Mathematics Commons^™

Affine And Projective Planes, Abraham Pascoe

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

In this thesis, we investigate affine and projective geometries. An affine geometry is an incidence geometry where for every line and every point not incident to it, there is a unique line parallel to the given line. Affine geometry is a generalization of the Euclidean geometry studied in high school. A projective geometry is an incidence geometry where every pair of lines meet. We study basic properties of affine and projective planes and a number of methods of constructing them. We end by prov- ing the Bruck-Ryser Theorem on the non-existence of projective planes of certain orders.

Resolutions Of Finite Length Modules Over Complete Intersections, Seth Lindokken

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The structure of free resolutions of finite length modules over regular local rings has long been a topic of interest in commutative algebra. Conjectures by Buchsbaum-Eisenbud-Horrocks and Avramov-Buchweitz predict that in this setting the minimal free resolution of the residue field should give, in some sense, the smallest possible free resolution of a finite length module. Results of Tate and Shamash describing the minimal free resolution of the residue field over a local hypersurface ring, together with the theory of matrix factorizations developed by Eisenbud and Eisenbud-Peeva, suggest analogous lower bounds for the size of free resolutions of finite length …

Properties And Convergence Of State-Based Laplacians, Kelsey Wells

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The classical Laplace operator is a vital tool in modeling many physical behaviors, such as elasticity, diffusion and fluid flow. Incorporated in the Laplace operator is the requirement of twice differentiability, which implies continuity that many physical processes lack. In this thesis we introduce a new nonlocal Laplace-type operator, that is capable of dealing with strong discontinuities. Motivated by the state-based peridynamic framework, this new nonlocal Laplacian exhibits double nonlocality through the use of iterated integral operators. The operator introduces additional degrees of flexibility that can allow better representation of physical phenomena at different scales and in materials with different …

Black Students White Teachers: An Autoethnographic Analysis, Julie Harnett

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This paper explores the many factors at play in a classroom and how they impact students of non-white identities. Embedded with thought experiments for you to analyze your schooling experience, the paper calls to recognition the imbalanced treatment of students based upon individual demographic profiles. This paper calls particular attention to how teachers perceive students and how this manifests itself in disciplinary practices and tracking. This relates to an analyzes the school-to-prison pipeline and links to other forms of school segregation. The paper also calls into consideration the educational experiences of the author and how they were shaped by the …

Discrete Time Risk Models With Random Premiums, Llewellyn Hillyer Smith

Mathematics Dissertations - Archive

Over the past century insurance companies relied to a large extent on the continuous time Mathematical Risk Model proposed by Lundberg, known for its ability to estimate the probability of ruin(capital reserve falling below zero), given the initial capital, linear premium rate and cumulative random size claims occurring at random times. In this Dissertation we introduce a discrete time risk model that allows random premiums, and derive the estimates of the ruin probabilities on both finite and infinite time horizons. Tools applied are drawn from modern probability and include,Martingales, Invariance Principle for Brownian motions, and Large Deviation Principle for the …

Secure Multiparty Protocol For Differentially-Private Data Release, Anthony Harris

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

In the era where big data is the new norm, a higher emphasis has been placed on models which guarantees the release and exchange of data. The need for privacy-preserving data arose as more sophisticated data-mining techniques led to breaches of sensitive information. In this thesis, we present a secure multiparty protocol for the purpose of integrating multiple datasets simultaneously such that the contents of each dataset is not revealed to any of the data owners, and the contents of the integrated data do not compromise individual’s privacy. We utilize privacy by simulation to prove that the protocol is privacy-preserving, …

Women In Science: A Course, Krystyna Krupinski

Senior Honors Projects

Ask any student to name five women who have made advancements in scientific fields and most likely they will not be able to name more than two. With a lack of courses highlighting women scientists’ achievements, this lack of knowledge is hardly surprising I am addressing this issue in my work. Through the researching of scientific advancements made by women, I have proposed a method to teach students about these scientists so names like Johnson, Franklin, and Curie become as commonplace as Einstein, Hawking, and Bohr. Frequently in science classes in middle schools and high schools, the focus is only …

Covering Arrays For Equivalence Classes Of Words, Joshua Cassels, Anant Godbole

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Covering arrays for words of length t over a d letter alphabet are k × n arrays with entries from the alphabet so that for each choice of t columns, each of the d^t t-letter words appears at least once among the rows of the selected columns. We study two schemes in which all words are not considered to be different. In the first case, words are equivalent if they induce the same partition of a t element set. In the second case, words of the same weighted sum are equivalent. In both cases we produce logarithmic upper bounds …

Statistical Analysis Of Short-Time Option Prices Based On A Levy Model, Weiliang Wang

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The Black-Scholes model has been widely used to find the prices of option, while several generalizations have been made due to its limitation. In this thesis, we consider one of the generalizations---the exponential Levy model with a mixture of CGMY process and Brownian motion. We state the main results of the first-, second- and third-order expansions for close-to-the-money call option prices under this model. Using importance sampling based on Monte Carlo method, a dataset of call option prices can be simulated. Comparing the simulated true prices with the three different order approximations, we find that the higher-order approximation is more …

Density Estimation Using Nonparametric Bayesian Methods, Yanyi Wang

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

In modern data analysis, nonparametric Bayesian methods have become increasingly popular. These methods can solve many important statistical inference problems, such as density estimation, regression and survival analysis. In this thesis, We utilize several nonparametric Bayesian methods for density estimation. In particular, we use mixtures of Dirichlet processes (MDP) and mixtures of Polya trees (MPT) priors to perform Bayesian density estimation based on simulated data. The target density is a mixture of normal distributions, which makes the estimation problem non-trivial. The performance of these methods with frequentist nonparametric kernel density estimators is assessed according to a mean-square error criterion. For …

An Explicit Formula For Dirichlet's L-Function, Shannon Michele Hyder

Honors Theses

The Riemann zeta function has a deep connection to the distribution of primes. In 1911 Landau proved that, an explicit formula where ρ = β + iγ denotes a complex zero of the zeta function and Λ(x) is an extension of the usual von Mangoldt function, so that Λ(x) = log p if x is a positive integral power of a prime p and Λ(x) = 0 for all other real values of x. Landau’s remarkable explicit formula lacks uniformity in x and therefore has limited applications to the theory of the zeta function. In 1993 Gonek proved a version …

Magic Squares Of Cubes Modulo A Prime Number, Yevgeniy Sokolovskiy

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This work is dedicated to the properties of the 3 × 3 magic squares of cubes modulo a prime number. Its central concept is the number of distinct entries of these squares and the properties associated with this number. We call this number the degree of a magic square. The necessary conditions for the magic square of cubes with degrees 3, 5, 7, and 9 are examined. It was established that there are infinitely many primes for which magic squares of cubes with degrees 3, 5, 7, and 9 exist. I apply n-tuples of consecutive cubic residues to prove that …

The Kumaraswamy Marshall-Olkin Log-Logistic Distribution With Application, Selen Cakmakyapan, Gamze Ozel, Yehia Mousa Hussein El Gebaly, Gholamhossein G. Hamedani

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

In this paper, we define and study a new lifetime model called the Kumaraswamy Marshall-Olkin log-logistic distribution. The new model has the advantage of being capable of modeling various shapes of aging and failure criteria. The new model contains some well-known distributions as special cases such as the Marshall-Olkin log-logistic, log-logistic, lomax, Pareto type II and Burr XII distributions. Some of its mathematical properties including explicit expressions for the quantile and generating functions, ordinary moments, skewness, kurtosis are derived. The maximum likelihood estimators of the unknown parameters are obtained. The importance and flexibility of the new model is proved empirically …

The Auxiliary Space Preconditioner For The De Rham Complex, Jay Gopalakrishnan, Martin Neumüller, Panayot S. Vassilevski

Portland Institute for Computational Science Publications

We generalize the construction and analysis of auxiliary space preconditioners to the n-dimensional finite element subcomplex of the de Rham complex. These preconditioners are based on a generalization of a decomposition of Sobolev space functions into a regular part and a potential. A discrete version is easily established using the tools of finite element exterior calculus. We then discuss the four-dimensional de Rham complex in detail. By identifying forms in four dimensions (4D) with simple proxies, form operations are written out in terms of familiar algebraic operations on matrices, vectors, and scalars. This provides the basis for our implementation of …

High Cognitive Demand Examples In Precalculus: Examining The Work And Knowledge Entailed In Enactment, Erica R. Miller

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Historically, pass rates in undergraduate precalculus courses have been dismally low and the teaching practices and knowledge of university instructors have been understudied. To help improve teaching effectiveness and student outcomes in undergraduate precalculus courses, I have studied the cognitive demand of enacted examples. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the pedagogical work and mathematical knowledge entailed in the enactment of high cognitive demand examples in a three-part study. To answer my research questions, I conducted classroom observations as well as pre- and post-observation interviews with seven graduate student instructors at a large public R1 university in the …

Graphs With Few Spanning Substructures, Jessica De Silva

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In this thesis, we investigate a number of problems related to spanning substructures of graphs. The first few chapters consider extremal problems related to the number of forest-like structures of a graph. We prove that one can find a threshold graph which contains the minimum number of spanning pseudoforests, as well as rooted spanning forests, amongst all graphs on n vertices and e edges. This has left the open question of exactly which threshold graphs have the minimum number of these spanning substructures. We make progress towards this question in particular cases of spanning pseudoforests.

The final chapter takes on …

On Coding For Partial Erasure Channels, Carolyn Mayer

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Error correcting codes have been essential to the technology we use in everyday life in digital storage, wireless communication, barcodes, and much more. Different channel models are used for different types of communication (for example, if information is sent to one person or to many people) and different types of errors. Partial erasure channels were recently introduced to model applications in which some information remains after an erasure event. These remnants of information may be used to increase the chances of successful decoding. We introduce a new partial erasure channel in which partial erasures correspond to individual bit erasures in …

Localization And Compactness Of Operators On Fock Spaces, Zhangjian Hu, Xiaofen Lv, Brett D. Wick

Mathematics Faculty Research

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Vector Partitions, Jennifer French

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Integer partitions have been studied by many mathematicians over hundreds of years. Many identities exist between integer partitions, such as Euler’s discovery that every number has the same amount of partitions into distinct parts as into odd parts. These identities can be proven using methods such as conjugation or generating functions. Over the years, mathematicians have worked to expand partition identities to vectors. In 1963, M. S. Cheema proved that every vector has the same number of partitions into distinct vectors as into vectors with at least one component odd. This parallels Euler’s result for integer partitions. The primary purpose …

A Study Of Topological Invariants In The Braid Group B2, Andrew Sweeney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Jones polynomial is a special topological invariant in the field of Knot Theory. Created by Vaughn Jones, in the year 1984, it is used to study when links in space are topologically different and when they are topologically equivalent. This thesis discusses the Jones polynomial in depth as well as determines a general form for the closure of any braid in the braid group B2 where the closure is a knot. This derivation is facilitated by the help of the Temperley-Lieb algebra as well as with tools from the field of Abstract Algebra. In general, the Artin braid group …

Italian Domination In Complementary Prisms, Haley D. Russell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Let $G$ be any graph and let $\overline{G}$ be its complement. The complementary prism of $G$ is formed from the disjoint union of a graph $G$ and its complement $\overline{G}$ by adding the edges of a perfect matching between the corresponding vertices of $G$ and $\overline{G}$. An Italian dominating function on a graph $G$ is a function such that $f \, : \, V \to \{ 0,1,2 \}$ and for each vertex $v \in V$ for which $f(v)=0$, it holds that $\sum_{u \in N(v)} f(u) \geq 2$. The weight of an Italian dominating function is the value $f(V)=\sum_{u \in V(G)}f(u)$. …

Constant Symplectic 2-Groupoids, Rajan Amit Mehta, Xiang Tang

Mathematics Sciences: Faculty Publications

We propose a definition of symplectic 2-groupoid which includes integrations of Courant algebroids that have been recently constructed. We study in detail the simple but illustrative case of constant symplectic 2-groupoids. We show that the constant symplectic 2-groupoids are, up to equivalence, in one-to-one correspondence with a simple class of Courant algebroids that we call constant Courant algebroids. Furthermore, we find a correspondence between certain Dirac structures and Lagrangian sub-2-groupoids.

Creating A More Efficient Course Schedule At Uno Department O Economics And Finance Using Linear Optimization, Tien Dinh

Senior Honors Theses

In 2012, Wormald R. & Guimond C. developed a mathematical model utilizing integer linear programming and network flow to help Worchester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) create a more efficient course schedule. Course scheduling was a major problem at WPI in 2012, as the manual process at that time often resulted in courses being assigned to inappropriate (too large or too small) classrooms. The University of New Orleans (UNO) is facing a similar challenge, as the current scheduling system at UNO does not always produce efficient course schedules. The goal of this thesis, therefore, is to improve upon the 2012 model by …

Teacher Questioning And Invitations To Participate In Advanced Mathematics Lectures, Teo Paoletti, Victoria Krupnik, Dimitrios Papadopoulos, Joseph Olsen, Tim Fukawa-Connelly, Keith Weber

Department of Mathematics Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

In this study, we were interested in exploring the extent to which advanced mathematics lecturers provide students opportunities to play a role in considering or generating course content. To do this, we examined the questioning practices of 11 lecturers who taught advanced mathematics courses at the university level. Because we are unaware of other studies examining advanced mathematics lecturers’ questioning, we first analyzed the data using an open coding scheme to categorize the types of content lecturers solicited and the opportunities they provided students to participate in generating course content. In a second round of analysis, we examined the extent …

Analysis Of 2016-17 Major League Soccer Season Data Using Poisson Regression With R, Ian D. Campbell

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

To the outside observer, soccer is chaotic with no given pattern or scheme to follow, a random conglomeration of passes and shots that go on for 90 minutes. Yet, what if there was a pattern to the chaos, or a way to describe the events that occur in the game quantifiably. Sports statistics is a critical part of baseball and a variety of other of today’s sports, but we see very little statistics and data analysis done on soccer. Of this research, there has been looks into the effect of possession time on the outcome of a game, the difference …

Adjunct Instructors’ Opportunities For Learning Through Engagement With A Research-Based Mathematics Curriculum, Zareen Gul Rahman

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

There is a growing need to retain students in STEM fields and majors in the U.S. Improving students’ experience in early mathematics courses like Precalculus can influence students’ decisions to remain in STEM fields. Teachers can play an important role in providing effective learning experiences to the students. Supporting teachers and providing professional development can help the teachers in facilitating student learning. When it comes to implementing research-based mathematics curricula, teachers are key players in making the curriculum come alive inside their classrooms. The challenges that teachers face when implementing a research-based mathematics curriculum can provide opportunities for their own …

Multi Self-Adapting Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm (Msapso)., Gerhard Koch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The performance and stability of the Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm depends on parameters that are typically tuned manually or adapted based on knowledge from empirical parameter studies. Such parameter selection is ineffectual when faced with a broad range of problem types, which often hinders the adoption of PSO to real world problems. This dissertation develops a dynamic self-optimization approach for the respective parameters (inertia weight, social and cognition). The effects of self-adaption for the optimal balance between superior performance (convergence) and the robustness (divergence) of the algorithm with regard to both simple and complex benchmark functions is investigated. This work …

The Structure Of Models Of Second-Order Set Theories, Kameryn J. Williams

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is a contribution to the project of second-order set theory, which has seen a revival in recent years. The approach is to understand second-order set theory by studying the structure of models of second-order set theories. The main results are the following, organized by chapter. First, I investigate the poset of T-realizations of a fixed countable model of ZFC, where T is a reasonable second-order set theory such as GBC or KM, showing that it has a rich structure. In particular, every countable partial order embeds into this structure. Moreover, we can arrange so that these embedding preserve …

Covering A Ball By Smaller Balls, Alexey Glazyrin

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

We prove that, for any covering of a unit d-dimensional Euclidean ball by smaller balls, the sum of radii of the balls from the covering is greater than d. We also investigate the problem of finding lower and upper bounds for the sum of powers of radii of the balls covering a unit ball.

Learning Logic: A Mixed Methods Study To Examine The Effects Of Context Ordering On Reasoning About Conditionals, Christina W. Lommatsch

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Logical statements are prevalent in mathematics, the sciences, law, and many areas of everyday life. The most common logical statements are conditionals, which have the form “If H..., then C...,” where “H” is a hypothesis (or condition) to be satisfied and “C” is a conclusion to follow. Reasoning about conditionals is a skill that is only superficially understood by most individuals and depends on four main conditional contexts (e.g., intuitive, abstract, symbolic, or counterintuitive). The purpose of this study was to test a theory about the effects of context ordering on reasoning about conditionals. To test the theory, the researcher …