Over the last several centuries, mathematicians have developed sophisticated symbol systems to represent ideas often imperceptible to their five senses. Although conventional definitions exist for these notations, individuals attribute their personalized meanings to these symbols during their mathematical activities. In some instances, students might (1) attribute a non-normative meaning to a conventional symbol or (2) attribute viable meanings for a mathematical topic to a novel symbol. This dissertation aims to investigate the relationships between students’ meanings and personal algebraic expressions in the context of one topic: infinite series convergence. To this end, I report the results of two individual constructivist teaching experiments in which first-time second-semester university calculus students constructed symbols (called personal expressions) to organize their thinking about various topics related to infinite series. My results comprise three distinct sections. First, I describe the intuitive meanings that the two students, Monica and Sylvia, exhibited for infinite series convergence before experiencing formal instruction on the topic. Second, I categorize the meanings these students attributed to their personal expressions for series topics and propose symbol categories corresponding to various instantiations of each meaning. Finally, I describe two situations in which students modified their personal expressions throughout several interviews to either (1) distinguish between examples they initially perceived as similar or (2) modify a previous personal expression to symbolize two ideas they initially perceived as distinct. To conclude, I discuss the research and teaching implications of my explanatory frameworks for students’ symbolization. I also provide an initial theoretical framing of the cognitive mechanisms by which students create, maintain, and modify their personal algebraic representations.

A $k$-list assignment for a graph $G=(V, E)$ is a function $L$ that assigns a $k$-set $L(v)$ of "available colors" to each vertex $v \in V$. A $d$-defective, $m$-fold, $L$-coloring is a function $\phi$ that assigns an $m$-subset $\phi(v) \subseteq L(v)$ to each vertex $v$ so that each color class $V_{i}=\{v \in V:$ $i \in \phi(v)\}$ induces a subgraph of $G$ with maximum degree at most $d$. An edge $xy$ is an $i$-flaw of $\phi$ if $i\in \phi(x) \cap \phi(y)$. An online list-coloring algorithm $\mathcal{A}$ works on a known graph $G$ and an unknown $k$-list assignment $L$ to produce a coloring $\phi$ as follows. At step $r$ the set of vertices $v$ with $r \in L(v)$ is revealed to $\mathcal{A}$. For each vertex $v$, $\mathcal{A}$ must decide irrevocably whether to add $r$ to $\phi(v)$. The online choice number $\pt_{m}^{d}(G)$ of $G$ is the least $k$ for which some such algorithm produces a $d$-defective, $m$-fold, $L$-coloring $\phi$ of $G$ for all $k$-list assignments $L$. Online list coloring was introduced independently by Uwe Schauz and Xuding Zhu. It was known that if $G$ is planar then $\pt_{1}^{0}(G) \leq 5$ and $\pt_{1}^{1}(G) \leq 4$ are sharp bounds; here it is proved that $\pt_{1}^{3}(G) \leq 3$ is sharp, but there is a planar graph $H$ with $\pt_{1}^{2}(H)\ge 4$. Zhu conjectured that for some integer $m$, every planar graph $G$ satisfies $\pt_{m}^{0}(G) \leq 5 m-1$, and even that this is true for $m=2$. This dissertation proves that $\pt_{2}^{1}(G) \leq 9$, so the conjecture is "nearly" true, and the proof extends to $\pt_{m}^{1}(G) \leq\left\lceil\frac{9}{2} m\right\rceil$. Using Alon's Combinatorial Nullstellensatz, this is strengthened by showing that $G$ contains a linear forest $(V, F)$ such that there is an online algorithm that witnesses $\mathrm{pt}_{2}^{1}(G) \leq 9$ while producing a coloring whose flaws are in $F$, and such that no edge is an $i$-flaw and a $j$-flaw for distinct colors $i$ and $j$.

C*-algebras of categories of paths were introduced by Spielberg in 2014 and generalize C*-algebras of higher rank graphs. An approximately finite dimensional (AF) C*-algebra is one which is isomorphic to an inductive limit of finite dimensional C*-algebras. In 2012, D.G. Evans and A. Sims proposed an analogue of a cycle for higher rank graphs and show that the lack of such an object is necessary for the associated C*-algebra to be AF. Here, I give a class of examples of categories of paths whose associated C*-algebras are Morita equivalent to a large number of periodic continued fraction AF algebras, first described by Effros and Shen in 1980. I then provide two examples which show that the analogue of cycles proposed by Evans and Sims is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for the C*-algebra of a category of paths to be AF.

Since the seminal work of Tur ́an, the forbidden subgraph problem has been among the central questions in extremal graph theory. Let ex(n;F) be the smallest number m such that any graph on n vertices with m edges contains F as a subgraph. Then the forbidden subgraph problem asks to find ex(n; F ) for various graphs F . The question can be further generalized by asking for the extreme values of other graph parameters like minimum degree, maximum degree, or connectivity. We call this type of question a Tura ́n-type problem. In this thesis, we will study Tura ́n-type problems and their variants for graphs and hypergraphs.

Chapter 2 contains a Tura ́n-type problem for cycles in dense graphs. The main result in this chapter gives a tight bound for the minimum degree of a graph which guarantees existence of disjoint cycles in the case of dense graphs. This, in particular, answers in the affirmative a question of Faudree, Gould, Jacobson and Magnant in the case of dense graphs.

In Chapter 3, similar problems for trees are investigated. Recently, Faudree, Gould, Jacobson and West studied the minimum degree conditions for the existence of certain spanning caterpillars. They proved certain bounds that guarantee existence of spanning caterpillars. The main result in Chapter 3 significantly improves their result and answers one of their questions by proving a tight minimum degree bound for the existence of such structures.

Chapter 4 includes another Tur ́an-type problem for loose paths of length three in a 3-graph. As a corollary, an upper bound for the multi-color Ramsey number for the loose path of length three in a 3-graph is achieved.

The Cambrian lattice corresponding to a Coxeter element c of An, denoted Camb(c),

is the subposet of An induced by the c-sortable elements, and the m-eralized Cambrian

lattice corresponding to c, denoted Cambm(c), is dened as a subposet of the

braid group accompanied with the right weak ordering induced by the c-sortable elements

under certain conditions. Both of these families generalize the well-studied

Tamari lattice Tn rst introduced by D. Tamari in 1962. S. Fishel and L. Nelson

enumerated the chains of maximum length of Tamari lattices.

In this dissertation, I study the chains of maximum length of the Cambrian and

m-eralized Cambrian lattices, precisely, I enumerate these chains in terms of other

objects, and then nd formulas for the number of these chains for all m-eralized

Cambrian lattices of A1, A2, A3, and A4. Furthermore, I give an alternative proof

for the number of chains of maximum length of the Tamari lattice Tn, and provide

conjectures and corollaries for the number of these chains for all m-eralized Cambrian

lattices of A5.

Higher-rank graphs, or k-graphs, are higher-dimensional analogues of directed graphs, and as with ordinary directed graphs, there are various C*-algebraic objects that can be associated with them. This thesis adopts a functorial approach to study the relationship between k-graphs and their associated C*-algebras. In particular, two functors are given between appropriate categories of higher-rank graphs and the category of C*-algebras, one for Toeplitz algebras and one for Cuntz-Krieger algebras. Additionally, the Cayley graphs of finitely generated groups are used to define a class of k-graphs, and a functor is then given from a category of finitely generated groups to the category of C*-algebras. Finally, functoriality is investigated for product systems of C*-correspondences associated to k-graphs. Additional results concerning the structural consequences of functoriality, properties of the functors, and combinatorial aspects of k-graphs are also included throughout.

The Tamari lattices have been intensely studied since they first appeared in Dov Tamari’s thesis around 1952. He defined the n-th Tamari lattice T(n) on bracketings of a set of n+1 objects, with a cover relation based on the associativity rule in one direction. Despite their interesting aspects and the attention they have received, a formula for the number of maximal chains in the Tamari lattices is still unknown. The purpose of this thesis is to convey my results on progress toward the solution of this problem and to discuss future work.

A few years ago, Bergeron and Préville-Ratelle generalized the Tamari lattices to the m-Tamari lattices. The original Tamari lattices T(n) are the case m=1. I establish a bijection between maximum length chains in the m-Tamari lattices and standard m-shifted Young tableaux. Using Thrall’s formula, I thus derive the formula for the number of maximum length chains in T(n).

For each i greater or equal to -1 and for all n greater or equal to 1, I define C(i,n) to be the set of maximal chains of length n+i in T(n). I establish several properties of maximal chains (treated as tableaux) and identify a particularly special property: each maximal chain may or may not possess a plus-full-set. I show, surprisingly, that for all n greater or equal to 2i+4, each member of C(i,n) contains a plus-full-set. Utilizing this fact and a collection of maps, I obtain a recursion for the number of elements in C(i,n) and an explicit formula based on predetermined initial values. The formula is a polynomial in n of degree 3i+3. For example, the number of maximal chains of length n in T(n) is n choose 3.

I discuss current work and future plans involving certain equivalence classes of maximal chains in the Tamari lattices. If a maximal chain may be obtained from another by swapping a pair of consecutive edges with another pair in the Hasse diagram, the two maximal chains are said to differ by a square move. Two maximal chains are said to be in the same equivalence class if one may be obtained from the other by making a set of square moves.

In 1984, Sinnott used $p$-adic measures on $\mathbb{Z}_p$ to give a new proof of the Ferrero-Washington Theorem for abelian number fields by realizing $p$-adic $L$-functions as (essentially) the $Gamma$-transform of certain $p$-adic rational function measures. Shortly afterward, Gillard and Schneps independently adapted Sinnott's techniques to the case of $p$-adic $L$-functions associated to elliptic curves with complex multiplication (CM) by realizing these $p$-adic $L$-functions as $Gamma$-transforms of certain $p$-adic rational function measures. The results in the CM case give the vanishing of the Iwasawa $mu$-invariant for certain $mathbb{Z}_p$-extensions of imaginary quadratic fields constructed from torsion points of CM elliptic curves.

In this thesis, I develop the theory of $p$-adic measures on $mathbb{Z}_p^d$, with particular interest given to the case of $d>1$. Although I introduce these measures within the context of $p$-adic integration, this study includes a strong emphasis on the interpretation of $p$-adic measures as $p$-adic power series. With this dual perspective, I describe $p$-adic analytic operations as maps on power series; the most important of these operations is the multivariate $Gamma$-transform on $p$-adic measures.

This thesis gives new significance to product measures, and in particular to the use of product measures to construct measures on $mathbb{Z}_p^2$ from measures on $mathbb{Z}_p$. I introduce a subring of pseudo-polynomial measures on $mathbb{Z}_p^2$ which is closed under the standard operations on measures, including the $Gamma$-transform. I obtain results on the Iwasawa-invariants of such pseudo-polynomial measures, and use these results to deduce certain continuity results for the $Gamma$-transform. As an application, I establish the vanishing of the Iwasawa $mu$-invariant of Yager's two-variable $p$-adic $L$-function from measure theoretic considerations.