Mesh free modeling techniques are a promising alternative to traditional meshed methods for solving computational fluid dynamics problems. These techniques aim to solve for the field variable using solely the values of nodes and therefore do not require the generation of a mesh. This results in a process that can be much more reliably automated and is therefore attractive. Radial basis functions (RBFs) are one type of "meshless" method that has shown considerable growth in the past 50 years. Using these RBFs to directly solve a partial differential equation is known as Kansa's method and has been used to successfully solve many flow problems. The problem with Kansa's method is that there is no formal guarantee that its solution matrix will be non-singular. More recently, an expansion on Kansa's method was proposed that incorporates the boundary and PDE operators into the solution of the field variable. This method, known as Hermitian method, has been shown to be non-singular provided certain nodal criteria are met. This work aims to perform a comparison between Kansa and Hermitian methods to aid in future selection of a method. These two methods were used to solve steady and transient one-dimensional convection-diffusion problems. The methods are compared in terms of accuracy (error) and computational complexity (conditioning number) in order to evaluate overall performance. Results suggest that the Hermitian method does slightly outperform Kansa method at the cost of a more ill-conditioned collocation matrix.

The rapid increase in computational power over the last decade has unlocked the possibility of providing patient-specific healthcare via simulation and data assimilation. In the past 2 decades, computational approaches to simulating cardiovascular flows have advanced significantly due to intense research and adoption of methods in medical device companies. A significant source of friction in porting these tools to the hospital and getting in the hands of surgeons is due to the expertise required to handle the geometry pre-processing and meshing of models. Meshless meth- ods reduce the amount of corner cases which makes it easier to develop robust tools surgeons need. To accurately simulate modifications to a region of vasculature as in surgical planning, the entire system must be modeled. Unfortunately, this is computationally prohibitive even on to- day’s machines. To circumvent this issue, the Radial-Basis Function Finite Difference (RBF-FD) method for solution of the higher-dimensional (2D/3D) region of interest is tightly-coupled to a 0D Lumped-Parameter Model (LPM) for solution of the peripheral circulation. The incompress- ible flow equations are updated by an explicit time-marching scheme based on a pressure-velocity correction algorithm. The inlets and outlets of the domain are tightly coupled with the LPM which contains elements that draw from a fluid-electrical analogy such as resistors, capacitors, and in- ductors that represent the viscous resistance, vessel compliance, and flow inertia, respectively. The localized RBF meshless approach is well-suited for modeling complicated non-Newtonian hemo- dynamics due to ease of spatial discretization, ease of addition of multi-physics interactions such as fluid-structure interaction of the vessel wall, and ease of parallelization for fast computations. This work introduces the tight coupling of meshless methods and LPMs for fast and accurate hemody- namic simulations. The results show the efficacy of the method to be used in building robust tools to inform surgical decisions and further development is motivated.

The main objective of this study is to analyze the effects cotton quality has on hedging and basis movements within the cotton market to help market participants minimize price risk. The effectiveness of using cotton futures in hedging price risk will be determined by calculating optimal hedge ratios by tenderable quality. Hedge ratios will be calculated using simple differences and error correction models (ECM) on overlapping price data, estimated under both generalized least squares (GLS) and maximum likelihood estimation (MLE). An empirical analysis shows that as cotton quality improves, the optimal hedge ratio decreases. ECMs estimated under GLS are found to be most efficient. It is also found that cotton classing data by quality has no significant effect on cotton basis. Farmers and merchandisers can take these results as a framework to better manage price and basis risk in the hedge and speculative scenarios.

Cette thèse s’articule autour des espaces de modules de représentations de carquois arbitraires, c’est-à-dire possédant d’éventuelles boucles. Nous obtenons trois types de résultats. Le premier concerne la base canonique de Lusztig, dont la définition est étendue à notre cadre, notamment en introduisant une algèbre de Hopf généralisant les groupes quantiques usuels (i.e. associés aux algèbres de Kac-Moody symétriques). On démontre au passage une conjecture faite par Lusztig en 1993, portant sur la catégorie de faisceaux pervers qu’il définit sur les variétés de représentations de carquois.Le second type de résultats, également inspiré par le travail de Lusztig, concerne la base semi- canonique et la variété Lagrangienne nilpotent de Lusztig. Pour un carquois arbitraire, on définit des sous-variétés de représentations semi-nilpotentes Λ(α), et nous montrons qu’elles sont Lagrangiennes. La démonstration repose sur l’existence de fibrations affines partielles entre diverses composantes de Λ(α), contrôlées par une combinatoire précise. Nous définissons une algèbre de convolution de fonctions constructibles sur ⊔Λ(α), et montrons qu’elle possède une base formée de fonctions quasi- caractéristiques des composantes irréductibles des Λ(α). La structure combinatoire qui se dégage ici est analogue à celle obtenue sur les faisceaux pervers de Lusztig, et fait apparaître des opérateurs plus généraux que ceux décrits par les cristaux de Kashiwara.Le troisième thème considéré est celui des variétés carquois de Nakajima, dont l’étude géomé- trique menée ici permet, conjointement avec ce qui est fait précédemment, de donner une définition de cristaux de Kashiwara généralisés. On définit à nouveau des sous-variétés Lagrangiennes, ainsi qu’un produit tensoriel sur leurs composantes irréductibles, comme fait dans le cas classique par Nakajima. / This thesis is about the moduli spaces of representations of arbitrary quivers, i.e. possibly carrying loops. We obtain three types of results. The first one deals with the Lusztig canonical basis, whose definition is here extended to our framework, thanks in particular to the definition of a Hopf algebra generalizing the usual quantum groups (i.e. associated to symmetric Kac-Moody algebras). We also prove a conjecture raised by Lusztig in 1993, which concerns the category of perverse sheaves he defines on varieties of representations of quivers.The second type of results, also inspired by the work of Lusztig, concerns the semicanonical basis. For an arbitrary quiver, we define subvarieties of seminilpotent representations Λ(α), and we show that they are Lagrangian. The proof relies on the existence of partial affine fibrations between some irreducible components of Λ(α), controled by a precise combinatorial structure. We define a convolution algebra of constructible functions on ⊔Λ(α), and show it is equipped with a basis of quasi-characteristic functions of the irreducible components of the Λ(α). The combinatorial structure arising from this construction is analogous to the one obtained on Lusztig perverse sheaves, and yields operators more general than the ones described by Kashiwara crystals.The third considered topic is the one of Nakajima quiver varieties, whose geometric study in this thesis allows, along with the previous (also geometric) work, to define generalized Kashiwara crystals. We define, again, Lagrangian subvarieties, and a tensor product of their irreducible components, as done by Nakajima on the classical case.

Song Yingkun. / Thesis submitted in: December 1999. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 31-34). / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

The broad topic of this dissertation is the study of algebraic structure arising from polyhedral geometric objects. There are three distinct topics covered over three main chapters. However, each of these topics are further linked by a connection to the Eulerian polynomials. Chapter 2 studies Euler-Mahonian identities arising from both the symmetric group and generalized permutation groups. Specifically, we study the algebraic structure of unit cube semigroup algebra using Gröbner basis methods to acquire these identities. Moreover, this serves as a bridge between previous methods involving polyhedral geometry and triangulations with descent bases methods arising in representation theory. In Chapter 3, the aim is to characterize Hilbert basis elements of certain 𝒔-lecture hall cones. In particular, the main focus is the classification of the Hilbert bases for the 1 mod 𝑘 cones and the 𝓁-sequence cones, both of which generalize a previous known result. Additionally, there is much broader characterization of Hilbert bases in dimension ≤ 4 for 𝒖-generated Gorenstein lecture hall cones. Finally, Chapter 4 focuses on certain algebraic and geometric properties of 𝒔-lecture hall polytopes. This consists of partial classification results for the Gorenstein property, the integer-decomposition property, and the existence of regular, unimodular triangulations.

We investigate here some aspects of cycle bases of undirected graphs that allow the iterative construction of all elementary cycles. We introduce the concept of quasi-robust bases as a generalization of the notion of robust bases and demonstrate that a certain class of bases of the complete bipartite graphs K m,n with m,n _> 5 is quasi-robust but not robust. We furthermore disprove a conjecture for cycle bases of Cartesian product graphs.

In this thesis, we introduce a radial basis function network approach to solve a color image classification problem in a real time industrial application. Radial basis function networks are employed to classify the images of finished wooden parts in terms of their color and species. Other classification methods are also examined in this work. The minimum distance classifiers are presented since they have been employed by the previous research. We give brief definitions about color space, color texture, color quantization, color classification methods. We also give an intensive review of radial basis functions, regularization theory, regularized radial basis function networks, and generalized radial basis function networks. The centers of the radial basis functions are calculated by the k-means clustering algorithm. We examine the k-means algorithm in terms of starting criteria, the movement rule, and the updating rule. The dilations of the radial basis functions are calculated using a statistical method. Learning classifier systems are also employed to solve the same classification problem. Learning classifier systems learn the training samples completely whereas they are not successful to classify the test samples. Finally, we present some simulation results for both radial basis function network method and learning classifier systems method. A comparison is given between the results of each method. The results show that the best classification method examined in this work is the radial basis function network method. / Master of Science

In the exploration of chemical systems through quantum mechanics, accurate treatment of the electron wavefunction, and the related electron density, is fundamental to extracting information concerning properties of a system. This work examines challenges in achieving accurate chemical information through manipulation of the one-electron basis set.

The subject of this thesis is the ethics of German 19th century philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. The study examines Schopenhauer’s ethics and investigates his criticism of the ethics of his older German colleague Immanuel Kant. By arguing that all true morally acceptable and good actions originate from compassion, Schopenhauer distinguishes his view from the deontological ethics held by Kant. The study focuses on Schopenhauer’s view on the basis of morals. Its purpose is to consider an ethical perspective that interconnect moral considerations with human empathy. By comparing the arguments presented by these two philosophers one can get a clearer view of the extent to which Schopenhauer’s criticism of Kant’s ethics is justified. In the analysis, five major parts of Schopenhauer’s criticism are identified and studied one by one. The findings suggest that Schopenhauer’s ethics and the ethics of Kant can be represented as two different ethical paradigms.