This thesis seeks to answer one single question: "what is an equivalence relation?" A more correct, though longer, version of this question is "what are the qualitatively different ways in which people experience an equivalence relation?" The second question is not simply a version of the first one. It has a completely different nature and consequently demands a completely different answer. The answer to the first question can be found in any textbook on the foundations of mathematics; while the second question can be answered only by conducting research where people are given a chance to reveal their conceptions of equivalence relations. These two questions embody two integrated phases of this thesis linked together with a transitory phase. The first phase starts with a definite answer to the first question, i.e. the standard definition of equivalence relations. This definition is used to design a certain situation consisting of certain tasks embodying the corresponding notion. The initial intention of the situation is to get students to define certain predetermined concepts related to the notion of interest, and the effectiveness of the situation is characterized by the extent of students' success to do so. The tasks are tried out on a smallish sample of students. To put it bluntly, the situation fails to achieve its aim. In the process of interviewing the students it becomes clear that the standard definition is just an advanced means of organizing by which the given situation {and many others} can be organized. More importantly, there is a growing realization that the initial intention of the study ignores the richness of the students' ways of organizing the situation in favour of maintaining a narrow criterion for success. Relinquishing the latter in favour of the former is the turning point from the first phase to the second. The second phase is a transitory phase in which more weight has been put on what students use to organize the given situation. Although the focus of this phase is not on the notion of equivalence relation, the students' works reveal some unexpected aspects of this notion. This suggests the possibility of using the original tasks for pursuing an unexpected purpose in the main (i.e. third) phase of this thesis. The main phase of the thesis adopts a phenomenographic approach to reveal students' conceptions of equivalence relations. These conceptions are inferred from the ways that the students tackle the tasks, regardless of the extent to which they fit into the standard account. It is shown that these conceptions correspond to certain 'historical' counterparts, where some prominent mathematicians of the past have tackled certain situations that from the vantage point of today's mathematics embody the idea of equivalence relation. These correspondences put forward a critical distinction between "equivalence" as an experience and "equivalence" as a concept. This distinction calls into question the most popular view of the subject: that the mathematical notion of equivalence relation is the result of spelling out our experience of equivalence. Moreover, the findings of this study suggest that the standard definition of an equivalence relation is ill-chosen from a pedagogical point of view, but well-crafted from a mathematical point of view.

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Το παράδοξο Banach-Tarski είναι ένα εντυπωσιακό θεώρημα των καθαρών μαθηματικών που αποδείχθηκε απο τους Πολωνούς μαθηματικούς Banach και Tarski το 1924. Το θεώρημα αυτό λέει ότι μπορούμε να διαμέρισουμε οποιαδήποτε τρισδιάστατη ευκλείδεια μπάλα σε πεπερασμένα το πλήθος κομμάτια και έπειτα απο περιστροφές και μεταφορές αυτών των κομματιών να σχηματίσουμε δύο μπάλες οι οποίες είναι πανομοιότυπες με την αρχική. Το αποτέλεσμα αυτό έχει χαρακτηριστεί ως παράδοξο ακριβώς επειδή είναι ενάντιο στις διαισθήσεις μας. Για την απόδειξη του χρησιμοποιείται ουσιωδώς το Αξίωμα της Επιλογής απο τη Θεωρία Συνόλων, το πλέον επίμαχο αξίωμα της Συνολοθεωρίας. / The Banach-Tarski paradox is a striking theorem of pure mathematics proved by Polish mathematicians Banach and Tarski in 1924. This theorem states that there exists a decomposition of the three-dimensional Euclidean ball in a finite number of non-overlapping pieces, which can then be put back together in a different way to yield two identical copies of the original ball. This result has been described as a paradox precisely because it is highly anti-intuitive. To prove this theorem one must appeal to a set theoretic axiom, the Axiom of Choice, the most controversial axiom of Set theory.

The axiomatic theory of ` Zelazko defines a variety of general spectra where specified axioms are satisfied. However, there arise a number of spectra, usually defined for a single element of a Banach algebra, that are not covered by the axiomatic theory of ` Zelazko. V. Kordula and V. M¨uller addressed this issue and created the theory of regularities. Their unique idea was to describe the underlying set of elements on which the spectrum is defined. The axioms of a regularity provide important consequences. We prove that the set of Koliha-Drazin invertible elements, which includes the Drazin invertible elements, forms a regularity. The properties of the spectrum corresponding to a regularity are also investigated. / Mathematical Sciences / M. Sc. (Mathematics)

The axiomatic theory of ` Zelazko defines a variety of general spectra where specified axioms are satisfied. However, there arise a number of spectra, usually defined for a single element of a Banach algebra, that are not covered by the axiomatic theory of ` Zelazko. V. Kordula and V. M¨uller addressed this issue and created the theory of regularities. Their unique idea was to describe the underlying set of elements on which the spectrum is defined. The axioms of a regularity provide important consequences. We prove that the set of Koliha-Drazin invertible elements, which includes the Drazin invertible elements, forms a regularity. The properties of the spectrum corresponding to a regularity are also investigated. / Mathematical Sciences / M. Sc. (Mathematics)

Η παρούσα διατριβή εκπονήθηκε με σκοπό να γενικεύσει το πρόβλημα του ελέγχου υποθέσεων που εμπεριέχουν στοχαστική διάταξη στα πλαίσια της Μη Παραμετρικής Στατιστικής. Για τον σκοπό αυτό μελετήθηκε η σχετική βιβλιογραφία, εξετάσθηκε η ορολογία, οι ήδη υπάρχοντες ορισμοί και οι σχετικές προταθείσες μέθοδοι και ακολούθως έγινε προσπάθεια γενίκευσης του προαναφερθέντος προβλήματος. Η έρευνα αυτή απέδωσε δύο ομάδες αποτελεσμάτων. Στην πρώτη, ορίσθηκε μια νέα ολική διάταξη (XFO) σε κάθε σύνολο ασαφών αριθμών που έχουν διαφορετικές κορυφές οι οποίες σχηματίζουν συμπαγές υποσύνολο του ℝ. Η ασαφής αυτή διάταξη αποδίδει την σύγκριση των ασαφών αριθμών με ένα ασαφές μέτρο αναγκαιότητας και με το δυϊκό του μέτρο δυνατότητας. Η σύγκριση αυτής της μεθόδου με την πλέον αναγνωρισμένη αντίστοιχη μέθοδο διάταξης ασαφών αριθμών απέδειξε ότι η εισαχθείσα μέθοδος XFO είναι πιο κοντά στην αρχική μας εκτίμηση για την διάταξη και ανταποκρίνεται πιο αισιόδοξα. Στην δεύτερη ομάδα αποτελεσμάτων εισάγεται η έννοια της στοχαστικής διάταξης ασαφών τυχαίων μεταβλητών, με σύντηξη των ακολούθων εννοιών: α) της στοχαστικής διάταξης, β) της ανωτέρω ασαφούς διάταξης και γ) της εισαγόμενης έννοιας της ασαφούς συνάρτησης κατανομής. Ο ορισμός της στοχαστικής διάταξης δίδεται σε αρμονία με την μέθοδο XFO, αφού και οι δύο έχουν τις ρίζες τους στην ίδια διάταξη κλειστών διαστημάτων που εισάγεται αρχικά στην εργασία, μπορεί δε να θεωρηθεί η ασαφής στοχαστική διάταξη ως επέκταση της XFO. Η δεύτερη αυτή ομάδα περιλαμβάνει ένα εισαγόμενο για πρώτη φορά τρόπο ορισμού Ασαφών Υποθέσεων που περιέχουν στοχαστική διάταξη ασαφών τυχαίων μεταβλητών. Αυτό έχει αποτέλεσμα να βαθμολογείται θετικά μόνο η μία εκ των δύο ασαφών υποθέσεων, ασαφούς μηδενικής και ασαφούς εναλλακτικής, διευκολύνοντας έτσι την λήψη αποφάσεων. Προτείνεται διαδικασία ασαφούς ελέγχου που πιστοποιεί οποιαδήποτε ενυπάρχουσα στοχαστική διάταξη δύο ασαφών τυχαίων δειγμάτων, συμβατή με τον ορισμό, η οποία αντιστοιχεί θετικές τιμές αλήθειας μόνον στην αποδεκτή υπόθεση και μηδέν στην απορριπτόμενη. Τα αποτελέσματα του ελέγχου εκφράζονται με την βοήθεια δύο μέτρων αναγκαιότητας. Η μείζων συνεισφορά της προτεινόμενης ασαφούς διαδικασίας ελέγχου ασαφών υποθέσεων, που αναφέρονται σε στοχαστική διάταξη ασαφών τυχαίων μεταβλητών, είναι ότι παρέχει εργαλείο μετασχηματισμού του προβλήματος σε ένα περιορισμένο αριθμό ελέγχων κλασσικών υποθέσεων της μη Παραμετρικής Στατιστικής. Με τον τρόπο αυτό μπορούμε να συμβάλουμε στην επίλυση τέτοιων προβλημάτων ασαφών ελέγχων τόσο θεωρητικών ζητημάτων στοχαστικής διάταξης ασαφών τυχαίων μεταβλητών όσο και ενός αριθμού πρακτικών προβλημάτων, όπως της ασαφούς αξιολόγησης εξεταζομένων. / This dissertation has been carried out in order to extend the problem of testing hypotheses on stochastic orderings, with methods based on ranks. This study provides two sets of related results. In the first set of results we introduce a novel linear order, the “extended fuzzy order” (XFO), on every subset of F(ℝ), the members of which must have their modal values all different and form a compact subset of ℝ. A distinct new feature is that our linear determined procedure employs the corresponding order of a class interval associated with a confidence measure which assigns a necessity measure value on every comparison . This new XFO method measures the ordering of any two fuzzy numbers with a possibility and a necessity measure, a feature that makes the method relevant for processing of fuzzy statistical data. These fuzzy measures are compared with the widely accepted PD and NSD indices of D. Dubois and H. Prade. The comparison proves that our possibility and necessity measures are more optimistic and comply better with our intuition. In the second set of results it is investigated the fuzzy extension of hypotheses testing using non parametric methods based on ranks. To achieve this, the notion of fuzzy distribution function is introduced in a practical manner, which is proved to be equivalent to the known notion of Kruse and Mayer. The stochastic ordering of two fuzzy random samples is defined in a fusion of the notion of stochastic ordering, fuzzy distribution function and XFO method. A novel definition of fuzzy hypotheses related to a potential fuzzy stochastic order between two fuzzy random samples is given in a new manner so that the null and its alternative hypotheses do not overlap. Consequently, the method assigns positive possibility grades either to the null fuzzy hypothesis or to the its fuzzy alternative. This simplifies the fuzzy decision making, and moreover there is no need to defuzzify the results if a clear cut decision is required. A fuzzy statistical inference procedure of fuzzy hypotheses is proposed and it is carried out at a fuzzy significance level. The definition of a fuzzy critical value is required, which is carried out in a practical manner. The proposed method certifies any underlying stochastic fuzzy order between two fuzzy random samples giving grades of confidence to that. Two necessity measures are assigned to the rejection of the fuzzy null hypothesis in favor of its alternative. The first measures the necessity of the existence of any fuzzy stochastic ordering between the fuzzy random samples under examination. The second necessity measure expresses the confidence of the fuzzy null hypothesis rejection uniformly for all relevant α-cut levels. The main contribution of this thesis, as far as the second set of results is concerned, is that a problem of testing fuzzy hypotheses on stochastic orderings of fuzzy random variables at a fuzzy significance level, is transferred to a limited number of tests of classic hypotheses. These tests are carried out at a fuzzy significance level, and are processed with the application of the linear fuzzy ordering procedure XFO.