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For over two millennia, humor has been the topic of philosophical discussion since it appears to be a nearly universal element of human experience and also offers different perspectives on that experience. Humor delves deep into the cultural norms governing religion, family, sex, society, and other aspects of day to day life in order to investigate the absurdities therein. Viewing such reified aspects of life in a new, humorous light is one of the principal characteristics of the Chilean author José Donoso’s novels. Oftentimes irreverent and scathing, Donoso’s dark humor reaches entropic proportions since it accentuates (and at times even seems to celebrate) the human condition’s descent into chaos. Given this downward trajectory, a selection of the Chilean author’s novels will be analyzed under the entropic humor theory originated by literary theorist Patrick O’Neill. The notion of entropy contains the very idea of a breakdown of order that tends toward chaos, so this special brand of humor is a unique fit for a study of Donoso. Within the author’s first novels, we note extreme existential angst which, as we pass into his later works, gives way to resignation, a trajectory we see mirrored in the use of humor, going from extremely dark and bitter to more playful, albeit always caustic and acerbic in nature. By delving into the psyche of man, Donoso finds much humor behind the tragedy and then uses it to expose life’s absurdities. He toys with our expectations. His use of humor externalizes alternative ways to view life – in its tragic comedies or comic tragedies. / Spanish

<p> Entropy of mixing for random mass defects is examined and equations for the phonon contribution are developed. The Green's function method used gives the entropy change due to the phonons at all temperatures, but for experimental comparison the high temperature region is used. There simple formulae obtain, but the mass defect is not sufficient to account for the observed entropy changes. This suggests that further work is necessary. </p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

This dissertation studies hyperbolic partial differential equations for Conservation Laws motivated by traffic control problems. New traffic models for multi-directional flow in two dimensions are derived and their properties studied. Control models are proposed where the control variable is a multiplicative term in the flux function. Control models are also proposed for relaxation type systems of hyperbolic PDEs. Existence of optimal control for the case of constant controls is presented. Unbounded and bounded feedback control designs are proposed. These include advective, diffusive, and advective-diffusive controls. Existence result for the bounded advective control is derived. Performance of the relaxation model using bounded advective control is analyzed. Finally simulations using Godunov scheme are performed on unbounded and bounded feedback advective controls. / Ph. D.

Fluctuations are of great importance in systems of small length and energy scales. Measuring the pulling of single molecules or the stationary fiow of mesospheres dragged through a viscous media enables the direct analysis of work and entropy distributions. These probability distributions are the result of a large number of repetitions of the same experiment. Due to the small scale of these experiments, the outcome can vary significantly from one realization to the next. Strong theoretical predictions exist, collectively called Fluctuation Theorems, that restrict the shape of these distributions due to an underlying time reversal symmetry of the microscopic dynamics. Fluctuation Theorems are the strongest existing statements on the entropy production of systems that are out of equilibrium. Being the most important ingredient for the Fluctuation Theorems, the probability distribution of the entropy change is itself of great interest. Using numerically exact methods we characterize entropy distributions for various stochastic reaction-diffusion systems that present different properties in their underlying dynamics. We investigate these systems in their steady states and in cases where time dependent forces act on them. This study allows us to clarify the connection between the microscopic rules and the resulting entropy production. The present work also adds to the discussion of the steady state properties of stationary probabilities and discusses a non-equilibrium current amplitude that allows us to quantify the distance from equilibrium. The presented results are part of a greater endeavor to find common rules that will eventually lead to a general understanding of non-equilibrium systems. / Ph. D.

The unit root revolution in time series modeling has created substantial interest in non- stationarity and its implications for empirical modeling. Beyond the original interest in trend vs. di¤erence non-stationarity, there has been renewed interest in testing and modeling structural breaks. The focus of my dissertation is on testing for departures from stationarity in a broader framework where unit root, mean trends and structural break non-stationarity constitute only a small subset of the possible forms of non-stationarity. In the fi¦rst chapter the most popular testing procedures for the assumption, in view of the fact that general forms of non-stationarity render each observation unique, I develop a testing procedure using a resampling scheme which is based on a Maximum Entropy replication algorithm. The proposed misspecification testing procedure relies on resampling techniques to enhance the informational content of the observed data in an attempt to capture heterogeneity 'locally' using rolling window estimators of the primary moments of the stochastic process. This provides an e¤ective way to enhance the sample information in order to assess the presence of departures from stationarity. Depending on the sample size, the method utilizes overlapping or non-overlapping window estimates. The e¤ectiveness of the testing procedure is assessed using extensive Monte Carlo simulations. The use of rolling non-overlapping windows improves the method by improving both the size and power of the test. In particular, the new test has empirical size very close to the nominal and very high power for a variety of departures from stationarity. The proposed procedure is then applied on seven macroeconomic series in the fourth chapter. Finally, the optimal choice of orthogonal polynomials, for hypothesis testing, is investigated in the last chapter. / Ph. D.

Development is a difficult goal because it represents the least probable state. Traditionally, the gravity model has been used to describe future spatial organization because as an entropy maximizing approach, it provides the only unbiased situation which can be assumed. While the maximum entropy solution to a problem is the most natural solution, it is not the most desirable solution. In summary, what we have today is a case of transportation engineers trying to minimize entropy through the use of such tactical ploys as freeway control (minimizing entropy in transportation operation) while transportation planners are locating new transportation facilities according to entropy maximizing criteria at the strategic level. This study introduces the concept of entropy to transportation systems and stresses on the entropy minimizing approach to transportation planning through the use of mathematical models and optimization techniques. This study also emphasizes the dynamic nature of land use and transportation interaction in the system, especially the notions of feedback, equilibrium and steady state performance. / M.S.

In this document, a low-cost, portable, non-invasive method of collecting the 3D trajectories of flying bats is first presented. An array of commercially available camera and light components is used alongside a number of well-established calibration and triangulation techniques to resolve the motion of agents through a 3D volume. It is shown that this system is capable of accurately capturing the bats' flight paths in a field experiment. The use of non-visible illumination ensures that a natural cave environment is disturbed as little as possible for behavioral experiments. Following is a transfer entropy analysis approach applied to the 3D paths of bats flying in pairs. The 3D trajectories are one-dimensionally characterized as inverse curvature time series to allow for entropy calculations. In addition to a traditional formulation of information flow between pair members, a path coupling hypothesis is pursued with time-delay modifications implemented in such a way as to not change the Markovianity of the process. With this modification, trends are found that suggest a leader-follower interaction between the front bat and the rear bat, although statistical significance is not reached due to the small number of pairs considered. / Master of Science