Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

An Overview Of Technologies For Upgrading Of Biogas To Biomethane, Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

The present contribution presents an overview of technologies available for upgrading of biogas to biomethane. Technologies under study include pressure swing adsorption (PSA), high-pressure water wash (HPWW), reactive absorption (RA), physical absorption (PA), membrane separation (MS) and cryogenic separation (CS).

Influence Of Energy Policy On The Rate Of Implementation Of Biogas Power Plants In Germany During The 2001-2010 Decade, Izabela Chasiak, Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

The current article describes energy policy tools, which caused intensive development of biogas-based power generation in Germany during the 2001-2010 decade. The German system of financial support to biogas power plants is presented in details. It is shown that in Germany, i.e. in a country characterised by similar climate and potentials to renewable energy to Poland, biogas power plants cover 10,7% of electricity demands in 2010, while all renewable energy sources cover only 5,4% of electricity demands. It is emphasised that under favourable Polish energy policy, the development of biogas energy can be very rapid.

Operation Comics: The Story Continues, Bruce Kessler, Janet Tassell, Tressa Tullis

Bruce Kessler

During the 2008-2009 academic year, the author K. wrote three issues of Operation Comics, a comic book with embedded mathematics content appropriate for 4th through 6th grade students. Several printed comics were placed in Cumberland Trace Elementary in the Warren County School System in Bowling Green, Kentucky, US. The author Ta. was enlisted to measure the impact of the comics on the attitudes and motivation of the students using the comics. A preliminary report was given by K. at the 2009 Bridges Banff Conference, and the written report appeared in the proceedings. Since then, data has been collected on the …

Stability Of A Strongly Anisotropic Thin Epitaxial Film In A Wetting Interaction With Elastic Substrate, Mikhail Khenner, Wondimu T. Tekalign, Margo S. Levine

Mikhail Khenner

The linear dispersion relation for longwave surface perturbations, as derived by Levine et al. Phys. Rev. B 75, 205312 (2007) is extended to include a smooth surface energy anisotropy function with a variable anisotropy strength (from weak to strong, such that sharp corners and slightly curved facets occur on the corresponding Wulff shape). Through detailed parametric studies it is shown that a combination of a wetting interaction and strong anisotropy, and even a wetting interaction alone results in complicated linear stability characteristics of strained and unstrained films.

Modeling Diverse Physics Of Nanoparticle Self-Assembly In Pulsed Laser-Irradiated Metallic Films, Mikhail Khenner

Mikhail Khenner

Presents physics behind dewetting of thin liquid films and mathematical/computational modeling tools (Educational/Research presentation for senior physics majors).

Using Confidence Distribution Sampling To Visualize Confidence Sets, Daeyoung Kim, Bruce G. Lindsay

Daeyoung Kim

This paper presents a new sampling-based methodology designed to facilitate the visual analysis of the confidence sets generated by an inference function such as the likelihood. This methodology generates a sample of parameters from a confidence distribution. This distribution is designed so that its probabilities on the parameter space are equal to the asymptotic coverage probabilities of the targeted confidence sets. Plotting these samples provides a picture of the inference function surface around the point estimator optimizing the inference function. Once the sample is created, one can also picture the profile inference function confidence sets for various functions of the …

Software Development For A Three-Dimensional Gravity Inversion And Application To Study Of The Border Ranges Fault System, South-Central Alaska, Rolando Cardenas

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Border Ranges Fault System (BRFS) bounds the Cook Inlet and Susitna Basins, an important petroleum province within south-central Alaska. A primary goal in the research is to test several plausible models of structure along the Border Ranges Fault System using a novel three-dimensional inversion utilizing gravity and magnetic data, constrained with other geophysical, borehole and surface geological information. This research involves the development of inversion modeling software using a Borland C++ compiler as part of the Rapid Application Development (RAD) Studio. The novel inversion approach directly models known geology, and "a priori" uncertainties on the geologic model to allow …

Research In Mathematics Educational Technology: Current Trends And Future Demands, Shannon O. Driskell, Robert N. Ronau, Christopher R. Rakes, Sarah B. Bush, Margaret L. Niess, David K. Pugalee

Mathematics Faculty Publications

This systematic review of mathematics educational technology literature identified 1356 manuscripts addressing the integration of educational technology into mathematics instruction. The manuscripts were analyzed using three frameworks (Research Design, Teacher Knowledge, and TPACK) and three supplementary lenses (Data Sources, Outcomes, and NCTM Principles) to produce a database to support future research syntheses and meta-analyses. Preliminary analyses of student and teacher outcomes (e.g., knowledge, cognition, affect, and performance) suggest that the effects of incorporating graphing calculator and dynamic geometry technologies have been abundantly studied; however, the usefulness of the results was often limited by missing information regarding measures of validity, reliability, …

Non-Normality Points Of Β X\X, William Fleissner, Lynne Yengulalp

Mathematics Faculty Publications

We seek conditions implying that (β X\X) \ {y} is not normal. Our main theorem: Assume GCH and all uniform ultrafilters are regular. If X is a locally compact metrizable space without isolated points, then (β X\X) \ {y} is not normal for all y ∈ β X\X. In preparing to prove this theorem, we generalize the notions “uniform”, “regular”, and “good” from set ultrafilters to z-ultrafilters. We discuss non-normality points of the product of a discrete space and the real line. We topologically embed a nonstandard real line into the remainder of this product space.

Algorithms For Area Preserving Flows, Catherine Kublik, Selim Esedoglu, Jeffrey A. Fessler

Mathematics Faculty Publications

We propose efficient and accurate algorithms for computing certain area preserving geometric motions of curves in the plane, such as area preserving motion by curvature. These schemes are based on a new class of diffusion generated motion algorithms using signed distance functions. In particular, they alternate two very simple and fast operations, namely convolution with the Gaussian kernel and construction of the distance function, to generate the desired geometric flow in an unconditionally stable manner. We present applications of these area preserving flows to large scale simulations of coarsening.

Solving The Partial Differential Equation Of Vibrations With Interval Parameters Using The Interval Finite Difference Method, Brenda G. Medina

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Accuracy and efficiency are among the main factors that drive today's innovative disciplines. As technology rapidly advances, efficiency takes on new meanings but what about accuracy? How accurate is accurate? Human error, uncertainties in measurement, and rounding errors are just some causes of inaccuracy. Interval Computations is an area that allows for such issues to be taken into account; for each measurement attained (for example), an interval can be built by considering the error associated with the measurement, and such an interval can be utilized in the mathematical computations of interest.

We consider the partial differential equation (PDE) of vibrations …

Fully Nonlinear Boundary Value Problems With Impulse, Paul Eloe, Muhammad Usman

Mathematics Faculty Publications

An impulsive boundary value problem with nonlinear boundary conditions for a second order ordinary differential equation is studied. In particular, sufficient conditions are provided so that a compression- expansion cone theoretic fixed point theorem can be applied to imply the existence of positive solutions. The nonlinear forcing term is assumed to satisfy usual sublinear or superlinear growth as t → ∞ or t → 0 +. The nonlinear impulse terms and the nonlinear boundary terms are assumed to satisfy the analogous asymptotic behavior.

Prospective Teachers' Use Of Representations In Solving Statistical Tasks With Dynamic Statistical Software, Hollylynne Lee, Shannon O. Driskell, Suzanne R. Harper, Keith R. Leatham, Gladis Kersaint, Robin L. Angotti

Mathematics Faculty Publications

This study examined a random stratified sample (n=62) of prospective teachers' work across eight institutions on three tasks that utilized dynamic statistical software. Our work was guided by considering how teachers may utilize their statistical knowledge and technological statistical knowledge to engage in cycles of investigation. Although teachers did not tend to take full advantage of dynamic linking capabilities, they utilized a large variety of graphical representations and often added statistical measures or other augmentations to graphs as part of their analysis.

A New Theory Of Stochastic Integration, Anuwat Sae-Tang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, we focus mainly on the further study of the new stochastic integral introduced by Ayed and Kuo in 2008. Several properties of this new stochastic integral are obtained. We first introduce the concept of near-martingale for non-adapted stochastic processes. This concept is a generalization of the martingale property for adapted stochastic processes in the It\^o theory. We prove a special case of It\^o isometry for the stochastic integral of certain instantly independent processes. We obtain some formulas for expressing a new stochastic integral in terms of It\^o integrals and Riemann integrals. Several generalized versions of It\^o's formula …

Uniform L1 Behavior Of A Time Discretization Method For A Volterra Integrodifferential Equation With Convex Kernel; Stability, Charles B. Harris, Richard D. Noren

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

We study stability of a numerical method in which the backward Euler method is combined with order one convolution quadrature for approximating the integral term of the linear Volterra integrodifferential equation u'(t) + ∫0 β (t - s)Au(s) ds = 0, t ≥ 0, u(0) = u0, which arises in the theory of linear viscoelasticity. Here A is a positive self-adjoint densely defined linear operator in a real Hilbert space, and β (t) is locally integrable, nonnegative, nonincreasing, convex, and -β'(t) is convex. We establish stability of the method under these hypotheses on β(t). Thus, …

Analytical And Experimental Investigations Of Ships Impact Interaction With One-Sided Barrier, Ihab M. Grace

Wayne State University Dissertations

This study deals with impact interaction of ships with one-sided ice barrier during roll dynamics. An analytical model of ship roll motion interacting with ice is developed based on Zhuravlev and Ivanov non-smooth coordinate transformations. These transformations have the advantage of converting the vibro-impact oscillator into an oscillator without barriers such that the corresponding equation of motion does not contain any impact term. Such approaches, however, account for the energy loss at impact times in different ways. The present work, in particular, brings to the attention the fact that the impact dynamics may have qualitatively different response characteristics to different …

Paley-Wiener Theorems With Respect To The Spectral Parameter, Susanna Dann

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

One of the important questions related to any integral transform on a manifold M or on a homogeneous space G/K is the description of the image of a given space of functions. If M=G/K, where (G,K) is a Gelfand pair, then harmonic analysis on M is closely related to the representations of G and the direct integral decomposition of L^2(M) into irreducible representations of G. R^n can be realized as the quotient R^n=E(n)/SO(n), where E(n) is the orientation preserving Euclidean motion group. The pair (E(n), SO(n)) is a Gelfand pair. Hence this realization of R^n comes with its own natural …

On Greenberg's Question: An Algebraic And Computational Approach, David H. Chapman

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Greenberg asked whether arithmetically equivalent number fields share the same Iwasawa invariants. In this dissertation it is shown that the problem naturally breaks up into four cases, depending on properties of Galois groups. This analysis is then used to give a positive answer to Greenberg’s question in some nontrivial examples.

A C0 Interior Penalty Method For The Von Kármán Equations, Armin Karl Reiser

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation we develop a C⁰ interior penalty method for the von Kármán equations for nonlinear elastic plates. We begin with a brief survey on frequently used finite element methods for the von Kármán equations. After addressing some topics from functional analysis in the preliminaries, we present existence, uniqueness and regularity results for the solutions of the von Kármán equations in Chapter 3. In the next chapter we review the C⁰ interior penalty method for the biharmonic problem. Motivated by these results, we propose a C⁰ interior penalty method for the linearized von Kármán equations in …

Capturing Elements In Matroid Minors, Deborah Chun

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, we begin with an introduction to a matroid as the natural generalization of independence arising in three different fields of mathematics. In the first chapter, we develop graph theory and matroid theory terminology necessary to the topic of this dissertation. In Chapter 2 and Chapter 3, we prove two main results. A result of Ding, Oporowski, Oxley, and Vertigan reveals that a large 3-connected matroid M has unavoidable structure. For every n exceeding two, there is an integer f(n) so that if |E(M)| exceeds f(n), then M has a minor isomorphic to the rank-n wheel or whirl, …

Comparative Analysis Of Expected Utility Theory Versus Prospect Theory And Critique Of Their Recent Developments, Sassan Sadeghi

Theses Digitization Project

This study is an investigation of the decision making theories, their developments, and especially, their applications. After locating the two rivals, the Expected Utility Theory (EUT) and the Prospect Theory (PT), within the general context of decision making situations, it compares their main features and examines the PT extensions.

A Dynamic System Model Of Biogeography-Based Optimization, Daniel J. Simon

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

We derive a dynamic system model for biogeography-based optimization (BBO) that is asymptotically exact as the population size approaches infinity. The states of the dynamic system are equal to the proportion of each individual in the population; therefore, the dimension of the dynamic system is equal to the search space cardinality of the optimization problem. The dynamic system model allows us to derive the proportion of each individual in the population for a given optimization problem using theory rather than simulation. The results of the dynamic system model are more precise than simulation, especially for individuals that are very unlikely …

Algebraic Structures Using Super Interval Matrices, Florentin Smarandache, W.B. Vasantha Kandasamy

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

The advantage of using super interval matrices is that one can build only one vector space using m × n interval matrices, but in case of super interval matrices we can have several such spaces depending on the partition on the interval matrix.

This book has seven chapters. Chapter one is introductory in nature, just introducing the super interval matrices or interval super matrices. In chapter two essential operations on super interval matrices are defined. Further in this chapter algebraic structures are defined on these super interval matrices using these operation. Using these super interval matrices semirings and semivector spaces …

Studies In Sampling Techniques And Time Series Analysis, Florentin Smarandache, Rajesh Singh

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

This book has been designed for students and researchers who are working in the field of time series analysis and estimation in finite population. There are papers by Rajesh Singh, Florentin Smarandache, Shweta Maurya, Ashish K. Singh, Manoj Kr. Chaudhary, V. K. Singh, Mukesh Kumar and Sachin Malik. First chapter deals with the problem of time series analysis and the rest of four chapters deal with the problems of estimation in finite population. The book is divided in five chapters as follows: Chapter 1. Water pollution is a major global problem. In this chapter, time series analysis is carried out …

Algebraic Structures Using Natural Class Of Intervals, Florentin Smarandache, W.B. Vasantha Kandasamy

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

Authors in this book introduce a new class of intervals called the natural class of intervals, also known as the special class of intervals or as natural intervals. These intervals are built using increasing intervals, decreasing intervals and degenerate intervals. We say an interval [a, b] is an increasing interval if a < b for any a, b in the field of reals R. An interval [a, b] is a decreasing interval if a > b and the interval [a, b] is a degenerate interval if a = b for a, b in the field of reals R. The natural class of intervals consists of the collection of increasing intervals, decreasing intervals and the degenerate intervals. Clearly R is contained in the natural …

Dsm Super Vector Space Of Refined Labels, Florentin Smarandache, W.B. Vasantha Kandasamy

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

In this book authors for the first time introduce the notion of supermatrices of refined labels. Authors prove super row matrix of refined labels form a group under addition. However super row matrix of refined labels do not form a group under product; it only forms a semigroup under multiplication. In this book super column matrix of refined labels and m × n matrix of refined labels are introduced and studied. We mainly study this to introduce to super vector space of refined labels using matrices. We in this book introduce the notion of semifield of refined labels using which …

Dsm Vector Spaces Of Refined Labels, Florentin Smarandache, W.B. Vasantha Kandasamy

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

The study of DSm linear algebra of refined labels have been done by Florentin Smarandache, Jean Dezert, and Xinde Li.

In this book the authors introduce the notion of DSm vector spaces of refined labels. The reader is requested to refer the paper as the basic concepts are taken from that paper [35]. This book has six chapters. The first one is introductory in nature just giving only the needed concepts to make this book a self contained one. Chapter two introduces the notion of refined plane of labels, the three dimensional space of refined labels DSm vector spaces. Clearly …

Extremal Problems For Independent Set Enumeration, Jonathan Cutler, A. J. Radcliffe

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

The study of the number of independent sets in a graph has a rich history. Recently, Kahn proved that disjoint unions of Kr,r’s have the maximum number of independent sets amongst r-regular bipartite graphs. Zhao extended this to all r-regular graphs. If we instead restrict the class of graphs to those on a fixed number of vertices and edges, then the Kruskal-Katona theorem implies that the graph with the maximum number of independent sets is the lex graph, where edges form an initial segment of the lexicographic ordering. In this paper, we study three related questions. Firstly, we …

Analysis Of The Dpg Method For The Poisson Equation, Leszek Demkowicz, Jay Gopalakrishnan

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We give an error analysis of the recently developed DPG method applied to solve the Poisson equation and a convection-dffusion problem. We prove that the method is quasioptimal. Error estimates in terms of both the mesh size h and the polynomial degree p (for various element shapes) can be derived from our results. Results of extensive numerical experiments are also presented.

A Second Elasticity Element Using The Matrix Bubble, Jay Gopalakrishnan, Johnny Guzmán

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We presented a family of finite elements that use a polynomial space augmented by certain matrix bubbles in Cockburn et al. (2010) A new elasticity element made for enforcing weak stress symmetry. Math. Comput., 79, 1331–1349 . In this sequel we exhibit a second family of elements that use the same matrix bubble. This second element uses a stress space smaller than the first while maintaining the same space for rotations (which are the Lagrange multipliers corresponding to a weak symmetry constraint). The space of displacements is of one degree less than the first method. The analysis, while similar to …