Some characters of Kac and Wakimoto and nonholomorphic modular functions

Answering a question of Kac, we relate the character formulas for certain sℓ(m, 1)^ modules to automorphic forms. We show that these q-series are the “holomorphic parts” of nonholomorphic modular functions. The authors thank the NSF, and the second author thanks the Manasse family, and the Hilldale Foundation for their support.     

“Grandi” lenti in un reticolo di rette

A buffon problem is studied for a “thin lens” in the plane, a convex test body made by the union of two circular segments both less than or equal to a semicircle. The case in which the lens is “small” compared with the distance between the parallel lines of the Buffon lattice has been treated in [4]. The instance investigated in this paper is the one of a “large” lens, i.e. of a lens which can have multiple intersections with the Buffon lattice.

Lavoro eseguito col contributo parziale del M.U.R.S.T.     

“Miniaturized” Linearizations for Quadratic 0/1 Problems

In order to solve a quadratic 0/1 problem, some techniques, consisting in deriving a linear integer formulation, are used. Those techniques, called “linearization”, usually involve a huge number of additional variables. As a consequence, the exact resolution of the linear model is, in general, very difficult. Our aim, in this paper, is to propose “economical” linear models. Starting from an existing linearization (typically the so-called “classical linearization”), we find a new linearization with fewer variables. The resulting model is called “Miniaturized” linearization. Based on this approach, we propose a new linearization scheme for which numerical tests have been performed.     

Ols parameter estimation for a linear paired confluent model

We investigate OLS parameter estimation for a linear paired model in the case of a passive experiment with errors in both variables. The explicit form of the OLS estimates is obtained, their equivalence to maximum likelihood estimates is demonstrated in the presence of normal errors, and estimate consistency is proved. The OLS estimates are compared analytically and numerically with known parameter estimates of “direct,” “orthogonal,” and “diagonal” regression models.     

The Concavity Assumption on Felicities and Asymptotic Dynamics in the RSS Model

An analysis of the RSS model in mathematical economics involves the study of an infinite-horizon variational problem in discrete time. Under the assumption that the felicity function is upper semicontinuous and “supported” at the value of the maximally-sustainable level of a production good, we report a generalization of results on the equivalence, existence and asymptotic convergence of optimal trajectories in this model. We consider two parametric specifications, and under the second, identify a “symmetry” condition on the zeroes of a “discrepancy function” underlying the objective function that proves to be necessary and sufficient for the asymptotic convergence of good programs. With a concave objective function, as is standard in the antecedent literature, we show that the symmetry condition reduces to an equivalent “non-interiority” condition.     

Supply chain organization and e-commerce: a model to analyze store-picking, warehouse-picking and drop-shipping

Across many industries, e-commerce generates substantial modifications in supply chain structures. The aim of this article is to assess different forms of existing organizations when a store-based sales network coexists with a web site order network. Three main organizational models can be detected: “store-picking”, “dedicated warehouse-picking” and “drop-shipping”. We use a “newsboy” order policy model to compare the advantages of these different models and to note the impact of some parameters on inventory and flow management policies throughout the supply chain. Several effects are presented, particularly those linked to the size of the Internet market in relation to traditional market size and market demand hazards.      

The Geometry of Standard Deontic Logic

Whereas geometrical oppositions (logical squares and hexagons) have been so far investigated in many fields of modal logic (both abstract and applied), the oppositional geometrical side of “deontic logic” (the logic of “obligatory”, “forbidden”, “permitted”, . . .) has rather been neglected. Besides the classical “deontic square” (the deontic counterpart of Aristotle’s “logical square”), some interesting attempts have nevertheless been made to deepen the geometrical investigation of the deontic oppositions: Kalinowski (La logique des normes, PUF, Paris, 1972) has proposed a “deontic hexagon” as being the geometrical representation of standard deontic logic, whereas Joerden (jointly with Hruschka, in Archiv für Rechtsund Sozialphilosophie 73:1, 1987), McNamara (Mind 105:419, 1996) and Wessels (Die gute Samariterin. Zur Struktur der Supererogation, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, 2002) have proposed some new “deontic polygons” for dealing with conservative extensions of standard deontic logic internalising the concept of “supererogation”. Since 2004 a new formal science of the geometrical oppositions inside logic has appeared, that is “n-opposition theory”, or “NOT”, which relies on the notion of “logical bi-simplex of dimension m” (m = n − 1). This theory has received a complete mathematical foundation in 2008, and since then several extensions. In this paper, by using it, we show that in standard deontic logic there are in fact many more oppositional deontic figures than Kalinowski’s unique “hexagon of norms” (more ones, and more complex ones, geometrically speaking: “deontic squares”, “deontic hexagons”, “deontic cubes”, . . ., “deontic tetraicosahedra”, . . .): the real geometry of the oppositions between deontic modalities is composed by the aforementioned structures (squares, hexagons, cubes, . . ., tetraicosahedra and hyper-tetraicosahedra), whose complete mathematical closure happens in fact to be a “deontic 5-dimensional hyper-tetraicosahedron” (an oppositional very regular solid).      

Dynamic programming—neural network real-time traffic adaptive signal control algorithm

In this paper, an “intelligent” isolated intersection control system was developed. The developed “intelligent” system makes “real time” decisions as to whether to extend (and how much) current green time. The model developed is based on the combination of the dynamic programming and neural networks. Many tests show that the outcome (the extension of the green time) of the proposed neural network is nearly equal to the best solution. Practically negligible CPU times were achieved, and were thus absolutely acceptable for the “real time” application of the developed algorithm.     

An Algebraic Approach to Physical Scales

This paper is aimed at introducing an algebraic model for physical scales and units of measurement. This goal is achieved by means of the concept of “positive space” and its rational powers. Positive spaces are “semi-vector spaces” on which the group of positive real numbers acts freely and transitively through the scalar multiplication. Their tensor multiplication with vector spaces yields “scaled spaces” that are suitable to describe spaces with physical dimensions mathematically. We also deal with scales regarded as fields over a given background (e.g., spacetime).     

An analytical study of the sensitivity of a discrete stochastic model for sales dynamics

We consider a discrete model for sales dynamics in the case of a stochastic model of the market. The model includes “fast” and “slow” components of the market situation described by a stochastic process of “white noise” type and the correlated stochastic process. By using an integral representation of the main characteristics of the Kalman filter, we obtain expressions for stochastic parameters of additional errors of the estimate that arise in the case where the characteristics of noises are inexact. We make an asymptotical analysis of these expressions and give recommendations for the price-forming strategy in the case of uncertainty of the market situation. Bibliography: 2 titles. Translated fromObchyslyuval'na ta Prykladna Matematyka, No. 81, 1997, pp. 110–116.     

Evidence of a natural boundary and nonintegrability of the mixmaster universe model

Summary The formal asymptotic analysis of Latifi et al. [4] suggests that the Mixmaster Universe model possesses movable transcendental singularities and thus is nonintegrable in the sense that it does not satisfy the Painlevé property (i.e., singularities with nonalgebraic branching). In this paper, we present numerical evidence of the nonintegrability of the Mixmaster model by studying the singularity patterns in the complext-plane, wheret is the “physical” time, as well as in the complex τ-plane, where τ is the associated “logarithmic” time. More specifically, we show that in the τ-plane there appears to exist a “natural boundary” of remarkably intricate structure. This boundary lies at the ends of a sequence of smaller and smaller “chimneys” and consists of the type of singularities studied in [4], on which pole-like singularities accumulate densely. We also show numerically that in the complext-plane there appear to exist complicated, dense singularity patterns and infinitely-sheeted solutions with sensitive dependence on initial conditions.     

The Betti reciprocity principle and the normal boundary component control problem for linear elastic systems

The background for this article is the question of modification of the geometric configuration of an elastic structure by means of “volume” type actuation. In this actuation mode stresses are applied to the elastic body by injection/extraction of a fluid into, or from, a large number of vacuoles in the elastic “matrix” material. Previous articles by the author, and others, have examined this process and studied its effectiveness in the context of a “naive” continuous model. The present paper continues along these lines, exploring “normal boundary component controllability” criterion for determining achievable configurations for the controlled system in the two-dimensional case. Connections with conformal mapping lead to affirmative results for approximate controllability in this sense and Fourier series techniques provide exact controllability results for the case wherein the domain of the uncontrolled system is a two-dimensional disk.      

On Properties of Different Notions of Centers for Convex Cones

The points on the revolution axis of a circular cone are somewhat special: they are the “most interior” elements of the cone. This paper addresses the issue of formalizing the concept of center for a convex cone that is not circular. Four distinct proposals are studied in detail: the incenter, the circumcenter, the inner center, and the outer center. The discussion takes place in the context of a reflexive Banach space.     

A complexity measure for families of binary sequences

In earlier papers finite pseudorandom binary sequences were studied, quantitative measures of pseudorandomness of them were introduced and studied, and large families of “good” pseudorandom sequences were constructed. In certain applications (cryptography) it is not enough to know that a family of “good” pseudorandom binary sequences is large, it is a more important property if it has a “rich”, “complex” structure. Correspondingly, the notion of “f-complexity” of a family of binary sequences is introduced. It is shown that the family of “good” pseudorandom binary sequences constructed earlier is also of high f-complexity. Finally, the cardinality of the smallest family achieving a prescibed f-complexity and multiplicity is estimated. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Lebesgue numbers and Atsuji spaces in subsystems of second-order arithmetic

We study Lebesgue and Atsuji spaces within subsystems of second order arithmetic. The former spaces are those such that every open covering has a Lebesgue number, while the latter are those such that every continuous function defined on them is uniformly continuous. The main results we obtain are the following: the statement “every compact space is Lebesgue” is equivalent to ; the statements “every perfect Lebesgue space is compact” and “every perfect Atsuji space is compact” are equivalent to ; the statement “every Lebesgue space is Atsuji” is provable in ; the statement “every Atsuji space is Lebesgue” is provable in . We also prove that the statement “the distance from a closed set is a continuous function” is equivalent to . Received: February 2, 1996     

The semantics of knowledge attributions

The basic idea of conversational contextualism is that knowledge attributions are context sensitive in that a given knowledge attribution may be true if made in one context but false if made in another, owing to differences in the attributors’ conversational contexts. Moreover, the context sensitivity involved is traced back to the context sensitivity of the word “know,” which, in turn, is commonly modelled on the case either of genuine indexicals such as “I” or “here” or of comparative adjectives such as “tall” or “rich.” But contextualism faces various problems. I argue that in order to solve these problems we need to look for another account of the context sensitivity involved in knowledge attributions and I sketch an alternative proposal.     

Weyl-Eddington-Einstein affine gravity in the context of modern cosmology

We propose new models of the “affine” theory of gravity in multidimensional space-times with symmetric connections. We use and develop ideas of Weyl, Eddington, and Einstein, in particular, Einstein’s proposed method for obtaining the geometry using the Hamilton principle. More specifically, the connection coefficients are determined using a “geometric” Lagrangian that is an arbitrary function of the generalized (nonsymmetric) Ricci curvature tensor (and, possibly, other fundamental tensors) expressed in terms of the connection coefficients regarded as independent variables. Such a theory supplements the standard Einstein theory with dark energy (the cosmological constant, in the first approximation), a neutral massive (or tachyonic) meson, and massive (or tachyonic) scalar fields. These fields couple only to gravity and can generate dark matter and/or inflation. The new field masses (real or imaginary) have a geometric origin and must appear in any concrete model. The concrete choice of the Lagrangian determines further details of the theory, for example, the nature of the fields that can describe massive particles, tachyons, or even “phantoms.” In “natural” geometric theories, dark energy must also arise. The basic parameters of the theory (cosmological constant, mass, possible dimensionless constants) are theoretically indeterminate, but in the framework of modern “multiverse” ideas, this is more a virtue than a defect. We consider further extensions of the affine models and in more detail discuss approximate effective (“physical”) Lagrangians that can be applied to the cosmology of the early Universe.     

A geometric interpretation of frictional contact mechanics

The work-conjugacy of pressures and tangential tractions with so-called “gap”and “stick” constraints is deduced in order to delineate a rigid-plastic model of a frictional interface. This is accomplished by pursuing a differential-geometric view of the two surfaces that comprise the frictional interface. Given that contact is described in the current configuration, Lie derivatives are shown to be the natural means of establishing the work-conjugacy between tractions and constraints.     

On the reduction to a complete class in multiple decision problems (2)

Summary As a criterion for the reduction to a complete class of decision rule in case where actions, samples and states are finite in number, “regret-relief ratio” criterion and “incremental loss-gain ratio” criterion were introduced in 2-state of nature case [2]. In this paper, “generalized regret-relief ratio” criterion ink-state of nature case is introduced as an extension of “regret-relief ratio” criterion and its usefulness is shown with an example. The Institute of Statistical Mathematics