With The Active Set Method, Joshua A. Holloway

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

We solve the problem of finding a near-interpolant curve, subject to constraints, which minimizes the bending energy of the curve. Using B-splines as our tools, we give a brief overview of spline properties and develop several different cases of inequality constrained optimization problems of this type. In particular, we develop the active set method and use it to solve these problems, emphasizing the fact that this algorithm will converge to a solution in finite iterations. Our solution will solve an open problem regarding near-interpolant spline curves. Furthermore, we supplement this with an iterative technique for better choosing data sites so …