Iterative methods have been a very important area of study in numerical analysis since the inception of computational science. Their use ranges from solving algebraic equations to systems of differential equations and many more. In this thesis, we discuss several iterative methods, however our main focus is Newton's method. We present a detailed study of Newton's method, its order of convergence and the asymptotic error constant when solving problems of various types as well as analyze several pitfalls, which can affect convergence. We also pose some necessary and sufficient conditions on the function f for higher order of convergence. Different acceleration techniques are discussed with analysis of the asymptotic behavior of the iterates. Analogies between single variable and multivariable problems are detailed. We also explore some interesting phenomena while analyzing Newton's method for complex variables.

The dropped objects are identified as one of the top ten causes of fatalities and serious injuries in the oil and gas industry. It is of importance to understand dynamics of dropped objects under water in order to accurately predict the motion of dropped objects and protect the underwater structures and facilities from being damaged. In this thesis, we study nondimensionalization of dynamic equations of dropped cylindrical objects. Nondimensionalization helps to reduce the number of free parameters, identify the relative size of effects of parameters, and gain a deeper insight of the essential nature of dynamics of dropped cylindrical objects under water. The resulting simulations of dimensionless trajectory confirms that drop angle, trailing edge and drag coefficient have the significant effects on dynamics of trajectories and landing location of dropped cylindrical objects under water.

In this work we have developed three ordinary differential equation models of biological systems: body mass change in response to exercise, immune system response to a general inflammatory stimulus, and the immune system response in atherosclerosis. The purpose of developing such computational tools is to test hypotheses about the underlying biological processes that drive system outcomes as well as possible real medical interventions. Therefore, we focus our analysis on understanding key interactions between model parameters and outcomes to deepen our understanding of these complex processes as a means to developing effective treatments in obesity, sarcopenia, and inflammatory diseases. We develop a model of the dynamics of muscle hypertrophy in response to resistance exercise and have shown that the parameters controlling response vary between male and female group means in an elderly population. We further explore this individual variability by fitting to data from a clinical obesity study. We then apply logistic regression and classification tree methods to the analysis of between- and within-group differences in underlying physiology that lead to different long-term body composition outcomes following a diet or exercise program. Finally, we explore dieting strategies using optimal control methods. Next, we extend an existing model of inflammation to include different macrophage phenotypes. Complications with this phenotype switch can result in the accumulation of too many of either type and lead to chronic wounds or disease. With this model we are able to reproduce the expected timing of sequential influx of immune cells and mediators in a general inflammatory setting. We then calibrate this base model for the sequential response of immune cells with peritoneal cavity data from mice. Next, we develop a model for plaque formation in atherosclerosis by adapting the current inflammation model to capture the progression of macrophages to inflammatory foam cells in response to cholesterol consumption. The purpose of this work is ultimately to explore points of intervention that can lead to homeostasis.

In this dissertation, new model reference adaptive control architectures are presented with stability, performance, and robustness considerations, to address challenges related to the verification of adaptive control systems. The challenges associated with the transient performance of adaptive control systems is first addressed using two new approaches that improve the transient performance. Specifically, the first approach is predicated on a novel controller architecture, which involves added terms in the update law entitled artificial basis functions. These terms are constructed through a gradient optimization procedure to minimize the system error between an uncertain dynamical system and a given reference model during the learning phase of an adaptive controller. The second approach is an extension of the first one and minimizes the effect of the system uncertainties more directly in the transient phase. In addition, this approach uses a varying gain to enforce performance bounds on the system error and is further generalized to adaptive control laws with nonlinear reference models. Another challenge in adaptive control systems is to achieve system stability and a prescribed level performance in the presence of actuator dynamics. It is well-known that if the actuator dynamics do not have sufficiently high bandwidth, their presence cannot be practically neglected in the design since they limit the achievable stability of adaptive control laws. Another major contribution of this dissertation is to address this challenge. In particular, first a linear matrix inequalities-based hedging approach is proposed, where this approach modifies the ideal reference model dynamics to allow for correct adaptation that is not affected by the presence of actuator dynamics. The stability limits of this approach are computed using linear matrix inequalities revealing the fundamental stability interplay between the parameters of the actuator dynamics and the allowable system uncertainties. In addition, these computations are used to provide a depiction of the feasible region of the actuator parameters such that the robustness to variation in the parameters is addressed. Furthermore, the convergence properties of the modified reference model to the ideal reference model are analyzed. Generalizations and applications of the proposed approach are then provided. Finally, to improve upon this linear matrix inequalities-based hedging approach a new adaptive control architecture using expanded reference models is proposed. It is shown that the expanded reference model trajectories more closely follow the trajectories of the ideal reference model as compared to the hedging approach and through the augmentation of a command governor architecture, asymptotic convergence to the ideal reference model can be guaranteed. To provide additional robustness against possible uncertainties in the actuator bandwidths an estimation of the actuator bandwidths is incorporated. Lastly, the challenge presented by the unknown physical interconnection of large-scale modular systems is addressed. First a decentralized adaptive architecture is proposed in an active-passive modular framework. Specifically, this architecture is based on a set-theoretic model reference adaptive control approach that allows for command following of the active module in the presence of module-level system uncertainties and unknown physical interconnections between both active and passive modules. The key feature of this framework allows the system error trajectories of the active modules to be contained within apriori, user-defined compact sets, thereby enforcing strict performance guarantees. This architecture is then extended such that performance guarantees are enforced on not only the actuated portion (active module) of the interconnected dynamics but also the unactuated portion (passive module). For each proposed adaptive control architecture, a system theoretic approach is included to analyze the closed-loop stability properties using tools from Lyapunov stability, linear matrix inequalities, and matrix mathematics. Finally, illustrative numerical examples are included to elucidate the proposed approaches.

Neste trabalho, apresentamos resultados para um sistema dinâmico denominado como bilhar, que descreve a dinâmica de uma partícula de massa m, livre da influência de qualquer potencial externo, no interior de uma região delimitada por uma fronteira que pode ser estática ou móvel. A partícula é lançada de uma determinada posição no interior do bilhar, de modo a sofrer colisões elásticas ou inelásticas com a fronteira do modelo. Após a ocorrência de uma colisão, a partícula sofre uma reflexão especular com a fronteira, de modo que seu ângulo de incidência é igual ao ângulo de reflexão. Para o caso em que as colisões são elásticas e a fronteira estática, o módulo da velocidade da partícula permanece constante ao longo de todas as colisões, entretanto, se uma perturbação temporal for introduzida na fronteira do sistema, é permitida a variação no módulo da velocidade da partícula durante o impacto. Nesta tese, vamos estudar a dinâmica de um ensemble de partículas não-interagentes em um bilhar ovóide sob duas configurações diferentes. Inicialmente, a fronteira será assumida como estática e a partir de um mapeamento bidimensional que descreve a dinâmica do sistema, demonstramos que para esse tipo de bilhar o espaço de fases é do tipo misto, onde pode ser observado a coexistência de um mar de caos, ilhas de estabilidade e um conjunto de curvas invariantes do tipo spanning. Ainda para esse caso, introduzimos orifícios ao longo da fronteira do bilhar para estudar o comportamento do escape das partículas, via análise da probabilidade de sobrevivência P(n) que um conjunto de partículas no interior do sistema exibe, conforme o número de colisões n é aumentado. Através de simulações numéricas, verificamos que P(n) decai em média de forma exponencial com um expoente de decaimento dado aproximadamente pela razão entre a extensão do orifício h e o comprimento total da fronteira do bilhar. Ao longo deste estudo, observamos que devido a natureza mista do espaço de fases, existem regiões preferenciais para a visitação de partículas, o que pode fornecer pistas para a verificação da maximização ou minimização do escape no sistema. Posterior a isso, introduzimos uma perturbação temporal na fronteira do bilhar ovóide, e descrevemos todas as equações necessárias para a obtenção do mapeamento quadrimensional não-linear, que reproduzirá o movimento de uma partícula no interior do modelo com fronteiras oscilantes. O objetivo dessa análise, é a verificação da difusão ilimitada de energia por parte das partículas, conhecido como Aceleração de Fermi. Além de discutir todo o mecanismo envolvido nesse fenômeno, também analisamos formas possíveis para provocar a supressão desse crescimento ilimitado de energia exibido pelas partículas. Por último, propomos uma conexão entre os resultados referentes ao bilhar ovóide dependente do tempo com conceitos ligados à Termodinâmica. / In this work, we present some results for a dynamical system denoted as a billiard that describes the dynamics of a free particle of mass m inside of a region delimited by a boundary that might be static or time-dependent. The particle is launched from a region inside of the billiard and can experiences either elastic or inelastic collisions with the boundary. After a collision, the particle exhibits a specular reflection with the border, in such way that the incidence angle is equal to the reflected angle. When elastic collisions are taken into account the speed of the particle remains constant along all collisions. When a time-dependence is introduced on the boundary, then the particle may gain or lose energy upon collision. In this thesis, we will study the dynamics of an ensemble of non-interacting particles inside an oval billiard, under two different configurations. Initially, the boundary is considered as static and via a two-dimensional and nonlinear mapping, the dynamics of each particle is investigated. We show that for the static case the phase space is of mixing type with the coexistence of a chaotic sea, stability islands and a set of invariant spanning curves over the phase space. We then introduce holes along the boundary of the billiard allowing the particles to escape through them. We analyze the survivor probability P(n) that an ensemble of particles exhibits inside of the billiard as a function of n. Our results show that P(n) decays in average exponentially with a decay exponent given approximately by the size of the hole h over the total length of the boundary. Along this study, we observed that, due to the mixing structure of the phase space, there are preferential regions for the visitation of particles, which might be useful for the verification of the maximization or minimizations of the escape in the system. After that, we introduced a time-dependence on the boundary of the oval billiard and describe all the equations to obtained the nonlinear four-dimensional mapping used to reproduce the movement of particle inside of the billiard. The main goal of this analysis is the verification of the unlimited diffusion of energy from the particles, known as Fermi Acceleration. We discuss all the mechanism involved in such a phenomenon and discuss possibilities to promote the suppression of the unlimited energy growth in the billiard. Finally, we discuss a possible connection of the time-dependent oval billiard with concepts linked with Thermodynamics.

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Dans l'espace $\mathcal{M}_d$ des modules des fractions rationnelles de degré $d$, le lieu de bifurcation est le support d'un $(1,1)$-courant positif fermé $T_{\textup{bif}}$ appelé \emph{courant de bifurcation}. Ce courant induit une mesure $\mu_{\textup{bif}}=(T_{\textup{bif}})^{2d-2}$ dont le support est le siége de bifurcations maximales. Notre principal résultat est que le support de $\mu_{\textup{bif}}$ est de dimension de Hausdorff totale $2(2d-2)$. Il s'ensuit que l'ensemble des fractions rationnelles de degré $d$ possédant $2d-2$ cycles neutres distincts est dense dans un ensemble de dimension de Hausdorff totale. Remarquons que jusqu'alors, seule l'existence de telles fractions rationnelles (Shishikura) était connue. Mentionnons que pour notre démonstration, nous établissons au préalable que les fractions rationnelles $(2d-2)$-Misiurewicz appartiennent au support de $\mu_{\textup{bif}}$. \par Le dernier chapitre, indépendant du reste de la thése, traite de l'espace $\mathcal{M}_2$. Nous montrons que, dans ce cas, le courant $T_{\textup{bif}}$ se prolonge naturellement á $\p^2$ en un $(1,1)$-courant positif fermé dont nous calculons les nombres de Lelong. Nous montrons aussi que le support de la mesure $\mu_{\textup{bif}}$ est non-borné dans $\mathcal{M}_2$.