Thesis (Ph. D.)--Technische Universiteit Delft, 1989. / Summary also in Dutch. "Stellingen" (3 p.) inserted. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Nuclear and Radiological Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008. / Committee Chair: Stacey, Weston M.; Committee Co-Chair: de Oliveira, Cassiano R.E.; Committee Member: Hertel, Nolan; Committee Member: van Rooijen, Wilfred F.G.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Australia, 2007.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2004. / Bibliography: leaves 170-183.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (MTech (Mechanical Engineering))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-98). Also available online.

Title: Shell-like structures in the ISM: Observation versus simulations Author: Vojtěch Sidorin (vojtech.sidorin@gmail.com)1 Department: Astronomical Institute of Charles University2 Supervisor: Prof. RNDr. Jan Palouš, DrSc. (palous@asu.cas.cz), Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences3 Abstract: Shell-like structures are objects found in large numbers in the inter- stellar medium (ISM). They usually appear as bubbles or segments of bubbles and are believed to result from the deposition of mass and energy into the ISM by stars, gamma-ray bursts, or high-velocity clouds. Interstellar turbulence may play a role in their creation too. These structures influence the dynamics of the ISM and are also linked to star formation. In this thesis, I review our current knowledge of the ISM, interstellar turbulence, and shell-like structures in the ISM. Then I present the research into the GLIMPSE bubble N107 conducted in collaboration with my colleagues. N107 is a dusty shell-like structure found in our Galaxy. We explored its atomic, molecular, and radio-continuum components; derived its distance (3.6 kpc), size (radius of 12 pc), and expansion velocity (8 km s−1 ); and identified 49 associated molecular clumps. Using numerical simulations, we estimated the conditions under which N107 formed and concluded...

Kernel-based meshless methods for approximating functions and solutions of partial differential equations have many applications in engineering fields. As only scattered data are used, meshless methods using radial basis functions can be extended to complicated geometry and high-dimensional problems. In this thesis, kernel-based least-squares methods will be used to solve several direct and inverse problems. In chapter 2, we consider discrete least-squares methods using radial basis functions. A general l^2-Tikhonov regularization with W_2^m-penalty is considered. We provide error estimates that are comparable to kernel-based interpolation in cases in which the function being approximated is within and is outside of the native space of the kernel. These results are extended to the case of noisy data. Numerical demonstrations are provided to verify the theoretical results. In chapter 3, we apply kernel-based collocation methods to elliptic problems with mixed boundary conditions. We propose some weighted least-squares formulations with different weights for the Dirichlet and Neumann boundary collocation terms. Besides fill distance of discrete sets, our weights also depend on three other factors: proportion of the measures of the Dirichlet and Neumann boundaries, dimensionless volume ratios of the boundary and domain, and kernel smoothness. We determine the dependencies of these terms in weights by different numerical tests. Our least-squares formulations can be proved to be convergent at the H^2 (Ω) norm. Numerical experiments in two and three dimensions show that we can obtain desired convergent results under different boundary conditions and different domain shapes. In chapter 4, we use a kernel-based least-squares method to solve ill-posed Cauchy problems for elliptic partial differential equations. We construct stable methods for these inverse problems. Numerical approximations to solutions of elliptic Cauchy problems are formulated as solutions of nonlinear least-squares problems with quadratic inequality constraints. A convergence analysis with respect to noise levels and fill distances of data points is provided, from which a Tikhonov regularization strategy is obtained. A nonlinear algorithm is proposed to obtain stable solutions of the resulting nonlinear problems. Numerical experiments are provided to verify our convergence results. In the final chapter, we apply meshless methods to the Gierer-Meinhardt activator-inhibitor model. Pattern transitions in irregular domains of the Gierer-Meinhardt model are shown. We propose various parameter settings for different patterns appearing in nature and test these settings on some irregular domains. To further simulate patterns in reality, we construct different kinds of domains and apply proposed parameter settings on different patches of domains found in nature.

Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / A detecção de clusters de doenças é um desafio para a saúde pública e principalmente para elucidação da ocorrência de surtos, visto que surtos epidemiológicos são usualmente definidos como aglomeração de casos. As revisões da literatura disponíveis sobre a indicação de qual técnica de análise espacial (TAE) é apropriada para essa tarega se limitam a indicar a escolha das técnicas considerando os tipos de dados, o tipo de cluster e a medida da doença. São raras as diretrizes que sugerem o uso de TAE em investigações de surtos . É um estudo metodológico exploratório, com avaliação de métodos em duas etapas: (i) uma revisão narrativa do objeto da pesquisa e (ii) descrição e revisão crítica da aplicação das técnicas selecionadas na revisão narrativa. As técnicas consideradas de maior importância para investigação de surtos forma revisadas e descritas, incluindo técnicas dos tipos global, loca e focal. treze técnicas foram submetidas à revisão crítica e 14 perguntas relevantes para investigação de surtos foram apreciadas. A análise da capacidade de responta das técnicas selecionadas baseou-se nas características das técnicas e natureza das perguntas da investigação de surtos, buscando-se a equivalência da responta dada pelas técnicas de análise espacial em relação à responta que se pretende alcançar na pergunta da investigação. As técnicas forma classificadas quanto a quantidade de informação que elas fornecem para que a perunca seja respondida, indicando assim, a sua capacidade de responder , ou de responsividade. concluiu-se que as TAE podem contribuir para a investigação de surtos, uma vez que são capazes de responder algumas das perguntas de uma investigação. Todas as catorze perguntas estudadas forma respondidas em algum nível pelas treze técnicas revisadas. Técnicas espaço-temporais e puramente espaciais locais respondem ao maior número de perguntas. Já as espaço-temporais apresentam maior nível de responsividade às perguntas. As técnicas com menor número de perguntas respondidas forma as puramente espaciais focais.

This thesis reports onreview and research work carried out on the numerical analysis of elastomers. The two numerical techniques investigated for this purpose are the finite and boundary element methods. The finite element method is studied so that existing theory is used to develop a finite element code both to review the finite element method as applied to the stress analysis of elastomers and to provide a comparison of results and numerical approach with the boundary element method. The research work supported on in this thesis covers the application of the boundary element method to the stress analysis of elastomers. To this end a simplified regularization approach is discussed for the removal of strong and hypersingularities generated in the system on non-linear boundary integral equations. The necessary programming details for the implementation of the boundary element method are discussed based on the code developed for this research. Both the finite and boundary element codes developed for this research use the Mooney-Rivlin material model as the strain energy based constitutive stress strain function. For validation purposes four test cases are investigated. These are the uni-axial patch test, pressurized thick wall cylinder, centrifugal loading of a rotating disk and the J-Integral evaluation for a centrally cracked plate. For the patch test and pressurized cylinder, both plane stress and strain have been investigated. For the centrifugal loading and centrally cracked plate test cases only plane stress has been investigated. For each test case the equivalent results for an equivalent FEM program mesh have been presented. The test results included in this thesis prove that the FE and BE derivations detailed in this work are correct. Specifically the simplified domain integral singular and hyper-singular regularization approach was shown to lead to accurate results for the test cases detailed. Various algorithm findings specific to the BEM implementation of the theory are also discussed.