Moreau-Yosida Regularization of State-Dependent Sweeping Processes with Nonregular Sets

The existence and the convergence (up to a subsequence) of the Moreau-Yosida regularization for the state-dependent sweeping process with nonregular (subsmooth and positively alpha-far) sets are established. Then, by a reparametrization technique, the existence of solutions for bounded variation continuous state-dependent sweeping processes with nonregular (subsmooth and positively alpha-far) sets is proved. An application to vector hysteresis is discussed, where it is shown that the Play operator with positively alpha-far sets is well defined for bounded variation continuous inputs.     

Volatile Organic Compounds Analysis in Breath Air in Healthy Volunteers and Patients Suffering Epidermoid Laryngeal Carcinomas

Exhaled breath contains thousands of gaseous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that may be used as non-invasive markers of head and neck epidermoid cancer. We hypothesized that solid phase micro-extraction coupled to gas chromatography–mass spectrometry can discriminate patients with epidermoid head and neck cancer from healthy controls by analyzing the gaseous volatile organic compounds, VOC-profile, in exhaled breath, thus identifying some non-invasive biomarkers to be used in early detection. Twenty healthy subjects participated in a cross-sectional study plus 11 patients with epidermoid supraglottic laryngeal cancer. VOCs from T3 supraglottic cancer were clustered distinctly from those of T1 and healthy subjects. Up to seven VOCs were detected differently from healthy volunteers, mainly 2-butanone and ethanol. Thus VOC-patterns of exhaled breath may discriminate patients with epidermoid head and neck cancer from healthy controls.     

Existence and Lyapunov Pairs for the Perturbed Sweeping Process Governed by a Fixed Set

Set-Valued and Variational Analysis - The aim of this paper is to prove existence results for a class of sweeping processes in Hilbert spaces by using the catching-up algorithm. These processes are...     

A Differential Equation Approach to Evolutionary Quasi-Variational Inequalities Arising in Contact Problems

Set-Valued and Variational Analysis - In this paper, we consider a class of evolutionary quasi-variational inequalities arising in the study of contact problems for viscoelastic materials. Based on...     

Lyapunov pairs for perturbed sweeping processes

We give a full characterization of nonsmooth Lyapunov pairs for perturbed sweeping processes under very general hypotheses. As a consequence, we provide an existence result and a criterion for weak invariance for perturbed sweeping processes. Moreover, we characterize Lyapunov pairs for gradient complementarity dynamical systems.     

Adsorption of argon on carbon nanotube bundles and its influence on the bundle lattice parameter

We report experimental studies of the adsorption characteristics and structure of both 36Ar and 40Ar on single-wall carbon nanotube bundles. The structural studies make use of the large difference in coherent neutron scattering cross section for the two Ar isotopes to explore the influence of the adsorbate on the nanotube lattice parameter. We observe no dilation of the nanotube lattice with 40Ar, and explain the apparent expansion of this lattice upon 36Ar adsorption by the location of the adsorbed Ar atoms on the outer bundle surface.     

Ant colony method to control variance reduction techniques in the Monte Carlo simulation of clinical electron linear accelerators of use in cancer therapy

The Monte Carlo simulation of clinical electron linear accelerators requires large computation times to achieve the level of uncertainty required for radiotherapy. In this context, variance reduction techniques play a fundamental role in the reduction of this computational time. Here we describe the use of the ant colony method to control the application of two variance reduction techniques: Splitting and Russian roulette. The approach can be applied to any accelerator in a straightforward way and permits the increasing of the efficiency of the simulation by a factor larger than 50.     

Determination of convex functions via subgradients of minimal norm

Mathematical Programming - We show, in Hilbert space setting, that any two convex proper lower semicontinuous functions bounded from below, for which the norm of their minimal subgradients...     

The number of critical elements of discrete Morse functions on non-compact surfaces

This paper is focused on looking for links between the topology of a connected and non-compact surface with finitely many ends and any proper discrete Morse function which can be defined on it. More precisely, we study the non-compact surfaces which admit a proper discrete Morse function with a given number of critical elements. In particular, given any of these surfaces, we obtain an optimal discrete Morse function on it, that is, with the minimum possible number of critical elements.     

Moreau–Yosida Regularization of Degenerate State-Dependent Sweeping Processes

Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications - In this paper, we introduce and study degenerate state-dependent sweeping processes with nonregular moving sets (subsmooth and positively $$\alpha...