Computer Sciences Commons^™

Characteristics Of Feedback That Influence Student Confidence And Performance During Mathematical Modeling, Hyunyi Jung, Heidi A. Diefes-Dux, Aladar K. Horvath, Kelsey Joy Rodgers, Monica E. Cardella

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

This study focuses on characteristics of written feedback that influence students’ performance and confidence in addressing the mathematical complexity embedded in a Model-Eliciting Activity (MEA). MEAs are authentic mathematical modeling problems that facilitate students’ iterative development of solutions in a realistic context. We analyzed 132 first-year engineering students’ confidence levels and mathematical model scores on aMEA(pre and post feedback), along with teaching assistant feedback given to the students. The findings show several examples of affective and cognitive feedback that students reported that they used to revise their models. Students’ performance and confidence in developing mathematical models can be increased when …

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 …

Parameters Estimation Of Material Constitutive Models Using Optimization Algorithms, Kiswendsida Jules Kere

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Optimization Algorithms are very useful for solving engineering problems. Indeed, optimization algorithms can be used to optimize engineering designs in terms of safety and economy. Understanding the proprieties of materials in engineering designs is very important in order to make designs safe. Materials are not really perfectly homogeneous and there are heterogeneous distributions in most materials. In this paper, Self-OPTIM which is an inverse constitutive parameter identification framework will be used to identify parameters of a linear elastic material constitutive model. Data for Self-OPTIM will be obtained using ABAQUS simulation of a dog-bone uniaxial test. Optimization Algorithms will be used …

Positive Fragments Of Coalgebraic Logics, Adriana Balan, Alexander Kurz, Jirí Velebil

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Positive modal logic was introduced in an influential 1995 paper of Dunn as the positive fragment of standard modal logic. His completeness result consists of an axiomatization that derives all modal formulas that are valid on all Kripke frames and are built only from atomic propositions, conjunction, disjunction, box and diamond. In this paper, we provide a coalgebraic analysis of this theorem, which not only gives a conceptual proof based on duality theory, but also generalizes Dunn's result from Kripke frames to coalgebras for weak-pullback preserving functors. To facilitate this analysis we prove a number of category theoretic results on …

Presenting Distributive Laws, Marcello M. Bonsangue, Helle H. Hansen, Alexander Kurz, Jurriaan Rot

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Distributive laws of a monad T over a functor F are categorical tools for specifying algebra-coalgebra interaction. They proved to be important for solving systems of corecursive equations, for the specification of well-behaved structural operational semantics and, more recently, also for enhancements of the bisimulation proof method. If T is a free monad, then such distributive laws correspond to simple natural transformations. However, when T is not free it can be rather difficult to prove the defining axioms of a distributive law. In this paper we describe how to obtain a distributive law for a monad with an equational presentation …

Extensions Of Functors From Set To V-Cat, Adriana Balan, Alexander Kurz, Jirí Velebil

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

We show that for a commutative quantale V every functor Set --> V-cat has an enriched left- Kan extension. As a consequence, coalgebras over Set are subsumed by coalgebras over V-cat. Moreover, one can build functors on V-cat by equipping Set-functors with a metric.

Approximation Of Nested Fixpoints, Alexander Kurz

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

The question addressed in this paper is how to correctly approximate infinite data given by systems of simultaneous corecursive definitions. We devise a categorical framework for reasoning about regular datatypes, that is, datatypes closed under products, coproducts and fixpoints. We argue that the right methodology is on one hand coalgebraic (to deal with possible nontermination and infinite data) and on the other hand 2-categorical (to deal with parameters in a disciplined manner). We prove a coalgebraic version of Bekic lemma that allows us to reduce simultaneous fixpoints to a single fix point. Thus a possibly infinite object of interest is …

Coalgebraic Semantics Of Reflexive Economics (Dagstuhl Seminar 15042), Samson Abramsky, Alexander Kurz, Pierre Lescanne, Viktor Winschel

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

This report documents the program and the outcomes of Dagstuhl Seminar 15042 “Coalgebraic Semantics of Reflexive Economics”.

A Robust Deep Model For Improved Classification Of Ad/Mci Patients, Feng Li, Loc Tran, Kim-Han Thung, Shuiwang Ji, Dinggang Shen, Jiang Li

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Accurate classification of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and its prodromal stage, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), plays a critical role in possibly preventing progression of memory impairment and improving quality of life for AD patients. Among many research tasks, it is of a particular interest to identify noninvasive imaging biomarkers for AD diagnosis. In this paper, we present a robust deep learning system to identify different progression stages of AD patients based on MRI and PET scans. We utilized the dropout technique to improve classical deep learning by preventing its weight coadaptation, which is a typical cause of overfitting in deep learning. …

Predicting Scenarios For Successful Autodissemination Of Pyriproxyfen By Malaria Vectors From Their Resting Sites To Aquatic Habitats; Description And Simulation Analysis Of A Field-Parameterizable Model, Samson Sifael Kiware, George F. Corliss, Stephen Merrill, Dickson W. Lwetoijera, Gregor J. Devine, Silas Majambere, Gerry F. Killeen

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Background

Large-cage experiments indicate pyriproxifen (PPF) can be transferred from resting sites to aquatic habitats by Anopheles arabiensis - malaria vector mosquitoes to inhibit emergence of their own offspring. PPF coverage is amplified twice: (1) partial coverage of resting sites with PPF contamination results in far higher contamination coverage of adult mosquitoes because they are mobile and use numerous resting sites per gonotrophic cycle, and (2) even greater contamination coverage of aquatic habitats results from accumulation of PPF from multiple oviposition events.

Methods and Findings

Deterministic mathematical models are described that use only field-measurable input parameters and capture the biological …

Correction To “Master Regulators, Regulatory Networks, And Pathways Of Glioblastoma Subtypes”, Serdar Bozdag, Aiguo Li, Mehmet Baysan, Howard A. Fine

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Remarks On Characterizations Of Malinowska And Szynal, Gholamhossein Hamedani, Z. Javanshiri, Mehdi Maadooliat, A. Yazdani

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

The problem of characterizing a distribution is an important problem which has recently attracted the attention of many researchers. Thus, various characterizations have been established in many different directions. An investigator will be vitally interested to know if their model fits the requirements of a particular distribution. To this end, one will depend on the characterizations of this distribution which provide conditions under which the underlying distribution is indeed that particular distribution. In this work, several characterizations of Malinowska and Szynal (2008) for certain general classes of distributions are revisited and simpler proofs of them are presented. These characterizations are …

Quantification Of The Statistical Effects Of Spatiotemporal Processing Of Nontask Fmri Data, M. Muge Karaman, Andrew S. Nencka, Iain P. Bruce, Daniel B. Rowe

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

Nontask functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has become one of the most popular noninvasive areas of brain mapping research for neuroscientists. In nontask fMRI, various sources of “noise” corrupt the measured blood oxygenation level-dependent signal. Many studies have aimed to attenuate the noise in reconstructed voxel measurements through spatial and temporal processing operations. While these solutions make the data more “appealing,” many commonly used processing operations induce artificial correlations in the acquired data. As such, it becomes increasingly more difficult to derive the true underlying covariance structure once the data have been processed. As the goal of nontask fMRI studies …

A Game-Theoretic Analysis Of The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Peter Revesz

School of Computing: Conference and Workshop Papers

Although nuclear non-proliferation is an almost universal human desire, in practice, the negotiated treaties appear unable to prevent the steady growth of the number of states that have nuclear weapons. We propose a computational model for understanding the complex issues behind nuclear arms negotiations, the motivations of various states to enter a nuclear weapons program and the ways to diffuse crisis situations.

The Antisymmetry Betweenness Axiom And Hausdorff Continua, Paul Bankston

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

An interpretation of betweenness on a set satisfies the antisymmetry axiom at a point a if it is impossible for each of two distinct points to lie between the other and a. In this paper we study the role of antisymmetry as it applies to the K-interpretation of betweenness in a Hausdorff continuum X, where a point c lies between points a and b exactly when every subcontinuum of X containing both a and b contains c as well.

Generalized Theoretical Criteria For Annihilation Of Hiv-1 Virions During Haart, Frank Nani, Mingxian Jin

Math and Computer Science Faculty Working Papers

Aims: This paper is an elaborate and quantitative attempt to construct medically applicable mathematical models and derive criteria for efficacious Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (HAART) protocol for an AIDS patient. The patho-physiological dynamics of Human Immuno-deficiency Virus type 1 (HIV-1) induced AIDS during HAART is modeled by a system of non-linear deterministic differential equations. The physiologically relevant and clinically plausible equations depict the dynamics of uninfected CD4+ T cells (x1), HIV-1 infected CD4+ T cells (x2), HIV-1 virions in the blood plasma (x3), HIV-1 specific CD8+ T cells (x4), and the concentration of HAART drug molecules (x5). The major objective …

On The Occurrences Of Motifs In Recursive Trees, With Applications To Random Structures, Mohan Gopaladesikan

Open Access Dissertations

In this dissertation we study three problems related to motifs and recursive trees. In the first problem we consider a collection of uncorrelated motifs and their occurrences on the fringe of random recursive trees. We compute the exact mean and variance of the multivariate random vector of the counts of occurrences of the motifs. We further use the Cramér-Wold device and the contraction method to show an asymptotic convergence in distribution to a multivariate normal random variable with this mean and variance. ^ The second problem we study is that of the probability that a collection of motifs (of the …

Exploring The Relationship Between K-8 Prospective Teachers’ Algebraic Thinking Proficiency And The Questions They Pose During Diagnostic Algebraic Thinking Interviews, Leigh A. Van Den Kieboom, Marta T. Magiera, John C. Moyer

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

In this study, we explored the relationship between prospective teachers’ algebraic thinking and the questions they posed during one-on-one diagnostic interviews that focused on investigating the algebraic thinking of middle school students. To do so, we evaluated prospective teachers’ algebraic thinking proficiency across 125 algebra-based tasks and we analyzed the characteristics of questions they posed during the interviews. We found that prospective teachers with lower algebraic thinking proficiency did not ask any probing questions. Instead, they either posed questions that simply accepted and affirmed student responses or posed questions that guided the students toward an answer without probing student thinking. …

Relatively Congruence-Free Regular Semigroups, Peter R. Jones

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

Yu, Wang, Wu and Ye call a semigroup S τ -congruence-free, where τ is an equivalence relation on S, if any congruence ρ on S is either disjoint from τ or contains τ . A congruence-free semigroup is then just an ω-congruence-free semigroup, where ω is the universal relation. They determined the completely regular semigroups that are τ -congruence-free with respect to each of the Green’s relations. The goal of this paper is to extend their results to all regular semigroups. Such a semigroup is J –congruence-free if and only if it is either a semilattice or has …

Generalized Exponentiated Moment Exponential Distribution, Zafar Iqbal, Syed Anwer Hasnain, Muhammad Salman, Munir Ahmad, Gholamhossein Hamedani

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

Moment distributions have a vital role in mathematics and statistics, in particular in probability theory, in the perspective research related to ecology, reliability, biomedical field, econometrics, survey sampling and in life-testing. Hasnain (2013) developed an exponentiated moment exponential (EME) distribution and discussed some of its important properties. In the present work, we propose a generalization of EME distribution which we call it generalized EME (GEME) distribution and develop various properties of the distribution. We also present characterizations of the distribution in terms of conditional expectation as well as based on hazard function of the GEME random variable.

Some Remarks On Recent Characterizations Of Continuous Distributions, Gholamhossein Hamedani

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

We would closely look at two recent published papers dealing with characterizations of certain univariate continuous distributions. We shall explain that the main results reported lack important assumptions. These results nevertheless are based on the conditional expectations of monotone functions of the generalized order statistics. We will also mention that similar results have recently been reported without the assumption of monotonicity of the functions of the generalized order statistics.

Self-Referentiality In Constructive Semantics Of Intuitionistic And Modal Logics, Junhua Yu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis explores self-referentiality in the framework of justification logic. In this framework initialed by Artemov, the language has formulas of the form t:F, which means "the term t is a justification of the formula F." Moreover, terms can occur inside formulas and hence it is legal to have t:F(t), which means "the term t is a justification of the formula F about t itself." Expressions like this is not only interesting in the semantics of justification logic, but also, as we will see, necessary in applications of justification logic in formalizing constructive contents implicitly carried by modal and intuitionistic …

Performance Comparison Of Projective Elliptic-Curve Point Multiplication In 64-Bit X86 Runtime Environment, Ninh Winson

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

For over two decades, mathematicians and cryptologists have evaluated and presented the theoretical performance of Elliptic-curve scalar point-multiplication in projective geometry. Because computation in projective domain is composed of a wide array of formulations and computing optimizations, there is not a comprehensive performance comparison of point-multiplication using projective transformation available to verify its realistic efficiency in 64-bit x86 computing platforms. Today, research on explicit mathematical formulations in projective domain continues to excel by seeking higher computational efficiency and ease of realization. An explicit performance evaluation will help implementers choose better implementation methods and improve Elliptic-curve scalar point-multiplication. This paper was …

Characterizations Of A Class Of Distributions By Dual Generalized Order Statistics And Truncated Moments, Filippo Domma, Gholamhossein Hamedani

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

The problem of characterizing a distribution is an important problem which has recently attracted the attention of many researchers. Thus, various characterizations have been established in many different directions. The present work deals with the characterizations of a general class of distributions. These characterizations are based on: (i) a simple relationship between two truncated moments, (ii) truncated moment of certain functions of the nth order statistic, (iii) single truncated moment of certain functions of the random variable and (iv) moments of dual generalized order statistics.We like to mention that the characterization (i) which is expressed in terms of the ratio …

Existence Of Disjoint Weakly Mixing Operators That Fail To Satisfy The Disjoint Hypercyclicity Criterion, Rebecca Sanders, Stanislav Shkarin

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Pharyngeal And Cervical Cancer Incidences Significantly Correlate With Personal Uv Doses Among Whites In The United States, Dianne E. Godar, Rong Tang, Stephen Merrill

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

Because we found UV-exposed oral tissue cells have reduced DNA repair and apoptotic cell death compared with skin tissue cells, we asked if a correlation existed between personal UV dose and the incidences of oral and pharyngeal cancer in the United States. We analyzed the International Agency for Research on Cancer's incidence data for oral and pharyngeal cancers by race (white and black) and sex using each state's average annual personal UV dose. We refer to our data as ‘white’ rather than ‘Caucasian,’ which is a specific subgroup of whites, and ‘black’ rather than African-American because blacks from other countries …

Towards A Lightweight Approach For Modding Serious Educational Games: Assisting Novice Designers, Jacob Dahleen, Alex Hunsberger, Ryan Weber, Dennis Brylow, C. Shaun Longstreet, Kendra M. L. Cooper

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

Serious educational games (SEGs) are a growing segment of the education community’s pedagogical toolbox. Effectively creating such games remains challenging, as teachers and industry trainers are content experts; typically they are not game designers with the theoretical knowledge and practical experience needed to create a quality SEG. Here, a lightweight approach to interactively explore and modify existing SEGs is introduced, a toll that can be broadly adopted by educators for pedagogically sound SEGs. Novice game designers can rapidly explore the educational and traditional elements of a game, with a stress on tracking the SEG learning objectives, as well as allowing …

Morphological Operations Applied To Digital Art Restoration, M. Kirbie Dramdahl

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

This paper provides an overview of the processes involved in detecting and removing cracks from digitized works of art. Specific attention is given to the crack detection phase as completed through the use of morphological operations. Mathematical morphology is an area of set theory applicable to image processing, and therefore lends itself effectively to the digital art restoration process.

Spatiotemporal Crime Analysis, James Q. Tay, Abish Malik, Sherry Towers, David Ebert

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

There has been a rise in the use of visual analytic techniques to create interactive predictive environments in a range of different applications. These tools help the user sift through massive amounts of data, presenting most useful results in a visual context and enabling the person to rapidly form proactive strategies. In this paper, we present one such visual analytic environment that uses historical crime data to predict future occurrences of crimes, both geographically and temporally. Due to the complexity of this analysis, it is necessary to find an appropriate statistical method for correlative analysis of spatiotemporal data, as well …

Problems In The Theory Of Convergence Spaces, Daniel R. Patten

Dissertations - ALL

We investigate several problems in the theory of convergence spaces: generalization of Kolmogorov separation from topological spaces to convergence spaces, representation of reflexive digraphs as convergence spaces, construction of differential calculi on convergence spaces, mereology on convergence spaces, and construction of a universal homogeneous pretopological space. First, we generalize Kolmogorov separation from topological spaces to convergence spaces; we then study properties of Kolmogorov spaces. Second, we develop a theory of reflexive digraphs as convergence spaces, which we then specialize to Cayley graphs. Third, we conservatively extend the concept of differential from the spaces of classical analysis to arbitrary convergence spaces; …