Pulse and constant control schemes for epidemic models with seasonality

Control schemes for infectious disease models with time-varying contact rate are analyzed. First, time-constant control schemes are introduced and studied. Specifically, a constant treatment scheme for the infected is applied to a SIR model with time-varying contact rate, which is modelled by a switching parameter. Two variations of this model are considered: one with waning immunity and one with progressive immunity. Easily verifiable conditions on the basic reproduction number of the infectious disease are established which ensure disease eradication under these constant control strategies. Pulse control schemes for epidemic models with time-varying contact rates are also studied in detail. Both pulse vaccination and pulse treatment models are applied to a SIR model with time-varying contact rate. Further, a vaccine failure model as well as a model with a reduced infective class are considered with pulse control schemes. Again, easily verifiable conditions on the basic reproduction number are developed which guarantee disease eradication. Some simulations are given to illustrate the threshold theorems developed.     

Cornish-Fisher expansions using sample cumulants and monotonic transformations

General formulas of the asymptotic cumulants of a studentized parameter estimator are given up to the fourth order with the added higher-order asymptotic variance. Using the sample counterparts of the asymptotic cumulants, formulas for the Cornish-Fisher expansions with third-order accuracy are obtained. Some new methods of monotonic transformations of the studentized estimator are presented. In addition, similar transformations of a fixed normal deviate are proposed up to the same order with some asymptotic comparisons to the transformations of the studentized estimator. Applications to a mean and a binomial proportion are shown with simulations for estimation of the proportion.     

Translation Ovoids and Spreads of the Generalized Hexagon H(q)

Ovoids of the finite classical generalized hexagon H(q) that are translation with respect to a point are classified. By duality, translation spreads with respect to a line are classified when the characteristic is three. When the characteristic is not equal to three, it is shown that there are no ovoids that are translation with respect to a flag.     

A pair of stream functions for three-dimensional vortex flows

Introducing a vector potential, that is based on a pair of stream functions, and a velocity potential, antisymmetric equations for the stream functions are derived with the help of a variational principle. It is found that the equations are in a suitable form to investigate flows with helical symmetry, and, for example, to connect upstream axisymmetric flows with downstream helical flows. The special case of a transition from an upstream solid-body vortex to a downstream helical flow is investigated in detail. Furthermore, the stream-function equations are particularly useful to investigate general small-amplitude inertia waves on vortex flows. Time-dependent helical flows that are time-independent in a suitably rotating frame of reference can also be discussed with the proposed method.     

Nonlinear control of systems with multiple equilibria and unknown sinusoidal disturbance

In this paper, nonlinear systems having multiple equilibrium points and low order dynamics are investigated. Roll motions of ships are studied by means of modern nonlinear techniques to exemplify the behavior of such nonlinear systems in the case when they are under the influence of external sinusoidal disturbances with unknown amplitudes. The main objective is to analyze the performance of this system at different operating conditions, including those giving rise to chaos, and to design a controller with an overparameterized structure to stabilize the system at the origin. A nonlinear recursive backstepping controller is proposed and the transient performance is investigated. Lyapunov-based techniques are used to force systematic following of a reference model while introducing a nonlinear parameter estimator to guarantee adaptivity. Robustness problems as well as ways to tune the controller parameters are examined. Simulation results are submitted for the uncontrolled and controlled cases, verifying the effectiveness of the proposed controller. Finally, a discussion and conclusions are given with possible future extensions.     

Generalized fraction-free LU factorization for singular systems with kernel extraction

Linear systems are usually solved with Gaussian elimination. Especially when multiple right hand sides are involved, an efficient procedure is to provide a factorization of the left hand side. When exact computations are required in an integral domain, complete fraction-free factorization and forward–backward substitutions are useful. This article deals with the case where the left hand side may be singular. In such a case, kernels are required to test a solvability condition and to derive the general form of the solutions. The complete fraction-free algorithms are therefore extended to deal with singular systems and to provide the kernels with exact computations on the same integral domain where the initial data take their entries.     

A Unified theory of tokamaks and stellarators

Computational methods are described to study the equilibrium, stability, and transport of a fusion plasma confined by a magnetic field with toroidal geometry. Misconceptions in conventional theories of transport are analyzed and new results more consistent with experimental observations are presented. Specifications are given for an advanced stellarator designed to compete with tokamaks as a fusion reactor. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Allocation of dependent divisional resources

A resource allocation problem is considered with resources that are dependent in the sense that an allocation to an activity requires the application of several resources, except for certain activities which are divisional in the sense that an allocation to such an activity requires the use of only a single resource. Return and cost functions are assumed to be continuous and increasing, and the allocation variables are continuous. Conditions are given for the replacement of the continuous problem by an associated problem with discrete variables and a single constraint, and to a given degree of accuracy. The associated problem can be efficiently solved by dynamic programming. Certain divisional resource allocation problems with discrete variables and several linear constraints are shown to be equivalent to a discrete problem with a single constraint. A numerical example is given.     

An exact algorithm for a vehicle routing problem with time windows and multiple use of vehicles

The vehicle routing problem with multiple use of vehicles is a variant of the classical vehicle routing problem. It arises when each vehicle performs several routes during the workday due to strict time limits on route duration (e.g., when perishable goods are transported). The routes are defined over customers with a revenue, a demand and a time window. Given a fixed-size fleet of vehicles, it might not be possible to serve all customers. Thus, the customers must be chosen based on their associated revenue minus the traveling cost to reach them. We introduce a branch-and-price approach to address this problem where lower bounds are computed by solving the linear programming relaxation of a set packing formulation, using column generation. The pricing subproblems are elementary shortest path problems with resource constraints. Computational results are reported on euclidean problems derived from well-known benchmark instances for the vehicle routing problem with time windows.     

Finite turns and the regular closure of linear context-free languages

Turn bounded pushdown automata with different conditions for beginning a new turn are investigated. Their relationships with closures of the linear context-free languages under regular operations are studied. For example, automata with an unbounded number of turns that have to empty their pushdown store up to the initial symbol in order to start a new turn are characterized by the regular closure of the linear languages. Automata that additionally have to re-enter the initial state are (almost) characterized by the Kleene star closure of the linear languages. For both a bounded and an unbounded number of turns, requiring to empty the pushdown store is a strictly stronger condition than requiring to re-enter the initial state. Several new language families are obtained which form a double-stranded hierarchy. Closure properties of these families under AFL operations are derived. The regular closure of the linear languages share the strong closure properties of the context-free languages, i.e., the family is a full AFL. Interestingly, three natural new language families are not closed under intersection with regular languages and inverse homomorphism. Finally, an algorithm is presented parsing languages from the new families in quadratic time.     

Análise elastoplástica de estruturas aporticadas com superfícies de interação obtidas por regressão linear múltipla

The ultimate limit state criteria (yielding surfaces) applied to structural designs are easier in stress resultants. There are many difficulties to generating interaction surfaces with six sectional efforts obtained through to numerical or experimental models of a space-frame analysis. The approach, in the literature, to nonlinear analysis of structures with 3D beams is use of interaction surfaces with only three combined efforts in the cross-section. Therefore, a better understanding of load types, of interactions between the six efforts and of local and global stability of structure are necessary. The interaction surfaces with three efforts are presented in planes, quadrics, more complex, or a mixture of them shapes, so that techniques which use analytical formulations with combined efforts and several section shapes are more or less complex. Multiple linear regression allows to treat the resultant efforts of several analyses for obtaining a yielding surface with the combined efforts. In this paper, the formulation to obtaining of the surfaces and their applications in the analysis of elasto-plastic frame structures are presented.     

Dynamics and chaos control of gyrostat satellite

We consider the chaotic motion of the free gyrostat consisting of a platform with a triaxial inertia ellipsoid and a rotor with a small asymmetry with respect to the axis of rotation. Dimensionless equations of motion of the system with perturbations caused by small asymmetries of the rotor are written in Andoyer-Deprit variables. These perturbations lead to separatrix chaos. For gyrostats with different ratios of moments of inertia heteroclinic and homoclinic trajectories are written in closed-form. These trajectories are used for constructing modified Melnikov function, which is used for determine the control that eliminates separatrix chaos. Melnikov function and phase space trajectory are built to show the effectiveness of the control.     

Nonlinear free oscillations of a rotating solid body in a Newtonian force field

Nonlinear free oscillations of a rotating axisymmetrical solid body are considered with respect to the center of mass and with the body moving in a Newtonian force field. To construct periodic solutions of nonlinear differential equations of the motion, some algorithms, which are based on a modification of the extension method of solution with respect to a parameter, are used. The stability of nonlinear oscillations of the rotating solid body are studied with respect to stationary motions, some amplitude-frequency characteristics and forms of oscillations of the body are formulated for different values of its inertial parameters.Translated from Dinamicheskie Sistemy, No. 8, pp. 3–8, 1989.     

Radon-Nikodym theorems for set-valued measures

Set-valued measures whose values are subsets of a Banach space are studied. Some basic properties of these set-valued measures are given. Radon-Nikodym theorems for set-valued measures are established, which assert that under suitable assumptions a set-valued measure is equal (in closures) to the indefinite integral of a set-valued function with respect to a positive measure. Set-valued measures with compact convex values are particularly considered.     

Constellations with range and IS-categories

Constellations are asymmetric generalisations of categories. Although they are not required to possess a notion of range, many natural examples do. These include commonly occurring constellations related to concrete categories (since they model surjective morphisms), and also others arising from quite different sources, including from well-studied classes of semigroups. We show how constellations with a well-behaved range operation are nothing but ordered categories with restrictions. We characterise abstractly those categories that are canonical extensions of constellations with range, as so-called IS-categories. Such categories contain distinguished subcategories of insertions (which are monomorphisms) and surjections (in general different to the epimorphisms) such that each morphism admits a unique factorisation into a surjection followed by an insertion. Most familiar concrete categories are IS-categories, and we show how some of the well-known properties of these categories arise from the fact that they are IS-categories. For appropriate choices of morphisms in each, the category of IS-categories is shown to be equivalent to the category of constellations with range.     

Mixed convection boundary layer flow over a permeable vertical surface with prescribed wall heat flux

The effects of suction/injection on the laminar mixed convection boundary-layer flow on a vertical wall with a prescribed heat flux are considered. The conditions which allow the equations to be reduced to similarity form are derived and numerical solutions of the resulting equations are obtained for a range of values of the suction/injection and buoyancy parameters. Two specific cases, corresponding to a stagnation point flow and uniform wall heat flux, are treated in detail. Results are presented in terms of the skin friction and wall temperature with a selection of velocity and temperature profiles also being given. Dual solutions are found to exist for assisting flow, these are an addition to what has been reported previously for opposing flows. Solutions for some limiting values of the parameters are also derived.     

A metaheuristic for the min–max windy rural postman problem with K vehicles

In this paper we deal with the min–max version of the windy rural postman problem with K vehicles. For this problem, in which the objective is to minimize the length of the longest tour in order to find a set of balanced tours for the vehicles, we present here a metaheuristic that produces very good feasible solutions in reasonable computing times. It is based on the combination of a multi-start procedure with an Iterated Local Search. Extensive computational results on a large set of instances with up to 50 vertices, 184 edges and 5 vehicles are presented. The results are very good, the average gaps with respect to a known lower bound are less than 0.40% for instances with 2 or 3 vehicles and up to 1.60% when 4 or 5 vehicles are considered.     

Integer programming methods for normalisation and variable selection in mathematical programming discriminant analysis models

Mathematical programming discriminant analysis models must be normalised to prevent the generation of discriminant functions in which the variable coefficients and the constant term are zero. This normalisation requirement can cause difficulties, and unlike statistical discriminant analysis, variables cannot be selected in a computationally efficient way with mathematical programming discriminant analysis models. Two new integer programming normalisations are proposed in this paper. In the first, binary variables are used to represent the constant term, but with this normalisation functions with a zero constant term cannot be generated and the variable coefficients are not invariant under origin shifts. These limitations are overcome by using integer programming methods to constrain the sum of the absolute values of the variable coefficients to a constant. These new normalisations are extended to allow variable selection with mathematical programming discriminant analysis models. The use of these new applications of integer programming is illustrated using published data.     

Influence of initial stresses on fracture of composite materials containing interacting cracks

Considered in this study are the axially-symmetric problems of fracture of composite materials with interacting cracks, which are subjected to initial (residual) stresses acting along the cracks planes. An analytical approach within the framework of three-dimensional linearized mechanics of solids is used. Two geometric schemes of cracks location are studied: a circular crack is located parallel to the surface of a semi-infinite composite with initial stresses, and two parallel co-axial penny-shaped cracks are contained in an infinite composite material with initial stresses. The cracks are assumed to be under a normal or a radial shear load. Analysis involves reducing the problems to systems of second-kind Fredholm integral equations, where the solutions are identified with harmonic potential functions. Representations of the stress intensity factors near the cracks edges are obtained. These stress intensity factors are influenced by the initial stresses. The presence of the free boundary and the interaction between cracks has a significant effect on the stress intensity factors as well. The parameters of fracture for two types of composites (a laminar composite made of aluminum/boron/silicate glass with epoxy-maleic resin and a carbon/plastic composite with stochastic reinforcement by short ellipsoidal carbon fibers) are analyzed numerically. The dependence of the stress intensity factors on the initial stresses, physical-mechanical parameters of the composites, and the geometric parameters of the problem are investigated.