Coupled intervals in the discrete calculus of variations: necessity and sufficiency

In this work we study nonnegativity and positivity of a discrete quadratic functional with separately varying endpoints. We introduce a notion of an interval coupled with 0, and hence, extend the notion of conjugate interval to 0 from the case of fixed to variable endpoint(s). We show that the nonnegativity of the discrete quadratic functional is equivalent to each of the following conditions: The nonexistence of intervals coupled with 0, the existence of a solution to Riccati matrix equation and its boundary conditions. Natural strengthening of each of these conditions yields a characterization of the positivity of the discrete quadratic functional. Since the quadratic functional under consideration could be a second variation of a discrete calculus of variations problem with varying endpoints, we apply our results to obtain necessary and sufficient optimality conditions for such problems. This paper generalizes our recent work in [R. Hilscher, V. Zeidan, Comput. Math. Appl., to appear], where the right endpoint is fixed.     

Metastability in the Potts model on the Cayley tree

Metastability in the ferromagneticp-state Potts model defined on the Cayley tree is discussed. It is shown that the sign of the boundary fieldH _s determines the order of the transition as well as the stability of the low-temperature phase. Lowering the temperature withH _s >0, a system withp<2 (p>2) will display a second (first)-order transition to a metastable (stable) phase. ForH _s >0 a second (first)-order transition to a metastable (stable) phase occurs ifp>2 (p<2). In this case the system also has a residual entropy which is negative forp<2.     

A Modified Quasi-Newton Method for Structured Optimization with Partial Information on the Hessian

This paper develops a modified quasi-Newton method for structured unconstrained optimization with partial information on the Hessian, based on a better approximation to the Hessian in current search direction. The new approximation is decided by both function values and gradients at the last two iterations unlike the original one which only uses the gradients at the last two iterations. The modified method owns local and superlinear convergence. Numerical experiments show that the proposed method is encouraging comparing with the methods proposed in [4] for structured unconstrained optimization Presented at the 6th International Conference on Optimization: Techniques and Applications, Ballarat, Australia, December 9–11, 2004     

Numerical solution of the three‐dimensional parabolic equation with an integral condition

Developement of numerical methods for obtaining approximate solutions to the three dimensional diffusion equation with an integral condition will be carried out. The numerical techniques discussed are based on the fully explicit (1,7) finite difference technique and the fully implicit (7,1) finite difference method and the (7,7) Crank‐Nicolson type finite difference formula. The new developed methods are tested on a problem. Truncation error analysis and numerical examples are used to illustrate the accuracy of the new algorithms. The results of numerical testing show that the numerical methods based on the finite difference techniques discussed in the present article produce good results. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 18: 193–202, 2002; DOI 10.1002/num.1040     

一致Banach空间中非扩张映象的弱收敛定理

设犈是一致凸Ｂａｎａｃｈ空间，满足Ｏｐｉａｌ条件或具有Ｆｒｅｃｈｅｔ可微范数，犆是犈的非空闭凸子集，且犜：犆→犆是非扩张映象．又设对任何初始数据狓１ ∈犆，序列｛狓狀｝由下列修改了的Ｉｓｈｉｋａｗａ迭代程序生成：狓狀＋１ ＝狋狀犜狀（狊狀犜狀狓狀＋ （１－狊狀）狓狀）＋ （１－狋狀）狓狀，　狀≥１， （Ｉ）其中，数列｛狋狀｝与｛狊狀｝满足下列条件（ｉ）和（ｉｉ）之一：（ｉ）狋狀∈ ［犪，犫］且狊狀∈ ［０，犫］；（ｉｉ）狋狀∈ ［犪，１］且狊狀∈ ［犪，犫］，这里，常数犪，犫满足０＜犪≤犫＜１．作者证明了，犜有不动点的充要条件是，｛狓狀｝ 弱收敛且｛‖狓狀－犜狓狀‖｝收敛到０．而且，由此即知，若犜有不动点，则｛狓狀｝弱收敛到犜的一个不动点．     

Equilibrium Problems with Applications to Eigenvalue Problems

In this paper, we consider equilibrium problems and introduce the concept of (S)₊ condition for bifunctions. Existence results for equilibrium problems with the (S)₊ condition are derived. As special cases, we obtain several existence results for the generalized nonlinear variational inequality studied by Ding and Tarafdar (Ref. 1) and the generalized variational inequality studied by Cubiotti and Yao (Ref. 2). Finally, applications to a class of eigenvalue problems are given.     

Regularization of Discrete Ill-Posed Problems

The paper concerns conditioning aspects of finite-dimensional problems arising when the Tikhonov regularization is applied to discrete ill-posed problems. A relation between the regularization parameter and the sensitivity of the regularized solution is investigated. The main conclusion is that the condition number can be decreased only to the square root of that for the nonregularized problem. The convergence of solutions of regularized discrete problems to the exact generalized solution is analyzed just in the case when the regularization corresponds to the minimal condition number. The convergence theorem is proved under the assumption of the suitable relation between the discretization level and the data error. As an example the method of truncated singular value decomposition with regularization is considered. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

马歇尔-勒纳条件的实证研究

本文从人民币实际汇率变动是否会对我国贸易收支产生影响出发，基于马歇尔．勒纳条件，对计算贸易弹性常用的OLS回归模型进行了改进，建立了向量自回归误差修正模型来估算我国的国际贸易弹性。实证研究表明：我国进出口需求的价格弹性之和大于1。因此人民币贬值可改善贸易收支；反之升值将使贸易收支恶化。     

A Triangle Inequality for Measurement

We introduce the triangle inequality for measurement. This is a property that when satisfied by a measurement enables one to construct a metric on the set of elements with measure zero that yields the relative Scott topology. The naturality of this construction permits a categorical solution to the model problem in domain theory for locally compact metric spaces. The first time such a solution has been achieved.     

Substructuring preconditioners for saddle-point problems arising from Maxwell's equations in three dimensions

This paper is concerned with the saddle-point problems arising from edge element discretizations of Maxwell's equations in a general three dimensional nonconvex polyhedral domain. A new augmented technique is first introduced to transform the problems into equivalent augmented saddle-point systems so that they can be solved by some existing preconditioned iterative methods. Then some substructuring preconditioners are proposed, with very simple coarse solvers, for the augmented saddle-point systems. With the preconditioners, the condition numbers of the preconditioned systems are nearly optimal; namely, they grow only as the logarithm of the ratio between the subdomain diameter and the finite element mesh size.