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Articles 121 - 150 of 255

Full-Text Articles in Applied Mathematics

An Interactive Tool For The Computational Exploration Of Integrodifference Population Models, Kennedy Agwamba Jan 2016

An Interactive Tool For The Computational Exploration Of Integrodifference Population Models, Kennedy Agwamba

HMC Senior Theses

Mathematical modeling of population dynamics can provide novel insight to the growth and dispersal patterns for a variety of species populations, and has become vital to the preservation of biodiversity on a global-scale. These growth and dispersal stages can be modeled using integrodifference equations that are discrete in time and continuous in space. Previous studies have identified metrics that can determine whether a given species will persist or go extinct under certain model parameters. However, a need for computational tools to compute these metrics has limited the scope and analysis within many of these studies. We aim to create computational …


Hopper Bands: Locust Aggregation, Ryan C. Jones Jan 2016

Hopper Bands: Locust Aggregation, Ryan C. Jones

HMC Senior Theses

Locust swarms cause famine and hunger in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa as they travel across croplands and eat vegetation. Current models start with biological properties of locusts and analyze the macroscopic behavior of the system. These models exhibit the desired migratory behavior, but do so with too many parameters. To account for this, a new model, the Alignment and Intermittent Motion (AIM) model, is derived with minimal assumptions. AIM is constructed with regards to locust biology, allowing it to elicit biologically correct locust behavior: the most noteworthy being the fingering of hopper bands. A Particle-in-Cell method is used to optimize …


Art, Math, And Physics; All About For, Chris Brownell, Steve Pauls Sep 2015

Art, Math, And Physics; All About For, Chris Brownell, Steve Pauls

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

Anish Kapoor’s public sculpture “Cloud Gate” and Frame of Reference.


An Exposition And Calibration Of The Ho-Lee Model Of Interest Rates, Benjamin I. Lawson Jan 2015

An Exposition And Calibration Of The Ho-Lee Model Of Interest Rates, Benjamin I. Lawson

CMC Senior Theses

The purpose of this paper is to create an easily understandable version of the Ho-Lee interest rate model. The first part analyzes the model in detail, and the second part calibrates it to demonstrate how it can be applied to real market data.


One-Bit Compressive Sensing With Partial Support Information, Phillip North Jan 2015

One-Bit Compressive Sensing With Partial Support Information, Phillip North

CMC Senior Theses

This work develops novel algorithms for incorporating prior-support information into the field of One-Bit Compressed Sensing. Traditionally, Compressed Sensing is used for acquiring high-dimensional signals from few linear measurements. In applications, it is often the case that we have some knowledge of the structure of our signal(s) beforehand, and thus we would like to leverage it to attain more accurate and efficient recovery. Additionally, the Compressive Sensing framework maintains relevance even when the available measurements are subject to extreme quantization. Indeed, the field of One-Bit Compressive Sensing aims to recover a signal from measurements reduced to only their sign-bit. This …


A Mathematical Model Of The Effect Of Aspirin On Blood Clotting, Breeana J. Johng Jan 2015

A Mathematical Model Of The Effect Of Aspirin On Blood Clotting, Breeana J. Johng

Scripps Senior Theses

In this paper, we provide a mathematical model of the effect of aspirin on blood clotting. The model tracks the enzyme prostaglandin H synthase and an important blood clotting factor, thromboxane A2, in the form of thromboxane B2. Through model analysis, we determine conditions under which the reactions of prostaglandin H synthase are self-sustaining. Lastly, through numerical simulations, we demonstrate that the model accurately captures the steady-state chemical concentrations of interest in blood, both with and without aspirin treatment.


A Comparison Of Clustering And Missing Data Methods For Health Sciences, Ran Zhao, Deanna Needell, Christopher Johansen, Jerry L. Grenard Apr 2014

A Comparison Of Clustering And Missing Data Methods For Health Sciences, Ran Zhao, Deanna Needell, Christopher Johansen, Jerry L. Grenard

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

In this paper, we compare and analyze clustering methods with missing data in health behavior research. In particular, we propose and analyze the use of compressive sensing's matrix completion along with spectral clustering to cluster health related data. The empirical tests and real data results show that these methods can outperform standard methods like LPA and FIML, in terms of lower misclassification rates in clustering and better matrix completion performance in missing data problems. According to our examination, a possible explanation of these improvements is that spectral clustering takes advantage of high data dimension and compressive sensing methods utilize the …


Arnold Diffusion, Florin Diacu Jan 2014

Arnold Diffusion, Florin Diacu

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

No abstract provided.


An Introduction To Fourier Analysis With Applications To Music, Nathan Lenssen, Deanna Needell Jan 2014

An Introduction To Fourier Analysis With Applications To Music, Nathan Lenssen, Deanna Needell

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

In our modern world, we are often faced with problems in which a traditionally analog signal is discretized to enable computer analysis. A fundamental tool used by mathematicians, engineers, and scientists in this context is the discrete Fourier transform (DFT), which allows us to analyze individual frequency components of digital signals. In this paper we develop the discrete Fourier transform from basic calculus, providing the reader with the setup to understand how the DFT can be used to analyze a musical signal for chord structure. By investigating the DFT alongside an application in music processing, we gain an appreciation for …


Fast Algorithms For Analyzing Partially Ranked Data, Matthew Mcdermott Jan 2014

Fast Algorithms For Analyzing Partially Ranked Data, Matthew Mcdermott

HMC Senior Theses

Imagine your local creamery administers a survey asking their patrons to choose their five favorite ice cream flavors. Any data collected by this survey would be an example of partially ranked data, as the set of all possible flavors is only ranked into subsets of the chosen flavors and the non-chosen flavors. If the creamery asks you to help analyze this data, what approaches could you take? One approach is to use the natural symmetries of the underlying data space to decompose any data set into smaller parts that can be more easily understood. In this work, I describe …


Energy-Driven Pattern Formation In Planar Dipole-Dipole Systems, Jaron P. Kent-Dobias Jan 2014

Energy-Driven Pattern Formation In Planar Dipole-Dipole Systems, Jaron P. Kent-Dobias

HMC Senior Theses

A variety of two-dimensional fluid systems, known as dipole-mediated systems, exhibit a dipole-dipole interaction between their fluid constituents. The com- petition of this repulsive dipolar force with the cohesive fluid forces cause these systems to form intricate and patterned structures in their boundaries. In this thesis, we show that the microscopic details of any such system are irrelevant in the macroscopic limit and contribute only to a constant offset in the system’s energy. A numeric model is developed, and some important stable domain morphologies are characterized. Previously unresolved bifurcating branches are explored. Finally, by applying a random energy background to …


A Mathematical Framework For Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Obstacle Avoidance, Sorathan Chaturapruek Jan 2014

A Mathematical Framework For Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Obstacle Avoidance, Sorathan Chaturapruek

HMC Senior Theses

The obstacle avoidance navigation problem for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is a very challenging problem. It lies at the intersection of many fields such as probability, differential geometry, optimal control, and robotics. We build a mathematical framework to solve this problem for quadrotors using both a theoretical approach through a Hamiltonian system and a machine learning approach that learns from human sub-experts' multiple demonstrations in obstacle avoidance. Prior research on the machine learning approach uses an algorithm that does not incorporate geometry. We have developed tools to solve and test the obstacle avoidance problem through mathematics.


'Studio' Mathematics For Undergraduate Engineers, Lori Bassman, Darryl Yong Jan 2014

'Studio' Mathematics For Undergraduate Engineers, Lori Bassman, Darryl Yong

All Faculty Publications

Applied Mathematics for Engineering is a second year undergradu- ate mathematics requirement for engineering majors at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California since 2011. It has been jointly de- signed and taught by the engineering and mathematics departments. The class aims to help students develop confidence in their skill in applying mathematics to solve engineering problems and perseverance for complicated problems; to improve facility at previously learned mathematical skills and to incorporate new tools; and to develop strate- gic competence and better judgment on the correctness of solutions. This article describes the design principles used in creating the class and …


Infinitely Many Rotationally Symmetric Solutions To A Class Of Semilinear Laplace-Beltrami Equations On The Unit Sphere, Emily M. Fischer Jan 2014

Infinitely Many Rotationally Symmetric Solutions To A Class Of Semilinear Laplace-Beltrami Equations On The Unit Sphere, Emily M. Fischer

HMC Senior Theses

I show that a class of semilinear Laplace-Beltrami equations has infinitely many solutions on the unit sphere which are symmetric with respect to rotations around some axis. This equation corresponds to a singular ordinary differential equation, which we solve using energy analysis. We obtain a Pohozaev-type identity to prove that the energy is continuously increasing with the initial condition and then use phase plane analysis to prove the existence of infinitely many solutions.


Experiments On Surfactants And Thin Fluid Films, Peter Megson Jan 2014

Experiments On Surfactants And Thin Fluid Films, Peter Megson

HMC Senior Theses

We investigate the spatiotemporal dynamics of a surfactant monolayer on a thin fluid film spreading inward into a region devoid of surfactant, a system motivated by the alveolus of the human lung. We perform experiments that simultaneously measure the fluid height profile and the fluorescence intensity due to our fluorescent surfactant, NBD-PC. We perform experiments on both a Newtonian layer of glycerol and a shear-thinning fluid layer consisting of xanthan gum mixed with glycerol. We can very successfully extract height profiles on the xanthan gum fluid, although the simultaneous measurement of fluorescent intensity profiles proved problematic, as the laser tended …


Block Kaczmarz Method With Inequalities, Jonathan Briskman Jan 2014

Block Kaczmarz Method With Inequalities, Jonathan Briskman

CMC Senior Theses

The Kaczmarz method is an iterative algorithm that solves overdetermined systems of linear equalities. This paper studies a system of linear equalities and inequalities. We use the block version of the Kaczmarz method applied towards the equalities with the simple randomized Kaczmarz scheme for the inequalities. This primarily involves combining Needell and Tropp's work on the block Kaczmarz method with the application of a randomized Kaczmarz approach towards a system of equalities and inequalities performed by Leventhal and Lewis. We give an expected linear rate of convergence for this kind of system and find that using the block Kaczmarz scheme …


Eradicating Malaria: Improving A Multiple-Timestep Optimization Model Of Malarial Intervention Policy, Taryn M. Ohashi May 2013

Eradicating Malaria: Improving A Multiple-Timestep Optimization Model Of Malarial Intervention Policy, Taryn M. Ohashi

Scripps Senior Theses

Malaria is a preventable and treatable blood-borne disease whose complications can be fatal. Although many interventions exist in order to reduce the impacts of malaria, the optimal method of distributing these interventions in a geographical area with limited resources must be determined. This thesis refines a model that uses an integer linear program and a compartmental model of epidemiology called an SIR model of ordinary differential equations. The objective of the model is to find an intervention strategy over multiple time steps and multiple geographic regions that minimizes the number of days people spend infected with malaria. In this paper, …


Analysis Of Time-Dependent Integrodifference Population Models, Taylor J. Mcadam May 2013

Analysis Of Time-Dependent Integrodifference Population Models, Taylor J. Mcadam

HMC Senior Theses

The population dynamics of species with separate growth and dispersal stages can be described by a discrete-time, continuous-space integrodifference equation relating the population density at one time step to an integral expression involving the density at the previous time step. Prior research on this model has assumed that the equation governing the population dynamics remains fixed over time, however real environments are constantly in flux. We show that for time-varying models, there is a value Λ that can be computed to determine a sufficient condition for population survival. We also develop a framework for analyzing persistence of a population for …


Structured Matrices And The Algebra Of Displacement Operators, Ryan Takahashi May 2013

Structured Matrices And The Algebra Of Displacement Operators, Ryan Takahashi

HMC Senior Theses

Matrix calculations underlie countless problems in science, mathematics, and engineering. When the involved matrices are highly structured, displacement operators can be used to accelerate fundamental operations such as matrix-vector multiplication. In this thesis, we provide an introduction to the theory of displacement operators and study the interplay between displacement and natural matrix constructions involving direct sums, Kronecker products, and blocking. We also investigate the algebraic behavior of displacement operators, developing results about invertibility and kernels.


A Comparison And Catalog Of Intrinsic Tumor Growth Models, Elizabeth A. Sarapata May 2013

A Comparison And Catalog Of Intrinsic Tumor Growth Models, Elizabeth A. Sarapata

HMC Senior Theses

Determining the dynamics and parameter values that drive tumor growth is of great interest to mathematical modelers, experimentalists and practitioners alike. We provide a basis on which to estimate the growth dynamics of ten different tumors by fitting growth parameters to at least five sets of published experimental data per type of tumor. These timescale tumor growth data are also used to determine which of the most common tumor growth models (exponential, power law, logistic, Gompertz, or von Bertalanffy) provides the best fit for each type of tumor. In order to compute the best-fit parameters, we implemented a hybrid local-global …


Propeller, Joel Kahn Mar 2013

Propeller, Joel Kahn

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

This image is based on several different algorithms interconnected within a single program in the language BASIC-256. The fundamental structure involves a tightly wound spiral working outwards from the center of the image. As the spiral is drawn, different values of red, green and blue are modified through separate but related processes, producing the changing appearance. Algebra, trigonometry, geometry, and analytic geometry are all utilized in overlapping ways within the program. As with many works of algorithmic art, small changes in the program can produce dramatic alterations of the visual output, which makes lots of variations possible.


Sloane’S Gap: Do Mathematical And Social Factors Explain The Distribution Of Numbers In The Oeis?, Nicolas J.-P. Gauvrit, Jean-Paul Delahaye, Hector Zenil Jan 2013

Sloane’S Gap: Do Mathematical And Social Factors Explain The Distribution Of Numbers In The Oeis?, Nicolas J.-P. Gauvrit, Jean-Paul Delahaye, Hector Zenil

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

The Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (OEIS) is a catalog of integer sequences. We are particularly interested in the number of occurrences of N(n) of an integer n in the database. This number N(n) marks the importance of n and it varies noticeably from one number to another, and from one number to the next in a series. “Importance” can be mathematically objective (2^10 is an example of an “important” number in this sense) or as the result of a shared mathematical culture (10^9 is more important than 9^10 because we use a decimal notation). The concept of algorithmic complexity …


Social Aggregation In Pea Aphids: Experiment And Random Walk Modeling, Christa Nilsen, John Paige, Olivia Warner, Benjamin Mayhew, Ryan Sutley, Matthew Lam '15, Andrew J. Bernoff, Chad M. Topaz Jan 2013

Social Aggregation In Pea Aphids: Experiment And Random Walk Modeling, Christa Nilsen, John Paige, Olivia Warner, Benjamin Mayhew, Ryan Sutley, Matthew Lam '15, Andrew J. Bernoff, Chad M. Topaz

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

From bird flocks to fish schools and ungulate herds to insect swarms, social biological aggregations are found across the natural world. An ongoing challenge in the mathematical modeling of aggregations is to strengthen the connection between models and biological data by quantifying the rules that individuals follow. We model aggregation of the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum. Specifically, we conduct experiments to track the motion of aphids walking in a featureless circular arena in order to deduce individual-level rules. We observe that each aphid transitions stochastically between a moving and a stationary state. Moving aphids follow a correlated random walk. …


Existence And Qualitative Properties Of Solutions For Nonlinear Dirichlet Problems, Alfonso Castro, Jorge Cossio, Carlos Vélez Jan 2013

Existence And Qualitative Properties Of Solutions For Nonlinear Dirichlet Problems, Alfonso Castro, Jorge Cossio, Carlos Vélez

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

Sign-changing solutions to semilinear elliptic problems in connection with their Morse indices. To this end, we first establish a priori bounds for one-sign solutions. Secondly, using abstract saddle point principles we find large augmented Morse index solutions. In this part, extensive use is made of critical groups, Morse index arguments, Lyapunov-Schmidt reduction, and Leray-Schauder degree. Finally, we provide conditions under which these solutions necessarily change sign and we comment about further qualitative properties.


Near-Optimal Compressed Sensing Guarantees For Anisotropic And Isotropic Total Variation Minimization, Deanna Needell, Rachel Ward Jan 2013

Near-Optimal Compressed Sensing Guarantees For Anisotropic And Isotropic Total Variation Minimization, Deanna Needell, Rachel Ward

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

Consider the problem of reconstructing a multidimensional signal from partial information, as in the setting of compressed sensing. Without any additional assumptions, this problem is ill-posed. However, for signals such as natural images or movies, the minimal total variation estimate consistent with the measurements often produces a good approximation to the underlying signal, even if the number of measurements is far smaller than the ambient dimensionality. Recently, guarantees for two-dimensional images were established. This paper extends these theoretical results to signals of arbitrary dimension and to both the anisotropic and isotropic total variation problems. To be precise, we show that …


Simulations Of Surfactant Driven Thin Film Flow, Shreyas Kumar Jan 2013

Simulations Of Surfactant Driven Thin Film Flow, Shreyas Kumar

HMC Senior Theses

This thesis is intended to fulfill the requirements of the Math and Physics departments at Harvey Mudd College. We begin with a brief introduction to the study of surfactant dynamics followed by some background on the experimental framework our work is related to. We then go through a derivation of the model we use, and explore in depth the nature of the Equation of State (EoS), the relationship between the surface tension on a fluid and the surfactant concentration. We consider the effect of using an empirical equation of state on the results of the simulations and compare the new …


Nonlocal Aggregation Models: A Primer Of Swarm Equilibria, Andrew J. Bernoff, Chad M. Topaz Jan 2013

Nonlocal Aggregation Models: A Primer Of Swarm Equilibria, Andrew J. Bernoff, Chad M. Topaz

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

Biological aggregations such as fish schools, bird flocks, bacterial colonies, and insect swarms have characteristic morphologies governed by the group members' intrinsic social interactions with each other and by their interactions with the external environment. Starting from a simple discrete model treating individual organisms as point particles, we derive a nonlocal partial differential equation describing the evolving population density of a continuum aggregation. To study equilibria and their stability, we use tools from the calculus of variations. In one spatial dimension, and for several choices of social forces, external forces, and domains, we find exact analytical expressions for the equilibria. …


Invisibility: A Mathematical Perspective, Austin G. Gomez Jan 2013

Invisibility: A Mathematical Perspective, Austin G. Gomez

CMC Senior Theses

The concept of rendering an object invisible, once considered unfathomable, can now be deemed achievable using artificial metamaterials. The ability for these advanced structures to refract waves in the negative direction has sparked creativity for future applications. Manipulating electromagnetic waves of all frequencies around an object requires precise and unique parameters, which are calculated from various mathemat- ical laws and equations. We explore the possible interpretations of these parameters and how they are implemented towards the construction of a suitable metamaterial. If carried out correctly, the wave will exit the metamaterial exhibiting the same behavior as when it had entered. …


Clustering Methods And Their Applications To Adolescent Healthcare Data, Morgan Mayer-Jochimsen Jan 2013

Clustering Methods And Their Applications To Adolescent Healthcare Data, Morgan Mayer-Jochimsen

Scripps Senior Theses

Clustering is a mathematical method of data analysis which identifies trends in data by efficiently separating data into a specified number of clusters so is incredibly useful and widely applicable for questions of interrelatedness of data. Two methods of clustering are considered here. K-means clustering defines clusters in relation to the centroid, or center, of a cluster. Spectral clustering establishes connections between all of the data points to be clustered, then eliminates those connections that link dissimilar points. This is represented as an eigenvector problem where the solution is given by the eigenvectors of the Normalized Graph Laplacian. Spectral clustering …


Applications Of Fourier Analysis To Audio Signal Processing: An Investigation Of Chord Detection Algorithms, Nathan Lenssen Jan 2013

Applications Of Fourier Analysis To Audio Signal Processing: An Investigation Of Chord Detection Algorithms, Nathan Lenssen

CMC Senior Theses

The discrete Fourier transform has become an essential tool in the analysis of digital signals. Applications have become widespread since the discovery of the Fast Fourier Transform and the rise of personal computers. The field of digital signal processing is an exciting intersection of mathematics, statistics, and electrical engineering. In this study we aim to gain understanding of the mathematics behind algorithms that can extract chord information from recorded music. We investigate basic music theory, introduce and derive the discrete Fourier transform, and apply Fourier analysis to audio files to extract spectral data.