We extend Urban's construction of eigenvarieties for reductive groups G such that G(R) has discrete series to include characteristic p points at the boundary of weight space. In order to perform this construction, we define a notion of "locally analytic" functions and distributions on a locally Q_p-analytic manifold taking values in a complete Tate Z_p-algebra in which p is not necessarily invertible. Our definition agrees with the definition of locally analytic distributions on p-adic Lie groups given by Johansson and Newton.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of aspirational and dissociative reference group influence on consumer behavior. There are two ways in which behavior is influenced by reference groups. First, reference groups influence aspiration levels and therefore play a major role in producing satisfaction or frustration. Second, reference groups influence kinds of behavior, i.e., they establish approved patterns of behavior.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences (School of Public Health), The University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Public Health in the field of Social Behaviour Change and Communication. June , 2017 / Introduction Proper access to antenatal care services and skilled birth attendants during delivery is key to reducing maternal deaths. But studies show that women in rural communities in Nigeria, do not access Ante-Natal Care (ANC) and a lower proportion deliver in a health facility. An internationally funded maternal and child health program in Enugu State, Nigeria introduced the concept of using the support group to improve uptake of antenatal care services and health facility delivery services. The support group comprised of pregnant women who encouraged and supported each other from pregnancy through to delivery in a health facility. However there was no documented evidence to show that the support groups actually influenced women’s intention to deliver in a health facility. This research work is being carried out to address this gap – by providing evidence on whether the support groups influenced women’s intention to deliver in a health facility. Methods Following informed consent, a qualitative study was conducted. Data was collected from women aged between 18 years and 49 years who were in a support group in seven health facilities in Nkanu West Local Government Area (LGA) of Enugu State, Nigeria. Seven Focus Group Discussions (FGD) and In-depth Interviews (IDI) were conducted. The data analysis was done using NVIVO software. All field notes were checked against translated interviews to ensure completeness and correctness. Inter-coding agreement, triangulation of data was done to ensure consistency. A descriptive analysis of the findings against theoretical framework was done and all findings also linked to objectives of the study. ii Results The pregnant women support group is shown to influence pregnant women’s intention to deliver in a health facility. Reasons for joining the group included; increasing knowledge about pregnancy and the benefits of ANC attendance and health facility delivery, socio-economic and spiritual support. However, the intention to deliver in a health facility is influenced by other factors such as; good and caring attitude of health workers, availability of qualified health workers, and better health infrastructure to respond to complications and emergencies. Other influences such as mother-in-law and spouses were also identified. The members of the group enjoyed benefits such as; visitation and presentation of gifts by support group members upon delivery, post- natal care and sometimes financial support. Despite these benefits, the goal of having a safe delivery remained the ultimate benefit of being a member of the support group. The existence, management and survival of the group other than by its members were dependent on the health facility workers. Conclusion The study demonstrated that the support group intervention did influence pregnant women’s intention to deliver in a health facility. But, the intention to deliver in a health facility was also driven by other factors such as; availability of skilled health workers, improved infrastructure and the cost of health services. / MT2017

Typescript. / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Image processing refers to the various operations performed on pictures that are digitally stored as an aggregate of pixels. One can enhance or degrade the quality of an image, artistically transform the image, or even find or recognize objects within the image. This paper is concerned with image processing, but in a very mathematical perspective, involving representation theory. The approach traces back to Cooley and Tukey’s seminal paper on the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) algorithm (1965). Recently, there has been a resurgence in investigating algebraic generalizations of this original algorithm with respect to different symmetry groups. My approach in the following chapters is as follows. First, I will give necessary tools from representation theory to explain how to generalize the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT). Second, I will introduce wreath products and their application to images. Third, I will show some results from applying some elementary filters and compression methods to spectrums of images. Fourth, I will attempt to generalize my method to noncyclic wreath product transforms and apply it to images and three-dimensional geometries.

A finite cover C of a group G is a finite collection of proper subgroups of G such that G is equal to the union of all of the members of C. Such a cover is called minimal if it has the smallest cardinality among all finite covers of G. The covering number of G, denoted by σ(G), is the number of subgroups in a minimal cover of G. Here we determine the covering numbers of the projective special unitary groups U3(q) for q ≤ 5, and give upper and lower bounds for the covering number of U3(q) when q > 5. We also determine the covering number of the McLaughlin sporadic simple group, and verify previously known results on the covering numbers of the Higman-Sims and Held groups. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2019. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Ample research has examined the impact of autism for children and families, but less has addressed the effects of this condition for adults. The literature indicates that adults on the autism spectrum suffer from depression and have a heightened risk of suicidal ideation because of their social skills deficits. Research also shows that individuals with high-functioning autism (HFA) can benefit from participating in support groups. In addition, research indicates that use of the term "neurodiversity" rather than other diagnostic labels encourages increased self-esteem to persons on the autism spectrum. This grounded theory study sought to understand the belief of clinicians with regard to the incorporation of the concept of neurodiversity in support groups for adults with HFA. The population for this study comprised clinicians who led support groups for adults with HFA. The specific foundational theories used were Tuckman's stage model of group development and Salzer's peer support model. Data consisted of 3 pilot study interviews and 12 additional interviews. Participant recruitment occurred through LinkedIn, and interviews took place online through the chat modality GoToMeeting. Interview data were entered into NVivo and a Van Kaam coding procedure was used to decipher recurring themes. Key results indicated that clinicians believe that the incorporation of the concept of neurodiversity can help adults with autism to build self-esteem and change the way individuals with HFA consider the condition, which in turn can assist them to build social skills, and relationships with their peers. Positive social change that may result from this study includes encouragement for increased use of the concept of neurodiversity as a tool in support groups for people with HFA, and stimulation of further study of this concept for decreasing bias against those with HFA.

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Association rule mining is an essential part of data mining, which tries to discover associations, relationships, or correlations among sets of items. As it was initially proposed for market basket analysis, most of the previous research focuses on generating frequent patterns. This thesis focuses on finding infrequent patterns, which we call sporadic rules. They represent rare itemsets that are scattered sporadically throughout the database but with high confidence of occurring together. As sporadic rules have low support the minabssup (minimum absolute support) measure was proposed to filter out any rules with low support whose occurrence is indistinguishable from that of coincidence. There are two classes of sporadic rules: perfectly sporadic and imperfectly sporadic rules. Apriori-Inverse was then proposed for perfectly sporadic rule generation. It uses a maximum support threshold and user-defined minimum confidence threshold. This method is designed to find itemsets which consist only of items falling below a maximum support threshold. However imperfectly sporadic rules may contain items with a frequency of occurrence over the maximum support threshold. To look for these rules, variations of Apriori-Inverse, namely Fixed Threshold, Adaptive Threshold, and Hill Climbing, were proposed. However these extensions are heuristic. Thus the MIISR algorithm was proposed to find imperfectly sporadic rules using item constraints, which capture rules with a single-item consequent below the maximum support threshold. A comprehensive evaluation of sporadic rules and current interestingness measures was carried out. Our investigation suggests that current interestingness measures are not suitable for detecting sporadic rules.