In this thesis, we develop a framework that generalizes the previously known notions of theta-summable Fredholm modules to the setting of locally convex dg algebras. By introducing an additional action of the Clifford algebra, we may treat the even and odd cases simultaneously. In particular, we recover the theory developed by Güneysu/Ludewig and extend the definition of odd theta-summable Fredholm modules to the differential graded category. We then construct a Chern character, which serves as a differential graded refinement of the JLO cocycle, and prove that it has all the expected analytical and homological properties. As an application, we prove an odd noncommutative index theorem relating the spectral flow of a theta-summable Fredholm module to the pairing of the Chern character with the odd Bismut-Chern character in entire (differential graded) cyclic homology, thereby extending results obtained by Güneysu/Cacciatori and Getzler.

In dieser Arbeit beschäftigen wir uns mit Spektralinvarianten von Polygonen und geschlossenen Orbiflächen konstanter Gaußkrümmung. Unsere Methode ist es jeweils den Wärmeleitungskern und die asymptotische Entwicklung der Wärmespur zu untersuchen. Als erstes untersuchen wir hyperbolische Polygone, d.h. relativ kompakte Gebiete in der hyperbolischen Ebene mit stückweise geodätischem Rand. Wir berechnen die asymptotische Entwicklung der Wärmespur bezüglich des Dirichlet-Laplace Operators eines beliebigen hyperbolischen Polygons, und wir erhalten explizite Formeln für alle Wärmeinvarianten. Analoge Resultate für euklidische und sphärische Polygone waren vorher bekannt. Wir vereinheitlichen diese Resultate und leiten die Wärmeinvarianten für beliebige Polygone her, d.h. für relativ kompakte Gebiete mit stückweise geodätischem Rand in einer vollständigen Riemann'schen Mannigfaltigkeit konstanter Gaußkrümmung. Es stellt sich heraus, dass die Wärmeinvarianten viele Informationen über ein Polygon liefern, falls die Krümmung nicht verschwindet. Zum Beispiel sind dann die Multimenge aller echten Winkel (d.h. derjenigen Winkel die ungleich Pi sind) und die Euler-Charakteristik eines Polygons Spektralinvarianten. Außerdem berechnen wir die asymptotische Entwicklung der Wärmespur von geschlossenen Riemann'schen Orbiflächen konstanter Krümmung und erhalten explizite Formeln für alle Wärmeinvarianten. Falls die Krümmung nicht verschwindet, so kann man interessante Informationen aus den Wärmeinvarianten über die Topologie und die singuläre Menge einer Orbifläche ermitteln. / In this thesis we deal with spectral invariants for polygons and closed orbisurfaces of constant Gaussian curvature. In each case our method is to study the heat kernel and the asymptotic expansion of the heat trace. First, we investigate hyperbolic polygons, i.e. relatively compact domains in the hyperbolic plane with piecewise geodesic boundary. We compute the asymptotic expansion of the heat trace associated to the Dirichlet Laplacian of any hyperbolic polygon, and we obtain explicit formulas for all heat invariants. Analogous results for Euclidean and spherical polygons were known before. We unify these results and deduce the heat invariants for arbitrary polygons, i.e. for relatively compact domains with piecewise geodesic boundary contained in a complete Riemannian manifold of constant Gaussian curvature. It turns out that the heat invariants provide much information about a polygon, if the curvature does not vanish. For example, then the multiset of all real angles (i.e. those which are not equal to pi) and the Euler characteristic of a polygon are spectral invariants. Furthermore, we compute the asymptotic expansion of the heat trace for any closed Riemannian orbisurface of constant curvature, and obtain explicit formulas for all heat invariants. If the curvature does not vanish, then it is possible to detect interesting information about the topology and the singular set of an orbisurface from the heat invariants.

There exists substantial applications motivating the study of nonlinear longitudinal wave propagation in layered (or laminated) elastic waveguides, in particular within areas related to non-destructive testing, where there is a demand to understand, reinforce, and improve deformation properties of such structures. It has been shown [76] that long longitudinal waves in such structures can be accurately modelled by coupled regularised Boussinesq (cRB) equations, provided the bonding between layers is sufficiently soft. The work in this thesis firstly examines the initial-value problem (IVP) for the system of cRB equations in [76] on the infinite line, for localised or sufficiently rapidly decaying initial conditions. Using asymptotic multiple-scales expansions, a nonsecular weakly nonlinear solution of the IVP is constructed, up to the accuracy of the problem formulation. The asymptotic theory is supported with numerical simulations of the cRB equations. The weakly nonlinear solution for the equivalent IVP for a single regularised Boussinesq equation is then constructed; constituting an extension of the classical d'Alembert's formula for the leading order wave equation. The initial conditions are also extended to allow one to separately specify an O(1) and O(ε) part. Large classes of solutions are derived and several particular examples are explicitly analysed with numerical simulations. The weakly nonlinear solution is then improved by considering the IVP for a single regularised Boussinesq-type equation, in order to further develop the higher order terms in the solution. More specifically, it enables one to now correctly specify the higher order term's time dependence. Numerical simulations of the IVP are compared with several examples to justify the improvement of the solution. Finally an asymptotic procedure is developed to describe the class of radiating solitary wave solutions which exist as solutions to cRB equations under particular regimes of the parameters. The validity of the analytical solution is examined with numerical simulations of the cRB equations. Numerical simulations throughout this work are derived and implemented via developments of several finite difference schemes and pseudo-spectral methods, explained in detail in the appendices.

The main goal of our thesis is to understand qualitative properties of solutions to the Cauchy problem for the semi-linear wave model with time-dependent speed and dissipation. We greatly benefited from very precise estimates for the corresponding linear problem in order to obtain the global existence (in time) of small data solutions. This reason motivated us to introduce very carefully a complete description for classification of our models: scattering, non-effective, effective, over-damping. We have considered those separately.

Dans cette thèse, nous étudions les propriétés quantitatives de récurrence de certains systèmes dynamiques préservant une mesure infinie. Nous nous intéressons au premier temps de retour des orbites d'un système dynamique dans un petit voisinage de leurs points de départ. Tout d'abord, nous commençons par considérer un modèle jouet probabilistique pour éclairer la stratégie de nos preuves. On s'intéresse particulièrement au cas où la mesure est infinie, plus précisément, nous considérons les Z -extensions des sous-shift de type fini. Nous étudions le comportement asymptotique du premier temps de retour au voisinage de l'origine, et nous établissons des résultats de type de convergence presque partout, et aussi de convergence en loi par rapport à toute mesure de probabilité absolument continue par rapport à la mesure infinie. Dans ce travail, nous nous également intéressons à d'autres systèmes dynamiques. Nous considérons un flot Axiome A(gt)t sur une variété riemannienne M munie d'une mesure σ -finie μ. Nous supposerons que la mesure μ est une mesure d'équilibre pour (gt)t. Afin d'établir nos résultats, nous introduisons des notions de dynamique hyperbolique. En particulier, nous considérons la section de Markov qui a été introduite par Bowen et Ratner. / In this thesis, we study the quantitative recurrence properties of some dynamical systems preserving an infinite measure. We are interested in the first return time of the orbits of a dynamical system into a small neighborhood of their starting points. First, we start by considering a toy probabilistic model to clarify the strategy of our proofs. Our interest is when the measure is indeed infinite, more precisely we consider the Z-extensions of subshifts of finite type. We study the asymptotic behavior of the first return time near the origin, and we establish results of an almost everywhere convergence kind, and a convergence in distribution with respect to any probability measure absolutely continuous with respect to the infinite measure. In this work, we are also interested in another dynamicals systems. We consider an Axiom A flow (gt)t on a Riemannian manifold M endowed with a σ-finite measure μ. We will assume that the measure μ is an equilibrium measure for (gt)t. In order to establish our results, we introduce notions from hyperbolic dynamics. In particular, we consider the Markov section which was constructed by Bowen and Ratner.

This thesis is concerned with the inverse problem of determining a unitary connection $A$ on a Hermitian vector bundle $E$ of rank $m$ over a compact Riemannian manifold $(M, g)$ from the Dirichlet-to-Neumann (DN) map $\Lambda_A$ of the associated connection Laplacian $d_A^*d_A$. The connection is to be determined up to a unitary gauge equivalence equal to the identity at the boundary. In our first approach to the problem, we restrict our attention to conformally transversally anisotropic (cylindrical) manifolds $M \Subset \mathbb{R}\times M_0$. Our strategy can be described as follows: we construct the special Complex Geometric Optics solutions oscillating in the vertical direction, that concentrate near geodesics and use their density in an integral identity to reduce the problem to a suitable $X$-ray transform on $M_0$. The construction is based on our proof of existence of Gaussian Beams on $M_0$, which are a family of smooth approximate solutions to $d_A^*d_Au = 0$ depending on a parameter $\tau \in \mathbb{R}$, bounded in $L^2$ norm and concentrating in measure along geodesics when $\tau \to \infty$, whereas the small remainder (that makes the solution exact) can be shown to exist by using suitable Carleman estimates. In the case $m = 1$, we prove the recovery of the connection given the injectivity of the $X$-ray transform on $0$ and $1$-forms on $M_0$. For $m > 1$ and $M_0$ simple we reduce the problem to a certain two dimensional $\textit{new non-abelian ray transform}$. In our second approach, we assume that the connection $A$ is a $\textit{Yang-Mills connection}$ and no additional assumption on $M$. We construct a global gauge for $A$ (possibly singular at some points) that ties well with the DN map and in which the Yang-Mills equations become elliptic. By using the unique continuation property for elliptic systems and the fact that the singular set is suitably small, we are able to propagate the gauges globally. For the case $m = 1$ we are able to reconstruct the connection, whereas for $m > 1$ we are forced to make the technical assumption that $(M, g)$ is analytic in order to prove the recovery. Finally, in both approaches we are using the vital fact that is proved in this work: $\Lambda_A$ is a pseudodifferential operator of order $1$ acting on sections of $E|_{\partial M}$, whose full symbol determines the full Taylor expansion of $A$ at the boundary.

Nous étudions plusieurs aspects d'équations aux dérivées partielles multi-échelles. Pour trois exemples, la présence de multiples échelles, spatiales ou temporelles, motive un travail de modélisation mathématique ou constitue un enjeu de discrétisation. La première partie est consacrée à la construction et l'étude d'un système multicouche de type Saint-Venant pour décrire un fluide à surface libre (océan). Son obtention s'appuie sur l'analyse des échelles spatiales, précisément l'hypothèse « eau peu profonde ». Nous justifions nos équations à partir du modèle primitif et montrons un résultat d'existence locale de solution. Puis nous proposons un schéma volumes finis et des simulations numériques. Nous étudions ensuite un problème hyperbolique de relaxation, inspiré de la théorie cinétique des gaz. Nous construisons un schéma numérique via une stratégie préservant l'asymptotique : nous montrons sa convergence pour toute valeur du paramètre de relaxation, ainsi que sa consistance avec le problème à l'équilibre local. Des estimations d'erreurs sont établies et des simulations numériques sont présentées. Enfin, nous étudions un problème d'écoulement sanguin dans une artère avec stent, modélisé par un système de Stokes dans un domaine contenant une petite rugosité périodique (géométrie double échelle). Pour éviter une discrétisation coûteuse du domaine rugueux (l'artère stentée), nous formulons un ansatz de développement de la solution type Chapman-Enskog, et obtenons une loi de paroi implicite sur le bord du domaine lisse (artère seule). Nous montrons des estimations d'erreurs et des simulations numériques / This work is concerned with different aspects of multiscale partial differential equations. For three problems, we address questions of modelling and discretization thanks to the observation of the multiplicity of scales, time or space. We propose in the first part a model of approximation of a fluid with a free surface (ocean). The derivation of our multilayer shallow water type model is based on the analysis of the different space scales generally observed in geophysical flows, precisely the 'shallow water' assumption. We obtain an existence and uniqueness result of local in time solution and propose a finite volume scheme and numerical simulations. Next we study a hyperbolic relaxation problem, motivated by the kinetic theory of gaz. Adopting an Asymptotic Preserving strategy of discretization, we build and analyze a numerical scheme. The convergence is proved for any value of the relaxation parameter, as well as the consistency with the equilibrium problem, thanks to error estimates. We present some numerical simulations. The last part deals with a blood flow model in a stented artery. We consider a Stokes problem in a multiscale space domain, that is a macroscopic box (the artery) containing a microscopic roughness (the stent). To avoid expensive simulations when discretizing the whole rough domain, we perform a Chapman-Enskog type expansion of the solution and derive an implicit wall law on the boundary of the smooth domain. Error estimates are shown and numerical simulations are presented

The topic of this thesis is a diffusion process on a potential landscape which is given by a smooth Hamiltonian function in the regime of small noise. The work provides a new proof of the Eyring-Kramers formula for the Poincaré inequality of the associated generator of the diffusion. The Poincaré inequality characterizes the spectral gap of the generator and establishes the exponential rate of convergence towards equilibrium in the L²-distance. This result was first obtained by Bovier et. al. in 2004 relying on potential theory. The presented approach in the thesis generalizes to obtain also asymptotic sharp estimates of the constant in the logarithmic Sobolev inequality. The optimal constant in the logarithmic Sobolev inequality characterizes the convergence rate to equilibrium with respect to the relative entropy, which is a stronger distance as the L²-distance and slightly weaker than the L¹-distance. The optimal constant has here no direct spectral representation. The proof makes use of the scale separation present in the dynamics. The Eyring-Kramers formula follows as a simple corollary from the two main results of the work: The first one shows that the associated Gibbs measure restricted to a basin of attraction has a good Poincaré and logarithmic Sobolev constants providing the fast convergence of the diffusion to metastable states. The second main ingredient is a mean-difference estimate. Here a weighted transportation distance is used. It contains the main contribution to the Poincaré and logarithmic Sobolev constant, resulting from exponential long waiting times of jumps between metastable states of the diffusion.

Searching is a fundamental task to support research. Current search engines are keyword-based. Semantic technologies promise a next generation of semantic search engines, which will be able to answer questions. Current approaches either apply natural language processing to unstructured text or they assume the existence of structured statements over which they can reason. This work provides a system for combining the classical keyword-based search engines with semantic annotation. Conventional search results are annotated using a customized annotation algorithm, which takes the textual properties and requirements such as speed and scalability into account. The biomedical background knowledge consists of the GeneOntology and Medical Subject Headings and other related entities, e.g. proteins/gene names and person names. Together they provide the relevant semantic context for a search engine for the life sciences. We develop the system GoWeb for semantic web search and evaluate it using three benchmarks. It is shown that GoWeb is able to aid question answering with success rates up to 79%. Furthermore, the system also includes semantic hyperlinks that enable semantic browsing of the knowledge space. The semantic hyperlinks facilitate the use of the eScience infrastructure, even complex workflows of composed web services. To complement the web search of GoWeb, other data source and more specialized information needs are tested in different prototypes. This includes patents and intranet search. Semantic search is applicable for these usage scenarios, but the developed systems also show limits of the semantic approach. That is the size, applicability and completeness of the integrated ontologies, as well as technical issues of text-extraction and meta-data information gathering. Additionally, semantic indexing as an alternative approach to implement semantic search is implemented and evaluated with a question answering benchmark. A semantic index can help to answer questions and address some limitations of GoWeb. Still the maintenance and optimization of such an index is a challenge, whereas GoWeb provides a straightforward system.

Στην παρούσα διδακτορική διατριβή εκθέτονται η χλωρίδα των Βαρδουσίων ορέων καθώς και τα δεδομένα που προκύπτουν από την διερεύνηση – ανάλυσή της. Στο πεδίο της βλάστησης (φυτοκοινωνιολογία), έχει επιβεβαιωθεί σχεδόν το σύνολο των προηγούμενων αναφορών και έχει συμπληρωθεί με νέα δεδομένα όσο αφορά τις φυτοκοινωνιολογικές ομαδοποιήσεις. Συγχρόνως δικαιολογήθηκε και εξηγήθηκε η ύπαρξη των φυτοκοινωνιολογικών μονάδων σε σχέση με το σύνολο των οικολογικών παραγόντων που ήταν δυνατό να ληφθούν υπόψη (μικροκλίμα, εδαφικοί παράγοντες, γεωλογικό - πετρολογικό υπόστρωμα), συμβάλλοντας έτσι στην συνοικολογική προσέγγιση του θέματος. Επίσης όπου ήταν δυνατό έγινε προσπάθεια να διερευνηθεί η δυναμική εξέλιξης των περισσότερων φυτοκοινωνιολογικών ομάδων, όπως αυτή διαμορφώνεται κάτω από την επίδραση των περιβαλλοντικών μεταβλητών. Πιο κάτω ακολουθεί μια συνοπτική περιγραφή των σημαντικότερων σημείων της διδακτορικής διατριβής, καθώς και τα συμπεράσματα που μπορούν να διατυπωθούν από τα αποτελέσματα της ερευνητικής αυτής προσπάθειας. / In the present doctoral thesis the flora of Mt. Vardousia, as well as the data that have resulted from its analysis are presented. From a vegetation (plant sociology) point of view, almost all the previous reports on the mountain have been confirmed and have been enriched with new data as far as phytosociological groups are concerned. Additionally, the existence of certain phytosociological units was justified and explained based on the ecological factors that were possible to be measured (microclimate, soil, geology, geological substrate), contributing in this way to the synecological approach of the subject. Also, where feasible, an effort was done to study the dynamics of succession of most of the phytosociological groups, as they depend on various environmental variables. A concise description of the most important points of the doctoral thesis, as well as the conclusions that can be extracted from the results of this research follow.