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Virginia Tech

Analytic Combinatorics Applied to RNA Structures

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

In recent years it has been shown that the folding pattern of an RNA molecule plays an important role in its function, likened to a lock and key system. γ-structures are a subset of RNA pseudoknot structures filtered by topological genus that lend themselves nicely to combinatorial analysis. Namely, the coefficients of their generating function can be approximated for large n. This paper is an investigation into the length-spectrum of the longest block in random γ-structures. We prove that the expected length of the longest block is on the order n - O(n^1/2). We further compare these results with a similar analysis of the length-spectrum of rainbows in RNA secondary structures, found in Li and Reidys (2018). It turns out that the expected length of the longest block for γ-structures is on the order the same as the expected length of rainbows in secondary structures.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Science
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Mathematics
Department dc:contributor.department
Mathematics
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2018

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Burris, Christina Suzann
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Reidys, Christian Michael
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Rossi, John F.
  • Orr, Daniel D.
  • Haskell, Peter E.

Subjects

dc:subject × 3

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
vt_gsexam:15510
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/83888

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Burris, Christina Suzann. Analytic Combinatorics Applied to RNA Structures. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/83888