A probabilistic approach to spectral analysis of growth-fragmentation equations

The growth-fragmentation equation describes a system of growing and dividing particles, and arises in models of cell division, protein polymerisation and even telecommunications protocols. Several important questions about the equation concern the asymptotic behaviour of solutions at large times: at what rate do they converge to zero or infinity, and what does the asymptotic profile of the solutions look like? Does the rescaled solution converge to its asymptotic profile at an exponential speed? These questions have traditionally been studied using analytic techniques such as entropy methods or splitting of operators. In this work, we present a probabilistic approach: we use a Feynman–Kac formula to relate the solution of the growth-fragmentation equation to the semigroup of a Markov process, and characterise the rate of decay or growth in terms of this process. We then identify the Malthus exponent and the asymptotic profile in terms of a related Markov process, and give a spectral interpretation in terms of the growth-fragmentation operator and its dual.     

Structuring Multi-attribute Value Hierarchies

The first stage in a multi-attribute value analysis is the development of a hierarchical structure of the attributes of the problem. This paper reports the process of developing such a structure for the problem of choosing a suitable mode of transport for radioactive waste. The initial hierarchy of attributes went through several stages of development as new insights emerged about the nature of the problem. Some of the reasons behind this restructuring are discussed, and several important questions about the structuring process are formulated.     

Ergodic theory and the Strong Law of Large Numbers on Riesz spaces

In [W.-C. Kuo, C.C.A. Labuschagne, B.A. Watson, Discrete-time stochastic processes on Riesz spaces, Indag. Math. (N.S.) 15 (3) (2004) 435-451], we introduced the concepts of conditional expectations, martingales and stopping times on Riesz spaces. Here we formulate and prove order theoretic analogues of the Birkhoff, Hopf and Wiener ergodic theorems and the Strong Law of Large Numbers on Riesz spaces (vector lattices).     

The solution of orthogonal Procrustes problems for a family of orthogonally invariant norms

The orthogonal Procrustes problem involves finding an orthogonal matrix which transforms one given matrix into another in the least-squares sense, and thus it requires the minimization of the Frobenius matrix norm. We consider, the solution of this problem for a family of orthogonally invariant norms which includes the Frobenius norm as a special case.     

A telescope illumination system for a wide-field endoscope

Endoscopic illumination systems conduct light down a built-in fibre-optic bundle to illuminate the object. Many modern endoscopes employ wide-field imaging optical systems and therefore require an illuminating beam of large divergence. This is commonly provided by placing a strong diverging lens at the far end of the fibre bundle, but it results in a poor uniformity of illumination in the object space. This paper describes the design of a telescopic illumination system to overcome this problem.     

Enhancement of mass spectrometric detection of LTC4, LTD4, and LTE4 by derivatization

Several acylating reagents are synthesized and used to introduce quatemary phosphonium or ammonium or ternary sulfonium functions into a simple model of a peptido leukotriene (PLT). One of these reagents was selected for further study with LTE₄, LTD₄, and LTC₄. We demonstrate that acylation of the free amine function of PLTs to produce the 5-triphenylphosphoniumvaleryl-amide (TPPV) derivatives enhances chemical stabilities and significantly increases responses in fast-atom bombardment and continuous-flow liquid secondary ion mass spectrometry (CF-LSIMS) relative to the native PLTs. With high-performance liquid chromatography inlet to CF-LSIMS, we demonstrate the facile detection in selected ion monitoring of the TPPV derivative of 3 pg of LTD₄.     

Weierstrass Points and Regular Maps

It was shown by G. A. Jones and the first author in [8] that underlying any map on a compact orientable surface S there is a natural complex structure making S into a Riemann surface. In this paper we consider regular maps and enquire about the Weierstrass points on the underlying Riemann surface. We are particularly interested to know when these are geometric, i.e. whether they lie at vertices, face-centres or edge-centres of the map.