Context. Cloud computing is growing fast and has established itself as the next generationsoftware infrastructure. A major role in cloud computing is the virtualization of hardware toisolate systems from each other. This virtualization is often done with Virtual Machines thatemulate both hardware and software, which in turn makes the process isolation expensive. Newtechniques, known as Microservices or containers, has been developed to deal with the overhead.The infrastructure is conjoint with storing, processing and serving vast and unstructureddata sets. The overall cloud system needs to have high performance while providing scalabilityand easy deployment. Microservices can be introduced for all kinds of applications in a cloudcomputing network, and be a better fit for certain products.Objectives. In this study we investigate how a small system consisting of a Cassandra clusterperform while encapsulated in LXC and Docker containers, compared to a non virtualizedstructure. A specific loader is built to stress the cluster to find the limits of the containers.Methods. We constructed an experiment on a three node Cassandra cluster. Test data is sentfrom the Cassandra-loader from another server in the network. The Cassandra processes are thendeployed in the different architectures and tested. During these tests the metrics CPU, disk I/O,network I/O are monitored on the four servers. The data from the metrics is used in statisticalanalysis to find significant deviations.Results. Three experiments are being conducted and monitored. The Cluster test pointed outthat isolated Docker container indicate major latency during disk reads. A local stress test furtherconfirmed those results. The step-wise test in turn, implied that disk read latencies happened dueto isolated Docker containers needs to read more data to handle these requests. All Microservicesprovide some overheads, but fall behind the most for read requests.Conclusions. The results in this study show that virtualization of Cassandra nodes in a clusterbring latency in comparison to a non virtualized solution for write operations. However, thoselatencies can be neglected if scalability in a system is the main focus. For read operationsall microservices had reduced performance and isolated Docker containers brought out thehighest overhead. This is due to the file system used in those containers, which makes disk I/Oslower compared to the other structures. If a Cassandra cluster is to be launched in a containerenvironment we recommend a Docker container with mounted disks to bypass Dockers filesystem or a LXC solution.

Background: The mosquito Aedes aegypti has long been a vector for human illness in the Southeastern United States. In the past, it has been responsible for outbreaks of dengue, chikungunya, and yellow fever and, very recently, the Zika virus that has been introduced to the region. Multiple studies have modeled the geographic distribution of Ae. aegypti as a function of climate factors; however, this ignores the importance of humans to the anthropophilic biter. Furthermore, Ae. aegypti thrives in areas where humans have created standing water sites, such as water storage containers and trash. As models are developed to examine the potential impact of climate change, it becomes increasingly important to include the most comprehensive set of predictors possible. Results: This study uses Maxent, a species distribution model, to evaluate the effects of adding poverty and population density to climate-only models. Performance was evaluated through model fit statistics, such as AUC, omission, and commission, as well as individual variable contributions and response curves. Models which included both population density and poverty exhibited better predictive power and produced more precise distribution maps. Furthermore, the two human population characteristics accounted for much of the model contribution-more so than climate variables. Conclusions: Modeling mosquito distributions without accounting for their dependence on local human populations may miss factors that are very important to niche realization and subsequent risk of infection for humans. Further research is needed to determine if additional human characteristics should be evaluated for model inclusion.

This article proposes a simple method to visualize peak and tails in continuous distributions with finite variance. The excess peak and tails areas in unimodal symmetric and nonsymmetric distributions, and the missing area in U-shaped distributions, are identified by comparing the distribution under consideration with the uniform distribution with equal center and variability. Agreement with kurtosis orderings based on the CDFs, and a strong correlation between the total peak and tails area with quantile kurtosis, were found for the distributions examined. The visualization of tails and peak could be used to introduce the notion of kurtosis in undergraduate statistics courses.

<p>U disertaciji se navode definicije i svojstva malotalasne transformacije i kvaziasimptotskog<br />ponaˇsanja distribucija. Teoreme Abelovog i Tauberovog tipa<br />su koriˇs&acute;cene za asimptotsku analizu temperiranih distribucija, u odnosu na<br />njihovu malotalasnu transformaciju. Takode, prouˇcavana je i malotalasna<br />transformacija ultradiferencijabilnih funkcija i temperiranih ultradistribucija.</p> / <p> In thesis we give basic notions of wavelet transform and quasiasymptotic<br /> behavior of distributions. Via Abelian and Tauberian type of theorems we<br /> study quasiasymptotic behavior of tempered distributions, related to their<br /> wavelet transform. Further, we study wavelet transform of ultradifferential<br /> functions and tempered ultradistributions.</p>

Cette étude est consacrée aux distributions de partons généralisées (GPDs, de l'anglais Generalised Parton Distributions). Dans un premier temps, les principales propriétés des GPDs sont rappelées. On insiste notamment sur les propriétés dites de support et sur la polynomialité. Cette dernière est automatiquement respectée lorsque l'on modélise les GPDs au travers des doubles distributions (DDs), les GPDs s'écrivant comme la transformée de Radon des DDs.Dans le cas scalaire, deux DDs, notées F et G, sont nécessaires pour décrire la GPD H. Du fait de la relation intégrale existant entre H d'un côté, et F et G de l'autre, F et G sont définies de manière ambiguë. Cette ambiguïté est exploitée dans le présent travail afin de développer une nouvelle paramétrisation phénoménologique. Utilisant l'Ansatz de Radyushkin, il est possible d'obtenir un modèle réaliste de GPD, et de le comparer aux données expérimentales disponibles. Dans le cas présent, deux types de modèles, l'un négligeant la GPD E, l'autre en tenant compte, sont comparés aux données de diffusion Compton profondément virtuelle (DVCS) de la collaboration Hall A au Jeffeson Laboratory (JLab). Dans le premier cas, on observe une plus grande flexibilité de la paramétrisation par rapport aux précédentes, ce qui permet une meilleure comparaison aux données sur les sections efficaces indépendantes de l'hélicité du faisceau. Dans le second cas, seule la GPD E est profondément modifiée. De ce fait la comparaison aux données change peu par rapport aux modèles précédents. Seules des données plus sensibles à E permettront de trancher entre les paramétrisations.Afin de dépasser les paramétrisations phénoménologiques, un premier pas a été fait vers la description dynamique des hadrons. En utilisant les équations de Dyson-Schwinger, il a été possible de calculer analytiquement la GPD de pion dans le cadre de l'approximation du diagramme triangle. La comparaison aux données expérimentales disponibles (facteur de forme et PDF) s'est révélée très bonne. Il est également possible de montrer que l'approximation du diagramme triangle permet de retrouver le théorème de pion mou. Néanmoins, ce premier modèle ne respecte pas l'ensemble des propriétés des GPDs. Elle viole la symétrie d'échange x, 1-x, et par conséquent des termes supplémentaires, précédemment négligés, sont pris en compte. On peut ainsi obtenir la densité de probabilité de trouver un quark portant une fraction d'impulsion x dans le plan transverse. Des perspectives de calculs sur le cône de lumière sont présentés dans le dernier chapitre. / This study is devoted to generalised parton distributions (GPDs). First, the main properties of GPDs are given to the reader. One can stress the so-called support properties and the polynomiality property. The latter is automatically fulfiled when modeling GPDs from double distributions (DDs), GPDs being considered as the Radon transform of DDs. In the scalar case, two DDs denoted by F and G are required to describe the GPD H. Due to the integral relation existing between H on one hand, and F and G on the other hand, F and G are not defnied unambiguously. This ambiguity is exploited in the present work in order to develop a new phenomenological parametrisation. Using the Radyushkin Ansatz, it is then possible get a realistic model of GPDs, and to compare it with available experimental data. In the present case, two types of models, one neglecting the GPD E, the other taking it into account are compared with the Jlab Hall A DVCS data. In the former cae, one can notice a better flexibility allowing to better reproduced the beam-helicity independent cross sections. In the latter one, only the GPD E is deeply modified, and thus the comparison with available data does not change significantly with respect to previous parametrisations. Only data more sensitive to E will allow one to selet the most relevant parametrisation.In order to go beyond phenomenological parametrisations, a first step has been done toward a dynamical description of hadron structure. Using the Dyson-Schwinger equations, it has been possible to compute analytically the pion GPD within the triangle diagram approximation. The comparison with available data (Form factor and PDF) appears to be very good. Nevertheless, this first model does not fulfil all the required properties. Especially the soft pion theorem, which corresponds to a specific kinematical limit. It has been shown in this work that this is due to the violation of the Axial-Vector Ward-Takahashi identity, and that the triangle approximation is sufficient to ensure the sof pion theorem. Still it violates the exchange symmetry x, 1-x, and thus additional terms, previously neglected, are taken into account. It is then possible to compute the probability density to find a quark at a given position in the transverse plan carrying a given momentum fraction. Finally, perspective on lightcone computations are given in the last chapter.

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It has been known since the 1930’s that protons and neutrons, collectively called as nucleons, are not “point-like” elementary particles, but rather have a substructure. Today, we know from Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) that nucleons are made from quarks and gluons, with gluons being the elementary force carriers for strong interactions. Quarks and gluons are collectively called as partons. The substructure of the nucleons can be described in terms of parton correlation functions such as Form Factors, (1D) Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs) and their 3D generalizations in terms of Transverse Momentum-dependent parton Distributions (TMDs) and Generalized Parton Distributions (GPDs). All these functions can be derived from the even more general Generalized Transverse Momentum-dependent Distributions (GTMDs). This dissertation promises to provide an insight into all these functions from the point of view of their accessibility in experiments, from model calculations, and from their direct calculation within lattice formulations of QCD. In the first part of this dissertation, we identify physical processes to access GTMDs. By considering the exclusive double Drell-Yan process, we demonstrate, for the very first time, that quark GTMDs can be measured. We also show that exclusive double-quarkonium production in nucleon-nucleon collisions is a direct probe of gluon GTMDs. In the second part of this dissertation, we shift our focus to the “parton quasi-distributions”. Over the last few decades, lattice QCD extraction of the full x-dependence of the parton distributions has always been prohibited by the explicit time-dependence of the correlation functions. In 2013, there was a path-breaking proposal by X. Ji to calculate instead parton quasi-distributions (quasi-PDFs). The procedure of “matching” is a crucial ingredient in the lattice QCD extraction of parton distributions from the quasi-PDF approach. We address the matching for the twist-3 PDFs gT (x), e(x), and hL(x) for the very first time. We pay special attention to the challenges involved in the calculations due to the presence of singular zero-mode contributions. We also present the first-ever lattice QCD results for gT (x) and hL(x) and we discuss the impact of these results on the phenomenology. Next, we explore the general features of quasi-GPDs and quasi-PDFs in diquark spectator models. Furthermore, we address the Burkhardt-Cottingham-type sum rules for the relevant light-cone PDFs and quasi-PDFs in a model-independent manner and also check them explicitly in perturbative model calculations. The last part of this dissertation focuses on the extraction g1T (x,~k2⊥) TMD for the very first time from experimental data using Monte Carlo techniques. This dissertation therefore unravels different aspects of the distribution functions from varied perspectives.

Particle breakage can be significant in stirred vessels such as crystallizers. During crystallization, particle breakage can occur due to particle contact with other particles, the impeller, the suspension fluid, and/or the vessel. Such breakage produces fines and can cause filter plugging downstream. Although research has been conducted with respect to particle breakage, a comprehensive study is still needed to quantify the breakage occurring in stirred vessels. The overall goal of this research is to model the particle breakage occurring in a stirred vessel by analyzing the particle size and shape distributions that result from breakage. Breakage experiments are based on collision influences that affect the two dominant collisions types, crystal-to-crystal and crystal-to-impeller collisions. Results showed that the quantity of fines produced are affected by the solids concentration or magma density and suspension fluid utilized. Additionally, aqueous saturated solutions produced particle size distributions that differ from those obtained using a nonsolvent. Similar particle size distributions for two different materials (NaCl and KCl) are achieved in the same nonsolvent (acetonitrile) by adjusting the agitation rate using the Zwietering correlation to account for property differences; moreover, the same agitation rate adjustment produced similar distributions for KCl in acetone and acetonitrile which were both nonsolvents. However, modifications to the Zwietering correlation, such as changing the significance of the initial particle size, are proposed before this method of adjustment is deemed accurate. Number-based population modeling of particle breakage is achieved within 1-5% error for NaCl at each agitation rate investigated. Breakage modeling using a discretized population balance equation with Austin's equation for attrition and the power law form of the product function for fragmentation is a viable approach; however, more work is needed to increase the accuracy of this model.

Natural dispersal mechanisms and biogeographical barriers have shaped species' native distributional ranges over millions of years. However, over the last few centuries, humans have dispersed species beyond their natural ranges. Those species that undergo explosive population growth and rapid expansion in the introduced region are considered as invasive because they have the potential to cause negative effects on desirable species and/or ecosystem services. In chapter II, I identified what ecosystem characteristics are more closely associated with successful establishment of exotic and native species, to have a better idea of where to concentrate our efforts and resources to prevent invasion events while preserving native species. I found that native and exotic species were differently affected by ecosystem properties. Exotic species were favored by human activities and low native species abundance and diversity. However, in Chapter III, I found that species functional traits, such as growth form and phenology, are more important to explain their response to ecosystem characteristics than native status under certain circumstances. The abundance and reproductive capacity of the evaluated plants were reduced when disturbances occurred during their respective active growing periods. This finding suggests that we need to have into account species-specific responses to ecosystem characteristics when managing biological invasions. Chapter IV examined phenotypic differentiation of native, expansive, and introduced populations of Baccharis halimifolia L. occurring in different regions of the world. The results suggest that there are significant phenotypic differences in germination and early growth among native, expansive, and introduced populations, which could have contributed to the success of B. halimifolia in the introduced and expansive ranges. Finally, in Chapter V, I used the information that I learned in the past projects to predict the spread of 45 exotic plants across southeastern United States and evaluated what landscape factors make an area more susceptible to be invaded. I found that the influence of landscape composition and configuration on invasion risk is species-specific. This result suggests that not only we have to consider species functional traits when managing biological invasions, as we saw earlier in the experiment with disturbance timing, but also species habitat preferences.

Mass spectrometry is an analytical technique commonly used for determining elemental composition in a substance sample. For this purpose, the sample is placed into some liquid solution called liquid matrix. Unfortunately, the spectrum of the sample is not observable separate from that of the solution. Thus, it is desired to distinguish the sample spectrum. The analysis is usually based on the comparison of the mixed spectrum with the one of the sole solution. Introducing the missing information about the origin of observed spectrum peaks, the author obtains a classic set up for the Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm. The author proposed a mixture modeling the spectrum of the liquid solution as well as that of the sample. A bell-shaped probability mass function obtained by discretization of the univariate Gaussian probability density function was proposed or serving as a mixture component. The E- and M- steps were derived under the proposed model. The corresponding R program is written and tested on a small but challenging simulation example. Varying the number of mixture components for the liquid matrix and sample, the author found the correct model according to Bayesian Information Criterion. The initialization of the EM algorithm is a difficult standalone problem that was successfully resolved for this case. The author presents the findings and provides results from the simulation example as well as corresponding illustrations supporting the conclusions.