Trigonometric polynomial or exponential fitting approach?

The application of a trigonometric polynomial and an exponential fitting approach is compared for a three-point formula for second-order derivatives, for Simpson’s quadrature rule and for Numerov’s scheme for second-order differential equations. The expressions for the occurring parameters are constructed in both the approaches and the behaviour of these parameters with respect to the introduced frequency is studied. The errors for specific problems obtained in both the approaches as a function of the frequency are compared.     

Determinants of matrices over semirings

In this paper, the concept of determinants for the matrices over a commutative semiring is introduced, and a development of determinantal identities is presented. This includes a generalization of the Laplace and Binet–Cauchy Theorems, as well as on adjoint matrices. Also, the determinants and the adjoint matrices over a commutative difference-ordered semiring are discussed and some inequalities for the determinants and for the adjoint matrices are obtained. The main results in this paper generalize the corresponding results for matrices over commutative rings, for fuzzy matrices, for lattice matrices and for incline matrices.     

Pricing strategies for perishable products: the case of Vienna and the hotel reservation system hrs.com

Consider a retailer who sells perishable products for which there is uncertain demand. Yield management with dynamic pricing is a standard practice that firms use for revenue management. For perishable products, recent analysis has focused on the distribution of flight capacity, referred to as ticket sales. Other non- storable, non-transportable, immaterial hospitality products include hotel capacity. The article discusses the extent to which hotel pricing strategies vary within the internet distribution system hrs.com. This study focuses on the distribution of hotel rooms available for booking on the internet for Vienna and gives an outlook to Euroland capitals. The main research interests are the underlying pricing models and the setting of the end price. Data was taken from hrs.com, which is the most important specialist for hotel room internet distribution in Germany according to recent studies by KMPG and others. The results include the identification of different pricing strategy clusters with regard to hotel category and hotel availability over a 22-day period for Vienna and one city from all Euroland countries (the capitals were studied for all cases except for the Netherlands, for which data was collected for Amsterdam). The study took the arrival days Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays into account, and used data for all these days from the 11th of July, 2005, to the 10th of October, 2005, for Vienna, and the first and the last of these dates as a comparison base for the other Euroland cities.     

Superconvergence of mixed finite element semi-discretizations of two time-dependent problems

We will show that some of the superconvergence properties for the mixed finite element method for elliptic problems are preserved in the mixed semi-discretizations for a diffusion equation and for a Maxwell equation in two space dimensions. With the help of mixed elliptic projection we will present estimates global and pointwise in time. The results for the Maxwell equations form an extension of existing results. For both problems, our results imply that post-processing and a posteriori error estimation for the error in the space discretization can be performed in the same way as for the underlying elliptic problem.     

On bounds for the mode and median of the generalized hyperbolic and related distributions

Except for certain parameter values, a closed form formula for the mode of the generalized hyperbolic (GH) distribution is not available. In this paper, we exploit results from the literature on modified Bessel functions and their ratios to obtain simple but tight two-sided inequalities for the mode of the GH distribution for general parameter values. As a special case, we deduce tight two-sided inequalities for the mode of the variance-gamma (VG) distribution, and through a similar approach we also obtain tight two-sided inequalities for the mode of the McKay Type I distribution. The analogous problem for the median is more challenging, but we conjecture some monotonicity results for the median of the VG and McKay Type I distributions, from we which we conjecture some tight two-sided inequalities for their medians. Numerical experiments support these conjectures and also lead us to a conjectured tight lower bound for the median of the GH distribution.     

Stabilized Nonconforming Mixed Finite Element Method for Linear Elasticity on Rectangular or Cubic Meshes

Based on the primal mixed variational formulation, a stabilized nonconforming mixed finite element method is proposed for the linear elasticity on rectangular and cubic meshes. Two kinds of penalty terms are introduced in the stabilized mixed formulation, which are the jump penalty term for the displacement and the divergence penalty term for the stress. We use the classical nonconforming rectangular and cubic elements for the displacement and the discontinuous piecewise polynomial space for the stress, where the discrete space for stress are carefully chosen to guarantee the well-posedness of discrete formulation. The stabilized mixed method is locking-free. The optimal convergence order is derived in the $L^2$-norm for stress and in the broken $H^1$-norm and $L^2$-norm for displacement. A numerical test is carried out to verify the optimal convergence of the stabilized method.     

Non-compact generalized variational inequalities for quasi-monotone and hemi-continuous operators with applications

Some results are obtained for non-compact cases in topological vector spaces for the existence problem of solutions for some set-valued variational inequalities with quasi-monotone and lower hemi-continuous operators, and with quasi-semi-monotone and upper hemi-continuous operators. Some applications are given in non-reflexive Banach spaces for these existence problems of solutions and for perturbation problems for these set-valued variational inequalities with quasi-monotone and quasi-semi-monotone operators. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The shape of the hazard function for cancer incidence

A population-based cohort consisting of 126,141 men and 122,208 women born between 1874 and 1931 and at risk for breast or colorectal cancer after 1965 was identified by linking the Utah Population Data Base and the Utah Cancer Registry. The hazard function for cancer incidence is estimated from left truncated and right censored data based on the conditional likelihood. Four estimation procedures based on the conditional likelihood are used to estimate the age-specific hazard function from the data; these were the life-table method, a kernel method based on the Nelson Aalen estimator, a spline estimate, and a proportional hazards estimate based on splines with birth year as sole covariate.The results are consistent with an increasing hazard for both breast and colorectal cancer through age 85 or 90. After age 85 or 90, the hazard function for female breast and colorectal cancer may reach a plateua or decrease, although the hazard function for male colorectal cancer appears to continue to rise through age 105. The hazard function for both breast and colorectal cancer appears to be higher for more recent birth cohorts, with a more pronounced birth-cohort effect for breast cancer than for colorectal cancer. The age specific for colorectal cancer appears to be higher for men than for women. The shape of the hazard function for both breast and colorectal cancer appear to be consistent with a two-stage model for spontaneous carcinogenesis in which the initiation rate is constant or increasing. Inheritance of initiated cells appears to play a minor role.     

Half Space and Quarter Space Dirichlet Problems for the Partial Differential Equation

A customary, heuristic, method, by which the Poisson integral formula for the Dirichlet problem, for the half space, for Laplace's equation is obtained, involves Green's function, and Kelvin's method of images. Although this heuristic method leads one to guess the correct result, this Poisson formula still has to be verified directly, independently of the method by which it was arrived at, in order to be absolutely certain that a solution of the Dirichlet problem for the half space, for Laplace's equation, has been actually obtained. A similar heuristic method, as seems to be generally known, could be followed in solving the Dirichlet problem, for the half space, for the equation where is a real constant. However, in Part 1, a different, labor-saving, method is used to study Dirichlet problems for the equation. This method is essentially based on what Hadamard called the method of descent. Indeed, it is shown that he who has solved the half space Dirichlet problem for Laplace's equation has already solved the half space Dirichlet problem for the equation In Part 2, the solution formula for the quarter space Dirichlet problem for Laplace's equation is obtained from the Poisson integral formula for the half space Dirichlet problem for Laplace's equation. A representation theorem for harmonic functions in the quarter space is deduced. The method of descent is used, in Part 3, to obtain the solution formula for the quarter space Dirichlet problem for the equation by means of the solution formula for the quarter space Dirichlet problem for Laplace's equation. So that, indeed, it is also shown that he who has solved the quarter space Dirichlet problem for Laplace's equation has already solved the quarter space Dirichlet problem for the " equation" For the sake of completeness and clarity, and for the convenience of the reader, the appendix, at the end of Part 3, contains a detailed proof that the Poisson integral formula solves the half space Dirichlet problem for Laplace's equation. The Bibliography for Parts 1,2, 3 is to be found at the end of Part 1.     

非强制混合向量变分不等式解的存在性研究

本文利用例外簇方法研究非强制混合向量变分不等式的弱有效解的存在性:首先证明若混合向量变分不等式问题不存在例外簇,则混合向量变分不等式问题的弱有效解集为非空集合:利用向量值映射的渐近映射给出自反Banach空间中非强制混合向量变分不等式的弱有效解集不存在例外簇的充分条件,从而得到混合向量变分不等式问题的弱有效解的存在性结...     

Sparre Andersen模型中破产概率的边界

研究在Andersen Spaxre模型中,当破产概率的初始边界已知的时候,根据更新方程和更新方程中函数的单调性来改进破产概率的边界,并进一步改进了严重损失函数G（x,y）的边界．     

Sharp two-weight inequalities for singular integrals, with applications to the Hilbert transform and the Sarason conjecture

We prove two-weight norm inequalities for Calderón-Zygmund singular integrals that are sharp for the Hilbert transform and for the Riesz transforms. In addition, we give results for the dyadic square function and for commutators of singular integrals. As an application we give new results for the Sarason conjecture on the product of unbounded Toeplitz operators on Hardy spaces.     

SOR-like Methods for Augmented Systems

Several SOR-like methods are proposed for solving augmented systems. These have many different applications in scientific computing, for example, constrained optimization and the finite element method for solving the Stokes equation. The convergence and the choice of optimal parameter for these algorithms are studied. The convergence and divergence regions for some algorithms are given, and the new algorithms are applied to solve the Stokes equations as well.     

Explicit Coercivity Estimates for the Linearized Boltzmann and Landau Operators

We prove explicit coercivity estimates for the linearized Boltzmann and Landau operators, for a general class of interactions including any inverse-power law interactions, and hard spheres. The functional spaces of these coercivity estimates depend on the collision kernel of these operators. They cover the spectral gap estimates for the linearized Boltzmann operator with Maxwell molecules, improve these estimates for hard potentials, and are the first explicit coercivity estimates for soft potentials (including in particular the case of Coulombian interactions). We also prove a regularity property for the linearized Boltzmann operator with non locally integrable collision kernels, and we deduce from it a new proof of the compactness of its resolvent for hard potentials without angular cutoff.     

Fourier-Laplace analysis of the multigrid waveform relaxation method for hyperbolic equations

The multigrid waveform relaxation (WR) algorithm has been fairly studied and implemented for parabolic equations. It has been found that the performance of the multigrid WR method for a parabolic equation is practically the same as that of multigrid iteration for the associated steady state elliptic equation. However, the properties of the multigrid WR method for hyperbolic problems are relatively unknown. This paper studies the multigrid acceleration to the WR iteration for hyperbolic problems, with a focus on the convergence comparison between the multigrid WR iteration and the multigrid iteration for the corresponding steady state equations. Using a Fourier-Laplace analysis in two case studies, it is found that the multigrid performance on hyperbolic problems no longer shares the close resemblance in convergence factors between the WR iteration for parabolic equations and the iteration for the associated steady state equations.     

High-order computational methods for option valuation under multifactor models

Many of the different numerical techniques in the partial differential equations framework for solving option pricing problems have employed only standard second-order discretization schemes. A higher-order discretization has the advantage of producing low size matrix systems for computing sufficiently accurate option prices and this paper proposes new computational schemes yielding high-order convergence rates for the solution of multi-factor option problems. These new schemes employ Galerkin finite element discretizations with quadratic basis functions for the approximation of the spatial derivatives in the pricing equations for stochastic volatility and two-asset option problems and time integration of the resulting semi-discrete systems requires the computation of a single matrix exponential. The computations indicate that this combination of high-order finite elements and exponential time integration leads to efficient algorithms for multi-factor problems. Highly accurate European prices are obtained with relatively coarse meshes and high-order convergence rates are also observed for options with the American early exercise feature. Various numerical examples are provided for illustrating the accuracy of the option prices for Heston’s and Bates stochastic volatility models and for two-asset problems under Merton’s jump-diffusion model.     

流动稳定性弱非线性理论的重新考虑*

弱非性理论已被广泛用于流动稳定性理论及其它领域.然而其应用对某些问题虽是成功的,但对另一些问题,其结果却常不令人满意,特别是对转捩或自由剪切流中涡的演化这类问题,这时理论研究的目的不是寻找稳态解,而是预测演化过程.在本文中,我们将研究不成功的原因并建议一些改进的办法.     

ON THE DISCRETE-ORDINATES METHOD FOR THE MONOENERGETIC NEUTRON TRANSPORT EQUATION IN A SLAB WITH GENERALIZED BOUNDARY CONDITIONS

This paper is devoted to discussing the discrete-ordinates method for the monoenergetic neutron transport equation in a slab with generalized boundary conditions. For homogeneous medium with isotropic scattering and fission, the convergence theorems for discrete-ordinates approximations are given respectively for critical eigenvalue problem and dominant eigenvalue problems: for inhomogeneous medium with anisotropic scattering and fission, a similar discussion and an estimation for the convergence rate are given for critical eigenvalue problems. Finally, some numerical results are given by use of this method.