Nonstandard analysis of global attractors

Key concepts of the theory of abstract dynamical systems are formulated in the language of nonstandard analysis (NSA). We are then able to provide simple and intuitive proofs of the basic facts. In particular, we use the NSA to give an alternative proof of the characterization of global attractors due to Ball. We also address the issue of connectedness. The key observation is that the global attractor, or more generally, the ω‐limit set, can be written as a standard part of a suitable internal set.     

The structure of relations in personnel management

This paper addresses the problem of defining and analyzing relations between finite sets which are involved in personnel management.Personnel management criteria are imprecise due to the complex nature of the requirements and the difficulties to deal with personnel characteristics. Fuzzy set theory seems to be an efficient tool for considering these imprecisions. According to this idea the relations involved in personnel management can be seen as fuzzy relations.R.H. Atkin has formulated the abstract simplicial complex, achieving a structure which permits a deep knowledge of non fuzzy relations. In a sense this structure can be interpreted as a geometrical multidimensional one. Our purpose is to set up a multidimensional structure associated with the fuzzy relations which appear in personnel management.By means of an analysis of the above structure it is possible to study problems concerning the recruitment selection and promotion of personnel.     

Family of finite-difference schemes with approximate transparent boundary conditions for the generalized nonstationary Schrödinger equation in a semi-infinite strip

An initial-boundary value problem for the generalized Schrödinger equation in a semi-infinite strip is solved. A new family of two-level finite-difference schemes with averaging over spatial variables on a finite mesh is constructed, which covers a set of finite-difference schemes built using various methods. For the family, an abstract approximate transparent boundary condition (TBC) is formulated and the solutions are proved to be absolutely stable in two norms with respect to both initial data and free terms. A discrete TBC is derived, and the stability of the family of schemes with this TBC is proved. The implementation of schemes with the discrete TBC is discussed, and numerical results are presented.     

无穷维Hilbert空间上框架的算子与范数

在框架理论研究中,哪类可逆算子能使得某些框架性质保持不变这个问题是基本和重要的,本文在无穷维Hilbert空间上对下述两个问题进行研究.问题1:哪类可逆算子能使得框架算子保持不变;问题2:哪类可逆算子能使得框架范数只相差一列常数.本文从抽象的算子理论和具体的构造方法两方面对问题1给出解答.利用框架的相容算子的概念,当把问题2中的可逆算子集换成一类较小的算子集时,得到了问题2的回答.     

Abstract convex approximations of nonsmooth functions

In the article we use abstract convexity theory in order to unify and generalize many different concepts of nonsmooth analysis. We introduce the concepts of abstract codifferentiability, abstract quasidifferentiability and abstract convex (concave) approximations of a nonsmooth function mapping a topological vector space to an order complete topological vector lattice. We study basic properties of these notions, construct elaborate calculus of abstract codifferentiable functions and discuss continuity of abstract codifferential. We demonstrate that many classical concepts of nonsmooth analysis, such as subdifferentiability and quasidifferentiability, are particular cases of the concepts of abstract codifferentiability and abstract quasidifferentiability. We also show that abstract convex and abstract concave approximations are a very convenient tool for the study of nonsmooth extremum problems. We use these approximations in order to obtain various necessary optimality conditions for nonsmooth nonconvex optimization problems with the abstract codifferentiable or abstract quasidifferentiable objective function and constraints. Then, we demonstrate how these conditions can be transformed into simpler and more constructive conditions in some particular cases.     

Where do Fractions Encounter their Equivalents? – Can this Encounter Take Place in Elementary-School?

The concept of equivalence class plays a significant role in the structure of Rational Numbers. Piaget taught that in order to help elementary school children develop mathematical concepts, concrete objects and concrete reflection-enhancing-activities are needed. The “Shemesh” software was specially designed for learning equivalence-classes of fractions. The software offers concrete representations of such classes, as well as activities which cannot be constructed without a computer. In a discrete Cartesian system students construct points on the grid and learn to identify each such point as a fraction-numeral (a denominator-numerator pair). The children then learn to construct sets of such points, all of which are located on a line through the origin point. They learn to identify the line with the set of its constituent equivalent fractions. Subsequently, they investigate other phenomena and constructions in such systems, developing these constructions into additional fraction concepts. These concrete constructions can be used in solving traditional fraction problems as well as in broadening the scope of fraction meaning. Fifth-graders who used “Shemesh” in their learning activities were clinically interviewed several months after the learning sessions ended. These interviews revealed evidence indicating initial actual development of the desired mathematical concepts. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Unitary orthogonalization processes

All methods for solving least-squares problems involve orthogonalization in one way or another. Certain fundamental estimation and prediction problems of signal processing and time-series analysis can be formulated as least-squares problems. In these problems, the sequence that is to be orthogonalized is generated by an underlying unitary operator. A prime example of an efficient orthogonalization procedure for this class of problems is Gragg's isometric Arnoldi process, which is the abstract encapsulation of a number of concrete algorithms. In this paper, we discuss a two-sided orthogonalization process that is equivalent to Gragg's process but has certain conceptual strengths that warrant its introduction. The connections with classical algorithms of signal processing are discussed.     

Carnap,Goguen, and the Hyperontologies: Logical Pluralism and Heterogeneous Structuring in Ontology Design

This paper addresses questions of universality related to ontological engineering, namely aims at substantiating (negative) answers to the following three basic questions: (i) Is there a ‘universal ontology’?, (ii) Is there a ‘universal formal ontology language’?, and (iii) Is there a universally applicable ‘mode of reasoning’ for formal ontologies? To support our answers in a principled way, we present a general framework for the design of formal ontologies resting on two main principles: firstly, we endorse Rudolf Carnap’s principle of logical tolerance by giving central stage to the concept of logical heterogeneity, i.e. the use of a plurality of logical languages within one ontology design. Secondly, to structure and combine heterogeneous ontologies in a semantically well-founded way, we base our work on abstract model theory in the form of institutional semantics, as forcefully put forward by Joseph Goguen and Rod Burstall. In particular, we employ the structuring mechanisms of the heterogeneous algebraic specification language HetCasl for defining a general concept of heterogeneous, distributed, highly modular and structured ontologies, called hyperontologies. Moreover, we distinguish, on a structural and semantic level, several different kinds of combining and aligning heterogeneous ontologies, namely integration, connection, and refinement. We show how the notion of heterogeneous refinement can be used to provide both a general notion of sub-ontology as well as a notion of heterogeneous equivalence of ontologies, and finally sketch how different modes of reasoning over ontologies are related to these different structuring aspects.     

Moving in and out of contexts in collaborative reasoning about equations

This case study investigates how a group of 12-year-old pupils contextualizes a task formulated as an equation expressed in a word problem. Of special interest is to explore in detail the phenomenon of pupils working with manipulative-based equation-solving methods in a task involving another real world context. The pupils’ small group discussions were videotaped and analyzed in terms of how the pupils contextualized the task in their attempts to arrive at an answer. The results highlight the importance of giving pupils opportunities to realize the particular position of symbolic mathematical representations when dealing with mathematical concepts. While an abstract concept describes something general, concrete representations and specific real-world examples always describe something specific. No one particular example incorporates the rich meaning of an abstract concept. This central distinction needs to be included in teaching practices.     

Topological structures of complex belief systems

The concepts of substantive beliefs and derived beliefs are defined, a set of substantive beliefs S like open set and the neighborhood of an element substantive belief. A semantic operation of conjunction is defined with a structure of an Abelian group. Mathematical structures exist such as poset beliefs and join‐semilattttice beliefs. A metric space of beliefs and the distance of belief depending on the believer are defined. The concepts of closed and opened ball are defined. S′ is defined as subgroup of the metric space of beliefs Σ and S′ is a totally limited set. The term s is defined (substantive belief) in terms of closing of S′. It is deduced that Σ is paracompact due to Stone's Theorem. The pseudometric space of beliefs is defined to show how the metric of the nonbelieving subject has a topological space like a nonmaterial abstract ideal space formed in the mind of the believing subject, fulfilling the conditions of Kuratowski axioms of closure. To establish patterns of materialization of beliefs we are going to consider that these have defined mathematical structures. This will allow us to understand better cultural processes of text, architecture, norms, and education that are forms or the materialization of an ideology. This materialization is the conversion by means of certain mathematical correspondences, of an abstract set whose elements are beliefs or ideas, in an impure set whose elements are material or energetic. Text is a materialization of ideology. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 19: 46–62, 2013     

DISCONNECTEDNESS

Abstract

There are three different ways to characterize To-spaces in the category of topological spaces. All three methods are canonical, i.e. they can be easily formulated in a general setting, where they, in general, do not coincide. In the following, the characterization of T₀-spaces by indiscrete spaces is generalized to an abstract category and investigated.     

The use of phase portraits to visualize and investigate isolated singular points of complex functions

ABSTRACT

Undergraduate students usually study Laurent series in a standard course of Complex Analysis. One of the major applications of Laurent series is the classification of isolated singular points of complex functions. Although students are able to find series representations of functions, they may struggle to understand the meaning of the behaviour of the function near isolated singularities. In this paper, I briefly describe the method of domain colouring to create enhanced phase portraits to visualize and study isolated singularities of complex functions. Ultimately this method for plotting complex functions might help to enhance students' insight, in the spirit of learning by experimentation. By analysing the representations of singularities and the behaviour of the functions near their singularities, students can make conjectures and test them mathematically, which can help to create significant connections between visual representations, algebraic calculations and abstract mathematical concepts.     

Minimally Generated Abstract Logics

In this paper we study an alternative approach to the concept of abstract logic and to connectives in abstract logics. The notion of abstract logic was introduced by Brown and Suszko (Diss Math 102:9–42, 1973)—nevertheless, similar concepts have been investigated by various authors. Considering abstract logics as intersection structures we extend several notions to their κ-versions (κ ≥ ω), introduce a hierarchy of κ-prime theories, which is important for our treatment of infinite connectives, and study different concepts of κ-compactness. We are particularly interested in non-topped intersection structures viewed as semi-lattices with a minimal meet-dense subset, i.e., with a minimal generator set. We study a chain condition which is sufficient for a minimal generator set, implies compactness of the logic, and in regular logics is equivalent to (κ-) compactness of the consequence relation together with the existence of a (κ-)inconsistent set, where κ is the cofinality of the cardinality of the logic. Some of these results are known in a similar form in the context of closure spaces, we give extensions to (non-topped) intersection structures and to big cardinals presenting new proofs based on set-theoretical tools. The existence of a minimal generator set is crucial for our way to define connectives. Although our method can be extended to further non-classical connectives we concentrate here on intuitionistic and infinite ones. Our approach leads us to the concept of the set of complete theories which is stable under all considered connectives and gives rise to the definition of the topological space of the logic. Topological representations of (non-classical) abstract logics by means of this space remain to be further investigated.     

A general framework for defining and extending actual causation using CP-logic

A central problem in the field of causal modelling is to provide a suitable definition of actual causation, i.e., to define when one specific event caused another. Although current research contains many different definitions, it is pervaded with ambiguities and confusion. Our research has two main goals. First, we wish to provide a clear way to compare competing definitions, and improve upon them so that they can be applied to a more diverse range of instances, including non-deterministic ones. To achieve this we provide a general, abstract definition of actual causation, formulated in the context of the expressive language of CP-logic (Causal Probabilistic logic). We will then show that three recent definitions by Ned Hall (originally formulated for structural models) and a definition of our own (formulated for CP-logic directly) can be viewed and directly compared as instantiations of this abstract definition, which also allows them to deal with a broader range of examples. Second, our framework allows for improving on definitions of actual causation in another way, by incorporating the influence of normality. A recent paper by Halpern and Hitchcock draws on empirical research regarding people's causal judgements, to suggest a graded and context-sensitive notion of actual causation. We rephrase their approach into the probabilistic setting of our abstract definition, allowing us to improve it.     

Approximation by solutions of elliptic equations in semilocal spaces

In the present work, we investigate the approximability of solutions of elliptic partial differential equations in a bounded domain Ω by solutions of the same equations in a larger domain. We construct an abstract framework which allows us to deal with such density questions, simultaneously for various norms. More specifically, we study approximations with respect to the norms of semilocal Banach spaces of distributions. These spaces are required to satisfy certain postulates. We establish density results for elliptic operators with constant coefficients which unify and extend previous results. In our density results Ω may possess holes and it is required to satisfy the segment condition. We observe that analogous density results do not hold in spaces where the infinitely smooth functions are not dense. Finally, we provide applications related to the method of fundamental solutions.     

Efficient on-line algorithms for Euler diagram region computation

Euler diagrams are an accessible and effective visualisation of data involving simple set-theoretic relationships. Sets are represented by closed curves in the plane and often have wellformedness conditions placed on them in order to enhance comprehensibility. The theoretical underpinning for tool support has usually focussed on the problem of generating an Euler diagram from an abstract model. However, the problem of efficient computation of the abstract model from the concrete diagram has not been addressed before, despite this computation being a necessity for computer interpretations of user drawn diagrams. This may be used, together with automated manipulations of the abstract model, for purposes such as semantic information presentation or diagrammatic theorem proving. Furthermore, in interactive settings, the user may update diagrams “on-line” by adding and removing curves, for example, in which case a system requirement is the update of the abstract model (without the necessity of recomputation of the entire abstract model). We define the notion of marked Euler diagrams, together with a method for associating marked points on the diagram with regions in the plane. Utilising these, we provide on-line algorithms which quickly compute the abstract model of a weakly reducible wellformed Euler diagram (constructible as a sequence of additions or removals of curves, keeping a wellformed diagram at each step), and quickly updates both the set of curves in the plane as well as the abstract model according to the on-line operations. Efficiency is demonstrated by comparison with a common, naive algorithm. Furthermore, the methodology enables a straightforward implementation which has subsequently been realised as an application for the user classification domain.     

Sharp Extensions for Convoluted Solutions of Abstract Cauchy Problems

In this paper we give sharp extension results for convoluted solutions of abstract Cauchy problems in Banach spaces. The main technique is the use of the algebraic structure (for the usual convolution product *) of these solutions which are defined by a version of the Duhamel formula. We define algebra homomorphisms from a new class of test-functions and apply our results to concrete operators. Finally, we introduce the notion of k-distribution semigroups to extend previous concepts of distribution semigroups.     

Abstract Logics, Logic Maps, and Logic Homomorphisms

What is a logic? Which properties are preserved by maps between logics? What is the right notion for equivalence of logics? In order to give satisfactory answers we generalize and further develop the topological approach of [4] and present the foundations of a general theory of abstract logics which is based on the abstract concept of a theory. Each abstract logic determines a topology on the set of theories. We develop a theory of logic maps and show in what way they induce (continuous, open) functions on the corresponding topological spaces. We also establish connections to well-known notions such as translations of logics and the satisfaction axiom of institutions [5]. Logic homomorphisms are maps that behave in some sense like continuous functions and preserve more topological structure than logic maps in general. We introduce the notion of a logic isomorphism as a (not necessarily bijective) function on the sets of formulas that induces a homeomorphism between the respective topological spaces and gives rise to an equivalence relation on abstract logics. Therefore, we propose logic isomorphisms as an adequate and precise notion for equivalence of logics. Finally, we compare this concept with another recent proposal presented in [2]. This research was supported by the grant CNPq/FAPESB 350092/2006-0.     

Φ~n空间中有界域上一种积分表示

本文应用单位分解的观点及积分表示中核函数的构造理论,得到~n空间中有界域上积分表示的一种抽象的一般形式,根据这种一般形式,可以得到至今许多区域上光滑函数和全纯函数种种已有的抽象公式和具体的积分公式。