MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING RESEARCH EXPERIENCES FOR UNDERGRADUATES AT IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
supported by the National Science Foundation (DMS-0353880)

Publications:

2004 REU

John Bowers, Job Evers, Leslie Hogben, Steve Shaner, Karyn Snider, Amy Wangsness, On completion problems for various classes of P-matrices, Linear Algebra and Its Applications, 413 (2006) 342-354. [PDF preprint]
Abstract: A pattern of positions in an n x n real matrix is said to have -completion if every  partial -matrix which specifies that pattern can be completed to a -matrix. A Fischer matrix is a P -matrix that satisfies Fischer’s inequality for all principal submatrices. In this paper, all patterns  of positions of size up through 4 are classified as to whether or not every partial -matrix can be completed to a -matrix for any of the classes positive P -, nonnegative P -, or Fischer matrices. Also, all symmetric patterns up through size 5 are classified as to whether or not they have Fischer completion, and all but 2 such patterns are classified as to whether or not they have positive P - or nonnegative P -completion. We also show that any pattern whose digraph contains a minimally chordal symmetric-Hamiltonian induced subdigraph does not have -completion for any of the classes positive P -, nonnegative P -, Fischer matrices.

Ghanshyam Bhatt, Lorraine Kraus, Laura Walters, Eric Weber, On Hiding Messages in the Oversampled Fourier Coefficients, Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications, 320 (2006) 492-498. [PDF preprint]
Abstract: A system using an oversampled Fourier transform for hiding data is given in [J.R. Miotke and L. Rebollo-Neira, Applied Comp. Harmonic Anal., 16 (2004) no. 3, 203– 207]. When viewed as a cryptographic algorithm, we demonstrate here that the system is susceptible to a known plaintext attack

G. Bhattacharyya, J. Hegeman, J. Kim, J. Langford, S. Y. Song, Some Existence and Construction Results of Polygonal Designs, European Journal of Combinatorics,   29 (2008) 1396--1407. [PDF preprint]
Abstract: This paper revisits the existence and construction problems for polygonal designs (a special  class of partially balanced incomplete block designs associated with regular polygons). We present new polygonal designs with various parameter sets by explicit construction. In doing so we employ several construction methods – some conventional and some new. We also  establish a link between a class of polygonal designs of block size 3 and the cyclically generated  ‘λ-fold triple systems’. Finally, we show that the existence question for a certain class of  polygonal designs is equivalent to the existence question for ‘perfect grouping systems’ which we introduce.

D.Doan, B.Kivunge, J.J.Poole, J.D.H. Smith, T. Sykes, M.Teplitskiy, Partial semigroups and and primality indicators in the fractal generation of binomial coefficients to a prime square modulus, to appear in Demonstratio Mathematica.

2005 REU

Justin P. Peters, Khalid Boushaba, Marit Nilsen-Hamilton, A Mathematical Model for Fibroblast Growth Factor Competition Based on Enzyme Kinetics, Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering, 2 no. 4 (2005) pp. 789-810. Cover.
Abstract: In this paper, we develop a mathematical model for the competition of two species of fibroblast growth factor, FGF-1 and FGF-2, for the same cell surface receptor. We provide pathways for this interaction using experimental data obtained by Neufeld and Gospodarowicz reported in 1986 [9]. These pathways demonstrate how the interaction of two fibroblast growth factors affects cell proliferation. Upon development of these pathways, we use simulations in MATLAB and optimization to extrapolate the values of a variety of biochemical parameters imbedded within the model. Furthermore, it should be possible to use the model as the basis for a testable hypothesis. We explore this predictive ability with further simulations in MATLAB.

Atoshi Chowdhury, Leslie Hogben, Rana Mikkelson, Jude Melancon, Rational Realization of Maximum Eigenvalue Multiplicity of Symmetric Tree Sign Patterns, Linear Algebra and Its Applications, 418 (2006) 380-393. [PDF preprint]
Abstract: A sign pattern is a matrix whose entries are elements of {+, −, 0}; it describes the set of real matrices whose entries have the signs in the pattern. A graph (that allows loops but not multiple edges) describes the set of symmetric matrices having a zero-nonzero pattern of entries determined by the absence or presence of edges in the graph. DeAlba et al. [3] gave algorithms for the computation of maximum multiplicity and minimum rank of matrices associated with a tree sign pattern or tree, and an algorithm to obtain an integer matrix realizing minimum rank. We extend these results by giving algorithms to obtain a symmetric rational matrix realizing the maximum multiplicity of a rational eigenvalue among symmetric matrices associated with a symmetric tree sign pattern or tree.

Jose Ayala-Hoffman, Patrick Corbin, Fritz Colonius, Wolfgang Kliemann, Justin R. Peters, Morse Decompositions, Attractors and Chain
Recurrence,  Proyecciones 25 (2006), no. 1, 79--110.  [PDF preprint]
Abstract: The global behavior of a dynamical system can be described by its Morse decompositions or its attractor and repeller conÖgurations. There
is a close relation between these two approaches and also with (maximal) chain recurrent sets that describe the system behavior on Önest Morse sets. These sets depend upper semicontinuously on parameters. The connection with ergodic theory is provided through the construction of invariant measures based on chains.


Clifford Bergman, Jennifer Davidson, Eric Bartlett, Tracy McKay, Aleka McAJennJenndams. ANNTS: Artificial Neural Network Technology for Stegnanalysis, submitted to IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security.

One paper from 2005 is still under revision.

2006 REU

Nathan L. Chenette, Sean V. Droms, Leslie Hogben, Rana Mikkelson, Olga Pryporova. Minimum Rank Of A Tree Over An Arbitrary Field,   Electronic Journal of Linear Algebra 16 (2007): 183-186.
Abstract: For a field F and graph G of order n, the minimum rank of G over F is defined to be the smallest possible rank over all symmetric  n by n matrices A over F  whose (i, j )th entry (for i not j ) is nonzero whenever {i, j } is an edge in G and is zero otherwise. We show that the minimum rank
of a tree is independent of the field.

Stephen Dupal,  Michael Yoshizawa. Design and Optimization of Explicit Runge-Kutta Formulas, Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal, Vol. 8, Issue 1, 2007. 
Abstract: Explicit Runge-Kutta methods have been studied for over a century and have applications in the sciences as well as mathematical software such as Matlab’s ode45 solver. We have taken a new look at fourth- and fifth-order Runge-Kutta methods by utilizing techniques based on Gr ̈obner bases to design explicit fourth-order Runge-Kutta formulas with step doubling and a family of (4,5) formula pairs that minimize the higher-order truncation error. Gr ̈obner bases, useful tools for eliminating variables, also helped to reveal patterns among the error terms. A Matlab program based on step doubling was then developed to compare the accuracy and efficiency of fourth-order Runge-Kutta formulas with that of ode45.

Shiliang Chen, Howard A. Levine, Yeon Jung Seo, Marit Nilsen-Hamilton. A mathematical analysis of multiple-target SELEX, in preparation.

Some papers from 2006 are still in preparation/under review.
 

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Web page maintained by Leslie Hogben
Last Update: 20-Sept-08