The quaternions are an extension of the complex numbers which were first described by Sir William Rowan Hamilton in 1843. In his description, he gave the equation of the multiplication of the imaginary component similar to that of complex numbers. Many mathematicians have studied the zeros of quaternionic polynomials. Prominent of these, Ivan Niven pioneered a root-finding algorithm in 1941, Gentili and Struppa proved the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra (FTA) for quaternions in 2007. This thesis finds the zeros of quaternionic polynomials using the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra. There are isolated zeros and spheres of zeros. In this thesis, we also find the automorphisms of the zeros of the polynomials and the automorphism group.

We provide a combinatorial interpretation of the frequency of any irreducible representation of Sn in representations of Sn arising from group actions on words. Recognizing that representations arising from group actions naturally split across orbits yields combinatorial interpretations of the irreducible decompositions of representations from similar group actions. The generalization from group actions on words to group actions on matrices gives rise to representations that prove to be much less transparent. We share the progress made thus far on the open problem of determining the irreducible decomposition of certain representations of Sm × Sn arising from group actions on matrices.

Dating back to the 1930's, Ramsey theory still intrigues many who study combinatorics. Roughly put, it makes the profound assertion that complete disorder is impossible. One view of this problem is in edge-colorings of complete graphs. For forbidden graphs H1,...,Hk and a graph G, we write G "arrows" (H1,...,Hk) if every k-edge-coloring of G contains a monochromatic copy of Hi in color i for some i=1,2,...,k. If c is a (red, blue)-edge-coloring of G, we say c is a bad coloring if G contains no red K3or blue K1,t under c. A graph G is (H1,...,Hk)-Ramsey-minimal if G arrows (H1,...,Hk) but no proper subgraph of G has this property. Given a family F of graphs, we say that a graph G is F-saturated if no member of F is a subgraph of G, but for any edge xy not in E(G), G + xy contains a member of F as a subgraph. Letting Rmin(K3, K1,t) be the family of (K3,K1,t)-Ramsey minimal graphs, we study the saturation number, denoted sat(n,Rmin(K3,K1,t)), which is the minimum number of edges among all Rmin(K3,K1,t)-saturated graphs on n vertices. We believe the methods and constructions developed in this thesis will be useful in studying the saturation numbers of (K4,K1,t)-saturated graphs.

Lattices are an easy and clean class of periodic arrangements that are not only discrete but associated with algebraic structures. We will specifically discuss applying lattices theory to computing the area of polygons in the plane and some optimization problems. This thesis will details information about Pick's Theorem and the higher-dimensional cases of Ehrhart Theory. Closely related to Pick's Theorem and Ehrhart Theory is the Frobenius Problem and Integer Knapsack Problem. Both of these problems have higher-dimension applications, where the difficulties are similar to those of Pick's Theorem and Ehrhart Theory. We will directly relate these problems to optimization problems and operations research.

This thesis examines the domination number of the semi-strong product of two graphs G and H where both G and H are simple and connected graphs. The product has an edge set that is the union of the edge set of the direct product of G and H together with the cardinality of V(H), copies of G. Unlike the other more common products (Cartesian, direct and strong), the semi-strong product is neither commutative nor associative. The semi-strong product is not supermultiplicative, so it does not satisfy a Vizing like conjecture. It is also not submultiplicative so it shares these two properties with the direct product. After giving the basic definitions related with graphs, domination in graphs and basic properties of the semi-strong product, this paper includes a general upper bound for the domination of the semi-strong product of any two graphs G and H as less than or equal to twice the domination numbers of each graph individually. Similar general results for the semi-strong product perfect-paired domination numbers of any two graphs G and H, as well as semi-strong products of some specific types of cycle graphs are also addressed.

In a graph G=(V,E), a subset S ⊆ V is a double dominating set if every vertex in V is dominated at least twice. The minimum cardinality of a double dominating set of G is the double domination number. A graph G is double domination edge critical if for any edge uv ∈ E(G̅), the double domination number of G+uv is less than the double domination number of G. We investigate properties of double domination edge critical graphs. In particular, we characterize the double domination edge critical trees and cycles, graphs with double domination numbers of 3, and graphs with double domination numbers of 4 with maximum diameter.

The distance d(u, v) between two vertices u and v in a graph G equals the length of a shortest path from u to v. A set S of vertices is called a distance-2 dominating set if every vertex in V \S is within distance-2 of at least one vertex in S. The distance-2 domatic number is the maximum number of sets in a partition of the vertices of G into distance-2 dominating sets. We give bounds on the distance-2 domatic number of a graph and determine the distance-2 domatic number of selected classes of graphs.

One of the most prevalent inherited diseases is cystic fibrosis. This disease is caused by a mutation in a membrane protein, the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR). CFTR is known to function as a chloride channel that regulates the viscosity of mucus that lines the ducts of a number of organs. Generally, most of the prevalent mutations of CFTR are located in one of two nucleotide binding domains, namely, the nucleotide binding domain 1 (NBD1). However, some mutations in nucleotide binding domain 2 (NBD2) can equally cause cystic fibrosis. In this work, a hierarchical graph is built for NBD2. Using this model for NBD2, we examine the consequence of single point mutations on NBD2. We collate the wildtype structure with eight of the most prevalent mutations and observe how the NBD2 is affected by each of these mutations.

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.

It is needless to point out the necessity and the importance of the study of Pfaffian differential expressions and equations. While it is interesting to consider from the pure mathematical point of view, their applications in many branches of applied mathematics are well known. To mention a few, one may observe that they arise in connection with line integrals (example, determination of work). They provide a more rational formulation of the foundations of thermodynamics as 'developed by the Greek mathematician Caratheodory. They also arise in the problem of determining the orthogonal trajectories. In many branches of engineering and other physical sciences they appear with problems concerning partial differential equations.