Computer simulation of linkage of two ring chains

We performed off-lattice Monte Carlo simulations of links of two model ring chains with chain length N up to 32,768 in the theta solution or amorphous bulk state by using a random walk model (Model I), and molecular dynamics simulations of two model ring chains in solution with excluded volume interaction (Model II) to investigate topological effects on the geometry of link and ring conformation. In the case of Model I, the mean squared linking number, its distribution, and the size of two chains with fixed linking number are investigated. Our simulation results confirm the previous theoretical prediction that the mean squared linking number decays as pe(-qs(2)) with the distance of centers of chain mass s, where p and q are found to be chain length dependent and q asymptotically approaches to 0.75 as chain length increases. The linking number distribution of two chains has a universal form for long chains, but our simulation results clearly show that the distribution function deviates from the Gaussian distribution, a fact not predicted by any previous theoretical work. A scaling prediction is proposed to predict the link size, and is checked for our simulations for the Model II. The simulation results confirmed the scaling prediction of the blob picture that the link with linking number m occupies a compact volume of m blobs, and the size of the link is asymptotic to R(L) ≈ bN(ν)m(1/3-ν), where N is the chain length, and v is the Flory exponent of polymer in solutions.     

Superconvergence of a full‐discrete combined mixed finite element and discontinuous Galerkin method for a compressible miscible displacement problem

An efficient time‐stepping procedure is investigated for a two‐dimensional compressible miscible displacement problem in porous media in which the mixed finite element method with Raviart‐Thomas space is applied to the flow equation, and the transport one is solved by the symmetric interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin approximation on Cartesian meshes. Based on the projection interpolations and the induction hypotheses, a superconvergence error estimate is obtained. During the analysis, an extension of the Darcy velocity along the Gauss line is also used in the evaluation of the coefficients in the Galerkin procedure for the concentration. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2013     

An iterative numerical algorithm for modeling a class of Wiener nonlinear systems

This letter presents an iterative estimation algorithm for modeling a class of output nonlinear systems. The basic idea is to derive an estimation model and to solve an optimization problem using the gradient search. The proposed iterative numerical algorithm can estimate the parameters of a class of Wiener nonlinear systems from input–output measurement data. The proposed algorithm has faster convergence rates compared with the stochastic gradient algorithm. The numerical simulation results indicate that the proposed algorithm works well.     

Cooperative advertising in a distribution channel with fairness concerns

Cooperative (co-op) advertising has been widely used in practice and employed as a strategy to improve the performance of a distribution channel. It is known from the existing models that co-op advertising could not achieve the channel coordination (i.e., maximize the total channel profit). In this paper, we consider a distribution channel consisting of a single manufacturer and a single retailer, and investigate the effect of the retailer’s fairness concerns. Applying the equilibrium analysis, we obtain the following results: (1) Channel coordination can be achieved if the retailer has fairness concerns and model parameters satisfy certain conditions. (2) Although both channel members become better off with co-op advertising if neither channel member has fairness concerns, we find situations where co-op advertising brings detrimental effects to the retailer if the retailer has fairness concerns. (3) The retailer’s fairness concerns may increase or decrease the equilibrium participation rate, the equilibrium advertising effort, and the equilibrium profit of the manufacturer and the whole channel. (4) We identify the conditions under which the effectiveness of co-op advertising can be improved or reduced by the retailer’s fairness concerns. As long as co-op advertising can bring extra profit to the manufacturer, the retailer’s fairness concerns could improve the effectiveness of the co-op advertising. (5) There exists a Pareto improvement for the profits of both the manufacturer and the retailer when a retailer without fairness concerns becomes fair-minded.     

海森堡群上半空间内最佳Hardy不等式

证明了一类海森堡群上半空间内与次拉普拉斯算子相关的最佳Hardy不等式.作为应用,我们得到了相应的最佳Rellich型不等式.     

A worst-case analysis for the split delivery vehicle routing problem with minimum delivery amounts

In the vehicle routing problem (VRP), a fleet of vehicles must service the demands of customers in a least-cost way. In the split delivery vehicle routing problem (SDVRP), multiple vehicles can service the same customer by splitting the deliveries. By allowing split deliveries, savings in travel costs of up to 50 % are possible, and this bound is tight. Recently, a variant of the SDVRP, the split delivery vehicle routing problem with minimum delivery amounts (SDVRP-MDA), has been introduced. In the SDVRP-MDA, split deliveries are allowed only if at least a minimum fraction of a customer’s demand is delivered by each visiting vehicle. We perform a worst-case analysis on the SDVRP-MDA to determine tight bounds on the maximum possible savings.     

Lytic cycle: A defining process in oncolytic virotherapy

The viral lytic cycle is an important process in oncolytic virotherapy. Most mathematical models for oncolytic virotherapy do not incorporate this process. In this article, we propose a mathematical model with the viral lytic cycle based on the basic mathematical model for oncolytic virotherapy. The viral lytic cycle is characterized by two parameters, the time period of the viral lytic cycle and the viral burst size. The time period of the viral lytic cycle is modeled as a delay parameter. The model is a nonlinear system of delay differential equations. The model reveals a striking feature that the critical value of the period of the viral lytic cycle is determined by the viral burst size. There are two threshold values for the burst size. Below the first threshold, the system has an unstable trivial equilibrium and a globally stable virus free equilibrium for any nonnegative delay, while the system has a third positive equilibrium when the burst size is greater than the first threshold. When the burst size is above the second threshold, there is a functional relation between the bifurcation value of the delay parameter for the period of the viral lytic cycle and the burst size. If the burst size is greater than the second threshold, the positive equilibrium is stable when the period of the viral lytic cycle is smaller than the bifurcation value, while the system has orbitally stable periodic solutions when the period of the lytic cycle is longer than the bifurcation value. However, this bifurcation value becomes smaller when the burst size becomes bigger. The viral lytic cycle may explain the oscillation phenomena observed in many studies. An important clinic implication is that the burst size should be carefully modified according to its effect on the lytic cycle when a type of a virus is modified for virotherapy, so that the period of the viral lytic cycle is in a suitable range which can break away the stability of the positive equilibria or periodic solutions.     

A memory-efficient model order reduction for time-delay systems

Michiels et al. (SIAM J. Matrix Anal. Appl. 32(4):1399–1421, 2011) proposed a Krylov-based model order reduction (MOR) method for time-delay systems. In this paper, we present an efficient process, which requires less memory consumption, to accomplish the model reduction. Memory efficiency is achieved by replacing the classical Arnoldi process in the MOR method with a two-level orthogonalization Arnoldi (TOAR) process. The resulting memory requirement is reduced from quadratic dependency of the reduced order to linear dependency. Besides, this TOAR process can also be applied to reduce the original delay system into a reduced-order delay system. Numerical experiments are given to illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of our method.     

Sharp constants in weighted trace inequalities on Riemannian manifolds

In this paper, we establish some sharp weighted trace inequalities ${W^{1,2}(\rho^{1-2 \sigma}, M) \hookrightarrow L^{\frac{2n}{n-2 \sigma}}(\partial M)}$ on n + 1 dimensional compact smooth manifolds with smooth boundaries, where ρ is a defining function of M and ${\sigma \in (0,1)}$ . This is stimulated by some recent work on fractional (conformal) Laplacians and related problems in conformal geometry, and also motivated by a conjecture of Aubin.