Generalizations of the concept of marginal synchronization of chaos

Generalizations of the concept of marginal synchronization between chaotic systems, i.e. synchronization with zero largest conditional Lyapunov exponent, are considered. Generalized marginal synchronization in drive–response systems is defined, for which the function between points of attractors of different systems is given up to a constant. Auxiliary system approach is shown to be able to detect this synchronization. Marginal synchronization in mutually coupled systems which can be viewed as drive–response systems with the response system influencing the drive system dynamics is also considered, and an example from solid-state physics is analyzed. Stability of these kinds of synchronization against changes of system parameters and noise is investigated. In drive–response systems generalized marginal synchronization is shown to be rather sensitive to the changes of parameters and may disappear either due to the loss of stability of the response system, or as a result of the blowout bifurcation. Nonlinear coupling of the drive system to the response system can stabilize marginal synchronization.     

Convergence of densities of some functionals of Gaussian processes

The aim of this paper is to establish the uniform convergence of the densities of a sequence of random variables, which are functionals of an underlying Gaussian process, to a normal density. Precise estimates for the uniform distance are derived by using the techniques of Malliavin calculus, combined with Stein?s method for normal approximation. We need to assume some non-degeneracy conditions. First, the study is focused on random variables in a fixed Wiener chaos, and later, the results are extended to the uniform convergence of the derivatives of the densities and to the case of random vectors in some fixed chaos, which are uniformly non-degenerate in the sense of Malliavin calculus. Explicit upper bounds for the uniform norm are obtained for random variables in the second Wiener chaos, and an application to the convergence of densities of the least square estimator for the drift parameter in Ornstein–Uhlenbeck processes is discussed.     

Location of courts of justice: The making of the new judiciary map of Portugal

Location modeling techniques have been applied to an extremely wide variety of public facilities. However, their application to one of the most ubiquitous public facilities – courts of justice – has been very rare. In this paper, we describe a study promoted by the Ministry of Justice of Portugal to define a proposal for the country's new judiciary map – that is, the spatial organization of the judicial system. The new map aims to promote the efficiency and specialization of the justice system (leading to better and faster court decisions) and to provide a good level of accessibility to courts. We developed two optimization models addressing those goals – a districting model, to determine the borders of new, large judicial districts; and a court location model, to determine the location, type, size, and coverage area of the courts included in each new district. Both models are discrete facility location models and consider hierarchical facilities – generic courts and specialized courts of multiple types. Our study was publicly acknowledged by the Portuguese government as having contributed to the new judiciary map that has since been approved and implemented.     

大学生职业生涯发展的决定因素的相关研究

本文利用探索性因素分析方法提出了一个可以用作为甄别大学生涯发展的决定因素的诊断工具,以期帮助职业生涯咨询、指导人员对个体的有关职业生涯态度、职业生涯倾向性有一个基本的了解;同时利用这个工具可以提高个体对职业生涯的认知水平,帮助个体更好地进行职业生涯规划。     

Preservation of the existence of fixed and coincidence points under homotopy of mappings of ordered sets

In problems of topology and analysis, well-known theorem on the preservation by any continuous homotopy of the property of a mapping to have a fixed point and the property of a pair of mappings to have a coincidence point are extensively applied. Thus, for contraction mappings and some of their generalizations, Frigon’s results on the preservation of the property to have a fixed point by a homotopy of a special type are known. This paper presents theorems on the preservation by order homotopy of the property of a pair of mappings to have a coincidence point. As a corollary, conditions under which such a homotopy preserves the property of a mapping to have a fixed point are obtained.     

Approximate methods of solution of problems of mechanics application of B-splines to bending of rectangular panels

A method is proposed to analytical solution of boundary-value problems for fourth-order differential equations describing the bending of rectangular panels of variable stiffness. Fifth-order B-splines are used to satisfy the rigid clamping boundary conditions.Translated from Vychislitel'naya i Prikladnaya Matematika, No. 66, pp. 47–51, 1988.     

Student achievement effects of technology-supported remediation of understanding of fractions

Students have difficulty learning fractions, and problems in understanding fractions persist into adulthood, with moderate to severe consequences for everyday and occupational decision-making. Remediation of student misconceptions is hampered by deficiencies in teachers’ knowledge of the discipline and pedagogical content knowledge. We theorized that a technology resource could provide the sequencing and scaffolding that teachers might have difficulty providing. Five sets of learning objects, called CLIPS (Critical Learning Instructional Paths Supports), were developed to provide remediation on fraction concepts. In this article, we describe one stage in a research program to develop, implement and evaluate CLIPS. Two studies were conducted. In Study 1, 14 grade 7–10 classrooms were randomly assigned, within schools, to early and late treatment conditions. A pre-post, delayed treatment design found that CLIPS had no effect on achievement for the Early Treatment group due to unforeseen implementation problems. These hardware and software issues were mitigated in the late treatment in which CLIPS contributed to student achievement (Cohen's d = 0.30). Study 2 was a pre-post, single group replication involving 18 grade 7 classrooms. The independent variable was the number of CLIPS completed. Completion of all five CLIPS contributed to higher student achievement: Cohen's d = 0.53, compared to students who completed none (d = 0.00) or 1–4 CLIPS (d = 0.02). The two studies indicate that a research-based set of learning objects is effective when the full program is implemented. Incomplete sequences deprive students of instruction in one or more constructs linked to other key ideas in the conceptual map and reduce the amount of practice required to remediate student misconceptions.     

Structure of genera of representations of nonsemisimple rings

The investigation of integral representations of arbitrary rings is shown to be equivalent to the case of orders in semisimple algebras. An example is constructed showing that, for an order in a nonsemisimple algebra, the number of representations in the genus may increase without limit with varying genera.Translated from Matematicheskie Zametki, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 63–87, July, 1971.     

Optimality and robustness of combinations of moving averages

A combination of moving averages has been shown previously to be more accurate than simple moving averages, under certain conditions, and to be more robust to non-optimal parameter specification. However, the use of the method depends on specification of three parameters: length of greater moving average, length of shorter moving average, and the weighting given to the former. In this paper, expressions are derived for the optimal values of the three parameters, under the conditions of a steady state model. These expressions reduce a three-parameter search to a single-parameter search. An expression is given for the variance of the sampling error of the optimal combination of moving averages and this is shown to be marginally greater than that for exponentially weighted moving averages (EWMA). Similar expressions for optimal parameters and the resultant variance are derived for equally weighted combinations. The sampling variance of the mean of such combinations is shown to be almost identical to the optimal general combination, thus simplifying the use of combinations further. It is demonstrated that equal weight combinations are more robust than EWMA to noise to signal ratios lower than expected, but less robust to noise to signal ratios higher than expected.     

Invertibility of the Difference of Idempotents

We study conditions equivalent to the invertibility of f -g when f and g are idempotents in a unital ring, and give applications to bounded linear operators in Banach and Hilbert spaces. In the setting of rings we are able to show that many conditions previously linked to finite dimensionality, rank equalities, norm topology of bounded linear operators or to properties of C *-algebras can be in fact proved by simple algebraic arguments.     

确定双指数曲线参数初始值的循环搜索法

提出了在最小二乘意义下用 Gauss-Newton法拟合双指数曲线时 ,充分利用观测值确定参数初始值的一种算法——循环搜索法 .据此可编制一个能自动拟合 2 0种单、双指数曲线中指定曲线的 Qbasic程序 .并成功地以多个模型为例对此进行了验证     

Properties of subspaces of the space of affine functions

Conditions are presented for weak (strong) convergence, in the entire space A(x), of a sequence of positive operators to a fixed operator S on the basis of its weak (strong) convergence to S in a subspace. The criterion of Bauer's simplex is presented.Translated from Matematicheskie Zametki, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 307–318, February, 1975.In conclusion the author expresses his deep gratitude to Yu. A. Shashkin for his many valuable remarks.     

Some Properties of Boundaries of Symmetric Spaces of Rank One

M. Cowling, A. H. Dooley, A. Korányi and F. Ricci used groups of Heisenberg type in order to study the symmetric spaces of rank one of noncompact type in a unified manner. This paper extends this work by using the same formulation to investigate the boundaries of these spaces. In particular, we prove a conjecture of Korányi concerning metrics on the boundary and demonstrate that the classical Cayley transform extends to a 1-quasiconformal map of the boundary.     

Large sample properties of estimates of a discrete grade of membership model

Increasingly, fuzzy partitions are being used in multivariate classification problems as an alternative to the crisp classification procedures commonly used. One such fuzzy partition, the grade of membership model, partitions individuals into fuzzy sets using multivariate categorical data. Although the statistical methods used to estimate fuzzy membership for this model are based on maximum likelihood methods, large sample properties of the estimation procedure are problematic for two reasons. First, the number of incidental parameters increases with the size of the sample. Second, estimated parameters fall on the boundary of the parameter space with non-zero probability. This paper examines the consistency of the likelihood approach when estimating the components of a particular probability model that gives rise to a fuzzy partition. The results of the consistency proof are used to determine the large sample distribution of the estimates. Common methods of classifying individuals based on multivariate observations attempt to place each individual into crisply defined sets. The fuzzy partition allows for individual to individual heterogeneity, beyond simply errors in measurement, by defining a set of pure type characteristics and determining each individual's distance from these pure types. Both the profiles of the pure types and the heterogeneity of the individuals must be estimated from data. These estimates empirically define the fuzzy partition. In the current paper, this data is assumed to be categorical data. Because of the large number of parameters to be estimated and the limitations of categorical data, one may be concerned about whether or not the fuzzy partition can be estimated consistently. This paper shows that if heterogeneity is measured with respect to a fixed number of moments of the grade of membership scores of each individual, the estimated fuzzy partition is consistent.     

Asymptotic behaviour of bounded solutions of a class of higher-order neutral dynamic equations

In this paper, necessary and sufficient conditions for the asymptotic behaviour of all bounded solutions of a class of nonlinear higher-order neutral dynamic equations are stated related to various ranges of the coefficient associated with the neutral part, in one of which the coefficient is allowed to oscillate and not tend to zero asymptotically. The new results improve and generalize the known results stated for difference equations and differential equations, and answer some problems left open for the case for arbitrary time scales. Some certain examples, which the results in the literature fail to deliver an answer to, are given to illustrate the applicability and significance of the new results.     

Comparisons of models for estimation of safe doses using measures of the heaviness of tail of a distribution

Summary Procedures to estimate a dose of which the incidence probability is very small (e.g. 10⁻⁶) have been developed to evaluate the safety of chemical compounds. To compare models for estimation of safe doses quantitatively, a measure of the heaviness of tail of a distribution and a measure of tail at the origin are introduced. These measures have a theoretical basis for the comparison of tail behavior between distributions. Using the two measures, a tail ordering is defined to present a criterion for the comparison of models and is discussed for the probit, the logit, the Weibull, the (generalized) multihit, the (generalized) multitarget and the multistage models. The multistage model is most conservative among them, while the probit model has the reverse property. The Weibull model is more conservative than the logit. The multihit and multitarget models are found to be more sensitive than the Weibull and the logit. The Institute of Statistical Mathematics National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences     

Geometric theory of singularities of solutions of nonlinear differential equations

The article is devoted to singularities of integral manifolds which realize solutions of nonlinear partial differential equations and to the algebraic geometric and topological questions related to them.Translated from Itogi Nauki i Tekhniki, Seriya Problemy Geometrii, Vol. 20, pp. 207–247, 1988.     

On the poset of conjugacy classes of subgroups of finite p-groups

This paper is a continuation of the paper “On the Deskins completions, theta completions and theta pairs for maximal subgroups ”.In the former paper, Zhao Yaoqing introduced the concept of θ-completions associated to a maximal subgroup of a finite group. The concept offers a convenience for us to study the completions introduced by Deskins and gives us a way to reveal the relationship between the concepts of completions and θ-pairs, the latter concept is introduced by Mukherjee and Bhattacharya. The present paper is devoted to discussing the π-solvability, π-supersolvability and π-nilpotency of a finite group by using the θ-completions. Moreover, a new proof on the Deskins conjecture concerning the supersolvability is included.     

Identification of mechanical properties of arteries with certification of global optimality

In this study, we consider identification of parameters in a non-linear continuum-mechanical model of arteries by fitting the models response to clinical data. The fitting of the model is formulated as a constrained non-linear, non-convex least-squares minimization problem. The model parameters are directly related to the underlying physiology of arteries, and correctly identified they can be of great clinical value. The non-convexity of the minimization problem implies that incorrect parameter values, corresponding to local minima or stationary points may be found, however. Therefore, we investigate the feasibility of using a branch-and-bound algorithm to identify the parameters to global optimality. The algorithm is tested on three clinical data sets, in each case using four increasingly larger regions around a candidate global solution in the parameter space. In all cases, the candidate global solution is found already in the initialization phase when solving the original non-convex minimization problem from multiple starting points, and the remaining time is spent on increasing the lower bound on the optimal value. Although the branch-and-bound algorithm is parallelized, the overall procedure is in general very time-consuming.

     

Degenerations of Representations of Associative Algebras

The purpose of this note is to give a fast introduction to some problems of homological and geometrical nature related to finite-dimensional representations of finitely generated, and especially, finite-dimensional algebras over a field. Some of these results can also be extended to the situation where the field is not algebraically closed, and some of the results can even be extended to the situation where one is considering algebras over a commutative artin ring. For the results which hold true in the most general situation the proofs become most elegant since they depend on using length arguments only and thereby forgetting about the nature of a field altogether. Received: July 2007