On recent developments in the theory of abstract differential equations with fractional derivatives

This note is motivated from some recent papers treating the problem of the existence of a solution for abstract differential equations with fractional derivatives. We show that the existence results in [Agarwal et al. (2009) [1], Belmekki and Benchohra (2010) [2], Darwish et al. (2009) [3], Hu et al. (2009) [4], Mophou and N’Guérékata (2009) [6] and [7], Mophou (2010) [8] and [9], Muslim (2009) [10], Pandey et al. (2009) [11], Rashid and El-Qaderi (2009) [12] and Tai and Wang (2009) [13]] are incorrect since the considered variation of constant formulas is not appropriate. In this note, we also consider a different approach to treat a general class of abstract fractional differential equations.     

Multilevel Monte Carlo simulation for Lévy processes based on the Wiener–Hopf factorisation

In Kuznetsov et al. (2011) a new Monte Carlo simulation technique was introduced for a large family of Lévy processes that is based on the Wiener–Hopf decomposition. We pursue this idea further by combining their technique with the recently introduced multilevel Monte Carlo methodology. Moreover, we provide here for the first time a theoretical analysis of the new Monte Carlo simulation technique in Kuznetsov et al. (2011) and of its multilevel variant for computing expectations of functions depending on the historical trajectory of a Lévy process. We derive rates of convergence for both methods and show that they are uniform with respect to the “jump activity” (e.g. characterised by the Blumenthal–Getoor index). We also present a modified version of the algorithm in Kuznetsov et al. (2011) which combined with the multilevel methodology obtains the optimal rate of convergence for general Lévy processes and Lipschitz functionals. This final result is only a theoretical one at present, since it requires independent sampling from a triple of distributions which is currently only possible for a limited number of processes.     

On the visibility in well-behaved random sets in Euclidean space

In Calka et al. (2009), the decay of the probability of reaching distance at least r in some direction from a given point without hitting any ball, in the Poisson Boolean model of continuum percolation, was studied. The methods used in Calka et al. (2009) include coverage techniques, and the most precise results were obtained in dimension 2. In this note, we strengthen some of the results obtained in Calka et al. (2009) to dimension 3 and higher and at the same time extend them to more general random sets.     

When the heart of a faithful torsion pair is a module category

An abelian category with arbitrary coproducts and a small projective generator is equivalent to a module category (Mitchell (1964) [17]). A tilting object in an abelian category is a natural generalization of a small projective generator. Moreover, any abelian category with a tilting object admits arbitrary coproducts (Colpi et al. (2007) [8]). It naturally arises the question when an abelian category with a tilting object is equivalent to a module category. By Colpi et al. (2007) [8], the problem simplifies in understanding when, given an associative ring R and a faithful torsion pair (X,Y) in the category of right R-modules, the heartH(X,Y)of the t-structure associated with (X,Y) is equivalent to a category of modules. In this paper, we give a complete answer to this question, proving necessary and sufficient conditions on (X,Y) for H(X,Y) to be equivalent to a module category. We analyze in detail the case when R is right artinian.     

Optimal insurance under rank-dependent expected utility

We re-visit the problem of optimal insurance design under Rank-Dependent Expected Utility (RDEU) examined by Bernard et al. (2015), Xu (2018), and Xu et al. (2018). Unlike the latter, we do not impose the no-sabotage condition on admissible indemnities, that is, that indemnity and retention functions be nondecreasing functions of the loss. Rather, in a departure from the aforementioned work, we impose a state-verification cost that the insurer can incur in order to verify the loss severity, hence automatically ruling out any ex post moral hazard that could otherwise arise from possible misreporting of the loss by the insured. We fully characterize the optimal indemnity schedule and discuss how our results relate to those of Bernard et al. (2015) and Xu et al. (2018). We then extend the setting by allowing for a distortion premium principle, with a distortion function that differs from that of the insured, and we provide a characterization of the optimal retention in that case.     

Note on “Heuristics with guaranteed performance bounds for a manufacturing system with product recovery”

We test the lower bound for a static remanufacturing system with returns proposed by Feng and Viswanathan (2014) against two heuristics proposed by Choi et al. (2007) and Schulz and Voigt (2014). A numerical study with 81,000 instances concludes that the lower bound always holds for the Choi et al. (2007) heuristic, but does not hold for 45 percent of all tested instances compared to the Schulz and Voigt (2014) heuristic. In these 45 percent, the average deviation from the lower bound is 4 percent with a maximum deviation of 14.9 percent. The main difference between the two analyzed heuristics is that the Choi et al. heuristic applies equally sized manufacturing and remanufacturing batches (which is also assumed to hold in the proposed lower bound), while Schulz and Voigt present a heuristic in which the respective remanufacturing batch sizes may vary. In contrast to Feng and Viswanathan (2014), we conclude that management should be cautious to use too simple policy structures when obtaining a solution for a static remanufacturing system with product returns.     

On strong convergence in real Banach spaces obtained by dropping the Lipshitz condition

We consider an implicit iterative process for two finite families of mappings in a real Banach space and prove strong convergence results without using the Lipschitz condition on mappings. Our results mainly improve and extend the recent results of Chang et al. (2001, 2009, 2007) [1], [2], [3], Cho et al. (2005) [4], Gu (2008) [14], Ofoedu (2006) [9], Schu (1991) [13], Zeng (2003, 2005) [20], [21], and Qin et al. (2008) [11], [12].     

Linearly perturbed polyhedral normal cone mappings and applications

Under a mild regularity assumption, we derive an exact formula for the Fréchet coderivative and some estimates for the Mordukhovich coderivative of the normal cone mappings of perturbed polyhedra in reflexive Banach spaces. Our focus point is a positive linear independence condition, which is a relaxed form of the linear independence condition employed recently by Henrion et al. (2010) [1], and Nam (2010) [3]. The formulae obtained allow us to get new results on solution stability of affine variational inequalities under linear perturbations. Thus, our paper develops some aspects of the work of Henrion et al. (2010) [1] Nam (2010) [3] Qui (in press) [12] and Yao and Yen (2009) [6] and [7].     

A note on Jordan type inequalities for hyperbolic functions

In this work the authors present some new lower and upper bounds for the functions sinx/x and x/sinhx, thus improving some inequalities put forward by Klén et al. (2010) in the paper [2].     

The monotonic property and stability of solutions of fractional differential equations

In this paper we improve on the monotone property of Lemma 1.7.3 in Lakshmikantham et al. (2009) [5] for the case g(t,u)=λu with a nonnegative real number λ. We also investigate the Mittag-Leffler stability of solutions of fractional differential equations by using the fractional comparison principle.     

The nonlinear boundary layer to the Boltzmann equation for cutoff soft potential with physical boundary condition

We consider the nonlinear boundary layer to the Boltzmann equation for cutoff soft potential with physical boundary condition, i.e., the Dirichlet boundary condition with weak diffuse effect. Under the assumption that the distribution function of gas particles tends to a global Maxwellian in the far field, we will show the boundary layer exist if the boundary data satisfy the solvability condition. Moreover, the codimensions of the boundary data which satisfies the solvability condition change with the Mach number of the far field Maxwellian like Chen et al. (2004) [5], Ukai et al. (2003) [6] and Wang et al. (2007) [7].     

A multiwave approximate Riemann solver for ideal MHD based on relaxation II: numerical implementation with 3 and 5 waves

In the first part of this work Bouchut et al. (J Comput Phys 108:7–41, 2007) we introduced an approximate Riemann solver for one-dimensional ideal MHD derived from a relaxation system. We gave sufficient conditions for the solver to satisfy discrete entropy inequalities, and to preserve positivity of density and internal energy. In this paper we consider the practical implementation, and derive explicit wave speed estimates satisfying the stability conditions of Bouchut et al. (J Comput Phys 108:7–41, 2007). We present a 3-wave solver that well resolves fast waves and material contacts, and a 5-wave solver that accurately resolves the cases when two eigenvalues coincide. A full 7-wave solver, which is highly accurate on all types of waves, will be described in a follow-up paper. We test the solvers on one-dimensional shock tube data and smooth shear waves.     

Detecting fuzzy relationships in regression models: The case of insurer solvency surveillance in Germany

We develop a test for the fuzziness of regression coefficients based on the Tanaka et al. (1982) and He et al. (2007) possibilistic fuzzy regression models. We interpret the spread of the regression coefficients as a statistic measuring the fuzziness of the relationship between the corresponding independent variable and the dependent variable. We derive test distributions based on the null hypothesis that such spreads could have been obtained by estimating a possibilistic regression with data generated by a classical regression model with random errors. As an example, we show how our test detects a fuzzy regression coefficient in a solvency prediction model for German property-liability insurance companies.     

Inexact Newton-type methods

We introduce the new idea of recurrent functions to provide a semilocal convergence analysis for an inexact Newton-type method, using outer inverses. It turns out that our sufficient convergence conditions are weaker than in earlier studies in many interesting cases (Argyros, 2004 [5] and [6], Argyros, 2007 [7], Dennis, 1971 [14], Deuflhard and Heindl, 1979 [15], Gutiérrez, 1997 [16], Gutiérrez et al., 1995 [17], Häubler, 1986 [18], Huang, 1993 [19], Kantorovich and Akilov, 1982 [20], Nashed and Chen, 1993 [21], Potra, 1982 [22], Potra, 1985 [23]).     

From pricing to prophets,and back!

In this work we prove that designing PPMs is equivalent to finding stopping rules for prophets. This extends the connection that any prophet type inequality can be turned into a PPM with the same approximation guarantee (Hajiaghayi et al. 2007; Chawla et al. 2010). Our reduction is robust under multiple settings including matroid feasibility constraints, or different arrival orderings. One fundamental observation implied by this result is that designing PPMs in general is equally hard from an approximation perspective to designing PPMs when the valuations are regular.     

On Taylor-series expansion methods for the second kind integral equations

In this paper, we comment on the recent papers by Yuhe Ren et al. (1999) [1] and Maleknejad et al. (2006) [7] concerning the use of the Taylor series to approximate a solution of the Fredholm integral equation of the second kind as well as a solution of a system of Fredholm equations. The technique presented in Yuhe Ren et al. (1999) [1] takes advantage of a rapidly decaying convolution kernel k(|s−t|) as |s−t| increases. However, it does not apply to equations having other types of kernels. We present in this paper a more general Taylor expansion method which can be applied to approximate a solution of the Fredholm equation having a smooth kernel. Also, it is shown that when the new method is applied to the Fredholm equation with a rapidly decaying kernel, it provides more accurate results than the method in Yuhe Ren et al. (1999) [1]. We also discuss an application of the new Taylor-series method to a system of Fredholm integral equations of the second kind.     

Combinatorial bounds on Hilbert functions of fat points in projective space

We study Hilbert functions of certain non-reduced schemes A supported at finite sets of points in , in particular, fat point schemes. We give combinatorially defined upper and lower bounds for the Hilbert function of A using nothing more than the multiplicities of the points and information about which subsets of the points are linearly dependent. When N=2, we give these bounds explicitly and we give a sufficient criterion for the upper and lower bounds to be equal. When this criterion is satisfied, we give both a simple formula for the Hilbert function and combinatorially defined upper and lower bounds on the graded Betti numbers for the ideal I_A defining A, generalizing results of Geramita et al. (2006) [16]. We obtain the exact Hilbert functions and graded Betti numbers for many families of examples, interesting combinatorially, geometrically, and algebraically. Our method works in any characteristic.     

The wavelet transform method applied to a coupled chaotic system with asymmetric coupling schemes

The wavelet transform method originated by Wei et al. (2002) [19] is an effective tool for enhancing the transverse stability of the synchronous manifold of a coupled chaotic system. Much of the theoretical study on this matter is centered on networks that are symmetrically coupled. However, in real applications, the coupling topology of a network is often asymmetric; see Belykh et al. (2006)  [23], [24], Chavez et al. (2005)  [25], Hwang et al. (2005)  [26], Juang et al. (2007)  [17], and Wu (2003)  [13]. In this work, a certain type of asymmetric sparse connection topology for networks of coupled chaotic systems is presented. Moreover, our work here represents the first step in understanding how to actually control the stability of global synchronization from dynamical chaos for asymmetrically connected networks of coupled chaotic systems via the wavelet transform method. In particular, we obtain the following results. First, it is shown that the lower bound for achieving synchrony of the coupled chaotic system with the wavelet transform method is independent of the number of nodes. Second, we demonstrate that the wavelet transform method as applied to networks of coupled chaotic systems is even more effective and controllable for asymmetric coupling schemes as compared to the symmetric cases.