Thesis (Ph. D.)--Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008. / Committee Chair: Allen Tannenbaum; Committee Member: Anthony Yezzi; Committee Member: Marc Niethammer; Committee Member: Patricio Vela; Committee Member: Yucel Altunbasak.

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Mathematics, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-113).

This thesis is concerned principally with tangential geometry and the applications of these concepts to tangentially symplectic foliations. The subject of tangential geometry is still at an elementary stage. The author here systematises current concepts and results and extends them, leading to the definition of vertical connections and vertical G-structures. Tangentially symplectic foliations are then characterised in terms of vertical symplectic forms. Some significant particular cases are discussed.

A second-order Lagrangian system is a generalization of a classical mechanical system for which the Lagrangian action depends on the second derivative of the state variable. Recent work has shown that the dynamics of such systems c:an be substantially richer than for classical Lagrangian systems. In particular, topological properties of the planar curves obtained by projection onto the lower-order derivatives play a key role in forcing certain types of dynamics. However, the application of these techniques requires an analytic restriction on the Lagrangian that it satisfy a twist property. In this dissertation we approach this problem from the point of view of curve shortening in an effort to remove the twist condition. In classical curve shortening a family of curves evolves with a velocity which is normal to the curve and proportional to its curvature. The evolution of curves with decreasing action is more general, and in the first part of this dissertation we develop some results for curve shortening flows which shorten lengths with respect to a Finsler metric rather than a Riemannian metric. The second part of this dissertation focuses on analytic methods to accommodate the fact that the Finsler metric for second-order Lagrangian system has singularities. We prove the existence of simple periodic solutions for a general class of systems without requiring the twist condition. Further; our results provide a frame work in which to try to further extend the topological forcing theorems to systems without the twist condition. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Tsang, Man Ho. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 57-60). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in Chinese.

An important application of term structure models is to measure the difference between the evolutions of two yield curves starting from the same initial point. Such a geometric problem can be tackled by use of the notion of information geometry after the mapping of yield curves to density functions on a Hilbert space. We prove that a pair of yield curves with large initial Bhattacharyya spherical distance would diverge from each other with a significant probability. / Finally, we implement the proposed model with initial data in the US swap market for 15 Feb, 2007. To test our model improvements over the traditional models, we also run the simulation with the Hull-White model and compare these two no-arbitrage models in various major characteristics. It shows that the proposed model forms a bridge linking interest rates and discount bonds, namely, given the initial term structure density and the volatility structure, we are able to reconstruct the short rate process and the bond price process. Our term structure density model is thus a unification of traditional models each having its own advantage. / Following the initial study of Brody and Hughston on applying information geometry to interest rate modeling, we propose a novel term structure model and investigate its application in the US swap market. Different from the traditional term structure models that impose assumptions on either bonds or rates, the newly proposed model is characterized by the evolution of a density function which is obtained from the derivative of the discount function with respect to the time left till maturity. We prove that such a density function can be interpreted as interest return on the discount bond. / The introduction of the term structure density turns the problem of yield curve dynamics into a problem of the evolution of a density distribution. There are at least three steps to model the dynamics of the density function: calibrate the initial term structure density, specify the market risk premium, and choose a proper volatility structure. First, we introduce two initial calibration methods, one by maximizing the Tsallis entropy and the other by the notion of superstatistics. By use of either method, we deduce a power-law distribution for the initial term structure density function. The entropy index q in this function, which is a well-known physics quantity, now finds its financial interpretation as the measure of departure of the current term structure from flatness on a continuously compounded basis. Our empirical experiments in the US swap market fully demonstrate this observation. Next, given the calibrated initial density, we develop the term structure dynamics in the risk-neutral world and prove that the market risk premium is immaterial. To deduce a concise martingale representation for the bond pricing formula, we choose a density volatility that possesses zero mean. Finally, as an illustration of the importance of volatility structure, the HJM volatilities are redesigned for interest rate positivity under the framework of the current model. / Yang, Yiping. / Adviser: Kwong Chung Ping. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-03, Section: B, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 187-192). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

Computer Vision aims at developing techniques to extract and exploit information from images. The successful applications of computer vision approaches are multiple and have benefited diverse fields such as manufacturing, medicine or defense. Some of the most challenging tasks performed by computer vision systems are arguably segmentation and tracking. Segmentation can be defined as the partitioning of an image into homogeneous or meaningful regions. Tracking also aims at extracting meaning or information from images, however, it is a dynamic task that operates on temporal (video) sequences. Active contours have been proven to be quite valuable at performing the two aforementioned tasks. The active contours framework is an example of variational approaches, in which a problem is compactly (and elegantly) described and solved in terms of energy functionals. The objective of the proposed research is to develop statistical and shape-based tools inspired from or completing the geometric active contours methodology. These tools are designed to perform segmentation and tracking. The approaches developed in the thesis make an extensive use of partial differential equations and differential geometry to address the problems at hand. Most of the proposed approaches are cast into a variational framework. The contributions of the thesis can be summarized as follows: 1. An algorithm is presented that allows one to robustly track the position and the shape of a deformable object. 2. A variational segmentation algorithm is proposed that adopts a shape-driven point of view. 3. Diverse frameworks are introduced for including prior knowledge on shapes in the geometric active contour framework. 4. A framework is proposed that combines statistical information extracted from images with shape information learned a priori from examples 5. A technique is developed to jointly segment a 3D object of arbitrary shape in a 2D image and estimate its 3D pose with respect to a referential attached to a unique calibrated camera. 6. A methodology for the non-deterministic evolution of curves is presented, based on the theory of interacting particles systems.

O objetivo deste trabalho à apresentar um teorema de classificaÃÃo para hipersuperfÃcies completas e de curvatura mÃdia constante em variedades de Lorentz de curvatura seccional constante, sob certas limitaÃÃes da curvatura escalar. Para isto usaremos a fÃrmula de Simons, que nos dà uma relaÃÃo entre as transformaÃÃes de Newton Pr e o laplaciano da norma ao quadrado do operador de Weingarten Ã, e um princÃpio do mÃximo devido H. Omori e S. T. Yau. Como primeira aplicaÃÃo obtemos uma classificaÃÃo das hipersuperfÃcies tipo-espaÃo completas e de curvatura mÃdia constante no espaÃo de De Sitter, com curvatura escalar R maior ou igual a 1. ConcluÃmos tambÃm que toda hipersuperfÃcie tipo-espaÃo completa e de curvatura mÃdia constante positiva do espaÃo de Lorentz-Minkowski, com curvatura escalar nÃo-negativa, à um cilindro sobre uma curva plana e, a menos de isometrias, determinamos tal curva. / Our aim in this work is to show a classification theorem for complete CMC hipersurfaces in Lorentz manifolds of constant sectional curvature, under certains bounds on the scalar curvature. To this end we use Simons formula, wich gives a relation between Newton transformations and the Laplacian of the squared norm of the Weingarten operator A, as well as a maximum principle due to H. Omori and S. T. Yau. We obtain, as a first application, a classification of complete spacelike CMC hypersurfaces of the De Sitter space, having scalar curvature R maior ou igual a 1. We also conclude that all complete spacelike hypersurfaces with positive constant mean curvature and nonegative scalar curvature in the Lorentz-Minkowski space are cylinders over a plane curve and, up to isometries, we determine this curve.

In this thesis we present a slight generalisation of the Pearl complex or relative quantum homology to some non monotone Lagrangian submanifolds. First we develop the theory for the so called almost monotone Lagrangian submanifolds, We apply it to uniruling problems as well as estimates for the relative Gromov width. In the second part we develop the theory for toric fiber in toric Fano manifolds, recovering previous computaional results of Floer homology . / Doctorat en Sciences / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Almost contact metric submersions constitute a class of Riemannian submersions whose total space is an almost contact metric manifold. Regarding the base space, two types are studied. Submersions of type I are those whose base space is an almost contact metric manifold while, when the base space is an almost Hermitian manifold, then the submersion is said to be of type II. After recalling the known notions and fundamental properties to be used in the sequel, relationships between the structure of the fibres with that of the total space are established. When the fibres are almost Hermitian manifolds, which occur in the case of a type I submersions, we determine the classes of submersions whose fibres are Kählerian, almost Kählerian, nearly Kählerian, quasi Kählerian, locally conformal (almost) Kählerian, Gi-manifolds and so on. This can be viewed as a classification of submersions of type I based upon the structure of the fibres. Concerning the fibres of a type II submersions, which are almost contact metric manifolds, we discuss how they inherit the structure of the total space. Considering the curvature property on the total space, we determine its corresponding on the fibres in the case of a type I submersions. For instance, the cosymplectic curvature property on the total space corresponds to the Kähler identity on the fibres. Similar results are obtained for Sasakian and Kenmotsu curvature properties. After producing the classes of submersions with minimal, superminimal or umbilical fibres, their impacts on the total or the base space are established. The minimality of the fibres facilitates the transference of the structure from the total to the base space. Similarly, the superminimality of the fibres facilitates the transference of the structure from the base to the total space. Also, it is shown to be a way to study the integrability of the horizontal distribution. Totally contact umbilicity of the fibres leads to the asymptotic directions on the total space. Submersions of contact CR-submanifolds of quasi-K-cosymplectic and quasi-Kenmotsu manifolds are studied. Certain distributions of the under consideration submersions induce the CR-product on the total space. / Mathematical Sciences / D. Phil. (Mathematics)