Mathematics Commons^™

Solutions For Femi Questions, October 2021: Rising Water Level: Popping Many Pimples, Larry Weinstein

Physics Faculty Publications

[Introduction] How much would sea levels rise if everyone jumped in the ocean? (Thanks to Bob Friedhoffer for suggesting the problem.)

To estimate this, we need to know the number of people, the average volume of a person, and the area of the oceans. This is the kind of estimation problem where the inputs are relatively well known, and we are calculating the answer to see its order of magnitude.

There are about 7 X 10⁹ people in the world. If each person has a mass of 100 kg (in round numbers), then they each have a volume …

Solutions For Fermi Questions, September 2021: Question 1: Cell Phone Gold, Question 2: Food For Thought, Larry Weinstein

Physics Faculty Publications

Answers to the questions: "How much gold is in a cell phone? Is it worth mining cell phones for gold?"

Solutions For Fermi Questions, November 2021: Question 1: Chess Moves, Question 2: Cat Litter, Larry Weinstein

Physics Faculty Publications

Answers to the questions: How many chess moves are made by Americans each year? How much cat litter did Americans scoop last year?

Interaction Between Genetic Risk Scores For Reduced Pulmonary Function And Smoking, Asthma And Endotoxin, Sinjini Sikdar, Annah B. Wyss, Mi Kyeong Lee, Thanh T. Hoang, Marie Richards, Laura E. Beane Freeman, Christine Parks, Peter S. Thorne, John L. Hankinson, David M. Umbach, Alison Motsinger-Reif, Stephanie J. London

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

Rationale Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified numerous loci associated with lower pulmonary function. Pulmonary function is strongly related to smoking and has also been associated with asthma and dust endotoxin. At the individual SNP level, genome-wide analyses of pulmonary function have not identified appreciable evidence for gene by environment interactions. Genetic Risk Scores (GRSs) may enhance power to identify gene–environment interactions, but studies are few.

Methods We analysed 2844 individuals of European ancestry with 1000 Genomes imputed GWAS data from a case–control study of adult asthma nested within a US agricultural cohort. Pulmonary function traits were FEV₁, …

Onboard Autonomous Controllability Assessment For Fixed Wing Suavs, Brian Edward Duvall

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Traditionally fixed-wing small Unmanned Arial Vehicles (sUAV) are flown while in direct line of sight with commands from a remote operator. However, this is changing with the increased popularity and ready availability of low-cost flight controllers. Flight controllers provide fixed-wing sUAVs with functions that either minimize or eliminate the need for a remote operator. Since the remote operator is no longer controlling the sUAV, it is impossible to determine if the fixed-wing sUAV has proper control authority. In this work, a controllability detection system was designed, built, and flight-tested using COTS hardware. The method features in-situ measurement and analysis of …

Psu At Clef-2020 Arqmath Track: Unsupervised Re-Ranking Using Pretraining, Shaurya Rohatgi, Jian Wu, C. Lee Giles

Computer Science Faculty Publications

This paper elaborates on our submission to the ARQMath track at CLEF 2020. Our primary run for the main Task-1: Question Answering uses a two-stage retrieval technique in which the first stage is a fusion of traditional BM25 scoring and tf-idf with cosine similarity-based retrieval while the second stage is a finer re-ranking technique using contextualized embeddings. For the re-ranking we use a pre-trained robertabase model (110 million parameters) to make the language model more math-aware. Our approach achieves a higher NDCG0 score than the baseline, while our MAP and P@10 scores are competitive, performing better than the best submission …

Numerical Modeling Of Submicron Particles For Acoustic Concentration In Gaseous Flow, Jizhou Liu, Xiaodong Li, Fang Q. Hu

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

This paper intends to explore the rationality and feasibility of modeling dispersed submicron particles in air by a kinetic-based method called the unified gas-kinetic scheme (UGKS) and apply it to the simulation of particle concentration under a transverse standing wave. A gas-particle coupling scheme is proposed where the gas phase is modeled by the two-dimensional linearized Euler equations (LEE) and, through the analogous behavior between the rarefied gas molecules and the air-suspended particles, a modified UGKS is adopted to estimate the particle dynamics. The Stokes' drag force and the acoustic radiation force applied on particles are accounted for by introducing …

Classification Models Of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis Patients, Mohammed Alqawba, Luis R. Rodriguez, Norou Diawara, Rebecca T. Beuschel, Maryann Kaler, Amisha V. Barochia, Stewart J. Levine, Steven D. Nathan, Geraldine Grant

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic and fatal interstitial lung disease with no current cure. Progression of IPF is difficult to predict as the clinical course can be highly variable and range from a rapidly deteriorating state to a relatively stable state, or may be characterized by a slow progressive decline. Therefore, the need for an accurate diagnosis and improved tools for monitoring and managing IPF is of paramount importance, all for understanding the mitochondrial structure and the function played in the IPF. Mitochondrial DNA copy number (MtDCN) has been correlated with mortality in IPF patients and is a …

Teacher Support Of Co- And Socially-Shared Regulation Of Learning In Middle School Mathematics Classrooms, Melissa Quackenbush, Linda Bol

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Faculty Publications

Social influences on classroom learning have a long research tradition and are critical components of self-regulated learning theories. More recently, researchers have explored the social influences of self-regulated learning in cooperative learning contexts. In these settings, co-regulation of learning and socially-shared regulation of learning strategies have been aligned with self-regulated learning theory. However, without specific training or structure, teachers are not likely to explicitly integrate SRL strategies into their teaching. We use case studies to better understand how Zimmerman's theory of self-regulated learning (2008) and Hadwin's conceptual framework of socially-shared regulation of learning (2018) emerge from teachers' support of student-centered …

Comparative Survival Of Asian And White Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer Men Treated With Docetaxel, Susan Halabi, Sandipan Dutta, Catherine M. Tangen, Mark Rosenthal, Daniel P. Petrylak, Ian M. Thompson Jr., Kim N. Chi, Johann S. De Bono, John C. Araujo, Christopher Logothetis, Mario A. Eisenberger, David I. Quinn, Karim Fizazi, Michael J. Morris, Celestia S. Higano, Ian F. Tannock, Eric J. Small, William Kevin Kelly

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

There are few data regarding disparities in overall survival (OS) between Asian and white men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). We compared OS of Asian and white mCRPC men treated in phase III clinical trials with docetaxel and prednisone (DP) or a DP-containing regimen. Individual participant data from 8820 men with mCRPC randomly assigned on nine phase III trials to receive DP or a DP-containing regimen were combined. Men enrolled in these trials had a diagnosis of prostate adenocarcinoma. The median overall survival was 18.8 months (95% confidence interval [CI] = 17.4 to 22.1 months) and 21.2 months (95% …

Investigating The Numerical Stability Of Using An Impedance Boundary Condition To Model Broadband Noise Scattering With Acoustic Liners, Michelle E. Rodio, Fang Q. Hu, Douglas M. Nark

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

Reducing aircraft noise is a major objective in the field of computational aeroacoustics. When designing next generation quiet aircraft, it is important to be able to accurately and efficiently predict the acoustic scattering by an aircraft body from a given noise source. Acoustic liners are an effective tool for achieving aircraft noise reduction and are characterized by a frequency-dependent impedance value. Converted into the time-domain using Fourier transforms, an impedance boundary condition can be used to simulate the acoustic wave scattering by geometric bodies treated with acoustic liners. A Broadband Impedance Model will be discussed in which the liner impedance …

Multiplicative Noise Removal: Nonlocal Low-Rank Model And It's Proximal Alternating Reweighted Minimization Algorithm, Xiaoxia Liu, Jian Lu, Lixin Shen, Chen Xu, Yuesheng Xu

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

The goal of this paper is to develop a novel numerical method for efficient multiplicative noise removal. The nonlocal self-similarity of natural images implies that the matrices formed by their nonlocal similar patches are low-rank. By exploiting this low-rank prior with application to multiplicative noise removal, we propose a nonlocal low-rank model for this task and develop a proximal alternating reweighted minimization (PARM) algorithm to solve the optimization problem resulting from the model. Specifically, we utilize a generalized nonconvex surrogate of the rank function to regularize the patch matrices and develop a new nonlocal low-rank model, which is a nonconvex …

Residual Control Chart For Binary Response With Multicollinearity Covariates By Neural Network Model, Jong-Min Kim, Ning Wang, Yumin Liu, Kayoung Park

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

Quality control studies have dealt with symmetrical data having the same shape with respect to left and right. In this research, we propose the residual (r) control chart for binary asymmetrical (non-symmetric) data with multicollinearity between input variables via combining principal component analysis (PCA), functional PCA (FPCA) and the generalized linear model with probit and logit link functions, and neural network regression model. The motivation in this research is that the proposed control chart method can deal with both high-dimensional correlated multivariate data and high frequency functional multivariate data by neural network model and FPCA. We show that the neural …

What's Your Sphericity Index? Rationalizing Surface Area And Volume, John A. Adam

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

Virginia Standards of Learning include mathematical content related to the surface area and the volume of various geometric objects. In the seventh grade, “Students... solve problems involving volume and surface area” In the eighth grade, “Proportional reasoning is expounded upon as students solve a variety of problems. Students find the volume and surface area of more complex three dimensional figures”. In high school geometry, “The student... use[s] surface area and volume of three-dimensional objects to solve practical problems” (Virginia Department of Education, 2016). The challenge is to find scenarios that are engaging to students and keep them interested in the …

Computing The Newton Potential In The Boundary Integral Equation For The Dirichlet Problem Of The Poisson Equation, Wenchao Guan, Ying Jiang, Yuesheng Xu

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

Evaluating the Newton potential is crucial for efficiently solving the boundary integral equation of the Dirichlet boundary value problem of the Poisson equation. In the context of the Fourier-Garlerkin method for solving the boundary integral equation, we propose a fast algorithm for evaluating Fourier coefficients of the Newton potential by using a sparse grid approximation. When the forcing function of the Poisson equation expressed in the polar coordinates has mth-order bounded mixed derivatives, the proposed algorithm achieves an accuracy of order 𝒪(n^-m log³ n), with requiring 𝒪(n log² n) number of arithmetics for …

Quantifying The Varying Predictive Value Of Physical Activity Measures Obtained From Wearable Accelerometers On All-Cause Mortality Over Short To Medium Time Horizons In Nhanes 2003-2006, Lucia Tabacu, Mark Ledbetter, Andrew Leroux, Ciprian Crainiceanu, Ekaterina Smirnova

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

Physical activity measures derived from wearable accelerometers have been shown to be highly predictive of all-cause mortality. Prediction models based on traditional risk factors and accelerometry-derived physical activity measures are developed for five time horizons. The data set contains 2978 study participants between 50 and 85 years old with an average of 13.08 years of follow-up in the NHANES 2003–2004 and 2005–2006. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were fit separately for five datasets for one- to five-year all-cause mortality as outcome (number of events 46, 94, 155, 218, and 297, respectively). In univariate models the total activity count (TAC) …

Tick Control Methods For Amblyomma Americanum In Virginia: Applications And Modeling, Alexis Lynn White

Biological Sciences Theses & Dissertations

Tick-borne diseases continue to increase in the United States, and yet no comprehensive method of tick control currently exists. The lone star tick, Amblyomma americanum, is an aggressive human-biting tick and vector of several pathogens which effect both humans and other animals. Standard control methods do not work as well for A. americanum as they do for the more commonly studied blacklegged tick, Ixodes scapularis. TickBot, a tick-killing robot, is a potential method to control A. americanum that lures ticks to its path with carbon dioxide and the ticks die from contact with a permethrin-treated cloth that is …

Copula-Based Zero-Inflated Count Time Series Models, Mohammed Sulaiman Alqawba

Mathematics & Statistics Theses & Dissertations

Count time series data are observed in several applied disciplines such as in environmental science, biostatistics, economics, public health, and finance. In some cases, a specific count, say zero, may occur more often than usual. Additionally, serial dependence might be found among these counts if they are recorded over time. Overlooking the frequent occurrence of zeros and the serial dependence could lead to false inference. In this dissertation, we propose two classes of copula-based time series models for zero-inflated counts with the presence of covariates. Zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP), zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB), and zero-inflated Conway-Maxwell-Poisson (ZICMP) distributed marginals of the …

Dynamic Attribute-Level Best Worst Discrete Choice Experiments, Amanda Working, Mohammed Alqawba, Norou Diawara

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

Dynamic modelling of decision maker choice behavior of best and worst in discrete choice experiments (DCEs) has numerous applications. Such models are proposed under utility function of decision maker and are used in many areas including social sciences, health economics, transportation research, and health systems research. After reviewing references on the study of such experiments, we present example in DCE with emphasis on time dependent best-worst choice and discrimination between choice attributes. Numerical examples of the dynamic DCEs are simulated, and the associated expected utilities over time of the choice models are derived using Markov decision processes. The estimates are …

On Analytic Nonlinear Input-Output Systems: Expanded Global Convergence And System Interconnections, Irina M. Winter Arboleda

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Functional series representations of nonlinear systems first appeared in engineering in the early 1950’s. One common representation of a nonlinear input-output system are Chen-Fliess series or Fliess operators. Such operators are described by functional series indexed by words over a noncommutative alphabet. They can be viewed as a noncommutative generalization of a Taylor series. A Fliess operator is said to be globally convergent when its radius of convergence is infinite, in other words, when there is no a priori upper bound on both the L1-norm of an admissible input and the length of time over which the corresponding output is …

The Predictive Performance Of Objective Measures Of Physical Activity Derived From Accelerometry Data For 5-Year All-Cause Mortality In Older Adults: National Health And Nutritional Examination Survey 2003-2006, Ekaterina Smirnova, Andrew Leroux, Quy Cao, Lucia Tabacu, Vadim Zipunnikov, Ciprian Crainiceanu, Jacek Urbanek

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

Background: Declining physical activity (PA) is a hallmark of aging. Wearable technology provides reliable measures of the frequency, duration, intensity, and timing of PA. Accelerometry-derived measures of PA are compared to established predictors of 5-year all-cause mortality in older adults in terms of individual, relative, and combined predictive performance.

Methods: Participants between 50 and 85 years old from the 2003-2006 National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (NHANES, n = 2978) wore a hip-worn accelerometer in the free-living environment for up to 7 days. A total of 33 predictors of 5-year all-cause mortality (number of events = 297), including 20 measures …

Linear Difference Equations: Integrated- Environmentalist Approach For Teaching Mathematics, John A. Adam

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

There are at least eight known approaches for teaching mathematics that have been described in the literature. These include the Integrated Environmentalist, Formative, Social-Constructivist, Structuralist, New Maths, Problem Solving, Cultural, and Behaviorist approaches (Neyland, 1995). This paper presents some examples for teaching mathematics using the Integrated-Environmentalist approach, which is based on the assumption that the content knowledge in mathematics cannot be separated from the meaningful context from which it is taken, and in which it can be explained. In this approach for teaching mathematics the environment is used as the main source of mathematical meaning, stimulation to do creative work …

Sparsity Promoting Regularization For Effective Noise Suppression In Spect Image Reconstruction, Wei Zheng, Si Li, Andrzej Krol, C. Ross Schmidtlein, Xueying Zeng, Yuesheng Xu

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

The purpose of this research is to develop an advanced reconstruction method for low-count, hence high-noise, Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) image reconstruction. It consists of a novel reconstruction model to suppress noise while conducting reconstruction and an efficient algorithm to solve the model. A novel regularizer is introduced as the nonconvex denoising term based on the approximate sparsity of the image under a geometric tight frame transform domain. The deblurring term is based on the negative log-likelihood of the SPECT data model. To solve the resulting nonconvex optimization problem a Preconditioned Fixed-point Proximity Algorithm (PFPA) is introduced. We prove …

On Hybrid Temporal Basis Functions For Stable Numerical Solution Of Time Domain Boundary Integral Equations, Fang Q. Hu

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

Problems in unsteady aerodynamics and aeroacoustics can sometimes be formulated as integral equations, such as the boundary integral equations. Numerical discretization of integral equations in the time domain often leads to so-called March-On-in-Time (MOT) schemes. In the literature, the temporal basis functions used in MOT schemes have been largely limited to low-order shifted Lagrange basis functions. In order to evaluate the accuracy and effectiveness of the temporal basis functions, a Fourier analysis of the temporal interpolation schemes is carried out. Based on the Fourier analysis, the spectral resolutions of various temporal basis functions are quantified. It is argued that hybrid …

Solutions For Fermi Questions, May 2019: Question 1: Graduation Speeches; Question 2: Fan Propulsion, Larry Weinstein

Physics Faculty Publications

[Introduction] How many person-hoursare spent listening to graduation speeches each year? How long is this in lifetimes?

Answer: Just about everyone graduates high school and goes to their graduation, usually with guests. Only about 30% of Americans (more than 10% and less than 100% graduate college, so we will ignore those graduates. Therefore we need to estimate the number of graduating high school seniors, the number of guests per senior, and the length of the graduation speeches.

The Effects Of Metacognitive Training On Algebra Students’ Calibration Accuracy, Achievement, And Mathematical Literacy, Deana J. Ford

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation describes an empirical study that investigated how metacognitive training influenced lower achieving Algebra students’ calibration accuracy, achievement, and development of mathematics literacy. Multiple methods were used to collect and analyze the data. Close analysis of students’ work and classroom observations revealed that students that were exposed to the metacognitive training had significantly higher prediction accuracy and made gains in their understanding of the mathematics word problems than did students who did not receive the metacognitive training. Overall, however, both the intervention and comparison groups improved in their academic performance and became more mathematically literate and accurate in their …

Advances In Processing, Mining, And Learning Complex Data: From Foundations To Real-World Applications, Jia Wu, Shirui Pan, Chuan Zhou, Gang Li, Wu He, Chengqi Zhang

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Faculty Publications

Processing, mining, and learning complex data refer to an advanced study area of data mining and knowledge discovery concerning the development and analysis of approaches for discovering patterns and learning models from data with a complex structure (e.g., multirelational data, XML data, text data, image data, time series, sequences, graphs, streaming data, and trees) [1–5]. These kinds of data are commonly encountered in many social, economic, scientific, and engineering applications. Complex data pose new challenges for current research in data mining and knowledge discovery as they require new methods for processing, mining, and learning them. Traditional …

Numerical Simulation For A Rising Bubble Interacting With A Solid Wall: Impact, Bounce, And Thin Film Dynamics, Changjuan Zhang, Jie Li, Li-Shi Luo, Tiezheng Qian

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

Using an arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian method on an adaptive moving unstructured mesh, we carry out numerical simulations for a rising bubble interacting with a solid wall. Driven by the buoyancy force, the axisymmetric bubble rises in a viscous liquid toward a horizontal wall, with impact on and possible bounce from the wall. First, our simulation is quantitatively validated through a detailed comparison between numerical results and experimental data. We then investigate the bubble dynamics which exhibits four different behaviors depending on the competition among the inertial, viscous, gravitational, and capillary forces. A phase diagram for bubble dynamics has been produced using …

The Beauty Of Numbers In Nature: Mathematical Patterns And Principles From The Natural World [Book Review], John A. Adam

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) It came as quite a shock at the time. I cannot recall exactly when it happened, but it certainly caught me by surprise. For most of my life, and certainly from elementary school (or “primary” school in the UK) through high school I had become used to seeing posters and books illustrating the “standard” map of the world: the Mercator projection. Of course, Greenwich, London, sat at longitude 0◦ (and still does!). And certainly I knew that planet Earth is spheroidal and that this flat projection distorted the shapes and areas (especially near the polar regions), but somehow …

Dimensional Analysis: Physical Insight Gained Through Algebra, John A. Adam

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.