Seminars and Colloquia by Series

H-linkage for small graphs H

Series
Combinatorics Seminar
Time
Friday, November 20, 2009 - 15:05 for 1.5 hours (actually 80 minutes)
Location
Skiles 255
Speaker
Mark Ellingham – Vanderbilt University

Linkage involves finding a set of internally disjoint paths in a graph with specified endpoints. Given graphs G and H, we say G is H-linked if for every injective mapping f:V(H) -> V(G) we can find a subgraph H' of G which is a subdivision of H, with f(v) being the vertex of H' corresponding to each vertex v of H. We describe two results on H-linkage for small graphs H.

(1) Goddard showed that 4-connected planar triangulations are 4-ordered, or in other words C_4-linked. We strengthen this by showing that 4-connected planar triangulations are (K_4-e)-linked.

(2) Xingxing Yu characterized certain graphs related to P_4-linkage. We use his characterization to show that every 7-connected graph is P_4-linked, and to construct 6-connected graphs that are not P_4-linked.

This is joint work with Michael D. Plummer and Gexin Yu.

Simulation Study of the Length of Longest Increasing Subsequence of Finite Alphabets

Series
SIAM Student Seminar
Time
Friday, November 20, 2009 - 13:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 255
Speaker
Huy Huynh – Georgia Tech
Let X_1, X_2,...,X_n be a sequence of i.i.d random variables with values in a finite alphabet {1,...,m}. Let LI_n be the length of the longest increasing subsequence of X_1,...,X_n. We shall express the limiting distribution of LI_n as functionals of m and (m-1)- dimensional Brownian motions as well as the largest eigenvalue of Gaussian Unitary Ensemble (GUE) matrix. Then I shall illustrate simulation study of these results

A Nonlinear Degenerate Free-Boundary Problem and Subsonic-sonic flows

Series
PDE Seminar
Time
Thursday, November 19, 2009 - 15:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 255
Speaker
Zhouping Xin – The Chinese University of Hong Kong
One of the challenges in the study of transonic flows is the understanding of the flow behavior near the sonic state due to the severe degeneracy of the governing equations. In this talk, I will discuss the well-posedness theory of a degenerate free boundary problem for a quasilinear second elliptic equation arising from studying steady subsonic-sonic irrotational compressible flows in a convergent nozzle. The flow speed is sonic at the free boundary where the potential flow equation becomes degenerate. Both existence and uniqueness will be shown and optimal regularity will be obtained. Smooth transonic flows in deLaval nozzles will also be discussed. This is a joint work with Chunpeng Wang.

Simultaneous Confidence Band for Sparse Longitudinal Regression Curve

Series
Stochastics Seminar
Time
Thursday, November 19, 2009 - 15:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 269
Speaker
Lijian Yang – Michigan State University
Recently functional data analysis has received considerable attention in statistics research and a number of successful applications have been reported, but there has been no results on the inference of the global shape of the mean regression curve. In this paper, asymptotically simultaneous confidence band is obtained for the mean trajectory curve based on sparse longitudinal data, using piecewise constant spline estimation. Simulation experiments corroborate the asymptotic theory.

Random partial orders and random linear extensions

Series
Graph Theory Seminar
Time
Thursday, November 19, 2009 - 12:05 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 255
Speaker
Graham Brightwell – London School of Economics
Several interesting models of random partial orders can be described via a process that builds the partial order one step at a time, at each point adding a new maximal element. This process therefore generates a linear extension of the partial order in tandem with the partial order itself. A natural condition to demand of such processes is that, if we condition on the occurrence of some finite partial order after a given number of steps, then each linear extension of that partial order is equally likely. This condition is called "order-invariance". The class of order-invariant processes includes processes generating a random infinite partial order, as well as those that amount to taking a random linear extension of a fixed infinite poset. Our goal is to study order-invariant processes in general. In this talk, I shall focus on some of the combinatorial problems that arise. (joint work with Malwina Luczak)

Strings, Trees, and RNA Folding

Series
School of Mathematics Colloquium
Time
Thursday, November 19, 2009 - 11:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 269
Speaker
Christine Heitsch – School of Mathematics, Georgia Tech
Understanding the folding of RNA sequences into three-dimensional structures is one of the fundamental challenges in molecular biology. In this talk, we focus on understanding how an RNA viral genome can fold into the dodecahedral cage known from experimental data. Using strings and trees as a combinatorial model of RNA folding, we give mathematical results which yield insight into RNA structure formation and suggest new directions in viral capsid assembly. We also illustrate how the interaction between discrete mathematics and molecular biology motivates new combinatorial theorems as well as advancing biomedical applications.

How likely is Buffon's needle to land near a 1-dimensional Sierspinski gasket? A power estimate via Fourier analysis.

Series
Analysis Seminar
Time
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 - 14:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 269
Speaker
Matt Bond – Michigan State University
It is well known that a needle thrown at random has zero probability of intersecting any given irregular planar set of finite 1-dimensional Hausdorff measure. Sharp quantitative estimates for fine open coverings of such sets are still not known, even for such sets as the Sierpinski gasket and the 4-corner Cantor set (with self-similarities 1/4 and 1/3). In 2008, Nazarov, Peres, and Volberg provided the sharpest known upper bound for the 4-corner Cantor set. Volberg and I have recently used the same ideas to get a similar estimate for the Sierpinski gasket. Namely, the probability that Buffon's needle will land in a 3^{-n}-neighborhood of the Sierpinski gasket is no more than C_p/n^p, where p is any small enough positive number.

Grothendieck Topologies

Series
Other Talks
Time
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 - 13:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 255
Speaker
Doug Ulmer – Ga Tech
In the 60s, Grothendieck had the remarkable idea of introducing a new kind of topology where open coverings of X are no longer collections of subsets of X, but rather certain maps from other spaces to X.  I will give some examples to show why this is reasonable and what one can do with it.

Panel Discussion with Students About the Hiring Process.

Series
Research Horizons Seminar
Time
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 - 12:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 269
Speaker
Drs. Ulmer, Harrell, and Wick – School of Mathematics, Georgia Tech
The Research Horizons seminar this week will be a panel discussion on the academic job market for mathematicians. The discussion will begin with an overview by Doug Ulmer of the hiring process, with a focus on the case of research-oriented universities. The panel will then take questions from the audience. Professor Wick was hired last year at Tech, so has recently been on the students' side of the process. Professor Harrell has been involved with hiring at Tech for many years and can provide a perspective on the university side of the process.

Virulence evolution in a naturally occurring parasite of monarch butterflies

Series
Mathematical Biology Seminar
Time
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 - 11:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 269
Speaker
Jaap de Roode – Emory University

Please Note: Host: Meghan Duffy (School of Biology, Georgia Tech)

Why do parasites cause disease? Theory has shown that natural selection could select for virulent parasites if virulence is correlated with between-host parasite transmission. Because ecological conditions may affect virulence and transmission, theory further predicts that adaptive levels of virulence depend on the specific environment in which hosts and parasites interact. To test these predictions in a natural system, we study monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) and their protozoan parasite (Ophryocystis elektroscirrha). Our studies have shown that more virulent parasites obtain greater between-host transmission, and that parasites with intermediate levels of virulence obtain highest fitness. The average virulence of wild parasite isolates falls closely to this optimum level, providing additional support that virulence can evolve as a consequence of natural selection operating on parasite transmission. Our studies have also shown that parasites from geographically separated populations differ in their virulence, suggesting that population-specific ecological factors shape adaptive levels of virulence. One important ecological factor is the monarch larval host plants in the milkweed family. Monarch populations differ in the milkweed species they harbor, and experiments have shown that milkweeds can alter parasite virulence. Our running hypothesis is that plant availability shapes adaptive levels of parasite virulence in natural monarch populations. Testing this hypothesis will improve our understanding of why some parasites are more harmful than others, and will help with predicting the consequences of human actions on the evolution of disease.

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