## ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This collection includes most of the ASU Theses and Dissertations from 2011 to present. ASU Theses and Dissertations are available in downloadable PDF format; however, a small percentage of items are under embargo. Information about the dissertations/theses includes degree information, committee members, an abstract, supporting data or media.

In addition to the electronic theses found in the ASU Digital Repository, ASU Theses and Dissertations can be found in the ASU Library Catalog.

Dissertations and Theses granted by Arizona State University are archived and made available through a joint effort of the ASU Graduate College and the ASU Libraries. For more information or questions about this collection contact or visit the Digital Repository ETD Library Guide or contact the ASU Graduate College at gradformat@asu.edu.

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Date Range
2011 2020

## Recent Submissions

Bacteriophage (phage) are viruses that infect bacteria. Typical laboratory experiments show that in a chemostat containing phage and susceptible bacteria species, a mutant bacteria species will evolve. This mutant species is usually resistant to the phage infection and less competitive compared to the susceptible bacteria species. In some experiments, both susceptible and resistant bacteria species, as well as phage, can coexist at an equilibrium for hundreds of hours. The current research is inspired by these observations, and the goal is to establish a mathematical model and explore sufficient and necessary conditions for the coexistence. In this dissertation a model with …

Contributors
Han, Zhun, Smith, Hal, Armbruster, Dieter, et al.
Created Date
2012

Cancer is a major health problem in the world today and is expected to become an even larger one in the future. Although cancer therapy has improved for many cancers in the last several decades, there is much room for further improvement. Mathematical modeling has the advantage of being able to test many theoretical therapies without having to perform clinical trials and experiments. Mathematical oncology will continue to be an important tool in the future regarding cancer therapies and management. This dissertation is structured as a growing tumor. Chapters 2 and 3 consider spheroid models. These models are adept at …

Contributors
Rutter, Erica Marie, Kuang, Yang, Kostelich, Eric J, et al.
Created Date
2016

Dopamine (DA) is a neurotransmitter involved in attention, goal oriented behavior, movement, reward learning, and short term and working memory. For the past four decades, mathematical and computational modeling approaches have been useful in DA research, and although every modeling approach has limitations, a model is an efficient way to generate and explore hypotheses. This work develops a model of DA dynamics in a representative, single DA neuron by integrating previous experimental, theoretical and computational research. The model consists of three compartments: the cytosol, the vesicles, and the extracellular space and forms the basis of a new mathematical paradigm for …

Contributors
Tello-Bravo, David, Crook, Sharon M, Greenwood, Priscilla E, et al.
Created Date
2012

A new method for generating artificial fingerprints is presented. Due to their uniqueness and durability, fingerprints are invaluable tools for identification for law enforcement and other purposes. Large databases of varied, realistic artificial fingerprints are needed to aid in the development and evaluation of automated systems for criminal or biometric identification. Further, an effective method for simulating fingerprints may provide insight into the biological processes underlying print formation. However, previous attempts at simulating prints have been unsatisfactory. We approach the problem of creating artificial prints through a pattern formation model. We demonstrate how it is possible to generate distinctive patterns …

Contributors
Coltin, Kevin Curosh, Armbruster, Hans D, Platte, Rodrigo B, et al.
Created Date
2013

Olfaction is an important sensory modality for behavior since odors inform animals of the presence of food, potential mates, and predators. The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, is a favorable model organism for the investigation of the biophysical mechanisms that contribute to olfaction because its olfactory system is anatomically similar to but simpler than that of vertebrates. In the Drosophila olfactory system, sensory transduction takes place in olfactory receptor neurons housed in the antennae and maxillary palps on the front of the head. The first stage of olfactory processing resides in the antennal lobe, where the structural unit is the glomerulus. …

Contributors
Luli, Dori, Crook, Sharon, Baer, Steven, et al.
Created Date
2013

A key factor in the success of social animals is their organization of work. Mathematical models have been instrumental in unraveling how simple, individual-based rules can generate collective patterns via self-organization. However, existing models offer limited insights into how these patterns are shaped by behavioral differences within groups, in part because they focus on analyzing specific rules rather than general mechanisms that can explain behavior at the individual-level. My work argues for a more principled approach that focuses on the question of how individuals make decisions in costly environments. In Chapters 2 and 3, I demonstrate how this approach provides …

Contributors
Udiani, Oyita Udiani, Kang, Yun, Fewell, Jennifer H, et al.
Created Date
2016

Rabies is an infectious viral disease. It is usually fatal if a victim reaches the rabid stage, which starts after the appearance of disease symptoms. The disease virus attacks the central nervous system, and then it migrates from peripheral nerves to the spinal cord and brain. At the time when the rabies virus reaches the brain, the incubation period is over and the symptoms of clinical disease appear on the victim. From the brain, the virus travels via nerves to the salivary glands and saliva. A mathematical model is developed for the spread of rabies in a spatially distributed fox …

Contributors
Alanazi, Khalaf Matar, Thieme, Horst R., Jackiewicz, Zdzislaw, et al.
Created Date
2018

In a 2004 paper, John Nagy raised the possibility of the existence of a hypertumor \emph{i.e.}, a focus of aggressively reproducing parenchyma cells that invade part or all of a tumor. His model used a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations to find a suitable set of conditions for which these hypertumors exist. Here that model is expanded by transforming it into a system of nonlinear partial differential equations with diffusion, advection, and a free boundary condition to represent a radially symmetric tumor growth. Two strains of parenchymal cells are incorporated; one forming almost the entirety of the tumor while …

Contributors
Alvarez, Roberto, Milner, Fabio A, Nagy, John D, et al.
Created Date
2014

Autonomic closure is a new general methodology for subgrid closures in large eddy simulations that circumvents the need to specify fixed closure models and instead allows a fully- adaptive self-optimizing closure. The closure is autonomic in the sense that the simulation itself determines the optimal relation at each point and time between any subgrid term and the variables in the simulation, through the solution of a local system identification problem. It is based on highly generalized representations of subgrid terms having degrees of freedom that are determined dynamically at each point and time in the simulation. This can be regarded …

Contributors
Kshitij, Abhinav, Dahm, Werner J.A., Herrmann, Marcus, et al.
Created Date
2019

From 2D planar MOSFET to 3D FinFET, the geometry of semiconductor devices is getting more and more complex. Correspondingly, the number of mesh grid points increases largely to maintain the accuracy of carrier transport and heat transfer simulations. By substituting the conventional uniform mesh with non-uniform mesh, one can reduce the number of grid points. However, the problem of how to solve governing equations on non-uniform mesh is then imposed to the numerical solver. Moreover, if a device simulator is integrated into a multi-scale simulator, the problem size will be further increased. Consequently, there exist two challenges for the current …

Contributors
Guo, Xinchen, Vasileska, Dragica, Goodnick, Stephen, et al.
Created Date
2015

Factory production is stochastic in nature with time varying input and output processes that are non-stationary stochastic processes. Hence, the principle quantities of interest are random variables. Typical modeling of such behavior involves numerical simulation and statistical analysis. A deterministic closure model leading to a second order model for the product density and product speed has previously been proposed. The resulting partial differential equations (PDE) are compared to discrete event simulations (DES) that simulate factory production as a time dependent M/M/1 queuing system. Three fundamental scenarios for the time dependent influx are studied: An instant step up/down of the mean …

Contributors
Wienke, Matthew Richard, Armbruster, Dieter, Jones, Donald, et al.
Created Date
2015

Cancer is a worldwide burden in every aspect: physically, emotionally, and financially. A need for innovation in cancer research has led to a vast interdisciplinary effort to search for the next breakthrough. Mathematical modeling allows for a unique look into the underlying cellular dynamics and allows for testing treatment strategies without the need for clinical trials. This dissertation explores several iterations of a dendritic cell (DC) therapy model and correspondingly investigates what each iteration teaches about response to treatment. In Chapter 2, motivated by the work of de Pillis et al. (2013), a mathematical model employing six ordinary differential (ODEs) …

Contributors
Dickman, Lauren, Kuang, Yang, Baer, Steven M., et al.
Created Date
2020

Advances in experimental techniques have allowed for investigation of molecular dynamics at ever smaller temporal and spatial scales. There is currently a varied and growing body of literature which demonstrates the phenomenon of \emph{anomalous diffusion} in physics, engineering, and biology. In particular many diffusive type processes in the cell have been observed to follow a power law $\left<x^2\right> \propto t^\alpha$ scaling of the mean square displacement of a particle. This contrasts with the expected linear behavior of particles undergoing normal diffusion. \emph{Anomalous sub-diffusion} ($\alpha<1$) has been attributed to factors such as cytoplasmic crowding of macromolecules, and trap-like structures in the …

Contributors
Holeva, Thomas Matthew, Ringhofer, Christian, Baer, Steve, et al.
Created Date
2014

In the field of infectious disease epidemiology, the assessment of model robustness outcomes plays a significant role in the identification, reformulation, and evaluation of preparedness strategies aimed at limiting the impact of catastrophic events (pandemics or the deliberate release of biological agents) or used in the management of disease prevention strategies, or employed in the identification and evaluation of control or mitigation measures. The research work in this dissertation focuses on: The comparison and assessment of the role of exponentially distributed waiting times versus the use of generalized non-exponential parametric distributed waiting times of infectious periods on the quantitative and …

Contributors
Morale Butler, Emmanuel Jesús, Castillo-Chavez, Carlos, Aparicio, Juan P, et al.
Created Date
2014

The phycologist, M. R. Droop, studied vitamin B12 limitation in the flagellate Monochrysis lutheri and concluded that its specific growth rate depended on the concentration of the vitamin within the cell; i.e. the cell quota of the vitamin B12. The Droop model provides a mathematical expression to link growth rate to the intracellular concentration of a limiting nutrient. Although the Droop model has been an important modeling tool in ecology, it has only recently been applied to study cancer biology. Cancer cells live in an ecological setting, interacting and competing with normal and other cancerous cells for nutrients and space, …

Contributors
Everett, Rebecca Anne, Kuang, Yang, Nagy, John, et al.
Created Date
2015

This work is an assemblage of three applied projects that address the institutional and spatial constraints to managing threatened and endangered (T &amp; E) terrestrial species. The first project looks at the role of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in protecting wildlife and whether banning non&ndash;conservation activities on multi-use federal lands is socially optimal. A bioeconomic model is used to identify scenarios where ESA&ndash;imposed regulations emerge as optimal strategies and to facilitate discussion on feasible long&ndash;term strategies in light of the ongoing public land&ndash;use debate. Results suggest that banning harmful activities is a preferred strategy when valued species are in …

Contributors
Salau, Kehinde Rilwan, Janssen, Marco A, Fenichel, Eli P, et al.
Created Date
2013

This dissertation seeks to understand and study the process of attention harvesting and knowledge production on typical online Q&A communities. Goals of this study include quantifying the attention harvesting and online knowledge, damping the effect of competition for attention on knowledge production, and examining the diversity of user behaviors on question answering. Project 1 starts with a simplistic discrete time model on a scale-free network and provides the method to measure the attention harvested. Further, project 1 highlights the effect of distractions on harvesting productive attention and in the end concludes which factors are influential and sensitive to the attention …

Contributors
Yu, Fan, Janssen, Marcus A, Kang, Yun, et al.
Created Date
2019

The closer integration of the world economy has yielded many positive benefits including the worldwide diffusion of innovative technologies and efficiency gains following the widening of international markets. However, closer integration also has negative consequences. Specifically, I focus on the ecology and economics of the spread of species and pathogens. I approach the problem using theoretical and applied models in ecology and economics. First, I use a multi-species theoretical network model to evaluate the ability of dispersal to maintain system-level biodiversity and productivity. I then extend this analysis to consider the effects of dispersal in a coupled social-ecological system where …

Contributors
Shanafelt, David William, Perrings, Charles, Fenichel, Eli, et al.
Created Date
2016

In the honey bee antennal lobe, uniglomerular projection neurons (uPNs) transiently spike to odor sensory stimuli with odor-specific response latencies, i.e., delays to first spike after odor stimulation onset. Recent calcium imaging studies show that the spatio-temporal response profile of the activated uPNs are dynamic and changes as a result of associative conditioning, facilitating odor-detection of learned odors. Moreover, odor-representation in the antennal lobe undergo reward-mediated plasticity processes that increase response delay variations in the activated ensemble of uniglomerular projection neurons. Octopamine is necessarily involved in these plasticity processes. Yet, the cellular mechanisms are not well understood. I hypothesize that …

Contributors
Smith, Adrian Nicholas, Castillo-Chavez, Carlos, Sinakevitch, Irina T., et al.
Created Date
2016

In 1968, phycologist M.R. Droop published his famous discovery on the functional relationship between growth rate and internal nutrient status of algae in chemostat culture. The simple notion that growth is directly dependent on intracellular nutrient concentration is useful for understanding the dynamics in many ecological systems. The cell quota in particular lends itself to ecological stoichiometry, which is a powerful framework for mathematical ecology. Three models are developed based on the cell quota principal in order to demonstrate its applications beyond chemostat culture. First, a data-driven model is derived for neutral lipid synthesis in green microalgae with respect to …

Contributors
Packer, Aaron, Kuang, Yang, Nagy, John, et al.
Created Date
2014

The Mathematical and Theoretical Biology Institute (MTBI) is a summer research program for undergraduate students, largely from underrepresented minority groups. Founded in 1996, it serves as a 'life-long' mentorship program, providing continuous support for its students and alumni. This study investigates how MTBI supports student development in applied mathematical research. This includes identifying of motivational factors to pursue and develop capacity to complete higher education. The theoretical lens of developmental psychologists Lev Vygotsky (1978, 1987) and Lois Holzman (2010) that sees learning and development as a social process is used. From this view student development in MTBI is attributed to …

Contributors
Evangelista, Arlene Morales, Castillo-Chavez, Carlos, Holmes, Raquell M, et al.
Created Date
2015

A sequence of models is developed to describe urban population growth in the context of the embedded physical, social and economic environments and an urban disease are developed. This set of models is focused on urban growth and the relationship between the desire to move and the utility derived from city life. This utility is measured in terms of the economic opportunities in the city, the level of human constructed amenity, and the level of amenity caused by the natural environment. The set of urban disease models is focused on examining prospects of eliminating a disease for which a vaccine …

Contributors
Murillo, David, Castillo-Chavez, Carlos, Anderies, John M, et al.
Created Date
2012

This thesis consists of three projects employing complexity economics methods to explore firm dynamics. The first is the Firm Ecosystem Model, which addresses the institutional conditions of capital access and entrenched competitive advantage. Larger firms will be more competitive than smaller firms due to efficiencies of scale, but the persistence of larger firms is also supported institutionally through mechanisms such as tax policy, capital access mechanisms and industry-favorable legislation. At the same time, evidence suggests that small firms innovate more than larger firms, and an aggressive firm-as-value perspective incentivizes early investment in new firms in an attempt to capture that …

Contributors
Applegate, J M, Janssen, Marcus A, Hoetker, Glenn, et al.
Created Date
2018

This dissertation is intended to tie together a body of work which utilizes a variety of methods to study applied mathematical models involving heterogeneity often omitted with classical modeling techniques. I posit three cogent classifications of heterogeneity: physiological, behavioral, and local (specifically connectivity in this work). I consider physiological heterogeneity using the method of transport equations to study heterogeneous susceptibility to diseases in open populations (those with births and deaths). I then present three separate models of behavioral heterogeneity. An SIS/SAS model of gonorrhea transmission in a population of highly active men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) is presented to study the impact of …

Contributors
Morin, Benjamin Richard, Castillo-Chavez, Carlos, Hiebeler, David, et al.
Created Date
2012

This work is concerned with the study and numerical solution of large reaction diffusion systems with applications to the simulation of degradation effects in solar cells. A discussion of the basics of solar cells including the function of solar cells, the degradation of energy efficiency that happens over time, defects that affect solar cell efficiency and specific defects that can be modeled with a reaction diffusion system are included. Also included is a simple model equation of a solar cell. The basics of stoichiometry theory, how it applies to kinetic reaction systems, and some conservation properties are introduced. A model …

Contributors
Shapiro, Bruce G., Ringhofer, Christian, Gardner, Carl L, et al.
Created Date
2020

In vertebrate outer retina, changes in the membrane potential of horizontal cells affect the calcium influx and glutamate release of cone photoreceptors via a negative feedback. This feedback has a number of important physiological consequences. One is called background-induced flicker enhancement (BIFE) in which the onset of dim background enhances the center flicker response of horizontal cells. The underlying mechanism for the feedback is still unclear but competing hypotheses have been proposed. One is the GABA hypothesis, which states that the feedback is mediated by gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), an inhibitory neurotransmitter released from horizontal cells. Another is the ephaptic hypothesis, …

Contributors
Chang, Shaojie, Baer, Steven M, Gardner, Carl L, et al.
Created Date
2012

In this dissertation the potential impact of some social, cultural and economic factors on Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) dynamics and control are studied. In Chapter two, the inability to detect and isolate a large fraction of EVD-infected individuals before symptoms onset is addressed. A mathematical model, calibrated with data from the 2014 West African outbreak, is used to show the dynamics of EVD control under various quarantine and isolation effectiveness regimes. It is shown that in order to make a difference it must reach a high proportion of the infected population. The effect of EVD-dead bodies has been incorporated in …

Contributors
Espinoza, Baltazar, Castillo-Chávez, Carlos, Kang, Yun, et al.
Created Date
2018

I investigate two models interacting agent systems: the first is motivated by the flocking and swarming behaviors in biological systems, while the second models opinion formation in social networks. In each setting, I define natural notions of convergence (to a flock" and to a consensus'', respectively), and study the convergence properties of each in the limit as $t \rightarrow \infty$. Specifically, I provide sufficient conditions for the convergence of both of the models, and conduct numerical experiments to study the resulting solutions. Dissertation/Thesis

Contributors
Theisen, Ryan, Motsch, Sebastien, Lanchier, Nicholas, et al.
Created Date
2018

The Kuramoto model is an archetypal model for studying synchronization in groups of nonidentical oscillators where oscillators are imbued with their own frequency and coupled with other oscillators though a network of interactions. As the coupling strength increases, there is a bifurcation to complete synchronization where all oscillators move with the same frequency and show a collective rhythm. Kuramoto-like dynamics are considered a relevant model for instabilities of the AC-power grid which operates in synchrony under standard conditions but exhibits, in a state of failure, segmentation of the grid into desynchronized clusters. In this dissertation the minimum coupling strength required …

Contributors
Gilg, Brady, Armbruster, Dieter, Mittelmann, Hans, et al.
Created Date
2018

Mathematical models are important tools for addressing problems that exceed experimental capabilities. In this work, I present ordinary and partial differential equation (ODE, PDE) models for two problems: Vicodin abuse and impact cratering. The prescription opioid Vicodin is the nation's most widely prescribed pain reliever. The majority of Vicodin abusers are first introduced via prescription, distinguishing it from other drugs in which the most common path to abuse begins with experimentation. I develop and analyze two mathematical models of Vicodin use and abuse, considering only those patients with an initial Vicodin prescription. Through adjoint sensitivity analysis, I show that focusing …

Contributors
Caldwell, Wendy K, Wirkus, Stephen, Asphaug, Erik, et al.
Created Date
2019

A general continuum model for simulating the flow of ions in the salt baths that surround and fill excitable neurons is developed and presented. The ion densities and electric potential are computed using the drift-diffusion equations. In addition, a detailed model is given for handling the electrical dynamics on interior membrane boundaries, including a model for ion channels in the membranes that facilitate the transfer of ions in and out of cells. The model is applied to the triad synapse found in the outer plexiform layer of the retina in most species. Experimental evidence suggests the existence of a negative …

Contributors
Jones, Jeremiah, Gardner, Carl, Gardner, Carl, et al.
Created Date
2013

One explanation for membrane accommodation in response to a slowly rising current, and the phenomenon underlying the dynamics of elliptic bursting in nerves, is the mathematical problem of dynamic Hopf bifurcation. This problem has been studied extensively for linear (deterministic and stochastic) current ramps, nonlinear ramps, and elliptic bursting. These studies primarily investigated dynamic Hopf bifurcation in space-clamped excitable cells. In this study we introduce a new phenomenon associated with dynamic Hopf bifurcation. We show that for excitable spiny cables injected at one end with a slow current ramp, the generation of oscillations may occur an order one distance away …

Contributors
Bilinsky, Lydia, Baer, Steven M, Crook, Sharon M, et al.
Created Date
2012

The increased number of novel pathogens that potentially threaten the human population has motivated the development of mathematical and computational modeling approaches for forecasting epidemic impact and understanding key environmental characteristics that influence the spread of diseases. Yet, in the case that substantial uncertainty surrounds the transmission process during a rapidly developing infectious disease outbreak, complex mechanistic models may be too difficult to be calibrated quick enough for policy makers to make informed decisions. Simple phenomenological models that rely on a small number of parameters can provide an initial platform for assessing the epidemic trajectory, estimating the reproduction number and …

Contributors
Pell, Bruce, Kuang, Yang, Chowell-Puente, Gerardo, et al.
Created Date
2016

The tools developed for the use of investigating dynamical systems have provided critical understanding to a wide range of physical phenomena. Here these tools are used to gain further insight into scalar transport, and how it is affected by mixing. The aim of this research is to investigate the efficiency of several different partitioning methods which demarcate flow fields into dynamically distinct regions, and the correlation of finite-time statistics from the advection-diffusion equation to these regions. For autonomous systems, invariant manifold theory can be used to separate the system into dynamically distinct regions. Despite there being no equivalent method for …

Contributors
Walker, Phillip, Tang, Wenbo, Kostelich, Eric, et al.
Created Date
2018

This dissertation investigates the dynamics of evolutionary games based on the framework of interacting particle systems in which individuals are discrete, space is explicit, and dynamics are stochastic. Its focus is on 2-strategy games played on a d-dimensional integer lattice with a range of interaction M. An overview of related past work is given along with a summary of the dynamics in the mean-field model, which is described by the replicator equation. Then the dynamics of the interacting particle system is considered, first when individuals are updated according to the best-response update process and then the death-birth update process. Several …

Contributors
Evilsizor, Stephen, Lanchier, Nicolas, Kang, Yun, et al.
Created Date
2016

Robotic swarms can potentially perform complicated tasks such as exploration and mapping at large space and time scales in a parallel and robust fashion. This thesis presents strategies for mapping environmental features of interest – specifically obstacles, collision-free paths, generating a metric map and estimating scalar density fields– in an unknown domain using data obtained by a swarm of resource-constrained robots. First, an approach was developed for mapping a single obstacle using a swarm of point-mass robots with both directed and random motion. The swarm population dynamics are modeled by a set of advection-diffusion-reaction partial differential equations (PDEs) in which …

Contributors
Ramachandran, Ragesh Kumar, Berman, Spring M, Mignolet, Marc, et al.
Created Date
2018

A numerical study of chemotaxis in 3D turbulence is presented here. Direct Numerical Simulation were used to calculate the nutrient uptake for both motile and non-motile bacterial species and by applying the dynamical systems theory the effect of flow topology on the variability of chemotaxis is analyzed. It is done by injecting a highly localized patch of nutrient in the turbulent flow, and analyzing the evolution of reaction associated with the observed high and low stretching regions. The Gaussian nutrient patch is released at different locations and the corresponding nutrient uptake is obtained. The variable stretching characteristics of the flow …

Contributors
George, Jino, Tang, Wenbo, Peet, Yulia, et al.
Created Date
2017

Network analysis is a key conceptual orientation and analytical tool in the social sciences that emphasizes the embeddedness of individual behavior within a larger web of social relations. The network approach is used to better understand the cause and consequence of social interactions which cannot be treated as independent. The relational nature of network data and models, however, amplify the methodological concerns associated with inaccurate or missing data. This dissertation addresses such concerns via three projects. As a motivating substantive example, Project 1 examines factors associated with the selection of interaction partners by students at a large urban high school …

Contributors
Bates, Jordan Taylor, Maroulis, Spiro J, Kang, Yun, et al.
Created Date
2019

Global optimization (programming) has been attracting the attention of researchers for almost a century. Since linear programming (LP) and mixed integer linear programming (MILP) had been well studied in early stages, MILP methods and software tools had improved in their efficiency in the past few years. They are now fast and robust even for problems with millions of variables. Therefore, it is desirable to use MILP software to solve mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problems. For an MINLP problem to be solved by an MILP solver, its nonlinear functions must be transformed to linear ones. The most common method to …

Contributors
Alkhalifa, Loay, Mittelmann, Hans, Armbruster, Hans, et al.
Created Date
2020

High-order methods are known for their accuracy and computational performance when applied to solving partial differential equations and have widespread use in representing images compactly. Nonetheless, high-order methods have difficulty representing functions containing discontinuities or functions having slow spectral decay in the chosen basis. Certain sensing techniques such as MRI and SAR provide data in terms of Fourier coefficients, and thus prescribe a natural high-order basis. The field of compressed sensing has introduced a set of techniques based on $\ell^1$ regularization that promote sparsity and facilitate working with functions having discontinuities. In this dissertation, high-order methods and $\ell^1$ regularization are …

Contributors
Denker, Dennis, Gelb, Anne, Archibald, Richard, et al.
Created Date
2016

Diseases have been part of human life for generations and evolve within the population, sometimes dying out while other times becoming endemic or the cause of recurrent outbreaks. The long term influence of a disease stems from different dynamics within or between pathogen-host, that have been analyzed and studied by many researchers using mathematical models. Co-infection with different pathogens is common, yet little is known about how infection with one pathogen affects the host's immunological response to another. Moreover, no work has been found in the literature that considers the variability of the host immune health or that examines a …

Contributors
Edme, Soho, Wirkus, Stephen, Castillo-Chavez, Carlos, et al.
Created Date
2011

Research shows that the subject of mathematics, although revered, remains a source of trepidation for many individuals, as they find it difficult to form a connection between the work they do on paper and their work's practical applications. This research study describes the impact of teaching a challenging introductive applied mathematics course on high school students' skills and attitudes towards mathematics in a college Summer Program. In the analysis of my research data, I identified several emerging changes in skills and attitudes towards mathematics, skills that high-school students needed or developed when taking the mathematical modeling course. Results indicated that …

Contributors
agoune, linda, Castillo-Chavez, Carlos, Castillo-Garsow, Carlos W, et al.
Created Date
2020

Diabetes is a disease characterized by reduced insulin action and secretion, leading to elevated blood glucose. In the 1990s, studies showed that intravenous injection of fatty acids led to a sharp negative response in insulin action that subsided hours after the injection. The molecule associated with diminished insulin signalling response was a byproduct of fatty acids, diacylglycerol. This dissertation is focused on the formulation of a model built around the known mechanisms of glucose and fatty acid storage and metabolism within myocytes, as well as downstream effects of diacylglycerol on insulin action. Data from euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp with fatty acid infusion …

Contributors
Burkow, Daniel Harrison, Li, Jiaxu, Castillo-Chavez, Carlos, et al.
Created Date
2017

Earth-system models describe the interacting components of the climate system and technological systems that affect society, such as communication infrastructures. Data assimilation addresses the challenge of state specification by incorporating system observations into the model estimates. In this research, a particular data assimilation technique called the Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter (LETKF) is applied to the ionosphere, which is a domain of practical interest due to its effects on infrastructures that depend on satellite communication and remote sensing. This dissertation consists of three main studies that propose strategies to improve space- weather specification during ionospheric extreme events, but are generally …

Contributors
Durazo, Juan Alberto, Kostelich, Eric J., Mahalov, Alex, et al.
Created Date
2018

This dissertation develops a second order accurate approximation to the magnetic resonance (MR) signal model used in the PARSE (Parameter Assessment by Retrieval from Single Encoding) method to recover information about the reciprocal of the spin-spin relaxation time function (R2*) and frequency offset function (w) in addition to the typical steady-state transverse magnetization (M) from single-shot magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Sparse regularization on an approximation to the edge map is used to solve the associated inverse problem. Several studies are carried out for both one- and two-dimensional test problems, including comparisons to the first order approximation method, as well …

Contributors
Jesse, Aaron Mitchel, Platte, Rodrigo, Gelb, Anne, et al.
Created Date
2019

The immune system plays a dual role during neoplastic progression. It can suppress tumor growth by eliminating cancer cells, and also promote neoplastic expansion by either selecting for tumor cells that are fitter to survive in an immunocompetent host or by establishing the right conditions within the tumor microenvironment. First, I present a model to study the dynamics of subclonal evolution of cancer. I model selection through time as an epistatic process. That is, the fitness change in a given cell is not simply additive, but depends on previous mutations. Simulation studies indicate that tumors are composed of myriads of …

Contributors
Chowell, Diego, Castillo-Chavez, Carlos, Anderson, Karen S, et al.
Created Date
2016

Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) is any medical or public health procedure used before exposure to the disease causing agent, its purpose is to prevent, rather than treat or cure a disease. Most commonly, PrEP refers to an experimental HIV-prevention strategy that would use antiretrovirals to protect HIV-negative people from HIV infection. A deterministic mathematical model of HIV transmission is developed to evaluate the public-health impact of oral PrEP interventions, and to compare PrEP effectiveness with respect to different evaluation methods. The effects of demographic, behavioral, and epidemic parameters on the PrEP impact are studied in a multivariate sensitivity analysis. Most of …

Contributors
Zhao, Yuqin, Kuang, Yang, Taylor, Jesse, et al.
Created Date
2014

Mosquitoes are the greatest killers of mankind, and diseases caused by mosquitoes continue to induce major public health and socio-economic burden in many parts of the world (notably in the tropical sub-regions). This dissertation contributes in providing deeper qualitative insights into the transmission dynamics and control of some mosquito-borne diseases of major public health significance, such as malaria and dengue. The widespread use of chemical insecticides, in the form of long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) and indoor residual spraying, has led to a dramatic decline in malaria burden in endemic areas for the period 2000-2015. This prompted a concerted global effort …

Contributors
Iboi, Enahoro Amos, Gumel, Abba B., Kuang, Yang, et al.
Created Date
2020

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), the sixth most common cancer type worldwide, accounts for more than 630,000 new cases and 350,000 deaths annually. Drug-resistance and tumor recurrence are the most challenging problems in head and neck cancer treatment. It is hypothesized that a very small fraction of stem-like cells within HNSCC tumor, called cancer stem cells (CSCs), is responsible for tumor initiation, progression, resistance and recurrence. It has also been shown that IL-6 secreted by head and neck tumor-associated endothelial cells (ECs) enhances the survival, self-renewal and tumorigenic potential of head and neck CSCs. In this study we …

Contributors
Nazari, Fereshteh, Jackson, Trachette L., Jackson, Trachette L., et al.
Created Date
2017

A functioning food web is the basis of a functioning community and ecosystem. Thus, it is important to understand the dynamics that control species behaviors and interactions. Alterations to the fundamental dynamics can prove detrimental to the future success of our environment. Research and analysis focus on the global dynamics involved in intraguild predation (IGP), a three species subsystem involving both competition and predation. A mathematical model is derived using differential equations based on pre-existing models to accurately predict species behavior. Analyses provide sufficient conditions for species persistence and extinction that can be used to explain global dynamics. Dynamics are …

Contributors
Wedekin, Lauren Nicole, Kang, Yun, Green, Douglas, et al.
Created Date
2012