Generalized Volterra-Wiener and surrogate data methods for complex time series analysis

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2006.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 133-150).This thesis describes the current state-of-the-art in nonlinear time series analysis, bringing together approaches from a broad range of disciplines including the non-linear dynamical systems, nonlinear modeling theory, time-series hypothesis testing, information theory, and self-similarity. We stress mathematical and qualitative relationships between key algorithms in the respective disciplines in addition to describing new robust approaches to solving classically intractable problems. Part I presents a comprehensive review of various classical approaches to time series analysis from both deterministic and stochastic points of view. We focus on using these classical methods for quantification of complexity in addition to proposing a unified approach to complexity quantification encapsulating several previous approaches. Part II presents robust modern tools for time series analysis including surrogate data and Volterra-Wiener modeling. We describe new algorithms converging the two approaches that provide both a sensitive test for nonlinear dynamics and a noise-robust metric for chaos intensity.by Akhil Shashidhar.M.Eng

Philosophy of mathematics education

PHILOSOPHY OF MATHEMATICS EDUCATION\ud This thesis supports the view that mathematics teachers should be aware of differing views of the nature of mathematics and of a range of teaching perspectives. The first part of the thesis discusses differing ways in which the subject 'mathematics' can be identified, by relying on existing philosophy of mathematics. The thesis describes three traditionally recognised philosophies of mathematics: logicism, formalism and intuitionism. A fourth philosophy is constructed, the hypothetical, bringing together the ideas of Peirce and of Lakatos, in particular. The second part of the thesis introduces differing ways of teaching mathematics, and identifies the logical and sometimes contingent connections that exist between the philosophies of mathematics discussed in part 1, and the philosophies of mathematics teaching that arise in part 2. Four teaching perspectives are outlined: the teaching of mathematics as aestheticallyorientated, the teaching of mathematics as a game, the teaching of mathematics as a member of the natural sciences, and the teaching of mathematics as technology-orientated. It is argued that a possible fifth perspective, the teaching of mathematics as a language, is not a distinctive approach. A further approach, the Inter-disciplinary perspective, is recognised as a valid alternative within previously identified philosophical constraints. Thus parts 1 and 2 clarify the range of interpretations found in both the philosophy of mathematics and of mathematics teaching and show that they present realistic choices for the mathematics teacher. The foundations are thereby laid for the arguments generated in part 3, that any mathematics teacher ought to appreciate the full range of teaching 4 perspectives which may be chosen and how these link to views of the nature of mathematics. This would hopefully reverse 'the trend at the moment... towards excessively narrow interpretation of the subject' as reported by Her Majesty's Inspectorate (Aspects of Secondary Education in England, 7.6.20, H. M. S. O., 1979). While the thesis does not contain infallible prescriptions it is concluded that the technology-orientated perspective supported by the hypothetical philosophy of mathematics facilitates the aims of those educators who show concern for the recognition of mathematics in the curriculum, both for its intrinsic and extrinsic value. But the main thrust of the thesis is that the training of future mathematics educators must include opportunities for gaining awareness of the diversity of teaching perspectives and the influence on them of philosophies of mathematics

Popper's views of theory formation compared with the development of post-relativistic cosmological models

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityThis dissertation confronts contemporary physical cosmology with Karl Popper's standards of scientific method and theory construction. To the degree to which there are differences, an attempt is made to criticize the major cosmological models in the light of Popper's analysis and, in turn, to explore revisions necessitated in this analysis by the unique problems of cosmology. As background, the major facets of Popper's work are presented in detail: his falsifiability criterion for demarcating scientific theories from metaphysics, his hypothetico-deductive method, and his rejection of induction. Then the origins of general relativity and its competitors are analyzed both as explanatory background to modern cosmology and so as to reveal the history of certain problems pertinent to Popper's scheme: for instance, the use of arguments from simplicity, the ideas of the utility of analogy and models, and the relation of theory to reality. Finally, the great variety of evolutionary, fundamentalistic, and steady-state models available for study is explored in detail as to presupposition and methodology so that their distinctives are revealed and a basis for comparison with Popper's suggestions provided. [TRUNCATED