The thesis is concerned with group theoretical properties of unitary groups, mainly of II_1 factors. The author gives a new and elementary proof of an result on extreme amenability, defines the bounded normal generation property and invariant automatic continuity property and proves these for various unitary groups of functional analytic types.

An equivalence class exists if the stimuli that comprise the class are related by the properties of reflexivity, symmetry, and transitivity. Through these properties, new behavior that has not been taught emerges. For example, when taught to match Set A stimuli to Set B stimuli and to match Set A stimuli to Set C stimuli, if equivalence classes have formed, subjects will (with no explicit instruction) match Set B stimuli to Set C and Set C stimuli to Set B stimuli. Although equivalence classes have been studied extensively, few studies have considered the application of this technology to educational concerns. The purpose of this study was (a) to determine if phonics skills could effectively and efficiently be taught to young children through the formation of equivalence classes and (b) to investigate the generality of those acquired skills. Using a conditional discrimination procedure, children were taught to match printed letters to dictated phonetic sounds and to match the initial sound of pictured items to dictated phonetic sounds. Test results indicated that equivalence classes had emerged and that generalization did occur. The children could match the initial sound of pictured items to printed letters and vice versa and could name letter sounds and initial sounds of pictured items. During generality testing, each child could identify the initial sound of several novel pictured items and could sound out the letters within the words. However, reading did not occur. Only 1 of 5 children could blend the sounds of letters into recognizable words. A significant difficulty encountered throughout the study was maintaining the children's motivation, possibly due to the children's inexperience in attending to academic tasks. This study did, however, demonstrate that the formation of equivalence classes is an effective and efficient method for teaching phonics and that the formation of generalized equivalence classes is effective in extending those taught relations to novel stimuli. / Department of Special Education

In previous research, the author developed a novel PPDM method – Data Unrealization – that preserves both data privacy and utility of discrete-value training samples. That method transforms original samples into unrealized ones and guarantees 100% accurate decision tree mining results. This dissertation extends their research scope and achieves the following accomplishments: (1) it expands the application of Data Unrealization on other data mining algorithms, (2) it introduces data compression methods that reduce storage requirements for unrealized training samples and increase data mining performance and (3) it adds a second-level privacy protection that works perfectly with Data Unrealization. From an application perspective, this dissertation proves that statistical information (i. e. counts, probability and information entropy) can be retrieved precisely from unrealized training samples, so that Data Unrealization is applicable for all counting-based, probability-based and entropy-based data mining models with 100% accuracy. For data compression, this dissertation introduces a new number sequence – J-Sequence – as a mean to compress training samples through the J-Sampling process. J-Sampling converts the samples into a list of numbers with many replications. Applying run-length encoding on the resulting list can further compress the samples into a constant storage space regardless of the sample size. In this way, the storage requirement of the sample database becomes O(1) and the time complexity of a statistical database query becomes O(1). J-Sampling is used as an encryption approach to the unrealized samples already protected by Data Unrealization; meanwhile, data mining can be performed on these samples without decryption. In order to retain privacy preservation and to handle data compression internally, a column-oriented database management system is recommended to store the encrypted samples. / Graduate / 0984 / fong_bee@hotmail.com

Data on (economic) institutions are often available only as observations on ordinal, inherently incomparable properties, which are then typically aggregated to a composite index in the empirical social science literature. From a methodological perspective, the present paper advocates the application of partially ordered set (POSET) theory as an alternative approach. Its main virtue is that it takes the ordinal nature of the data seriously and dispenses with the unavoidably subjective assignment of weights to incomparable properties, maintains a high standard of objectivity, and can be applied in various fields of economics. As an application, the POSET approach is then used to calculate new indices on the stringency of fiscal rules for 81 countries over the period 1985 to 2012 based on recent data by the IMF (2012). The derived measures of fiscal rules are used to test their significance for public finances in a fiscal reaction function and compare the POSET with the composite index approach. (authors' abstract)

Sets and the Senses is a work for symphony orchestra that bears the interaction between science and art as its overriding theme. Formalizations of compositional parameters that relate to this interaction are established, in particular those relating to the contrast between systematic and intuitively composed music, in order to provide a vehicle for musical communication on the theme. A summary of scientific and artistic elements of the compositional process reveals in the work an ingrained hierarchy of science/art interactions. Specific strategies for manipulating the science/art parameters are described. Genetic algorithms as applied to computer-assisted composition are discussed. The formal design of the work is described in terms of the relationship between science and art, accompanied by descriptions of systematic and intuitive musical procedures used.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mathematics, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008. / Committee Chair: Trotter, William T.; Committee Member: Duke, Richard A.; Committee Member: Randall, Dana; Committee Member: Thomas, Robin; Committee Member: Yu, Xingxing

Thesis (M.S.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science, Department of Computer Science, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2006. / Description based on contents viewed Jan. 26, 2007; title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references (p. 119-125).

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-26T13:45:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 texto completo.pdf: 2634733 bytes, checksum: 3cb7c76ba150aef3f051776bae4f9a1a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-21 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / In the 1990s, mathematicians Peter Giblin and Guillermo Sapiro have introduced the theory of affine invariant symmetry sets of plane curves. This dissertation is devoted to the study of some of these symmetry sets centre symmetry sets (CSS), affine distance symmetry set (ADSS) and affine envelope symmetry set (A6'SS) of a a simple closed convex smooth curve. We study these symmetry sets of through the locus of centers of conics and as an envelope of curves. We analyze the conditions of singularities, studying some in particular. We also study conditions of contact of the curve and of the conics that defined this symmetry sets. / No final dos anos 1990, os matemáticos Peter Giblin e Guillermo Sapiro introduziram a teoria sobre conjuntos de simetria de curvas planas invariantes por transformações afins. Esta dissertação é dedicada ao estudo de alguns destes conjuntosz 0 conjunto de simetria centml (CSS), 0 conjunto de simetria da distância afim(ADSS) e 0 conjunto de simetria da envolvente afim (A6'SS) de uma curva plana diferenciável fechada e convexa. Estudamos os conjuntos de simetria através do local geométrico dos centros de cônicas e como envolvente de curvas. Analisamos as condições de singularidades de cada um, estudando algumas em particular. Também estudamos condições de contato da curva e das cônicas que definem conjuntos de simetria. O estudo está baseado principalmente nos artigos [16] e [14].