Effect of diffusion on a two-species eco-epidemiological model

This paper deals with the stabilizing effect of diffusion on a prey?–?predator system where the prey population is infected by a microparasite. The predator functional response is a concave-type function. Conditions for the local as well as global stability of the model without diffusion are derived in terms of system parameters. It is also shown that an unstable equilibrium of the model without diffusion can be made stable by increasing the diffusion coefficients appropriately.     

Nontwist symplectic maps in tokamaks

We review symplectic nontwist maps that we have introduced to describe Lagrangian transport properties in magnetically confined plasmas in tokamaks. These nontwist maps are suitable to describe the formation and destruction of transport barriers in the shearless region (i.e., near the curve where the twist condition does not hold). The maps can be used to investigate two kinds of problems in plasmas with non-monotonic field profiles: the first is the chaotic magnetic field line transport in plasmas with external resonant perturbations. The second problem is the chaotic particle drift motion caused by electrostatic drift waves. The presented analytical maps, derived from plasma models with equilibrium field profiles and control parameters that are commonly measured in plasma discharges, can be used to investigate long-term transport properties.     

Homogenization of long-range auxin transport in plant tissues

A model for the cell-to-cell transport of the plant hormone auxin is presented. Auxin is a weak acid which dissociates into ions in the aqueous cell compartments. A microscopic model is defined by diffusion-reaction equations and a Poisson equation for a given charge distribution. The microscopic properties of the plant cell were taken into account through oscillating coefficients in the model. Via formal asymptotic expansion a macroscopic model was obtained. The effective diffusion coefficients and transport velocities are expressed by the solution of unit cell problems. Published experimental values of diffusivity and permeability were used to determine numerically the effective transport coefficients and the calculated transport velocity was shown to be of the same order as measured values.     

基于时滞效应的随机微分投资与比例再保险博弈

金融市场不断发展,激烈的市场竞争使得相对绩效比较在保险机构的业绩评估中占据越来越重要的地位。考虑历史业绩对公司决策的影响,引入时滞效应,研究时滞效应对具有竞争关系公司之间最优投资策略和最优再保险策略的影响。运用随机最优控制和微分博弈理论,针对Cramér-Lundberg模型,得到了均衡投资和再保险策略,给出了值函数的显式解;然后进一步针对近似扩散过程,求得指数效用下均衡投资策略和比例再保险策略的显式表达。通过数值算例,分析了最优均衡策略随模型各重要参数的动态变化。结论显示：保险公司在决策时是否将时滞信息纳入考虑之中将大大影响其投资和再保险行为。保险公司考虑较早时间财富值越多,其投资再保险行为就表现得越趋向于保守和谨慎;与之相反,如果保险公司对行业间的竞争越看重,其投资再保险策略就越倾向于冒险和激进。     

Electromechanical properties of laminated piezoelectric composites

The general expressions for the effective elastic, piezoelectric, and dielectric coefficients of a laminated piezocomposite composed of laminates in parallel connection are shown. By means of the asymptotic averaging method [12] these effective coefficients are calculated. The effective coefficients as well as physical properties such as electromechanical piezoelectric coupling coefficients, acoustic impedance, and wave velocity for a two-phase composite, where one phase is ceramic and the other one is polymer, are analyzed. A comparison with another results is shown.Presented at the Ninth International Conference on the Mechanics of Composite Materials, Riga, October, 1995.Published in Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 32, No. 3, pp. 410–417, May–June, 1996.     

Supply chain network sustainability under competition and frequencies of activities from production to distribution

In this paper, we develop a competitive supply chain network model with multiple firms, each of which produces a differentiated product by brand and weights the emissions that it generates through its supply chain network activities in an individual way. The supply chain network activities of production, transport and distribution, and storage have associated with them distinct capacities and the firms seek to determine their optimal product flows and frequencies of operation so that their utilities are maximized where the utilities consist of profits and weighted emissions. Multiple production, storage, and transport mode options are allowed. The governing equilibrium concept is that of Cournot–Nash equilibrium. We provide both path and link flow variational inequality formulations of the equilibrium conditions and then propose an algorithm, which, at each iteration, yields closed form expressions for the underlying variables. Numerical examples illustrate the generality of the model and the information provided to managerial decision-makers and policy-makers. This paper adds to the growing literature on sustainable supply chains through the development of a computable general competitive supply chain network game theory model, which brings a greater realism to the evaluation of profit and emission trade-offs through the incorporation of frequencies.     

Boundary slip phenomena in a binary gas mixture

The slip phenomena in gas mixtures are of fundamental significance in the specification of boundary conditions for flows in the slip regime. In a recent paper, new explicit results for the slip coefficients appropriate to binary gas mixtures were reported. The present work being reported extends the previous work to a higher level of accuracy by involving a higher order Chapman-Enskog expansion. In particular, new expressions for the slip coefficients are presented which are applicable for arbitrary models of the intermolecular interaction. Limiting expressions for the slip coefficients are given (for a simple gas) and the accuracy of the theory is discussed. Numerical calculations of the slip coefficients for different binary gas mixtures using the first and second order Chapman-Enskog approximations and the rigid sphere and Lennard-Jones (12-6) potential models have been carried out. The thermal creep and diffusion slip coefficients are found to be sensitive to the order of the approximation and to the potential model used. A comparison of the new higher order results with some of our previously obtained experimental data for the thermal transpiration effect has also been carried out and shows excellent agreement between the theory and the experiments which confirms the accuracy of the theory.     

Phase differences in reaction-diffusion-advection systems and applications to morphogenesis

The authors study the effect of advection on reaction-diffusionpatterns. It is shown that the addition of advection to a two-variablereaction–diffusion system with periodic boundary conditionsresults in the appearance of a phase difference between thepatterns of the two variables which depends on the differencebetween the advection coefficients. The spatial patterns movelike a travelling wave with a fixed velocity which depends onthe sum of the advection coefficients. By a suitable choiceof advection coefficients, the solution can be made stationaryin time. In the presence of advection a continuous change inthe diffusion coefficients can result in two Turing-type bifurcationsas the diffusion ratio is varied, and such a bifurcation canoccur even when the inhibitor species does not diffuse. It isalso shown that the initial mode of bifurcation for a givendomain size depends on both the advection and diffusion coefficients.These phenomena are demonstrated in the numerical solution ofa particular reaction–diffusion system, and finally apossible application of the results to pattern formation inDrosophila larvae is discussed.     

Twistless Tori Near Low-Order Resonances

In this paper, we investigate the behavior of the twist near low-order resonances of a periodic orbit or an equilibrium of a Hamiltonian system with two degrees of freedom. Namely, we analyze the case where the Hamiltonian has multiple eigenvalues (the Hamiltonian Hopf bifurcation) or a zero eigenvalue near the equilibrium and the case where the system has a periodic orbit whose multipliers are equal to 1 (the saddle-center bifurcation) or −1 (the period-doubling bifurcation). We show that the twist does not vanish at least in a small neighborhood of the period-doubling bifurcation. For the saddle-center bifurcation and the resonances of the equilibrium under consideration, we prove the existence of a “twistless” torus for sufficiently small values of the bifurcation parameter. An explicit dependence of the energy corresponding to the twistless torus on the bifurcation parameter is derived. Bibliography: 6 titles.__________Published in Zapiski Nauchnykh Seminarov POMI, Vol. 300, 2003, pp. 135–144.     

Spurious spatial regression with equal weights

This note studies the Lee and Yu (2009) spurious regression model for the special case where the weight matrix is normalized and has equal elements, and where the nonstationarity is caused by near unit roots. It shows that spurious spatial regression will not occur in a spatially autoregressive (SAR) model when the spatial weight matrix is row-normalized and has equal weights. In fact, the asymptotic distribution of the OLS estimate will always converge to its true value zero. The only condition required is that the spatial coefficients of the dependent and independent variables be both less than 1, which is a requirement for the SAR model to be an equilibrium model.     

On Finite Dimension Exchange Algorithms

Load balancing on parallel computers aims at equilibrating some initial load which is different from one processor to another. We consider only nearest neighbour algorithms: in each step a processor communicates only with its direct neighbours. Load balancing algorithms can be divided into two classes: diffusion and dimension exchange. Whereas the first is appropriate for the so‐called all‐port‐model where a processor can send tokens to all its neighbours at a time, the latter is useful for the one‐port‐model. Both kinds of algorithms can be viewed as methods for solving certain singular linear systems. Since a few years there exist finite diffusion algorithms which have the property that they compute l₂‐minimal flows. In this paper a new finite dimension exchange method will be presented that is based on edge‐colourings of the underlying graph. It is usually faster and more stable than its diffusion counterpart. The flows computed by the new method are not minimal but it can be shown that they are bounded. Our analysis is based on techniques from numerical linear algebra.     

Numerical study of the metal vapour transport in tungsten inert-gas welding in argon for stainless steel

Metal vapour emanating from the weld pool during tungsten-inert-gas (TIG) welding affects the arc welding process. To understand the transport mechanisms of metal vapour in a TIG arc, an axisymmetric computational model is developed that includes the tungsten cathode, stainless-steel anode workpiece and the arc plasma region self-consistently. The combined diffusion coefficient method, which calculates diffusion coefficients due to mole fraction gradients (ordinary diffusion), temperature gradients, pressure gradients and the electric field is used to treat iron–chromium–argon and iron–chromium–helium plasmas. It was found that in both cases, metal vapours can reach the cathode region. The effect of different diffusion coefficients on metal vapour transport was investigated. It was found that ordinary diffusion is the main driving force for upward metal vapour diffusion away from the anode workpiece in an argon arc. The diffusive transport carries the metal vapour into the recirculating convective flow, which then transports the metal vapour to the cathode region. Here the upward diffusion driven by the temperature gradient and electric field leads to the build of high concentrations of the metal vapours adjacent to the cathode. In the helium arc, in contrast, metal vapour is transported upwards from the workpiece by electric field diffusion, which is much stronger in this case. Spectroscopic measurements of atomic chromium emission show that metal vapour can reach the cathode region in an argon TIG arc, providing support for the predictions of the model. Only by taking into account all diffusion driving forces is it possible to predict the distribution of metal vapour in a TIG welding arc.     

An adaptive characteristics method for advective-diffusive transport

An adaptive characteristics method is presented for the solution of advective-diffusive groundwater transport problems. The method decomposes the transport processes into advective and diffusive transport components. Advective flows are defined by using a streamtube incrementing procedure, based on the method of characteristics, to define the position of advective front. Diffusive transport orthogonal to the front is represented by an array of propagating streamtube elements, with dimension determined from analytical solution of the one-dimensional diffusion equation. Adaptive time scaling is used to moderate the dimensions and aspect ratios of the advective and diffusive streamtube elements as appropriate to the dominant transport mechanism. Finite differences are used to solve for transport ahead of the advancing front. The distribution of streamtubes are predetermined from a direct boundary element algorithm. Comparison with analytical results for a one-dimensional transport geometry indicates agreement for Peclet numbers between zero and infinity. Solution for transport in two-dimensional domains illustrates excellent agreement for Peclet numbers from zero to 25.     

Entropic structure of multicomponent reactive flows with partial equilibrium reduced chemistry

In this paper, we investigate the system of equations modelling multicomponent reactive flows with detailed transport and complex chemistry in the limit of partial equilibrium. The reduced system is obtained using a projection step compatible with the chemical entropy production. The reduced multicomponent transport and convection fluxes are shown to be compatible with the mathematical entropy thus providing a symmetric form as well as normal forms for the reduced system. This yields global existence and asymptotic stability around constant equilibrium states for the Cauchy problem on the partial equilibrium manifold in all space dimensions. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A constrained optimization approach to finite element mesh smoothing

The quality of a finite element solution has been shown to be affected by the quality of the underlying mesh. A poor mesh may lead to unstable and/or inaccurate finite element approximations. Mesh quality is often characterized by the “smoothness” or “shape” of the elements (triangles in 2-D or tetrahedra in 3-D). Most automatic mesh generators produce an initial mesh where the aspect ratio of the elements are unacceptably high. In this paper, a new approach to produce acceptable quality meshes from a topologically valid initial mesh is presented. Given an initial mesh (nodal coordinates and element connectivity), a “smooth” final mesh is obtained by solving a constrained optimization problem. The variables for the iterative optimization procedure are the nodal coordinates (excluding, the boundary nodes) of the finite element mesh, and appropriate bounds are imposed on these to prevent an unacceptable finite element mesh. Examples are given of the application of the above method for 2- and 3-D meshes generated using automatic mesh generators. Results indicate that the new method not only yields better quality elements when compared with the traditional Laplacian smoothing, but also guarantees a valid mesh unlike the Laplacian method.     

Implicit formulation for advection–diffusion simulation based on particle distribution moments

This paper introduces an implicit method for advection–diffusion equations called Implicit DisPar, based on particle displacement moments applied to uniform grids. The present method tries to solve constraints associated with explicit methods also based on particle displacement methods, in which diffusivity-dominated situations can only be handled by considerably increasing the associated computational costs. In fact, a higher particle destination nodes number allows the use of higher diffusion coefficients for the transport simulation without instabilities. The average was evaluated by an analogy between the Fokker–Planck and the transport equations. The variance is considered to be Fickian. The particle displacement distribution is used to predict deterministic mass transfers between domain nodes. Mass conservation was guaranteed by the distribution concept. In the truncation error analysis, it was shown that the linear Implicit DisPar formulation does not have numerical error up to v − 1 order, if the first v particle moments are forced by the Gaussian moments. It was shown by theoretical tests for linear conditions that the model accuracy level is proportional to the number of particle destination nodes.     

Effective models for reactive flow under a dominant Péclet number and order one Damköhler number: Numerical simulations

The paper is devoted to the longitudinal dispersion of a soluble substance released in a steady laminar flow through a slit channel with heterogeneous reaction at the outer wall. The reactive transport happens in the presence of a dominant Péclet number and order one Damköhler number. In particular, these Péclet numbers correspond to Taylor’s dispersion regime. An effective model for the enhanced diffusion in this context was derived recently. It contains memory effects and contributions to the effective diffusion and effective advection velocity, due to the flow and chemistry reaction regime. In the present paper, we show through numerical simulations the efficiency of this new model. In particular, using Taylor’s ‘historical’ parameters, we illustrate that our derived contributions are important and that using them is necessary in order to simulate correctly the reactive flows. We emphasize three main points. First, we show how the effective diffusion is enhanced by chemical effects at dispersive times. Second, our model captures an intermediate regime where the diffusion is anomalous and the distribution is asymmetric. Third, we show how the chemical effects also slow down the average speed of the front.     

Effect of interconvertibility of electromagnetic and gravitational waves in strong external electromagnetic fields and the propagation of waves in the field of a charged “black hole” : PMM vol. 38, n 6, 1974, pp. 1122–1129

It is shown that the behavior of an arbitrary wave propagating in the field of a nonrotating charged black hole is defined (with the use of quadratures) by four functions. Each of these functions obeys its second order equation of the wave kind. Short electromagnetic waves falling onto a black hole are reflected by its field in the form of gravitational and electromagnetic waves whose amplitude was explicitly determined. In the case of the wave carrying rays winding around the limit cycle the reflection and transmission coefficients were obtained in the form of analytic expressions.Various physical processes taking place inside, as well as outside a collapsing star, may induce perturbations of the gravitational, electromagnetic and other fields, and lead to the appearance in the surrounding space of waves of various kinds which propagate over a distorted background and are dissipated along its inhomogeneities.In the absence of rotation and charge in a star, the analysis of small perturbations of the gravitational fields is based on the system of Einstein equations linearized around the Schwarzschild solution. In [1, 2] this system of equations, after expansion of perturbations in spherical harmonics and Fourier transformation with respect to time, was reduced to two independent linear ordinary differential equations of second order of the form of the stationary Schrödinger equation for a particle in a potential force field. Each of these equations defines one of two possible independent perturbation kinds: “even” and “odd” (the different behavior of spherical tensor harmonics at coordinate inversion is the deciding factor in the determination of the kind of perturbation [1, 2]). Although these equations were derived with the superposition on the perturbations of the metric of specific coordinate conditions, they define, as shown in [4], the behavior of invariants of the perturbed gravitational field, which imparts to the potential barriers appearing in these equations an invariant meaning.The system of Maxwell equations on the background of Schwarzschild solution also reduces to similar equations, which differ from the above only by the form of potential barriers appearing in these [5].In the presence in the unperturbed solution of a strong electromagnetic field the gravitational and electromagnetic waves interact with each other, and transmutation takes place. The train of short periodic electromagnetic waves generates the accompanying train of gravitational waves. This phenomenon was first analyzed in [6] on and arbitrary background. It was shown in [7, 8] that dense stars surrounded by hot plasma may acquire a charge owing to splitting of charges by radiation pressure and the “sweeping out” of positrons nascent in vapors in strong electrostatic fields. The interaction of waves becomes particularly clearly evident in the neighborhood of black holes which may serve as “valves” by maintaining equilibrium between the relict electromagnetic and gravitational radiation in the Universe. Rotation of black holes intensifies this effect [6].If a nonrotating star possesses an electrostatic charge, the definition of perturbations of the electromagnetic and gravitational fields must be based on the complete system of Einstein-Maxwell equations linearized around the Nordström-Reissner solution. (Small perturbations of electromagnetic field outside a charged black hole were considered in [9, 10] on the basis of the system of Maxwell equations on a “rigid” background of the Nordström-Reissner solution, without taking into account the interconvertibility of gravitational and electromagnetic waves, which materially affects their behavior in the neighborhood of a charged black hole). Here this system of equations which define the interacting gravitational and electromagnetic perturbations are reduced to four independent second order differential equations, two for each kind of perturbations (an importsnt part is played here by the coordinate conditions imposed on the perturbations of the metric, proposed by the authors in [4]). Perturbation components of the metric and of the electromagnetic field are determined in quadratures by the solutions of these equations. If the charge of a star tends to vanish, two of the derived equations convert to equations for gravitational waves on the background of the Schwarzschild solution [1, 2], while the twoothers become equations which are equivalent to Maxwell solutions on the same background. The short-wave asymptotics of derived equations is determined throughout including the neighborhood of the limit cycle for the wave carrying rays. These solutions far away from the point of turn coincide with those obtained in [6] for any arbitrary background. Approximation of geometric optics does not provide correct asymptotics for impact parameters of rays which are close to critical for which the Isotropie and geodesic parameters wind around the limit cycle. This case is investigated below.A similar situation in the Schwarzschild field was analyzed in [11], where analytic expressions for the wave reflection and transmission coefficients were determined, and the integral radiation stream trapped by a black hole produced by another radiation component of the dual system was calculated.     

The strengthened C.B.S. inequality constant for second order elliptic partial differential operator and for hierarchical bilinear finite element functions

We estimate the constant in the strengthened Cauchy-Bunyakowski-Schwarz inequality for hierarchical bilinear finite element spaces and elliptic partial differential equations with coefficients corresponding to anisotropy (orthotropy). It is shown that there is a nontrivial universal estimate, which does not depend on anisotropy. Moreover, this estimate is sharp and the same as for hierarchical linear finite element spaces.This research was supported by the Grant Agency of Czech Republic under the contract No. 201/02/0595.