A dynamic multiscale viscosity algorithm for shock capturing in Runge Kutta Discontinuous Galerkin methods

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2005.Includes bibliographical references (p. 69-70).In order to improve the performance of higher-order Discontinuous Galerkin finite element solvers, a shock capturing procedure has been developed for hyperbolic equations. The Dynamic Multiscale Viscosity method, originally presented by Oberai and Wanderer [8, 9] in a Fourier Galerkin context, is adapted to the Discontinuous Galerkin discretization. The notions of diffusive model term, artificial viscosities, and the Germano identity are introduced. A general technique for the evaluation of the multiscale model term's parameters is then presented. This technique is used to perform efficient shock capturing on an one-dimensional stationary Burgers' equation with 1-parameter and 2-parameter model terms. Corresponding numerical results are shown.by Jean-Baptiste Brachet.S.M

Unscripting Piety: Muslim Women, Pakistani Nationalism, and Islamic Feminism

This dissertation analyzes Muslim womens processes of pious subject formation and the intersection of these processes with discourses of Pakistani nationalism and Islamic feminism. Drawing primarily on interviews and participatory observations with Pakistani women in Karachi, Islamabad, and Mississauga associated with two Sunni Muslim groups, Al-Huda International and the Jamaat-e-Islami, I examine how women comprehend and inhabit their piety in and through the spiritual, social, and political milieu of their everyday lives. I argue that taking up piety while understanding the spiritual as epistemological reveals contradictory and relational dimensions of Muslim womens subjectivities, including complicities with structures of power and relationships with the secular. By taking up religiosity as a way of knowing, this dissertation intervenes in the normative secularity of knowledge production about Muslim women that renders the epistemic dimension of their pious subjectivities unintelligible. To explicate what analytical openings are enabled by taking up the spiritual as epistemological, I look at how the women I conducted research with conceptualize their piety and how their Islamic discourse coalesces, contradicts and co-exists with dominant discourses of Islam, religio-nationalism, and universal rights-based feminism. I begin with an exploration of the spaces created for Muslim women through Al-Huda and the Jamaat and what these spaces meant to the women I met. I juxtapose my respondents Islamic praxis with a discourse analysis of Pakistani religio-nationalism and rights-based Islamic feminism that also stake a claim on defining the relationship between women and Islam. These discursive structures of nationalism and feminism anchor analyses of Muslim womens piety in secular epistemologies that render practices such as veiling or the qawwam (authoritative status) of men, for example, in secular terms. Focusing on how the women I interviewed conceptualize qawwam, I elucidate the paradoxical processes by which they implement an ostensible gendered hierarchy, often in face of resistant men, in their everyday lives. I then turn to how their piety is complicit with structures of power by examining how the focus on scripture in their literalist Islamic praxis secures a rational subject of piety

Fast and Stable Schemes for Phase Fields Models

We propose and analyse new stabilized time marching schemes for Phase Fields model such as Allen-Cahn and Cahn-Hillard equations, when discretized in space with high order finite differences compact schemes. The stabilization applies to semi-implicit schemes for which the linear part is simplified using sparse pre-conditioners. The new methods allow to significant obtain a gain of CPU time. The numerical illustrations we give concern applications on pattern dynamics and on image processing (inpainting, segmentation) in two and three dimension cases

Studies on Independent Synthesis of Cytoplasmic Ribonucleic Acids in Acetabularia mediterranea

1. The RNA content of anucleate and nucleate fragments of Acetabularia has been measured. It was found that there is a net synthesis of RNA in nucleate fragments. On the other hand, the RNA content of anucleate fragments did not change significantly after enucleation. 2. Anucleate fragments, however, can readily incorporate 14C-labeled adenine, orotic acid, and carbon dioxide into their cytoplasmic RNA. 3. The results of experiments on 14CO2 incorporation into the RNA of anucleate and nucleate fragments suggest that there is a mechanism for de novo synthesis of RNA in anucleate cytoplasm. 4. In Acetabularia, 81 per cent of the cytoplasmic RNA is bound to a large granule fraction, consisting mainly of chloroplasts. Even after removal of the nucleus, RNA is synthesized in this "chloroplast" fraction. The chloroplasts are thus a major site of RNA synthesis in the cytoplasm of these algae. Synthesis of "chloroplastic" RNA, in anucleate fragments, possibly occurs at the expense of the RNA present in other fractions (microsomes and supernatant). 5. 8-Azaguanine stimulates regeneration and cap formation in anucleate fragments and does not inhibit RNA synthesis in these fragments

Scaling transformation and probability distributions for financial time series

The price of financial assets are, since Bachelier, considered to be described by a (discrete or continuous) time sequence of random variables, i.e a stochastic process. Sharp scaling exponents or unifractal behavior of such processes has been reported in several works. In this letter we investigate the question of scaling transformation of price processes by establishing a new connexion between non-linear group theoretical methods and multifractal methods developed in mathematical physics. Using two sets of financial chronological time series, we show that the scaling transformation is a non-linear group action on the moments of the price increments. Its linear part has a spectral decomposition that puts in evidence a multifractal behavior of the price increments.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, latex and ps file

A feasibility study of a home-based exercise intervention for prostate cancer patients on androgen deprivation therapy

Purpose: Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is an effective treatment for advanced-stage prostate cancer. Unfortunately, ADT has several adverse effects that significantly impair health-related quality of life (HRQOL). In patients receiving ADT, resistance training has been shown to improve important physical and psychosocial outcomes. However, little is known about the effects of aerobic exercise in this population. This feasibility study compares the effects of aerobic and resistance exercise interventions on a panel of psychological, physical fitness, and biological outcomes related to prostate cancer and ADT. Methods: 66 men receiving ADT for prostate cancer were recruited for this prospective, randomized trial. Participants are assigned to either a resistance or aerobic, moderate-intensity exercise 3-5 times per week for 30-60 minutes/session. Participants were provided with equipment so that they could exercise at home. The primary outcomes were related to feasibility for future, large-scale trials. Secondary outcomes included: fatigue, HRQOL, physical fitness, adipokines, insulin-like growth factor axis proteins, and exercise adherence. Outcomes were assessed at baseline and at 3, 6, and 12 months. Results: Preliminary findings are presented. 205 patients were approached for participation, 66 of which agreed to participate (n=34 in the resistance training group and 32 in the aerobic training group). Over the intervention period we experienced an attrition rate of 33%. There were no adverse events and biweekly booster sessions were poorly attended (n=27 aerobic training participants and n=22 resistance training participants did not attend any booster sessions). Intention-to-treat analyses showed that fatigue and HRQOL were not significantly different between groups; however, in a per-protocol analysis the resistance-training group demonstrated clinically significant improvements in HRQOL. Differential within-groups effects on physical fitness and biomarkers were also observed at various time-points. At all time-points, the aerobic training group engaged in significantly more physical activity than the resistance training group. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that both resistance and aerobic training can have positive effects on body composition with differential effects on psychosocial and biological outcomes. It appears that the aerobic exercise intervention was more effective at producing long-term, clinically significant increases in physical activity volume than resistance training. Our study has set the framework to conduct future clinical trials investigating the effects of exercise in men treated for prostate cancer

Les technologies numériques : instruments de création d’un réseau savant savoisien

L’Union des sociétés savantes de Savoie est un réseau d’académies et associations à vocation culturelle dont les anciens États de Savoie constituent le pôle d’intérêt commun. Les fonds qu’elles ont accumulés constituent la richesse de leurs bibliothèques. Cependant, ces dernières sont dispersées entre de nombreux sites et leurs conditions d’accès, très restreintes, sont un obstacle majeur à leur valorisation. La généralisation de l’informatique a suscité des règles de catalogage internationales, permettant aux bibliothèques dès 1973 d’échanger leurs catalogues. C’est dans ce contexte qu’a été lancé, en 2006, le Catalogue commun des sociétés savantes de Savoie (CASSS) en utilisant l’application numérique Karvi. La seconde étape fut, en 2012, la numérisation dans Gallica du fonds savoisien des membres de l’Union, avec le concours de la BNF. Elle a conduit au concept de Bibliothèque numérique savoisienne puis au projet d’un Portail savoisien ouvrant la voie à une recherche fédérée sur les pays de Savoie