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2011

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Articles 301 - 330 of 882

Full-Text Articles in Mathematics

Editorial Announcement, Ravi P. Agarwal May 2011

Editorial Announcement, Ravi P. Agarwal

Mathematics and System Engineering Faculty Publications

[No abstract available]

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Viscosity Of Bacterial Suspensions: Hydrodynamic Interactions And Self-Induced Noise, Shawn D. Ryan, Brian M. Haines, Leonid Berlyand, Falko Ziebert, Igor S. Aranson May 2011

Viscosity Of Bacterial Suspensions: Hydrodynamic Interactions And Self-Induced Noise, Shawn D. Ryan, Brian M. Haines, Leonid Berlyand, Falko Ziebert, Igor S. Aranson

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications

The viscosity of a suspension of swimming bacteria is investigated analytically and numerically. We propose a simple model that allows for efficient computation for a large number of bacteria. Our calculations show that long-range hydrodynamic interactions, intrinsic to self-locomoting objects in a viscous fluid, result in a dramatic reduction of the effective viscosity. In agreement with experiments on suspensions of Bacillus subtilis, we show that the viscosity reduction is related to the onset of large-scale collective motion due to interactions between the swimmers. The simulations reveal that the viscosity reduction occurs only for relatively low concentrations of swimmers: Further …

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The Falc-Loop Web Server For Protein Loop Modeling, Evangelos A. Coutsias, Juns Ko, Dongseon Lee, Hahnbeom Park, Julian Lee, Chaok Seok May 2011

The Falc-Loop Web Server For Protein Loop Modeling, Evangelos A. Coutsias, Juns Ko, Dongseon Lee, Hahnbeom Park, Julian Lee, Chaok Seok

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

The FALC-Loop web server provides an online interface for protein loop modeling by employing an ab initio loop modeling method called FALC (fragment assembly and analytical loop closure). The server may be used to construct loop regions in homology modeling, to refine unreliable loop regions in experimental structures or to model segments of designed sequences. The FALC method is computationally less expensive than typical ab initio methods because the conformational search space is effectively reduced by the use of fragments derived from a structure database. The analytical loop closure algorithm allows efficient search for loop conformations that fit into the …

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The Quantum Dialectic, Logan Kelley May 2011

The Quantum Dialectic, Logan Kelley

Pitzer Senior Theses

A philosophic account of quantum physics. The thesis is divided into two parts. Part I is dedicated to laying the groundwork of quantum physics, and explaining some of the primary difficulties. Subjects of interest will include the principle of locality, the quantum uncertainty principle, and Einstein's criterion for reality. Quantum dilemmas discussed include the double-slit experiment, observations of spin and polarization, EPR, and Bell's theorem. The first part will argue that mathematical-physical descriptions of the world fall short of explaining the experimental observations of quantum phenomenon. The problem, as will be argued, is framework of the physical descriptive schema. Part …

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Pruitt's Estimates In Banach Space, Philip S. Griffin May 2011

Pruitt's Estimates In Banach Space, Philip S. Griffin

Mathematics - All Scholarship

Pruitt's estimates on the expectation and the distribution of the time taken by a random walk to exit a ball of radius r are extended to the infinite dimensional setting. It is shown that they separate into two pairs of estimates depending on whether the space is type 2 or cotype 2. It is further shown that these estimates characterize type 2 and cotype 2 spaces.

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Implementation Of An Inexpensive 3d Scanner, Robert Michael Sivley May 2011

Implementation Of An Inexpensive 3d Scanner, Robert Michael Sivley

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The purpose of this project was to make 3D scanning technology accessible to the general public at an affordable price. To accomplish this, a scanner was designed that utilized structured-light projection. Coupled with triangulation, this provided an inexpensive, image-based modeling technique. Software was developed to analyze the required images and generate a 3D model. Users can edit analysis parameters during runtime to better optimize results for specific images. The 3D models generated are stored according to the .obj standard and can be opened in any commercial 3D modeling software. Results were positive, but several issues exist with the chosen scanning …

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Universal Hypergraphs., Michael Deren May 2011

Universal Hypergraphs., Michael Deren

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, we study universal hypergraphs. What are these? Let us start with defining a universal graph as a graph on n vertices that contains each of the many possible graphs of a smaller size k < n as an induced subgraph. A hypergraph is a discrete structure on n vertices in which edges can be of any size, unlike graphs, where the edge size is always two. If all edges are of size three, then the hypergraph is said to be 3-uniform. If a 3-uniform hypergraph can have edges colored one of a colors, then it is called a …

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A Predictive Model Which Uses Descriptors Of Rna Secondary Structures Derived From Graph Theory., Alissa Ann Rockney May 2011

A Predictive Model Which Uses Descriptors Of Rna Secondary Structures Derived From Graph Theory., Alissa Ann Rockney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The secondary structures of ribonucleic acid (RNA) have been successfully modeled with graph-theoretic structures. Often, simple graphs are used to represent secondary RNA structures; however, in this research, a multigraph representation of RNA is used, in which vertices represent stems and edges represent the internal motifs. Any type of RNA secondary structure may be represented by a graph in this manner. We define novel graphical invariants to quantify the multigraphs and obtain characteristic descriptors of the secondary structures. These descriptors are used to train an artificial neural network (ANN) to recognize the characteristics of secondary RNA structure. Using the ANN, …

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Set: The Probabilities And Possibilities, Tabitha K. Bollinger May 2011

Set: The Probabilities And Possibilities, Tabitha K. Bollinger

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

The card game SET involves finding groups o f three cards called SETs. Choices are based upon the individual card characteristics, including shape, pattern, number, and color. Previously, the maximum number o f cards that can be played without creating a SET has been determined as 20 cards by extensive computer work. This report further explored the probabilities and possibilities o f the game. Using discrete mathematics and probability, we explored how many SETs are possible and what strategies led to the most points. Additionally, this project exercised undergraduate logic and reasoning to generalize the results in order to be …

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Algebraic Solutions To Overdefined Systems With Applications To Cryptanalysis, Eric Crockett May 2011

Algebraic Solutions To Overdefined Systems With Applications To Cryptanalysis, Eric Crockett

Mathematical Sciences Technical Reports (MSTR)

Cryptographic algorithms are based on a wide variety of difficult problems in mathematics. One of these problems is finding a solution to a system of multivariate quadratic equations (MQ). A generalization of this problem is to find a solution to a system of higher order non-linear equations. Both of these problems are NP-hard over any field. Many cryptosystems such as AES, Serpent, Toyocrypt, and others can be reduced to some form of the MQ problem. In this paper we analyze the relinearization and XL algorithms for solving overdetermined systems of non-linear equations, as well as two variations of the XL …

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A Range And Existence Theorem For Pseudomonotone Perturbations Of Maximal Monotone Operators, Vy Khoi Le May 2011

A Range And Existence Theorem For Pseudomonotone Perturbations Of Maximal Monotone Operators, Vy Khoi Le

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, we prove a range and existence theorem for multivalued pseudomonotone perturbations of maximal monotone operators. We assume a general coercivity condition on the sum of a maximal monotone and a pseudomonotone operator instead of a condition on the pseudomonotone operator only. An illustrative example of a variational inequality in a Sobolev space with variable exponent is given.

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Bias In Monte Carlo Simulations Due To Pseudo-Random Number Generator Initial Seed Selection, Jack C. Hill, Shlomo S. Sawilowsky May 2011

Bias In Monte Carlo Simulations Due To Pseudo-Random Number Generator Initial Seed Selection, Jack C. Hill, Shlomo S. Sawilowsky

Theoretical and Behavioral Foundations of Education Faculty Publications

Pseudo-random number generators can bias Monte Carlo simulations of the standard normal probability distribution function with initial seeds selection. Five generator designs were initial-seeded with values from 10000HEX to 1FFFFHEX, estimates of the mean were calculated for each seed, the distribution of mean estimates was determined for each generator and simulation histories were graphed for selected seeds.

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Rated Extremal Principles For Finite And Infinite Systems, Hung M. Phan, Boris S. Mordukhovich May 2011

Rated Extremal Principles For Finite And Infinite Systems, Hung M. Phan, Boris S. Mordukhovich

Mathematics Research Reports

In this paper we introduce new notions of local extremality for finite and infinite systems of closed sets and establish the corresponding extremal principles for them called here rated extremal principles. These developments are in the core geometric theory of variational analysis. We present their applications to calculus and optimality conditions for problems with infinitely many constraints.

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A Multiple Regression Analysis Of Personality’S Impact On Actuarial Exam Performance, Matthew Ciaffone May 2011

A Multiple Regression Analysis Of Personality’S Impact On Actuarial Exam Performance, Matthew Ciaffone

Honors Projects in Mathematics

Existing literature indicates that there is some connection between personality and both academic and work-related performance. The author's intent for the research described herein is to explore this connection for students majoring in actuarial mathematics with regard to their performance on actuarial certification exams. Specifically, using the five-factor model of personality, the author seeks to predict the number of attempts required to pass the first two exams in the process (Exam 1/P - probability; Exam 2/FM - financial mathematics) using measures of the five dimensions of the five-factor model (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability) through regression …

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Factors Related To Math Performance And Potential Benefits Of One-On-One Instruction, Amanda Zagame May 2011

Factors Related To Math Performance And Potential Benefits Of One-On-One Instruction, Amanda Zagame

Honors Projects in Mathematics

This fall 2010 study of Bryant University students enrolled in freshman-level math courses considered factors related to college-level math performance, including gender, math self-efficacy, math anxiety, and utilization of professors’ office hours and/or tutoring center services. Female students at Bryant reported lower levels of math self-efficacy and higher levels of math anxiety, both of which research has shown to be negatively correlated with test scores. The use of one-on-one instruction was expected to provide a potential counterweight to this equation. Results from the 287 initial and 229 final surveys administered in this study did not support this hypothesis. This phenomenon …

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Group Actions And Divisors On Tropical Curves, Max B. Kutler May 2011

Group Actions And Divisors On Tropical Curves, Max B. Kutler

HMC Senior Theses

Tropical geometry is algebraic geometry over the tropical semiring, or min-plus algebra. In this thesis, I discuss the basic geometry of plane tropical curves. By introducing the notion of abstract tropical curves, I am able to pass to a more abstract metric-topological setting. In this setting, I discuss divisors on tropical curves. I begin a study of $G$-invariant divisors and divisor classes.

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Continued Fractions: A New Form, Donald Lee Wiyninger Iii May 2011

Continued Fractions: A New Form, Donald Lee Wiyninger Iii

HMC Senior Theses

While the traditional form of continued fractions is well-documented, a new form, designed to approximate real numbers between 1 and 2, is less well-studied. This report first describes prior research into the new form, describing the form and giving an algorithm for generating approximations for a given real number. It then describes a rational function giving the rational number represented by the continued fraction made from a given tuple of integers and shows that no real number has a unique continued fraction. Next, it describes the set of real numbers that are hardest to approximate; that is, given a positive …

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Third And Fourth Binomial Coefficients, Arthur T. Benjamin, Jacob N. Scott '11 May 2011

Third And Fourth Binomial Coefficients, Arthur T. Benjamin, Jacob N. Scott '11

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

While formulas for the sums of kth binomial coefficients can be shown inductively or algebraically, these proofs give little insight into the combinatorics involved. We prove formulas for the sums of 3rd and 4th binomial coefficients via purely combinatorial arguments.

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Strategic Treatment Interruptions During Imatinib Treatment Of Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia, Dana C. Paquin, Peter S. Kim, Peter P. Lee, Doron Levy May 2011

Strategic Treatment Interruptions During Imatinib Treatment Of Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia, Dana C. Paquin, Peter S. Kim, Peter P. Lee, Doron Levy

Mathematics

Although imatinib is an effective treatment for chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), and nearly all patients treated with imatinib attain some form of remission, imatinib does not completely eliminate leukemia. Moreover, if the imatinib treatment is stopped, most patients eventually relapse (Cortes et al. in Clin. Cancer Res. 11:3425–3432, 2005). In Kim et al. (PLoS Comput. Biol. 4(6):e1000095, 2008), the authors presented a mathematical model for the dynamics of CML under imatinib treatment that incorporates the anti-leukemia immune response. We use the mathematical model in Kim et al. (PLoS Comput. Biol. 4(6):e1000095, 2008) to study and numerically simulate strategic treatment interruptions …

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Deterministic And Stochastic Bellman's Optimality Principles On Isolated Time Domains And Their Applications In Finance, Nezihe Turhan May 2011

Deterministic And Stochastic Bellman's Optimality Principles On Isolated Time Domains And Their Applications In Finance, Nezihe Turhan

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The concept of dynamic programming was originally used in late 1949, mostly during the 1950s, by Richard Bellman to describe decision making problems. By 1952, he refined this to the modern meaning, referring specifically to nesting smaller decision problems inside larger decisions. Also, the Bellman equation, one of the basic concepts in dynamic programming, is named after him. Dynamic programming has become an important argument which was used in various fields; such as, economics, finance, bioinformatics, aerospace, information theory, etc. Since Richard Bellman's invention of dynamic programming, economists and mathematicians have formulated and solved a huge variety of sequential decision …

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Development Of Fractional Trigonometry And An Application Of Fractional Calculus To Pharmacokinetic Model, Amera Almusharrf May 2011

Development Of Fractional Trigonometry And An Application Of Fractional Calculus To Pharmacokinetic Model, Amera Almusharrf

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

No abstract provided.

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Finding The Beat In Music: Using Adaptive Oscillators, Kate M. Burgers May 2011

Finding The Beat In Music: Using Adaptive Oscillators, Kate M. Burgers

HMC Senior Theses

The task of finding the beat in music is simple for most people, but surprisingly difficult to replicate in a robot. Progress in this problem has been made using various preprocessing techniques (Hitz 2008; Tomic and Janata 2008). However, a real-time method is not yet available. Methods using a class of oscillators called relay relaxation oscillators are promising. In particular, systems of forced Hopf oscillators (Large 2000; Righetti et al. 2006) have been used with relative success. This work describes current methods of beat tracking and develops a new method that incorporates the best ideas from each existing method and …

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Markov Bases For Noncommutative Harmonic Analysis Of Partially Ranked Data, Ann Johnston May 2011

Markov Bases For Noncommutative Harmonic Analysis Of Partially Ranked Data, Ann Johnston

HMC Senior Theses

Given the result $v_0$ of a survey and a nested collection of summary statistics that could be used to describe that result, it is natural to ask which of these summary statistics best describe $v_0$. In 1998 Diaconis and Sturmfels presented an approach for determining the conditional significance of a higher order statistic, after sampling a space conditioned on the value of a lower order statistic. Their approach involves the computation of a Markov basis, followed by the use of a Markov process with stationary hypergeometric distribution to generate a sample.This technique for data analysis has become an accepted tool …

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Verification Of Solutions To The Sensor Location Problem, Chandler May May 2011

Verification Of Solutions To The Sensor Location Problem, Chandler May

HMC Senior Theses

Traffic congestion is a serious problem with large economic and environmental impacts. To reduce congestion (as a city planner) or simply to avoid congested channels (as a road user), one might like to accurately know the flow on roads in the traffic network. This information can be obtained from traffic sensors, devices that can be installed on roads or intersections to measure traffic flow. The sensor location problem is the problem of efficiently locating traffic sensors on intersections such that the flow on the entire network can be extrapolated from the readings of those sensors. I build on current research …

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Extending List Colorings Of Planar Graphs, Sarah Loeb May 2011

Extending List Colorings Of Planar Graphs, Sarah Loeb

HMC Senior Theses

In the study of list colorings of graphs, we assume each vertex of a graph has a specified list of colors from which it may be colored. For planar graphs, it is known that there is a coloring for any list assignment where each list contains five colors. If we have some vertices that are precolored, can we extend this to a coloring of the entire graph? We explore distance constraints when we allow the lists to contain an extra color. For lists of length five, we fix $W$ as a subset of $V(G)$ such that all vertices in $W$ …

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Combinatorial Interpretations Of Fibonomial Identities, Elizabeth Reiland May 2011

Combinatorial Interpretations Of Fibonomial Identities, Elizabeth Reiland

HMC Senior Theses

The Fibonomial numbers are defined by \[ \begin{bmatrix}n \\ k \end{bmatrix} = \frac{\prod_{i=n-k+1} ^{n} F_i}{\prod_{j=1}^{k} F_j} \] where $F_i$ is the $i$th Fibonacci number, defined by the recurrence $F_n=F_{n-1}+F_{n-2}$ with initial conditions $F_0=0,F_1=1$. In the past year, Sagan and Savage have derived a combinatorial interpretation for these Fibonomial numbers, an interpretation that relies upon tilings of a partition and its complement in a given grid.In this thesis, I investigate previously proven theorems for the Fibonomial numbers and attempt to reinterpret and reprove them in light of this new combinatorial description. I also present combinatorial proofs for some identities I did …

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Operator Splitting Method And Applications For Semilinear Parabolic Partial Differential Equations, R. Corban Harwood May 2011

Operator Splitting Method And Applications For Semilinear Parabolic Partial Differential Equations, R. Corban Harwood

Faculty Publications - Department of Mathematics

This dissertation presents a redefined operator splitting method used in solving semilinear parabolic partial differential equations. As one such form, the reaction-diffusion equation is highly prevalent in mathematical modeling. Besides being physically meaningful as a separation of two distinct physical processes in this equation, operator splitting simplifies the solution method in several ways. The super-linear speed-up of computations is a rewarding simplification as it presents great benefits for large-scale systems. In solving these semilinear equations, we will develop a condition for oscillation-free methods, a condition independent of the usual stability condition. This numerical consideration is important to fully embody our …

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Critical Issues In Middle And Secondary Mathematics Placement: A Case Study, Morgan E. Summers May 2011

Critical Issues In Middle And Secondary Mathematics Placement: A Case Study, Morgan E. Summers

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This qualitative research project focuses on the issues facing middle and secondary mathematics placement through an extensive literature review as well as a case study of a local school district. As students move from elementary school to middle and secondary schools, they are placed into classes that appear to be based on ability. One of the driving questions of this project is how is this ability level determined? Through an in-­‐depth look at one school district, it is found that a primary source of information is both norm-­‐referenced and criterion-­‐referenced assessments given to students in fifth and eighth grades. In …

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The Impact Of Manipulatives On Learning In The Elementary And Middle School Mathematics Classroom, Laura Dahl May 2011

The Impact Of Manipulatives On Learning In The Elementary And Middle School Mathematics Classroom, Laura Dahl

Mathematics Graduate Theses

This paper is a review of research pertaining to the use of manipulatives in the elementary and middle school mathematics classrooms. It embodies the logic behind using manipulative materials in the classroom setting and the impact their use will have on student understanding and enjoyment for learning mathematical concepts. This research paper will identify the struggles and concerns of manipulative use along with the need of increased professional development and training for teachers to be better prepared for the daunting, yet rewarding challenges of successfully teaching mathematics.

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The Roller-Coaster Conjecture, Leslie A. Cheteyan May 2011

The Roller-Coaster Conjecture, Leslie A. Cheteyan

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

No abstract provided.

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