Un of Tenn | Math Department

Seminars and Colloquiums
for the week of February 27, 2012

Speaker:

Dr. Mike Gilchrist, EEB, Monday
Prof. Vasileios Maroulas, Monday
Mr. Jimmy Sunkes, Monday
Prof. Jim Conant, Wednesday
Dr. Joseph Tien, Ohio State University, Thursday
Dr. Atish Mitra, University of South Florida, Friday
Dr. Joseph Tien, Ohio State University, Friday

If you are interested in giving or arranging a talk for one of our seminars or colloquiums,
please review our calendar.

If you have questions, or a date you would like to confirm, please contact Dr. Judy Day.

Monday, February 27

MATH BIOLOGY SEMINAR
TIME: 2:30-3:20
ROOM: Ayres 121
SPEAKER: Mike Gilchrist, EEB
TOPIC: More on parameter estimation and sensitivity

PROBABILITY SEMINAR
TIME: 3:35 – 4:25 p.m.
ROOM: Ayres 122
SPEAKER: Prof. Vasileios Maroulas
TITLE: Small noise large deviations and applications
ABSTRACT: A novel method of large deviations for infinite dimensional stochastic dynamical systems will be presented. Examples of large deviations for stochastic flows of diffeomorphisms arising from an image analysis problem, a reaction-diffusion SPDE, and an optimal filtering problem where the observation process is corrupted by fractional Brownian noise, will be delivered. The talk is based on joint works with A. Budhiraja, P. Dupuis and J. Xiong.

ALGEBRA SEMINAR
TIME: 3:35 - 4:25
ROOM: Ayres B004
SPEAKER: Mr. Jimmy Sunkes
TITLE: Ring-Theoretic Properties of Holomorphic Functions - 3
ABSTRACT: In this talk, I will discuss the ring-theoretic properties of complex differentiable functions. Namely, I will show that the collection of holomorophic functions on a nonempty, connected, open subset of the complex plane is an integral domain, a Bezout domain, and a Prufer domain. I will also show that this ring is not Noetherian, not a UFD, not a PID, and does not satisfy ACCP. The latter four conditions are equivalent for a Bezout domain, but I will provide specific examples to show why some of these properties fail. In order to prove some of the results, we will need theorems from a first and second year course in complex analysis. These results will be mentioned and discussed but not proven.

Wednesday, February 29

TOPOLOGY SEMINAR
TIME: 2:30 - 3:20 p.m.
ROOM: Ayres G004
SPEAKER: Prof. Jim Conant
TITLE: An introduction to the Novikov conjecture - 4
ABSTRACT: I will attempt to introduce all of the necessary topological ingredients to understand Novikov's conjecture in the way it was originally presented by him in a 1970 paper. I will be following the book by Matthias Kreck and Wolfgang Lück.

Thursday, March 1

JUNIOR COLLOQUIUM
TIME: 3:35 – 4:25 p.m.
ROOM: Ayres 405
SPEAKER: Dr. Joseph Tien, Ohio State University
TITLE: Modeling an autocatalytic enzyme
ABSTRACT: Aspirin works by blocking an enzyme called COX. This enzyme possesses some interesting kinetic features. In particular, it is autocatalytic, meaning that the enzyme can activate itself. I'll discuss a simple model of this enzyme, analyze the model using basic techniques from dynamical systems and multiple scales, and interpret the results biologically. This includes the relevance of COX to cancer research and the pharmaceutical industry.

Pizza will be available at 3:15 p.m.

Friday, March 2

TOPOLOGY SEMINAR
TIME: 2:30 - 3:20 p.m.
ROOM: Ayres G004
SPEAKER: Dr. Atish Mitra, University of South Florida
TITLE: Large Scale Absolute Extensors.
Abstract: For any metric space we define the concept of large scale absolute extensors of that space and study their properties. We give several characterizations of large scale absolute extensors and relate this new concept to asymptotic dimension of M.Gromov. This is joint work with J. Dydak.

COLLOQUIUM
TIME: 3:35 – 4:25 pm
ROOM: Ayres 405
SPEAKER: Dr. Joseph Tien, Ohio State University
TITLE: Modeling cholera dynamics
ABSTRACT: Cholera was one of the most feared diseases of the 19th century, and remains a serious public health concern today. I will present a basic framework for modeling waterborne diseases, and then discuss several aspects and extensions of this model, including: 1) parameter identifiability and estimation of disease transmission pathways, 2) the interaction of infectivity and loss of immunity, using arbitary kernels for both, 3) seasonal forcing, and 4) network versions of the model involving the movement of water. These results will be discussed in the context of cholera epidemics in 19th century London, Angola 2006, and the ongoing outbreak in Haiti.

Refreshments will be available in Ayres 401 at 3:15 p.m.

Past notices:

winter break