Simulation of human ischemic stroke in realistic 3D geometry

In silico research in medicine is thought to reduce the need for expensive clinical trials under the condition of reliable mathematical models and accurate and efficient numerical methods. In the present work, we tackle the numerical simulation of reaction–diffusion equations modeling human ischemic stroke. This problem induces peculiar difficulties like potentially large stiffness which stems from the broad spectrum of temporal scales in the nonlinear chemical source term as well as from the presence of steep spatial gradients in the reaction fronts, spatially very localized. Furthermore, simulations on realistic 3D geometries are mandatory in order to describe correctly this type of phenomenon. The main goal of this article is to obtain, for the first time, 3D simulations on realistic geometries and to show that the simulation results are consistent with those obtain in experimental studies or observed on MRI images in stroke patients.For this purpose, we introduce a new resolution strategy based mainly on time operator splitting that takes into account complex geometry coupled with a well-conceived parallelization strategy for shared memory architectures. We consider then a high order implicit time integration for the reaction and an explicit one for the diffusion term in order to build a time operator splitting scheme that exploits efficiently the special features of each problem. Thus, we aim at solving complete and realistic models including all time and space scales with conventional computing resources, that is on a reasonably powerful workstation. Consequently and as expected, 2D and also fully 3D numerical simulations of ischemic strokes for a realistic brain geometry, are conducted for the first time and shown to reproduce the dynamics observed on MRI images in stroke patients. Beyond this major step, in order to improve accuracy and computational efficiency of the simulations, we indicate how the present numerical strategy can be coupled with spatial adaptive multiresolution schemes. Preliminary results in the framework of simple geometries allow to assess the proposed strategy for further developments.     

Peridynamics model for flexoelectricity and damage

A flexoelectric peridynamic (PD) theory is proposed. In the PD framework, the formulation introduces a nanoscale flexoelectric coupling that entails non-uniform strain in centrosymmetric dielectrics. This potentially enables PD modeling of a large class of phenomena in solid dielectrics involving cracks, discontinuities etc. wherein large strain gradients are present and the classical electromechanical theory based on partial differential equations do not directly apply. PD electromechanical equations, derived from Hamilton's principle, satisfy the global balance laws. Linear PD constitutive equations reflect the electromechanical coupling effect, with the mechanical force state affected by the polarization state and the electrical force state in turn by the displacement state. An analytical solution to the PD electromechanical equations is presented for the static case when a point mechanical force and a point electric force act in an infinite 3D solid dielectric. A parametric study on how different length scales influence the response is undertaken. In addition, the model is extended to incorporate damage using phase field – an order parameter, supplemented with a PD bond breaking criterion to study flexoelectric effects in damage and fracture problems. To demonstrate the performance of our proposal, we first simulate, considering small flexoelectricity effect and no damage, an externally pressured 2D flexoelectric disk subjected to a potential difference between the inner and outer surfaces and compare the results with existing solutions in the literature. Next, we simulate a plate with a central pre-crack under tension considering damage and flexoelectricity effects, and study the effect of various constitutive parameters on the damage evolution. We also furnish a classical derivation of phase field based flexoelectricity in Appendix I.     

Uniqueness and continuous dependence of weak solutions in compressible magnetohydrodynamics

We prove uniqueness and continuous dependence on initial data of weak solutions of the equations of compressible magnetohydrodynamics. The solutions we consider may exhibit discontinuities in density and in the gradients of velocity, temperature, and magnetic field. Continuous dependence is deduced by duality from existence and regularity of solutions of the adjoint of the first variation system. The analysis is complicated by the absence of strict parabolicity, the strong nonlinear coupling in the highest-order terms, and the lack of regularity in the coefficients of the adjoint system.     

无界区域瞬时涡流问题有限元-边界元耦合的A-φ法的误差分析

针对三维无界区域带有凸多边形导体的瞬时涡流问题,本文提出了一种基于势场的有限元-边界元耦合的方法,从理论上讨论了其能量模误差估计.虽然电场被分解为电矢势A与磁标势φ的梯度之和后增加了方程与未知量的个数,但这种分解可以很好地处理不同介质间的间断.与传统的A-φ法不同,本文讨论了一种全离散的A-φ解耦形式,这样不仅可以避免传统格式所产生的鞍点问题的求解,又可以减少计算量.     

The mathematical modeling of the electric field in the media with anisotropic objects

We present a numerical scheme for modeling the electric field in the media with tensor conductivity. This scheme is based on vector finite element method in frequency domain. The numerical computations of the electric field in the anisotropic medium are done. The conductivity of the anisotropic medium is positive defined dense tensor in general case. We consider the electric field from anisotropic layer, inclined anisotropic layer and some anisotropic objects in isotropic half-space.     

Uniqueness and continuous dependence of weak solutions in compressible magnetohydrodynamics

We prove uniqueness and continuous dependence on initial data of weak solutions of the equations of compressible magnetohydrodynamics. The solutions we consider may exhibit discontinuities in density and in the gradients of velocity, temperature, and magnetic field. Continuous dependence is deduced by duality from existence and regularity of solutions of the adjoint of the first variation system. The analysis is complicated by the absence of strict parabolicity, the strong nonlinear coupling in the highest-order terms, and the lack of regularity in the coefficients of the adjoint system.Research supported in part by the NSF under Grant DMS-0305072.Received: May 5, 2004     

Thermally Enhanced Motions of Variable-Inflow Surface Gravity-Driven Flows

In this paper, we report on theoretical and numerical studies of models for suddenly initiated variable-inflow surface gravity currents having temperature-dependent density functions when these currents are subjected to incoming radiation. This radiation leads to a heat source term that, owing to the spatial and temporal variation in surface layer thickness, is itself a function of space and time. This heat source term, in turn, produces a temperature field in the surface layer having nonzero horizontal spatial gradients. These gradients induce shear in the surface layer so that a depth-independent velocity field can no longer be assumed and the standard shallow-water theory must be extended to describe these flow scenarios. These variable-inflow currents are assumed to enter the flow regime from behind a partially opened lock gate with the lock containing a large volume of fluid whose surface is subjected to a variable pressure. Flow filament theory is used to arrive at expressions for the variable inflow velocity under the assumptions of an inviscid and incompressible fluid moving through a small opening under a lock gate at one end of a large rectangular tank containing the deep slightly more dense ambient fluid. Finding this time-dependent inflow velocity, which will then serve as a boundary condition for the solution of our two-layer system, involves solving a forced Riccati equation with time-dependent forcing arising from the surface pressure applied to the fluid in the lock.
The results presented here are, to the best of our knowledge, the first to involve variable-inflow surface gravity currents with or without thermal enhancement and they relate to a variety of phenomena from leaking shoreline oil containers to spring runoff where the variable inflow must be taken into account to predict correctly the ensuing evolution of the flow.     

Approximation of surfaces with fault(s) and/or rapidly varying data, using a segmentation process, D m -splines and the finite element method

In many problems of geophysical interest, one has to deal with data that exhibit complex fault structures. This occurs, for instance, when describing the topography of seafloor surfaces, mountain ranges, volcanoes, islands, or the shape of geological entities, as well as when dealing with reservoir characterization and modelling. In all these circumstances, due to the presence of large and rapid variations in the data, attempting a fitting using conventional approximation methods necessarily leads to instability phenomena or undesirable oscillations which can locally and even globally hinder the approximation. As will be shown in this paper, the right approach to get a good approximant consists, in effect, in applying first a segmentation process to precisely define the locations of large variations and faults, and exploiting then a discrete approximation technique. To perform the segmentation step, we propose a quasi-automatic algorithm that uses a level set method to obtain from the given (gridded or scattered) Lagrange data several patches delimited by large gradients (or faults). Then, with the knowledge of the location of the discontinuities of the surface, we generate a triangular mesh (which takes into account the identified set of discontinuities) on which a D ^m -spline approximant is constructed. To show the efficiency of this technique, we will present the results obtained by its application to synthetic datasets as well as real gridded datasets in Oceanography and Geosciences.     

Reconstruction of vector fields and their singularities from ray transforms

In this paper, numerical methods for reconstruction of the singular support of a vector field from its known longitudinal and (or) transverse ray transforms are proposed. Apart from a modification for the Vainberg operator, we use integral operators of angular moments and back projections as well as differential operators of tensor analysis for solving the problem. Results of numerical simulation for reconstructing discontinuous vector fields and with discontinuities in the derivatives are presented. Visualization of their singular support is shown.     

Maslovian Lagrangian surfaces of constant curvature in complex projective or complex hyperbolic planes

A Lagrangian submanifold is called Maslovian if its mean curvature vector H is nowhere zero and its Maslov vector field JH is a principal direction of A_H . In this article we classify Maslovian Lagrangian surfaces of constant curvature in complex projective plane CP ² as well as in complex hyperbolic plane CH ². We prove that there exist 14 families of Maslovian Lagrangian surfaces of constant curvature in CP ² and 41 families in CH ². All of the Lagrangian surfaces of constant curvature obtained from these families admit a unit length Killing vector field whose integral curves are geodesics of the Lagrangian surfaces. Conversely, locally (in a neighborhood of each point belonging to an open dense subset) every Maslovian Lagrangian surface of constant curvature in CP ² or in CH ² is a surface obtained from these 55 families. As an immediate by‐product, we provide new methods to construct explicitly many new examples of Lagrangian surfaces of constant curvature in complex projective and complex hyperbolic planes which admit a unit length Killing vector field. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Nonlinear regression modeling and detecting change points via the relevance vector machine

We consider the problem of constructing nonlinear regression models in the case that the structure of data has discontinuities at some unknown points. We propose two-stage procedure in which the change points are detected by relevance vector machine at the first stage, and the smooth curve are effectively estimated along with the technique of regularization method at the second. In order to select tuning parameters in the regularization method, we derive a model selection and evaluation criterion from information-theoretic viewpoints. Simulation results and real data analyses demonstrate that our methodology performs well in various situations.     

The classical version of Stokes' theorem revisited

Using only fairly simple and elementary considerations–essentially from first year undergraduate mathematics–we show how the classical Stokes' theorem for any given surface and vector field in ?³ follows from an application of Gauss' divergence theorem to a suitable modification of the vector field in a tubular shell around the given surface. The two stated classical theorems are (like the fundamental theorem of calculus) nothing but shadows of the general version of Stokes' theorem for differential forms on manifolds. However, the main point in the present article is first, that this latter fact usually does not get within reach for students in first year calculus courses and second, that calculus textbooks in general only just hint at the correspondence alluded to above. Our proof that Stokes' theorem follows from Gauss' divergence theorem goes via a well-known and often used exercise, which simply relates the concepts of divergence and curl on the local differential level. The rest of this article uses only integration in 1, 2 and 3 variables together with a ‘fattening’ technique for surfaces and the inverse function theorem.     

一类平面三次拟齐次向量场的全局拓扑结构

利用中心投影变换的思想证明一类平面三次拟齐次向量场的几何性质依赖于它的切向量场和诱导向量场.讨论了该系统的拓扑结构,并进行了分类;证明了该系统具有25类不同类的拓扑结构相图.     

An efficient unified approach for the numerical solution of delay differential equations

In this paper we propose a new framework for designing a delay differential equation (DDE) solver which works with any supplied initial value problem (IVP) solver that is based on a standard step-by-step approach, such as Runge-Kutta or linear multi-step methods, and can provide dense output. This is done by treating a general DDE as a special example of a discontinuous IVP. Using this interpretation we develop an efficient technique to solve the resulting discontinuous IVP. We also give a more clear process for the numerical techniques used when solving the implicit equations that arise on a time step, such as when the underlying IVP solver is implicit or the delay vanishes. The new modular design for the resulting simulator we introduce, helps to accelerate the utilization of advances in the different components of an effective numerical method. Such components include the underlying discrete formula, the interpolant for dense output, the strategy for handling discontinuities and the iteration scheme for solving any implicit equations that arise.     

Boussinesq方程组弱解的L~2衰减

利用付立叶分解方法(Fourier splitting method)研究Boussinesq方程组Cauchy问题弱解的L~2衰减.     

Detecting derivative discontinuity locations in piecewise continuous functions from Fourier spectral data

We present a method that uses Fourier spectral data to locate jump discontinuities in the first derivatives of functions that are continuous with piecewise smooth derivatives. Since Fourier spectral methods yield strong oscillations near jump discontinuities, it is often difficult to distinguish true discontinuities from artificial oscillations. In this paper we show that by incorporating a local difference method into the global derivative jump function approximation, we can reduce oscillations near the derivative jump discontinuities without losing the ability to locate them. We also present an algorithm that successfully locates both simple and derivative jump discontinuities. This work was partially supported by NSF grants CNS 0324957 and DMS 0510813, and NIH grant EB 02553301 (AG).     

Numerical solution of the fully non-linear weakly dispersive serre equations for steep gradient flows

We demonstrate a numerical approach for solving the one-dimensional non-linear weakly dispersive Serre equations. By introducing a new conserved quantity the Serre equations can be written in conservation law form, where the velocity is recovered from the conserved quantities at each time step by solving an auxiliary elliptic equation. Numerical techniques for solving equations in conservative law form can then be applied to solve the Serre equations. We demonstrate how this is achieved. The system of conservation equations are solved using the finite volume method and the associated elliptic equation for the velocity is solved using a finite difference method. This robust approach allows us to accurately solve problems with steep gradients in the flow, such as those generated by discontinuities in the initial conditions.The method is shown to be accurate, simple to implement and stable for a range of problems including flows with steep gradients and variable bathymetry.     

Meshless method for shallow water equations with free surface flow

Solving problems with free surface often encounters numerical difficulties related to excessive mesh distortion as is the case of dambreak or breaking waves. In this paper the Natural element method (NEM) is used to simulate a 2D shallow water flows in the presence of theses strong gradients. This particle-based method used a fully Lagrangian formulation based on the notion of natural neighbors. In the present study we consider the full non-linear set of Shallow Water Equations, with a transient flow under the Coriolis effect. For the numerical treatment of the nonlinear terms we used a Lagrangian technique based on the method of characteristics. This will allow avoiding divergence of Newton-Raphson scheme, when dealing with the convective terms. We also define a thin area close to the boundaries and a computational domain dedicated for nodal enrichment at each time step. Two numerical test cases were performed to verify the well-founded hopes for the future of this method in real applications.     

Multitime dynamic programming for multiple integral actions

This paper introduces a new type of dynamic programming PDE for optimal control problems with performance criteria involving multiple integrals. The main novel feature of the multitime dynamic programming PDE, relative to the standard Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman PDE, is that it is connected to the multitime maximum principle and is of divergence type. Introducing a generating vector field for the maximum value function, we present an interesting and useful connection between the multitime maximum principle and the multitime dynamic programming, characterizing the optimal control by means of a multitime Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (divergence) PDE that may be viewed as a feedback law. Section 1 recalls the multitime maximum principle. Section 2 shows how a multitime control dynamics determines the multitime Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman PDE via a generating vector field of the value function. Section 3 gives an example of two-time dynamics with nine velocities proving that our theory works well. Section 4 shows that the Hamilton PDEs are characteristic PDEs of multitime Hamilton-Jacobi PDE and that the costates in the multitime maximum principle are in fact gradients of the components of the generating vector field.     

Ray expansions of solutions around fronts as a shock-fitting tool for shock loading simulation

In shock loading computations based on an implicit finite-difference scheme, the surfaces of velocity discontinuity and the discontinuity sizes are determined by computing an asymptotic (ray) expansion of the solution behind the front surfaces at every time step. The method for constructing ray expansions is based on a recurrence formulation of the geometric and kinematic consistency conditions for discontinuities of the derivatives of functions that are discontinuous on a moving surface. The algorithm is illustrated by computing a simple example of the out-of-plane motion of an incompressible elastic medium.